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March 25, 2010
Atlantic Yards YES! Teachers (and students) NO!!
NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is warning that, due to New York's severe budget crisis, several thousand teachers might soon be laid off, affecting every single city school district. Yet Klein's boss, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has lavished hundreds of millions in subsidies on Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn basketball palace.
NY1 News, Klein Warns Of Thousands Of Teacher Layoffs
Facing severe cuts under Governor David Paterson's proposed budget, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told the City Council's Education Committee Wednesday that 8,500 teachers could soon be laid off.
The chancellor said in a worst-case scenario the department would be forced to lay off 15 percent of math, English, science and social studies teachers.
Who needs math, English, science and social studies when you have hoops? Like Jay-Z said at the Atlantic Yards groundbreaking ceremony: ""I think about growing up in New York Ci--I mean Brooklyn, in Marcy Projects, and shooting jump shots and thinking I could make it to the NBA."
"The children of New York City schools are going to pay for the mistakes that adults made with the economy. And we have to do everything we can to stop that from happening," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.
Well, not quite everything. Former UFT President Randi Weingarten was an unequivocal booster of Atlantic Yards.
"Are teaching jobs really the only place left for the budget cuts? Has the department of education again looked at its spending on service contracts? Can some cuts be focused on the central administrative offices?" asked [City Council Education Committee chairperson Robert] Jackson.
"Oh, we've been cutting the fat. And I think there is no fat. That was the whole point of the exercise today," responded Klein.
NoLandGrab: Jackson, of course, didn't ask if there were any mega-project boondoggles that could perhaps be cut instead.
Posted by eric at March 25, 2010 10:33 PM