The chairman of the House budget committee on education said officials should consider furloughing the state’s more than 100,000 teachers six days a year to help financially struggling school systems.
Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta), said making teachers take six planning days a year off without pay would save the state more than $190 million. That money would then be plowed back into school system budgets to help keep local officials from having to lay off teachers and other staffers.
“If we could give these (school) systems more flexibility, we could avoid some of these layoffs,” Lindsey said. “We would be remiss if we did not consider it.”
Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said school districts all over the state are considering laying off employees because of funding problems. Hubbard said he has warned teachers that furloughs may be coming because many state agencies are forcing staffers to take days off without pay.
“That (furloughs) is something we are going to have to take a long and hard look at,” Hubbard said. “The question is, what type of assurances will we have that jobs will be saved?”
More than 25,000 state employees have already been forced to take furloughs or will be taking them in coming months because of massive budget cuts brought on by the recession.
You better believe that this will be a major issue next year for legislators. We are already ranked 46 out of 50 states when it comes to education & now the state republican leaders want to reduce teacher's pay & work days!
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