tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post2447483513120992444..comments2024-03-07T15:25:26.971-05:00Comments on ICEUFT Blog: A unique opportunity has been missedJeff Kaufmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11728874415155394751noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-70353818842503673272007-05-03T06:37:00.000-04:002007-05-03T06:37:00.000-04:00Leonie Haimson's account isn't very different than...Leonie Haimson's account isn't very different than what Randi reported at the DA.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-18584052910592463322007-04-30T01:24:00.000-04:002007-04-30T01:24:00.000-04:00Anonymous said..."I'd appreciate my emails to the ...Anonymous said...<BR/>"I'd appreciate my emails to the list not being reprinted here without my permission. They are not meant to be your political tool."<BR/><BR/>1. If you are anon. what email are you talking about from what list?<BR/>2. Anyone can post here -- no restrictions. So whoever is posting whoever's email and whoever is using whoever's email as a political tool for whatever purpose, please desist. Or not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-38379600620153722792007-04-29T20:37:00.000-04:002007-04-29T20:37:00.000-04:00What political tool? The election is over.What political tool? The election is over.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-45264505191088502782007-04-29T18:46:00.000-04:002007-04-29T18:46:00.000-04:00I'd appreciate my emails to the list not being rep...I'd appreciate my emails to the list not being reprinted here without my permission. They are not meant to be your political tool.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-12955301183295473962007-04-28T11:21:00.001-04:002007-04-28T11:21:00.001-04:00I agree that there has to be a long range strategy...I agree that there has to be a long range strategy. I think that ICE <BR/>needs to make slow and steady progress in reaching out to the rank and <BR/>file, in whatever way possible. When this reorganization hits home, <BR/>there are going to be many people disillusioned with Princess Randi and <BR/>they will be looking for some sort of hope and direction. Best, DeniseAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-48565737559136191292007-04-28T11:21:00.000-04:002007-04-28T11:21:00.000-04:00Sadly, the only thing that's going to stop this re...Sadly, the only thing that's going to stop this reorganization is a<BR/>disaster, whether it be natural, terrorist or the full implementation<BR/>and ultimate failure of Bloomklein's follies. We are all at a critical<BR/>juncture and those of us who understand better than the rest are<BR/>responsible to do something....anything.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-42204056078567570902007-04-28T11:19:00.000-04:002007-04-28T11:19:00.000-04:00I agree that the is little in the reorganization t...I agree that the is little in the reorganization that is appealing.<BR/><BR/>In some ways the reorganization foreshadows the end of public education<BR/>in NYC as it another step towards privatization. Who knows how many <BR/>steps<BR/>away privatization is? Will Bloomberg / Klein attempt re-reorganize <BR/>again? That's<BR/>doubtful. It will depend how civic minded the next mayor / chancellor <BR/>team<BR/>is.<BR/><BR/>Educationally, in the short run, it seems to me that it is more of the <BR/>same<BR/>ineffective nonsense that I have seen for the last 18 years. Someone is<BR/>always looking to make a buck selling something from a "quick fix"<BR/>to "comprehensive reform" that is neither comprehensive hence is real <BR/>systemic<BR/>and potentially effective reform.<BR/><BR/>Given the implication to public education, given how it will most <BR/>likely not help<BR/>us with our working conditions, given that it will most likely not help <BR/>the children<BR/>in reality; what are you suggesting that we do as ICE the group, or as <BR/>independent<BR/>individuals ?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-44906215886512653252007-04-24T21:09:00.000-04:002007-04-24T21:09:00.000-04:00AUA probably also has a union job and hasn't seen ...AUA probably also has a union job and hasn't seen a classroom in years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-63603532323054940122007-04-24T20:55:00.000-04:002007-04-24T20:55:00.000-04:00"Aren't more than half of these postings from your..."Aren't more than half of these postings from your own blog Norm? This is lame!"<BR/><BR/>From AUA - Another Unity Asshole<BR/>(who doesn't have one idea to offer than make a stupid comment.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-48020010077992360842007-04-23T19:16:00.000-04:002007-04-23T19:16:00.000-04:00Another missed political opportunity. Senior teac...Another missed political opportunity. Senior teachers are totally screwed!!<BR/><BR/>Edwize has once again buried their posting on this subject because the comments are not to their liking.