The comments sections this week have been very lively: Will Carless’ story on the San Diego teachers union’s hardline stance alone has 62 comments so far. (For context, our most-commented story last year, also by Carless, has 77 comments.) But plenty of you commented on other stories too.
Here are five from this week:
• Margaret Sabetti on “The Teachers Union Gets Tough, and Isolated“:
Maybe teacher layoffs get rescinded, but classified layoffs never do. Since the “Bersin Era” and the decimation of the staffing formula for classified workers, our work load has increased to an impossible level. If teachers think 35:1 is hard, they should try 3000:1. That’s the reality some of us live with every day. We don’t get step and column raises. After five years with the district, the only raises we get are ones CSEA negotiates for us. The cost of living in San Diego continues to grow while our paychecks actually shrink. If they can’t cut our pay, they cut our hours. We have made sacrifices for the last ten years. Our workers have been furloughed long before other employee groups. We gave up bonuses. We worked with the district to find savings in our benefit plan. District staff promised layoffs if no concessions were made. So, we made concessions. We got layoffs anyhow. It’s hard to keep hearing from District staff and school board members how the employee groups must make shared sacrifices. So far, I don’t see any sharing going on. All the sacrifices have been made by the classified employees and the children and parents we faithfully continue to serve.
• Chris Wood on “Four Things You Should Know about High-Speed Rail“:
Interesting point about airport security above. Once a plane is seven miles up it is probably pretty safe, while a train would need security along the entire ~1000 mile route at ground level.
• Susan Fitzpatrick on “Streets Will Worsen for Next Five Years, Report Says“:
i wonder what would happen if i present my car repair bill to the city, since their lack of attention to the infrastructure causes damage to springs and shocks.
• Charles Pratt on “The Unanswered Question in ‘Nathan and the Duke’“:
The question for me is would you have chosen to work for Cunningham given his reactionary politics? The answer for me-at any age-is Hell no!
• Kelly Lowry on “District to Union: Help Us Change Teacher Layoff Law“:
Getting the dates changed is a no brainer. Should have been done years ago. I hope both sides (and the rest of the state) get’s behind this. The flipside is, can you really get California’s legislature to change a law in just over a month?
Want to contribute to the discussion? Submit a suggestion to Fix San Diego.
Dagny Salas is the web editor at voiceofsandiego.org. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
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