| Union-Tribune Editorial Budget success Pesta, Bersin set example for cooperation May 2, 2003 It may not be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but the cooperative effort by San Diego Unified Superintendent Alan Bersin and San Diego Education Association President Terry Pesta to save nearly 1,500 teaching jobs suggests a better relationship in the offing. That's great news for the district, which can now focus on gearing up for a new school year with a full complement of instructors. Three months ago, Bersin and Pesta agreed to seek common ground on the state's massive budget crisis, which prompted the district to send lay-off notices to 1,487 classroom teachers. But the official termination notices won't be mailed, because 700-plus experienced teachers opted for an early retirement package. To see Bersin and Pesta praising this "win-win" situation for the district at a press conference was a refreshing contrast to the sulfurous relationship that existed between the superintendent and the previous head of the teachers union. Both Bersin and Pesta deserve a great deal of credit for daring to incur the wrath of their supporters in order to get the budget deal done. The newly elected Pesta took a big risk in agreeing to deal with Bersin, because many union members reflexively distrusted the superintendent and dismissed the cooperative budget talks as a sellout. Bersin gambled by allowing the California Teachers Association, which spent heavily during the last election to defeat candidates who supported his reforms, to set the agenda and ground rules for the budget negotiations. But Bersin and Pesta transcended their differences and did the right thing. They engaged in a series of discussions that produced a package that not only saved teachers' jobs but also preserved a 20-to-1 ratio of students to teachers in kindergarten through third grade. In preserving jobs and class-size limits in the early grades, Pesta and Bersin kept faith with a strong community consensus to keep the budget cuts as far as possible from the classroom. The school board still must approve $21.7 million in cuts on top of the $51.7 million already pared from the district's $1.1 billion budget. But some of the cash savings to be gained from early retirements will be used to bolster a reserve fund that should help cushion future fiscal shocks. The district, moreover, deserves credit for making substantial budget cuts at the beginning of the crisis, thereby helping to make the early-retirement incentives successful. Pesta challenged Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature to follow San Diego Unified's lead and reach a timely accommodation on the state's budget crisis. He's right. There is no reason why the political combatants in Sacramento cannot talk things through and resolve their differences.
|