Bloomberg Backs Off Threat To Layoff 21,000 Teachers

Mayor Bloomberg may have frightened even himself with his doomsday predictions about drastic teacher layoffs.

After asserting that, if the state cuts education funding to New York City, there would be as many as 21,000 teachers let go, Bloomberg now says that's not going to happen.

"We just cannot go and fire 25 percent of our teachers, even if the economics say you should," Bloomberg said. "We'll have to find another way to mitigate the pain."

Teachers union President Michael Mulgrew told the Daily News that the Mayor's layoff threats were reckless "political posturing."

"You don't put out a number like that unless you're trying to create fear," Mulgrew said. "The political posturing is creating anxiety and pitting one community against another."

Bloomberg made the threat as part of his push to change the 'last hired, first fired' rule of laying off teachers. The rule states that seniority, and not job performance, is the determining factor in who gets let go first.

"Everything they do seems to be a political campaign rather than running the city," Mulgrew said. "This guy is going out there, disparaging teachers ... He's going out and creating fear when we know at this point that every layoff is hurting children."

Last June, Bloomberg avoided teacher layoffs by canceling the 2 percent raises educators were slated to receive.

Comments

[Arthur Goldstein]

06:07 AM on 02/03/2011

Actually the 2% was only based on part of salary, and was as low as 1.4% for some teachers. Furthermore it was not scheduled, but simply announced by the Mayor, who did not bother discussing or negotiating as he is required to do. When he later unilaterally announced he was giving the teachers nothing, after laying out double 4% raises for all other city workers, it was also unilateral.

Actually, unlike private companies that may grace his portfolio, Mayor Bloomberg does not yet wholly own New York City.

[FlaviaDeLuce]

07:12 PM on 02/02/2011

He spends more money in keeping his useless behind on this job than on people who need it.. cant wait till he's gone..

[LISUPT]

07:00 PM on 02/02/2011

Let's not make this about Bloomberg or Mulgrew. This should only be about placing the very best and most effective teachers in the classroom. Following the last hired/first fired rule presents a real obstacle to universal teacher effectiveness in every child's classroom. If the teachers' union, the Regents and the state were able to agree on linking the evaluation of teachers to the assessment scores of students, then they can certainly work out an alternative to the current seniority rule. Remember, this is about the kids and not about the adults.

[bigredhandyman]

12:54 AM on 02/03/2011

OK -- let's --- it's wonderful for you to rise above us with your faux moderate tone and point out the real issue. There is the pesky detail that Mayor Bloomberg is in charge of the schools and single handedly controls what happens. So in your approach of ignoring the power structure and the responsibility for the disfunction of the system Bloomberg has initiated(he has been in office for 9 years now), just exactly how would you remain so saintly focused on the children and not the power broker who holds their future in his attempts to disassemble their public school system?

[Venicelady]

10:30 PM on 02/09/2011

Isn't it evident that Bloomberg was NEVER actually advocating for the children of NYC that attend the DOE public schools?

After 9 years in power, and exercising Mayoral control of the schools, has there been any MEASURABLE improvement in the education of our children, other than manipulation of the data from the schools showing the Mayor and his faux education "Chancellors" in a favorable light?

Rather than blaming teachers and school staffs for the so called "failure" of the public schools, you're right- the blame for this should be directly laid at the feet of the man most responsible for destroying and dismantling the NYC public school system- Michael Bloomberg.

It's beyond me why people were dazzled by this mans' money- he's a phony and a fraud.

[southingtonian]

04:32 AM on 02/05/2011

And of course we know the way to attract the best and most effective worker in any industry is to pay as little as possible and restrict benefits. That's how the best CEO's are obtained, right?

[Billie]

06:50 PM on 02/02/2011

I can't believe this annoying self-righteous busy body is still our mayor. I never liked him from the get go but after the third term he manipulated, I know view him as anti-democratic and disrepectful of voters' That was dictator behavior and Bloomberg set a very bad example

[neogejo]

09:58 AM on 02/02/2011

What a bubblehead. His threats are as empty as his head. He doomed education by hiring someone with no educational background to be the "CEO" of the board of education. People like Bloomberg, Christie and many other ill informed politicos want to see public education fail. It is the plan to FORCE the vouchers and charter schools down the publics throat. Fix what you have already, while it is fixable.

[Billie]

06:53 PM on 02/02/2011

They want to start out molding the kids into corporate clones early. Everything is marketing now, even education

[Sam Bark]

03:43 AM on 02/02/2011

Mr. Bloomberg is a billonaire, he can afford to pay their salaries and not even feel the pain.....

[MrBadExample]

11:28 PM on 02/01/2011

Mike Bloomberg deserves the blame for the city's fiscal crisis in ways that are not shared by most of the rest of America's mayors. He had a unique opportunity after 9/11 to argue for reinstituting the commuter tax (costs of anti-terrorism efforts dovetailed with making commuter routes safe). Instead, he had the city shoulder the entire extra financial burden. He spent far more money than his predecessor, and gave away nearly as much in corporate givebacks as any mayor in the last thirty years.

And now he's going to be raked over the coals by the teachers and the uniformed services. Why? Because he gave away the store on the new stadiums and treated the city like his own personal fiefdom when it came to new projects. For all the complaints about the teachers' and police unions, it's a sad reality that NY is paying its workers less than many suburban areas where the challenges are smaller and the aggravations are not as disabling.

