In the early hours of May 17, while the rest of India was asleep after an election conducted honestly and won fairly, a massive contingent of police and paramilitary descended on a Gandhian ashram in the interior of Chhattisgarh. They woke up the sleeping social workers, and gave them exactly one hour to pack their belongings. The Gandhians were then escorted outside the ashram that had been their home, thus making way for the bulldozers that had been sent to demolish it. The machines were supervised by some 500 men in uniform, variously owing allegiance to the Central Reserve Police Force and the Chhattisgarh state police. Over the course of that Sunday, as the rest of India was considering the consequences of the election just held, the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram in Dantewada was razed to the ground. The office, the training hall, the staff quarters, even the tubewells — nothing was spared.
In the summer of 2006, I had myself eaten several meals in that ashram in Dantewada. Its founder, Himanshu, is a sharp-eyed, well-built, and forever smiling man in his late forties. Originally from Meerut, he was inspired by Vinoba Bhave and Nirmala Deshpande to devote his life to the adivasis of central India. In 1992, he moved with his wife to Dantewada to fulfil his calling. He recruited a group of local boys and girls, and with their assistance worked on bringing education and healthcare to the adivasis.
By the time I visited the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, it had established a solid presence in the district. Its campus lay in the little village of Kanwalnar, about 10 miles from Dantewada town. Ringed by mango trees, the ashram contained a set of low, modest buildings where the members lived. From this home in the forest they ventured out into the surrounding countryside, to work among the Gonds and Koyas and Murias of the district.
The activities of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram would be reckoned by most people in most times to be uncontroversial. But these are dangerous times in Dantewada, with a civil war raging between Maoist revolutionaries and a vigilante group promoted by the state administration and known as Salwa Judum. In this war, the tribals are caught in-between — so are Gandhian social workers. No one living in the district of Dantewada is now allowed to be neutral, to condemn even-handedly the barbaric acts of the Naxalites as well as the barbaric acts of the Salwa Judum.
As a consequence of the civil war, more than 50,000 tribals in Dantewada have been uprooted from their homes. Some left voluntarily; while many others were forcibly displaced by the Salwa Judum or by the Maoists. These refugees live in camps strung along the main road, in leaking and unstable tents, and without proper access to food, water, and means of employment. Many victims of the civil war fled across the border to Andhra Pradesh, where they live in equally pathetic conditions.
After months of living in this way, some tribals asked that they be allowed to return to their villages, so that they could live in their own homes, and close to their lands and their livestock. While the state wanted them to stay on in the camps, the villagers were encouraged to go back by the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram. Thus Himanshu and his co-workers set about rehabilitating those adivasis who wished to have no more of life in the camps.
The pretext behind the demolition of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram is that the campus has ‘encroached’ on government forest land. The Gandhians, on the other hand, insist that they built on revenue land acquired legally and with permission from the local panchayat. The case is currently being heard in the local courts. Rather than await the court’s verdict, the district authorities uniliaterally chose to demolish the ashram, in what is very clearly an act of vindictive retaliation against the refusal by these Gandhians to wholly condone the support to the Salwa Judum of the Chhattisgarh state government.
As it happened, four students from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore were visiting Dantewada on the weekend of 16/17 May. They were thus eye-witnesses to the ashram’s demolition. One scholar I spoke to said that the sub-divisional magistrate directing the operations, Ankit Anand, was particularly belligerent. When a student weakly protested, Anand commanded the police to have him silenced. The boy was taken away, beaten up, and asked to confess that the good Gandhian Himanshu was (a) an agent of the Naxalites; and (b) running a prostitution racket.
It was surely not an accident that the state of Chhattisgarh chose the very weekend that the election results were being declared to carry out this savage act of retribution. Who, at a time like this, would care about a violation of democracy in a remote and inaccessible corner of the country while the world was celebrating the victory of democracy in India as a whole? For this writer, the juxtaposition of these two events was powerfully symbolic. For I have long argued that India is a ‘50-50’ democracy. In the formal, institutional sense of holding fair elections contested by many parties, allowing freedom of movement for its citizens, and nurturing a free press, India is indeed democratic. But in other respects, it falls short of the democratic ideal. Kin and caste play far too important a part in politics and governance. Levels of corruption among politicians and officials are unacceptably high. The autonomy of the judiciary is somewhat compromised. The use of force by the State is often capricious and arbitrary.
Even in safe and (mostly) peaceable places like my hometown, Bangalore, one can occasionally encounter the dark side of Indian democracy — as in tax officials who take bribes, or politicians who fill in common waterbodies and sell them to private builders. But it is in the conflict zones of Kashmir, the Northeast, and central India, that the State shows itself at its most unappealing. To be sure, there are extenuating circumstances, such as separatist movements and revolutionary struggles. But to explain is not to apologize. One must condemn the violence used by the Naxalites and by the Kashmiri insurgents. One must yet insist that the Indian State, our State, be held to a higher order of morality and accountability.
