Happy Labor Day: Bloomberg Cutting 3.3% Of Its Newsroom Employees

When Mayor Bloomberg was in charge of the NYCDOE, New York City teachers could look forward to threats of layoffs every budget season.

Mayor Mikey has taken his fondness for layoff private in his retirement:

While a big round of layoffs is expected to hit this week, the number of pink slips handed out will likely be lower than previously expected.

The financial news and data giant will cut 80 people, or about 3.3 percent of its 2,400 newsroom employees, as early as Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the plans.
The Post first reported Aug. 19 that Bloomberg was gearing up to cut as many as 100 employees by Labor Day — but that number has been whittled down, sources said.

...


Layoffs are rare — but not unprecedented — at a company that has long stressed loyalty above all else. In 2013, Bloomberg trimmed 50 journalists who wrote about arts and sports, along with much of its projects and investigations team.

There are a lot of complaints that de Blasio hasn't changed much about the Bloomberg ED policies and DOE agenda, but one thing he has changed:

We haven't had the annual "10,000 teachers are slated to be laid off" news when he announces his budget the way we did under Bloomberg.

Microsoft Lays Off 18,000 Employees Based Not On Performance Or Worth To The Company, But By Algorithm

The people going after teacher tenure and seniority protections always claim that they want these gone so that when layoffs come, teachers can be retained based upon performance and value, not time with the district.

But according to one former employee, Microsoft - the company founded by one of the major opponents to teacher protections, Bill Gates - just let 18,000 people go randomly:

At the end of last week, Microsoft laid off 18,000 employees — some were laid off in a terribly insensitive memo written by Microsoft executive, Stephen Elop.

One of those fired employees was Jerry Berg, who worked at the company for 15 years as a software developer. Berg or “Barnacules” is also the creator of a popular YouTube channel, “Nergasm.” On Sunday, he took to YouTube to explain the devastating layoff and what losing Microsoft’s very comprehensive insurance plan means to his autistic son.

 ...

Berg stated, that the layoffs did not appear to be based on performance or worth to the company, and he jokingly speculates that an algorithm may have had a role.
“Somehow, some algorithm put me on a list, and that was the end of it,” Berg explained. “I’d like to think that I was probably laid off by a computer. A computer put me on a list for whatever reason and sent me packing.”

Berg says that some who were laid off were "people I know have personally saved the Windows project countless times" - nonetheless, out they went, with a severance package and key card access revoked as of Sunday.

Berg says his severance package was generous and will give him a few months to transition to new work but

That's very little consolation when you think about how many years you put into that company.  And it's one thing if you're a bad performer. If you're a bad performer and you're not doing much for the company, that's one thing. But I had a unique set of skills that I had honed over the years. I know a lot of the systems, a lot of the infrastructure, I've made myself a place, I've made myself a permanent fixture at Microsoft and somehow some algorithm just put me on a list and that was the end of it. Nobody went and looked at my track record, nobody went and looked at my performance, nobody went and figured out, 'Wait a second, this guy could be an asset elsewhere in the company, we should move him!" It was just easier for them to cut everybody that was on the list.

Think about all of this the next time you hear Gates or any of the other prominent corporate reformers talk about how important it is that districts be given the ability to lay off based upon "performance."

You can see Berg's full You Tube video below:

Newark Star-Ledger Lays Off 25% Of Non-Unionized Newsroom Employees

Brutal:

In a grim day of reckoning at the state’s largest newspaper, the owners of The Star-Ledger today said they were eliminating the jobs of approximately 167 people, including 25 percent of the newsroom.

The sweeping job loss was part of a plan announced last week in an effort to greatly reduce costs and combine resources by consolidating the operations of The Star-Ledger, along with its sister publications in New Jersey and its online partner, NJ.com, which also announced cutbacks today.

The Star-Ledger, which has won three Pulitzer Prizes and several national awards, currently has 750 employees, of which approximately 500 are non unionized. None of the cuts announced today will affect unionized personnel, who are covered under existing labor contracts.

The cuts will mean the loss of 40 of the 156 reporters, editors, photographers and support staff in The Star-Ledger newsroom, which had already seen a parade of people leaving in recent weeks over concerns about the paper’s future and the continuing fiscal pressures affecting newspapers across the country. One of those leaving voluntarily had been slated to be cut.

The newsroom is not unionized.

Will the non-unionized, union-hating editorial writers continue to write editorials about the evils of teachers unions and such?

Or were they laid off in the carnage too?

Oh, but some of these Star-Ledger employees may be hired back - at lower pay:

 Those being let go will not necessarily leave immediately. In packets that were being handed out this morning, those being told their jobs were being eliminated were offered severance packages if they agreed to stay with the newspaper until NJ Advance Media, new media company being formed, is up and running.

Star-Ledger employees receiving offer letters of jobs with the new company in some cases were being given different positions or titles, some at lower pay. They will have a week to decide to accept the offer, the offer letters said. 

The unions took hard contracts last year including job losses, so unionized employees didn't go untouched in this mess.

It is a very challenging environment for the creative classes these days - especially writers.

Soon there will only be jobs in finance and services - everything in between will be gone, killed by the Internets, technological advances and globalization.

Layoffs At The NY Post

Without the News Corp entertainment division to support the $110 million a year loss leader known as the NY Post, there is going to have to be some "belt-tightening":

Brooklyn court reporter Mitch Maddux and staff writer Pedro Oliveira Jr. are among those that sources tell Capital have lost their jobs at the New York Post today in a round of layoffs that was foreshadowed last month when editor Col Allan announced he was seeking a reduction of 10 percent of the paper's staff.

Also losing their jobs, according multiple sources, were "a lot of people" on the video staff, as well as members of the photo and copy desks and one person from the library. And Daily Racing Forum reporter David Grening, who used to work at the Post, reports that three racing writers and handicappers were laid off including John Da Silva and Ed Fountaine; that's remarkable, he points out, since it's the day before the Belmont Stakes.

A memo from Allan provided to Capital by a source and first published by Jim Romenesko broke the news that the Post was laying off a total of 13 employees today "across the organization." A Post source said that today's layoffs were all in editorial.

Last month, we broke the news that Allan was seeking a 10-percent reduction in the newspaper's headcount, hoping to the extent possible to forestall layoffs by offering buyout packages to selected employees first.

