And the Stricklands continue to evade meeting with educators

TEACHERS WERE WEARING PINK. Administrators and school board members were wearing pink. So were parents, teen-agers, little kids, babies and dogs. There were pink ribbons and banners and capes and hats and scarves today out on Victoria Avenue in Ventura.

But most of us were really just seeing red.

More than 26,000 teachers across the state received layoff notices or "pink slips" today, according to the Pink Friday web site. Today's protest was part of many rallies called across the state, but Ventura's was surely the largest in our county. Hundreds of folks, many layers deep, held banners and signs in a ribbon of humanity stretching from Telephone Road to the 126 Freeway.

The probable teacher layoffs, part of a recent $8.4 billion cut to K-12 education, impact not only their families and the local economy but also the education of a generation of California children who will be faced with such things as larger class sizes, crumbling facilities, aging textbooks, fewer counselors and librarians, and less instruction in P.E., arts and music.

"Without a decent education, our children and our future are nothing," said Rosa Granado, a fourth-grade teacher at Sunkist Elementary in Port Hueneme.

Parent Bill Walthall, also of Port Hueneme, worried that the teachers receiving pink slips today would not be rehired when the economy turns around. The younger teachers with less seniority are always the first to be laid off, he said, yet they are some of the most energetic and dynamic educators we have. "We're going to lose them forever," he added.

If this isn't bad enough, State Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor announced today that the precarious package of cuts, revenue increases, borrowing and legislative trickery we just passed as a budget at the end of February has missed the mark by a mile. Yes, there's already an $8 billion hole, Taylor said.

MEANWHILE, elusive legislative duo Tony and Audra Strickland are still playing hide-and-seek with county superintendents asking for a local meeting, according to a very reliable education source. Both skipped a long-scheduled gathering in January with our education leaders. Tony opted instead to attend a card-table event in the rain which was only noticed to the public the day before.

The Stricklands, along with fellow Republican George Runner, who was also a no-show at the  meeting with educators, were given a chance to reschedule at a time convenient to them. Tony's staff has ignored a succession of emails, my source tells me, and Audra recently responded that she was busy for at least the next two months but would meet, one-on-one only, with individual superintendents in her Sacramento office.

I guess Audra thinks it is a better bargain for taxpayers to fly all 19 of our county superintendents individually to Sacramento to meet with her. Or perhaps she expects them to pay for the trips themselves and leave the mayhem going on in their districts behind.

Local parents looking to the Stricklands for leadership in Sacramento in the public education arena should just throw in the towel at this point.

Better yet, let's gather up a few pink slips to throw.

SCHOOL EMPLOYEES statewide will be taking to the streets on Friday, March 13 to protest the estimated 20,000-25,000 layoff notices going out to teachers across California. Here in Ventura, the Pink Friday protest begins at 4 p.m. at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Telephone Road.

"It's a show of support for the teachers who are getting pink slips," said Ventura Unified Educators Association President Steve Blum. Other demonstrations are expected across Ventura County, Blum said.

With education taking up about half of the state's budget, the reduction of $8.4 billion to our schools was part of an agreement passed by legislators on Feb. 19 to plug a deficit projected at $41.6 billion over the next two years.

In the Ventura Unified School District, 17 Reduction in Force (RIF) notices will be sent out to teachers in addition to letters notifying an additional 86 temporary instructors that they may not have a job next year. Temporary teachers, Blum said, are those who have been hired to fill in for those on leave or to fill "categorical" positions like music, art or P.E. State law requires permanent teachers to be notified by March 13 if they will have jobs next year or not.

Ventura Unified will need to trim $10 million from its budget in the next two years. An unknown number of "classified" positions such as janitors, secretaries, etc. will also be lost, Blum said.

THE NEWS IS FAR MORE GRIM in other parts of the county. The Conejo Valley Unified School District is sending notices to 160 employees. Fellow Star blogger Brian Dennert reports an astounding 231 employees in the Simi Valley Unified School District will be notified their jobs are in jeopardy.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Board of Education will vote today (March 10) on whether to issue layoff notices to about 9,000 employees.

"It's ugly out there," Blum said.

Without the revenue package passed by legislators with the budget, even more of our educators would be out on the streets next year, a fact conveniently ignored by radio shock jocks John and Ken of KFI-AM 640 last weekend at a "Tax Revolt Day" in Fullerton. Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy joined the event with the giant inflatable ATM he hauls around with him. (I've always wondered if in Foy's case that stood for Avoiding Taxing Millionaires.)

While these radio goofballs partied last weekend, more than 20,000 teachers were likely wondering if they could feed their families next year. And up in Sacramento, Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield was giving an interview to the Sacramento Bee: "Ashburn, who is termed out of his Senate seat next year, said that 'more than a few' Republican legislators acknowledged privately that the budget deficit could not be patched without tax hikes." But they just didn't want to be the ones to vote for them, apparently.

Let's hope they're not laying off math instructors. Math skills are urgently needed in Sacramento.