Wednesday, November 09, 2016

LIVE BLOGGING FROM DA (Updated)

President's Report
I came in when President Mulgrew was talking about some positive news from the election when it came to public schools. Massachusetts charter cap lift and Georgia vouchers both went down by big margins. Public education initiatives went well in other states and cities as well. Legalizing Marijuana had a good day too.

The ugly
Donald Trump's win means Republicans have control of the Presidency, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. We have never faced a challenge like this but we must stay true to our core beliefs. Need to work with mayor and governor. People were crying in public transportation today. We do not have enough counselors to deal with grief in schools. Mulgrew asks people what happened at schools today. Says we must get a plan together to stop privatization of public education but now we need to listen. He then dispensed with the regular agenda to allow the Delegates to talk about their feelings on the election.

Discussion on Election
Delegates shared some thoughts about kids and how they felt in schools today. Someone did mention that Hillary Clinton got more votes than Trump.

(I am not reporting on what some individual Delegates said but there were touching moments, particularly when talking about immigrant students and their fears.)

Mulgrew said union is at its best when fighting for what it believes in.

Interesting question on how to handle teachers who are Trump supporters?
Mulgrew said many Trump supporters were just voting for change. Others different. Cities will be targeted in Title I education cuts. Letter to Obama on putting John King in check on ESSA regulations. Must focus on progress in schools. Only one school in danger this year in NYC. Next political challenge will be fighting NYS constitutional convention next year that could cut our pensions. Tell members your vote directly affects your own family.

Obama care is dead. We need to protect people as best as we can. One Delegate wanted us to tell minority leader Chuck Shumer we should filibuster everything including Supreme Court nominees.

Mulgrew is looking to organize more in schools and community. Political and legal strategies will be there. We have gone at it alone against Bloomberg. No reason for us to be alone this time. 98% of people want to take care of families and do their jobs. People cannot vote only out of anger. Must go back to schools to support public education. We will be ok but we will get hurt.



13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please keep us posted if there is any mention of the new evaluation system. As much as everybody is talking about the election, the fact remains that the UFT/DOE are about to drop a new evaluation system on teachers in the next 6 weeks.

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew wants more grief counselors in schools- how pathetic. I need a grief counselor for this soul sapping make believe career, which is babysitting at its worse and best. If Mulgrew and his mom Randi backed Bernie, Bernie would be the president elect. Same with Zephyr Teachout against Cuomo. Same with Thompson against Bloomberg's third term. Clueless, absolutely clueless. Mulgrew and Weingarten should hang their heads in shame. They make me want to vomit.

James Eterno said...

No accountability for the leadership of the union as usual. That is a problem. On the first point, the President said nothing on the evaluations that I can recall.

Anonymous said...

Haha. Trump brought on bullying. Yeah right. Because the 30 percent college ready rate just started. The 19 year olds,reading on a 2nd grade level just started. The faggot, nigga, suck my dick, get the fuck out of my face, I can do whatever I want just started.

Anonymous said...

And Trump also made the college ready at Jefferson 3%. Wake up. You had the president who was supposed to be the best thing ever, and everything went backwards. And by the way, the UFT had their dem mayor too. But of course we know the fake grad rate is above 70%, so all is right with the world. As soon as obama was elected, I saw huge pictures go up of him in every school. I didnt remember President Bush being posted anywhere. And when should I expect the picture of the president Elect to go up?

Anonymous said...

I dont remember republicans rioting when obama won twice like we saw last night? Also dont remember white's rioting. Hmm. I guess we know where the problems are coming from. A couple students also said yesterday if they find out anyone voted for Trump they would fuck them up. that's the discourse we need to get away from. Said by a future 15 year old parent, a criminal...And not a word about the Jay Z lyrics at a Clinton rally? Nigga, ho, pimp, fuck, bitch, fag, crip, blood, how he used to deal drugs...

Anonymous said...

The hypocrites on the left march down the street chanting "FUCK TRUMP!" "FUCK THE POLICE!" as they carry signs that say "STOP THE HATE!"

Anonymous said...

And read above how it's a problem with Trump winning, as far as teachers go. Look at the contract and working conditions we have now. What the fuck does that have to do with Trump.

Anonymous said...

Republicans will gut public ed. The Dems were just as horrible. Obama did nothing for public ed. Clinton considered Joel Klein & Randi W for Sec of Ed. She would have been worse. Trump will promote school choice. Face it, public ed is a dying industry. No amount of fighting or organizing is going to change the reality that change is coming- like it or not. Bottom line, parents want school choice. Parents want to know that a "bad teacher" can be fired. Most people don't get pensions anymore, so the public doesn't care about ours. The writing is on the wall. If you have more than 5 years left, you have been warned. It is not going to get better- Get out if you can. If you can't, buckle up for a crash landing.

Anonymous said...

The WORST thing about all of this election news for NYC teachers is that it is distracting us from the immediate threat to us which is the DOE. Trump may or may not try to mess with public education. Even if he does, it is years away from having an effect on us. What does matter is that we are still working under a very hostile DOE and that a brand new evaluation is about to fall from the sky. The UFT spent so much time and effort to back Hillary when the rank and file teachers are cowering in the trenches. Call me brash, but I am way more concerned with how I am going to earn my bread and butter from the DOE than I am about some possible threat from Trump. Anybody want to chime in on this?

Anonymous said...

You guys forget fast, 2 days ago we were in a shithole, today we are in a shithole, trump or no trump.

@Myghty1 said...

disgraceful

James Eterno said...

The s*** hole you talk about just got worse because of the election.