Dive Brief:
- School districts in California have laid off over 1,200 teachers ahead of the 2025-26 school year, according to the California Teachers Association. The sweeping layoffs come as districts across the state see declining enrollment and no longer have access to federal emergency pandemic funds.
- Some 1,246 certificated staff were laid off across 92 districts in the state, CTA confirmed in a Wednesday email. Some of those positions impacted by the layoffs may include teachers, nurses, counselors, school psychologists, speech and language pathologists, and librarians.
- While teacher layoffs are especially pronounced in California right now, it’s expected that “most states are going to struggle with” K-12 budget and staffing challenges given nationwide enrollment declines and reduced state and federal funding, said Marguerite Roza, a research professor and director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.
Dive Insight:
The widespread layoffs in California are happening amid “a historic national teacher shortage,” said David Goldberg, president of CTA, in an emailed statement on June 5.
“We are firm believers that there are no overstaffed schools in our state,” Goldberg said. “Our students deserve smaller class sizes, more support, not less. Layoffs further exacerbate issues in our schools, including creating a climate where young people don’t see teaching or other education jobs as viable careers.”
Roza, however, said the teacher shortage narrative “is outdated.” As school districts lay off staff and don't fill open positions, the idea of teacher shortages remains “hard for many places to let go” of, she said. While there are still high-need positions to be filled in areas like special education, Roza said, districts overall appear to be mostly “staffed up.”
Layoffs have recently been underway throughout California, including in Santa Ana Unified School District, Pasadena Unified School District and Berkeley Unified School District, according to news reports. Still, some of those districts are considering rescinding — or have already rescinded — some of the pink slips sent to staff earlier this year.
For instance, following community pushback on Berkeley USD’s plan to lay off 204 employees, the district announced at a May 7 school board meeting that it had pulled back 166 of those RIF notices. Still, the district faces a nearly $8 million budget deficit.
Because the teacher layoff landscape varies widely across districts, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education declined to comment on the cause for the high number.
State data, however, shows that student enrollment fell 2.8%, from 6 million to 5.8 million, between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years.
With school boards now in the midst of approving budgets, Roza said board members often feel community pressure not to carry out proposed cuts. But unless funds are rolled back elsewhere in the budget, districts would have to dip into financial reserves “and potentially make the district’s financial position more precarious going forward,” she said.
Roza suggested that districts protect their reserves especially given uncertainty over federal K-12 funds moving forward. If districts use up their reserves, they risk the potential of local or state government takeover, she said.
School districts nationwide began bracing last year for potential layoffs and budget challenges as the deadline to obligate federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief dollars approached on Sept. 30, 2024.
During the pandemic, districts hired a flood of uncertified teachers with the additional federal COVID-19 emergency dollars and as most states waived teacher certification requirements. Roza suggested that districts evaluate those teachers closely when making future staffing decisions, especially in the face of potential layoffs.
“You don’t have to keep them. If they’re great, keep them,” Roza said. “If not, this is the time to let them go and then go back to the labor market, because the labor market is being rebuilt, and you may have an opportunity to be choosier in terms of your hiring.”
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