It happened today. After 7 years of seniority, I was laid off due to deep budget cuts to education, deep enough for the layoffs to penetrate all the way up to me. It’s deeply disappointing and sad, but this is the way it is.
I have some previous threads on teaching and my life if you are curious.
Ask the guy who is adopting internationally(I’ve now adopted twice).
Teaching is wonderful, but sad.
Ask the 7th grade public school teacher
And now, I’m laid off.
C’est la vie
I am so sorry, Mahaloth. I left a teaching job to move to another state and found I simply could not land another job in a decent district. I did half a year at a downright horrible district and got out to save my health and my sanity. Currently, I’m in my old area, IT desktop support. It pays the bills, but man, I miss teaching.
Any idea where you’ll go from here? Were you given any sort of severance?
Do you have enough between unemployment and a potential severance package to keep going for awhile? Do you have a family? Any plans to relocate? I ask because my sister’s a music teacher. The arts program got cut at her school in Wisconsin, and she had to go all the way to *Texas *to find a job. She’s very happy there (except for the heat), but that kind of relocation isn’t possible for a lot of working adults.
Any projects you’ve put on the back burner that you’re going to catch up on now?
That really sucks. I’m sorry to hear that, and hope your job hunt goes well.
But since you said to ask, can I start with the bluntest questions?
Do you think the layoffs had anything to do with you? That is, would a better performance review or a more amicable relationship with administration have saved you?
Well that sucks, truly.
I couldn’t open the last link, but the middle one says you were an English teacher. So the cuts are going right into core subject matter? Did your school/district see a lot of arts and extracurriculars go first? That seems to be the pattern in most cases.
I won’t ask exactly where, but can you say what state or province you’re in?
No severance, but I am on the call-back list and will be so until either I quit or get called back one day. May take years and years.
I have a wife and two little kiddos, age 4 and 2.
No severance package. Zippo.
I won’t relocate.
Projects? Yeah, this summer I’ll start on a bunch of projects and continue them on into the Fall if I’m not working.
Nope, totally on seniority. I have great reviews and evaluations, as do all the others being laid off(as far as I know, anyway).
Michigan.
Yeah, core and non-core gone. Across the board. Extracurriculars were not really the first to go; it was kind of just done across the board.
I’m sorry to hear this. 
I am so sorry. I wish you and your family all the best.
Mahaloth, what area of Michigan if you don’t mind me asking?
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Sorry to hear this. Cutting back on education is probably the dumbest thing we are doing in this country*. Hope you can find some work.
*yeah I know, we do so many dumb things it’s hard to tell which one is dumbest.
Yeah, the mentality of cutting down the budgets of schools is a bit odd. All we ever want is enough to cover inflation, but they reduced us to about 1996 level funding…and still want us to provide quality education at 2013 costs.
I don’t want to start a whole “education funding” debate, though. It is what it is and it comes from who is elected.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Michigan seems to be hanging on by a thread in just about every area.
If you reconsider about moving and you’d like to experience a way different climate, my school really needs a good math teacher…two, actually, one for sixth grade and one for seventh.
If you don’t mind me asking; Why?
Michigan is still the top state for being a teacher and I do have call-back rights, meaning if I tough this out for a few years, things should improve.
Good luck. I hope things improve soon, and when Michigan starts making a comeback, it’s going to need all the good teachers it can get.
I understand about not relocating. Some people can be perfectly happy pulling up stakes and moving across country, but if you have a deep attachment to your home, it’s not quite that easy. My family has stayed put when it might have made more immediate economic sense to move, but I think it was worth it in the long run.
Mahaloth, good luck to you and sorry to hear you lost your job. I taught high school physics for 2 years, a career that I thought I wanted to do my entire life, but when I realized how fucked up this country as a whole is with regards to respecting teachers, supporting them and their decisions, and funding them adequately, I jumped ship as soon as I could and work in the private sector now. Still miss the kids almost every day, but I sure don’t miss the political bullshit and the immoral stuff that the administration was pushing us to do constantly. I have nothing but the utmost respect for teachers who choose to stick it out in this country despite how they are treated and seen as the source of all the problems students have. I hope you find new work soon.
Any chance you could teach at a private school while you wait for a call back?
Quite a few churches here have started schools. Some are pretty basic but still better equipped than homeschooling. Then there are the private academys that charge high tuition and they are often better than the public schools.
They rarely pay as well as public schools. But I’d think enrollment in private schools would be up if they’re cutting back on public school funding, so it’s a good idea. The jobs can be nicer than public school jobs, much less bullshit with parents complaining about treatment of their kids, lots less dumb regulation.
I understand how you feel, but I do disagree with how deeply bleak you seem to think things are.
Yep, I’ll try.
I went to private school k-12 and while there is less regulation, the parents are equally difficult, if not more so.