In the shadow of the tumultuous California recall election, educators have been living through their own drama. Due to its mammoth $38 billion budget deficit and shortfalls in local districts, California school districts collectively handed out 30,000 pink slips to teachers starting last spring. Ultimately, fewer than 2,000 teachers were actually laid off. The city of Oakland, for instance, rescinded all 340 of their pink slips. Good news? We don't think so. School districts pull these stunts far too frequently because they just can't seem to learn how to project their expenses out past 30 days. In San Francisco a quarter of the teachers called back to the classroom told the district to forget it: they found other things to do. Strangely, teachers do not seem to like being treated like cattle.