<BR/><BR/>Expect to see another 100 New Teacher Diaries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-42005683761384936452007-04-23T16:37:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:37:00.000-04:00We don't see much in the agreement for teachers.We don't see much in the agreement for teachers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-17265458321552333952007-04-23T16:32:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:32:00.000-04:00A truly significant thing here for teachers is tha...A truly significant thing here for teachers is that Randi did not stop the mayor's additional incentive for principals to stop hiring senior teachers. Read Edwize and they'd have you ignore it.<BR/><BR/>It's a very sad day when those who worked so hard for the city turn out to be rubber stamps for Randi and her gang.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-44451078812286046562007-04-23T16:27:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:27:00.000-04:00Tim Johnson for UFT President. He can smell a rat...Tim Johnson for UFT President. He can smell a rat when he sees one and knows to stay away.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-19629251280583783352007-04-23T16:25:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:25:00.000-04:00Regarding your comment: "...I remember Tim Johnson...Regarding your comment: "...I remember Tim Johnson of<BR/>CPAC being the person who waved me into the Blue Room<BR/>at City Hall, past the security detail. I had no idea<BR/>of CPAC's exclusion..."<BR/><BR/>NOTE: I was NOT @ City Hall last Thurs. (4/19). I<BR/>rejected the deal the previous Friday (the 13th). My<BR/>position was so abundantly clear that the brokers of<BR/>the deal didn't even ASK me to attend Thurs.'s event. <BR/>The Times, News, Post, Sun, & S.I. Advance all<BR/>reported that CPAC was _NOT_ there. You could look it<BR/>up.<BR/><BR/>Tim Johnson, Chairman<BR/>Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council (CPAC)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-6637132698571388952007-04-23T16:19:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:19:00.000-04:00It's good to read accounts like this, and I think ...It's good to read accounts like this, and I think it would be helpful if<BR/>others who were involved would share their experiences.<BR/><BR/>One thing that I didn't understand until lately, probably because I'm<BR/>such a naif, was that UFT had originally organized the coalition.<BR/>Clearly it was in their interest *not* to have any ground rules that<BR/>would have prevented the preemption and co-opting described here.<BR/><BR/>It does seem that UFT used the threat of a rally by a large coalition<BR/>including parent activists and advocacy groups as a bargaining tool in<BR/>obtaining some concessions from the DoE.<BR/><BR/>But there is now no reason, the coalition having been broken, that UFT<BR/>Inc. should have any say over the planned rally or any other organizing<BR/>activity. We can, must, and will proceed to demand en masse that this<BR/>wrong-headed restructuring plan be stopped.<BR/><BR/>Leonie, so little could I have imagined that you would be present at<BR/>that press conference that I literally didn't see you in the video on<BR/>nyc.gov (and didn't see the NY1 footage until later). While I<BR/>understand your explanation of what went down, there's nothing that I've<BR/>read so far that causes me to share your optimism about the value of<BR/>the task force on class size. I know that you and others have engaged<BR/>in a long struggle to get DoE to even acknowledge the issue as a serious<BR/>one, and I agree that it's absolutely vital, but the agreement that's<BR/>been struck doesn't seem to me to offer anything concrete. I greatly<BR/>respect your tireless activism and long work on this issue. Yet I can't<BR/>help but feel that your placement during the news conference in a very<BR/>visible spot (while Robert Jackson, say, was off-camera), was a<BR/>political calculation on the administration's part.<BR/><BR/>And while the concession on school budgets is important in some sense,<BR/>as an isolated point it is far less than satisfactory -- and as others<BR/>have pointed out, it does not resolve the core problem that Fair Student<BR/>Funding will still encourage principals to cut costs and hire less<BR/>experienced (less expensive) teachers.<BR/><BR/>The same principle applies for the ELL agreement -- since no special<BR/>need population is completely disjunct from all others, under the FSF<BR/>rubric, weighting ELL more would seem to take away from other<BR/>constituencies. Everything I've heard about the negotiation process<BR/>suggests that District 75 advocates were not included as equal partners,<BR/>and if true that's inexcusable.