Post Attacks Teacher Salary

The Post criticizes salary step hikes and longevity increases.

The gist of the article, planted by Bloomberg's people, is that teachers should not get salary step or longevity increases because the contract has expired - even though the city is required to pay these increases through law.

Apparently contracts are only sacrosanct for Murdoch and Bloomberg on the rich person's end of it.

I got my last salary step increase in 2008.

I will go until February 2012 until I get my next one.

So no matter what the Post says, teachers are NOT getting increases every year.

But facts, schmacts - this is about laying the ground work to go after salary step increases and longevity since the mayor is not going to get the changes to LIFO he wants.

The UFT had better take note that salary step and longevity increases are NOT places to compromise with the mayor to reduce the specter of layoffs.

The place to compromise with Bloomberg is to force him to cut outside consultants and tech contracts.

The UFT can do that by going on a coordinated campaign to show how much money Bloomberg wastes on these things.

Bloomberg Says Teacher Layoffs Are Going To Happen Anyway

Just two days after engaging in a unilateral refusal to negotiate a new teachers contract and announcing a two year "freeze" on teachers salaries to avert 4,400 layoffs, Bloomberg says layoffs are going to happen anyway.

Not kidding - this time he blames a $600 million dollar Medicaid cut from Washington as the culprit for why he needs to lay off teachers.

Here's the Daily News on the story:

The 4,400 teachers that Mayor Bloomberg spared from layoffs this week might not want to get too comfy.

Just two days after he backed off threats to send out pink slips to educators, Bloomberg blamed a $600 million cut from Washington for putting teacher layoffs back on the table.

"Everything will be up in the air once again," Bloomberg said on WOR radio Friday when asked about the prospect of layoffs because of the move.

"We don't have to necessarily cut in one area, but overall, we have to come up with some ways to get $600 million in extra money or reduce our expenses," Bloomberg said. "That's not good."

The House of Representatives actually acted last week to remove federal Medicaid contributions from a jobs bill, so it's unclear why Bloomberg would reverse himself on the need for teacher layoffs.

When a reporter tried to ask about the reversal, Bloomberg walked away from a podium Friday, and his spokesman later said he had no answer.

This news of the layoffs back on the table comes one day after the Daily News reported that Bloomberg and Klein handed out 14% raises to central DOE employees just weeks before the announced salary freeze.

The Daily News article says the UFT had no comment on the layoffs being back on the table, but one union official noted that Mulgrew and Bloomberg are going to travel to D.C. together to beg for more money.

Heckuva job protecting teacher jobs, Mulgrew!

Heckuva job advocating for teacher salaries!

As Bloomberg and Klein are handing out raises to central DOE employees and managers and hiring 8 new deputy chancellors and giving the New Teacher Project millions of dollars to "hire new teachers," they're freezing teacher salaries to avert layoffs and then threatening layoffs anyway.

Bloomberg/Klein Gave Raises To DOE Officials Just Before Announcing The Teacher Salary Freeze

The ultimate in hypocrisy:

As the city moves to freeze teacher salaries, the Education Department has quietly given raises to 45 bureaucrats, administrators and other non-school staffers, the Daily News has learned.

The $340,000 in pay hikes went into effect just weeks before Mayor Bloomberg decided to eliminate across-the-board teacher raises to avert widespread layoffs.

"At the same time the Department of Ed was threatening layoffs of 4,400 teachers, they seemed to be handing out much-needed funding," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew. "The money in tough economic times is supposed to be for schools and children, and not for highly paid bureaucrats at central DOE."

The new raises come on top of $500,000 in pay increases doled out during an agency reshuffling in April that upped the number of deputy chancellors to eight from three.

Education Department officials vigorously defended the raises, approved by Chancellor Joel Klein and his deputies, saying they were designed to compensate staffers for increased responsibility or for filling a vacancy in a more senior position.

And indeed, some of the employees were promoted to positions of authority in the agency, such as a deputy becoming the head of small-school development.

Of the 10 employees who received raises of 10% or more, only two were taking on new jobs - the other eight had "additional responsibilities," officials said.

Midnight raises for DOE officials, a morning salary freeze for teachers.

And of course the op-ed writers at the Times cheered, using words like "sensible," "fair," and "an equitable solution in tough times..."

Just as I predicted they would say.

Are the midnight salary hikes at the DOE, the 4% raises handed out to City Council and Mayoral staffs, the $5 million to the NTP and all the no-bid contracts "sensible," "fair," and "equitable solutions in tough times"?

Must the recession be funded solely on the backs of hard-working teachers?

Bloomberg Wants LeBron

Mayor Bloomberg says there is no money for raises for teachers. Not even the measly 2% he offered after cutting the 4% from the pattern bargaining in half.

Oh, but there IS money to spend on p.r. to get LeBron James to sign with the Knicks:

LeBron James is the Big Apple of New York's eye, and the city is pulling out all the stops to let him know.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is part of a group that launched a promotional campaign to convince the free agent to play for either the New York Knicks or New Jersey Nets.

"New York City is fit for a king -- there's no better place in the world to live, to play or to win," Bloomberg said in a statement. "New Yorkers want LeBron to come to the greatest city in the world, and we're launching the C'mon Lebron campaign to capitalize on their energy and creativity in making their own cases for why he should choose New York. There are terrific cities all over the country, but none match the excitement of the greatest City in the world."

Street ads and online promotions will feature New Yorkers and celebrated public figures trying to convince the Cleveland Cavaliers star to choose New York when free agency begins July 1. C'mon LeBron T-shirts will be distributed in the city, while messages will appear on taxis and in Times Square. The website cmonlebron.com carries the group's message.

Boy, I am so glad he's got money to spend on this thing, but not for a lousy extra $1500 a year for me.

Or for that matter, money to fix the holes in the ceiling of all the classrooms on the ninth floor in my school.

The ones spewing dust and crap into the air.

The dust and crap that sent one teacher to the ER with an asthmatic attack.

The dust and crap that may have caused me to have an allergic reaction and lose hearing in my ear for a few days.

Yeah, I am glad Bloomberg has his priorities straight.

And those priorities are - SCREW TEACHERS! HOW CAN I HELP CORPORATIONS?

Even odious ones that he really hates - like Cablevision.

Remember, Cablevision owns the Knicks.

Bloomberg hates Cablevision because they fought him on the West Side stadium issue.

Yet he is spending money to help them out.

Just goes to show, so long as your corporation, Bloomberg is willing to let bygones be bygones...

It must be in his blood - all blue, these days.

How Come The New Teacher Project Got A $5 Million Raise While Teachers Get Zilch?

Details for that scam here.

And how come the City Council staff got raises, and the mayor's staff got raises, and the DOE got to hire 8 new deputy chancellors for $1.4 million dollars in total salaries, but the mayor says he must unilaterally freeze wages for teachers for two years - OUTSIDE OF CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS?

And how come the shills at the Post, the News, the Times, the WSJ and NY1 aren't pointing out the hypocrisy?

For that matter, how come the education reform sites like Gotham Schools aren't pointing out the hypocrisy either?

It seems Michelle Rhee's crew, the mayor's crew and Quinn's crew all get raises. The no bid contracts for mobbed bus companies continue unabated.

But teachers get 0% raises unilaterally declared by the Little Dictator and a new teacher evaluation system that will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to some test prep companies.

What a great deal!

And of course the media will say it's fair.

Heck, we just can't afford to pay teachers money.

But the City Council staff, and the mayor's staff, and the New Teacher Project, and the mobbed up bus companies, and the test prep companies...