Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg does not expect to reach a contract agreement with the teachers' union until he wins control of the city's school system and the state passes its budget, the mayor said in a television interview broadcast yesterday.þþNew York City's teachers have been working without a contract for a year and a half, and although the teachers' union and the city have both embraced a contract proposal that was put forward last month by a state fact-finding panel, negotiations have stalled in recent days. Last week, the union took the first of several steps that must precede a strike.þþIn the interview, which was taped Friday and broadcast yesterday on ÿWB11 News Close-Up,ÿ Mr. Bloomberg said that it would be difficult to settle the contract without knowing how much the state budget would provide for raises, or whether the State Legislature would change the city school system's governing structure to give him the control he seeks.þþÿIf the state budget isn't passed, I don't know how we'd have the money to pay the teachers,ÿ Mr. Bloomberg said. ÿIf you don't have the money to pay the teachers, you can't do the contract.ÿ He said he hoped that everything would come together in the next couple of weeks. Officials of the union, the United Federation of Teachers, have criticized the mayor for linking their contract to his attempt to change how the schools are run. A union spokesman did not return a call for comment yesterday.þþ
Source: NY Times
