Hi. This is the first diary I've ever posted on DK. But I think that the time has come to where I need to say something. All this horrid economic news over the past months all seemed kind of abstract to me. If you've ever been to Los Angeles, you can understand this. The city is like a biosphere. I read items in the news or hear stories on the radio, but I never actually see or feel any of it... That changed this week.
A little background info for you-
My girlfriend is a public school Kindergarten teacher. I am (if you couldn't have guessed from my handle) a musician. You could safely assume that we're not exactly living in a Beverly Hills chateau.
Thursday (3/12/09), she received her pink slip from the Los Angeles Unified School District. They'll allow her to finish the semester and then after that, who knows if she'll get a transfer or what. We're bracing for the worst.
She was pink-slipped from an elementary school in a poor part of the city, where resources are scarce to begin with. The school had 27 teachers. The district is sacking nine of them. 1/3 of their staff. Not the most ineffective 1/3 of their staff mind you- no no! Only the young teachers who have been working there 4 years or less.
Now, my girlfriend is a good teacher. She has the enthusiasm and energy that many older teachers forgot was even possible. It strikes me as being incredibly irresponsible to the communities of this city to try to balance a budget on the shoulders of our under-priveleged, all ready-disadvantaged youth.
No one is particularly happy about this, but California's finances are so complicated and buggered-up that it seems there's nothing we can do to rectify laying off 27,000 teachers state-wide. How about making our elected officials work for minimum-wage and hiring back some of our educators?!
...I'll be taking on extra students and a day job to try to bring some more income to our household, but I gotta say- this has not been a pleasant few days here. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers (if you do that kind of thing) and if you or your kid wants to learn bass, there's a guy in LA who's accepting students!
Thank you, DK, for allowing me to vent my angst.