LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Cuts Will Hurt the Children

Regarding the article in the Patch, :

No pay cuts for teachers, 15 furlough days and increased class sizes – done behind closed doors with no public input. 

The only solution to "save the children" – vote for tax increases!

"About $18 million in cuts can be restored, Farley said, if the voters pass Gov. Brown’s November ballot initiative for temporary sales tax hikes and on increased taxes on those making $250,000-plus."

PARENTS:

Please do not allow this misinformation to be repeated. This is not a "tax on the rich." A sales tax is regressive and affects the poor more than all others.

Further this is not a tax on millionaires. This tax tax starts at $250,000. And finally, this tax increase will not restore anything to the classroom; two-thirds of this revenue will go to backfill the teachers' pension fund.

Absolutely disgusting for the California Teachers Association to further cut school days and increase class sizes and lobby for tax increases to backfill their own pensions; rather than take an actual pay cut so that children in can actually get an education. How sad for the children in CUSD and the future of our community.

There is no one sitting at the collective bargaining table that represents what is in the best interest of children. Parents should DEMAND a neutral negotiator, and request that all negotiations occur in public and be videotaped and put online. 

Our children need a seat at the collective bargaining table if we are to restore California's public education system to the high standards it was once famous for.

Parents in CUSD cannot even rely on the PTA to be an advocate for children. The power of the PTA comes from parents who trust the PTA organization to advocate from the position of “what is in the best interest of children.”

Although the PTA is chartered as an "advocacy organization;" it does very little to be "an advocate" on behalf of CUSD's children. Instead the PTA has become nothing more than a "fundraising organization" for the CTA. Parents have no where to go for unbiased accurate information which is necessary for them to make decisions about the education of their children.

The PTA has done nothing to help parents understand that it is the job of the union to represent its members at the collective bargaining table. The union, AKA your child's teacher, is not looking out for your child when it comes to contract negotiations.

That is why most of the $100 million dollars in previous cuts to the CUSD budget have come from the children ... and rarely from cuts to salaries, pensions and benefits. This $50 million dollar cut will is no different. 

Education is no longer about "the children." It is about "maintaining adult jobs" no matter what the cost to the future of our kids. 

Please read . Most teachers are still getting pay increases. Check out your own school and your own teacher to see why the children get less and less every year.