State Assemblymember Jim Brennan (D.-Bklyn) said he would work with his legislative colleagues in the coming weeks to ensure that the 4% increase in education aid for New York City is provided. “The loss of $250 million in aid will result in budget cuts to the schools that are painful and unnecessary,” Brennan said. “It is a mistake to link basic education aid increases to collective bargaining results, especially to a controversial subject like teacher evaluations,” he added. “My office will introduce legislation shortly to amend last year’s budget to allow the aid increase to go through.”
The 2011-12 budget cut State education aid by 7% as the Federal stimulus funds and recession-related tax increases expired. In 2012-2013 the State approved a 4% across-the-board education aid increase for the school districts, but it required that the aid be coupled to the implementation of the Annual Professional Performance Review, a teacher rating system. The school districts and the teachers’ union had until January 15, 2013, to negotiate the criteria for 20% of the new teacher evaluation system. The Bloomberg administration and the United Federation of Teachers were unable to resolve their differences about the rating system and did not reach an agreement by the deadline.
“We should amend the budget to release the funds. Let’s not have our children suffer because of a collective bargaining dispute,” Brennan said.
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