All 2,000 Providence teachers told they could be fired

story/photo by AP
written by Liz Goodwin

Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Angel Taveras is sending layoff warnings to all 1,926 of the city's teachers.

They won't all be dismissed, but state law requires the city to notify teachers by March 1 whether the district could lay them off before the start of the next school year. School officials say warning every teacher gives them the freedom to let go many of them without having to single any of them out now.

Providence's school district is facing a $40 million budget shortfall next year.

"Are there going to be less teachers? Yes," Taveras told The Providence Journal. "Will there be less schools open next year? Yes. Do I know which teachers and which schools? No."

As you can imagine, the local teachers' union is not taking the news well.

"This is beyond insane," Providence Teachers Union President Steve Smith told The Providence Journal's Linda Borg. "Let's create the most chaos and the highest level of anxiety in a district where teachers are already under unbelievable stress. Now I know how the United States State Department felt on Dec. 7, 1941."

Meanwhile, 106 teachers got pink slips in nearby Central Falls Public School District. Only 11 of those teachers will be fired due to poor performance, according to GoLocalProv.

Central Falls High School, one of the worst performing schools in the state, became a battleground of the education reform movement last year, when the superintendent threatened to fire its entire teaching staff after the union wouldn't agree to a longer school day, after-school tutoring, and a new evaluation system without much extra pay. Teachers argued that the area's poverty, not their lack of effort, was responsible for low test scores. Education Secretary Arne Duncan applauded the decision to force the teachers to do more work or lose their jobs.

Providence isn't the only town downsizing its school system. In an unprecedented move, the city of Detroit is planning on closing half of its 142 schools by 2014 in an effort to close its budget deficit.

Mass layoffs of public workers have become more common as city and state tax revenues have plunged during the recession. The mayor of Fall River, Mass. fired nearly 150 city employees in 2009, after two big companies in the town, Quaker Fabric and A.J. Wright, laid off almost 3,000 people in 2007. And the tiny city of Maywood, Calif. laid off every one of its employees last year and instead moved to an outsourcing contract system to save money.