Bloomberg to Lay Off Thousands of Teachers

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg intends to eliminate 4,278 teaching jobs through layoffs, and about 1,500 through attrition, marking the first significant layoffs of teachers since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

The slashing of jobs are part of the Mr. Bloomberg’s effort to slice an additional $400 million from various city agencies to help plug a multibillion-dollar deficit in his $65.6 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. That budget is about the same size as the current one.

Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan Borough president, criticized the mayor’s lack of transparency in releasing his budget. “This document is political,” he said. “This is not the way we should be running the city.”
The deep cuts to the city’s schools that Mr. Bloomberg will unveil on Friday are similar to what he proposed in February, though the number of layoffs are slightly less.

Mr. Bloomberg, during his budget presentation at City Hall, faulted the state for the necessity of teacher layoffs. In 2008, he said, the state paid 45 percent of the city’s education costs; next fiscal year, he said, the state would pay 39 percent.

"I understand the frustration that parents and teachers feel; I feel it too," he said. " We are not going to walk away from our education system."" read more via source