Bloomberg Layoff Push All About Ending Seniority Rules And Replacing People With Computers

Now that Mayor Bloomberg has issued his final budget proposal for fiscal year 2011 and still maintains that he has to lay off 4,278 teachers, I expected to see his "END LIFO" push to reanimate back to lfe.

And just like that, here it is, courtesy of the Bloomberg propaganda rag, the Murdoch Street Post:

Schoolyard brawl!

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday revived his push to scrap the "last in, first out" law after proposing to lay off 4,100 teachers in his executive budget plan.

LIFO job protections must be replaced with a merit-based system in order to keep the best teachers regardless of seniority, the mayor said, adding, "We need it -- and we need it right now -- because of layoffs."

And so he threw down the gauntlet to the city's delegation of state lawmakers to pass LIFO reform.

If the city is forced to do layoffs strictly through seniority, "the greatest carnage will be" in elementary schools in the poorest neighborhoods, those with the neediest students, he predicted.

Those schools would be disproportionately impacted because they have the highest number of recently hired teachers, he said, warning Albany that ending LIFO "should be [its] No. 1 priority."

But the teachers union said the mayor was simply crying wolf. His threat to lay off thousands of teachers comes amid hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenues to the city, an admitted surplus exceeding $3.2 billion, and an increase in state aid this year, said UFT President Mike Mulgew.

And then of course out of the woodwork comes the Hedge Fundies For Education Reform to shill for the mayor and "reform":

Gov. Cuomo and state Assembly Democrats have agreed with the UFT by refusing to touch LIFO. Only state Senate Republicans have voted to change the controversial law.

Yet one school-advocacy group says Albany should be siding with the kids, not the union.

"It's time for state leaders to act to end the practice of LIFO, and help ensure that the best teachers stay in the classroom during this difficult time," said Joe Williams, of Education Reform Now.

"That's what reform means -- giving the taxpayers more for their money, in this case, the best teachers we have.

"The ball is now in Albany's court."

That's what "reform" means, Joe?

Really?

Lately "reform", at least in education circles, has meant top-down, corporate-driven changes that benefit for-profit school operators, test prep companies, and other education management organizations.

In the case of ending LIFO, "reform" means allowing the mayor to fire any teacher he wants any time he wants regardless of merit.

That's where the hedge fundies, the education "reformers" and Mayor Bloomberg want to take this.

This fight has NEVER been about keeping the "best" teachers in classrooms.

It has been about keeping the "cheapest" teachers in classrooms, while replacing as many teachers with computers as they possibility can.

This fight has been about labor costs.

And that's what's going on now.

That is why the mayor has slated $550 million for technology spending in the NYC public school system next year, but cut $300 million from teacher salaries at the same time.

That is why the mayor is renewing the Wireless Generation "School of One" contract for $4.5 million for the next three years.

That's why he is laying off 4,278 teachers but bringing in tons of new computers (and spending hundreds of millions on outside computer consultant contracts in the bargain.)

Bloomberg wants children sitting in front of computers and just enough cheap newbie teachers around to handle the classroom management and paperwork.

He believes the future of education lies in the computer, lies in technology, not in humanity, not in people.

He believes in "virtual" education rather than "authentic" interactions between "real" people.

And this fundamental shift in education isn't just taking place here in NYC.

It's happening all across the country courtesy of the Obama administration and their corporate funders.

That's why you see the Gates Foundation and Pearson Education putting in place national tests and a national curriculum that will all be computer-based.

That's why you see the Obama administration both spearheading this increased technological spending in education and cheering it.

Replace people with computers, hand out no-bid computer technology contracts by the score, make sure all these computer education programs have to be run on Microsoft, bust the teachers union's power by breaking seniority rules, give districts the ability to fire any teacher they want any time they want and head in to that BRAVE NEW WORLD.

That's what "reform" means these days, Hedge Fundie Shill Joe.

And that's what the mayor is attempting to do here with this layoff push.

Corporate reform cannot be completed so long as a reasonably strong union and reasonably strong work protections for teachers remain.

So the corporate reformers intend to end both of those.

And take us into that BRAVE NEW WORLD.