Budget Crisis Poses a New Threat to Teachers and Students

It’s not bad behavior, test scores or grades that pose the main threat to our educational system; it’s now a bad budget crises. At the state level, teachers across the country now face widespread layoffs, furloughs and benefit cuts. Now Republican lawmakers are proposing deep cuts to state funding in an effort to trim the national deficit. There are even attempts to relegate how the teacher’s union and states work together, limiting how much money teachers earn and their collective bargaining ability. Will teachers continue to remain loyal to their students and profession as they now face greater challenges than they have ever faced in the classroom? We’ll talk to Georgia teacher Danny Kofke, author of “How to Survive on a Teacher's Salary,” to gauge a possible shift in the academic climate for students, as well as how teachers can subsist financially.