By Connor Adams Sheets
Dozens of parents and teachers from Community District Education Council 25 joined together last Thursday at PS 107 in Flushing to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s threat to lay off more than 4,400 teachers under his new budget.
The occasion — hosted by City Councilman Peter Koo (R-Flushing) and the District 25 chapter of the United Federation of Teachers — was one of several town hall meetings held by Queens Council members in recent days in response to Bloomberg’s proposed education cuts.
Koo emphasized that he believes a reversal by the mayor on the cutbacks can be achieved if educators, parents, students and officials rally behind the cause and make their displeasure heard.
“If the mayor carries out his plan, that is unconscionable. We need the teachers in the classroom to teach our kids,” he told the crowd, drawing enthusiastic applause. “I need you to call your elected officials, call the mayor’s office and call 311 to voice your anger at the mayor’s plan to lay off teachers. I think if we all work together we can get the mayor to reconsider these layoffs.”
The city would save about $250 million if the layoffs go through, according to UFT District 25 Representative Joseph Kessler, who pointed out that the money could be taken from a $3.2 billion surplus the mayor said he wants to save for the future.
“There’s a $3.2 billion surplus. There should be no layoffs,” Kessler said. “In the layoff situation, $250 million is all that’s needed. That’s a lot of money, but if you do the math that’s still a lot of surplus left. If there are any more cuts, you can’t imagine what will happen.”
Teachers told tales at the meeting at PS 107, at 167-02 45th Ave., of what is already occurring in the district under current funding levels: classes in closets, students using radiators for chairs and high school students unable to play sports because their extended class day ends at 6 p.m.
“The children are the future, and they aren’t putting them first. They’re taking services away from the children,” said Nadine Elhathat, a pre-kindergarten teacher at PS 107. “Smaller class size is the key issue. You have to keep teachers if you want to have small classes. I started teaching 18 years ago and at the time there were classes with 35 to 40 kids. They stopped that, but now they’re going back to that. It’s like we’re moving backwards.”
Sean Montgomery has a daughter at PS 130, also in District 25. He said he, too, believes the city no longer shoots for the stars with education and other services.
“I want to see if we can do something about teachers being laid off. Face it: They get laid off, the student-teacher ratio increases and the student dropout ratio goes up for borderline students,” he said. “Our children’s future and our future suffer when our children get substandard educations.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