<BR/><BR/>In your account, there's nothing that explains the timing of these<BR/>negotiations. I understand that you were personally not very involved<BR/>in them. But we are all still left to speculate, and the most<BR/>reasonable conclusion is that DoE wanted to create the public illusion<BR/>of a resolution well in advance of not only the rally, but also of the<BR/>beginning of the SSO selection process.<BR/><BR/>In the coming days, principals will be attending an "exclusive sneak<BR/>preview" of the SSO organizations. Where are the watchdogs who will<BR/>ensure that these courtships are above board? Why is the DoE afraid to<BR/>let parents and journalists in to see this process? Presumably this<BR/>will now be a lower priority on everyone's list, and those new marriages<BR/>can begin in a cozy setting without prying eyes. We've already seen,<BR/>with the New Visions debacle a few weeks ago, our own "sneak preview" of<BR/>what we can expect.<BR/><BR/>This agreement wrapped up perfectly for the administration. Not only<BR/>was it a show full of smiles that would allow the casual observer<BR/>(voter) to think that the crisis had been resolved, but it was followed<BR/>up by today's Earth Day pageant in which Bloomberg inaugurated a massive<BR/>new program of sweeping environmental commitments for the city. The<BR/>hope on DoE's part is that attention to the educational issue is<BR/>successfully diffused, and that without the participation of UFT and<BR/>ACORN, further action of any size won't be possible.<BR/><BR/>And presumably UFT leadership have what they were seeking -- some items<BR/>that can be counted as victories, to be used in sustaining a hold on<BR/>power in future elections, which ought not to be too terribly<BR/>challenging if 20% voter turnout continues to be the norm in the labor<BR/>part of that corporation.<BR/><BR/>As for the Working Families Party -- in my book they will henceforth be<BR/>known as the Working *Against* Families Party.<BR/><BR/>The deep problems with an increasing addiction to testing, the failures<BR/>to address racial inequities in our school system, the essential flaw in<BR/>"Fair Student Funding", the hand-waving reductionist approach of giving<BR/>schools letter grades, the failure to address the legal hamstringing of<BR/>educators and administrators, the despicable continuation of a system<BR/>that does not appropriately care for students in need of special<BR/>education services, the failure to meaningfully involve parents in<BR/>education, and the extremely dangerous move to privatize schools under<BR/>the auspices of a doublespeak that claims to offer schools "choice" --<BR/>all these problems remain unaddressed by this agreement. A coalition<BR/>that had set, as a ground rule, the requirement to achieve solid<BR/>commitments on all these points before agreeing to any friendly press<BR/>conference or rally "cancellation", would have been a properly formed<BR/>coalition. Obviously this one was not.<BR/><BR/>So let us proceed, happily without the UFT leadership (who represent a<BR/>minority of the union's membership in any case), and show Klein, Cerf<BR/>and the rest that these 1% measures won't cut it. Let us show the same<BR/>degree of boldness that Michael Bloomberg himself asserts, and demand<BR/>nothing less than *full* implementation of the kinds of changes that put<BR/>parents in charge and that take back our educational system for *all* of<BR/>our families. Let these negotiations be the last of the back room<BR/>deals. Let's do the rest out in the open, and let Joel Klein and<BR/>Michael Bloomberg come out of their palaces and meet usAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-22674345080464902122007-04-23T16:18:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:18:00.000-04:00Leonie Haimson wrote:> People have asked me about ...Leonie Haimson wrote:<BR/>> People have asked me about the history of these negotiations - which I was<BR/>> only peripherally involved in. This is what I know:<BR/>><BR/>><BR/>><BR/>> A week ago last Friday, there were several hours of negotiations at City<BR/>> Hall between the City and the UFT, ACORN, and some other advocacy and parent<BR/>> groups in the loose association that had formed. I was not invited and did<BR/>> not participate. I found out about this only after the fact, on late<BR/>> Friday, when I was told that some sort of deal had been worked out, but was<BR/>> not told the details. I did learn that some sort of concession had been made<BR/>> on the part of the DOE that they would try to work with the UFT and our<BR/>> coalition, NYers for Smaller Classes, as well as other stakeholders, to draw<BR/>> up the city's class size reduction plan. There were also concessions made<BR/>> to the various groups who were more directly involved in the negotiations.<BR/>> On Saturday morning, there was supposed to be a meeting at the UFT office to<BR/>> go over the details, w/ a possible press conference to follow.<BR/>><BR/>><BR/>><BR/>> Sat. morning before I left home, the whole deal was called off, apparently<BR/>> by the city.