sturdy and tough people in a little State

[ensho]

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134209567/providence-mayor-defends-firings-as-teachers-protest


Providence Mayor Defends Firings As Teachers Protest


About 1,500 people jammed the street in front of City Hall in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday to protest last week's dismissal of the city's entire teaching force.

"I thought the only insanity was in Wisconsin, not in Rhode Island," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the crowd, which raised signs and banged drums.

Weingarten calls the terminations insane, but city officials say they had no choice: The city is facing an estimated deficit of more than $100 million for the next fiscal year, or roughly 20 percent of the city budget.

Providence's new mayor, Angel Taveras, says he is considering school closures and layoffs for many city workers, but teachers are feeling the pain first, because of a state law that requires districts to notify teachers by March 1 if their jobs are in jeopardy. He says he chose terminations instead of layoffs because it ensures that teachers the city can't afford will be completely removed from the city payroll.

-snip-

Providence officials say their goal is to cut the budget while doing the best they can for city schoolchildren, and they say they will start rescinding some teacher terminations as early as this month. Teachers union leaders say the dismissals are illegal, and they're ready to take the battle all the way to the state Supreme Court.
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hugs and wishing them well

[tularetom]

1. WTF is a mayor doing running the school system?

Seems like that would be the job of a school district either through its superintendent or an elected school board.

[ensho]

2. he seems to be in charge of the State budget and seems to be

anti teachers and could care less about the State's children