Tuesday, June 21, 2011

NYC Educator: You Don't Have a Plan; Or, You Do Have a Plan, We Just Like Ours Better

NYC Educator: You Don't Have a Plan; Or, You Do Have a Plan, We Just Like Ours Better

You Don't Have a Plan; Or, You Do Have a Plan, We Just Like Ours Better

The cartoon at left (from Jim Morin, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Miami Herald) made me laugh without laughing, if you know what I mean. "You don't have a plan!" is a popular straw man argument that one side can use against another when one side simply doesn't like the other's plan or finds it to clash with pre-established beliefs (or talking points). Just as Congressional Republicans like to accuse Democrats, including President Obama (who has put forth a deficit reduction plan), of not having a plan, so Mayor Bloomberg seems to think that his opponents don't have a realistic plan for averting teacher layoffs. Well, we here at NYC Educator have some news for the Mayor: We have a plan.

The selected bullet points below come from Class Size Matters:

Cost cuts or freezes:
  • $23 million: cancel (or do not renew) contracts w/ McGraw Hill and Scantron for Acuity, or interim