Superintendent Janet Robinson has already instituted six furlough days, which will result in a three percent salary cut for teachers, according to the union president. The furlough days were negotiated as part of the teachers’ contract with the school district.

“This is all about cutting the town budget to zero and putting politics over sensible priorities,” said Mr Chivinski. “Unfortunately, the first place they look to cut is education and the victims of their budget destruction are our kids.”

Economists, budget experts, and even President Obama have stated very clearly that cutting education is one of the worst things you can do in an economic crisis and decimating programs that will be needed when the economy picks up makes no sense, the union statement argued.  “The economy will rebound and we need to preserve as much of our education program as we can so our children don’t lose out on the upside,” said Mr Chivinski.

“The proposals to cut our education budget would have a devastating effect on the quality of education we provide our children. Naysayers will tell you, there’s always fat to be cut. As educators, we know the truth. There is no fat. We are down to muscle and bone. Cuts you make today will affect our students for the rest of their lives — there are consequences for bad choices and miscued priorities. Even if they put back that money down the road when the economy improves, which I highly doubt, it will be too late. The damage will have been done,” the union president said.

The state legislature is currently deliberating on its budget, and making determinations about how much money will be sent to cities and towns for education.

“Solving this economic crisis requires everyone to help out, but it also means we have an obligation as community leaders to call on the legislature to fix Connecticut’s revenue system once and for all, and end our overreliance on property taxes that has put some of us in the position to consider bad choices. Otherwise, we will continue to face cuts in education that only serve to hurt our children. We owe them better than that,” said Mr Chivinski.

AFT Connecticut is a union of professionals representing more than 28,000 educators, health professionals, and public employees in 100 local unions all across Connecticut and is affiliated with the 1.3 million-member union American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO nationally.