Who is Hurt Most by School Furlough Days?

A California November ballot measure, an ailing state budget and an already depleted public schools budget all conspire as Sacramento County public school districts consider ways to save millions of dollars. That's the reality San Juan Unified School District and its teachers union face as the two organizations tentatively agree to shorten school years by implementing staff furlough days for the upcoming school year.

But what happens to students when a number of school days are eliminated? Fair Oaks Patch asked who would be impacted most.

Prompted by Gov. Jerry Brown's $6.9-billion tax hike, a bill San Juan Unified officials explain will help the district's budget "stay even," the district board of education has already tentatively approved as few as  should the tax initiative fail to pass the vote.

San Juan Unified faces a $35 million budget gap heading into 2012-13. The District has taken action to reduce that gap by $11 million through . In a worst-case scenario, the tentative agreement with SJTA will provide an additional $12.3 million in budget savings leaving $11.7 million in solutions needed from one-time reserves and on-going discussions with the District’s other employee bargaining groups.

Regardless of how many, eliminating school days is bound to have a significant impact.

"There are no doubts that longer school days are better for kids; longer both in the amount of time and the number of day are good for kids," said Lynda Stone, a professor of childhood development at California State University, Sacramento and a former public school teacher.

Stone noted that it's not just the quality of the curriculum school districts offer, it's the way teachers present it. Stone explained eliminating days from the school year places yet another burden on already stressed teachers. U.S. teachers already have less time to deliver a quality education compared with countries that are doing more in terms of both quantity of time and quality of education, she said.

"You can take that same curriculum and look in four different classrooms and see very different practices and those practices have consequences for children," Stone said. "The way we set it up in the United States, teachers don't have downtime, like they do in Japan."

"If it's teacher-proofed, instead of promoting teachers' intellectual development and understanding of children's development, then it's a misunderstanding of what curriculum is," she said.

Parents who can afford to provide their children with enrichment programs while they are home or on summer vacation stand a better chance to retain that education, but students with parents who cannot afford those types of programs run a greater risk of forgetting aspects of their curriculum, Stone said.

David W. Gordon, superintendent of Sacramento County's Office of Education, agreed.

"Obviously the neediest students are the ones who depend the most on education for opportunities in the future," Gordon said. "Even your middle-class students are going to be shortchanged."

Gordon explained students with learning disabilities, English language barriers and other handicaps that fall beyond the economic spectrum are also at risk.

"They will fall farther and farther behind," Gordon said. "It's a downward spiral and at some point we have to get wise to what's going on and understand if we don't invest in preparing these young people we will not see the economy turn around; we will not see prosperity in this region and this state."

"We will be eating our seed corn and it's very foolish and shortsighted," he said.

Echoing Stone's sentiment, Gordon points out the achievement gap students continue to fall further behind with when compared with other countries, explaining students today actually require more learning, more time in the classroom rather than less.

"We do even worse compared to the (foreign) industrialized nations," he said.

Glynn Thompson, superintendent of San Juan Unified School District, will continue to work closely with its board of education and its teachers union despite the state's tumultuous economic status.

"It is critical that each of us look at and understand this (tax) initiative and each of us say that it is imperative that we support public education in the state of California," Thompson said. "For San Juan Unified it gave us an opportunity to rethink the way we work with our labor groups - we've taken a much more collaborative approach."

"We don't believe fighting with our labor groups accomplishes anything; I don't think organizationally that is a smart way to proceed," he said. "If the initiative does not pass, we have plans in place to deliver a very high-quality program."

Should Gov. Brown's tax initiative fail, Thompson explained the district is exploring an educational online pilot program that would blend delivery models for students who are struggling with certain concepts.

In the end it's not just students who are impacted, either. Of course, furloughs could hurt teachers too.

The California Teachers Association supports Brown’s tax measure. An article on the CTA website says, “It is the only funding initiative that takes care of the whole state by closing the budget deficit and paying down the state’s wall of debt. ... If the initiative fails, public education is facing an additional $5 billion in budget cuts next year. This initiative is a balanced solution.”

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