California Columnist Pans Chronic Teacher Layoffs From State Funding Instability

Dan Walters writes in a column in the Modesto (CA) Bee (5/2) about California's law mandating that teachers be given pink slips by a certain date every years "if administrators and trustees believe cuts are needed to balance their budgets. Later this month, the districts must decide whether to continue or rescind those layoffs on the assumption that by then they'll know the state of their 2012-13 finances. That's problematic in any year, because the Legislature, which supplies most of the schools' money, typically doesn't settle the state budget until weeks or even months later." Walters describes the various laws and policies that make it difficult for administrators to predict the actual funding that they will receive, noting that the "mess precludes even diligent officials from making rational decisions about staffing levels, building maintenance or other cost factors."