Over the past few years, the government of Chhattisgarh has had a particularly undistinguished record in this respect. The burning of adivasi villages under the government-sponsored Salwa Judum has been documented in a series of independent reports. Then there is the unconscionable incarceration without bail of the respected social worker and doctor, Binayak Sen, on the very flimsy charge of carrying a letter from one Naxalite to another. Now comes this savage act of retribution against a group of law-abiding, peace-loving, and utterly non-violent Gandhians.
Supporters of the Chhattisgarh government deflect such criticism by pointing to the fact that the chief minister of the state has won a series of elections. But democracy does not begin and end with the counting of votes. Those elected to political office are sworn to uphold the rule of law, and to honour the ideals of the Indian Constitution. This holds true at the national as well as provincial levels. It applies equally to Congress-led governments as to Bharatiya Janata Party-led ones. So long as incidents such as the demolition of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram occur and recur, India will not count as much more than a 50 per cent democracy.
ramguh
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
RBI governor sees recovery by year-end, with a caveat
The signs are all there, but Reserve Bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao is still being cautious about the green shoots of a possible upturn in the economy.
“As the monetary and fiscal stimuli that were introduced by the Reserve Bank and the government work their way through, and if calm and confidence are restored in the global markets, we can see economic turnaround later this year,” he said at a financial management summit on Friday.
“While overall industrial production fell again in March, cement and steel production have shown some preliminary signs of upturn. Segments in the automobile sector, particularly two and three wheelers and passenger cars, are showing modest revival of demand. The industrial and business outlook is improving,” he said.
A lot would depend on the global recovery, and “if global recovery does not take hold by the last quarter of 2009, we would realise that the domestic policy response should have been stronger,” he said.
“As the monetary and fiscal stimuli that were introduced by the Reserve Bank and the government work their way through, and if calm and confidence are restored in the global markets, we can see economic turnaround later this year,” he said at a financial management summit on Friday.
“While overall industrial production fell again in March, cement and steel production have shown some preliminary signs of upturn. Segments in the automobile sector, particularly two and three wheelers and passenger cars, are showing modest revival of demand. The industrial and business outlook is improving,” he said.
A lot would depend on the global recovery, and “if global recovery does not take hold by the last quarter of 2009, we would realise that the domestic policy response should have been stronger,” he said.
Standing tall
Priyanka Gandhi said it first. Her brother’s great skill — she told me on the campaign trail — was his willingness to “sacrifice the now for the future.” Not just was he never given enough credit for this, she argued; he was often needlessly “berated” by a fickle media. Looking back, her words now seem eerily prescient. When Rahul Gandhi first pushed for travelling solo in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh and when he refused to accept the piddly little offer of three seats from Lalu Prasad, there were enough snide sniggers, some from within the Congress itself. I remember, Lalu quipping on a TV show, “Is Rahulji planning an election for 2014 or 2009?”
But that’s the irony — Rahul Gandhi probably was planning a long-term overhaul for 2014 or even further ahead, and made no apologies for it. In other words, let’s think of what would have happened if the Congress’ seats had not soared in UP. The media that is gushing today would have swung to the other extreme and editorialised on supposed political “naivete.” Every sentence uttered during electioneering would have been deconstructed for potential failure. And the Opposition would have been stomping all over the story.
It’s now conventional wisdom to pitch Rahul Gandhi as the big winner of this election. But I think, the real reason that he is a victor is not so much the fact that Rahul Gandhi’s courageous risk won the Congress the Hindi heartland; it’s the fact that had his party lost, he would have still believed in the need to pursue a lonelier, but braver political path. There are very few politicians who can stand up to the public scrutiny of a decision that doesn’t yield immediate results. It’s my guess that the 39-year-old Gandhi is probably one of those few. And that’s what makes him a winner.
Going through my old notes on the same interview with Priyanka Gandhi, I found that she had emphasised back then how little her brother cared about how he was perceived. “He does (what he has to do) regardless of what anybody thinks of him,” she said. “I mean, remember the UP Assembly election, where he was berated and in the press everything was piled onto him. But he just went ahead with what he thought was right. The other thing that I think is great about him as a politician is he doesn’t have this thing that he absolutely has to succeed every time. He’s very good with things in which perhaps maybe in the short-term he won’t succeed but he can see that there is a long- term success. He will work through that short-term failure.”
It’s the willingness to divorce politics from the popularity stakes that makes Rahul Gandhi so unusual.
Of course there’s a difference between following your heart and mind and being entirely indifferent to public opinion. It is sometimes a thin line that separates courage from hubris. And many politicians have lost their balance in this tough trapeze walk.
