But on this Friday the 13th, it doesn't. Please show support of our local teachers who are receiving their pink slips on March 13th, 2009. The state is facing 11 billion dollars worth of paycuts to public schools, colleges, and universities. This year, the March 13th date was the deadline for school districts to issue their preliminary pink slips to teachers. What a lovely date to pick.

We lost 5,000 teachers last year, after 10,000 were intially issued pink slips. This year looks like it will be much worse and it makes me sick. My daughter's small elementary school is losing nine valued and respected teachers. This means we get to look forward to bigger classes, overworked teachers, and even less available resources.

In case you're interested, here's a link to what we pay our California officials. It's amazing how much we give our "respected" leaders. I know that some of them donate back their salaries in an effort to support our economy but for the most part, we are paying them too much to begin with. Afterall, it was their careful planning and lack of foresight that helped to get us in the craphole. Let's take the money away from the admin and give it back to the teachers who are (1) not paid enough and (2) spend a lot of their own money in their classrooms.

Need more convincing? Jen has 13 reasons why you should wear pink and support our California teachers.

Here are my nine reasons:

Mr. Sanders
Mrs. Carroll
Mrs. Stockwell
Mrs. Croteau
Mrs. Head
Mrs. Betts
Mr. Grimmett
Mrs. Benbow
Mrs. Crosswhite