The DOE Administrative Bloat Has Finally Caught The Eye Of The New York Post. Its About Time That The Mass Media Is Looking At The Tweed Budget.

One of my complaints is how the mass media ignores the Administrative bloat at Tweed which has seen a doubling of money since 2002 and an increase of 16,360 people at the DOE (teachers accounted for only an additional 1,000 to the increase). Finally, none other than the New York Post wrote an editorial that questioned why Bloomberg did not look at the DOE for additional cuts. In fact, the editorial stated the following"

He's vowing to cut some 6,000 teaching slots, for example, including more than 4,000 by layoff -- but he's also more than doubled school spending since '02.

Seems like a ripe target to us.

Furthermore, the usually reliable New York City Council has already grilled the Mayor's poodle, Dennis Walcott on the DOE's bloated Bureaucracy, especially at Tweed and will look hard at cuts there while providing the $276 million to retain the 4,100 teachers. In particular, they will be investigating what happened to the $300 million DOE surplus that mysteriously disappeared when the UFT identified the money in Tweed's budget, the outrageous increases in computer and consultant services, and most importantly the $3.2 billion surplus that is being put away for the budget next year. In fact, the UFT President, Michael Mulgrew, said the following about the DOE budget.


He argued that there are huge potential savings in the astounding $4.6 billion DOE spends on outside contracts, $40 million for outside management consultants, and $36 million for computer consultants. DOE has added 218 positions to the central bureaucracy; and recently, the UFT had pointed out to DOE the fact that there was a $300 M surplus in their own operating budget for salaries; the next day they came out with a new document in which this $300 M had disappeared from view.

The bottom line is that I highly doubt that there will be any teacher layoffs unless he gets his way on "last in, first out". An unlikely action given the Mayor's reduced popularity, and his relentless attacks on teachers that have turned off even his most ardent supporters. Since the Mayor is a "lame duck" I will find it difficult to believe that the politicians who want to be Mayor will antagonize the UFT for the present "lame duck" Mayor. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.