The ranks of the city's teachers could drop by 15,000 this year because of a drop in state education funding.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein made the announcement Wednesday during a joint session of the state legislature in Albany.

Klein says up to 12 percent of the city's teachers may be cut through a combination of attrition and layoffs.

"It's hard to know. I don't know how many people are gonna leave, each year usually several thousand, could be three or 4,000 teachers that leave the system, maybe some aides, assistant principles, you could see a third of that, maybe less, from attrition and the rest of that principally teachers," said Klein.

The teachers union is already blasting the idea of layoffs.

In a released statement, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said, "A layoff of 15,000 educators in the New York City public school system would be devastating to both our students and the people who work so hard to provide them with a quality education."

Meanwhile, executives from the United Federation of Teachers joined parents and elected officials Wednesday at City Hall, calling for more city school funding in President Barack Obama's stimulus plan.

The group wants the reinvestment and recovery plan to allocate more money for infrastructure to help alleviate overcrowding in city schools.

"We cannot deal with the fiscal crisis by just cutting services to the community, to the schools, to basically the infrastructure of the city of New York. This would be the gravest mistake," said Michael Mulgrew, V.P. and COO, United Federation of Teachers.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Sunday the city will receive $1.6 billion for education as part of the plan.

Also on Wednesday, Senator Chuck Schumer announced the senate's recovery package will include a $230 tax break for mass transit riders.

It's the same amount given to drivers and nearly double the value of the current tax break.