That’s why I think, despite all the clamouring for Rahul Gandhi to be part of the new council of ministers, his instinct to stay out is probably much wiser. Not just because the party organisation needs strengthening and rejuvenation, but also because it’s the more grounded way to climb to the top. It’s a path designed to sidestep the hurdles that ingratiating sycophancy within the party can prop up.
And that will be what Rahul Gandhi will be most closely watched for in the months and years to come. Will he manage to live up to his word of delivering democracy within his own party? He’s often said that just because he’s a product of a system doesn’t mean he can’t try and change it. Fair enough. So will he be able to replicate the Youth Congress model within the parent party? He’s spoken so often about how political parties shouldn’t be designed in a way that empower only those “whom the leader likes.” These are brave, but I think felt words from someone whose party-men are always tripping over each other to flatter him in public and in private.
Finally, while so many deconstruct Rahul Gandhi in terms of his father and his grandmother (his own sister said he combined the best of both politically), I think, he may have another unexpected example to emulate — his mother. Sonia Gandhi, the shy, reluctant politician, permanently silenced her critics since the day she declared she had no interest in being Prime Minister. Five years later, she holds not just the party; but also the alliance together. Every time there is a crisis — a recalcitrant partner, a dissenting old leader, a sulky party colleague — it is she who is called in to apply the balm. Those who dismissed her as a novice from abroad have had to swallow their words and accept that old fashioned stuff like hard work and sheer goodwill still have a huge space in Indian politics. It’s the same goodwill and simple integrity that most people associate with the Prime Minister.
And it’s that mix of decency and humility that we will look for in the man destined to lead the Congress into its new future.
courtsey the hindusthan times
But that’s the irony — Rahul Gandhi probably was planning a long-term overhaul for 2014 or even further ahead, and made no apologies for it. In other words, let’s think of what would have happened if the Congress’ seats had not soared in UP. The media that is gushing today would have swung to the other extreme and editorialised on supposed political “naivete.” Every sentence uttered during electioneering would have been deconstructed for potential failure. And the Opposition would have been stomping all over the story.
It’s now conventional wisdom to pitch Rahul Gandhi as the big winner of this election. But I think, the real reason that he is a victor is not so much the fact that Rahul Gandhi’s courageous risk won the Congress the Hindi heartland; it’s the fact that had his party lost, he would have still believed in the need to pursue a lonelier, but braver political path. There are very few politicians who can stand up to the public scrutiny of a decision that doesn’t yield immediate results. It’s my guess that the 39-year-old Gandhi is probably one of those few. And that’s what makes him a winner.
Going through my old notes on the same interview with Priyanka Gandhi, I found that she had emphasised back then how little her brother cared about how he was perceived. “He does (what he has to do) regardless of what anybody thinks of him,” she said. “I mean, remember the UP Assembly election, where he was berated and in the press everything was piled onto him. But he just went ahead with what he thought was right. The other thing that I think is great about him as a politician is he doesn’t have this thing that he absolutely has to succeed every time. He’s very good with things in which perhaps maybe in the short-term he won’t succeed but he can see that there is a long- term success. He will work through that short-term failure.”
It’s the willingness to divorce politics from the popularity stakes that makes Rahul Gandhi so unusual.
Of course there’s a difference between following your heart and mind and being entirely indifferent to public opinion. It is sometimes a thin line that separates courage from hubris. And many politicians have lost their balance in this tough trapeze walk.
That’s why I think, despite all the clamouring for Rahul Gandhi to be part of the new council of ministers, his instinct to stay out is probably much wiser. Not just because the party organisation needs strengthening and rejuvenation, but also because it’s the more grounded way to climb to the top. It’s a path designed to sidestep the hurdles that ingratiating sycophancy within the party can prop up.
And that will be what Rahul Gandhi will be most closely watched for in the months and years to come. Will he manage to live up to his word of delivering democracy within his own party? He’s often said that just because he’s a product of a system doesn’t mean he can’t try and change it. Fair enough. So will he be able to replicate the Youth Congress model within the parent party? He’s spoken so often about how political parties shouldn’t be designed in a way that empower only those “whom the leader likes.” These are brave, but I think felt words from someone whose party-men are always tripping over each other to flatter him in public and in private.
Finally, while so many deconstruct Rahul Gandhi in terms of his father and his grandmother (his own sister said he combined the best of both politically), I think, he may have another unexpected example to emulate — his mother. Sonia Gandhi, the shy, reluctant politician, permanently silenced her critics since the day she declared she had no interest in being Prime Minister. Five years later, she holds not just the party; but also the alliance together. Every time there is a crisis — a recalcitrant partner, a dissenting old leader, a sulky party colleague — it is she who is called in to apply the balm. Those who dismissed her as a novice from abroad have had to swallow their words and accept that old fashioned stuff like hard work and sheer goodwill still have a huge space in Indian politics. It’s the same goodwill and simple integrity that most people associate with the Prime Minister.
