It’s not likely the 750,000 voters who elected Bill de Blasio mayor were expecting him to snatch hundreds of millions of dollars from city schoolkids. But Amalgamated Transit Union President Lawrence Hanley is hoping the new mayor will do just that. And he well might.
The money comes from savings Mayor Bloomberg gained when — for the first time in decades, and in the teeth of a bitter strike by drivers — he put busing contracts up for competitive bid. This week, Bloomberg announced the bidding has led to contracts that lock in $405 million in savings over the next few years.
These millions, Bloomberg says, give us “more money to invest in ensuring New York City schoolchildren are receiving the best education possible.”
But de Blasio could undo the arrangement. During the bitter strike last winter, he promised that, if elected, he’d safeguard the “job security, wages and benefits” of the union drivers. Maybe that’s why Hanley says he has “a strong suspicion” de Blasio will cancel the cheaper contracts.
If that happens, the cost to the city will be high. In 1979, the city paid $71 million to bus children to school. By 2011, high union rates had forced that up to $1.1 billion. The amounts kept rising during that time because the city simply kept renewing contracts without competitive bidding. Drivers, and their wages, were protected — but taxpayers and schoolkids took a hit.
So now the question is: Will de Blasio turn back the clock by swiping classroom dollars from kids to restore the cushy deal for his union pals? Stay tuned.