According to Peter Goodman in Edwize (yes I do read Edwize even though I no longer leave comments on them) the actual budget cuts are closer to 4% than the 1.75% claimed by the DOE. Because most of the money are spent by the schools early in the school year, the schools have very little, if any excess funds. Take into account the loss of students in the high schools by the 2nd semester and you have a potential disaster in the making.
Beach Channel High School has to eliminate up to 10 teaching positions and increase class sizes. The budget cuts are as high as $447,000 for some large, overcrowded high schools. In the spirit of No Children Left Behind, no school is immune from these budget cuts. Where are the cuts at Tweed Central? How many managers, lawyers, and educrats (a dying breed at Tweed) were laid off? I venture not many, if any. Pushing paper is more important than classroom learning.
Time and again budget cuts are placed on the schools and translated to the classroom, while budget surpluses seem to be spent on the "flavor of the day" programs that highly-paid private consultants run that don't show any classroom improvement.
Teacher disrespect is evident, look at the reduce parking permit program by Bloomberg. It turns out that many of the reduced parking permits were to be from teachers, not the bureaucrats. Further, why not eliminate the ATRs? By placing teachers in the classroom instead of paying them as subs. you reduce class size and eliminate the need to hire newbie teachers.
It is a real pity that Kleinberg starves the classroom and disrespects it's teachers and gets away with it. If only the public, politicians, and the newspapers would wake up and smell the coffee.
Well the clock is ticking and Kleinberg will be gone in 2010, I hope.
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