Legislator suggests teacher furloughs

Georgia’s 125,000 public schoolteachers could be forced to take days off without pay next school year because the recession continues to batter state finances.

Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta), chairman of the House budget subcommittee on education, said school officials should consider furloughing teachers on “planning” or training days in hopes of saving the state up to $200 million.

That money would then be plowed back into school system budgets to help keep local officials from having to lay off teachers and other staffers.

“If we could give these [school] systems more flexibility, we could avoid some of these layoffs,” Lindsey said Tuesday during hearings on the 2010 state budget that starts July 1. “We would be remiss if we did not consider it.”

Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators responded, “We think that’s a pretty bad idea.”

Lindsey raised the issue as the House prepares to vote on an $18.5 billion state budget that is $1.6 billion smaller than it was in January when Gov. Sonny Perdue originally made his spending recommendations.

With tax collections plummeting, Perdue ordered new spending cuts on top of the $2 billion slashed from the budget for the rest of this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Much of the $1.6 billion shortfall for the upcoming year would be filled with money from the federal stimulus package that’s meant to stabilize state budgets.

But under the House spending plan, budgets for everything from Georgia’s ethics watchdogs to college instruction would take bigger hits.

Funding for the State Ethics Commission would be cut in half.

The University System would take a new round of spending reductions after getting hammered in the 2009 budget.

The land-conservation program would be gutted.

It’s not all slash and burn for House members. They added some bond projects, including $9.6 million for a downtown outdoor student recreation facility including intramural fields at Georgia State University. And they tacked on $27 million for a new school of dentistry facility at the Medical College of Georgia.

To pay for the new projects, they cut others recommended by the governor.

The House is expected to vote on the budget on Thursday.

The idea of saving money by furloughing teachers didn’t catch education groups completely off guard.

Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said school districts all over the state are considering laying off employees because of funding problems.

Hubbard said he has warned teachers that furloughs may be coming because many state agencies are forcing staffers to take days off without pay.

“That [furloughs] is something we are going to have to take a long and hard look at,” Hubbard said. “The question is, what type of assurances will we have that jobs will be saved?”

More than 25,000 state employees have already been forced to take furloughs or will be taking them in coming months because of massive budget cuts brought on by the recession.

Teachers and University System employees have not been furloughed and received 2.5 percent cost-of-living raises this year. State employees other than University System workers, had their raises pulled by Perdue because of the downturn in collections.

Callahan said his group, the largest teacher organization in the state, would fight furloughs.

“It’s an easy thing to say just take six days and don’t pay them,” he said. “Six days would be a serious financial hardship on 125,000 teachers and their families.

“We don’t think the budget should be balanced on the backs of teachers.”

It would cost many teachers more than $1,000 to lose the six days of pay.