And it’s that mix of decency and humility that we will look for in the man destined to lead the Congress into its new future.
courtsey the hindusthan times
California unemployment rate drops slightly in April
California's unemployment rate basically flattened in April, but the first good news in a year brought little cheer to experts.
Although the often volatile rate dropped to 11% from March's 11.2%, the Golden State still lost 63,700 jobs during the month, the state Employment Development Department reported today.
Interactive: California's rising jobless...X
And more losses could be in store this summer as school districts, cities, counties and the state government react to plunging tax revenues by laying off large numbers of teachers and civil servants, economists warn.
"It's a mixed report," said Howard Roth, chief economist for the state Department of Finance. "Unemployment went down, but the job loss is still substantial."
Another economist, Stephen Levy of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, was more stark in his appraisal. The unemployment "decline is a false signal that economic recovery is underway," he said.
California Jobless
The number of unemployed in California has increased by 842,800 since April 2008, when the jobless rate stood at just 6.6%.
The small drop in unemployment statewide last month was mirrored in Southern California. Unemployment fell from 11.3% to 11% in Los Angeles County. In the Inland Empire, it dropped from 13% to 12.6%. The rate in Orange County went from 8.6% to 8.3%. And in Ventura County, it fell from 9.7% to 9.2%.
California currently has nation's the fifth-worst employment climate, ranking behind Michigan at 12.9%, Oregon at 12%, South Carolina at 11.5% and Rhode Island at 11.1%.
Over the last few months, California actually has moved down a couple of spots in the rankings as the deepening recession sunk its claws more deeply into western and southeastern states.
"It's too early to say the economy is stabilizing, but it is sliding at a slower pace," said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University-Channel Islands. "Before we hit bottom, we need to slow the rate of descent."
Sohn said he detects hints of renewed economic vitality in the housing, retail sales and health care areas. But, the monthly state jobs reported significant job gains in only one category, government.
And that uptick shouldn't last when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature start hacking education, social services, health care and prison budgets, economist Levy predicted.
"There is nothing but bad news for state and local government budgets in the April jobs report," he says.
Although the often volatile rate dropped to 11% from March's 11.2%, the Golden State still lost 63,700 jobs during the month, the state Employment Development Department reported today.
Interactive: California's rising jobless...X
And more losses could be in store this summer as school districts, cities, counties and the state government react to plunging tax revenues by laying off large numbers of teachers and civil servants, economists warn.
"It's a mixed report," said Howard Roth, chief economist for the state Department of Finance. "Unemployment went down, but the job loss is still substantial."
Another economist, Stephen Levy of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, was more stark in his appraisal. The unemployment "decline is a false signal that economic recovery is underway," he said.
California Jobless
The number of unemployed in California has increased by 842,800 since April 2008, when the jobless rate stood at just 6.6%.
The small drop in unemployment statewide last month was mirrored in Southern California. Unemployment fell from 11.3% to 11% in Los Angeles County. In the Inland Empire, it dropped from 13% to 12.6%. The rate in Orange County went from 8.6% to 8.3%. And in Ventura County, it fell from 9.7% to 9.2%.
California currently has nation's the fifth-worst employment climate, ranking behind Michigan at 12.9%, Oregon at 12%, South Carolina at 11.5% and Rhode Island at 11.1%.
Over the last few months, California actually has moved down a couple of spots in the rankings as the deepening recession sunk its claws more deeply into western and southeastern states.
"It's too early to say the economy is stabilizing, but it is sliding at a slower pace," said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University-Channel Islands. "Before we hit bottom, we need to slow the rate of descent."
Sohn said he detects hints of renewed economic vitality in the housing, retail sales and health care areas. But, the monthly state jobs reported significant job gains in only one category, government.
And that uptick shouldn't last when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature start hacking education, social services, health care and prison budgets, economist Levy predicted.
"There is nothing but bad news for state and local government budgets in the April jobs report," he says.
California Supreme Court to rule on Proposition 8 Tuesday
The California Supreme Court announced today that it will rule Tuesday on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that resurrected a ban on same-sex marriage.
The ruling, which will be posted at 10 a.m., will also determine whether an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages will continue to be recognized by the state.
Gay rights lawyers have argued that the ballot measure was an illegal constitutional revision rather than a more limited amendment. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown urged the court to reject the measure on different grounds. He contended the proposition was unconstitutional because it took away an inalienable right without compelling justification.
Chief Justice Ronald M. George and Justice Joyce L. Kennard will cast key votes in the case. They were part of the four-judge majority that gave gays the right to marry last May, but both indicated at oral argument that they were not persuaded the measure was unconstitutional.
