Mamie Till Mobley

"There was an important mission for me, to shape so many...young minds as a teacher. God took away one child but...(gave) me thousands. And I have been grateful for the blessing." Mamie Till Mobley

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Buffalo schools funding increase, still hiring freeze and lay offs looming

State lawmakers modified the budget this week allocated an additional $200 million to the neediest school districts instead of doling it out on a competitive basis as Gov. Andrew Cuomo had previouly proposed. Buffalo would receive a 3 percent increase, including another $1 million in "bullet" aid targeted to high need districts. Still the district has a budget gap of under $40 million said Chief Financial Officer Barbara Smith, "they're trying to focus this year on cuts that impact the classroom minimally." The School Board passed a hiring freeze resolution along with offering a $10,000 retirement incentive to teachers. As usual the non-mandated areas suffer the most cuts that impacts the overall academic achievement of Buffalo schools children similar to 2005, when the librarians, school counselors and attendance teachers were laid off. While, librarians and counselors had to be recalled after they protested their wrongeful lay-off, the attendance teachers were not recalled untill six years later. This time lapse created a culture of absenteeism that continues to plague the district and was the subject of many studies and reports, including the district having to hire a consultant to study the problem last spring. If the attendance teachers are laid off again, the state would have to either take over the schools because too many schools will appear on the persistently low achieving list or the former proposal based on a network of charter schools revisited.

Whitney Tilson (3rd background)

Whitney Tilson (3rd background)
"Let’s be honest: we need a lot more well-off, well-educated white folks with a personal stake in both charter schools and education reform in general if we’re going to take reform to the next level, both politically and operationally.Whitney Tilson, hedge fund manager and major funding angel for the school privatizing Democrats for Education Reform, thinks there’s not enough rich, educated white folks.( Preaprez) click photo to his blog.

Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan
U.S. Secretary of Education, click photo