Tag Archives: Jobs Plan

How Obama Can Invest in New York Again

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In his much-anticipated jobs speech last week, President Obama pledged billions of dollars towards “shovel-ready” projects to put construction workers back on the job. The first round of federal stimulus, passed in 2009, provided $261 million dollars in aid to improve New York City’s infrastructure. Here is a list of projects within the city that would benefit from round two:

Hudson River Tunnel: In October of 2010, Chris Christie touted his cancellation of construction of another tunnel under the Hudson, which would have doubled the capacity of commuter train passengers traveling between New York and New Jersey. The estimated price tag of the project, split between the two states and the federal government, is estimated at about $10 billion.

Retrofitting commercial buildings: Cash-strapped labor unions and private enterprise have attempted to go further than what was pledged in Obama’s green initiatives last year, but would greatly benefit from public investment. Deutsche Bank has compiled a list of potential savings from retrofitting specific commercial buildings in NYC.

Fixing bridges: Although the Brooklyn Bridge received a much-needed enhancement from the America Recovery Act in 2009, bridges throughout the state of New York have been crumbling for years. Senator Schumer has called for federal aid to update over 2,000 structrually deficient bridges throughout the state.

Commuter trains: With New York being awarded a massive federal grant for high-speed rail projects, commuters throughout the region will find it easier to travel throughout the Northeastern Corridor. However, Metro North and NJ Transit are still vital routes for daily commuters throughout the area. Upgrading these networks can greatly improve efficiency.

A curated list of how teacher layoffs and budget cuts affected NYC public schools

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President Obama’s speech on Sept. 8 addressed how Congress can prevent more layoffs and create more employment opportunities for Americans. One of the aspects of the $300billionplan is that it aims to stop the teacher layoffs, specifically, and improve schools and the educational system as a whole by retraining teachers and/or rehiring them.

He also made a comment about the disappointing condition of many public schools in America and suggested that fixing them would help improve student education while creating more construction jobs.

Here are some examples of how the teacher layoffs and school budget cuts have affected New York City public schools:

  • According to the huffingtonpost.com article on how the plan will affect teachers, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said “A couple hundred thousands of teachers have lost their jobs.” This could cause the morale of the teachers who didn’t get laid off to go down because they could be worried about being next which would affect their effectiveness as teachers.
  • With the city constantly growing in population, and knowing after the latest census that there are about 8.2 million people in the city, the layoffs of teachers have created a unbalanced teacher to students ratio. Also the laid off teachers haven’t been readily replaced, and overall 2,600 less teachers were hired when the city expects 10,000 more students enrolled in public schools.
  • The budget cuts have caused the maintenance of public schools to be put on hold, since schools don’t had the money to fix them up, hence the Obama proposal to find ways to get construction jobs available to fix them.
  • Schools are unable to provide school supplies to kids, unless teachers who are/were afraid of losing their jobs supplied some for their classes.