An open letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg:
If there is one issue that unites New Yorkers, it is the desire to offer our children a better future, and education opens doors to opportunity. So when I saw reports in two daily newspapers that you are proposing to cut as many as 6,700 teachers in order to help close a $5 billion budget deficit, I could not help but think of the families whose futures will be shaken by diminished access to a quality education.
On Thursday, another daily paper reported that the city Department of Education is seeking approval for up to a $5 million-per-year contract to recruit more teachers.
If the city cannot afford its current teachers, how can the DOE pay to recruit more educators? Why not use the $5 million to offset teacher layoffs? It seems like common sense to me.
Toby Stavisky
State Senator
Whitestone