A Post spokesperson confirmed that the paper has achieved the 10-percent reduction through a combination of buyouts and layoffs. By our count, that brings the total number of newsroom positions eliminated at the Post to about two dozen.

...

The layoffs come as the Post's parent entity, News Corp., prepares to separate its publishing properties, which also include The Wall Street Journal and various newspapers in the U.K. and Australia, from the company's television and film assets.

The Post is the sixth most widely-read paper in the U.S., but during the six months between October and March, its combined print and digital average weekday circulation fell 9.9. percent year-over-year to 500,521, including 299,950 print copies, according to data released last week by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Post's average Sunday circulation plummeted 18.5 percent to 353,900 during the same period.

Those print numbers are jive, because they hand out free copies to schools and claim that as part of the circulation

The financial reality at the Post is dire and, barring some miracle, the paper is not long for this world.

Death Throes For NY Post Begin

It starts with the 10% reduction in staffing through a buyout...

Last Thursday, as first reported on Capital, Post editor-in-chief Col Allan announced to his staff that the paper was seeking a 10-percent headcount reduction through voluntary buyouts and "other measures if necessary."

Newsroom downsizing has become all too familiar at papers throughout the industry. But it seems particularly significant at the Post, which has managed to avoid such cullings over the past two decades even as it hemorrhages money. The paper's circulation is down as well.

The buyouts follow a round of layoffs on the business side, where nine sales positions were recently eliminated in what publisher Jesse Angelo described in a March memo as a streamlining of marketing and ad operations. They're being negotiated as the Post's parent entity, News Corp., prepares to separate its publishing properties, which also include The Wall Street Journal and various newspapers in the U.K. and Australia, from the company's television and film assets.

As a result of the split, which will create two separate publicly traded companies, the publishing titles will no longer be cushioned by more lucrative brands such as Fox News. But after the expected completion of the split at the end of June, they will start fresh with no debt and $2.6 billion in cash.

One media analyst has estimated that the Post's annual losses are as high as $110 million. But the paper has long been wrapped in a special insulant: News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch's devotion to it.

That said, it's unclear what exactly precipitated the newsroom cuts or how much a 10-percent staff reduction will stanch the flow of red ink.

"They're getting costs under control on all fronts," one Post employee suggested, referring to News Corp.

First come the buyouts, then the layoffs, then the second round of layoffs....

Unless the Post can find another "special insultant" like Murdoch to let them lose $100 million+ a year, the paper is not long for this world.

Bloomberg Cuts 2,500 Teachers And Guidance Counselors In 2014 FY Budget

Because it wouldn't be a proper Bloomberg budget season without a fight over cutting teachers and guidance counselors and closing fire houses, we have this news from the budget proposal presser today:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday unveiled a revised budget for the 2014 fiscal year where he said despite a increase in revenue from the capital gains tax planned cuts will move forward.

The mayor says the $69.8 billion budget remains balanced without raising taxes.

It includes $1 billion in new revenues fueled by an increase in capital gains taxes.

However, it projects a $2.2 billion short fall for fiscal year 2015.

...

The budget proposes the city shutter 20 firehouses, reduce thousands of childcare slots and cut 2,500 teaching and guidance counselor positions through attrition over the next year.

Negotiations over the plan will now begin in the City Council.

I suspect this will be the one year where Quinn simply puts the kibbosh on this stuff early because she has to worry about the fall-out from the attrition threats and fire house closings hurting her in the Democratic primary.

The good news, this is the last budget proposal from Herr Bloomberg sans a Bloombergian political coup.

Times Layoffs

From Politico:

In the news business, no one is safe - not even senior editors at The New York Times.

The media business was shaken on Friday when it was reported, first in New York Magazine and confirmed by POLITICO, that managing editor John Geddes, assistant managing editors Jim Roberts and Susan Edgerly, former Washington editor Rick Berke, and former Times Magazine editor Jerry Mazorati could all be casualties of the Times’ effort to cut costs.

“It is hard to imagine there are too many sacred cows left in any newsroom, given the general state of our industry,” Raju Narisetti, the head of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network and a former Washington Post managing editor, told POLITICO, without specifically responding to the New York Times cuts but talking about ongoing cost cutting efforts across American newsrooms.

The Times underwent a round of buyouts and layoffs in 2009, but the possible departure of high-level Times staffers signals just how dire the current state of news media is.

...

Abramson also sought to temper some of the hype and the rumors. “We had buyouts and layoffs in 2009. These are not different,” Abramson told POLITICO Friday afternoon.

But sources at the paper, who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity, said this time feels different.

“Whatever sense of invincibility that Times employees still feel after the earlier rounds of cuts is being chipped away in this round,” said one Times guild member, who is not affected by the latest round of cuts.

 

When do they dump one of their excessively paid columnists because the neo-liberal crap he writes is interchangeable from the neo-liberal crap their other excessively paid columnists write?

Bet they could save some money by sending Bobo out to pasture or Kristof off to his inevitable future at the Gates Foundation or Friedman to, well, wherever the hell Friedman might go.

I wish I could muster some sympathy for the editors and journalists about to be made redundant, but given how so many of them seem to think the best way to improve education is to fire teachers and lots of them, it's awfully hard to do that.
 

Wouldn't it be nice if all these layoffs and firings gave our elite journalists and news editors and columnists some new perspective on school closures and teacher firings and the like?

I think it would.

But that won't ever happen.

In fact, the more layoffs and firings of journalists, editors and columnists you have, the more likely these people are to want to give the Murdochs and Bloombergs of the world the kind of corporate-friendly journalism that just might get them another high paying gig.

Bloomberg Threatens To Lay Off Teachers At The Same Time He Gives Raises To 48 Members Of His City Hall Staff

It's that time of year again, folks - it's time for Mike Bloomberg, the genius fiscal king of New York City, to claim the only way he can balance the city budget is to lay off teachers and other city workers.

I posted about his latest threat yesterday.

This time around, he's threatening layoffs at the same time he's handing out generous raises to his staff at City Hall:

Despite a gaping budget hole that could lead to layoffs of teachers or police officers, Mayor Bloomberg found money in the city budget to give out raises to 48 members of his City Hall staff.

A Daily News review of payroll data found that 10 of those lucky employees got raises that topped 20% since last summer.

