It's impossible to overstate the importance of the Los Angeles public school system for the future of Southern California. 620,000 children in the second largest urban area in the United States attend LAUSD schools. And yet, thanks to the economic crisis in CA, and the cuts in state spending on schools recommended by Gov. Schwarzenegger, LAUSD teachers with six years of experience or less have received "reduction in force" notices. Core classes will become more crowded. Enrichment programs are getting axed completely. Next year's schools are likely to be even bleaker than they are today, more chaotic and less able to serve their students' needs.
The figures are numbing. Next year the LAUSD projects a $640 million deficit; 5,196 layoffs - incuding 1,868 elementary school teachers; counselor-to-student ratios of 1 to 1,000 in middle schools; kindergarten classes with 29 students, middle school classes with 37 students.
When cuts reach this level, they HURT. Classrooms can start to feel like warehouses rather than hubs of creativity. Ever-larger numbers of kids must crowd into classes with fewer textbooks and supplies, and a student-to-teacher ratio so high that they can't get much attention from an adult to master a difficult curriculum. Enrichment programs shrivel up and die, and with them, the possibility that children have to learn music, dance, art, sports and a host of other pursuits expanding their horizons and provide a respite from the endless math and reading drills required by the California state standards and tests .
In overcrowded and understaffed schools, the learning experience is impoverished. Our readers may understand this on a superficial level, but it's essential to show the damage up close and personal.
I will tell stories about the stress teachers must endure at the helm of oversized classes while continuing to cover the curriculum spelled out in the CA state standards. I'll paint portraits of children, I'll talk to parents and administrators who were counting on after-school programs that got slashed. It's a story that needs to be told and understood in all its quiet desperation.
