Teachers: We need parking placards

Mr. Bloomberg's plan calls for a 20% reduction in the permits, which grant employees ranging from police officers to court clerks to teachers access to select parking spots. He billed it as a way simultaneously to cut down on abuse of the permits — a coveted perk for many government workers — and to unclog the city's streets and air, by encouraging workers to switch into subways and buses and out of carbon-emitting cars.

Parking Plan Is Rebuffed by Teachers

On Friday, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, objected to Mr. Bloomberg's inclusion of teachers in the cutbacks, sending him a scathing letter calling the idea "deeply disturbing."

She said teachers should not be lumped in among those abusing the permits. In fact, union officials said, teachers — some of whom work in places where no subway lines go — have far too few permits, forcing many to go to extraordinary measures to find a place to put their cars.

Teachers often make informal deals with local residents to rent out driveway space, a UFT vice president, Michael Mulgrew, said. One school where he used to teach, in Brighton Beach, had just three parking spots for a staff of 130, he said.

Schools in the past have also paved over playgrounds to make space for parking lots.