Parents Protest Possible School Cuts

Facing a huge budget shortfall for the fifth year in a row, the San Diego Education Association is putting up a fight

On Tuesday night the San Diego Unified School District is meeting to decide whether it will cut around 1,600 positions in order to cope with a huge budget shortfall, with the fate of hundreds of teachers at stake.

Facing a huge budget shortfall for the fifth year in a row, the San Diego Education Association is putting up a fight.

“We have to fight this broken system and force it to be fixed,” said SDEA President Bill Freeman. “Every year we lay teachers off, every year we disrupt the classrooms and so we've decided to join in with the parents and fight for the students."

Freeman said a negative decision could place San Diego schools in a compromising position, while driving away many good educators from the district.

“Now they are on notice they will be on notice that they are being considered to be laid off,” he said.

The district is trying to remedy a $122 million deficit in next year's operating budget in order to deal with the state's fiscal crisis.

School district officials say as painful as the cuts are, they are a necessary part of the process for them when planning ahead.

Leaving them no other choice, until they find out what their budget will be in June. 

Historically the school district has been able to bring back majority of the educators issued pink slips.

Still, after not seeing as many return this past year, some are not as optimistic.
 

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