In today’s LA Times Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and Steve Zimmer, board member-elect of the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education, called on teachers to take a pay cut to save the district $45 million.

In response I offer the following federal stimulus and bailout headlines:

Stimulus Funds Spent to Keep Sun Belt Cool

The federal government is spending $5 billion in stimulus money to weatherize homes across the country.

Chrysler won’t repay bailout money

An administration official confirms that a $4 billion bridge loan and $3.2 billion in bankruptcy financing won’t be paid back by Chrysler following bankruptcy.

13 Firms Receiving Federal Bailout Funds Owe $220M in Back Taxes

The House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight discovered the delinquent taxes in a review of tax records from 23 of the firms.

GM Spending Federal Bailout Billions on ‘Operating Expenses,’ Specific Accounting Unclear

The federal government has injected nearly $20 billion dollars to GM — including $13.4 billion in December and a higher-than-expected $4 billion this month.

YRC to Apply for Bailout Funds

Amid Pension Pressure, Trucking Company Plans to Request $1 Billion in U.S. Aid

And of course the granddaddy of them all:

Tracking the $700 Billion Bailout

So so so much money flowing, but not for retaining teachers to keep class sizes for kids down to reasonable levels.

GM can spend billions on ‘operating expenses’ and then go proceed to go belly up, but Ramon Cortines and the Los Angeles School Board want to save their measly billion in stimulus spending for a rainy day.

After receiving about $1 billion in federal funds, LAUSD saves $50 million by eliminating 2290 teachers who work with our children.

After receiving about $170 billion in federal funds, AIG gives $165 million for retaining the employees who destroyed our economy.

Here’s an assignment: compare those two sentences and tell me what’s wrong!

And now they want us to take a pay cut to save $45 million.

Borrowing a page from Gandhian morality (and isn’t morality and ethics what we need a bit more of these days full of wrong), a group of teachers have begun a hunger strike to get the board and Cortines to reconsider their decision.  CutsHurtKids, ever web-savvy, has put up a hugely informative site, LAHungry4Ed, about all this.  Check it out.

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