Superintendent: Boston schools must cut 900 jobs

It is sad that budget cuts tend to affect the education system. Of all the things to cut - teachers??

How will this affect the Boston Teacher Residency Program? A great initiative, if successful, but this news does not really send a positive message to prospective candidates. Unless the plan is to weed out longer serving, established, well paid educators and replace them with younger, lower paid teachers. Both categories have a lot to offer, and I can't judge the effects if this were the case, but it is disheartening to know that we might consider ridding the system of those who have given so much over the years. I am torn - not knowledgeable enough to come to a fully educated conclusion (no pun intended), but it makes me think.

We're facing tough times. As long as the school department sayes "how can we least affect the kids' education" before making the cuts, I'm OK with it. Teachers should be the last to go (I'm not a teacher, nor do I even know one), but I know they're responsible for the future generations... and I admire each and every one of them. Just keep the teachers and keep the classrooms at 30 or below and we'll 'weather the storm'.

So less teachers and larger classes are what the city needs to combat an increase in Boston's drop-out rate, level of school violence, and already over crowded classrooms. Furthermore, I would not be surprised to see the majority of teaching positions eliminated from school's such as Madison Park and not from Boston Latin.

and this is just the beginning in Massachusetts....and this is just Boston, we have not heard from Springfield, Worcester, Lynn, Lowell, Fall River, New Bedford and every town in between..let's start fixing this by getting rid of the retirees from RI, NH who are taking jobs away from people who need a job not money on top of their retirements, unload MCAS (all students must be proficient in 2014) and the massive costs of running it.
We have not heard about the public safety employees that will be laid off as well...scary stuff

The article does not cite the massive BPS student and parent presence/protest at this meeting.

Busing costs than city more than 70 million a year. Wouldn't that money be better spent on direct education of our children? In addition, we are not going to address the problems of low student achievement and a high dropout rate by laying of the low seniority teachers who have the energy, motivation and innnovation needed to confront the educational challenges of the next generation. Boston parents need to raise their voices and make sure this short sighted budget does not prevail .

This is what happens when the teacher's union demands (and gets) salaries and benefits that cities cannot afford. Boston teachers are one of the highest paid employees in the city or state (yes, more than cops, firemen & even legislators - check online). By far, they have the largest number of individuals with excessive salaries. AND, most retire with pensions & full benefits at age 55-60. Cities cannot sustain this.

Can someone please explain why the city is expecting revenues to increase next year but they are cutting the school budget? Sounds like the annual preparation for the trip up Beacon Hill to beg for a meals tax. Goes like this:

Claim our children are in danger!
Trek up the hill and hat in hand, get on your knees and beg for a meals tax.
Legislature says thanks for your time, please come again.
Claim once again our children are in danger (dog and pony show, dog and pony show..)!
Here he comes to save the day!
Tom Menino's on his way! (sung to the tune of underdog)
We dug deep but we did it - by cutting this and trimming that - we'll manage to survive to trek up the hill another time.
Lo and behold - the budget is magically balanced and the city has a surplus (thanks to the $60-80 million fudge factor they build into the budget every year)

Unfortunately, looks like the legislature and the gov may fall for the charade this time around.

Don't do it!

Go back to neighborhood schools (like everybody else in Mass). Reduce $100 million busing budget. Everybody knows that this is the solution, it just takes someone with some one in the school administration or school committee to champion this cause. Good Luck!

I have a idea!! How about they review the retirements requirements and maybe extend it to age 62 and/or reduce the 90% pension, (80% plus no state taxes)...Or how about they review the wage scale EVERYONE is getting paid from and cut back on the 6 figure incomes the school department employees get...Or is the stuff considered a sacred lamb.

