I wish I could applaud this deal, but Bloomberg didn't get nearly enough in concessions from the union in my opinion. This does NOT bode well for the negotiations on the new contract…:

The threatened layoffs of 4,100 teachers in New York's public schools were averted under a deal that the Bloomberg administration, the City Council and the teachers' union reached on Friday night, according to two participants in the negotiations.

Details were still being worked out, but the agreement, calls for concessions from the United Federation of Teachers and money from the Council.

Under the deal, the union would agree to suspend teacher sabbaticals for a year and permit teachers without a permanent assignment to be used more regularly as classroom substitutes. In addition, the Bloomberg administration would concede that more teachers would be lost to attrition than the mayor had publicly estimated, saving additional jobs.

On one hand, the resolution spares Mr. Bloomberg from becoming the first mayor in nearly 40 years to impose mass teacher layoffs. On the other hand, though, it threatens to undermine his credibility, given that he has declared for two consecutive years that layoffs were inevitable, only to see them averted in a budget deal.

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June 24, 2011