Voices Question

As a paraprofessional the desire to educate Cleveland's children is still within my heart and soul, but due to the Reach To the Top Funds that we did not qualify to receive. Our district has made some dramatic decisions. Schools were closed that should not have been. The love, support and togetherness our students received from our staff at our school could never be replaced and staff that were forced to retire can't be replaced we will survive, but what about the children? My daughter has been forced to change her major due to the unstable economy in education, dreams have been shattered. God Bless us all.

The two senior centers in Gallup have experienced layoffs of personnel by 1/2 due to the budget deficits in the city of Gallup. This has impacted the services offered to the seniors.

Our school district and the hospital where I work have had no raises in the past 2 years and there has been some reduction in hirings.

In today’s age of ever increasing technology and its obvious impact on our daily lives, Katy ISD eliminated the Technology requirement for High School graduation. I do understand that the state removed the requirement and that is a debate for a different audience, however the state did not mandate its removal, that was a choice made by the Katy ISD board, other districts have opted to keep the requirement. Many teachers at all of the Katy ISD high schools were put on the "excess list". Others decided to move or retire from teaching.

We are experiencing RIFs (Lay-offs). This has resulted in low morale and synicism amongst co-workers. We are uncertain what the future will bring as we wait for more cuts to occur.

We have seen families use our part-time services more than full-time. This has decreased our need for full-time staff.

I am a retiree who works 2 days a week in independent studies. Hours have been cut back and contract employees have furlough days. In my program, we are unable to order new materials, including books, and do not have enough hours to perform the work we need to do, which includes a lot of paperwork in ISP; certainly no time to develop curriculum and lessons unless we do it on our own time!

Many cuts to budget and can expect another 5 to 7 percent next year. Larger class sizes will be the order of the day for 2010-2011 school year. In the light of the Bush cuts expiring (Jan), higher taxes to pay for the stimulus (which was only a bandaid) paying for the BP oil spill...we know this is a recipe for disaster. All this will have a huge effect on our personal income. Depression when this comes to fruition? All of this will only add fuel to the problems now occuring in education. Stop spending..look at tax cuts. A personal budget dictates less spending when you're broke. And it looks like we will have govt.rationed health care.

Despite enrollment increases of 12 to 14 percent semester after semester, the college reduced the number of classes by 10% last semester, which reduced the number of classes for adjunct faculty by that amount - this fall semester, they have raised the caps on class size which wiil result in a reduction of another 10%, again impacting only the adjunct faculty - this summer, despite a 32% increase in enrollment, they ave fewer classes available -- as President of our chapter, it is disappointing to see my members, loyal for many years have less or no classes - adjuncts teach 70% of the classes and students

The unstable economy has the school district cutting teachers and probably supplies. The reduction of teachers will led to an increase in class size, extra duties, and a sense of anxiety because of too many unknowns such as reducing more faculties including you. Teachers will continue to have to buy instructional supplies but more now than in the last few years. Teaching a majority of low socioeconomic status students will led to more purchase of supplies for students as well. In addition to the unstable economy, the oil spill will affect people by feeling a sense of helpless and not feeling positive which affects everyone.

My job was cut to 1/2 time, and then I was honorably terminated.

At the end of the school year, we did not know for sure who or how many people were really going to b excessed. Those people who were notified that they might be excessed don't know if they should look for a new school on the "open market."

I believe the unstable economy has affected some of the members I serve in my role as a Field Representative for APEA-AFT. For example, some have been removed from standby pay rosters due to budgetary constraints. Other members have been reassigned due to loss of funding for their previously held positions.

Personal income has shrunk considerably.

The economy has had a profound affect on the State of Florida and our schools. Teaching, administrative and support staff positions have been cut drastically. Our teachers' union (VTO) has been extremely effective with assisting displaced teachers and even social workers. They continue to fight for us, but the fight never ends.

Our 2 year technical community college has seen a large increase in the number of dislocated workers returning to college. Most are in their 40 to 60 and male. Many have had the same job since high school. They may have lost everything: job, house, and retirement. Most have not had much computer experience and haven't used the internet. And everything we do is online.

In the last 2 years, our district has made school closures, but some were used to develop non-traditional schools with smaller numbers of teachers and students.A few teachers lost their jobs, but 98% kept them. Another round of closures in the next 3-4 years, and some teachers have not been rehired-BUT VERY FEW LOST THEIR JOBS! NUMBER NOT KNOWN! Future retirees are looked at, first, because there are a large number of older teachers.

Three instructors have retired, and, though we've been promised replacements, we have, so far, not seen any. That's for Automotive only. The remaining instructors have to double up, and teach their regular classes less often, leaving all of them overflowing. Some students have to wait till the following semester to finish the program. We're not allowed to run the basic classes we used to offer during the summer and winter sessions, and the evening classes were cut to the bone during the spring semester. We get almost no money for supplies.