“It is hypocritical,” steamed City Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn). “It’s just disrespectful to the people who basically make the city run.”

But Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the mayor’s office was paying some employees more because they were performing more work as a result of staffing cuts.

He said the office shrank by 17 workers, going from 484 employees in June 2011 to 467 in June 2012.

“Fewer people on staff means some employees have been promoted or taken on more work, so their salaries increased, but we’ve pushed our overall salary costs down,” he said.

...

Gregory Floyd, head of Teamsters Local 237, which represents 20,000 city workers, was angry about the raises.

“I thought there was no money for raises for any city employee, and the last I checked the people who worked in the mayor’s office were city employees,” he said. “They’re being paid with taxpayer money.”

Harry Nespoli, who heads the sanitation workers union, said every union is working without a contract and being told to inform its members to work harder without any rises.

“He had enough money to give raises to the people in City Hall, but not the people that work for the citizens of New York City on a day-to-day basis?” he questioned. “That is totally unacceptable.”

Yes, you teachers had better work longer and harder for the same money, get those test scores up as measured by the city's jive ass value added measurement system with the 87% margin of error or they will "I-rate" your ass and fire you.

But people on the mayor's staff get a 20% raise for working harder at whatever it is they do there at City Hall (i.e., mostly bullshit political stuff - like looking for ways to spin why the city needs to do layoffs.)

Just another example of the hypocrisy of this mayor and the Ruling Class he represents.

Austerity for the commons, party time for the connected.

Corporate profits reached an all-time high in June 2012.

Corporate tax rates are at their lowest rate in 40 years.

Wages are the lowest they have been in 25 years.

So corporations are making more money than they ever have before, their paying the lowest amount of taxes in two generations, and they've been squeezing wages for the last 25 years and they're STILL telling us there's no money for anything?

It is clear that the Ruling Class have stolen all the of the money, all of the wealth, and have relegated the rest of us to fight it out amongst ourselves for the scraps.

Until they fear that there will be an uprising to take back the stolen wealth, circumstances are not going to change.

We will continue to have the Ruling Class and their corporate media push austerity for the masses and party time for themselves.

This is why the Chicago teachers strike is so important - it's the first popular, member-led uprising in the face of the Ruling Class Austerity Movement.

Make no mistake, education reform is NOT about improving schools, it is about pushing austerity and fear for the masses while opening up $600 billion in new revenues for the Rupert Murdochs of the world.

It is time to fight back against this austerity, call the education reformers the corporate criminals they are and take back what they are stealing.

It is time to fight back.

Believe it or not, this is what the Rahm Emanuels, Mike Bloombergs and Rupert Murdochs of the world fear.

It is true, they've got the guns and the power of the Surveillance State on their side.

But CTU showed how we can get the numbers on our side and stand up to our corporate overlords.

It is time to stand up to Herr Bloomberg.

Bloomberg Threatens Layoffs Over Taxi Medallions

The Daily News reports that Mayor Bloomberg is back to threatening to layoffs again:

Mayor Bloomberg followed through on a threat Friday to slash city agencies — and possibly lay off city workers — in part to make up for revenue the city will lose if Bloomberg can’t move forward with his outerborough taxi plan.

The mayor’s budget director, Mark Page, sent a letter to agency heads Friday asking them to come up with ways to gut their budgets by as much as 5.4% in the current fiscal year — and 8% next year.

Cuts that large are bound to include at least some layoffs, though it’s not clear which agencies will lose staff.

A judge struck down the outerborough taxi plan last month, blowing a billion-dollar hole in the city budget.

Though police and schools are often spared the brunt of budget cuts, Bloomberg ordered cost savings even from those essential agencies.

The police, fire, sanitation and corrections departments must submit plans to cut 2.7% of their budgets this year and 4% next year.

The Education Department was asked to slash its budget by 1.6% this fiscal year and 4% next year.

“We will once again need to curtail planned spending and do so in a way that prioritizes and preserves necessary city services and quality of life,” Page wrote in the letter.

This will be the 12th round of cuts Bloomberg has instituted since 2007.

And as usual, the outside consultants are spared.

NBC Uses Laugh-Added Measurements To Lay Off "Tonight Show" Employees

NBC has announced layoffs for two dozen "Tonight Show" employees and has reportedly slashed the salary of host Jay Leno by millions of dollars to avoid steeper staff cuts at the show.

The network, which is set to begin airing Education Nation in late September, a "seminar" of education reform that promotes, among other things, value-added measurements of teacher effectiveness based upon test scores for conducting education cutbacks and layoffs, has decided to use laugh-added measurements of the "Tonight Show" staff to see which members will be laid off first.

"Tonight Show" staff members deemed to be adding fewer laughs to the show this year as compared to last year will be let go first.

Previously employee seniority was used to conduct layoffs and cuts at the network, but a spokesman for Comcast Corp, the parent of NBC/Universal, said the cable company had added this "sophisticated tool" built by a cadre of geniuses at Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, and Monsanto to measure how many laughs each employee is adding to the broadcast and can now say with almost exact certitude which employees are the most valuable laugh-wise and which are the least valuable.

The laugh-added measurements have a median margin of error of 52%, a maximum margin of error so high even Carnac couldn't get them right, but Comcast Corp. believes this is the way to conduct employee cuts for the future and says other NBC shows should expect to see layoffs conducted this way too.

Despite high ratings for the just-aired Olympics, the network is hemorrhaging advertising dollars and expects to make cuts at every program on NBC.

The only NBC show Comcast is sparing from layoffs is the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

One anonymous source at Comcast told the Associated Press, "We've used the laugh-added measurement tool on all our shows, including the Nightly News, and frankly, that show is the funniest thing on the network."

Tonight Show employees will be informed of their layoffs tomorrow when they return to work. NBC has decided to bring in former Washington D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee to conduct the layoffs and will tape each for airing during Education Nation next month.

Said the anonymous Comcast source, "Comcast thinks this is a teachable moment that can be used to show how laugh-added and value-added are excellent tools for seeing which employees are valuable and which aren't. And bringing in Michelle Rhee to do the layoffs - well, that was a no-brainer. She really gets off on this kind of thing...especially if somebody cries!"

NY Post Says LIFO, Layoff Fight Begins Again Soon

It's never too early for the UFT to get ready for the next battle with Bloomberg and the corporate education reform establishment.

