Deal could restore jobs to many laid-off Los Angeles teachers

The LA Times piece "Deal could restore jobs to many laid-off Los Angeles teachers" discusses the generous offer of UTLA to consider a pay cut in order to retain the teachers laid off by LAUSD's recent rash of budget cuts. As magnanimous as the offer is, it's a shame that the people who are wholly not responsible for the crisis are being asked to pay for it. Here are the comments I made on the LA Times:

Sadly, our hard working teachers are having to consider taking a pay cut to cover a disaster created by the lords of finance capital. Has the Chairman of Goldman Sachs considered doing the same? How about our Mayor? Our communities should demand we tax the rich instead. Even a nominal increase on the highest percentile of earners would eliminate California's budget woes. According to the CBP, the bottom fifth of California income earners pay 11.7%, while the top one percent only pay 7.1% [1]. Just raising the rate of the top to equal that of the bottom would make this discussion moot.

It's also a shame the billionaires club doesn't donate millions of dollars to public schools instead of their corporate alternatives. The Waltons, Gates, and Broads pour millions into EMOs and CMOs like Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, and Ben Austin's corporation--Green Dot, which the recent Stanford/CREDO report [2] show as underperforming traditional public schools. Troglodytes can criticize our communities and teachers all they want, but unlike their critics, teachers actually work hard for a living!

[1] http://californiabudgetbites.org/2009/03/12/whats-wrong-with-this-picture-part-2/
[2] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thehomeroom/2008/05/report-offers-m.html