The court’s majority decision should be revealed in the first or second page of the ruling and reiterated in its last paragraph. Separate concurring and dissenting opinions follow.
Counting votes may be tricky because the court is dealing with three different legal issues: the revision challenge, the attorney general’s challenge and the fate of existing same-sex marriages.
The court’s vote on whether Proposition 8 is an impermissible revision, for example, will probably differ from its vote on whether existing marriages should continue to be recognized by the state.
Justices who disagree with the majority file dissents. If they agree with only part of the majority decision, they file an opinion called a partial concurrence and dissent.
During oral argument in March, every justice expressed support for upholding existing marriages. Justice Carlos M. Moreno indicated he believed Proposition 8 was an illegal revision, indicating he would dissent on that question
Moreno might be joined by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, a former civil rights lawyer who stressed the court was dealing with a novel legal question. Werdegar, however, did not join Moreno in voting to put the measure on hold pending the court’s ruling.
The ruling, which will be posted at 10 a.m., will also determine whether an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages will continue to be recognized by the state.
Gay rights lawyers have argued that the ballot measure was an illegal constitutional revision rather than a more limited amendment. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown urged the court to reject the measure on different grounds. He contended the proposition was unconstitutional because it took away an inalienable right without compelling justification.
Chief Justice Ronald M. George and Justice Joyce L. Kennard will cast key votes in the case. They were part of the four-judge majority that gave gays the right to marry last May, but both indicated at oral argument that they were not persuaded the measure was unconstitutional.
The court’s majority decision should be revealed in the first or second page of the ruling and reiterated in its last paragraph. Separate concurring and dissenting opinions follow.
Counting votes may be tricky because the court is dealing with three different legal issues: the revision challenge, the attorney general’s challenge and the fate of existing same-sex marriages.
The court’s vote on whether Proposition 8 is an impermissible revision, for example, will probably differ from its vote on whether existing marriages should continue to be recognized by the state.
Justices who disagree with the majority file dissents. If they agree with only part of the majority decision, they file an opinion called a partial concurrence and dissent.
During oral argument in March, every justice expressed support for upholding existing marriages. Justice Carlos M. Moreno indicated he believed Proposition 8 was an illegal revision, indicating he would dissent on that question
Moreno might be joined by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, a former civil rights lawyer who stressed the court was dealing with a novel legal question. Werdegar, however, did not join Moreno in voting to put the measure on hold pending the court’s ruling.
Reading, Writing and Recession
BANKERS, lawyers and journalists have lately taken pay cuts and gone without raises to stay employed in a tough economy. Now similar givebacks are spreading to education, an industry once deemed to be recession-proof.
All 95 teachers and five administrators in the Tuckahoe school district in Westchester County have agreed to contribute $1,000 each to next year’s school budget to keep the area’s tax increase below 3 percent.
In the Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow district, 80 percent of the 500 school employees — including teachers, clerks, custodians and bus drivers — have pledged more than $150,000 from their own pockets to help close a $300,000 budget gap.
And on Long Island, the 733 teachers in the William Floyd district in Mastic Beach decided to collectively give up $1 million in salary increases next year to help restore 19 teaching positions that were to be eliminated in budget cuts.
New York State’s powerful teachers’ unions have rarely agreed to reopen contract negotiations in bad economic times, let alone make concessions. But as many school districts presented flat budgets to voters in recent weeks, teachers in at least a dozen suburban areas have opened the door to compromise to save jobs, preserve programs and smaller class sizes, and show support for the towns and villages where many of them have taught generations of families.
Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of the New York State United Teachers, said the last time teachers made so many concessions was during the financial crisis of the 1970s.
“In a normal school year, in a normal economic situation, we would see very little of what’s going on now,” said Mr. Iannuzzi, who predicts more than 5,000 layoffs of teachers statewide next year because of budget cuts.
In New York City, where the Bloomberg administration said last week that schools would face a 5 percent cut, the United Federation of Teachers said there had been no discussion of reopening its contract, which runs through October. And in New Jersey and much of Connecticut, where school districts face similarly tight budgetary times, calls for teacher givebacks have largely been ignored, or rejected.
The teachers’ union in Ridgewood, N.J., for example, voted this spring against a district proposal to renegotiate salaries. “We’re sympathetic to the economic situation, but we just don’t believe that teachers and school employees are overpaid,” said Steve Baker, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, pointing out that no district ever rushed forward to double teachers’ raises during boom times. “Our members are the same middle-class people feeling the pinch of this recession as well, so we don’t feel it’s appropriate to target them for givebacks.”