Bloomberg failed to get LIFO changed and therefore didn't REALLY want to do layoffs this year, as he would have had to lay off lots of newbie teachers instead of more expensive vets and the ATR's.

But you can bet in his last full year in office before the 2013 election, he will try extra hard to get that LIFO rule changed and lay off ATR's and vets as well and set things up so that the next mayor can lay off as many teachers as he wants every year without the union being able to protect them.

You can bet that he is manufacturing the budget crisis already.

You can bet the editorial writers at the tabloids - the Times, Murdoch Street Journal, Post and News - are dipping their pens in poison ink to get ready to write the anti-teacher/anti-seniority editorials.

You can bet that Bloomberg is finagling with New York's Tea Party Governor, Little Andy Cuomo, as well as Senate Republicans and corporate Dems to have LIFO changed for good.

You can bet that if you follow the cash Bloomberg hands these people, you will see just how tough this fight is going to be next year.

The UFT MUST not rest now that the threat of layoffs and LIFO changes are done for the year.

When it comes to fighting a man as petulant, as arrogant, as egotistical and as rich as Bloomberg, you cannot rest even one moment.

He's got one more year to make significant changes to the seniority system in the DOE. He's got one more year to make significant changes to the pay system, the pension system, and the health care system as well.

You can bet he will want changes to all of these.

The UFT has to muster all the anti-Bloombergian allies it can to fight these changes, both here in the city and in Albany.

There are enough pols in both places sick of Bloomberg and his shit.

Judging by the poll numbers, the people in NYC certainly are sick of him.

He CAN be beaten.

He MUST be beaten.

He is wounded, especially with all these scandals breaking that show how many hundreds of millions have been stolen on his watch even as he insists upon handing out money illegally to consultants for contracts that have been rejected by the city controller's office.

But he has enormous wealth and resources and won't hesitate to use it.

We cannot rest in this fight.

The fight goes on.

Bloomberg Says "We Always Have The Money To Avoid Teacher Layoffs

He admitted the money was always there in the budget, he was just choosing to spend it on things other than teachers:

MANHATTAN — Teacher layoffs have been averted and no fire companies will close under a new budget deal reached late Friday night, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council announced following months of heated debate

...

"Our children will still have the same number of great teachers, our seniors will still have great senior centers to visit and our neighborhoods will still have great firehouses to keep them safe," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said at a late-night news conference at the Tweed Courthouse, which was later interrupted by cheers as the Senate passed the gay marriage bill.

"We had tough choices to make. Thank God we managed the good financial times of this city well," she said. "We're in a much better place than we could have been in."

Bloomberg, however, remained cautious, warning of an even more dire budget hole in the years ahead.

"Make no mistake about it. This is not a good-news budget," he said.

While saving teaching jobs had not appeared to be an administration priority in the weeks leading up to the deal, the mayor said that because of the "Last In, First Out" seniority-based firing rule, focusing on teachers made the most sense.

"We always have the money. They question is, do we need to spend it on this or that? Or spend it now or later," he said.

Hey, you know you might be able to replace the 2,600 teachers who are leaving the system on their own with new teachers if you just stopped all those hundreds of millions of crooked consultants.

Oh, right - Bloomberg wouldn't want to do that, would he?

I mean, what is more important for New York - small class sizes or crooked consultants stealing hundreds of millions from the city and using it to build real estate sub-developments?

For a third year in a row, Bloomberg has brought the layoff battle right to the edge before finally pulling back from actual layoffs.

And each year, as he threatens layoffs as inevitable, he is as full of shit as the year before.

Next year when he pulls this same tired act out, I hope the politicians not on his payroll, along with the media, the union leadership and the public, treat him with the disdain he deserves.

We have the evidence from last night's press conference right from Bloomberg's own mouth - he only pushed the layoffs because he wanted to do away with LIFO; when he couldn't do away with LIFO, he continued with the layoff threat, but just to save face; he never intended to do layoffs once the LIFO battle was over; and layoffs were never necessary anyway because "We always have the money. They question is, do we need to spend it" on teachers.

Next year when we do this fight all over again, I hope Bloomberg is forced to eat the words from last night.

Bloomberg Admits He Avoided Layoffs Because LIFO Wasn't Changed

From the Associated Press account of the budget deal reached last night between Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council and the UFT:

NEW YORK— New York City lawmakers
reached a budget deal Friday that will avert the
layoffs of about 4,000 teachers partly through
union concessions, but the city won't pay to
replace thousands more public school
instructors who quit or retire this year,
officials said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council
Speaker Christine Quinn gathered with city
lawmakers and the head of the teachers' union
Friday evening to announce the roughly $66
billion deal, which ducks the worst of the
cutbacks the mayor had said would be
unavoidable due to economic hard times and
declining state and federal budgets.

...

Teacher layoffs, frequently threatened in
budget negotiations, have not actually been
approved in the city budget process since the
1970s.

This year, Bloomberg had unsuccessfully
lobbied state lawmakers to overturn teacher
seniority protections, which would have
allowed officials to pick and choose which
teachers received pink slips.

On Friday, Bloomberg said that it was partly
because of the failure of that effort that the
city decided to find extra money to avert the
teacher layoffs.

About one-third the cost of saving the jobs
came from UFT concessions. The union agreed
to cancel teacher study sabbaticals for one
year and to place unassigned instructors in
substitute teaching positions.

Additional funds were found through
administrative cutbacks at the Department of
Education.

Officials had said the layoffs would have
increased class sizes by two or three children,
and elementary schools in poor
neighborhoods would have been the hardest
hit.

As it is, there will be 2,600 fewer teachers in city classrooms next year as teachers who retire or quit will not be replaced.

So class sizes will still rise.

But it is interesting to see Bloomberg actually admit that the city found the extra money to avoid layoffs because Bloomberg couldn't lay off the teachers he wanted to lay off (i.e., senior teachers and ATR's) and save the ones he wanted (cheaper newbies.)

I mean, there it is right in black and white.

Let me quote it again, just in case you missed it:

Teacher layoffs, frequently threatened in budget negotiations, have not actually been approved in the city budget process since the 1970s.

This year, Bloomberg had unsuccessfully lobbied state lawmakers to overturn teacher seniority protections, which would have allowed officials to pick and choose which teachers received pink slips.

