Reading may be one of the fundamental tenants of good education, but it looks like the situation in the city of Reading is one that may lead to a less than ideal education for many students in the district. These cuts, which are set to have widespread repercussions for the schools in the district, are part of a growing trend in public education. In recent years, as the long term economic downturn the world has been experiencing has led to a decrease in the amount of revenue that is being take in at all levels of government and leaving less in the way of funds to allocate to all departments funded by taxes, an increasing number of school districts are turning to layoffs in order to make ends meet.  This trend can be seen in schools across the nation with varying degrees of severity, depending on how tough the current situation is for that city or county.

In Reading things must be pretty bad because the city is getting ready to cut back on their staff by a significant number. The city schools will be laying off 364 workers in order to bring its budget back into balance for the coming school year. The 2012-13 school year budget was passed yesterday and it comes with some pretty serious cuts to the local schools services.

These cuts, which are being made in order to shore up a $40 million hole in the budget for the coming school year, will not only include more than enough layoffs to qualify as a mass layoff action but will also include the closure of five schools in the district and some serious cuts to school services. Though at the time being the school board is not being clear on which of the service cuts they will make and which they will cut.

For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “…mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” In a mass layoff action workers are given extra time to figure out how to replace their lost income, finding new jobs before they are cut loose from the payrolls and file for unemployment.

Though in the current economy the odds of finding a new position with only a few extra weeks can be an unlikely proposition for many workers. That having been said the school is not currently releasing any dates for the layoffs to begin, nor have they give out any of the specifics about which jobs will be cut, so this number could represent only educators, only support staff or a mix of the two. Only time will tell