nyc cutting 6000 teaching positions

[Hannah Bell]

Leonie Haimson: The mayor's budget proposal passes the buck and puts children last

The mayor tried to pass the buck today to the state and the federal government, blaming them for the elimination of over 6,000 teaching positions. What happened to mayoral accountability?

And yet he added that if the state provided extra funding or mandate relief, he would not necessarily restore these positions, but he might spend it on the police or fire department instead.

He said he was “very sympathetic” to Gov. Cuomo, but he mentioned no sympathy for NYC children, who will have to bear the brunt of these cuts in the form of the largest increases in class size in at least 30 years. While he commented that he would not put city's fiscal "future at risk," he seems all too willing to put our kids' futures at risk instead. This is not a budget which puts children first...

The city's overall spending on contracts has doubled to more than $10 billion in the last five years – with a huge part of the increase for technology. In the next year alone, the DOE plans to spend more than half a billion dollars on technology in its capital plan, with $350 million to buy computers to implement more online learning and testing...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/05/leonie-haimson-on-mayors-budget.html

[dkf]

1. The mayor has sole control over NYC education spending?

Don't they have a BOE?

Some of those cuts to DOE management make sense to me. Bring them back to the teaching level.

[Hannah Bell]

2. bloomberg has sole control: "mayoral control".

The State Senate on Thursday extended Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s control over New York City schools for six more years, handing the mayor a major victory as he attempts to make education reform a centerpiece of his re-election campaign and legacy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/nyregion/07control.html

[dkf]

4. Is he the one who appointed the woman who was a complete flop?

If so he seems to need better direction than whoever he replaced them with. I find it baffling why resources, especially dwindling ones, aren't concentrated at the classroom level.

[Hannah Bell]

5. yes. you find it "baffling"? resources need to go where they do the most good for the rich, that's

why.

like for patronage contracts & consultancies for bloomberg cronies.

[dkf]

7. Ugh. I really hope that isn't it.

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. Council has to vote on the budget. I do believe. n/t

[msanthrope]

13. Mayor has sole control, and the union likes it that way--

NYC teachers' pay has risen 43% under Bloomberg--

"And New York City teachers are hardly impoverished: their pay has risen 43 percent under Mr. Bloomberg, well above the average for unionized city workers, whose pay has grown 35 percent during the same period."



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/nyregion/27raises.html

[erodriguez]

15. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Spoken like someone who has no clue about the NYC and the UFT.

[msanthrope]

20. Honey, you think New Yorkers don't remember how Randi

supported giving the Mayor sole control in trade-off for bigger salaries? That was the trade-off--support for Bloomberg, in exchange for a near 45% increase in salaries, benefits, and a streamlined re-negotiation process, and no change to the seniority/tenure system.

You think union members don't remember what it was like, bargaining with the Board and Council? You want to go back to that?

Mikey Mulgrew has his work cut out for him. His union's been without a contract for 2 years, and as of last week, the UFT was still telling teachers that the new contract was going to include 'back pay.' I guess not, eh?

Look, I'm of the opinion that Bloomberg put Cathy Black in as a distraction, 'cause you and I both know that Dennis Walcott is very bad news for the UFT and the contract.

[Hannah Bell]

21. honey, you don't think teachers know by now that weingarten (broad academy) is a plant?

[msanthrope]

22. Of course. But you haven't explained how the Gates Foundation, the Bilderbergers, or

Warren Buffet are in on it. I'm sure that raising the average teacher's salary in NYC by 43% was all part of her devious plan....

[Hannah Bell]

23. those weren't "raises" honey. but your inevitable resort to personal attack is noted. as always.

A Teacher Has Second Thoughts on Weingarten
by Robert C. Rendo
English Language Arts Teacher, Westchester County


In 2006, when I had written an article in the NY Teacher Paper about Randi Weingarten, I extolled her leadership virtues by examining her role in actualizing parity to bring city teacher salaries in line with those of the gentrified suburbs. She also compromised tremendously in that “victory” by helping Michael Bloomberg secure mayoral control of the New York City public schools and then extending the working day for teachers, amounting to 15 more days a year. The “leveling” didn’t exactly produce a flat terrain, and pay for city teachers, while increased, still lagged behind about $7,000 on average for top capped salaries.

With regard to Ms. Weingarten, I’ve since then had a reversal of observatory fortune and am getting in touch with my inner Diane Ravitch. Like Ms. Ravitch’s “one-eighty” on NCLB, I’m now seeing Weingarten in a high wattage spotlight, as opposed to the rose colored light I once shed on her in my article. Ms. Weingarten was at the “We are One Rally” on April 9th in Times Square. I saw that the only transparency she exuded was the two way mirrored window pane plucked straight from a stage set. She was cheering us protestors with her shiny high pitched, fast talking, inflection filled speech. Yet, her rhetoric remained acutely incongruent to her past and present actions. Randi Weingarten is, within her own drama queen-to-centrist spectrum, a substantial obstructionist to true educational reform....

I began to feel the union was selling off the family silver just about the time when the tier one members were retiring. It reached a climax when they sold Mayor Bloomberg the keys to the school system for a large 10k raise for the tier one teachers. As if on cue bloomberg came in as most of the tier one had gone. Like rats on a ship they knew what was going on. The union sold out plain and simple. Randy Weingarten led the union into a dumpster excepting the tier one.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4JNUgVpSyE8J:ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/teacher-has-second-thoughts-on.html+new+york+city+mayoral+control+teachers+raises&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com


you can paint me as a conspiracy theorist as you like; read teachers' blogs & you'll find a growing number of teachers & administrators knows randi for the collaborator she is.