<BR/>><BR/>><BR/>><BR/>> Switch to Thursday afternoon. I participated along with many other groups,<BR/>> including CPAC, in a conference call, where elements of the agreement were<BR/>> discussed in more detail. It was clear that the city had agreed not to cut<BR/>> the budgets for any school for at least two years - a big concession as far<BR/>> as I was concerned. The Immigration Coalition had the city's agreement to<BR/>> raise the weights of ELL students; there were also separate agreements that<BR/>> DOE would work w/ CEJ on middle school reform, the Urban Youth Collaborative<BR/>> on their Student Success Centers, and some other points. At 3:15 Pm, I<BR/>> heard that a press conference was set for 3:30 PM at City Hall. I rushed<BR/>> down to City Hall. The main reason I went was I wanted to see exactly what<BR/>> the Mayor and the Chancellor would say about class size. (which turned out<BR/>> to be little.)<BR/>><BR/>><BR/>><BR/>> I felt then and feel now that the city made major concessions - and received<BR/>> few in return. The City agreed not to cut school budgets (which is a very<BR/>> big deal for my son's school and many other schools throughout the city -<BR/>> which justly feared losing millions of dollars.) I also felt and still feel<BR/>> that in good conscience I could not reject the opportunity to talk directly<BR/>> to DOE and test their willingness to collaborate on their class size<BR/>> reduction plan - however this process turns out.<BR/>><BR/>><BR/>><BR/>> Among those at the press conference, standing behind the Mayor, next to<BR/>> Randi and the other groups who were there, were Robert Jackson and Luis<BR/>> Reyes - two men whose integrity and commitment to the cause of public<BR/>> schools no one could possibly question. I don't feel as though any of us<BR/>> sold anyone else out. I certainly don't accept that any of us "used.our<BR/>> children as pawns in some elaborate power-driven chess game."<BR/>><BR/>> I think that if parents want to hold the rally on their own on May 9 that's<BR/>> great. We can help publicize it on the list servs and the blog and<BR/>> elsewhere. I also feel that the most important thing now is to continue<BR/>> working so that our schools can be fundamentally reformed, to make all the<BR/>> changes that our children really need. Clearly this agreement is only one<BR/>> modest step, to forestall some but not all the destructive aspects of the<BR/>> reorganization. The outcome of the process of talking directly w/ DOE is<BR/>> uncertain and there is so much work to be done. I know I will continue to<BR/>> fight for real change, and I hope others will be there too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-9053610456110598102007-04-23T16:03:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:03:00.000-04:00I only saw two of these comments on Ed Notes Blog....I only saw two of these comments on Ed Notes Blog. It doesn't bother me to see them here too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-8052873006204678792007-04-23T00:03:00.000-04:002007-04-23T00:03:00.000-04:00Aren't more than half of these postings from your ...Aren't more than half of these postings from your own blog Norm? This is lame!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-19731258199842483732007-04-22T20:43:00.000-04:002007-04-22T20:43:00.000-04:00What if....what if they gave a rally to replace th...What if....<BR/><BR/>what if they gave a rally to replace the one now on the back burner, and<BR/>everybody came.<BR/>no, not the usual suspects.<BR/>no, not the union folks.<BR/>nor the coalition of political personalities that arrive in time for the<BR/>rally and then scurry away, back into the shadows.<BR/><BR/>what if they held a rally for the disenfranchised<BR/>the teachers,<BR/>the parents,<BR/>and the children that are never really part of the equation anyways.<BR/><BR/>what if the all came together from near and far<BR/>by train, by bus, by car, by feet<BR/>what if they came en masse,<BR/><BR/>and their shouts echoed in the canyons of the city.<BR/>and said we dont accept the duplicity.<BR/>we dont accept the deals made in darkness.<BR/>we wont accept the use of our children as pawns in some elaborate power<BR/>driven chess game.<BR/>we reject the denigration of our lives, our hopes, and our dreams<BR/>we do not agree to the scorn heaped upon us by those we used to trust.<BR/><BR/>we want the cleansing action of sunlight, on a new day, on a new idea<BR/>we want to birth a new reality<BR/><BR/>what if....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-76668560641693578272007-04-22T20:41:00.000-04:002007-04-22T20:41:00.000-04:00Much has been written on these two lists in the af...Much has been written on these two lists in the aftermath of the press conference earlier this week announcing an "agreement" among the administration, UFT and others about modifications to the planned reorganization of the school system.