And the Poor get Poorer

MANIFESTO

New York City Mayor Bloomberg proposed yesterday that "more than 12,000 city jobs ... be cut, including around 6,500 teaching positions."

Needless to say, this is a tough onion to bite into, but the move apparently is necessitated by Albany's "cutting too much funding to New York City schools and other agencies."

The Daily News is apoplectic today as it opines that

Gov. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Democratic conference chief John Sampson and Senate Republican Minority Leader Dean Skelos ... have backed away from tackling pension and health care costs that are draining money from critical government functions. New York can continue to pay wages and benefits that far exceed those available in the private sector, or New York can eliminate teachers.

Take your pick. Paterson, Silver, Sampson and Skelos have already made their choices. They have thrown the kids under the bus ...

However, when one looks at the small stories, one can't help but be taken by episodes like this:

Jessica Stillman, 24, a third-grade teacher at the [South Bronx's PS 277], recalls a young boy who started off the year throwing chairs and storming out of her classroom.

To gain his trust, and help him avoid the home life that contained "things that an 8-year-old should never be exposed to," she asked him to stay after school to be her helper.

To get him to practice writing, she pretended she needed his help to write notes to other teachers. At times, she would catch glimpses of a troubled home life. A conversation about favorite snacks revealed that he sometimes had only a bag of Cheetos for dinner.

Early in the school year, 28% of Ms. Stillman's students scored proficient in English on a New York City diagnostic test. In March, 77% did.

Ms. Stillman will be the first teacher to be laid off at P.S. 277.

I suppose I'm a fan of teacher tenure, but when "1,600 [city] teachers ... received 'unsatisfactory' ratings last year," it's an outright tragedy when a wonderful talent like Ms. Stillman has to be let go.