This is a very sad day. It's funny to see the government "bailing out" (i.e. handing banks who were nothing short of ignorant in the way they went about business a blank check) banks, car companies, and other institutions; yet cities are being forced to eliminate jobs in the field of education. We need more funding and resources for our students not less. This is completely unacceptable. The government is basically saying that although educating our future is nice, it's not as important as x,y,z. I always thought the apocalypse would be spawned by MTV, not by politicians and lobbyists.

Can we now put a pay freeze on the table? Nope. Let's cut young, good teachers to hang onto burn-outs with seniority. Union Yes!

Trim out the "long in the tooth" and poor performing teachers. Like it or not, they are out there and in significant numbers.

As a BPS teacher facing a job cut, I am sad about this announcement. I love my job teaching kindergarten and I am hoping our union considers a wage freeze to help! This will be an awful thing for BPS. But our leaders are faced with no other option
. I work with some of the most dedicated people in the system. Our building alone is facing losing 12 provisional teachers. It's the kids and families that will lose out. Let's hope the money can come from somewhere and be creative about waste in the system. For instance, all of the food that does in the trash each day!

I am a current Boston teacher, and it makes me feel good to see that people see how big of a problem this is. While I am worried about my own job I am more worried about these children. They deserve better than this. I go to work each day to try and make their lives better, and things like cutting teachers, closing schools, and making class sizes bigger goes against everything we as teachers are working to fix. Hopefully, this is just a wake up call to the city and state warning them of the possibility that the money won't be enough, but I have a feeling we are in for a long ride.

Remember, everybody. Vote No on Question 1, because teachers could lose jobs if this passes. This way, everybody on municipal and state payroll can keep our jobs no matter how much we're paid, because the taxpayers will have no choice but to staff all of us and pay all of us whatever we're making, no matter whether they want to or not..

This is a piece of cake.

The unions should be considering wage freezes or even drops in wages in the hopes of being able to keep more teachers employed. The unions should be considering allowing the school system to keep the teachers that are the top performers instead of having to keep those with tenior.

I should I could say the BPS should be considering allowing children to go to the schools closest to their homes, but unfortunately desegregation laws won't allow them to do it unless the courts reverse the decisions they made decades ago.

Unfortunately these proposed changes are only going to hurt the school system and the students it serves.

Instead of giving money to Iraq and Afganistan the goverment should give the money to the schools and should help create the jobs and restore the country.
This should solve the problem.

Let's stop sending millions of dollars to charter schools.

So Boston Schools need to cut more than 900 jobs and Manny is offered $25 million to play baseball for 1 year. Welcome to America!

Neighborhood schools--no more busing! Spend the money on teachers, not an empty symbol of integration.

Haven't heard from Lynn? Consider yourself informed about Lynn. Announced last Friday: a Feb. 12th (100th day of school) closing of classrooms with a new"ideal size" of 32 students per class in all elementary grades. (To take effect next month) How? The children will be moved from 3 classes of 21 into two classes of 32 and 33. The closed class's teacher will be placed somewhere within his or her certification, unless of course "low man on the seniority list". What a sound plan, not! Teachers vote next week to give (or not) one day's pay to keep classes open until June. Stay tuned!

Stop giving our kids reasons to drop out when what they need are reasons to stay in school, graduate, go to college and so on. All they get is nonsense, budget cuts, not enough paper, not enough books, larger classes, older teachers who are biding time -- like my son's math teacher who retired last year IN MAY and a sub finished the year and proctored the final -- that has to end.

Get rid of the (often nearly empty) buses, improve neighborhood schools, and stop giving our kids the impression that school is just something to be gotten through. The city and the state need to fund the schools, and stop throwing money at construction projects that couldn't stick to a budget if their lives depended on it (Big Dig anyone?) and stop funding six figure salaries for public servants.

You got to be kidding me, more money for the failing schools. All the money in the world can t fix the schools. REFROM

The bussing is breaking the back of the system. If parents want kids to attend schools out of walking distance bad enough they should drive them there or take the T with them. Also, give preference to teachers who LIVE in Boston or at least MA!!!. Teachers who driving in from the burbs or NH and RI is just ridiculous ESPECIALLY the ones who are receiving NH and RI pensions.These cuts are totally unnecessary and ridiculous. No wonder the teacher training programs at colleges are seeing sharp declines. I think the average age of a BPS teacher is 65.

