NYCDOE Releases Layoff List

Bloomberg says he is laying teachers off despite a budget surplus, $2 billion in extra tax revenue this year and the declaration by Governor Cuomo that no school layoffs have to happen in NYC.

Tonight he released the school layoff list as a scare tactic to get the State Senate and Assembly to change seniority rules for him so that he can lay off whomever he wants whenever he wants:

The New York City Department of Education made public on Sunday a list that estimates the number of teachers each school will lose to layoffs if the state does not allocate more money for schools and seniority rules are not changed.

The layoffs, totaling 4,675 teachers, 6 percent of the active teachers in the system, would spare virtually no academic subject or neighborhood, and they would affect 80 percent of the approximately 1,600 public schools in the city. Most would lose one to five teachers; nine would lose half of the teachers they have.

The list details the worst case, and its projections may never materialize. City Hall chose to release it as the State Senate prepared to vote on a bill that would allow the city to lay off teachers based on factors like performance and disciplinary records, rather than seniority. By releasing the list, the department hopes to draw more parents to its corner by reminding them that virtually no school would be untouched.

The mayor DOESN'T need to lay off any teachers.

He's doing this to get his way on seniority.

Will it work?

Dunno.

I do know that if I were a parent in a school that was going to see a ton of layoffs, I wouldn't be mad at HOW the layoffs were done, I would be mad AT the guy who did the layoffs, especially since the governor says they don't have to happen.

That would be Bloomberg.

Given all the money he spends on no bid contracts and outside consultants, all the money he refuses to collect from rich condo owners for taxes, all the money he spends on testing contracts and the like, the money is ABSOLUTELY in the budget to stave off layoffs.

That is the bottom line here

As Mulgrew said:

"I think it's clearly a strategy of the mayor to try to create fear and panic amongst people when he has a three billion dollar surplus and doesn't need to do layoffs.