As I was writing my blog entry yesterday, I was overcome with a strange sense of deja vu. Has that ever happened to you?It occurred when I heard the words "15,000 layoffs" from Mayor4Life's lips. I got the feeling that it wasn't the first time I'd heard them.
As it turns out, I was right. More right than even I bargained for. Mayor4Life and his stooge, Joel Klein, threatened to lay off 15,000 teachers once before. Check out this article from Gothamschools and see you notice anything creepy about it. Besides Klein's face, I mean.
Points for you if you noticed the date of the article. It was January 28, 2009--exactly two years to the day ago that the mayor last threatened to lay off exactly the same number of teachers.
What's going on here? Is this mere coincidence, or is the mayor calling plays from his old playbook? If you'll notice, Klein even used many of the same words that Bloomberg used yesterday:
“We don’t want to lose personnel,” he said later. “Particularly, we don’t want to lose young talented people that we’ve recruited in recent years.”
Clearly, Bloomberg is trying once again to force a change in seniority laws by threatening to axe new teachers. It didn't work last time, and it will fail again. State politicians must know that it's political suicide to change seniority--not because of the teacher's union, but because ALL unions would then be subject to the same threat. This is the third rail of state politics.
The mayor pulls out this threat annually, the way the mayor of Punxsutawney, PA pull out the groundhog every year. The only difference is that in PA, a mayor wearing a big hat pulls a rodent from the ground, whereas in NY, a rodent pulls a trick out of his hat.
As I was writing my blog entry yesterday, I was overcome with a strange sense of deja vu. Has that ever happened to you?
.
What's going on here? Is this mere coincidence, or is the mayor calling plays from his old playbook? If you'll notice, Klein even used many of the same words that Bloomberg used yesterday:
“We don’t want to lose personnel,” he said later. “Particularly, we don’t want to lose young talented people that we’ve recruited in recent years.”
Clearly, Bloomberg is trying once again to force a change in seniority laws by threatening to axe new teachers. It didn't work last time, and it will fail again. State politicians must know that it's political suicide to change seniority--not because of the teacher's union, but because ALL unions would then be subject to the same threat. This is the third rail of state politics.
The mayor pulls out this threat annually, the way the mayor of Punxsutawney, PA pull out the groundhog every year. The only difference is that in PA, a mayor wearing a big hat pulls a rodent from the ground, whereas in NY, a rodent pulls a trick out of his hat.
As I was writing my blog entry yesterday, I was overcome with a strange sense of deja vu. Has that ever happened to you?
.
5 comments:
It is just the same old scare tactics.
Well, tomorrow will be a PD day throughout the city. If ever there was a time you felt deja-vu about sitting in a classroom listening to "data drone" for hours on end, tomorrow's the day.
Actually, I think it's called "data-vu."
You know, one of the reasons I chose to move into teaching was the security of the job. After being laid off in another industry while getting stellar performance reviews (My 3 month review was on par with high level expectations after 2 years) because I was the newest hire (and, there were no unions, that's just the way it goes in the private industry), I figured being a science teacher was a safe bet.
Now, with threats like this, I would never make the same choice, nor would I encourage others to join the profession.
They may be empty threats, but, they will have very real repercussions. There is already a shortage of qualified science teachers who have worked in the field.
All I know is that NYC came to Canada to recruit me, and, if this is what America has to offer for solutions, I"m glad I'll be able to move back as it continues it's slide in the world. I"ve already taken a massive pay cut, since the Canadian dollar has gone up over 30% since I got here, I'm now making less working here than I would Canada.
Why aren't we demanding more disclosure from the mayor on these no-bid contracts, exorbitant priced consultants, the big elephant in the room ARIS, waste the money Acuity, the increase of PR people in the mayor's office and the DoE, mayor's donation to his favorite and influential organizations, CityTime scandel of why wasn't this project stopped before it became ridiculously expensive and wasteful, bailout for profit-making wall street companies and if you have anything else, please blog, blog, blog.
Let's demand, demand, disclosure!
I'm so angry that I want to scream at the top of my lung - STOP THE MADNESS!
Why is this any surprise to anyone? This is exactly what we have done for the last 400 years. It is the American way to blame out of our own troubles, to scapegoat out of our own troubles, and to impose our wills on other out of our own troubles. The only thing different this time is that we are at the receiving end.
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