Even in some of the places where unions have voted to help out management, some members have balked. In the William Floyd district, 60 teachers —about 8 percent of the total — voted against giving up what amounted to $1,190 apiece, while 580 teachers voted to do so (those who voted no still have to forgo the money). In Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, donations from school employees have been kept confidential so as not to place undue pressure on those who do not participate.
“We didn’t want people to feel that it’s some kind of contest,” said Howard Smith, the Tarrytown superintendent.
Richard Perugini, a physical education teacher who is president of the Tarrytown teachers’ union, said he has pledged to give money even though his wife, Carmen, a teacher’s aide, is to be laid off from a nearby school district in June. “We’ll be living paycheck to paycheck,” he said.
Tarrytown’s budget for next year is $62.5 million, a 3.8 percent increase. While that is about half the size of the annual growth in recent years, leading the district to eliminate four teaching positions, four teaching assistants and 10 bus drivers and monitors, it is nonetheless higher than in some places. White Plains has an increase of 0.74 percent, to $185.7 million, the smallest in more than 25 years.
Similarly, Yonkers, Westchester’s largest school system, has a planned budget increase of 0.81 percent (to $487.1 million), after increases of at least 5 percent in each of the past two years. District officials say they have to buy fewer supplies, negotiate lower rates for food and busing, suspend supplemental teacher training and pare special education costs by more than $3 million to cover rising expenses for salaries and benefits.
“There’s a real sense that we’ve reached a limit, and in many communities, that translates into, ‘We can’t even raise it one dollar,’ ” Dr. Smith said.
In most districts, personnel costs are the largest expenses, making up three-quarters or more of the annual budget, so renegotiating terms with teachers is one of the only ways to avoid cuts in the classroomIn Cambridge, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Albany, the 980-student district had proposed to lay off a teacher, two teaching assistants and five aides — about 4.5 percent of its school staff. As an alternative, the teachers agreed, in a vote of 68 to 22, to reopen their contract and accept smaller stipends for advising student clubs, coaching athletic teams and chaperoning school events. The savings to the district: $67,868.
“I laid out the problem,” said Daniel Severson, the superintendent. “Everybody knows everybody because it’s small; we all live in the same town.”
Similarly, William Floyd teachers averted the layoffs of nine teachers, and helped the 9,600-student district restore 10 other teaching positions, by agreeing to give up part of their raises, a concession similar to one the union made in 1991 to help close a budget gap.
In return, they secured a one-year contract extension, to 2010-11, with a 2.5 percent raise on top of annual step raises.
“We did not want to see any of our teachers lose their jobs, or good programs suspended, and that’s what was going to happen,” said Karen D’Esposito, a high school social studies teacher who is president of the union.
In Tuckahoe, teachers already contribute $10 annually for a $1,000 scholarship awarded to a graduating student, and they frequently volunteer at school events. But last fall, Michael V. Yazurlo, the superintendent of the 1,000-student district, approached the union about trying to keep next year’s property tax increase at 2.88 percent, the lowest in more than a decade.
“We are already at survival level,” said Dr. Yazurlo, who gave up a 3.5 percent pay raise for next year. “We don’t have the fat, the extra staff other districts have.”
The teachers’ union had initially proposed that its members voluntarily contribute between $200 and $600, based on salary, to support the school budget. But that amount was rejected — as too little — by many of the teachers, some of whom have spent more than three decades in the district. The final amount was $1,000 per teacher.
Marianne Amato, a 12th-grade English teacher and president of the teachers’ union, said, “Everybody really understood that this is a different time and we have to do something to help as a community of teachers.”
All 95 teachers and five administrators in the Tuckahoe school district in Westchester County have agreed to contribute $1,000 each to next year’s school budget to keep the area’s tax increase below 3 percent.
In the Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow district, 80 percent of the 500 school employees — including teachers, clerks, custodians and bus drivers — have pledged more than $150,000 from their own pockets to help close a $300,000 budget gap.
And on Long Island, the 733 teachers in the William Floyd district in Mastic Beach decided to collectively give up $1 million in salary increases next year to help restore 19 teaching positions that were to be eliminated in budget cuts.
New York State’s powerful teachers’ unions have rarely agreed to reopen contract negotiations in bad economic times, let alone make concessions. But as many school districts presented flat budgets to voters in recent weeks, teachers in at least a dozen suburban areas have opened the door to compromise to save jobs, preserve programs and smaller class sizes, and show support for the towns and villages where many of them have taught generations of families.
Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of the New York State United Teachers, said the last time teachers made so many concessions was during the financial crisis of the 1970s.
“In a normal school year, in a normal economic situation, we would see very little of what’s going on now,” said Mr. Iannuzzi, who predicts more than 5,000 layoffs of teachers statewide next year because of budget cuts.
In New York City, where the Bloomberg administration said last week that schools would face a 5 percent cut, the United Federation of Teachers said there had been no discussion of reopening its contract, which runs through October. And in New Jersey and much of Connecticut, where school districts face similarly tight budgetary times, calls for teacher givebacks have largely been ignored, or rejected.