If Question 1 was passed we'd have more than enough extra money in our pockets to make up for cuts in local aid. In my town we could have made up for the lost local aid with 25% of what we would have saved in state income tax. With today's problems double that and we would still only be paying 50% of what we paid in state income taxes. Our property taxes could have gone directly to our town services without the state bureaucracy peeling off more than 50%. We wouldn't be laying off teachers, police and firefighters. The state government could have survived just fine on other taxes. Too bad the voters in this state couldn't figure that out.

Igor is exactly right...its time to STOP giving our future generations investments to the world. Enough is enough.

Teachers in Boston deserve combat pay. Yet given the results of the system - which are not necessarily teacher related - one could argue they should just zero out the whole department and hand the system over to private schools. The failure of these schools is monumental. The per student expense is higher than that of some of the best performing school systems in the state. The Mayor is contributing to failure by using schools and teacher layoffs to extort money from taxpayers. Police and fire layoff threats are sure to follow. You would think that the Globe had some reporters bright enough to really explore the choiuces that the Mayor presents to the people when it comes to budget cuts. As ususla the Globe FAILS< in its role as watchdog.

You haven't seen anything yet. Other towns around Boston have not made their cuts yet but I can assure you that it does effect teacher's performances knowing that they might be cut. Teacher's salaries are already low. Many teacher's forgo any pay raise to keep a few jobs. The cost of living has been creeping up and a teacher's average salary has been creeping down. Teachers are being asked to do more for less. What's wrong with this picture? and some ask why our educational system is failing. Think of all the overtime hours teachers put in and don't get paid for.If we cut good teachers today what legacy do we leave for tomorrow?

Shhh - don't tell anybody you heard this from me but the city's CFO says Boston's revenue will actually increase next year by about $11 million (the presentation is buried somewhere on www.cityofboston.gov - I think under the Office of Budget Management's site) and if you take a peak at page 19 of the city's annual audit (also only locateable, if that's a word, by entering 'audit june 30, 2008' in the search function) you'll notice that Boston has almost $1 billion in cash in the bank as of the end of last fiscal year.

Budget cuts - Oh Tommy - you're so funny when you're trying to talk us into signing on for your meals tax and using the school budget for political games- NOOOOOT!

There will be more shoes to drop in the commonwealth if there is not a significant stimulus plan to help states recover. Most of the posts to this point have been positive - seeing this as a travesty for the system but mostly for the students. The usual naysayers have emerged as well though with the usual anti-school, anti-union, anti-teacher biases. If the post is one that is negative the reader should beware because it is probably written with barely a shred of reality.

whenever i hear someone clamor about teacher salaries i always say to them, "then you go in that room and teach those kids." and they clam right up.

sure. keep cutting money from education. get ready to hire more cops and build more prisons. maybe i will move to canada.

Right on Chuck Finskey!! Our Government "Bailout Program" should have been designed to support our future leaders ---- Students! I Wish American citizens could have voted on this "Bailout" decision. If we had a choice to support our banks and the automobile industry or our local schools...I bet the outcome would have been different. As for the teachers facing job loss..there are partime jobs that give full time pay. I have one. If interested comment back to me. Take Care

What about superintendent: who makes $270,000 a year ? How about cut her salary and save one or two teachers who make about $50,000?

When the economic is going up we can rise the salaries. When the economic is going down we also can reduce the salaries. I do believe that no one want to lose their job by this time. Why don't we do the math that how much we are going to save by layoff of 403 teachers. Then take % to reduce equal to 6500 teachers and mail those imformation to 6500 teachers. After that we can make one meeting all 6500 teachers to vote Layoff or Reduce the salaries for they make decision by themself. Please I beg myselt to all the teachers accept the reduce salaries by this time of economic. I do believe that you are going to get rise back in the future. Our kids need you to make them open their minds and their future are belong to you. One more time, please don't layoff the teachers. Thank-you from parents of Boston's students.

