The Legislature’s most powerful Republican urged Mayor Giuliani yesterday to renegotiate on the summer school program after complaining that city teachers are “grossly” underpaid.
“It’s grossly unfair to pay New York City teachers $10,000 below [the regional] average. That’s something has to be addressed in a real way,” upstate Senate Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said after speaking at the New York State United Teachers convention.
Bruno – an early backer of Giuliani’s Senate campaign – said it’s equally important to boost summer school pay to attract more teachers and serve more kids.
Giuliani and the city teachers broke off talks over summer school last week following an impasse over merit pay. The mayor backs individual merit pay based on student performance, which the union opposes as counterproductive.
Fearing a teacher shortage, interim Schools Chancellor Harold Levy has since scaled back the summer school program to only those kids who flunk.
Bruno – while stopping short of taking sides in the merit pay dispute – said teachers clearly deserve more pay.
“Of course teachers should be compensated and compensated fairly during summer school,” he said.
But Bruno also defended Giuliani, insisting the mayor’s positions are pro-teacher.
Bruno said he spoke to both the mayor and United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to try to salvage summer school for kids now excluded by Levy.
“There’s going to be an ongoing dialogue,” Bruno said.
But that wasn’t the case yesterday. Weingarten and Deputy Mayor Tony Coles said there were no labor discussions.
Other educators and critics at the union convention blasted the summer school fiasco – and pointed fingers at City Hall.
“Whatever the merits of merit pay, it is indefensible to hold the students hostage to an agenda that can be pursued at another time and in another context,” said Carl Hayden, chairman of the state Board of Regents.
Democratic state Comptroller Carl McCall blasted Giuliani for pursuing an “ideological” merit pay agenda when all teachers deserve raises. But Coles responded that it was the teachers union – not the mayor – who blocked more summer pay for teachers.
“Did McCall say why the teachers opposed an unprecedented amount of money because of a portion of it was in the form of merit pay for the best teachers,” he said.