INDEPENDENT BUDGET OFFICE FIGURES SHOW INCREASE IN PARA HIRING THE LAST DECADE

Harris Lirtzman sent me this very interesting set of numbers from the city's Independent Budget Office. It seems the group being hired the most in the last ten years by the Department of Education is paraprofessionals. I was a little surprised by these statistics, not by the lack of teacher hiring as charter schools are busting the UFT by taking our jobs and public school space, but that the para job title is growing. The reason is pre-k.

This is the introduction from the IBO:

As of June, the Department of Education had 131,199 full-time employees. More than 119,000 served in jobs under the broad classification of pedagogues, which includes roles such as principals, assistant principals, teachers, and teaching assistants also known as paraprofessionals. More than 12,000 additional education department staff members are classified as nonpedagogues who work in positions such as parent coordinators, family workers, and lunch room attendants. IBO has examined which categories of education department staffing have grown over the past decade.

Pedagogues

Education Paraprofessionals

Nonpedagogues

These should be astonishing numbers considering that NYC in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement was told by the State Legislature to reduce class sizes. IBO reports: "The number of personnel in pedagogic titles other than paraprofessionals increased by 512, or less than 1 percent over the last 10 years." Those 512 were probably principals and assistant principals brought on to staff new schools. Hiring more teachers would surely lower class sizes and the DOE would actually be abiding by the law.

Oh sorry, I forgot laws are for little people like teachers and paras; they do not apply to the administrators who run the school system in NYC.