Teacher layoffs probable; new way proposed
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For decades, no matter how tight the state budget, school districts could count on one thing: They would receive at least as much money from the state as they had the year before.
That pattern is expected to come to an abrupt halt when Gov. Tom Corbett presents his budget proposal Tuesday.
Given that about two-thirds of district budgets are employee salaries and benefits, the virtually inevitable fallout will be teacher layoffs statewide -- potentially hundreds or thousands of them -- which some fear will lead to larger class sizes and fewer programs.
The traditional way of laying off teachers may change as well.
Until now, teacher layoffs have been done based on seniority, coupled with subject certification. If a district needed one fewer art teacher, the art teacher with the least seniority received a pink slip.
In addition, school districts cannot lay off teachers for economic reasons. They must justify the layoffs through declining enrollment, a change in the education program, school consolidations within a district and district mergers. Some district officials have argued this unnecessarily restricts districts and is inefficient.
But now other ideas are afloat.
State Rep. Scott Boyd, R-Lancaster, and 35 other lawmakers have introduced legislation that would allow districts to lay teachers off for economic reasons and to consider performance, not just seniority, in deciding whom to let go.
Ron Cowell, a former state legislator who is president of the Education Policy and Leadership Center, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit organization, said the likelihood of such legislation passing is "greater than ever before."
"The combination of up to $1 billion in cuts of state funding to school districts, combined with a voucher proposal that would be funded with dollars from school districts, combined with increased pension obligations and other costs, are threatening to cause dramatic cutbacks in school districts across the state," he said.
First Published March 7, 2011 12:00 am
