New York, New Jersey governors tie school aid to teachers’ concessions
By Sandy English
15 April 2010
In a crude effort to pit teachers against the communities they serve, New York Governor David Paterson and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have offered to grant additional state funds to school districts whose teachers’ unions cooperate in wage freezes and other concessions.
According to the Buffalo News, the New York governor said, “It’s certainly apt, I think, that we would be trying to reward the districts where those who make extra sacrifices, so that’s certainly a conversation we’d be willing to have.”
Paterson put forward the New York version of the plan only a week after he delayed for a second time $2.1 billion in state aid to schools districts thoughout the state. The delay will cause real hardship for some upstate districts.
This has been accompanied by a flurry of calls from Democratic and Republican politicians in New York state as well as the corporate-owned media for “sharing the hardship,” as Paterson and the state legislature attempt to close a $9.2 billion budget gap by cutting spending on schools by more than $1 billion.
In March, three Democrats in the State Assembly asked the New York State Teachers’ Union (NYSUT) to support a wage freeze. Sam Hoyt of Buffalo, Ginny Fields of Suffolk County in Long Island and Michael Benjamin of the Bronx noted, “The ‘Great Recession’ has impacted every level of society and has created a new economic order.”
They said the union should “assist school districts in meeting their funding challenges by considering the voluntary postponement of scheduled base and step pay increases.”
Absurdly identifying themselves with ordinary New Yorkers, the three politicians continued, “As parents and taxpayers, we hope that teachers will appreciate our desire to put forward a solution that will not reduce services or put an additional strain on already overburdened taxpayers.”
The proposal to attack teachers’ salaries and benefits has met with enthusiastic approval from the media in the state. The Buffalo News noted that in East Aurora, southeast of Buffalo, the school district’s 140 teachers had agreed to forgo two days’ pay and waive the district’s $500 contribution to their health savings accounts. The stated goal of the East Aurora concessions is to reduce tax increases in the community.
Another upstate media outlet, WNYmedia.net, told teachers, “Working people pay your salaries and NY teachers make more than almost every other state in the US. You[r] average salary, $56,200, is substantially above the average NYS [New York state] resident per capita income of $30,804.”
According to LoHud.com, “Some unions are playing ball. Teachers in