When it seems like state and local budget problems can’t get any worse, the next wave of bad news hits. After three straight years of dealing with budget shortfalls, it has become impossible for policymakers to close the gaps without causing pain to school employees, in the form of layoffs, fewer hours, benefit cuts and the like.

Not surprisingly, PSRPs in many districts have been hard hit. Direct job losses range from massive (almost 2,000 paraprofessionals in the New York City public school system—about 900 of them AFT members) to no-less-painful cuts of veteran employees close to retirement in smaller school systems and colleges across the country.

Oklahoma City falls someplace between those extremes. There, the AFT-affiliated Oklahoma City Federation of Classified Employees has lost well over 200 members from the entire range of job categories—some with more than 20 years of experience. “This is the first time in our history we’ve ever faced layoffs of this magnitude,” says local president David Gray, who is also an AFT vice president. The layoffs account for almost 20 percent of the union’s members. More than 330 teachers have also lost their jobs, bringing the total layoffs in the district to well over 500. “Morale is very down,” Gray notes.

He points to one clear cause of today’s problems: “Voting to cut taxes over and over is catching up to us.” This past spring, Doonesbury made the same point in a series of comics on budget problems in Oregon that caused some districts—such as Hillsboro, where AFT members work—to close weeks early. As a teacher in one strip explains to his students: When times were good in the 1990s, “the politicians gave everyone tax cuts, which is about as courageous as passing out free cotton candy at a circus.”

Tax cuts are only one part of the picture. Soaring Medicaid spending, falling corporate profits and a decline in revenues resulting from stock market losses have made the situation worse.

AFT affiliates have fought back as best they can given the scope of the problem and the unfavorable political climate that makes it difficult to even discuss raising taxes. Many AFT state federations are working in coalitions to lobby state lawmakers to raise other revenue sources or limit the cuts to vital public services. Some states have seen the largest rallies in recent memory against budget cuts.

In New York City, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) turned to the courts to seek relief for its laid-off paraprofessional members. The UFT sued the city school system saying that the layoff plan unfairly targeted a group of employees with high numbers of minority workers. The union’s suit points out that at the same time the district was sending layoff notices to the paras, who make about $23,000 per year, it hired dozens of high-level supervisors all making at least $135,000.

The unfortunate fact in New York City and elsewhere is that the biggest impact of job cuts will fall on students who need the most help. Paraprofessionals, by the very nature of their jobs, tend to work with the most disadvantaged students. In Minneapolis, for example, the AFT represents educational assistants, and many of the 50 who lost jobs there provide bilingual services. “What will happen to the children who no longer have those services?” asks Mary Jo Connolly, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers para chapter. “This is just very, very painful.”

Short of massive layoffs, districts have had to resort to other measures that will make it difficult to maintain the quality of education. The steps taken range from larger class sizes to new fees for bus services to shorter schools years to limited summer school offerings. Unfortunately, falling revenues are being forecast for at least another six months, which means ongoing challenges for school employees and their unions.