March 18, 2012, California has notified at least 20,000 teachers that they will not be coming back to work.

Tom Torlakson, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, says the notices reflect a financial emergency: “Though the very future of our state depends on California’s teachers …(they) will now spend months in limbo, worrying about their futures and the future of their students.”

It could be worse.  In November elections, Californians will decide if they can afford a huge tax increase, that could keep even more teachers from losing their jobs.

If the tax increase fails to get the vote, then a $4.8 billion trigger cut to education funding will go into effect, which could result in another 55,000 teachers being laid off!

Beware the old saying: “As California goes, so goes the nation.”