Public schools are the problem people, wake up. Kids don't care because they are in an insitutionalized system, they are a number. All the money in the world will not fix that.
When I pulled my son out of first grade to homeschool him, the school was on my case in a heartbeat. They don't care about kids, they care about numbers. I'm not talking about teachers here either, most are truly dedicated, I'm talking about the system. Like government itself it has become to enormous to serve its function. I highly recomend homeschooling, go for it!

Perhaps we should look higher up. Mayor Menino, his son and his daughter-in-law command huge salaries from the city. In the mayor's defense, a mayor of a major city deserves to be paid highly. But his family should not be clocking in overtime when the Mayor is suggesting a budget freeze for the teachers who teach his grandchildren. The Boston Herald reported that Tommy Jr. made $137,000 in 2007, which included $48,000 in detail and overtime pay. And his wife Lisa, an ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, earned $102,000 in 2007 - including $29,000 in OT. Show me an administrative assistant in Boston Public Schools who makes 6 figures. Or any teacher who is allowed to clock in for staying extra hours beyond the school day or attending parent/teacher conferences.

THROWING THIS GENERATION TO THE WOLVES
It is nothing short of a tragedy that despite 30 years of massive technological advances in science and computing I was still more educated at 14 than my daughter is now, at that same age. The disconnect for me is that I attended a dilapidated high school in rural Wisconsin with a double digit droppout rate, obvious drug and alcohol abuse by both students and teachers, and heartbreakingly high rate of teen pregnancy...But my child, you ask? She attends Boston Latin.

Now in her third year, she is finally having her first science class ever (I'd been required to learn the periodic table by then) and she's had zero classes addressing modern civics, government or social studies, and has spent countless hours over the past 3 years memorizing Latin from teachers who were so incompetent that 2 were asked to leave. And this is supposed to be one of the best public high schools in America?

The city is caught in a dangerous circle: The mess they've created is now preventing our kids from gaining the education they'll need to get us out of this mess in the future. In my opinion, Carole Johnson's quote at the BPS meeting last night, e.g. "providing every child with first rate public education" isn't at all effected by this particular budget cut, because its waaaaay too late to think they can attain a first rate education even if the budget remains the same. But does that mean we should just stop trying, and throw them to the wolves? Our kids have already been left (brain)dead in day-care level study-halls, 4th grade math in Jr. High and in Boston Latin's case, hopelessly outdated pedantics at the expense of actual world knowledge. In my humble opinion, in this ever-more-global economy, setting these kids into the world with their meager education is no different than throwing them to the wolves.

An across the board wage freeze could potentially save 335 teaching and 70 non-teaching positions. BTU, what's the issue? Everyone, across industries, is making a sacrifice. It's your peer today who's at risk, but it could be you tomorrow. Think about it.

That's sucks my boyfriend teaches in the Boston area I hope he doesn't lose his job!

Send your kids to the schools in your own area and it would cut the cost of buses have the kids go to schools in his or her neighborhood i see a lot of kids coming over to the schools in EB but some of our kids can not go to our schools here.

This is only the begining of our economic problems -- The outdated brick and morter education system and the education mafia now must face the music. We need a true renaissance in educational teaching methods that takes advantage of the revolution in information technology.

Instead we get $250 million High Schools that reflect teaching methods -- showing little change since the end of the 19th century. Our schools have become nothing but prisons that destroy the spirit and creativity of our children.

Maybe this economic crises will be the impetus to force a change in direction.

It is the Superintendent's job that should be cut first. She gets about 2x what then next highest paid Super in the state gets - $300K plus housing allowance, plus a bonus for getting all these teachers pushed out.