The teachers’ union in Ridgewood, N.J., for example, voted this spring against a district proposal to renegotiate salaries. “We’re sympathetic to the economic situation, but we just don’t believe that teachers and school employees are overpaid,” said Steve Baker, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, pointing out that no district ever rushed forward to double teachers’ raises during boom times. “Our members are the same middle-class people feeling the pinch of this recession as well, so we don’t feel it’s appropriate to target them for givebacks.”
Even in some of the places where unions have voted to help out management, some members have balked. In the William Floyd district, 60 teachers —about 8 percent of the total — voted against giving up what amounted to $1,190 apiece, while 580 teachers voted to do so (those who voted no still have to forgo the money). In Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, donations from school employees have been kept confidential so as not to place undue pressure on those who do not participate.
“We didn’t want people to feel that it’s some kind of contest,” said Howard Smith, the Tarrytown superintendent.
Richard Perugini, a physical education teacher who is president of the Tarrytown teachers’ union, said he has pledged to give money even though his wife, Carmen, a teacher’s aide, is to be laid off from a nearby school district in June. “We’ll be living paycheck to paycheck,” he said.
Tarrytown’s budget for next year is $62.5 million, a 3.8 percent increase. While that is about half the size of the annual growth in recent years, leading the district to eliminate four teaching positions, four teaching assistants and 10 bus drivers and monitors, it is nonetheless higher than in some places. White Plains has an increase of 0.74 percent, to $185.7 million, the smallest in more than 25 years.
Similarly, Yonkers, Westchester’s largest school system, has a planned budget increase of 0.81 percent (to $487.1 million), after increases of at least 5 percent in each of the past two years. District officials say they have to buy fewer supplies, negotiate lower rates for food and busing, suspend supplemental teacher training and pare special education costs by more than $3 million to cover rising expenses for salaries and benefits.
“There’s a real sense that we’ve reached a limit, and in many communities, that translates into, ‘We can’t even raise it one dollar,’ ” Dr. Smith said.
In most districts, personnel costs are the largest expenses, making up three-quarters or more of the annual budget, so renegotiating terms with teachers is one of the only ways to avoid cuts in the classroomIn Cambridge, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Albany, the 980-student district had proposed to lay off a teacher, two teaching assistants and five aides — about 4.5 percent of its school staff. As an alternative, the teachers agreed, in a vote of 68 to 22, to reopen their contract and accept smaller stipends for advising student clubs, coaching athletic teams and chaperoning school events. The savings to the district: $67,868.
“I laid out the problem,” said Daniel Severson, the superintendent. “Everybody knows everybody because it’s small; we all live in the same town.”
Similarly, William Floyd teachers averted the layoffs of nine teachers, and helped the 9,600-student district restore 10 other teaching positions, by agreeing to give up part of their raises, a concession similar to one the union made in 1991 to help close a budget gap.
In return, they secured a one-year contract extension, to 2010-11, with a 2.5 percent raise on top of annual step raises.
“We did not want to see any of our teachers lose their jobs, or good programs suspended, and that’s what was going to happen,” said Karen D’Esposito, a high school social studies teacher who is president of the union.
In Tuckahoe, teachers already contribute $10 annually for a $1,000 scholarship awarded to a graduating student, and they frequently volunteer at school events. But last fall, Michael V. Yazurlo, the superintendent of the 1,000-student district, approached the union about trying to keep next year’s property tax increase at 2.88 percent, the lowest in more than a decade.
“We are already at survival level,” said Dr. Yazurlo, who gave up a 3.5 percent pay raise for next year. “We don’t have the fat, the extra staff other districts have.”
The teachers’ union had initially proposed that its members voluntarily contribute between $200 and $600, based on salary, to support the school budget. But that amount was rejected — as too little — by many of the teachers, some of whom have spent more than three decades in the district. The final amount was $1,000 per teacher.
Marianne Amato, a 12th-grade English teacher and president of the teachers’ union, said, “Everybody really understood that this is a different time and we have to do something to help as a community of teachers.”
Pakistan Claims More Gains Against Taliban
A top Pakistani general said Friday that the military has succeeded in clearing two militant strongholds in upper parts of the contested Swat Valley and is just a week away from taking over a third.
Essentially, at this point in time, we are looking at eliminating the hard core militants,” Major General Sajjad Ghani, the commanding officer of the military operation in the upper part of Swat, said in a briefing for journalists here. Khawazakhela is one of the largest cities in Swat, with a population locals estimate at more than 500,000.
General Ghani, who has been in the area for the past year and a half, said the military had cleared militants from Matta and Bini Baba Ziarart and was closing in on another stronghold in Peochar, in the upper Swat valley.
