Walcott: I Dream Of Layoffs

Here's how Dennis Walcott spent Poem in a Pocket Day:

New Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott vowed yesterday to crusade for reforms, such as overhauling the "last in, first out" law, which forces the city to lay off teachers by seniority rather than performance.

Walcott said curbing LIFO is necessary because the city plans to issue pink slips to thousands of teachers, and he and Mayor Bloomberg want to keep the most effective instructors in the classroom.

"We have budget issues. We have layoffs on the table," he said after reading the Langston Hughes poem "I Dream a World" to students at Bryant Park, his first official act as chancellor after his appointment was approved yesterday by state Education Commissioner David Steiner.

"We're looking at 6,100 jobs -- give or take."

I wonder if Walcott is familiar with the literary term "irony"?

Could there be anything more ironic than reading Langston Hughes' poem "I Dream a World" before gleefully talking about laying off 6,100 teachers - "give or take"?

As Chaz pointed out in this post here, the math the Tweedies and Bloomberg are using for the layoffs is faulty and phony.

This is a political push to bust the union and end job protections, plain and simple.

If Bloomberg and Walcott want cost savings, try laying off some outside consultants the DOE has hired from Turkey who are doing, well, no one is really sure what the hell they are doing, as Juan Gonzalez pointed out in the Daily News this week.

Or try cutting the technology budget because computers without teachers is NOT the way to educate children.

Or better yet, cut the bloat at Tweed - starting with the head waffle maker himself, Mr. Walcott, and make Cathie Black pay back the severance pay she apparently got for being fired after 95 days as chancellor.

There is NO budget crisis here in NYC and there is NO need for layoffs.

This is a MANUFACTURED crisis, and Walcott needs to be told to his face that we know he is FULL OF SHIT.

That's the world I dream of - where journalists tell truth to power instead of dutifully writing the garbage these crooks say.