美国教师因岗位削减面临失业

Sheila Johnson has taught Spanish in the same New Jersey middle school for ten years.

"It was about a month ago that I received the reduction of force notice."

After the summer break, she may not return.

Every time I read this letter, it really hits me because the words in the letter are saying: Unfortunately, we can not offer you position because there is no place for you right now.

Johnson is not alone. The White House says as many as 300,000 education jobs could be eliminated across the U.S. in the month ahead, affecting kindergarten through the 12th grade. Public colleges will also be affected.

State and local governments forced to balance their budget during a time of dwindling tax revenues are being forced to make painful decisions.

It is always been thought that teachers and local schools were pretty much protected from budget cuts. We’ve always had the feeling that well whatever else the policy makers are gonna do in response to bad fiscal conditions, loss of revenue, they are not gonna go into the classroom. That’s clearly changed a little bit because there is nowhere else to go.

In New Jersey, Florida, Wisconsin and other states students and parents are protesting.

We are not just representing our school. We are representing every school around the state and around the nation.

Hey Congress. We may be just kids, but right now we need help too.

And the national teachers' union is joining the fight with new ads urging government action. The message: if bankers can get billions in public assistance, so can school kids.

For students being in overcrowded classrooms, elimination of summer school, to have some district shortened school week from 5 days to 4 is just wrong. In a time when we are competing globally, in a global economy, this is not a time to cut back on the number of hours of students in school.

Help could be on the way. Congress is considering a bill that will deliver $23 billion in new education aid to state and local governments. The hope is that the majority of pay to 12 teachers targeted for layoffs could be saved. But in stimulus-weary Washington, this bill has its critics.

House Minority leader John Boehner says (quote)" Giving states another $23 billion in federal education money simply throws more money into taxpayer-funded bailouts when we should be discussing why we aren’t seeing the results we need from the billions in federal dollars that are already being spent."

As the debate continues, it’s  intense time for Sheila Johnson and her fellow teachers.

"School ends the end of the month and we are hopeful that some of us will receive contracts by then. Our fate is in everyone else’s hands."

For now, all they can do is wait.

Maggie Lake, cnn, New York.