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national update

August 10, 2010

Federal teacher jobs bill set to channel about $200 million to city

by Maura Walz, at 6:07 pm

President Barack Obama is expected to sign a $10 billion federal teacher jobs bill into law this evening, opening the way for New York City to receive about $200 million for teacher salaries.

The “edujobs” legislation is meant to stave off teacher layoffs. But in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg avoided layoffs by revoking planned teacher pay raises, leaving the use of the $200 million unclear. The law requires that districts use the funds to pay for teachers salaries and benefits — not any administrative costs.

One possibility is that pay raises could go back on the negotiating table. The money could also be used to prevent the elimination of 2,000 teaching positions that the city is still planning to lose this year through attrition and not replace.

Overall, New York State will receive an estimated $622 million. Districts will have until September 2012 to use the funds.

Speaking to reporters this afternoon after the bill passed the House, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that states could see the influx of money in a matter of weeks. “We feel a huge sense of urgency here,” Duncan said.

The bill passed after months of Congressional wrangling. Last month, it faced the threat of a presidential veto after lawmakers wanted to pay for the measure by cutting funds originally meant for Obama administration education reform efforts, including Race to the Top. The final version is paid for by other budget trades, including a $12 billion cut to the federal food stamp program.

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  • http://www.classsizematters.org Leonie Haimson

    I hope that the DOE and the UFT will agree to use the funds to prevent radical increases in class size by avoiding the elimination of 2,000 teaching positions; while putting in strong accountability measures to ensure that the funds are actually spent on this rather than accepting vague promises from DOE to spend the funds accordingly.

  • Teacher

    I know this won’t be popular with most of my fellow teachers, but I would rather not get a raise this year. The economy is terrible. People are struggling all around us… property taxes are going up and up and many can no longer afford to live in their homes. So many people I know have lost their jobs and are having a really hard time finding new ones. I am thankful to have a job I love. Sure I would like to make more money but for now I can get by. I am with Leonie, I hope that the money is used to reduce class size. I also hope it’s used to provide services and after-school programs for struggling students. Use to money to help make ALL of our schools great schools. Use the money to help ALL of our public school students get what they need to be successful academically and in life. Use our raise as a bargaining chip to get the Chancellor (preferably a new one) to stop the insanity of only supporting charter schools and to do what he’s supposed to do which is work on making our public schools better.

  • Teacher

    *typo “Use the money” not “Use to money”

  • miss teacher

    I think you make some good points, Teacher. I for one do NOT want to negotiate with Bloomberg and Klein and I don’t want our kids sitting 40 to a room with no books or supplies. But I am also fortunate enough to be higher up on the salary scale, with a spouse who has a secure job- unfortunately plenty of teachers are likely dealing with unemployed/underemployed partners, etc, and need any raise. Even though it will certainly come at a VERY high cost.

  • Math teacher Bklyn

    Maybe they will be able to use to hire a few new teachers like me, but then I feel like it is blood money since it came from food stamps

  • jason

    I would love to see the restitution of 2,000 jobs, but I personally hope the DOE is permitted to push the money into FY12, because stimulus money dries up next year and that could really be a disaster. I don’t think we’re going to see a real recovery by that point, so this might stave off layoffs for another year, and hopefully by that point tax revenues will be up to fill the gap.

  • jr

    We closed the Rubber Rooms, saving the city 30 million per year. We agreed to that new pension system that saves the city 100 million per year. We made test scores part of teacher evaluations. We added charter schools allowing the city the chance to gain 700 million dollars. We changed the rating system, allowing us to get an ineffective rating for 2 years, and then be fired within 60 days. Shouldnt all of these negotiations and side agreements been part of our new contract? WE gave into all of this, and got absolutely nothing. No 4%, no 2%. Ihave a long way to go before retiring and thinking about quitting much sooner. Cant stand the union for letting all this go. None of the above should have been agreed to until we had a fair contract. Now here is 200M in additional funds.

  • Peter

    The US DOE will write regs limiting the use of the dollars, the DOE will probably have little discretion.

    I would hope the NYC Congressional will insist on a high degree of tranparency.

    Reducing class size, targeting early childhhood, longer school day in at-risk schools,sharp reductions in 9th grade ELA Math classes, etc., what we don’t want is principal discretion.

