L.A. Middle School, Students Struggle Under Budget Cuts

The Los Angeles Unified School District laid off half the school's teaching staff. Districtwide, more than 2,000 teachers were laid off as state budget deficits and the recession affected school budgets across California. In Los Angeles, as elsewhere, the layoffs started with those teachers with the least experience. That hit Markham Middle School especially hard. The principal, Tim Sullivan, says he had recruited a team of idealistic young teachers to his campus. They were eager to face the challenges of teaching in an inner-city school. Instead, themselves first in line of the layoffs. Recruiting replacement teachers to move to Markham from other schools in the district hasn't been easy, and Sullivan said he doesn't see it getting any easier in the next couple of years. Budget shortfalls are expected to mean more teacher layoffs this summer. "I'm going to lose 50 percent of my staff every year," he said. "There's nothing the union can do about it. There is nothing the district can do about it. There is nothing the state can do" unless there is a major overhaul of how schools are financed in California. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit saying that the teacher layoffs constitute a violation of the constitutional rights of inner city students to an education. Markham Middle School sits in the middle of Watts. It is a neighborhood riddled by poverty and gang violence. One of the days, the campus was locked down for two hours because two gun-wielding men had been spotted in the neighborhood. Children were locked in their classrooms as SWAT teams pored over the schoolyard, armed with assault rifles and wearing body armor. Canine teams searched room to room for the gunmen. The school district's human resources chief, Vivian Ekchian, said, "This year, it has actually become worse. Our budget deficit is right now $640 million. And we will have no choice but to lay off employees again."But if the ACLU lawsuit is successful, those layoffs won't be at Markham Middle School. If not, classes will once again be thrown into chaos. The suit seeks a court injunction to stop further layoffs at schools that were hit the hardest last year.

This is so sad. Many students all over the world are not given the chance to learn and have good teachers in their classrooms because of the budget cut. This is affecting students all over the country, not only college students. Now, kids in middle school are losing proper teachers each year and are faced with 10 different substitutes in one semester. This really affects their ability to learn. They aren't even going to be able to focus in a situation like this. The budget cut is now affecting all schools across the nation and is putting a lot of useful teachers out of work. This deficit not only affects students and teachers, but the future generation. If children today aren't recieving a proper education, they will not be able to come out into society knowing what to expect and how to make the world a better place. In a way, the present generation is dependent on them.