The state's budget crisis is putting so much pressure on public school districts that some are being forced to trim the school year before school gets out this year.
Last month, based on a California Watch Survey, I wrote about proposals in the majority of California's 30 largest school districts to shorten the coming school year by granting teachers unpaid furlough days.
But on Tuesday, the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the state's largest school district by far, voted to shorten the current school year by a week before summer vacation begins in June. That means the number of days students will be in the classroom will drop from last year's level of 180 days to 175 days this year.
It also means teachers must now figure out how to finish up their lesson plans with one less week to teach. Parents will have to arrange activities for kids who will be out of school for an unplanned week.
And it's not only a mammoth district like LAUSD, with an enrollment of 687,000 students, that has been forced to cut classes in the waning months of the school year. The Willows Unified School District north of Sacramento, with an enrollment of 1700 students, has already begun eliminating four instructional days by granting teachers furloughs. The home page of the district's Web site says it all.
As an article in the Chico Enterprise Record explained, the cuts will save the district about $34,000 a day – a significant savings for this rural district. To soften the impact, two of the furlough days have been scheduled in May to coincide with the Glenn County Fair, an annual activity for many students.
School districts must get the concurrence of teachers unions to shorten the school year. So far, teachers seem to be opting for a shorter school year as a preferred alternative to more extensive layoffs or eliminating entire programs.
In Los Angeles, teachers voted by an overwhelming 80 percent majority to approve the five-day furloughs, which officials say will save the district $147 million, avert laying off about 2100 employees and keep K-3 class sizes at current levels.
Meanwhile, the list of school districts considering offering more furlough days and less instruction keeps growing.
In Lodi, the school district has reached a tentative agreement with the Lodi Teachers Association to trim the current school year and succeeding ones by a week. Each day eliminated will save the district about $603,000. According to an article in the Lodi News Sentinel, teachers union president Sue Kenmotsu said reducing the year was “the best the union could do" at this time. The teachers have another week to vote on the agreement.
The Sacramento Bee reports that Sacramento City Unified wants to cut three days from the next school year – two of them on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week when many students are already absent.
By our count, 19 out of the 30 largest school districts in the state are now considering or have decided on a shorter school year.
A school year of fewer than 180 days would put California into the company of a very small number of states. It may be no accident that Delaware is one of two states to be awarded Race to the Top funds from the U.S. Department of Education. Vision 2015, the state's powerful education coalition there, is pushing to increase the number of instructional hours from 1060 hours to 1200 hours – the equivalent of about 20 extra days.
California, which didn't even make into the final round of the Race to the Top competition, appears to be going in just the opposite direction.
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