District Layoffs of Teachers Decried

There are some serious problems with the state’s budget priorities. The Capistrano Unified School District has been forced to send 284 layoff notices by March 15 (“Schools to Send Out 284 Layoff Notices,” March 4).

I understand the toll that the recession puts on the budget, but the schools and education should be the last place to suffer. Education is the basis of each generation’s prosperity. Cuts on educational spending are cuts on learning.

There is a lack of respect for the teaching profession. By threatening to lay off these teachers, the CUSD is showing this lack of respect. Teachers are already underpaid and overburdened and now they are out of a job. Schools are already extremely overcrowded and this solution to the budget problem will only make that worse.

Our state must make a decision whether it is worth risking our future to make up for a few lost dollars and cents. Unless our priorities get straightened out, the decision-makers of the future won’t have the fundamental knowledge to base their decisions on.

KARUN GROSSMAN, Laguna Niguel