MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Monday urged 14 Democratic state senators who left the state rather than vote on a bill that takes away bargaining rights for state workers to return to work, but warned a big budget deficit left no room to negotiate.

Senate Democrats who left Wisconsin last week said Walker needed to be open to compromise as thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Capitol building and on the snow-covered lawns of the grounds as a second week of protests continued.

"They've got to come to Wisconsin, do the job that they were elected to do, do the job that they're paid to do," Walker said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"If they want to do that, we will sit down and talk to them. But the bottom line is we can't negotiate over a budget because we are broke and we need the money," said Walker, referring to a projected $3.6 billion deficit over the next few years.

At a news conference later on Monday, Walker said that if the proposed collective bargaining changes were not implemented, "you make it very difficult for local governments in particular to balance their budgets for years to come."

The changes sought by Walker would make state workers contribute more to health insurance and pensions, end government collection of union dues, let workers opt out of unions and require unions to hold recertification votes every year.

The Democratic senators left the state to deny the Wisconsin state Senate the quorum needed to consider the proposal.

Wisconsin Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller said on Monday that public employees had agreed to economic concessions and Walker needed to be open to compromise.

"The governor has not done anything except insist that it has to be his way, all or nothing," Miller said in an interview on CBS' "The Early Show." "The governor needs to recognize that this is a democracy and in a democracy you negotiate."

"NERVES ARE RAW"

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said that while the Democrats would not want to stay away for too long, there was nothing the Republicans could do to compel them to come back if Walker were unwilling to negotiate.

"There doesn't seem to be a lot of pressure from the districts for the senators to come back," Heck said.

Heck said this was the most polarizing event he had seen in Wisconsin since the 1995 debates over a new stadium for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

Wisconsin has become the flashpoint for a U.S. struggle over efforts to roll back pay, benefits and bargaining rights of government workers. If the majority Republicans prevail, other states such as Ohio and Tennessee could be buoyed in efforts to take on the long-standing powerful unions.

Public sector workers in West Virginia rallied on Monday for better pay and working conditions and expressed support for Wisconsin teachers and public workers.

The Wisconsin State Assembly is due to take up the Walker proposals on Tuesday. Republicans have a large enough majority to reach a quorum in the Assembly without the Democrats.

U.S. state and local governments are struggling to balance budgets after the recession decimated their finances. Other states like Texas, Arizona and Ohio are relying mainly on cuts in spending, while Minnesota and Illinois are raising taxes.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by James Kelleher, Jeff Mayers and David Bailey; Editing by Tim Gaynor, Eric Walsh and Peter Cooney)

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – Hundreds of people rallied in Boise and ten other Idaho cities on Monday to protest a plan by the state's schools chief to lay off hundreds of teachers and curtail their collective bargaining.

Russ Chinske, head of the teachers union in the central Idaho town of Salmon, said it was wrong to strip teachers of their job protections.

"It's not a wise thing to fire people on a whim, especially the people dedicated to educating your children," he said.

The rallies were organized by the Idaho Education Association, which groups more than 12,000 elementary and secondary school teachers. At issue is Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna's proposed overhaul of the public education system for kindergarten through high school.

Luna's plan would cut more than 750 teaching positions and remove from collective bargaining such provisions as class sizes, teacher workload and promotions. It also would ban collective bargaining unless the teachers union could prove it represented more than 50 percent of workers.

It would eliminate seniority as a factor in teacher layoffs and replace tenure for some current and all future teachers with one- or two-year contracts. The minimum teacher salary would rise to $30,000.

Luna's proposal is spelled out in a package of three bills that cleared a key state senate panel on Thursday and could be voted on by the full Senate as early as this week.

"Whether the trio of bills reaches the Senate floor Tuesday, later this week, or next week, Monday's rallies sent another statewide message of strong opposition to Luna's legislation," the IEA said on its web site on Monday.

But endorsement by the legislature's Republican leaders and Governor Butch Otter puts the proposal on track to become law.

Luna says the changes will save millions of dollars as the state is facing a projected shortfall of $90 million in tax revenues to fuel its budget.

"We must change the way we spend what we currently have," Luna said in a statement.

Governor Otter and Luna, who is in his second term as the elected head of Idaho schools, last week decried acts of "hostility and vandalism" aimed at Luna.

That came after someone slashed the tires on Luna's truck and spray-painted it with graffiti.

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman. Editing by Peter Bohan)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A bus carrying more than 20 teenagers plunged off a cliff in a mountainous region east of Los Angeles on Monday, killing one person, police said.

The crash happened shortly before noon in the San Bernardino Mountains around 75 miles east of Los Angeles, trapping at least 10 teenagers on board, the California Highway Patrol said, although all were later freed.

The bus plunged 30 feet down a steep embankment after colliding with another vehicle on State Route 189 near Lake Gregory, San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said.

Rescuers could not get to the victims right away because a downed power line posed a risk of electrocution, and had to be cut off, she said.

All the trapped passengers were subsequently freed from the wreckage. Some were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, although the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear, Wiltshire said.

The bus was emblazoned with "Light of Love Mission Church," a place of worship in Pasadena, California, according to several media reports.

The patrol earlier indicated on its website that two people had died, but Wiltshire revised the figure to one fatality. The name or age of the victim was not immediately released, pending notification of next of kin.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Tim Gaynor)