I wonder how much he regrets overturning term limits and trying for another term even as Wall Street was tanking. it's probably the worst $100+ million ever spent in politics.

[BadIdeas]

10:00 PM on 02/01/2011

New York should just raise taxes, again.

All government needs is a little more money and all problems will be solved.

[colinmincy]

09:27 PM on 02/01/2011

Folks losing their job is a serious matter and those potentially impacted deserve better than the Mayor's careless statements he gives without putting much thought into them or recognizing their impact.

And another thing, which I'm sure I'll get lambasted for...that is one atrocious sweater Bloomber has on. I wasn't sure they made colors like that anymore.

[Billie]

06:56 PM on 02/02/2011

It looks like that gross blue sweater Anne Hathaway wore in the Devil Wears Prada before her makeover

[bigredhandyman]

12:58 AM on 02/03/2011

They don't. Not since the early 80's. That's the last time he was out in the general public.

[CeeLee]

07:46 PM on 02/01/2011

the US will not be a world leader in anything for the future unless they stop using teachers,
unions and public employees, along with their well deserved pensions, as the easy 'whipping boy' when times get tough, and it is tough a lot.

Respect for the teaching profession has deteriorated, not because of the skills and devotion of anyone that wants to teach in today's world, there are sub-standard professionals in EVERY
field, but because of the unending lazy sheep mentality of those leading the push of negative diatribe, and self-serving adults who want to have it their way instead of the right way.

[pricespector]

01:37 AM on 02/02/2011

"...but because of the unending lazy sheep mentality of those leading the push of negative diatribe, and self-servi­ng adults who want to have it their way instead of the right way."

Yep, that pretty much sums up the union bosses. It's not really teachers that people have a problem with.

[becut]

02:11 AM on 02/02/2011

So having the non-union corporate model is better. No unions mean favoritism, nepotism, sexism, racism, ageism, etc.. This attack on the teaching profession has nothing to do with 1 or 2 bad teachers.............billionaire CEO's are funding education reform so that they can hire temporary workers in education. Children in poor inner city neighborhoods have been dealing with subs and temp workers for 20 years.............which by the way the school board is responsible for not requiring experienced teachers to serve in the inner city. Most experienced teachers have left the inner city. The test scores are low because inner city schools have unqulaified, inexperienced teachers..............these are called "Hard to Staff Schools" and the union has nothing to do with teacher placement. The most experienced teachers would work in the inner city if the working conditions weren't so crappy: the worst administrators, training ground for administrators, low self efficacy of children due to social promotion, and no parents "children raising themselves".

[EmmaNYC]

03:00 AM on 02/02/2011

Duh, the 'union bosses' are teachers. You can't have a problem with teacher unions and claim that you don't have a problem with teachers. Teachers are their union and the union is, collectively, the teachers.

[Swedenworks]

06:56 PM on 02/01/2011

Never mind, my a**. Basically the governor told him "Last in, first out" LIFO would never be rescinded by the legislature, so he backed down. Of course, had they revoked LIFO, he would have uncovered all these 'senior' teachers who are poor performers and praised all these newbies as the wunderkids of education whose jobs must be saved. He is so transparent.

[Dan Bahr]

10:28 AM on 02/02/2011

And that transparency includes the fact that he wants to eliminate LIFO just so he can lay off the most expensive teachers, regardless of their competence. That's why LIFO and tenure should not be negotiable.

[mzzanthrope]

06:50 PM on 02/01/2011

He could donate, from his millions (or billions) and help NYC in its plight. Instead, he spent a gazillion more times that getting re- elected. I guess we should all feel grateful that Mr. Mayor Money Pants is before us, sharing wisdom (ecch: hairball), instead of behind us, watching our backs.

[pricespector]

01:38 AM on 02/02/2011

ALL politicians work this way.

[mzzanthrope]

12:57 PM on 02/02/2011

I know. It doesn't make it any less absurd.

[mzzanthrope]

06:39 PM on 02/01/2011

Oh, I see, Bloomberg is a close friend of Arianna's. Okay, now I get the earlier censorship. You should be consistent. Otherwise, you appear to be a propagandist, and this is from a liberal voice.

[JPMac]

06:23 PM on 02/01/2011

Nevermind I'll just do sting operations in AZ even though that has nothing to do with my job description as Mayor of NYC. And instead of doing my job solving the problems of NYC I'm meddling in the affairs of a state 2000 miles away!!

[mzzanthrope]

06:43 PM on 02/01/2011

I'm certain he paid from his own pocket...S-nark. This is from one that fears guns, never touched one, isn't part of the NRA, doesn't care for automatic weapons, and is liberal. The man bought his additional term, he should have no voice in people getting around laws, for him, it's only good when they can buy that right.

[HekmagaJuximakLives]

05:37 PM on 02/01/2011

Getting rid of the deadwood in the rank and file would be a good thing, except that it might encourage politicians to replace them with their nieces, stepsons from a previously undisclosed marriage, political cronies, or contributors, or Bill Maher.

[mzzanthrope]

07:01 PM on 02/01/2011

Or someone who accepts REALLY low pay.