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Gas Prices Mean School's Out for Many Teachers

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 October 2005, 00:01 CDT

By Naush Boghossian, Daily News, Los Angeles

Oct. 3--Substitute teacher Wendy Goldman has two master's degrees and would prefer to take her experience to struggling schools. But when she gets an early-morning call to go to an inner-city school 15 miles away, she reluctantly says no.

The high gas prices have forced the West Hollywood resident to stay closer to home as much as possible.

"Due to the increase in price, I have started to decline work at the farthest schools," said Goldman, a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. "My income has fallen as travel expenses have risen. My disposable income is down to zero, leaving me wondering if I need a second job."

Substitutes are turning down jobs at far away schools, teachers are skipping professional development classes and workshops and traveling teachers are feeling the squeeze from the high gas prices, all of which are inadvertently affecting classrooms.

Some teachers are even thinking twice about purchasing classroom supplies -- unless they're absolutely necessary -- because finances are tight and they don't have the funds to wait for reimbursement.

Sepulveda Middle School teacher Reza Rustamzadeh said he's skipping professional development classes and workshops that will enhance his teaching skills and increase his salary, because he can't afford the high gasoline prices to drive to the classes, which are usually far from home.

"Lately, because of the high gas prices, I have been skipping some of the classes for which I had to drive all the way to say, South Gate," said the 50-year-old Stevenson Ranch resident. Some of the workshops are required while others are voluntary. "Even for the ones that are close by, I try to carpool."

Some music teachers and specialized teachers who work with special-education students, are required to drive to and from homes and hospitals -- as opposed to the same school every day -- but they say the constant filling up is becoming a strain even though the district offers mileage reimbursement.

"Obviously I'm impacted like everyone else, but we are being reimbursed and our schools are in a cluster so there's generally no more than three to five miles between schools. It's not much tougher than someone going to work and home," said Grant Shultz, an adapted physical education teacher who works with special-education students and travels to no more than three schools a day. "The district and our department are very good about keeping our schools in a cluster."

Marcee Seegan, director of related services, which provides services to special-education students, said they are cognizant of the increasing gas prices and are making geographic considerations when they assign teachers to schools and hospitals.

The 900 special education itinerant providers in the district, including speech and language therapists and occupational and physical therapists, generally don't drive around, but for those who do, the district considers the difficulties a commute would cause and are open to re-evaluating assignments.

"It's in my best interest to make sure that they're comfortable and happy and working," Seegan said.

L.A. Unified has avoided directly impacting classrooms by adding $2 million this year to its transportation budget to cover the increase in gas-related costs, so students will go on field trips as usual and the district's buses will operate no less than before.

But teachers are increasingly being put in positions where they have to make difficult decisions on what to buy, said the president of the teachers union.

"Traditionally, teachers pour their monetary hearts out for their students and their classroom, but now they're hit with a double whammy -- their tax credit was taken away a couple of years ago and now, the enormous price of gas will influence the decision-making process for which supplies or rewards to buy," said United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy, referring to recent changes in tax rules that reduced the amount of money teachers can deduct for classroom-item purchases.

Duffy also believes that the gas prices will also have the long-range effect of making hiring teachers more difficult, since they will be less likely to be flexible in traveling long distances to go to work.

"It could be a further drain in that instead of teachers who live in Highland Park or Eagle Rock going to Harbor or South Central, they may start looking closer to districts near them," Duffy said. "So, it can have a potentially devastating effect on future hiring because gas prices aren't going down."

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Source: Daily News - Los Angeles, California

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