Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Video of Fight Back Friday Press Conf at Christine Quinn Office as Post Cards Delivered

Below is the video I shot at the PC but soon after we heard this:

"We have to fight like hell to make sure Quinn has no chance of becoming Mayor. At least she says she is holding strong to layoffs, all be it while throwing seniority rules under the bus."
----Comment from a teacher after reading article with these comments: 
As for how to conduct teacher layoffs, should they be necessary, Quinn said that selecting instructors for dismissal solely through seniority, rather than on teacher effectiveness, is plainly nuts. Bloomberg had pleaded with Albany to end the so-called last in, first out system, but Albany told him to take a hike.
"Having a system that is based exclusively on seniority does not make any sense," Quinn said.
She also backed the concept of letting go teachers who are paid to do nothing because they were excessed from positions and have been unable to find new jobs in the school system.
Quinn said they should be removed from the payroll after they have had a fair chance to look for work - perhaps after a year, certainly after two.
I would have delivered more than postcards. Quinn is a Bloomberg sucking slug. Today's Times
Unions Weighing New Plan to Avert Teacher Layoffs has an article about how her influence is growing and she is the leading candidate for mayor. UGH!


Fight Back Friday
Press Conference at City Council President Christine Quinn's Office
June 10, 2011 

On June 10, 2011 parents and teachers held a press conference in front of NYC City Council President Christine Quinn's mid-town office to deliver post cards calling for no cuts to education. This was the culminating event of a Fight Back Friday with schools around the city participating.

Quinn, the leading candidate for mayor who has backed Bloomberg came out against following seniority for layoffs.


http://youtu.be/OEGfptIQY4s



City Council Speaker Christine Quinn understands hard budget choices she, Mayor Bloomberg must make

Editorials
Friday, June 10th 2011, 4:00 AM
Christine Quinn says the city's books are out of balance by $700 million, requiring serious trims.
Corkery/News



Christine Quinn says the city's books are out of balance by $700 million, requiring serious trims.

There has been a fantasy abroad that Mayor Bloomberg's plan to lay off more than 4,000 teachers and close 20 fire companies is but political theater by a billionaire politician crying wolf.
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew has been a leading propagator of this pernicious fable, but even Gov. Cuomo lent it some credence.
But now that the City Council and mayor have only three weeks to adopt a budget, reality has begun to bite.
Visiting the Daily News Editorial Board yesterday, Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that, after herculean efforts, the city's books for the coming fiscal year still are out of balance by some $700 million, an amount that will necessitate serious trims.
"You can't promise New Yorkers a budget that has no pain in it," Quinn said, adding that her priority is to find savings elsewhere in city government to avert teacher layoffs.
She would need $270 million for that, plus $90 million to keep fire companies in operation, but she's not yet close to finding that kind of dough. All the more power to her if she can pull it off.
To her credit - and this is something that Mulgrew and municipal labor leaders in general should note - Quinn ruled out a wholesale raid on the city's health care trust fund.
Already, Bloomberg is dipping into that pot for $700 million, and Quinn rightly said it would be irresponsible to go much further.
She posited that, as an absolutely last-ditch measure, she might grab $20 million or even higher into the double digits, then added definitively:
"You certainly couldn't do $270 million for the teachers from there in a way that I would say is responsible."
As for how to conduct teacher layoffs, should they be necessary, Quinn said that selecting instructors for dismissal solely through seniority, rather than on teacher effectiveness, is plainly nuts. Bloomberg had pleaded with Albany to end the so-called last in, first out system, but Albany told him to take a hike.
"Having a system that is based exclusively on seniority does not make any sense," Quinn said.
She also backed the concept of letting go teachers who are paid to do nothing because they were excessed from positions and have been unable to find new jobs in the school system.
Quinn said they should be removed from the payroll after they have had a fair chance to look for work - perhaps after a year, certainly after two.
Finally, Quinn said New Yorkers are going to get hammered unless municipal labor leaders are willing to make sacrifices.
"The unions are going to have to come to the table," she declared, and she was dead-on right.

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