Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York made a bold, but very sensible budget decision Wednesday. He told the city’s teachers their salaries would be frozen for the next two years so that it would not be necessary to let 4,400 teachers go.
Freezing teacher salaries, let it quickly be said, is not the same as giving no raises. Teachers get what are called step-raises for serving another year, for earning an advanced degree or gaining more academic credits. Those additions to their pay will continue. In New York they range from $400 for a first-year teacher to more than $8,000 for teachers with 20 years on the job.
New York teachers still would get an average pay hike of 3.3 percent from those automatic increases.
The head of the teachers union objected, predictably. Probably thought he had to to keep his job. One would hope, however, that the rank and file will agree that they should put the welfare of those 4,400 teachers who would otherwise get the ax ahead of demanding more for themselves.
Mayor Bloomberg’s response to the deficits facing his city and his state is nothing but common sense — with humanitarian icing. Of course teachers should be willing to accept a small raise rather than see so many young teachers booted out onto the street.
They also should choose not to find themselves with classrooms more crowded because the number of teachers available to teach a growing number of students had to be reduced.
His example should be followed throughout state government and the private sector as well.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
