I should note that Avery and Aranaga hesitated before speaking their minds, something few of their colleagues are willing to do publicly. But they felt it was important to do so, and Aranaga added that he felt "hung out to dry" by union leadership.
"I'm not saying old teachers are bad," said Aranaga, "but for every five good ones there's a bad one, and there's no way to get rid of those guys."
Avery said more than 20 Monroe teachers got layoff notices, and it appeared that roughly a third of them would actually lose their jobs.
"And some of those teachers are better than I could ever hope to be," said Aranaga. "In their first year, they're better than I can be."
This discussion was of course inspired by a moving mini-documentary by a student, and that was precisely Galatzan's point. She said she cried when she saw Vera's video, and her hope is that state legislators will see all the student videos before swinging their budget ax again. She also said the tenure-only system of teacher layoffs is not in the best interest of students, and it's time to find a better way.
Vera, by the way, won the high school division of Galatzan's contest, which means he'll take home $500 and have a nice entry on his application to film school. All the winning videos will be screened next Tuesday night at Valley College, but you can get an early screening by going to www.galatzan.laschoolboard..
And be sure to turn up the volume on the song "Crazy."
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steve.lopez@latimes.com
