500 Teachers and 1000 Dallas ISD Employees Have Been FIRED

The Dallas Independent school district has hit an 89 million dollar accounting snag. How an 89 million dollar short fall can be considered a snag is beyond me, but many television reports were calling the huge mistake a snag. Perhaps the word snag was being used in a joking or sarcastic matter but for the 500 teachers who have now lost their jobs due to a major accounting error, I doubt that this is a joking matter. The latest round of lay offs is not going to be the last. A total of 1000 Dallas ISD employees will have to loose their jobs due to this "massive miscalculation" in the district's budget for this year.

Dallas ISD laid off 375 teachers Thursday October 16, 2008. This was 88 fewer teacher than first expected, and this was due to the generosity of 88 teacher who were willing to take early retirement in order to spare the jobs of their colleagues. This story first broke over a month ago when Dallas area students returned to school from summer break. Now almost 2 months into the school year thousands of students will have to be shuffled to other classes and some to other schools because they will no longer have a teacher. Michael Hinojosa the superintendent has been put on notice by the school board. Although he has been put on notice this does not mean that his job is at risk, although many Dallas area residents are calling for his job. As many residents have to explain to their children how an accounting mistake has now changed the dynamic of the entire school year and perhaps their lives, they are left wondering why the no one not even the superintendent had no idea that this accounting mistake was looming and eventually allowed to happen.

The sad thing about this situation, is that the already struggling school district has yet another stain on their reputation and so far the only people who are going to pay the price for this enormous mistake are the children of DISD, who are already stuffed into over crowed class rooms and many poor quality schools.

This makes me glad that my husband and I moved out of Dallas as soon as my first daughter began to talk. The horror stories of teacher neglect and the lack of motivation that my husband saw as a DISD student in the 1980's and 90' was enough for us to know that this school district was never going to be an option for our children. It seems that our decision was a good one.