Schools across U.S. announce teacher layoffs

We reported Tuesday on teacher shortages around the country. Florida’s vacancy count was among the highest in the nation. So why then? A writer for the Tampa Bay Times asked. There are schools cutting jobs. Missoula, Mt. Public Schools are also facing layoffs, the worst in a generation, according to their Superintendent. Also cutting staff School districts for Fort Worth, TX and San Diego. Northwest Indiana district announced its closing three elementary schools on top of previous announced layoffs. District employees spoke out against the decision Tuesday night. It’s like I’m in Twilight Zone. No one is considering our children. Indiana School Board Association Code of Ethics says children are #1. How are we considering children? And all of these cuts? Health and safety. Bathroom’s not clean. That’s not clean. I’m expected to be highly effective with 34 children in my room. Honestly, there’s not going to be a lot of teaching going on. It’s going to be survival of the fittest. And CBS News reporter Bo Erickson has been looking into the teacher layoffs and he joins us now Boas tell tell me more about what’s happening in Indiana specifically. Yeah, why we’re zeroing in specifically on this school district is because the impacts are already being felt of these layoffs. They were immediate layoffs. 173 staff positions and a kind of this mid size city have already left the school district. These are janitors, support teachers, English as a second language teachers. Recess aids, all very important positions to make the school day function, and specifically today. There was an unintended consequence of all of this. About 300 staff members called out for work, which made all the schools close today specifically because when those when those 173 go, all of that work doesn’t go away. It just all goes on to them, the teachers who are left over. Why is this happening around the country? And that this I’m asking about here is not only OK, we talked about teachers leaving yesterday, but when teachers are leaving, why are layoffs still happening? You’d think they’d be doing the opposite, right? Exactly. We need more teachers. But the help wanted signs are being taken down specifically, and it’s really being described as a perfect storm of three specific issues. Remember, all that federal money coming from risk during the covic pandemic is about $200 billion. That money is going away. It cannot be relied upon anymore. We also have inflation that is rising costs. And the third aspect here is enrollment is down on many schools across the country, which kind of lowers the money that states are giving to school districts. You mentioned yesterday about the inequities when it came to teacher shortages that there were inequities in in the way that was being spread out. What about these cuts? Are there inequities in the same way With that, yeah, we’ve been trying to figure out all day long how many teachers could potentially be laid off. And there’s about 13,000 school districts around the country. And the best sense we have found is about half or a little more of them said there could be layoffs coming this year. And so I talked to an expert. Her name is Marguerite Rosa. She’s from the Edge Koonamics Lab at Georgetown University, and she gave us a better sense of which types of school districts could be impacted by layoffs. How widespread may this be throughout the country? The labs will be greater in some of our highest poverty districts, the larger high poverty districts because they got more money from the federal government and so when they spent more money that create now creates a bigger hole in the prior year’s budget. It is going to be uneven. It’ll also depend on what the districts use their money for. They use the money to hire a lot of people. That means you’ve got to let them go. Some districts have warned them, said you know this is a temporary job. When the money runs out, the position is gone and that still can be confusing to employees. So they they might have heard that but thought something would change. So we will continue to follow this very important issue going forward. I’m glad you are. Thanks, Bob. Thanks, John.