<BR/> In my opinion, public school parents, who themselves don't always speak with one voice on schools issues, are sometimes on the same page with other entities, sometimes partially so, and sometimes not at all. So although gatherings, press conferences, demonstrations and "agreements" attract more attention when they bring together coalitions of forces, an event peopled primarily by parents and, perhaps, their schoolchildren is a more accurate rendition of what we really think and want to see happen (or not happen) with the school system.<BR/> I agree with others who have written that we should go ahead with the previously planned City Hall demo about putting the reorganization on hold, whether it's on May 9 or another day. Many of us have been passing resolutions in our schools and districts asking that the reorganization be placed on hold until it can be properly vetted. Instead, we were informed that it was the demo that had been put "on hold", by not-specifically-named others, and soon after, a press conference with the Mayor, Chancellor, other officials, the Union, and other groups convened to announce an "agreement" to modify parts of the reorganization and move forward.<BR/> No one was speaking specifically for, or was authorized to speak specifically for, the bulk of the parents at that press conference, although, again, it's near impossible to characterize precisely what the bulk of the parents want from issue to issue, or who can really speak for them.<BR/> So let's have an event where we speak for ourselves, even if that isn't in one neat voice. Mixed gatherings have previously been spun by the disgraceful right-wing tabloid editorialists, and the columnists, op-ed commentators, and think-tankers on the same page with them (as well as, lamentably, some of the elected and appointed officials who control the schools) as puppet shows where one entity (the Union) is pulling everyone else's strings.<BR/> If sympathetic public officials wish to stand with us, that would be nice, but we need to make clear that we, on our own, have real issues and that the idea wasn't just put into our heads by others with their own agendas. And we don't need to be co-opted, picked off one-by-one, or to have others claim to be speaking for us if they are primarily speaking for themselves. <BR/> So let's just do it, even if organizing it and getting attention paid to it will be more difficult without the weight of the P.R. apparatuses of others behind us.<BR/> Richard Barr<BR/> V.P., District 3 Presidents' Council.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-78466979238724829342007-04-22T20:16:00.001-04:002007-04-22T20:16:00.001-04:00Chancellor Klein's restructuring of school adminis...Chancellor Klein's restructuring of school administration<BR/>for NYC schools ("Restructuring Of Schools..." on April 17)<BR/>reminds me of nothing so much as the agribusinesses that<BR/>subcontract the hiring of workers to labor bosses, who<BR/>abuse and take advantage of the field workers. The<BR/>agribusinesses thereby keep an arms length distance from<BR/>the field workers in order to deny they are responsible for<BR/>the pay and treatment of the workers.<BR/><BR/>For the NYC schools, this means the Bloomberg/Klein<BR/>administration is bereft of ideas to improve the schools;<BR/>are fobbing off the responsibility to a host of<BR/>self-serving, profit-making private interest groups; and<BR/>Klein and Bloomberg can lay off responsibility for the<BR/>inevitable failures on these private groups. Further, it is<BR/>a continuation of The Bloomberg/Klein privatization of the<BR/>public schools, and the business mentality toward<BR/>education, which is wholly inappropriate and has proven<BR/>time and again to be unequal to the job.<BR/><BR/>Providing good education is not a mystery. It certainly<BR/>begins with small class sizes and teacher pay high enough<BR/>to attract the very best and brightest in a competitive<BR/>wage environment. These are very expensive to institute,<BR/>but they are indispensable. What Bloomberg and Klein are<BR/>doing and saying is simply a distraction, meant to continue<BR/>to provide inadequate education on the cheap.<BR/><BR/>John Norman, a retired public middle school teacherAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-35044475567232974392007-04-22T20:16:00.000-04:002007-04-22T20:16:00.000-04:00If I read the agreement correctly in the papers, t...If I read the agreement correctly in the papers, there is still an incentive to get rid of senior teachers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-87498931513640801832007-04-21T21:19:00.000-04:002007-04-21T21:19:00.000-04:00The Bloomberg response to the increasing threat of...The Bloomberg response to the increasing threat of a growing coalition of people opposed to Tweed has forced him to give a few crumbs, which the UFT-led groups eagerly lapped up.<BR/><BR/>Concessions will only only take place in the cauldron of some kind of action. <BR/><BR/>I want to address this statement: <BR/>"One of the best mayoral initiatives – equalizing school funding and the distribution of quality teachers – has been left in tatters."