Speaking of furloughs, I ran into this description of entrepreneurs who can’t help seeing furloughs as an opportunity!
I also give high marks to the California professor’s reaction to the harsh fact that the state is broke:
“This is one of those times where we find ourselves glad that our state does not have kneecaps.”
But she also makes a serious point:
We’re shouldering our share of the pain. But, we’re not shouldering an inordinate share of the pain by working on those unpaid furlough days. If the State of California cannot pay for a full academic year of teaching, research, and service activities from us, the State of California will not receive a full academic year of teaching, research, and service activities from us. This is what sharing the pain is about.
I also caught this quick listing of current educational and political actions in California spawned by the budget crisis.
The Akron Beacon Journal is seeking salary and benefit cuts from 24-36% from its employees, according to an email to union members which ended up on Jim Romenesko’s blog. The Beacon Journal is owned by Star-Bulletin owner David Black.
When asked if the company was willing to open the books company negotiator Karen Lefton stated that owner David Black was a very private individual and would keep his business matters private as well. When pushed on the issue by Guild staff representative Bruce Nelson, Lefton stated, “we are not saying we are not making a profit, we aren’t pleading poverty.” She went on to say that the company is not unable to pay at current levels, they just doesn’t want to.
Keep the North Shore Country has gathered up links to all the legal documents in the challenge to the Turtle Bay Resort’s aged development plan, now pending at the Hawaii Supreme Court. Interesting reading on an important set of legal issues.
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I was a little surprised that they slated instruction days rather than Admin days for this and I feel it says a lot about their priorities. We spend over $2 BILLION on DOE up from around 800 mil. just a few years ago… with our students regularly placing last in academic test can anyone tell me were they money is going and if we are getting our money’s worth?
Ian, I don’t think I’ve seen this addressed anywhere, but do you have any idea why furloughs were seen as a preferable option to just straight pay cuts? Both obviously hurt, but with the latter I’d imagine there would be the desired cost cutting without the impact on students and government services.
-r-
One argument for furloughs over pay cuts was that if the economy turned up and government revenues increased, the furlough days would not be necessary and workers pay would increase back to pre-furlough levels. If a pay cut had been negotiated, a new contract would have to be negotiated to increase pay back to pre-furlough levels. Given how long it takes to negotiate a contract, that could take a long time.
Thanks for the explanation, Lopaka43. The choice of going with furloughs still strikes me as odd, though, as they had to go into negotiations to work out these furlough days, anyway. I wonder why they couldn’t have negotiated pay cuts to be for a finite period, like they did with the furloughs.
-r-
Thanks for exploring this issue further, Ian.
Quite simple really … furloughs are preferable for workers because they aren’t as harmful to workers as pay cuts. Would you rather just work less or work the same for less pay? Pretty obvious choice for the workers involved.
Furthermore, furloughs share the burden more effectively than pay cuts. Cutting services and pay is fairer than just cutting pay.
Finally, furloughs on instructional days save further money by actually closing the schools, saving on operating costs (electricity, maintenance, support staff, etc.)
As for our rankings, realize that every school system that hosts a large number of children of immigrant families/ESL students places lower on metrics based on invariably Eurocentric standardized testing.