On Friday, Bloomberg said that it was partly because of the failure of that effort that the city decided to find extra money to avert the teacher layoffs.

The lesson here is, if LIFO is changed the mayor will lay teachers off every year.

He will manufacture a crisis, claim the money cannot be found to avoid layoffs and let go senior teachers every year if he gets the chance to do so.

He said so last night, at least according to the AP story.

I hope the UFT leadership understands that and has the guts to act accordingly to protect LIFO.

If LIFO ends, the mayor (or whatever corporate flunky replaces him at City Hall) will turn teaching into an at-will job where teachers can be let go at any time, so long as a budget crisis can be manufactured.

And as we learned this year when Bloomberg had a budget surplus and was choosing to lay off teachers even as he was planning to increase tech spending at the DOE by $550 million and another $600 million was being stolen by tech consultants in the CityTime project, a budget crisis can always be manufactured.

The Deal To Avert Layoffs

I wanted to wait a few hours before writing my take on this because as soon as I saw the headline on the Times story last night around 10:45 PM ("Teachers Union Agrees To Concessions To Avoid Layoffs"), I just about wanted to head down to 52 Broadway and break windows.

I had visions of the UFT handing Bloomberg hundreds of millions of dollars from the health care fund, agreeing to salary step freezes and other payroll concessions or opening up the Pandora's Box of health care costs and agreeing to some kind of containment clause.

Those were the kinds of things the mayor wanted in this fight once it became clear that Sheldon Silver and the Assembly were not going to change LIFO for him and allow him to mass lay off the ATR's.

But as I dug into the story a little, I started to see that the "concessions" the mayor claims he got from the deal aren't exactly the kind of sweeping, money-saving concessions he claimed he needed in order to not lay teachers off.

According to Gotham Schools, the two concessions that the UFT granted Bloomberg are canceling sabbaticals for 2012-2013 (supposedly will save $17 million) and allowing ATR's to be used as day-to-day substitutes in their districts (supposedly will save $43 million.)

The total savings from the UFT concessions is $60 million.

The mayor was saying he needed somewhere between $240 million and $377 million in savings in order to avoid layoffs.

Instead he got (at least according to Gotham Schools), $60 million.

Now the city council supposedly agreed to pony up more money for schools too, though I have not seen a number figure on that, so perhaps the "savings" Bloomberg got out of last night's deal is closer to $100 million, but nonetheless it is nowhere near what he claimed he needed in order to avert layoffs.

On the mayor's side, he admits that he lowballed the number of teachers that will be lost to attrition, that schools WILL still take huge cuts to their budgets (while central office at Tweed and the technology consultants will NOT) and will STILL see higher class sizes and fewer teachers next year.

So there is no doubt that the UFT DID concede on issues here that they should have NEVER conceded on.

To review, there is a budget surplus.

Bloomberg was lying about the need to lay teachers off.

He was making a political gambit to get LIFO changed so he could lay off ATR's this year and then lay off senior teachers every year thereafter, dramatically remaking the teaching corps. of NYC into at-will employees.

But he lost that gambit when the Assembly didn't jump when he said "Cash!"

So he was left with a difficult choice - either back down and lose face (and once again be revealed as a lying sack of shit when it comes to layoffs) or continue with the farce and say he needed to do layoffs anyway, despite the surplus.

The UFT had the moral and the political high ground on this.

Public opinion polls show that people despise the mayor, despise his policies, and REALLY despise his education policies.

People KNOW that Bloomberg has been wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on crooked technology projects.

Consultants hired by Bloomberg are being arrested left and right for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the city.

And Bloomberg has budgeted $900 million in additional technology spending for the DOE next year even as he claimed he needed to save $377 million by laying teachers off.

So as I say, the UFT had almost all the cards in this game.

In my opinion, they should have conceded nothing.

They should have gone on the air in mass with CityTime scandal commercials, showing the parade of criminal consultants arrested for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in city funds, played tapes of Bloomberg on his radio show claiming victory on CityTime and saying what a swell project it is and the stolen money just, you know, slipped through the cracks, and then noted that the mayor plans to hand out another $900 million in consultant funds and technology upgrades next year even as he refuses to conduct oversight over these projects, refuses to take responsibility for all the stolen cash so far and insists that he MUST lay teachers off to save the city money.

Seriously, on the face of it, it was absurd for Bloomberg to claim he needed to lay off teachers to save $377 million in the same week that the U.S. attorney announced $600 million had been stolen by crooked consultants in Bloomberg's CityTime project.

So the UFT should not have conceded a thing when they had these kinds of cards.

In addition, the ATR concession is worrisome to me - it is just another sign that ATR's will eventually be sold out by Mulgrew and Company.

It is just a matter of time.

Next year when Bloomberg claims poverty again and starts handing out cash in Albany to get LIFO changed, you can bet that one of the concessions he will want in order to avoid layoffs will be on the ATR's.

And the UFT looks like they are ready to sell them out.

But all things considered, the concessions the UFT made could have been worse.

They could have conceded a couple of hundred million from the health care fund, money Bloomberg would have used to pay outside consultants for his crooked technology contracts.

They could have conceded health care or pension containment costs.

They could have conceded furlough days (or furlough weeks) or agreed to a salary step/longevity freeze.

They didn't do any of that (though on the health care fund front, Mulgrew certainly tried!)

I dunno if it's just that I have gotten cynical about the UFT in my middle age, but when I thought about last night's deal a little, my take was "Sure, the UFT snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, but it's not as bad a defeat as I thought it was going to be."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the union.

But given the serious defeats suffered by labor unions in Jersey and other states and given the concessions agreed to by CSEA in contract negotiations with New York's Tea Party Governor Cuomo, I guess it's not as bad as it could have been.

I know that's the official line from the Unity and New Actions parties at the UFT.

In a way they're right.

But it also doesn't bode well for the future that the official line of the UFT is "Sure, we had to give stuff up even though Bloomberg had a surplus and didn't need to do layoffs, but hey, it could have been worse!"

I suspect next year when we do this shit all over again (and make no mistake, unless Bloomberg is arrested, resigns in disgrace or dies suddenly of an ego attack, we will do this all over again next year), it will be worse.

And if you're an ATR next year, they will try and make your life a living hell, worse than they have already made it, in order to get you to quit.

That's the goal - get senior teachers and ATR's off the payroll.

