The union representing New York City teachers sued Chancellor Joel I. Klein yesterday, accusing him of racial discrimination and saying his plan to lay off nearly 1,000 classroom aides disproportionately affected black and Hispanic workers. þþRandi Weingarten, the union president, said the layoffs were ÿan unconscionable choiceÿ because two-thirds of classroom aides, known as paraprofessionals, were black and Hispanic, and because they were among the school system's lowest-paid employees. The 17,000 paraprofessionals are paid an average of $23,000 a year, she said.þþThe lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, seeks to block the Education Department's plan to send pink slips to 864 paraprofessionals. It questions why Mr. Klein would lay off paraprofessionals just as he is creating more than 130 supervisory jobs as part of his reorganization of the school system.þþMost of those hired as supervisors are white and earn six-figure salaries, according to the lawsuit. They include 10 regional superintendents who are replacing district superintendents, their deputies, 108 instructional supervisors and 6 regional operations managers. Mr. Klein has insisted that the reorganization is needed to tame the bureaucracy.þþThe paraprofessional layoffs are supposed to save at least $22 million, while the reorganization will cost $250 million over two years.þþÿThe fact that two-thirds of our paras are black and Latino and that the executives who have just been hired are not makes this a clear violation of the state's and the city's human rights laws,ÿ Ms. Weingarten said at a news conference at the Manhattan headquarters of the union, the United Federation of Teachers. þþMr. Klein's office referred inquiries about the lawsuit to Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott, who predicted that it would have no standing in court. ÿIt's unfair and really quite sad that they are injecting race and discrimination into the conversation,ÿ Mr. Walcott said. ÿDiscrimination is something this administration will never practice.ÿþþAfter Ms. Weingarten's news conference, she received a memo from the Education Department saying the layoffs would go into effect on June 16. She said Mr. Klein had assured her before that they would not take effect until after the school year ends on June 26.þþParaprofessionals have been a fixture in the schools since the 1970's, when the position was created in response to pressure from minority residents who wanted more control over local schools. It was hoped that many paraprofessionals would become teachers, diversifying the overwhelmingly white teaching force.þþWhile 7,000 paraprofessionals have become teachers, the teaching force is now 62 percent white and only 21 percent black, 14 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian.þþParaprofessionals are also more likely than teachers to live near the schools where they work, which Bertha Lewis, the executive director of New York Acorn, a community advocacy group, said was another reason not to lay them off.þþÿThe laying off of these black and brown women who spend their money in the neighborhoods and live in the neighborhoods is tantamount to writing off low-income black and brown students in our school system,ÿ she said at the news conference.þþThe paraprofessionals who are to be laid off include 194 of the 4,000 who work in elementary and middle schools and 670 of the 900 who work in high schools. Most of these paraprofessionals work in a single classroom or divide their time among several, helping the teacher by working with small groups of students who need extra attention.þþThe school system also employs about 11,000 special education paraprofessionals, who work solely with disabled students. Those paraprofessionals cannot be laid off, because their numbers are regulated by a 1980 court decree. þþChancellor Klein also intends to lay off about 1,400 school aides, most of whom work part time in lunchrooms or school offices or as hallway and playground monitors. Those aides are represented by another union, District Council 37. þþAll the layoffs are part of $178 million in cuts that Mr. Klein says he must make to the school system's $12.4 billion budget to help address the city's $3.9 billion budget gap.þþMayor Michael R. Bloomberg asked the city's labor unions for $600 million in productivity savings to avert layoffs and other cuts, but he rejected the unions' offer. þþMany paraprofessionals work in overcrowded classrooms, where parent and student advocates say their presence would be most acutely missed. Their numbers are always shifting, since paraprofessionals are among the first to be laid off during budget crises and hired during flush economic times. þþThis would be the largest layoff of paraprofessionals since at least 1991, school officials said.þ
Source: NY Times
