Public school systems across the United States are in financial trouble – witness the school in Rhode Island that recently fired all of its teachers – and now Tulsa Public Schools are part of the disappearing budget act. The sad words of the Tulsa World tell the tale: Tulsa Public Schools are sending home 286 teachers for the summer and asking them not to return. That’s nearly 10 percent of Tulsa Public Schools’ total faculty. It doesn’t even take into account the 125 office and support staff who had already been released. Reports indicate that this isn’t an exercise in discarding dead wood, either. Good teachers are being cast away.
Tulsa Public Schools administrators hope to recall at least half
The Tulsa Public Schools administration would like to bring back half of the dismissed. But that will fall in the Oklahoma legislature’s court. Without their spending budget approval, bringing them back is an impossibility. The teachers will find themselves in need of the short term loans if things continue to go south.
Saving millions, losing a generation
No number-crunching can hide that $15 million in savings on the school system’s budget pales in comparison to the human casualties. Teachers can have to pick up the pieces and make an effort to steer their own families in a financial boat with a broken rudder; similarly, the children will have to try to learn when being stuffed into leftover classrooms like sardines. Tulsa Public Schools Director of Human Capital Roberta Ellis talked about sensitivity and kindness when crying herself about how tough the times are, writes the Tulsa World. Did Roberta Ellis or any similarly officious administrators do their part to keep teachers in Tulsa Public Schools by sacrificing personal salary, one wonders. The peons are almost always the victims, rarely the top brass.
Baby boomers talk the talk but do not retire to conserve jobs for the young
One of the methods Tulsa Public Schools attempted was offering a retirement/resignation incentive of 18 months of paid health insurance for up to 205 teachers within the system, but only 42 took them up on the offer. Before that, Tulsa extended a $5,000 bonus for any teachers taking early retirement, and 72 accepted. In total, those few who accepted weren’t enough to keep good young teachers in their jobs.
The reality of a world torn apart
The principal of Eugene Field school within the Tulsa Public Schools system is quoted the World as saying that some of the teachers who were let go had just bought new homes. One of those teachers is a single mom. While some would play the world’s tiniest violin over that image, others might say that it is infinitely a lot more sorrowful to watch administrators go on paid retreats and make golf arrangements. Kids who don’t drown in a sea of inefficiency at Tulsa Public Schools will hopefully learn that being a mediocre administrator may be the norm, but that it simply is not OK to settle for that kind of ineptitude.
Resources
Tulsa World
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=332&articleid=20100513_19_0_TulsaP94353
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