Mr. Talk Wields his Ax

Mayor4Life doesn't like the budget cuts from Albany, so he decided the best thing to do would be to get rid of some teachers. Whenever anything ticks the mayor off, the first thing he thinks of is laying off teachers. Oh, sure, he enjoys threatening to layoff police officers and close fire houses too, but threatening teachers really makes his day.

Personally, I kind of like teachers and not having my house burn to the ground, so I'd look for savings elsewhere. If the budget were up to me, there are a few things I'd cut before I even thought of getting rid of teachers. Here, off the top of my head, and in no particular order, are some things I'd prefer to ax:

• The ARIS system (and I mean I'd like to literally take an ax to it)
• Joel Klein
• The bajillion Acuity tests we have to give every year
• Subsidies to sports teams whose payrolls are larger than some small countries
• Quality review
• Chart paper
• Small schools in large buildings (think of the cost per administrator)
• Professional development
• Joel Klein (I'd hire him back and ax him again just for fun)