Whom You Know: City Council Approves Budget that Successfully Avoids Teacher Layoffs

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

City Council Approves Budget that Successfully Avoids Teacher Layoffs

Dear New Yorker,

In case you missed the good news, the NYC Council and Mayor Bloomberg reached an agreement on the City's budget for Fiscal Year 2012 (July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012) that successfully averts any teacher layoffs.

Such a tremendous loss of teachers would have had a profound impact on our City's schools, resulting in higher class sizes and lost opportunities for our students.

That's why we made preventing these layoffs one of the Council's top priorities during our budget talks with the Mayor.

Thanks to a collaborative effort between the teachers union, the Bloomberg Administration and the Council, teachers are protected for the upcoming fiscal year. Nearly one-third of the cost of averting layoffs will be self-funded by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). Further funding was found within the NYC Department of Education, with decreases to school bussing contract costs and other efficiencies.

Even in these difficult fiscal times, we all want the very best for our City's children.

This year's budget agreement, which the Council voted on Wednesday, not only saves thousands of teachers from the chopping block, but it also provides funding for child care, after-school programs, full-day universal pre-kindergarten, and many other critical programs and services that children and their families rely on.

It also provides an additional $30 million in capital funding to expedite the removal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls, commonly known as PCB's, from city schools. These man-made chemicals, which are found in old light fixtures in many of our city's schools, are considered probable carcinogens by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency and are suspected of causing a number of critical health problems.

We still had to make some extremely tough choices this year. But New Yorkers can rest easy knowing that our children still have great teachers, that our seniors still have great centers to visit, and that our neighborhoods still have great firehouses to keep them safe.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped us win this important victory on behalf our City's students and schools. All of your phone calls, letters, petitions and rallies truly paid off. Our special thanks as well to Michael Mulgrew and the hardworking members of the UFT.

You can read more about this year's budget agreement on the Council's website at www.council.nyc.gov.

Have a GREAT weekend and a very safe and happy 4th of July!

Sincerely,

Christine C. Quinn

Speaker

NYC Council

Robert Jackson

Chair, Education Committee

NYC Council

Domenic M. Recchia, Jr.

Chair, Finance Committee

NYC Council

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