Bloomberg won one battle yesterday, then lost one.
He did get his LIFO bill passed by the State Senate, then had Assembly Speaker Silver say he would not bring the bill up for a vote in the lower chamber of the legislature.
Minutes after the bill passed the State Senate, the governor introduced his own LIFO proposal that mirrors the RttT evaluation criteria for teachers but pushes the implementation up to the 2011-2012 school year from the 2012-2013 year.
Bloomberg's aides erupted in fury, calling the proposal a "scam" even though it would give the mayor the right to fire teachers regardless of seniority or tenure protections if they are found to be "ineffective."
Bloomberg wanted the authority to lay off teachers this week with impunity, regardless of seniority protections, and will not get that opportunity under the Cuomo proposal.
So now what do you think will happen?
Bloomberg is saying that if he doesn't get the LIFO changes by Thursday, he is going to go ahead and lay off 4,666 teachers.
As I wrote last night, he doesn't have the same kind of political cover to do this now that the governor has taken action on LIFO to supersede the mayor's actions.
But that doesn't mean the mayor won't go ahead with layoffs anyway.
So what do you think?
Does the mayor lay off the 4,666 teachers he said he was going to lay off on Sunday?
Does he try some Rhode Island jive and send out "You're Fired!" notices to EVERY NYC teacher the way the mayor of Rhode Island did and force a court confrontation between city and union?
Does he try and save face by announcing the layoffs, then come back with some "savings" proposal like furloughs or salary step freezes for DOE employees that he proposes instead of layoffs?
Does he gracefully accept the way this LIFO thing played out and find money in the budget to keep all the teachers on anyway?
Am I missing an option he could take?
What do you think?
The mayor has been knocked down again. Politicians on all sides vying for Bloomberg, Cuomo and the UFT. There will be a compromise as usual in the end, but not before Bloomberg announces lay-offs. Why? He is a vindintive SOB. The compromise will be the watered down University of California at Santa Cruz Professional Teaching Standards to evaluate effectiveness. LIFO will also figure in, strongly I hope, if the UFT doesn't want to go the way of General Motor workers.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Dem Jeff Klein of the Bronx voted yesterday to end LIFO. He doesn't get my vote anymore. Probably see him in some cushy corporate job soon..thank you Mr. Mayor!
I don't know, RBE. I figured that when the whole Rhode Island thing went down that Bloomie was sitting on his private beach, rubbing his wizened littlehands together, planning to send out termination notices for every teacher in the city. I think it could go in any direction from here. He's backed off the layoff threats before, but that was back when he still had the illusion of authority tacked over him - you know, when most New Yorkers still believed he was a good mayor. He's just like any dictator - Ferdinand Marco, Baby Doc, Big Daddy Idi Amin, Hosni Mubarak - livin' it large at the expense of his peeps, then surprised when his peeps turn on him and he finds no support in those he thought were allies. He'll probably try a last ditch to fire all the teachers, he might even make a lame attempt at getting the National Guard to machine-gun us into our place. If it weren't already happening IN THE UNITED STATES, I'd laugh and say, it would never happen here. I keep waiting for our version of the "Fall of the Statue of Saddam Hussein" to happen but it just keeps getting worse.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is for sure. Whatever Bloomie does, he will never admit defeat. Pig. No, that's insulting to pigs. You'll remember me from my Scott Walker comment, unfortunately, the mayor's penis will never reach his anus, but he can go fuck himself anyway.
LOL...
ReplyDeleteAnon...of course he doesn't have to "do himself"...he has his big German lover Rex to do that...maybe this weekend in Bermuda...on the beach?
ReplyDeleteAnyway...my predictions...
Ultimately, I don't see him laying off his pet project, which is the newbie, low paid, teacher base. Now, he may threaten it, announce it, etc, but in the end, there will be no en masse layoff of the newbies. That defeats all of his "achievements" so far. However, he will find ways to make everyone miserable between now and September. He has a stable of brilliant lawyers to figure out how to do so between now and then. In the end, to add a truely sadistic touch to all of the sadistic moves he's pulled the last 2 weeks, he can come out heroic by announcing at the 12th hour that "we found the money" , and the newbies go back to work. So, then he'll be a truely abusive, sick dictator type...like Khaddafi...threaten 21,00 layoffs, jumping all around the place threatening everything that walks in this town...then "saving" all of us in the end. He's not laying anyone off...he only wanted to layoff "certain" teachers...an is using the layoff threat to influence Albany...interesting to see what change in tack over the next few weeks...I expect him to continue to cry and moan for a week...an get as much national press as he can over this issue while his brain trust figures out the next spin....but he's not going to layoff those kids...never....It's all chutzpah with him anyway...how bad a position is he in anyway? The NYS Board of Rehents will now determine the criteria for layoffs...and the head of THAT debacle happens to be his next door neighbor...Meryl Tisch who is COMPLETELY in bed with the ed reform movement...She's not going to cooperate with her next door neighbor Michael, when her brother in law heads the boggest online ed firm in the country? Come on...sell me another bridge...
"Regents","biggest"
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight--"Little" Andy Cuomo singlehandedly prevented the end of LIFO and kept the DOE from firing teachers literally at whim. And everyone is characterizing the move as a sharp, unmistakable rebuke of the mayor's agenda.
ReplyDeleteYou think Big Carl Paladino would have done the same?
Hopefully this will at least slow down the misguided rantings on this blog. And before you work yourself into a dither again about the millionaire's tax, take a look at how much personal and corporate income fled New York bet. 2000-2010 for greener, lower tax pastures. Tax reform needs to be handled at the national level, so please redirect the ire toward Little Chuckie Schumer and Little Kirsten Gillibrand and your congressperson.