Subsidy+cuts+fill+jobless+rolls+with+former+school+employees

=By Debra Erdley = =//Published in the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW //= =// 7/25/11 //= = = = = = = =Pennsylvania public school employees are hitting the unemployment line in unprecedented numbers this summer. =

= Nearly 4,000 teachers and about 1,700 school support workers across Pennsylvania received furloughs recently in the wake of a $900 million reduction in state and federal school subsidie  s, according to spokesmen for The Pennsylvania State Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers affiliates in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. =

= The cash-strapped Philadelphia schools, which have furloughed 1,498 teachers and 857 school support workers , accounted for the largest single chunk of that number, but few schools have escaped unscathed. =

= Pittsburgh Public Schools, which furloughed 147 central office workers this summer, is preparing to send furlough notices to 25 teachers next week  and will begin furloughing support staff and aides in early August, said John Tarka of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. = = = =The PSEA, which represents 482 locals across the state, reported about 2,200 teacher layoffs and about 800 layoffs of support personnel ranging from classroom aides to cafeteria and maintenance workers. =

="It's pretty much across the board in the state. We've never seen anything like this. Even in the late 1970s when the steel mills were closing and people were moving away, it wasn't anything like this" for the schools, said Butch Santicola, who has been PSEA's western regional spokesman for four decades. =

=The layoffs are only part of the story. In many school districts, officials are cutting staff by attrition. PSEA spokesman Wythe Keever said school districts in the association's locals have eliminated about 2,200 positions through a gradual reduction in the work force when workers resign or retire and are not replaced. =

=That has left recent college graduates with new teaching certificates scrambling. =

=Amy Beardmore, 23, of North Huntingdon graduated in May with honors and a master's degree in education, plus teaching certificates in biology and general science, from West Virginia University. She has blanketed the region's schools with resumes, applied to schools in West Virginia and posted her credentials on PA-Educator.net, an employment website that serves all Pennsylvania schools. =

="I always put down that I am willing to help out with extracurricular activities. I would be a very diverse person for a school to hire," Beardmore said. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">"I've had one interview, in Moundsville (W.Va.). The only people I know who have found teaching jobs have moved far away. One girl went to St. Louis; a couple went to Florida. I know one girl in this area who graduated in Spanish. She got a job in Spain," she said. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">"I have not completely given up on teaching full-time, but I've started applying everywhere as a sub. At least if I can get that, I can get some experience." =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Teachers union spokesmen said the toll on Pennsylvania schools varies day by day. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Although Pittsburgh held off on teacher layoffs pending passage of the state budget, some schools that issued furloughs before the budget passed have recalled employees. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Santicola said Moon, which originally furloughed five teachers -- four full-time and one part-time -- recalled all of them when the final state budget restored some of Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed education cuts. Santicola was not optimistic that many school districts would be able to do that. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Meanwhile, school officials are calculating the budgetary impact of the layoffs. Most Pennsylvania schools directly reimburse unemployment compensation costs, which are based on an employee's salary. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Geoffrey Moomaw is president of Interstate Tax Service, a company that administers unemployment compensation for several hundred Pennsylvania school districts. He said he has advised his clients that they will have to pay out about the maximum $14,898 in unemployment compensation costs for every furloughed employee who was earning $57,000 or more. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Some schools may be able to escape the full tab for such costs. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association's insurance company sells a policy that caps those costs. It's unclear how many schools purchased such policies. =

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Roy E. Jacobs III, assistant executive director of insurance services for the School Boards Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania, said the group is still calculating its exposure on such policies. =

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