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GUEST: David Sanchez, President of California Teachers Association

Fourteen thousand California teachers were recently issued pink slips, warning that they may lose their jobs because of a state budget crunch. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a $4.8 billion cut in education funding, this despite the fact that California ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil-spending. Officials say theses are the largest proposed cuts in state history. The California Teacher’s Association, representing 340,000 teachers state-wide, is furious. A group of teachers set out from downtown Los Angeles earlier this week in a yellow school bus on a six-week statewide tour called ‘Cuts Hurt.’ I spoke earlier in the week with CTA President David Sanchez during his first stop at Monroe Middle School in Inglewood. If the cuts go through, teachers say schools like Monroe will be hard hit, with more crowded classrooms and cuts in arts and music classes.

For more information, visit www.cta.org.