[msanthrope]

24. You post a blog of a non-NYC teacher alleging collusion between Bill Gates and the NYC union head

--filled with completely unsourced allegations--and yet, you don't want to be called conspiracy theorist?

The UFT and the larger AFT don't perform the way you think unions should. That much is clear. But that's really the business of the people who elected them, isn't it?


FYI--I'd love for you to find an actual NYC teacher who has something to say about their union.

And, if you don't mind, I think using sources that label people "Aspberger-ish" in a pejorative manner is offensive.

[Hannah Bell]

26. lol. teachers are writing for an audience of teachers who are aware of the background.

you, on the other hand, never saw an attack on teachers you didn't like & are johnny on the spot in every related thread calling teachers names.

and if you think anyone believes you care about unions -- ha!

[msanthrope]

29. Didn't find any NYC teachers, then?

Unlike you, I'm not suggesting NYC teachers were foolish in their voting choices.

[Hannah Bell]

31. the blog belongs to a retired nyc teacher. the article was written by a uft member.

you're not suggesting it because you're a deform advocate.

[Recursion]

17. It's an idea they borrowed from DC

Ask Fenty how well that went for him

[JVS]

3. How is a city that has been gentrified out the ass so fucking poor?

One would think that a side effect of filling Manhattan with rich people would be that there would be a tax base capable of supporting the city.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Capitalism at its most evil. There's *plenty* of money.

http://www.uft.org/press-releases/bloomberg-s-budget-calls-layoff-4278-teachers



>>Same smoke, same mirrors, same attempt to blame others for his decision to lay off thousands of teachers, despite increased state aid, hundreds of millions in new revenues and a surplus that has grown to more than $3.2 billion.>>>

[WinkyDink]

11. The wealthy and low taxation? Perhaps you've heard. Also, they don't care; their kids go to private

schools.

[erodriguez]

16. NYC isnt poor. It has a $3 billion dollar surplus.

CUtting teachers means $300 million in savings. However, Mayor Moneybags is spending $500 million on tech contracts for the Department Of Education next year.
Comptroller Liu and the press has been discovering lots of coruuption and fraud under Mayor Moneybags contractors. Just last week, a DOE contractor was found to have defrauded the city of $3million.

[girl gone mad]

6. k & r

[no_hypocrisy]

10. There's more.

Bloomberg wanted to "mitigate" firing 6,000 teachers by changing the system to allow him to fire teachers, but a lesser number.

Bloomberg wanted to change the "seniority" rule that now mandates that teachers who haven't attained tenure (e.g., newly hired, three years or less in the classroom) can be fired without cause. He rigged two daily city papers to outrage against greedy teachers who were intellectual dry rot, with years of service and experience. He wanted Albany to allow him to fire these veteran teachers only based on their accumulative salaries, thus allowing the mayor to cut less teachers for the same amount of money. The TV spots for the mayor had actors portraying outraged parents who wanted "fresh and new ideas" and energy in the classrooms of their children. One ad even had "teachers" complaining they shouldn't be fired for just starting their careers. Pitting teacher against teacher.

Albany didn't take the bait. To the contrary. Albany crunched its own numbers and predicted that Bloomberg would have enough state aid to the city that wouldn't necessitate firing any teachers.

Now Bloomberg's back again, threatening to fire 6,000 teachers.

[no_hypocrisy]

12. Looming Layoffs at Schools Imperil Bloomberg’s Legacy

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s threats of teacher layoffs have had a ring of déjà vu. He used the same threat last year to squeeze more money from the federal government and to press his case for abolishing the state law that protects the most senior teachers from losing their jobs.

-snip-

But it still has very powerful allies in the Democratic majority in the Assembly, which could make it difficult for Mr. Bloomberg to make headway on the seniority front. But that does not seem to dissuade City Hall from continuing to pursue changes in the law.

Speaking at City Hall on Friday, the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, said he would continue to push the state to allow layoffs based on merit, not years of service.

-snip-

For Mr. Bloomberg, the layoffs risk derailing a key element of his legacy: the progress of New York City schools. Because teachers must be laid off based on seniority, new schools, a cornerstone of his education reform strategy, and schools in poor neighborhoods stand to lose the most because they tend to employ the most-junior teachers. Most, but not all, of those teachers would be replaced by more-senior teachers from elsewhere in the system, negating one of the victories the mayor eked out during negotiations over the last contract, giving principals the right to choose their own staff.

-more-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/nyregion/bloombergs-planned-teacher-layoffs-imperil-his-legacy.html?_r=1&hp

[Recursion]

18. Pitting teacher against teacher

OTOH, you could also say that about seniority rules that put a giant bulls-eye on you if you're just starting out.

[no_hypocrisy]

25. Seniority rules is the way to promise job security.

Public policy would want teachers with growing experience and expertise to stay in the profession, preferably in the same school system. Take away that security and why would "young" teachers want to enter the profession if they have to worry that they could get fired at any stage of their career, not just pre-tenure.

[Starry Messenger]

14. But I thought teachers had jobz fer life!!11

That's what I hear on DU. :sarcasm: I guess 6000 teachers didn't get that memo.

[Recursion]

19. Well, the teachers who have been there 3 years can't be let go without cause

Which is what I think a lot of people mean when they say "jobs for life". Bloomberg's point is that if he could let go some more senior teachers there would be less total people fired.

[Hannah Bell]

27. oh, is that bloomie's point? thanks for clearing that up.

[Recursion]

28. He said as much

If you get rid of people making more, you end up getting rid of fewer people.

[Hannah Bell]

30. like anything he says can be taken at face value. bloomie could pay off nyc's entire debt all by

himself & have lots to spare.

he's spent billions on contractors during his tenure as dictator of nyc.

his relative's nepotism salaries alone might pay off the deficit.

[Snoutport]

32. kr important stuff!