Each year on March 15th, educators across the state of California learn if they have been retained for the following school year, or if they have been “pink slipped,” the common expression for being laid off. This year, due to Governor Gavin Newsom‘s budget cuts across the state of California and the end of federal COVID funds, which districts had used to supplement depleting school budgets, there will be massive layoffs of educators across the state.
The California Teachers Association (CTA), which represents 300,000 school employees, has announced that the 2,300 school employees being let go are credentialed school staff, which include teachers, school nurses, and librarians. In Oakland, hundreds of educators (teachers and other personnel) are slated to lose their positions. Oakland community members tried to fight back against these attacks through demonstrations at school board meetings, but the board voted to maintain the budget cuts and slash teacher and staff positions in what they claim will plug a $95 million hole in the budget for the upcoming school year. In San Francisco (SF), educators and organizers were able to successfully fight back against the cuts and the SF school board will no longer be firing over 300 teachers. Still, not everyone in SF is safe. Early retirement buyouts were offered to 300 veteran teachers, while layoff notices were still sent out to nearly 400 school counselors, teacher aides, administrators, and other staff.
What do these cuts mean for students and educators in California schools? Understaffing means classrooms that are packed to the brim with students. Most school districts have contracts between teachers and the district which designate the classroom capacity of students per grade level. New teachers to a district, unfamiliar with their contracts, and fearful of losing their jobs, may be more willing to accept students over capacity. Classrooms at or over capacity are harder environments for students to learn at their best and for teachers to feel successful and then be willing to remain in the profession. Budget cuts also mean low supplies, so fewer materials for students to learn. And short staffing means less support for students with high needs.
Attacks on education are coming from both the right and the left. Trump and his cronies in the federal government are making cuts to the Department of Education, which will affect federal funding that public schools receive, and will particularly harm our schools in the highest need. But the attacks are not just from Washington D.C.; local governments across the state are also cutting budgets for education. Local school boards claim these cuts are happening because COVID funds from the federal government expired this week. School districts across the state of California were using COVID funds (that should have been used for safety protocols and resources to get our students and staff back into schools as soon as possible) to balance budgets. As a result, at the start of the 2025-2026 school year, our public schools will be hit with a double whammy of cuts and attacks from both the Democrat and Republican parties. Wealthy schools that have a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) will be able to fund raise to support relatively privileged children. But in high need communities that are unable to have a PTA, classrooms will be overcrowded, and resources will be scarce.
It cannot be forgotten that this current state of affairs in our schools is the product of a decades-long bipartisan attack on public education. For more than 30 years, Democrats and Republicans have been investing in charter schools. The majority of charter schools in the United States are located in California, but there are hot spots of charter schools across the nation, in particular New Orleans, Louisiana. Charter schools take funds away from public schools, while simultaneously receiving private funding from donors. And the last few decades have proven time and again that charter schools are not performing better than their district equivalents.
This bipartisan, well-funded effort to privatize public education has left our public schools extremely vulnerable as Trump attempts to eliminate the Department of Education. This 2025-2026 school year is destined to be a tough one for students, and all of those who work in schools. But the crisis in California’s schools is not inevitable – it’s the result of political choices. And as San Francisco showed, resistance works. The only way to stop these attacks is for teachers, parents, and students to unite and fight back.
