L.A. Teachers Reduces Pay for Shorter School Year: Good for Education?

What the union says in a nutshell - " Eff the students! We want to keep 4000 unneeded teachers on the payroll to continue sucking the lifeblood out of California's taxpayers to pay our outragious pensions and benifits!

Bad SH answer options here. We can't have it both ways. It's either longer hours at more pay or shorter hours at less pay.

Considering the results LA unified has, the less time students spend in front of these public union monkeys the better. Some of the highest paid teachers in the nation with over a 50% drop out rate, yep shorten the school year, they aren't worth anything.

Though they should reduce the pay and not shorten the school year.

but the students should also have a say

There are really three evils here; ONE is what the California state government has done financially to the state's economy is disgusting. Were the governor and the legislature thinking of their children’s education as they destroyed the economy. TWO the teachers union didn’t care about the children’s education as they negotiated their contracts. And THIRD where were the parents in all of this, have you ever seen parents at the LA school district fighting to stop the madness or have they been in the streets protecting against the state and the teachers unions?

Now it is time to try and fix the problem and we ask will the changes be good for education? Maybe another question to ask is how good the education in the LA school district has been anyway.

It will not be up to the parents to step up and supplement the education of their children.

We already pretty much have a shorter school year than just about any other country in the world.

But not because the year is shorter. They have to ELIMINATE all the teachers' conference days, and not pay them for those. ELIMINATE ESL, Hygiene type classes, nurses (there is always the parent to elect what to do with their sick or injured child, and if they are really injured paramedics are better anyway). Working parents now have to pay more for after school day care so it still costs them, but maybe sends a message to teachers! Everyone forgets they work such a short year, with extended holidays at winter and spring break now.

You know you're in trouble when the UNION looks like this....

They already losing hours for shorter school year, I don't think they pay check should be short too.

if education is the most important thing to the stability and growth of our country, why do we insist on always cutting educational funding 1st? Why are we charging college students who have to borrow money to pay for college interest....

You ever hear the expression you get what you pay for? Well now your getting it!

Very bad. I know that there are not a whole lot of choices here but we are already at bare minimum for education. Whats next? 3 months of school, then winter spring vacation?

I went through some 175-day schools. I came through fine.

The public schools in this country have a lot of problems, but a 175-day school year is not one of them.

Given that it's California, the less time the better imo. :)

Once upon a time California had the best public education system in the country. Now it's a joke. And a continual reminder about how the value of government involvement in ed is inversely proportional to educational achievement.

Especially bad for those students who want and like to go to school.

TERRIBLE NEWS! I RETIRED FROM LAUSD 14 YEARS AGO, ....SEEMS LIKE KIDS GET THE SHAFT EVERY TIME THERE ARE "CUTS." HUSBAND AND I TOOK 10% PAY CUTS EACH YEARS AGO, I TAUGHT U.S. HISTORY FOR YEARS WITHOUT TEXTBOOKS, ...AND NOW SHORTER SCHOOL YEARS? I DON'T SEE HOW TEACHERS ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO COVER ALL THE MATERIAL NECESSARY FOR SUBJECT MASTERY.

It's bad enough schools teach kids things that won't matter in the real world, now they give them more street time.

When all you are being taught is party line crap, what difference does it make to the student?

The more students are away from the Marxist propaganda mongers known these days as teachers... the better.

i work less i get paid less .epically if my job is lacking like in education reports ..not saying all teachers are bad not all students are bad but thats life ...work less get paid less

American kids are all ready behind ... and this guy want to cut education even more ....

Not good for education and not good for teachers.. BUT, if California can NOT pay their bills then there is going to have to be some extreme Sacrifices . Its a shame that the children have to pay up too. The mistakes were GREED and poor management !

I actually clicked on BAD FOR EDUCATION but I see SH is on the fritz again !

I haven't heard of any cuts on the administration (district office, legislature, or governor) level. It always seems to be the lower tiers that get cut first.

In the meantime, students are learning watered-down, politically-correct curriculum. Break up LAUSD into smaller school districts. Then the curriculum needs to be reworked to extract all the politically-correct nonsense.

It should have gone the other way.

Increase the school year and increase their salaries.

However, the whole system should be reworked.

First off, it should be K-10 (not 12) with everything that was included in k-12 included in the k-10 program.

Second, years 11&12 should be a splitting point.

Those that want to go to college go into a 2year junior college program. Then onto a 2 year or 4 year college program which will get them a BA/S or a MA/S.

Those that want to go into a trade go into a trades schooling program for two years and then into an apprentice program at the end of the trade program OR directly into the work force.

The net result will be savings of TWO full years of instruction but the same material will have been given to them at an earlier age where they can absorb it better.

Our current system is setup around the old agricultural society we had, and isn't any more.

how about more pay for better teaching and longer school years so we can go from 26 or 31(depending on which report) in the world to maybe in the top 10 at least

I'm all for preserving jobs. As for those five days of 'instruction'... doing what? Circling A. B. C. D to practice for the myriad of standarized tests that No Child Left Behind ushered in?

Big whoop.

5 days less... BFD.. I'd bet they already waste 50% of the year doing useless paperwork over actually teaching or students actually learning....

you can't teach people that don't want to learn.. it's a 2 way street.

I would venture a guess that there is almost nothing the teachers' union does is good for education, just the teachers.

How about extending the school year and reducing pay!