The city sometimes offers teachers it is trying to fire satisfactory ratings if they agree to resign. (Post)
The city is prepping for a school bus strike as conflict with the drivers mounts. (Times, WSJ, NY1, Post)
The Daily News says the bus drivers’ grievances should be settled in a courtroom, not with a strike.
Mayor Bloomberg’s comparison of the UFT to the NRA is drawing backlash. (Times, Daily News 1, 2)
There’s still no deal on teacher evaluations with 10 days before a state deadline. (WSJ, Times, NY1)
A union television ad on now takes aim at Bloomberg over teacher evaluations. (GothamSchools, Post)
The Post pans the union for its long history of opposing some of Bloomberg’s education policies.
StudentsFirst, Michelle Rhee’s group, rated states by their education policies; New York got a D. (Times)
City schools mostly have “super stacker” chairs, but some districts pick more ergonomic options. (Times)
With more autonomy, D.C. charter schools expel more students than district schools. (Washington Post)
Ken Hirsh
According to the DOE, they spend $6900 per child on busing costs. (LA is $3124 per child.) That’s about $38 per school day. One would have to know the distances involved, but it sounds like private or semi-private taxi or limo service could be an alternative.
Flerp
Crickets . . . .
Weirdly bad editorial in the Daily News. Bus companies should sue the city for . . . what, exactly? Refusing to offer contractual terms that may or may not be legal?
Ellen
In response to Ken Hisch
the state reimburses the city for up to 90% of the cost
non public school that also are provided busing for their students, pay NOTHING for the use of the buses
rates are set, not by the City or the bus companies, but by law enacted our NY State legislators
there a a number, it may be as high as 5, plans for reimbursements
NYC doesn’t get the highest form of reimbursement, up state school districts, some with as few at 100 in the entire K-12 system, get different and sometimes higher, reimbursements
Ken Hirsh
If taxpayers (city, state, federal, other) are paying $6900 per child, it sounds like they are getting fleeced. As usual, that fact will often be countered by never-ending finger-pointing contests that will still leave taxpayers fleeced.
Tim
I’d like to see these contracts competitively bid, but I suspect a large part of the difference is A. the cost of operating anything with an engine and wheels is higher in NY than just about anywhere, and B. the likelihood (okay, nothing more than my hunch) that New York educates a higher-than-average percentage (and certainly a higher raw total) of the most severely physically disabled students–think kids who need specialized medical/transportation equipment and a full-time attendant, e.g.
It costs around $4000 per kid per year to contract private yellow bus service from Queens to NEST or Anderson, e.g., or from lower Manhattan to the fancy private schools uptown. I don’t have any reason to believe that figure is padded or feather bedded. $6900 doesn’t seem crazily outrageous to me if $4000 is a lean-and-mean starting point.
Flerp
If it doesn’t seem crazily outrageous to pay 70% more than the fancy private schools uptown are paying, it may say something about our expectations.
Flerp
The state reimbursement process isn’t well understood (including by me), and doesn’t get much coverage. Do you have any links to authoritative sources that discuss this?
Tim
I’m assuming that there are at least a few thousand kids who have some sort of considerable physical disability, from a kid who is simply in a wheelchair, to one who is a quadriplegic and on a ventilator and needs two full-time matrons assigned to him. It wouldn’t surprise me if transportation for the most extremely disabled kids costs $50,000/year or more (this is why, as Ellen pointed out, the state will reimburse 100% of the cost for smaller districts so one or two kids don’t break their budget).
Ken Hirsh
I fear that this is just another well-intentioned pre-rathole comment thread. The soft corruption of government spending thrives on impenetrable complexity that can provide plausible deniability against the most obvious explanations of fraud and waste. Let’s just go with competitive bidding that includes non-union operators and focus on the transparency of that process. Even that will be a big challenge (man this city and state are corrupt!), but it’s probably our best shot. Of course, competitive bidding is precisely why the union is threatening to strike. From the Times story: “At issue was the department’s announcement last month that it would be accepting competitive bids for 1,100 of its routes — about a sixth of the total — for children with disabilities.” Looks like the unions also have used the disabilities explanation for the huge costs and Bloomberg is calling BS. Me too.
BloombergMustGo
I’m sorry, but your reasoning for non-union would be what exactly? So that Bloomberg could claim another victory in his oligarchical empire? Does the idea of workers having some say in their future offend you? Should these children be driven about by just any old person so that wages can be kept to an absolute minimum?
Also, as you call BS, what excatly is your extensive knowledge ofthe costs of running a bus company? Seen gas prices lately?
How about this: Bus companies must submit bids and at the same time they must submit vehicle inspection records, emplyee background check records (thereby not allowing them to arbitrarily change emplyees and ensuring the highest quality emplyees) and Bloomcott pick the best bid and stop sticking their elitist noses in everyone else’s business.
OR…, before Bloomberg is allowed to assign any more contracts, he opens all city contracts to inspection by John Liu. That sounds fair to me or I call BS.
wise owl
Ladies and Gents:
Check out the article on wiping out unsatisfactory obs/ratings from teachers in exchange to quit or resign. Wise owl is wise to this.They are trying every trick in the book. Looks like there is not going to be a new evaluation by January 17th. Cuomo is pushing the panic button and see’s that we are not biting. Why should we? Seniority is still in effect as long as there is no new evaluation. And the “powers that be” know damn well that it is going to be the new teachers who they love and adore who they will lose. I don’t give a damn about the money they claim they are going to give New York City because it was going to go down someone’s pocket like it always has. How does the song go? The old gray mare ain’t what she used to be, ain’t what she used to be, ain’t what she used to be I’m waiting for an early retirement incentive.
Ken Hirsh
NYC = $6900. LA = $3100. Your explanation: gas prices. I’ll stick with BS.
BloombergMustGo
Gee, I guess the inefficiency of the DOE’s contract system and vendor payments has NOTHING to do with inflated costs in NYC.
Yeah, it’s the union drivers causing the problems.
BloombergMustGo
wise, they have to do that because in the majority of cases they can’t substantiate their claims. While they have the right fire people with trumped up charges, they open themselves up to serious problems when they prevent someone from getting future employment based on bogus charges.
Sadly, the public will be convinced that the fake money being used as blackmail would have mattered and will probably blame teachers.
BloombergMustGo
I guess Bloomberg isn’t too far off the mark in his comments. Most NYC teachers probably wouldn’t mind using him for target practice if they got the chance.
He really is a pathetic little man who frighteningly has more in common with some of these misguided, maladjusted kids who are perpetrating these heinous acts of violence. His need to dominate and hurt others fits under the same psychological umbrella.
Tim
I need to do some more poking around, particularly on the issue of whether or not LAUSD’s drivers are unionized, but Ken Hirsh, are you sitting down? It appears as if one area where LAUSD achieves cost savings relative to the DOE is that they own and operate their own fleet of buses as opposed to contracting private companies.
Flerp
Are there any cost savings to be achieved by not having the mafia involved in contract negotiations for 20 years? That could be another area where the DOE fell behind.
Tim
LAUSD bus drivers, mechanics, and maintenance staff are all unionized.
I don’t know how to express this in economics class terms, but I highly doubt that the transportation of physically disabled students is an area where cost optimization can be best achieved by competition between private operators. I’m not sure the DOE should be in the business of buying and operating its own buses, either, but at least it appears as if LAUSD provides a road map (ha) for how it could be done.
Clay
I think Ken has a good point, we should bring in private contractors. Surely they’ll be able to do things more efficiently and wouldn’t be able to rip off taxpayers under our Mayor’s watchful eye. (Sarcasm alert!)
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