Facing severe cuts under Governor David Paterson’s proposed budget, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told the City Council’s Education Committee Wednesday that 8,500 teachers could soon be laid off.
The chancellor said in a worst-case scenario the department would be forced to lay off 15 percent of math, English, science and social studies teachers.
State law requires the teachers with the least experience get cut first.
According to a Department of Education analysis, no school district would be spared but the two hit the hardest would be District 7 in the South Bronx and District 2 on the Upper East Side, both losing about 20 percent of their teachers.
“These cuts would bring tremendous instability to our schools and students,” Klein said. “We’d be force to let go outstanding teachers, some of whom have been working in our schools for as long as four years.”
“The children of New York City schools are going to pay for the mistakes that adults made with the economy. And we have to do everything we can to stop that from happening,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.
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This is truly sickening. Education is the last place that should be cut. The South Bronx needs all of the teachers (disclosure: my brother teaches in the South Bronx).