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MARGIN NOTES
January 25, 2010
City could have 8,500 fewer teachers next year, Bloomberg says
Claiming that Governor Paterson’s budget plan would put an undue burden on New York City, Mayor Bloomberg said the state’s proposed cut to city schools would mean 8,500 fewer teachers next year.
The cut to schools — Bloomberg put it at $500 million while the state says it’s $418 million — likely means that principals will have a hard time finding funds to replace teachers who leave the system or retire and may have to lay off others. Those who do find replacements will likely have to woo teachers from other schools who are already on the city’s payroll, leading to a complicated reshuffling.
Bloomberg is also unhappy with Paterson’s decision to shift $51 million, the cost of summer special education classes, from the state’s budget to the city’s.
“But let’s be clear — our schools are under Federal mandate to provide these services, no ifs, ands, or buts. So this is not a cut in spending; it’s a cost shift, pure and simple. And it ought to be understood as an unfunded mandate,” he said in his testimony.
Just about the only item in the governor’s budget plan that pleased the mayor was a provision that would reduce the city’s borrowing costs for school construction.
Bloomberg also laid out his administration’s legislative goals for the city schools:
“The prospect of layoffs in our schools also adds urgency to our proposed reform of the ‘last in, first out’ teacher layoff policy. Clearly the only thing worse than having to lay off teachers would be laying off great teachers instead of failing ones.
“So we need you to empower us to objectively and transparently evaluate teachers, and then make personnel decisions based on what that tells us about what matters most: success in the classroom. We also need reform of the absurdly difficult, expensive, and lengthy process of firing incompetent teachers.
“And let’s also lift the State’s cap on charter schools. The success of charter schools is indisputable; charter school students continue to consistently outpace their age-mates on the State’s standardized math and reading proficiency tests.
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January 25th, 2010 1:06 pm
here’s an idea: drain the rubber room. Before any teachers in a schools are laid off, those teachers not in schools should be let go.
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January 25th, 2010 1:20 pm
Is this special education funded summer program for students in district based programs only? I believe the funding for some summer special education services comes out of Title One funding as well.
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January 25th, 2010 2:44 pm
[...] [this article] from GothamSchools.org detailing how according to King Bloomberg, NYC may have 8,500 LESS teachers [...]
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January 25th, 2010 4:49 pm
the school system has had fewer classroom teachers every year of this administration — with no state budget cuts. Bloomberg has consistently shrunk the teaching force, despite hundreds of millions of state funds meant to reduce class size.
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January 25th, 2010 6:21 pm
I think that if you look at it from a fiscal and economically realistic point of view, we will see how the stimulus money didn’t ameliorate the situation, but is making a very bad recession into a depression in which not only will we default, but suffer the inflationary consequences as well.
This has come a time (you all will see) when politics, manipulation, and corruption will lead to a very ugly situation. In 4 years, we will be faced with an approximate 47 billion dollar deficit in NY.
I am skeptical about getting a magic lifeline from some magical place, that will further exacerbate the problem.
And if you read the Bloomberg website of our beloved mayor, you will see a corporation that sticks up for Goldman, JP Morgan, Geithner, Bernanke; all the people that have directed and manipulated this crisis, so that they will come out like kings once the “you know what” hits the fan.
I really think that, for the sake of our students and ensuring them ANY FUTURE AT ALL, we really need to start speaking the truth. We need to be martyrs, and not pacifists! We cannot allow for the deterioration of the educational system.
I can sadly say that, if you look at the once fantastic educational system of Argentina, the same Co. robbery and corporation has effectively blighted their middle class and educational system. The middle class now send their children to charter/private schools, further impacting their system. The once great Teatro Colon Opera House (once one of the greatest), now is not worth the time or money of the leaders (the mayor of Buenos Aires owns a soccer team).
However, I guarantee that some of you, and many others, are apathetic and assume that the little fairy from the sky will come and clean up this mess. But this is a cataclysmic disaster in the making, and if we don’t stand up for what is right, a moral obligation to our students and children, we will not have a lost generation, but a lost half-century!
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January 25th, 2010 6:41 pm
Which group of teachers (TFA, TFs, RR, ATRs) will be laid-off? Is Bloomberg stating that there will 8,500 fewer teachers to hire? His statement is unclear. Bloomberg always obfuscate the true meaning of many of his administrative decisions.
The decision to lay off that many teachers will definitely be based on the collective bargaining agreement made between the the city and the UFT. I am sure that union leadership will look into the mayor’s proposed cuts. However, there are extremely over-crowded classes that should have been reduced if the city had used the contract for excellence money appropriately. Then, the mayor would not have had to make such a statement.
Remember two classes of 34 students in each class is equivalent to 3 classes of 22 students. Imagine 5 classes of 34 students in each class. The city definitely needs more teachers - not less.
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January 25th, 2010 8:33 pm
Mayor Bloomberg has failed the public education of students by his fraudulent statistics and corporate model that is really about destroying the UFT and blaming teachers. Let the DOE prove using any statistics how his policies have helped support any of the schools that he has closed during his two terms as mayor with control of the public schools. Bloomberg and Klein have failed not those of us in public education.
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January 25th, 2010 10:31 pm
Unfortunately, I do not think the union will not have much to say once the _____hits the fan. There will be a gleichschaltung from all sides.
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January 26th, 2010 12:21 am
Why not march on Washington to demand a federal emergency rescue act to appropriate all of the bonus bucks and billions in profits that went to the financial con men who destroyed the economy only to be bailed out by their fraternity brothers in congress and the Obama cabinet.
Use the money to support education in NYC and elsewhere. Hire all the ATRs and reduce class size. Offer some of the APR teachers supposedly in search of jobs and meaningful work the opportunity to teach in Haiti for a few years. (Give them incentive money as an inducement–and a time limit for continuing to be paid whille out of the classroom.)
Create openings for the new teachers who have been frozen out by Bloomberg and Klein’s irrational school closings, re-organizations, subdivisions, etc.
Make a powerful example of the Wall Street low lifes showing that they will never be rewarded for swindling the public. Shave their heads and tattoo a red $ on them. Seize their past, present and future assets until they bleed. Use it to support purposes that are immeasurably more important than their yachts and empty materialism. Make them serve 5 years as paraprofessionals, school bus drivers, lunchroom workers or other school-related hourly work–perhaps, tutoring inner city kids. Put them in jail if they get caught reading any of David Cantor’s press releases. Time to cut the BS.
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January 26th, 2010 1:28 am
why now have many teachers ,as somebody doesnt majoy in teaching ,they just want to get a job,they dont take whether they fit in teaching or not into consideration.
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January 26th, 2010 8:36 am
Bloomberg does not regard our child and I day this without appology he’s only thinking about is benefit not the people you know wat forget those liars
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January 26th, 2010 9:56 am
Bloomberg cannot be trusted. He was given control of the NYC school system to improve it, not to destroy it. Our elected officials have failed the children of NYC. Mayoral control has resulted in the destruction of our children’s learning environments. The public must have the courage to rise up and defend our children and our community schools from Bloomberg’s overt attempt to undermine them based upon his flawed ideology!
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January 26th, 2010 7:03 pm
[...] professionals with intelligent ideas. Now, we are incensed at the mayor’s proposition that 8,500 teachers will be let go should the NYS budget pass as it [...]
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