As a homeschooler, if I feel that my children's education budget is not enough, I have only myself to blame, but I have to say, this post really moved me.  Our country has come to a truly sad state if we are at the point that our children have to protest to obtain an education!  And I thought Arnold was one of the good guys!  Everyone agrees that teachers do the hardest job for pitifully inadequate compensation.  This is just adding insult to injury.  I absolutely would have dressed every one of my kids in pink if I were you, and then asked all the moms I could find to do the same and stage a sit-in on the sidewalks out front of the school all day.  I tell my kids all the time that people believe what they see you do, not what they hear you say.  Until our politicians start showing us that eduaction is a priority with adequate funding, we will never believe the lip service they keep using to build up their support.  Shame, shame on the Terminator - that's not what the title means!!

@Meahsmom@xanga - LOL, it happens. I had many mistakes after writing this. Thank goodness for spellcheck. I was so angry that I was typing faster than I should. Thank you for your comments.

Ugh...our government is out of control.  Good for your kids to wear pink.

I'm behind you all the way.  But then again, I'm a teacher!  I live in SC, but they have also been making cuts here too.  Our district gave teachers two furlough days, and those all year staffers five furlough days instead of laying anyone off, so we were all thankful for that.  However, if our governor Mark Sanford does not accept bailout money from the federal government, we could lose as many as 4,000 positions!  I'm not only scared for my job, but I'm also scared for the quality of our children's education! (my future children, and my students) If they take more teachers out of the classroom, that means more students in my classroom, I already have classes of 30 students certain periods, more than 30 is just outrageous!  So from a teacher, I thank you for standing up for us!  

@Carter - You seriously think that teachers JUST work 9 months out of the year? Wow.  You are seriously misinformed.  Teachers work upwards of 40-45 hours per week, and that doesn't include conferences, in-services (which are required), and all the work done at home that they don't get paid for.  On top of that, since when is summer break 3 months long? I haven't seen a summer break that long since I was going to elementary/middle school (in the 80s and 90s).  Heck, my district even cut out fall break again (so much for teacher workdays).  Kids may only go to school for a set amount of days per year, but that does'nt mean that teachers don't WORK almost year round.  Sure, it's nice to have the summer "off", but most of that time is spent preparing for the upcoming year.  Also, a teacher's salary isn't really that much if you divide it up over 12 months.  Teachers provide the education of the nation's future, and we're going to pay them under $40,000 a year for that? That's not WELL paid in any sense of the word.  Sorry.

I speak as an idealistic teacher, with many relatives and friends that are teachers, but I'm also a realist.  I understand what you are saying, for the most part, but some of it is really impractical.

Here's a few insights that you may not realize.

1.  School districts have to send out pink slips by law at this time, but many teachers may get hired back based on the enrollment and need for the following year.

2.  Enrollment is shrinking.  Gen Xers are a significantly smaller population than Babyboomers, and thus our children (who are enrolling in schools now) are significantly less than the Millenials (who are the largest generation EVER, now graduating high school, and children of Babyboomers).  In fact, according to the CA dept. of Finance, CA enrollment has been shrinking since 2005-2006 (although we didn't necessarily make the adjustments in staffing and number of schools like we should've), and will continue to decline until AT LEAST 2011, althoug maybe later.  Less enrollment means less money schools get (since schools are funded by Average Daily Attendance) and less teachers.

3.  Here's the most important and significant factor -- WE ARE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS.  I'm a realist, and I have friends who are losing jobs, mortgages, and more.  Our unemployment rate as a state is at 10%+.  Schools are funded by taxes, taxes are based on incomes, property values/taxes, and/or sales... all of which are down.  If the state unemployment rate has DOUBLED in 2 years, how can we expect that schools would be exempt from the effects of it, especially if schools are funded by its citizens?

I am not saying that governments are without fault.  I am not saying that the governor and governments are being very efficient.  School districts and teachers' unions are just as inefficient and wasteful in spending.  I've seen the waste occurs, especially having worked in an efficient district, and inefficient ones (the most efficient being a charter school that I taught at).

I understand the outrage, but I understand the realities of our current situation.  I don't think the problem is with teachers losing jobs... Moreover, more teachers and smaller classrooms do not automatically equal a better education, as studies and other alternative educational systems have shown.  It may help, but not always.  MAYBE, we should work to change the current education system to make it work.  MAYBE, we should advocate to maximize the resources we do have, so that it would benefit the students in the best way.  MAYBE, we should focus on fixing the economy to ultimately help education (or maybe even donate all our "surplus" to schools to hire teachers).  MAYBE we should figure out solutions, instead of just complaining.

If state and local government lived the way housewives have to live and balance and control their budgets, maybe we wouldn't be upside down.  It may be time to let a mom run for office. The checks and balances somehow are not working. Is the person in charge of accounting notifying the others that there isn't any money for bonuses, high price dinners, expensive trips, first class everything? Is there someone keeping track?

@Carter - Actually, it's 10 months (summer is only 2 months now in most places) and the work is never ending for many.  Someone else said teachers work 40-45 hours per week.  For many positions, it's more like 50-60 hours per week once you add in the time spent grading, planning, calling parents, attending meetings, etc.  That part of why people in my field are a little up in arms over the idea brought up recently about lengthening the school day/year.  Unless salaries come up too, it won't be fair to people in the job.

In many places, the districts only pay state minimum.  In TX, that's not enough to keep a family afloat, although an individual might do alright. 

I do think that in some places, teachers complaining about salary is a bit silly.  I make just over $40K per year which is all people were expecting as graduating engineers and computer scientists - a few get over that but those are the exception.  Actually, I turned down jobs paying $8K less as an experienced technical support tech.  The big difference is that salaries do not go up like they do in industry.  Generally, you are lucky to get a cost of living raise and that is a problem for someone who has been teaching for many years and is (after inflation) making very little above what they made the first year.  For me right now, that salary fits reasonably well.  Of course I teach an elective and make my out of school work time minimal - I couldn't do that if I had a job in a core class (math, science, language arts, or social studies).

@gwendylyyn - Yeah, it pretty much sucks, not only for you, but for the teachers as well.  We are having to find other teachers to cover our classes if we want a day off, and no one wants to ask or be asked to cover another class and lose your precious planning period.  However, if you do Math you shouldn't have a hard time finding a job, no matter if you have experience or not, just don't do English or Social Studies.  Science and Math are the ones they always need, so you should be ok!