NYT: Bill Would Allow Layoffs of Teachers With Seniority

[tonysam]

Let's get rid of the "expensive" hires and screw them out of their pensions. That's the neoliberal way, and DEMOCRATS are supporting this shit:

When the Bloomberg administration raised the prospect of teacher layoffs this year, administration officials complained that they would be forced to get rid of the youngest newest teachers, and called on legislators to rewrite the seniority rules.

That wish may be one step closer. Two Democratic state lawmakers have sponsored a bill that would give principals in New York City the power to choose who should lose their jobs if the city needs to lay off teachers because of budget cuts.

The bill is certain to raise the ire of teachers’ unions, which remain a powerful force in Albany. It could provoke also a new round of battles between the United Federation of Teachers and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who have had an icy relationship for months and are fighting over a new teachers’ contract.

Mr. Bloomberg has said that as many 8,500 teachers would face layoffs, as the city’s Education Department faces a budget cut of $600 million to $1.2 billion. Under the current law, teachers who have been in the system for the shortest amount of time would be the first to lose their jobs — a policy commonly known as last in, first out.

NYT

With "Democrats" supporting this, who needs Republicans?

[ixion]

1. Two "parties", ONE Team

behind the scenes.

[raccoon]

3. Well said! nt

[snot]

2. k&r'd

[dem mba]

4. seniority means you've been there longer

it doesn't mean you are necessarily a better teacher. what's wrong with creating a meritocracy in our school systems?

[tonysam]

5. Plenty. Schools aren't businesses but they are extremely political.

What makes you think a teacher who has been there 25 years is a worse teacher than some first-year teacher who doesn't know his or her ass from a hole in the ground?

What makes you think principals would be fair about "merit" when many of them have been failed teachers themselves?

What makes you think it is okay to get rid of people and destroy their careers and steal their retirement to save a few bucks?

Take the neoliberal propaganda elsewhere, please.

[dem mba]

9. oy

1) it is MOST certainly possible that a rookie teacher is better than a 25 year vet. I don't need to be a teacher to know this, because I have been a student for some 20 odd years and witnessed this fact. However, it is the exception, not the norm.

2) I thought teacher's salaries were set by other governing bodies, not the principal. Doesn't the teachers union accept or reject their wages? I don't understand your point.

3) What makes me think its ok to get rid of people? Um, how about when you fail at your job in any other private sector position you get replaced. Is that fair? There are shitty teachers out there in the country, and they are hurting, not helping, our children. I don't think it should be done on a whim, but a process should be in place to cycle out teachers who are no longer motivated or effective and put in new blood.


To be clear, I do NOT back merit pay. But the teachers union needs to understand that the world is changing, and the old way of doing things won't cut it anymore. SOME things will need to be changed or we will never be able to compete with India and China.

[Riley18]

6. Seniority also means you earn more money. They will get rid of teachers and

their pensions. The rich can not get enough.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. I don't know about Bing, but Rueben Diaz is a political malaprop..

Anti-gay, anti choice, even anti stem-cell research. A "reverend"... likely of the mail-order variety, one suspects. Nearer my god than we.

That Bloomberg is trying to recruit this idiota suggests the level of Bloomberg's determination TO BREAK THIS UNION. And perhaps ( on the brighter side; one can only hope.) hints at a certain level of desperation. Can't they find any anyone *normal* to introduce the bill?

It will be interesting to see if Diaz' ( and Bing's for that matter) standard of living spikes noticeably after collaboration with Bloomberg.

(I'm bad,; I know. I just can't help it.)

Here's the wikiskinny on the Reverend Diaz:



>>>>>>>Gang of Three

Díaz is one of three Democratic Senators, known as the "Gang of Three", who threatened to abandon the Democratic majority elected to the New York State Senate on November 4, 2008. A fourth, Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate, backed out of the group in early November.<2><3> According to a memorandum leaked to the New York Times in December 2008, the remaining "Gang of Three" tried to use their leverage to have one of them named Senate majority leader and another named chair of the Senate finance committee, and to obtain a guarantee that the Senate would not vote on the issue of same-sex marriage.<4> This deal fell through, and the three reached a compromise<5> with State Senator Malcolm Smith in January 2009, recognizing Smith as Senate president and majority leader.<6>
Relationship with Hiram Monserrate

Ruben Diaz has stated his intention to officiate Hiram Monserrate and Karla Giraldo's wedding.<[edit> Opposition to abortion and stem cell research

In 2008, Senator Díaz was described as "the state senate's sole pro-life Democrat."<8> (In fact, Queens Democratic State Senator George Onorato is also pro-life, according to Democrats for Life New York<9>) Senator Díaz has taken prominent public positions against expanding access to abortion<10> and against state funding of embryonic stem cell research.<8>

In a March 2005 speech on the State Senate floor, Senator Díaz made the following remarks: "Abortion is the American Holocaust.... The comparison is plain: six million Jews were exterminated by Hitler in Germany; Almost 48 million babies have been exterminated in the abortion clinics of America. We have simply been in the killing for a longer period of time than Hitler.... Hitler used the ashes of the Jews to make bars of soap. In America, we are selling fetal tissue to be used in: the manufacture of cosmetics as well as for medical research.... Do not point your finger at Hitler; we are worse."<11><12> In 2008, when a colleague proposed legislation that would expand abortion rights in New York, Senator Díaz described the bill as "one of the most dangerous and radical pieces of proposed legislation in New York State that I have ever seen."<13>
Opposition to same-sex marriage

In 2007, as his party, led by Governor Eliot Spitzer and Lt. Governor David Paterson, sought to pass same-sex marriage legislation, Díaz was a vocal opponent and was highly critical of Democratic support for the bill.<14> Senator Díaz's opposition to same-sex marriage continued in 2008, when he vowed to vote against same-sex marriage legislation <15> and participated (along with hundreds of clergy) in a "Power in the Pulpit" rally held by New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms<16> in the Legislative Office Building to oppose same-sex marriage;<17> at the rally, Sen. Díaz was reportedly presented with over 15,000 petitions in support of heterosexual-only marriage.<18> In May 2009, Sen. Día>>>>>>>>>>

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. This Jennifer Medina person bugs me.

>>>When the Bloomberg administration raised the prospect of teacher layoffs this year, administration officials complained that they would be forced to get rid of the youngest newest teachers, and called on legislators to rewrite the seniority rules.>>>>

I nominate her for the Judith Miller Award for NY Times Disinformation Dissemination. Her reportage is creepily slanted. Consistently.

Does she mention that the "youngest newest" ( no comma there, BTW?) teachers are also the CHEAPEST? Could anything be more relevant in terms of bringing understanding to the issue ?