Coincidence? NY passes first step in eliminating seniority for teachers, while stating the likelihood of extending millionaire's surtax is low.
What an interesting confluence of stories emerging in the New York City budget battle. Mayor Bloomberg has announced potential teacher layoffs numbering approximately 4,600 and has been trying to change the New York State Law that mandates tenured teachers get to stay, recent hires are first fired, or 'Last In First Out', or 'LIFO'.
The issue has been portrayed as a necessary change, in order to eliminate underperforming but tenured teachers, as well as reap more budget savings by cutting fewer teachers.
The issue has been portrayed as a necessary change, in order to eliminate underperforming but tenured teachers, as well as reap more budget savings by cutting fewer teachers.
The Republican-led Senate has narrowly approved Bloomberg's proposal.
Incidentally, the bill was sponsored by education committee chair John Flanagan of Suffolk. (I just love that, Senators from Long Island deciding what New York City can or cannot do about its teachers and schools).
In a win for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Republican-led state senate narrowly approved a bill that would end seniority protections for teachers in New York City. The bill would do away with the so-called "last in, first out" (LIFO) rule that requires new teachers to be the first to go during layoffs regardless of merit. Seniority could no longer be the sole criteria. Instead, the city could eliminate teachers with unsatisfactory ratings and other performance issues. Mayor Bloomberg plans to lay off more than 4,600 teachers to close a budget gap.
The Bloomberg-backed proposal made it past the Republican Senate but faces a tougher road in the Democratic Assembly. Both the teachers union and their biggest ally, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, back a competing bill submitted by Gov. Cuomo. Silver told reporters earlier in the day that the state is already using federal Race to the Top funds to come up with a new teacher evaluation system starting in September that will make it easier for all districts to keep good teachers and get rid of bad ones.
Bloomberg's and Cuomo's proposals differ greatly in what their standards would measure: The Regents are creating at least four categories to be considered along with seniority: highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective. The Bloomberg-backed bill had nine, including disciplinary problems, absenteeism and lateness, criminal record, and a failure to obtain a teaching certificate.
In an unrelated (?) story, little support by Cuomo or the Senate for extending millionaires' surtax:
Silver: Chances of Keeping Millionaires Tax Are 'Poor'
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, speaking a month before the state budget is due, said the likelihood of retaining the so-called millionaires tax in New York was "poor" as support for the temporary income surcharge appeared to wane.
Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Republican leader of the State Senate have repeatedly said they do not favor extending the millionaires tax — a temporary income tax surcharge on New Yorkers earning more than $200,000 a year — as a means of alleviating some of the $10 billion in budget cuts that the governor is proposing.
In the Assembly, where Democrats are in the majority, some members had expressed interest in continuing the tax, which is set to expire at the end of the year. But now, with just one month before the budget deadline, Silver said that although there is support in his Democratic conference for the tax on the rich, he does not think he can overcome opposition from the governor and the Senate.
Coincidence?