reality-based educator

In the words of Mel Brooks, "It's good to be the king!" From the NY Daily News:

Just a month before Schools Chancellor Joel Klein promised to trim bureaucratic blubber at the Tweed Courthouse, he plumped up the salary of bigwigs, the Daily News has learned.

Education Department brass got 5% pay hikes in 2004-05, boosting the salary of deputy chancellors to between $177,000 to $210,000, according to documents obtained by The News. The bulk of that raise - 4.15% - came in December.

Last Thursday, Klein vowed to redirect $200 million from bloated administrative offices into lackluster schools over the next four years. He didn't rule out layoffs for middle managers but his senior staff would remain intact - a testament to the success of his team, he said.

"They hack away at middle managers while the budget for upper management goes up," said Noreen Connell, executive director of the Educational Priorities Panel, a school watchdog.

Among those getting raises were Deputy Chancellor for Instruction Carmen Fariña, who was bumped to $210,000, and Deputy Chancellor of Finance Kathleen Grimm and Deputy Chancellor of Operations Laverne Srinivasan, who now each earn $177,236.

The raises for all school managers are in line with the 4.15% cost-of-living salary hikes Mayor Bloomberg doled out to city managers soon after he secured a second term, educrats said.

Principals were not included. They are in a contract war with City Hall and have gone more than two years without a raise.

And teachers, who recently agreed to work longer days and more of them for a 15% raise over 52 months, asked what educrats are sacrificing.

"What is their extra productivity in exchange for 5%," said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

What Randi Weingarten fails to mention in the Daily News article is that she and her Unity hacks also voted themselves a 5.5% pay raise without any productivity givebacks for the first two years of the new 52 month teachers contract. In the second two years and four months of the contract, UFT officers salaries will rise contingent upon some undefined productivity giveback. I guarantee you that the union hacks will receive a raise those last two years and four months of the contract, but I'd bet a dollar of my union membership dues that the productivity giveback provision will disappear. No potty patrol, lunchroom duty, extra time or days for Randi and her cohorts - no sir!

That's our Randi for you - always ready to point a finger at Uncle Joel for his alleged crimes without noting she herself is a similar felon.