The concessions the UFT agreed to last night will help the mayor do just that on the ATR front.

And there will still be fewer teachers next year, class sizes will still be higher than they were this year and Bloomberg still gets to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on crooked consultants.

Not the worst deal the UFT leadership could have made, but certainly not the good one they're claiming it to be either.

NY1 Reports Budget Negotiations Between Mayor And Unions Have Broken Apart

The mayor wants to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from the health care fund without any strings attached:

A proposal by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to avert public school teacher layoffs has fallen apart at the negotiating table.

The mayor was prepared to stop some 5,000 layoffs, most of them teachers, if city workers agreed to pay out $220 million from a health care fund controlled by the unions.

Union leaders said they were prepared to turn over that money to help the city, but only if additional money from the fund could be used to help workers.

A spokesman for the mayor said Thursday the city had no choice but to reject the offer.

The spokesman also said the city is ready to negotiate a deal to avoid layoffs.

A budget deal is due by the end of June.

Now why would the unions be negotiating a deal with the mayor that would allow his to steal $220 million from a health care fund for workers when he has allowed $600 million to be stolen by outside consultants and technology companies as part of the CityTime project, plans to spend $900 million next year on outside consultants and technology upgrades to the DOE, and has an actual surplus of money even before he spends that $900 million?

I'm serious.

Yes, layoffs are bad.

But to hand over $220 million to the mayor from a health care fund that is used to pay for health care overrun costs in a year when he has an actual surplus and just plans to hand the money to outside technology consultants and companies who are already stealing the city blind - that's not only bad policy by the unions leadership, that's insane behavior.

Next year, Bloomberg will come right back for more layoffs.

That's assuming he doesn't steal the $220 million and break the agreement and come back for more layoffs later this year.

That's what this guy does.

He breaks agreements.

He lies.

He cheats.

He cannot be trusted.

His word is about as good as the word of the owners of Technodyne, the company that stole $400 million in the CityTime project and ran off to India to avoid arrest.

So the strategy for the unions going forward ought to be to take out a massive ad campaign that states how Bloomberg has allowed $600 million to be stolen by outside computer consultants in the CityTime project, $3.5 million by an outside computer consultant who worked for the DOE, millions more by another company hired by the DOE to do tech work and those are just the contracts that have gotten scrutiny - many others Bloomberg refuses to reveal the details of and may contain many other instances of corruption.

While Bloomberg allows all this stealing by the outside computer techs to go on, he plans to spend $900 million on technology projects for the DOE next year, an increase of $550 million, even as he says he must lay off thousands of teachers because the city is broke even when the city isn't broke and has an actual surplus.

Now this is a mayor who thinks he did a great job on the CityTime project where crooks stole $600 million dollars - the largest theft ever committed against the City of New York.

Why should we allow Bloomberg to lay off thousands of teachers at the same time he wants to spend $900 million on crooked tech projects and crony consultants?

Say no to the Bloomberg Budget of Corruption.

Say no to layoffs.

Say no to outside consultants who steal millions from the city.

That ought to be the union strategy going forward.

Bloomberg might actually go ahead with the layoffs in that case, but the groundwork will have been laid for political victory for the unions - people will know that Bloomberg has laid off thousands of teachers and created mass chaos in the school system in order to hand out $900 million dollars to his crooked cronies in tech companies that seem to rival the Gambino Family for ethics and morals.

I think if the unions stands firm on this, Bloomberg will read the political calculus right and NOT go ahead with the layoffs.

He knows how unpopular he is.

He knows how unpopular his education policies are.

He knows how unpopular the teacher layoffs are.

If the unions can make clear to the people that not only is the money already in the budget to avoid layoffs but that the money Bloomberg plans to save through layoffs he will spend on crooked consultants and tech projects, well, they can force Bloomberg to find the money to avoid the layoffs.

And yet the UFT, as always, looks to weaken its hand in negotiations, to pull defeat from the jaws of victory.

They look to bail the mayor out by handing him hundreds of millions of the workers' money without any strings attached to it - all so he can hand it to his crooked consultant friends.

The teachers have the moral high ground on this matter.

The Bloomberg administration has allowed so much corruption to go on unchecked in this city that he ought to be renamed Boss Tweed.

Go hard and heavy on that message and MAKE him make his own decisions on the layoffs.

Don't bail him out with free money from the health care fund.

At the end of the day, if he goes though with layoffs, the political price he will pay will be enormous.

But if the unions hand him $220 million from the health car fund with no strings attached, the unions themselves will pay a very hefty price next year when Bloomberg comes back for not only layoffs but cuts to health care too (as the money from the fund will have been raided.)

Bloomberg Accused Of Bait And Switch With State Education Funds By 52 Assembly Members

Time for an audit of Herr Moneybags:

Did the city withdraw more than $200 million in financing for public schools after the state gave it that amount of money to help avert some of the threatened school budget cuts and teacher layoffs?

A group of New York Assembly members say that is exactly what happened after legislators added $205 million to the final state budget passed in March to prevent deeper cuts that would affect the city’s classrooms.

In a letter delivered to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Thursday, Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, the chairwoman of the Education Committee, criticized the city for taking the state’s money and then cutting the schools’ budget by roughly the same amount.

“It would appear that instead of using the additional state funds to restore classroom cuts, these state dollars were used to supplant city funds,” says the letter (also see below), which was signed by 52 Assembly members.

A City Hall spokesman said the city did cut its contribution to the schools by $207 million when it received the extra state funds. But the spokesman, Marc La Vorgna, said the $205 million was hardly “additional” financing for city schools in a year in which the city was left struggling to restore $800 million that was still cut from state education financing.

That huge loss of state aid, he said, means the city still cannot afford 6,100 of its teachers, but that number could have been worse if the city had not spared it from more cuts, he said.

“It’s pretty curious when Assembly members who voted for the largest state cut to our schools in history criticize a mayor who is increasing city funding for schools by $2 billion, largely to cover for their cut,” Mr. La Vorgna wrote in an e-mail message, in response to the letter from the Assembly members.

Ms. Nolan said, however, that the state restored some of its education aid on the premise that it would be used to improve the schools’ budgetary circumstances, not keep them the same.

“I know the state should have given more,” Ms. Nolan said. “I fought hard for the millionaire’s tax that might have generated more, but in times of scarce resources, we have to emphasize that the focus should be on the classroom.”

