California Superintendent of Public Instruction Declares ‘Financial Emergency,’ Ignores High Salaries and Pensions

by Gwilym McGrew

California’s “newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, declared a state of ‘financial emergency’ for California’s schools earlier this month and asked state residents to come to the aid of the state’s public education system. “ Mr. Torlakson  moaned about class sizes increasing as school budgets have been squeezed but his rant ignored the fact that California teachers are the second highest paid in the nation.  Were California’s average teacher salary move over time to the 15^th highest position (still in the top 1/3 nationwide), student / teacher ratios would improve over 20%.

I asked Mr. Torlakson about this at Governor Jerry Brown’s “Budget Briefing” at UCLA last month.   One of the Governor’s presentation slides showed that California Teachers are at the top of the pay scale at an AVERAGE salary of $68,000 BEFORE BENEFITS & RICH PENSIONS COSTS.   Watch below and see his response…



Jerry Brown should expect the Teachers Unions to join with Mr. Torlakson in fighting the necessary cutbacks California must take if it is to remain solvent.

Big Government