From the NY Times:Despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce class sizes, the city’s Department of Education has ignored state law and allowed classrooms to grow in the last couple of years, the city teachers’ union and other groups said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The dispute stems from a lengthy legal battle that ended in 2006, when the state’s highest court ruled that the state was failing to ensure that New York City and other high-needs districts were providing all children with the opportunity for a sound basic education. The ruling led the state to send the city about $1.5 billion in the last three years, about $750 million of which was earmarked for class-size reductions.
But despite the new money, and a decline in student enrollment citywide, class sizes have increased, according to the lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx.
And from Room Eight:
So the UFT filed a lawsuit demanding that more teachers be hired to reduce class size, which is what some state aid has allocated for. I've got some news for everyone not paying attention. Thanks in large part to the power of the UFT, that money, all available money, was shifted by the state legislature from having more teachers teach in smaller classes, to having more teachers retired for more years. That irrevocable decision passed in early 2008, when the retirement age for teachers was retroactively cut [to] 55 [from] 62, with those qualifying immediately not putting in an extra dime and those near retirement contributing little.
So how does the UFT have the gall to sue the Mayor. Because he was in on the deal too, for reasons the rest of us can merely guess at. School spending is through the roof, as I have shown here as a matter of data, but administrative spending is low in NYC relative to other places. Come on Bloomberg, you're re-elected now; tell the truth about where the money is going.
The decision about the future of the New York City public schools has already been made. It's a repeat of everything that was done leading up to the 1970s collapse. Screw the newbies and kids, flee to Florida. Instead of complaining and suing, the UFT should be celebrating.
Game over. Come on Bloomberg, say where the money is going. They're counting on you not having the balls to tell the truth.
7 comments:
i think the post should read: "cut from 62 to 55" ?
All of this going on while the Archdiocese is shutter school after school. Time to bring back Our Lady of the Flying Ruler.
f*ck the UFT
now that is an "evil empire"
UFT needs to go. But clearly there's something wrong with the explanatory logic. It's stupid to suggest that the UFT would sue the mayor over this *because* they think he won't admit an alleged complicity in redirecting this money to early teacher retirement. The UFT has proven time and again they don't care what people think of them, so they're not suing for political cover as protection from Bloomberg's administration.
There's another explanation, though I can't guess what it is at the moment.
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?
social engineering programs have caused underutilized 7th to 9th grade classrooms in district 26 & 25 middle schools. to fill these seats,the feeder elementary schools,31,162,and 159,all overcrowded in the past years,have forced the sixth grade pupils to
enroll at the middle schools.
parents not concurring, have transferred their pupils to private schools or moved.
the d.o.e. social engineers continue to cause chaos for a young parent population,who only want their children to read and write and learn math.
if the so-called n.y.s. tests are dumbed down,the parents get the big shock in the first year at college.
The UFT is a union and its correct function is to protect its dues paying members--the teachers.
The ones to blame for this fiasco is the Board of Ed or Department of Ed or whatever they call themselves now because running schools is their job.
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