<BR/><BR/>The irony of the entire mayoral initiative on this issue has been missed by many. While claiming to want distribute "quality" teachers - and I would take issue that a 20 year teacher is necessarily more adept than say a 5 or 7 year teacher - the reality has been that attempts to drive senior teachers from the system have taken place in many schools.<BR/><BR/>In fact, many of us saw the funding plan for what it was -- an attempt to create a system of "peace corps" teachers who stay no longer than 5 years by giving principals a further incentive to drive senior teachers out. Just think: low salaries, docile teachers who don't know their union rights, few pensions, etc. The mantra is to teacher-proof the process in an assembly line manner and use professional development (often by non-public oranizations - see the 9 whatever they call it groups) to train a contantly turning over staff.<BR/><BR/>The idea that they want to distribute "quality" teachers is a sham because they could have done so by offering incentives to teachers to teach in certain areas. (When I started teaching in the late 60's they gave every teacher in Title 1 schools extra free time to prepare/recover.)<BR/><BR/>If you remove teacher salaries from the equation, what other areas has the DOE been able to point to for other inequalities in funding? And since Tweed has total control, what has stopped them from moving money around over the last 5 years to change this? The current reorganization has been unilateral until now and will be so again. This is all about politics, as usual, not education. But it was never about education in the first place.ed notes onlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-73970726698183845772007-04-21T14:37:00.000-04:002007-04-21T14:37:00.000-04:00I have spent the last hour or so catching up on al...I have spent the last hour or so catching up <BR/>on all this and I didn't know whose email to respond to first! I am <BR/>very pleased that Leonie will be part of the discussion going forward, <BR/>but, having said that, like many others, I am more angry than pleased <BR/>that this so-called agreement was reached. <BR/> <BR/>of course I don't object to other parent advocates and groups <BR/>participating! but this was another sneaky PR move by the DOE -- like <BR/>the appointment of Martine -- to fool the general public (and the <BR/>business people who are the Mayor's backers), that parents have come <BR/>around and are in agreement with the reorganization. like many on this <BR/>list serve, I was at the february rally at St. Vartan's, and while <BR/>there were many parent groups there, CPAC is the CHANCELLOR's PARENTS <BR/>ADVISORY COUNCIL (I think that's the correct match to the acronym), and <BR/>without CPAC at the table, there is no legitimacy to the agreement, in <BR/>my opinion. <BR/> <BR/>further, while class size is a very important issue, it is far from <BR/>the only issue. my main focus is, and has been for years, the excessive <BR/>testing and high-stakes testing that is dumbing down our curriculum and <BR/>turning our schools into test prep factories, and now, the <BR/>concentration of resources on data entry and collection, as though <BR/>children can be reduced to the sum of their statistics and teaching is <BR/>no longer a profession but a management position. this has not been <BR/>addressed at all. and there are many other valid and important issues <BR/>at stake, not to mention the haste with which the reorganization is <BR/>being carried out. I think it's shameful that this deal was cut and <BR/>that there were so many happy faces. <BR/> <BR/>as for Martine, I'm not sure whether to email her or not, simply <BR/>because it seems a waste of time. her responses are no better than the <BR/>automatic responses I get each time I email Klein. the point is, what <BR/>do we do now? I am all for marching on Tweed, but it had better be a <BR/>massive crowd or we will look like a small group of chronic <BR/>complainers.ÂAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15921757.post-64318792357247924452007-04-21T14:35:00.000-04:002007-04-21T14:35:00.000-04:00This is well said! The UFT is now essentially end...This is well said! The UFT is now essentially endorsing a reorganization that among other things discourages schools from hiring senior teachers. The minor modifications are such that we're going to be using terms like "base teachers" (teachers originally in the school as opposed to the poor suckers who come in later as excessed/ATRs) and "hold harmless" as in supposedly no penalty for replacing senior teacher with other senior teachers but let salary remain a major consideration during hiring (the UFT is only grieving whether you have to put down your salary on the initial application).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com