Mayor Bloomberg last week announced his 2011 fiscal budget and the outlook for the city's school teachers -- and its classrooms --is grim. The budget calls for the elimination of 6,414 teachers --4,419 would be laid off and another 1,995 jobs would go unfilled. The final count will be determined only when the state issues its budget -- now more than a month overdue. The mayor's budget was based on Governor Paterson's call for $400 million in cutsto New York City schools.

There has been much debate about the teachers union "last in, first out" rule which essentially means that teachers with the most seniority remain in the classrooms, while the most recent hires, get fired. Those hardest hit will be the districts with the most new teachers: poor districts including District 7 in the Bronx, and fast-growing richer ones, such as District 2 in Manhattan.

In April, two Democratic state lawmakers introduced a bill calling for schools, not union rules, to determine which teachers stay and which go. Under the bill, a committee of parents, teachers, and administrators at each school would decide who gets laid off.

In a New York Post editorial, Chancellor Klein suggests that teacher layoffs should begin with the 1,600 teachers who have "unsatisfactory ratings"and the 1,000 teachers who have been unable to find jobs for a year and are in an "excess pool". "Beyond that," he writes, " principals would make decisions based on three universally agreed-upon, clear criteria: teacher attendance, student progress and quality of teaching."

We'd like to know what you think. If these cuts become a certainty, they will affect all classrooms, with the average elementary school class growing by as much as three students, The Times reported.

If thousands of teachers are going to be laid off, who should decide which teachers should go and which should stay.

Take our poll! And comment below.