....in your dreams.Let's sell the Tweed Courthouse out from under BloomKlein
Jane Hirschman from Time Out From Testing is circulating a letter (read it in full a Norms Notes where Jane explains each item in detail.)
UPDATE: Chaz reminds me that he had his own list of suggestions. Also check the comments for additions.
The Mayor is announcing his plan next week for city-wide budget cuts, including in public education. The current financial crisis affords us an opportunity to look at the mismanagement of our tax dollars.
The number of DOE employees at Tweed Headquarters has increased by more than 500 in the last 5 years (from 1,832 in 2003 to 2,337 in 2008). That's a 28% increase! Currently, there are 14 job openings advertised on the DOE website, seven of which have salaries of $170,000 or more. We don't want additional CEOs from defunct Wall Street firms working for the DOE.
- HIRING FREEZE ON THE DOE EMPLOYEES AT TWEED HEADQUARTERS
- CUT ARIS, AN 80 MILLION IBM COMPUTER SYSTEM USED TO TRACK OUR CHILDREN'S TEST SCORES
- ELIMINATE THE $80 MILLION MCGRAW-HILL "ACUITY" CONTRACT.
- END THE SCHOOL PROGRESS REPORTS.
- STOP THE K-2 STANDARDIZED TESTING PROGRAM
- END THE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY - $10 million a year
- CUT THE 2009 SCHOOL QUALITY REVIEW - $6.5 million
- CUT THE "THINK-LINK" COMPUTERIZED WAREHOUSE - $1 million
Feel free to add your own favorites.
I would add all merit pay programs and call for a public review of all private contracts and consultants. There is no excuse in the "no excuses" world of BloomKlein to cut one dime out of classroom services without looking at the enormous at the top.
Think they can get anything decent for the Tweed courthouse in today's real estate market? Could pay for a couple of new schools.
Norm-
ReplyDeleteYou can add to that end the book contract we have with McGraw Hill- because the Glencoe stuff they are ramming down our throats are total crap.
Let's add the money the DOE spends in the AUSSIES= The Australians that work in different schools in the US and are paid $900 dolares a day.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable!
F - Status positions. See ya'.
ReplyDeleteNorm:
ReplyDeleteI had my own proposals in my blog.
Chaz - I added a link to your list in the main post.
ReplyDeleteAre those reviews by the folks from Cambridge somewhere on this list?
ReplyDeleteBravo for getting rid of The Leadership Academy -why are we replicating what already exists in our schools, anyway?
How about the whole Teaching Fellows program. Don't all of those teachers leave after five years (at most)?