Uptown Radio

News headlines for February 17, 2012

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Newly designated school chancellor Dennis Walcott greets Staten Island city council member Vincent Ignizio at the Committee on Education hearing. Walcott said 4500 teachers would have to be laid off due to state budget cuts. Photo by: Jacob Anderson / Columbia Radio News.

The brand new chancellor of New York City Schools wasted no time getting down to business today. This morning, Dennis Walcott faced the Committee on Education’s budget hearing for the next fiscal year. He said Bloomberg’s policies will stand, including the Mayor’s estimate that 4500 teachers will need to be laid off due to state budget cuts.

Walcott began the public meeting on a personal note.

“This morning I dropped my grandson off at his school which also happened to be my own elementary school when I was a child,” he said.

His day quickly got lot tougher. He faced the council and told them that the state’s education budget doesn’t cover the needs of New York City’s one million students.

Several of the nineteen council members blamed the mayor for the school’s financial problems. They said if Bloomberg would support the so-called millionaires tax–income tax on people making over 200 thousand dollars a year, that revenue could help cover school costs. Council Member Charles Barron, from Brooklyn, told Walcott to tell the mayor that.

“When y’all go to lunch or breakfast or caviar at his mansion, whatever you do, I think it’s important to try to influence him that it’s the tax breaks,” Barron said.

Barron fought back when Walcott insisted that people losing their jobs would be unfortunate, but that it was necessary.

“I also do not want to lay off teachers,” Walcott began.

“You don’t have to Dennis,” Barron interrupted. “I know you don’t want to have to lay them off–don’t!”

Barron and others called on the city to use its 3 billion surplus to cover the lost funding. Walcott said it would be unwise to spend it all at once. He spent more time talking about getting rid of the “Last In, First Out” policy, or LIFO, which gives preference to teachers based on seniority instead of performance. He says the policy leads to firing the wrong person.

“The only thing worse than having to lay off a teacher is having to lay off a bad teacher,” he added.

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, left, walks his grandson Justin, 7, to PS 36- St. Albans School, Queens, a day after he was nominated to replace Cathie Black as schools chancellor. Photo by: Henny Ray Abrams / AP.

Public school parent Ann Kjellberg attended the meeting, and said her child’s teacher is young, and at risk of getting laid off under “Last In First Out.” But she said completely getting rid of LIFO could mean too much emphasis on test scores. She’s says that’s already happening.

“My kid’s in fourth grade and they started test prep for a test they’re taking in May, in March,” she said. “They spend half the day–more than half the day–preparing for this stupid test.”

Kjellberg fears getting rid of LIFO would make that kind of teaching standard.

Dennis Walcott says he’ll continue to push for the end of LIFO when he goes to Albany next week. As for layoffs, he said pink slips will have to go out by June at the latest, but may be sent even sooner.