  • es

    Raises are contractually negotiated items. They are not unilaterally decreed by the mayor. The savings you speak of is theoretical until a contract agreement has been reached. The fedreral money should be used to alleviate the inordinate amount of teacher excessing going on. In this way, the city can use its own money to negotiate any raises.

  • bookworm

    While we are all chiming in with our wish lists, maybe somehow this will allow more of us ATRs to be placed in real positions where we can actually teach instead of being used as spare parts.

  • ASTRAKA

    Can the city use a retirement incentive to open jobs for more New Teachers and thus reduce class size?

  • bookworm

    There is already a retirement incentive in play, but Bloomberg has made it clear that he has no intention of participating in it.

  • Vote NO

    Those who are commenting that the money should be set aside for next year are CORRECT! This economy is going “nowhere.” The ARRA (stimulus) funding ends this year, and the state and city should use any money they can find to avert a major catastrophe in the public sector next year .

    As “jr” mentioned the union already gave up about a “decade” worth of givebacks in the past year, and has NOTHING to show for it. A raise would be nice, but just not realistic, or worth the additional draconian givebacks the city will ask for in return.

    The ONLY consideration teachers should entertain in any new contract, is job security, and maintenance of benefits. A raise for work rule concessions right now is a foolish trade-off. Just look at recent events in Washington DC. The teachers overwhelmingly voted to ratify a Randi Weingarten inspired contract which had “big raises,” in return for concessions. The chancellor quickly fired 200 teachers this year, and told another 700 teachers they will be fired next year. Theoretically those 700 have a chance to keep their jobs, but realistically most of them will be fired.

    Firing veteran teachers is a big part of the education “reform” movement’s agenda. Most of those teachers who voted for that “DC contract” will never see those raises.

  • Pingback: HechingerEd Blog | $10 billion teacher jobs bill passes, but the controversy isn’t over

  • Gideon

    The whole point of a substantial guaranteed pension and health benefits for life is to compensate for relatively low wages during a teacher’s career; think of it as deferred compensation. However, teacher salaries have increased considerably over the last 15 years, far faster than inflation, and are now pretty competitive with similar jobs requiring similar training, especially when you factor in the summer vacation. So teachers cannot have it both ways: increasing salaries and huge retirement benefits are bankrupting the education system. We keep increasing spending on education but have nothing to show for it in the classrooms because it’s being absorbed by the increasing cost of salaries for existing teachers and benefits for retirees. If we seriously want class size reductions, modern technology, robust professional development, nuanced assessments, etc. then we have to shift some of the spending to those areas and get salary increases and benefits back in line with inflation and what other workers get in other fields.

  • Peter

    In spite of the benefits teaching was a “job of last resort,” attracting marginally skilled applicants to low paying jobs. Coupled with high turnover rates it is not surprising that results were mediocre.

    The recent escalation in wages has sharply increased teaching job applicants, for the first time since the Great Depression we have far more applicants than jobs, a rare opportunity to staff schools with the “best and the brightest.”

    It would be foolhearty to discourage job applicants.

    The investment in teaching, attracting the best qualified will bring immense results to our economy.

    It is the best investment we can make.

  • jr

    I didnt mean a raise in exchange for more givebacks. The original pattern was 4 plus 4. The mayor then said 2 plus 2, then 0 plus 0. I think with all the givebacks, plus the newly found 200 million, there should be a fair salary increase with no further givebacks.

  • peter

    Jr
    The $200 mm will not impact contract negotiations, will probably follow ARRA guidelines.

  • jr

    “The law requires that districts use the funds to pay for teachers salaries and benefits — not any administrative costs.” Why cant this impact a contract?

  • http://incongressional.com Esteban Rodriguez

    Having been locked out of teaching for two years because of the hiring freeze.  I wonder if there is a chance that the city will hire new teachers other than TFA.  I have my doubts but I am hopeful.

  • Peter

    Pay for teacher salary and benefits not to INCREASE teacher salary and benefits, with unparalleled numbers of teaching applying for jobs, deep deficits, it might be best not to rush to contarct negotiations, especially with an unsympathetic public … the differentiated staffing model in the eleven turnround schools is interesting …

  • Vote NO

    The best thing the union could do right now is walk away from the negotiating table, the current contract provisions are a lot better than anything which will come out of fact finding.

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