Education: Hard Times for Teachers

Norman Weiss, 27, just finished his first year as a science teacher at Highland Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., and it may be his last. The Oakland public schools, faced with a $4 million deficit and an enrollment loss of 8,500 pupils in the past five years, have laid off Weiss and 185 other teachers. Weiss still has some hope of a job in the fall; the Highland principal told him that there may be an opening in September—or perhaps in October. “I’m single,” says Weiss. “I can live by my wits. But those people with families are bad off. They can’t just wait around to see what happens.”

The outlook for tens of thousands of other teachers across the nation is equally bleak. Caught between inflated costs and declining enrollment, which results in less financial aid from the state, public school systems have been forced to cut back sharply on the size of their teaching staffs. In Michigan alone, 6,000 teachers have been given layoff notices. Some 8,000 New York City teachers and 3,000 principals, counselors and secretaries face the loss of their jobs. (In addition, the city will lose 5,000 more teachers through regular attrition.) Says William Graybeal, researcher at the National Education Association: “Conditions are probably worse than they have been for at least 25 years.”

Panic-Stricken. In financially troubled New York City, where the education budget has been cut almost $270 million, the teacher firings will be the first since the Depression. Says Ronald Jones, a teacher at P.S. 10: “Teachers on the bottom of the list are panic-stricken, bewildered; they can’t believe it. They’re hoping that some guy will come out of the sky with the money.” School Chancellor Irving Anker predicts that the firings will result in many classes having more than 40 pupils in September—compared with the previous average of less than 30.

In Orange County (Orlando), Fla., 250 teachers have been laid off, and school officials say that as a result, some classes may hold as many as 45 pupils. Many other school systems are eliminating special programs and firing nonteaching employees to save teachers’ jobs. Schools in Springfield, Mass., have canceled special math and music classes and crew, but still may have to lay off 57 teachers and supervisors. Springfield Superintendent John Deady notes that although $700,000 was cut from the regular school budget, the schools have had to increase spending on state-required courses for minority and handicapped students. Says Deady: “The more money we have to spend on special summer programs and special students, the more the average kids are hurt when we have to cut back.”

The St. Louis schools are eliminating 411 nonteaching jobs (guards, clerks, custodians, nurses) from their budget as well as cutting out $200,000 earmarked for athletics teams. Local businessmen have already pledged $175,000 to make up the difference. In San Francisco, Rock Promoter Bill Graham staged a concert that raised enough money to save the athletics programs for this year (TIME, March 17); their fate next year is still up in the air. But the school system will still have to fire 100 teachers. “You have to cut back somewhere,” says Assistant Superintendent Fred Kennedy, “and the fact remains that 80% of a school budget goes toward personnel.”

As word of the layoffs spreads, teachers are becoming increasingly indignant. Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, predicts there will be “massive protests” if all the cuts go through, and thinks the Federal Government will have to provide enough money to bail out the big-city schools. In the Santa Clara Unified School District south of San Francisco, 60 teachers who have been laid off charge that administrators seem to be immune to hard times. Says Jim Hamm, president of the Santa Clara Federation of Teachers: “In the past five years, the administrative staff has steadily gone up, but they’re firing teachers.”

One result of the cutbacks is that contract negotiations are less heated this year. In New England, teachers who held out for 9% and 10% raises a few years ago are realistically settling for 3% and 4% now. “Teachers don’t like that,” admits Frank Martin, executive secretary of the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers. “But they like being laid off even worse.”