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I’m back at work! Professional Development has begun already and I’m back full swing into the madness that is LAUSD. Apparently nothing’s really new. Well…..maybe. Our new Superintendent Ramon Cortines is now suggesting that 2,000 new teachers may be laid off mid-year. The good news is that my own job is in no danger whatsoever. The bad news is that many of our new teachers’ jobs might actually be.

I’ve got really mixed feelings about all of this. On the one hand, I admire Cortines’ willingness to make gutsy moves that might be unpopular, something that his predecessor, Admiral Brewer, was unwilling or unable to do. On the other hand, it only makes sense to lay off 2,000 teachers if there is first an at least proportionate scaling back of district bureaucracy (local districts, supervisors, middlemen and women). This is something he’s done before (in 2000 when he was interim Superintendent) and has said recently that he’d do again in the face of California’s massive budget shortfall. Why on earth he would not mention similar bureaucratic cutbacks at the same press conference (or the LA Times failure to report if he did) is beyond me. Here’s an idea: How about instead of laying off new teachers, we lay off bad ones????