When a beaming Mayor Bill de Blasio shared the stage yesterday with the Teacher’s Union leaders to announce a deal to grant them increases to the tune of 5.5 billion dollars – reduced to 3.2 billion dollars after cost savings – the main benefactors of that deal went unmentioned: Yeshiva parents who’d finance that deal and much more.
According to a preliminary review, Yeshiva parents in New York City save the city in the area of 2 billion dollars annually. That amount will easily cover the expected 3.2 billion dollars that the UFT agreement will cost the city for the upcoming 4 budged years.
The $2 Billion figure is based on a recent NY1 report estimating that Yeshiva students already number 100,000, and a US census report (table 18) stating that NYC spent $19,770 per public school pupil in 2011. Half of the spending went to salaries and wages. At the end of the UFT agreement teachers will receive an 18 percent increase, actually 24 percent in compounded increases. After cost saving deductions, this will bring the spending on a public school student to at least $21,000.
An Orthodox family with 5 children saves the city $100,000 a year by sending their kids to Yeshiva. Why, then, when it comes to these crumbs that they are entitled to, they have to beg like schnorrers, and to settle for pennies on the dollar. Why, when it comes to child care, that we are fully entitled to, the programs benefiting our community are in terrible shortage, and constant hurdles are placed not to benefit our children.
The public school teachers may well deserve pay increases. That’s not the issue here. But why are yeshiva parents – and other private and parochial school parents – not given the same importance and respect as the public employees. Of course, it’s not only here and not only now. That is the system for years already, and we can’t blame anyone for adopting this convenient system. But we are entitled to point it out.
Mr. Mayor, please set up a negotiating team, let us sit down like equal parties, and let us have a give and take what the city earns from us, and what we deserve.
Oh, I forgot, we can’t strike and won’t make our children as hostages to achieve a favorable agreement.
Joseph Sussman – Brooklyn
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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5 Responses
Good rule of thumb: when de blassio is smiling its usually good news for unions, criminals, freeloaders, government workers or some combination of the above.
My wife;who works for the Board of Ed explained to me that the teachers had to reduce some of their health benefits in exchange for a raise in salary.
A lot of the frum community is on welfare. So you want to double dip?
What is the point of this rant? The New York State Constitution explicitly forbids government support of religious schools for anything other than transportation. An attempt to change that in 1967 failed by a 72%-28% margin. Until that is changed, there is nothing to discuss.
And less you think that this is about unions, remember that almost all the Catholic schools in New York are unionized. Were we to allow the unions into our schools we could join with the Catholics and have a much, much stronger lobby to make this change.
#3,
1. There is not a lot of the frum community on welfare. Some have medicaid and food stamps.
2. Are other groups who have a much higher welfare percentage double dipping when they send their children to free public schools?