By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Politicians and parents lined up outside an Upper West Side school Friday to slam proposed state and city education cuts, with one mother calling Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to lay off 4,700 teachers "simply terrifying."
More than a dozen elected officials lashed out against proposed education cuts outside P.S. 199 on West 70th Street and West End Avenue, pleading with Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to spare classrooms from the budget axe.
Teachers union president Michael Mulgrew accused Bloomberg of waging a "campaign of disinformation," because the mayor has called for slashing 6,000 teachers while the city has a $3 billion budget surplus.
Comptroller John Liu echoed that charge, arguing that the city's financial situation isn't as dire as Bloomberg has said. "There is no compelling reason to lose 6,000 teachers from our classrooms," Liu said, adding that cuts would be better made to contracts for high-priced consultants. "Behind the curtain there are other choices that can be made."
The city has denied that any surplus exists.
Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, the PTA co-president at P.S. 199, said the proposed budget cuts were "terrifying." P.S. 199 would lose 11 of its 50 teachers under Bloomberg's plan. "We already have classes of over 30 kids," Ciulla Lipkin said. "How high are we expected to go?"
State Sen. Tom Duane, who represents the 29th District, lashed out at Bloomberg's push to privatize schools, saying that schools like P.S. 199 deserved investment, not cuts.
"Everyone could have a P.S. 199 in their neighborhood if there was political will, so Mayor Bloomberg, get some goddamn political will," Duane said.
Sherri Semon, a parent at P.S. 84 on West 92nd Street, which would lose three of its 35 teachers, said the proposed cuts would "devastate" the school's French-English dual language program.
"We feel this is a hostage situation," Semon said. "Our children are being held hostage to the whims of politicians that we elected."
