An article by a "friend of a friend"

COMMUNITY ESSAY: SAN DIEGO

The real cost of teacher layoffs

By Mark A. Mathewson
April 27, 2008

We keep hearing from the educational powers that be that all their decisions are made “with the best interest of the children in mind.” Well, in light of the news on education cuts, it seems that the children are being served least.

I am a 38-year-old father of two young boys. I gave up a 10-year career in the IT field to follow my dream of becoming a teacher. I have been told countless times that second-career professionals, especially males, from the private sector are one of the most coveted commodities in the public school system, that we can really fill a void as role models.

But how are we going to get new professionals entering education when sobering facts about teaching today are revealed, such as Time magazine's February article on education. Its research indicates annual teacher turnover costs the nation about $7 billion each year. Secondly, that “between a quarter and a third of new teachers quit within their first three years on the job, and as many as 50 percent leave poor, urban schools within five years.”

I certainly know why. This job is hard. Yes, harder than I even expected. And the pay is not commensurate with the amount of work required. I know this firsthand, having held many professional positions with more achievable expectations and reasonable hours for much more pay. In fact, I am now enrolled in a masters program primarily to raise my salary to nearly what I was making in the private sector five years ago.

And now another new concern over job security comes onto the scene. As a third-year teacher, I understand that I am in a somewhat precarious situation as far as seniority. But when 14 out of the 24 teachers at my “poor, urban school” receive notices in March that they will likely lose their jobs in June, some of whom have six years of experience, I realize that even if I make it through layoffs this time, chances are I'll face another layoff in my near future.

That being said, let me assure you that I didn't want to become a teacher because it was easy or for the pay, or even to have a job I could count on – those jobs don't exist in this world, and for good reason. I am one of those individuals who not only loves teaching, but wants to give something back to my community, and my country as well. The look on my students' faces as they discover something new is really priceless.

Yet, I need to tell you that damage is already being done in taking young student minds off the track of learning.

At Baker Elementary in Southeast San Diego, our students are in need of stability. For many of them, there is already an incredible uncertainty that permeates their daily lives: family, financial, gangs, to name a few.

I had not mentioned to my fourth-grade class that I had received a layoff notice, as I was concerned about their worrying. But word gets out in a school environment and today, Alicia, in her subdued but unusually probing voice, asked, “Mr. Mathewson, you aren't going to be fired, too, are you?” Where the room had been getting progressively quiet, now you could hear a pin drop. Twenty-six pairs of eyes stared at me. I slowly sat down at the chair at the front of the room and began. “I hadn't planned on talking about this today, but let me explain what Alicia is talking about.”

It didn't matter how delicately I presented the facts. In the end it came down to my children calling out the names of their beloved teachers of years past, or the fifth-grade teachers they were hoping to get next year. When nearly 60 percent of their school's teachers have received pink slips, you can be sure someone really special to them was leaving.

I have received my official layoff notice, which has nothing to do with merit or skills, having done nothing wrong. Still, many veteran teachers and administrators seem confident that in the end we will keep our jobs – that the state budget crisis will be averted at the eleventh hour.
Despite these hopeful assurances, coming from the private sector I've witnessed something else: If you are about to lose your job, you don't sit around and hope someone changes their mind. As a person with a growing family, I cannot take that chance. Lay me off once, shame on you; lay me off twice, shame on me. So, regrettably, I will leave this profession and likely will return to my prior one. I have been frustrated to the point of nearly throwing in the towel several times over the last three years. But I never thought in the end it would be the governor's decision to cut 10 percent of the education budget, and the school board's decision on how to execute, that cut right to the heart of our classrooms that forces me now to go.

None of that seems “in the best interest of the children” to me – but what do I know? I only used to be a teacher.


Mathewson, a fourth-grade teacher at Baker Elementary until June 30 of this year, is a San Diego resident.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080427/news_mz1e27mathew.html