Ms. Nolan’s letter noted that while the restored money would not have been enough to prevent all of the 4,100 layoffs the mayor has threatened to carry out, it could have cut the loss of teachers by more than half.

The planned education budget cuts continue to draw criticism and protests. On Thursday, members of several advocacy organizations that have been protesting the cuts delivered seven 50-foot scrolls to City Hall. The scrolls were signed by more than 16,000 people opposed to the mayor’s budget.

As one commenter says after the Times article, Bloomberg is guilty of "manipulative accounting."

Another called in a "financial shell game."

The point here is that Bloomberg has CHOSEN to spend city money on other things rather than classroom expenses or teachers.

Whether it's the CityTime boondoggle, the $550 million in tech spending he has allotted for the NYCDOE next year, the extra millions he's using to add dozens of tests to school next year so that he can give every teacher a value-added assessment, this mayor has CHOSEN to spend money on education priorities that are quite frankly, screwed up.

But until he is made to pay a price for all of this, a real, tangible price, he is going to continue to do this stuff.

Here is what he deserves to confront every time he shows his face in public.

That would get the point across to him and his oligarch cronies.

NYC Unions Tired Of Being Scapegoated

More on why the deal to avert layoffs by allowing Bloomberg to steal the union health care fund fell apart today:

In a private meeting, member unions of the Municipal Labor Committee balked at making concessions to prevent the mayor from following through on his threat to lay off 4,100 teachers.

The resistance of the unions to self-funding a plan to avert layoffs of the teachers and hundreds of other city workers jeopardizes a city budget deal that had been in the works.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn had asked Municipal Labor Committee Chairman Harry Nespoli to come to the table to discuss ways to prevent the layoffs. Talks centered on tapping into the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund, which is run jointly by the city and the unions.

But Mr. Nespoli released a terse, pessimistic statement this afternoon following the committee meeting, which he said lasted several hours.

“I can tell you that there is a lot of mistrust of City Hall based upon the way we have been treated in the last eight months or so,” the statement said. “That is all I am going to say right now.”

The reference appeared to be to the mayor's refusal to give ground on his layoff threat.

Not all of the committee's 90 unions are against the deal, but enough are resisting it to put its outcome in doubt.

The United Federation of Teachers, which stands to lose the most, is in favor of the deal, the details of which have yet to be ironed out between the mayor's office, the City Council and the unions. One labor insider said the deal “was neither blown up nor locked up.” The insider said that some unions wanted a no-layoff guarantee to be extended for a period of longer than one year.

Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, who attended the meeting, said that the pushback on the deal stems from the fact that the fund was set up for health benefits, that several unions did not receive contracts in the last round of negotiations, and that key City Hall staffers who dealt with labor in the past are no longer around.

He cited former Deputy Mayor for Government Affairs Kevin Sheekey, who left for Bloomberg LP; former Deputy Mayor of Operations Ed Skyler, who is now at Citigroup; former Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, who is now schools chancellor; and James Hanley, commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations, who is recovering after surgery.

“Put all those factors together and there was a lot of anger in the room,” Mr. Floyd said. “The unions are always willing to negotiate, but we're tired of being scapegoated.”

One of the more outspoken leaders against the deal was Norman Seabrook, president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association. Mr. Seabrook said Ms. Quinn and Mr. Bloomberg should not expect “labor to be the savior” in the budget process. He said current talks have involved taking $400 million from the fund in exchange for one year without layoffs. But he said that would put unions in the same position, confronting layoffs, but with less leverage, 12 months from now.

“I’d be interested in talking about it if I had a two and a half year deal that took me into the next administration,” he said. “For me, it’s a breaking point to even start with anything less than that.”

There's no assurance that Bloomberg won't look to find a loophole in the deal and do layoffs anyway.

Remember that's what he's done with the teacher data reports, which he promised the UFT wouldn't be published in the media before he, you know, reneged on that.

And frankly, as I wrote earlier today in this post and then later when the deal fell apart in this post, there is no reason for the unions to bail Bloomberg out on this mess.

He backed himself into the corner with the layoff ultimatum.

He knows the money is there to avert layoffs - $550 million of it, which he is using to upgrade technology in the DOE.

He could tap that cash anytime and avoid layoffs.

But he insists there will be layoffs instead, even though this policy is very unpopular, even though he is very unpopular, even though his education policies are very unpopular.

I say don't give him a parachute to save himself.

Certainly don't give him $360 million from the health care fund when he already has the money to avoid layoffs.

He's twisting in the wind on this and he knows it.

His dilemma is of his own making.

And he has the money to solve the problem already.

Unions Say No To Health Care Fund Raid By Mayor

Finally the union leadership gets it - the mayor cannot be trusted:

The deal to save thousands of teachers and other city workers is dead.

“I can tell you that there is a lot of mistrust of City Hall based upon the way we have been treated in the last eight months or so,” said Harry Nespoli, the chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, a coalition of civil service unions.

The Bloomberg administration has threatened to lay off 4,100 teachers and hundreds of city employees in other departments, such as park workers and librarians due to budget constraints.

The unions are steadfastly refusing to tap into their largely unused rainy day health care fund to avert those steep cuts.

“What happens on day 366 after the deal expires?” asked one labor leader who attended the “heated” MLC meeting.

“It was a heated discussion because there’s an overwhelming consensus that people don’t trust the Mayor,” the source added.

City negotiators are pressing the rank and file to hand over at least $30 million a month, or $360 million, from their emergency health care fund over the duration of the agreement, several sources said. The unions contend that the money will just delay the city’s call for further concessions.

Many union officials and government insiders believe that the Mayor really doesn’t need or want to layoff thousands of teachers.

“Ultimately, the question is whether the health deal benefits everyone concerned or merely makes life easier for both the Mayor, who really doesn't want to lay off large numbers of teachers but might do it anyway, and Quinn while forcing the unions to pick up the whole tab,” said Richard Steier, the editor of The Chief-Leader, a civil service weekly.

Good - now they understand.

This isn't about the money.

It's about the power.

The mayor wants to gut the teachers union.

They can give him $30 million a month from the fund, but he is still going to force layoffs next year as a way to push on the LIFO issue.

If the economy turns around, he'll manuafacture a crisis, kinda the way he has with this one.