“The commandoes have already landed on the mountain peaks and ridges,” around Peochar, he said. “The militants are surrounded and encircled from all sides. They are hemmed in. And this is the right time that the security forces can go with full might and kill and eliminate the residual militants in the Peochar valley.”
Buoyed by the military’s success, local people in the neighboring northern area of Kalam have taken up arms against the Taliban, General Ghani said.
General Ghani ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire. “Miscreants are on the run,” he said. “Their command and control, communication infrastructure has been destroyed. They cannot coordinate and articulate operations in a coherent way any longer.”
While the military is gunning for the militant leadership, recruits who desert the Taliban ranks will be allowed to rejoin mainstream society, he said.
Gen. Ghani said residents could begin to return to Khawazakhela and Matta in 15 days.
But as of Friday, the city of Khawazakhela, like other towns and villages throughout the Swat valley, had a ghostly aspect when seen from a helicopter. Long roads winding through green fields were deserted. Dozens of cargo trucks were parked in the center of town, while smoke billowed from what seemed to be a filling station. Very few people could be seen.
The Pakistan Army has established an operational base in a girls’ college in the city. Soldiers in camouflage fatigues stood guard outside the boundary walls of the building.
“The Taliban would have blown it up had we not established our base here”, said Lt. Col. Abdul Rehman, one of the officers. The Taliban had targeted girls’ schools and banned female education.
Colonel Rehman said that 31 soldiers in his unit had been killed, but that morale remained high.
As helicopters flew in and out of the base, a group of young officers said there was no moral dilemma for them in fighting the Taliban, most of who are fellow Pakistanis. “They are not Muslims despite their claims to be so,” said Lt. Asad Hanif. “A true Muslim cannot slaughter people like the Taliban have been doing.”
Officers said the Taliban were recruiting young men from the area through intimidation and coercion, and raising money through extortion. While most of the Taliban militants were from the area, the officers said that some foreigners, most of them from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, had also joined in the fighting.
Rahimullah Shaheen, a local journalist, sounded a note of caution, saying that the Taliban who had been forced out of Khawazakhela had simply retreated into the nearby mountains, just a few miles from the city.
Essentially, at this point in time, we are looking at eliminating the hard core militants,” Major General Sajjad Ghani, the commanding officer of the military operation in the upper part of Swat, said in a briefing for journalists here. Khawazakhela is one of the largest cities in Swat, with a population locals estimate at more than 500,000.
General Ghani, who has been in the area for the past year and a half, said the military had cleared militants from Matta and Bini Baba Ziarart and was closing in on another stronghold in Peochar, in the upper Swat valley.
“The commandoes have already landed on the mountain peaks and ridges,” around Peochar, he said. “The militants are surrounded and encircled from all sides. They are hemmed in. And this is the right time that the security forces can go with full might and kill and eliminate the residual militants in the Peochar valley.”
Buoyed by the military’s success, local people in the neighboring northern area of Kalam have taken up arms against the Taliban, General Ghani said.
General Ghani ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire. “Miscreants are on the run,” he said. “Their command and control, communication infrastructure has been destroyed. They cannot coordinate and articulate operations in a coherent way any longer.”
While the military is gunning for the militant leadership, recruits who desert the Taliban ranks will be allowed to rejoin mainstream society, he said.
Gen. Ghani said residents could begin to return to Khawazakhela and Matta in 15 days.
But as of Friday, the city of Khawazakhela, like other towns and villages throughout the Swat valley, had a ghostly aspect when seen from a helicopter. Long roads winding through green fields were deserted. Dozens of cargo trucks were parked in the center of town, while smoke billowed from what seemed to be a filling station. Very few people could be seen.
The Pakistan Army has established an operational base in a girls’ college in the city. Soldiers in camouflage fatigues stood guard outside the boundary walls of the building.
“The Taliban would have blown it up had we not established our base here”, said Lt. Col. Abdul Rehman, one of the officers. The Taliban had targeted girls’ schools and banned female education.
Colonel Rehman said that 31 soldiers in his unit had been killed, but that morale remained high.
As helicopters flew in and out of the base, a group of young officers said there was no moral dilemma for them in fighting the Taliban, most of who are fellow Pakistanis. “They are not Muslims despite their claims to be so,” said Lt. Asad Hanif. “A true Muslim cannot slaughter people like the Taliban have been doing.”
Officers said the Taliban were recruiting young men from the area through intimidation and coercion, and raising money through extortion. While most of the Taliban militants were from the area, the officers said that some foreigners, most of them from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, had also joined in the fighting.
Rahimullah Shaheen, a local journalist, sounded a note of caution, saying that the Taliban who had been forced out of Khawazakhela had simply retreated into the nearby mountains, just a few miles from the city.
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