Bloomberg Takes On Union With Education Proposals Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, doubling down on his efforts to improve the city's long-troubled schools, on Thursday outlined a series of proposals to reward the best teachers and, in some cases, to replace others. Delivering his 11th and penultimate State of the City address, Mr. Bloomberg said he would take several steps to circumvent obstacles to his proposals posed by labor unions. Follow more news on Mr. Bloomberg's speech on SchoolBook and on the Green blog. ATTRACT HIGH-QUALITY TEACHERS The city would pay up to $25,000 in student loans amassed by college graduates who finish in the top quartile of their class and then teach in New York. RETAIN TEACHERS Teachers who are rated "highly effective" for two consecutive years would receive a $20,000 raise per year. EVALUATE TEACHERS The city would form school-based committees to evaluate teachers based on their performance in the classroom. For the city, it is a bid to reclaim roughly $60 million in federal grants for 33 struggling schools, which the state suspended because of the lack of an evaluation system for teachers and principals working in those schools. MORE SCHOOLS, MORE CHOICES The city would phase out another 25 schools this year and open 100 new schools - including 50 new charter schools - within the next two years. COLLEGE AND CAREERS The city would open at least 12 new career and technical schools and programs over the next two years and will give extra money, from private sources, to help 40 schools that have shown success graduating young black and Latino men. FINANCIAL AID Under a partnership with the Obama administration, the city would help high school graduates who would have qualified for federal financial aid, but did not apply, to turn in their applications. In addition to his education proposals, Mr. Bloomberg vowed this year to push for an increase in the state's minimum wage, joining the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, in the effort. While Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire and staunch defender of capitalism, said the free market was "genius," he said that it was not perfect, and that setting a minimum high enough so people could make a living without an adverse economic impact was "a balancing act." And he noted, with a mix of frustration and envy, that Connecticut and Massachusetts, among others, had raised their minimum wages above federal levels. As a result, he said in his prepared remarks: "Our city just cannot afford to wait for Washington. Not when it comes to illegal guns, not when it comes to climate change, not when it comes to creating jobs and not when it comes to raising the minimum wage. Mr. Bloomberg also offered several new ideas for making the city a safer and easier place to navigate for bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers. He said he would double the number of 20-mile-per-hour zones for schools, and add miles of bike lanes, while deploying traffic enforcement agents to "safety hot spots at key intersections." He also said he would push to enforce a new measure requiring bicycle delivery riders to have the right safety equipment and uniforms identifying the name of their business. He also talked, at some length, about several recycling initiatives. He promised to double the amount of residential waste diverted from landfills by 2017, and to make New York one of the first cities in the country to convert waste water into renewable energy.