Our members are there to meet our school children first thing in the morning, take them off the bus, watch over them as they have breakfast, monitor the halls, file the proper forms, work with families, provide drug abuse counseling and so many other services. If these workers are laid off, it means that teachers will be pulled out of the classroom to provide the services normally done by our support personnel such as school aides, family paraprofessionals, substance abuse counselors, community coordinators and school neighborhood workers. Proceeding with these layoffs will only throw the education system into chaos. If you talk to any school administrator or teacher, they will tell you how vital these workers are to providing the services that make the educational experience successful by keeping the children safe and ready to learn. If the Mayor is really serious about putting "children first," he needs to revisit this policy of laying off workers who are essential in dealing with the total child.

Taking low paid workers who pay taxes and perform vital services and laying them off in a very bad job market means that many will go from the unemployment line to the welfare roll. This will cost the city far more than it saves. That's bad enough, but if this choice was made to free up money to pay for new six-figure administrative titles, it's unconscionable.

I am calling on the City Council to restore these funds and prevent these workers from losing their jobs at the end of the month. Anyone who is really concerned about our schools, realizes our children must be supported in every possible way. These layoffs undermine our schools, hurt our children, and are completely counter productive. They must be stopped.

Local 372 represents approximately 27,000 employees of the New York City Department of Education and the New York City Police Department who provide essential support services to the children in our city's schools