There is $550 million he plans to spend on tech upgrades next year in the DOE.

$337 million of that can be used to offset layoffs.

In addition, millions of dollars are stolen by all the outside consultants Bloomberg refuses to do oversight on.

Start doing oversight of all those expenditures.

Let's see what that money is REALLY being used for.

There are so many other choices Bloomberg can make besides layoffs.

He has chosen to back himself in a corner here and now he wants the unions to bail him out.

For once, we get good news from the union leadership (at least for now.)

No deal to raid the health care fund.

No bailout for Bloomberg.

You want to do layoffs while you hand out hundreds of millions of dollars in tech contracts to your cronies like Joel Klein, Mr. Mayor?

Go right ahead.

But you have to defend that and you have to pay the price of the consequences from that policy.

Got that, Mr. 38% Approval.

Daily News Reports Bloomberg Will Nix Layoffs If He Gets $30 Million A Month From Union Health Care Fund

Watch out - the mayor's got a gun and he's holding us up for money:

Let us tap your rainy day fund - and we'll guarantee your jobs for the next year.

That's the offer the Bloomberg administration has made to teachers and other unionized city workers, the Daily News has learned.

City negotiators want the rank and file to cough up at least $30million a month, or $360 million, from their emergency health care fund over the duration of the agreement, several sources said.

Hizzoner has threatened to lay off 4,100 teachers and hundreds of city employees in other agencies, such as the Parks Department and libraries.

Bloomberg's offer is set for a vote today before the Municipal Labor Committee, a coalition of civil service unions. If approved, committee head Harry Nespoli will get the green light to negotiate the final deal with the city.

Unions backing the proposal say it's a good deal because the threat of layoffs will be less next year as the economy improves.

The complete no-layoff offer would apply to all city workers, including the thousands covered by the city's largest union, District Council 37.

That union has voiced skepticism about allowing the city to tap the fund. Adding a no-layoff clause could bring them around, a veteran DC 37 official said at a labor rally in lower Manhattan yesterday.

"That would be something we would have to strongly consider," the official said. "This is money that's not really being used. Why let it go to waste?"

Publicly, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts remains opposed to the Bloomberg proposal.

"I'm fed up with the city taking our benefits," she said.

The unions representing city firefighters and teachers are both strongly in favor of the deal.

The Health Insurance Stabilization Fund, which has close to $500 million on hand, was created in 1986 after health care costs skyrocketed. The city agreed to chip in $35 million a year in return for smaller wage hikes.

I'm with Lillian Roberts on this - I'm sick of the city stealing our benefits too.

Here's how this will play out if the union agrees to this proposal.

Bloomberg will offer to can the layoffs for next year if he gets $360 million from the health care fund (a figure which is higher than he claimed he will save by laying off teachers - $337 million.)

Then he will spend $550 million on new technology and upgrades to the computer systems in the schools, a breathtakingly brazen expenditure given how he is claiming penury this year.

Those technology upgrades will be used to bring a dozen new city tests to the school system in 2012-2013 that will be used to grade teachers (but not students.)

Starting around December of 2011, Bloomberg will cry poverty and begin talking layoffs again unless the unions give the city concessions.

He will continue to spend hundreds of millions on unnecessary contracts with outside consultants even as he cries poverty (just as he has been doing now.)

More corruption in past contracts along the lines of the CityTime scandal, the Lanham scandal and the Judith Hederman scandal will be revealed.

Somehow nobody in power or at the newspapers will say "Wait a minute, how is it you say you have to lay all these people off when you spend all this money on these contracts and all these people are stealing from the city?"

Then right around February, Bloomberg will budget for layoffs.

He will ratchet up the threats throughout the rest of the school year, demanding concessions from the unions even as he steals $30 million a month from the health care fund (money that is used to offset some higher costs for unionized health plans.)

The unions, seemingly intent on snagging defeat from victory, will concede to him again even though he has no moral standing in this fight and can easily be exposed as a fiscal spendthrift who has allowed thieves to steal the city blind.

And the whole thing will play out again in nearly the same way it has this year.

I say no to the health care deal.

The city has the money to avoid layoffs already.

It is in the $550 million Bloomberg plans to spend next year in tech upgrades.

It is also in the central office budget at Tweed, which has seen an increase in spending even as schools have seen sharp decreases.

Plus, Bloomberg's word is no good in a deal - he screwed the UFT on the TDR deal that was made with Weingarten a few years back, saying the city wouldn't look to publish those reports in the media if the UFT allowed them to be used for evaluation, then going back on his word and fighting the UFT in court to publish the reports in the papers (despite a 25% MOE.)

Why would Bloomberg keep his word on this deal?

Can the unions even force him too?

Can the courts?

Bloomberg thinks he is above ordinary standards like "word-keeping" and "the law," so I just don't trust any agreement made with this guy.

You shouldn't either.

The money is there to stave off layoffs - Bloomberg is spending it on tech contracts and consultants.

$550 million for next year alone.

He doesn't need the union health care fund money to stop layoffs.

He can take it from the tech spending.

Praying To Reverse Bloomberg's Budget Cuts

Taking the fight to a higher power:

At roughly 60 city churches and other houses of worship this weekend, congregations will pray for Mayor Bloomberg to reverse "immoral" cuts to schools, a group of religious leaders told the Daily News.

After protests and marches failed to sway the mayor, the religious leaders say they are taking their cause to a Higher Power.

"Because we are religious leaders, we're going to pray the Lord will touch the heart of the mayor and the City Council," said Bishop Orlando Findlayter, chairman of Churches United to Save and Heal and pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Brooklyn. "Any cut to education will be detrimental."

The ministers and other religious leaders are also sending a letter to the mayor asking him to rethink his position on the so-called millionaire's tax as well.

"My congregation and my prayer ministry will be praying for the mayor," said Pastor Kevin Osbourne of Refuge Church of God in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Praying for the Lord to touch the heart of the mayor.

Sounds like a good idea.

If the mayor had a heart to begin with.

But the coverage of 60 churches having a mass prayer to reverse the mayor's budget cuts and layoffs (even as he ratchets up technology spending in schools by $550 million) - well, that just might be effective.

Bloomberg doesn't have any shame, but with 37% approval in the city and 78% disapproval for education policies among school parents, the more public demonstrations against his outrageous budget, the better.

The pressure is mounting.