To run a great school, you need excellent teachers with students who are ready to learn, right? It's true. But you also need librarians, janitors, and aides. Who do you call when somebody spills their chemistry experiment, or when a special needs student requires extra help? Or even worse, if an emergency happens? Without the thousands of people who support teachers and students, things start to get out of hand.

And that's exactly what employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District are worried about: their schools unraveling because they've just been laid off. The school district terminated more than 1,000 employees yesterday because of district budget cuts, despite money federal money that could keep people working and schools running smoothly.

Although no teachers were cut in this round of layoffs, teachers are also standing up and fighting what they see as an interruption of their school environment.

United Teachers Los Angeles is urging the school district to use Federal Education Jobs money, cash allocated by federal government to help struggling states keep school employees in their jobs, to keep their co-workers from being fired. They say the $100 plus million should be used to keep these support staff in their jobs.