Saturday, February 28, 2015

DEMISE OF UFT CHARTER SCHOOL REMINDS ME OF MY OPPOSITION TO ITS FOUNDING

I'm a little late to the party writing about the UFT K-8 charter school that will be shutting down in June.  NYC Educator and Ed Notes have already beat me to the punch by posting on this topic today. I can only add a little personal note to their stories since I remember the Executive Board meeting when we voted on the UFT starting a charter school. I was the sole dissenting voice that evening. 

The UFT charter school came up for a vote at the Executive Board during a time period between 2003 and 2004 when opposition caucus New Action was solidifying their alliance with the dominant Unity Caucus.  New Action's high school "opposition" representatives started going with the Unity party line on just about every topic.  The exceptions were my close friend to this day Ed Beller and me however on the subject of the UFT starting a charter school, Ed was with the leadership. Therefore, I was alone so UFT President Randi Weingarten was poised to ridicule me.

I recall vividly being called on after the usual Unity sycophants praised the charter school. I spoke out against the UFT running a charter school because we would have difficulty publically opposing the expansion of charter schools if the union was running one and money would be siphoned away from an already cash strapped public school system to charters.  Randi stopped me in mid-sentence that evening and argued that I was making an argument against private school vouchers and not charter schools but I stuck to my position. After our debate, I think I was the lone no vote. A UFT charter school was a no-win proposition.  If it succeeded, the press would see it as a victory for charter schools.  If it did not work out, it would be seen as union failure. That's what is occurring now.

Being opposed to all charter schools on principle, not just some we don't like, is a position I am quite honored to have stood up for as a lone wolf at the UFT Executive Board. 

Now that the UFT's K-8 charter school is closing, do you think Randi Weingarten will be getting in touch with me to say that maybe I had a point?  I don't think so either.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess Michelle Bodden-White's program of Dancing Classrooms will soon be changed to Dancing with SUNY's School Closure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwbvV2lnAYk

Who are the losers here? The kids!! Will those teachers become ATRs or will they be "conveniently" placed in high performing schools? Who will keep tract of that?

James Eterno said...

I remember Unity friends telling us Michelle Bodden was Mulgrew's competition to succeed Weingarten as president. How she ended up going from elementary school VP to the charter school seems a bit odd. It looks like she runs the UFT charter school with integrity and would not play numbers games. However, I have no inside knowledge. I am basing my view on the fact that I worked on a UFT committee with Bodden and found her to be easy to work with. I can't imagine us doing worse if she had replaced Weingarten.

Harris L. said...

Just wondering, James, did Weingarten and Co. even refer to the Kahlenberg/Shanker sense of charter schools as "laboratories" for experimenting with "thinner" contracts that could generate new pedagogies or curricula to take back into the public schools? The supposed public school/charter partnership idea that was floating around in the either in the 1980s?

Harris L. said...

Sorry, James, late to the story, and just read the Chalkbeat piece that answers my own question.

ed notes online said...

I echo James on Michelle Bodden who was very popular with many. I would have much preferred her to Mulgrew as UFT leader - and I would bet she would not have been as oppressive on democracy. Maybe that is why she was dumped into the charter.

James Eterno said...

They sure did. Whole idea was we would run one and show the contract was not an impediment. However, by the time UFT charter started, clearly charters were the enemy of unions and this was a no win move.

Anonymous said...

Many believe, and I believe that many are right, that everything would be different now had Michelle Bodden been president of the UFT. For one thing, she would have had better judgement than to send the traveling empty headed fool Andy Pallotta up to Albany to take on the second most powerful union leadership position in the state, she would have been a better match against a Cuomo as Michelle didn't feel the need to join the good old boys club as Mulgrew lives to do, and the current puppet leadership of NYSUT would never have come to fruition because Michelle had enough sense to know that we needed independent, thoughtful, respected and competent leaders rather than the shitshow that is going on up there now as Mulgrew pulls the strings. Michelle had integrity, she wasn't a bully, and it is tragic that this is how it all ended up. I believe without a doubt that even those who jumped on the Revive Bandwagon now realize the horrible mistake they made.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Randi

Anonymous said...

Someday someone should do a complete look at the rise and fall of the UFT charter school. They will quickly see the UFT's nepotism caused it to collapse before it even was up and running. Peter Goodman's(high ranking UFT) son Drew Goodman was given the job as principal when he was a horrible AP. If they asked the principal he worked for, she would've told them he was complete slacker living off his father's name. He selected much of the staff(his friends) and was forced to take UFT members who were ousted from other schools. The UFT could never actually do what it took to get teachers to work or separate doing the right thing for the kids from the staff and in that respect proved themselves wrong.

What a great book!