Funding Cuts Impact CWA Educators

In January, educators in Santa Ana, Calif., learned of the school district’s plan to cut as many as 300 educator positions due to a budget shortfall. CWA substitute teachers, represented by CWA Local 9510, joined allies from the Santa Ana Educators Association, the National Union of Health Care Workers, and Santa Ana elementary and secondary school teachers, counselors, curriculum specialists, social workers, and parents at a hearing of the Santa Ana School District.

Activists filled the school board meeting room and an overflow chamber in protest of the proposed cuts. CWA members in the district will be displaced as full-time teachers will receive priority placement if they choose to enter the substitute teacher pool.

At a follow-up school board meeting, CWA Local 9510 Vice President Glenn Ball addressed the board members. “I’m angry,” said Ball. “Most of these teachers live in this community, in Santa Ana and in neighboring cities. With the layoffs, there are going to be people whose marriages fail. Whose cars get repossessed. God forbid, somebody might be homeless, or not able to afford their medications. Serious, life-altering effects can happen to people. And it’s not because they did something wrong. Not this case. This was bad planning on someone else’s part.”

 
CWA Local 9510 Vice President Glenn Ball spoke to Santa Ana School Board members about the effects layoffs will have on substitute teachers represented by the local.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.