Bloomberg calls for no teacher pay raises to avoid layoffs
Mayor Bloomberg called this morning for the city to eliminate pay raises for public school teachers to forestall teacher layoffs.
The mayor said that cutting the two percent pay raises the city had planned to offer teachers — already a decrease from a planned four percent raise — would prevent the city from laying off 4,400 teachers.
A spokesman for the city’s teachers union said he had just learned of the mayor’s plan to eliminate pay raises. The mayor’s statement is noticeably silent on whether the teachers union has agreed to this proposal. Teachers union president Michael Mulgrew has repeatedly taken the position that the best way for the city to avoid layoffs is through a retirement incentive.
Chancellor Joel Klein is scheduled to give a news conference about budget cuts at 11:45 am today and a spokesman for the Department of Education said he would not answer questions about the mayor’s plan before
The mayor said that cutting the two percent pay raises the city had planned to offer teachers — already a decrease from a planned four percent raise — would prevent the city from laying off 4,400 teachers.
A spokesman for the city’s teachers union said he had just learned of the mayor’s plan to eliminate pay raises. The mayor’s statement is noticeably silent on whether the teachers union has agreed to this proposal. Teachers union president Michael Mulgrew has repeatedly taken the position that the best way for the city to avoid layoffs is through a retirement incentive.
Chancellor Joel Klein is scheduled to give a news conference about budget cuts at 11:45 am today and a spokesman for the Department of Education said he would not answer questions about the mayor’s plan before