California's Republican lawmakers met in Sacramento over the weekend to figure out one thing: How to stop Gov. Jerry Brown's recent proposal to close the state's $27 billion budget shortfall. An important part of Brown's plan rests on putting a handful of tax extensions on the June ballot. Republicans, of course, aren't happy. The state's public schools, which face record deficits, are in turn coming up with two budgets: one for if voters approve the tax hikes and help stave off massive teacher layoffs, and one for if they don't.
My former colleague Kristina Rizga over at Mother Jones, who's embedded herself in San Francisco's Mission High School for the year, recently took a closer look at choir director Steven Hankle, one of 274 teachers in that district who faces layoffs:
It's the second time Hankle has received a pink slip at Mission High. Last year, Principal Eric Guthertz and the teachers union fought for months to reinstate him, and it worked. But it's still just as demoralizing for a choir director trying to provide an anchor of stability for teens at risk, even though Guthertz told Hankle he'll fight for him again this time around. ..Hankle now has been working with the choir for two years, and he feels that the "momentum is building" for these kids and their small, safe choir community. Not to mention that a music program also makes the school more fun. Maybe that's why in part school test scores are growing and the drop out rate at Mission High is declining.
In a state whose lawmakers have proved unwilling and, at times, incapable of passing a timely budget, it's helpful to see the stories behind the stats. Gerry Shih at the Bay Citizen reported that while some Republicans were planning to introduce a resolution that condemned as "traitors" any member of the party who seemed willing to compromise on Brown's tax hikes, a handful of Republican teachers protested outside of the convention, in support of the increases. "I don't think most Republicans know what Republicans are capable of doing to each other," Joyce Childs, a special-ed teacher, told the Bay Citizen. It seems that, like elsewhere in the country, the party seems bent on proving a point even if it defies logic.
