Thursday, March 25, 2010

DA REPORTS

Julie Woodward wrote a succinct report on the main points of the Delegate Assembly. It is copied below.

Then, everyone needs to head over to Education Notes to read ICE-TJC elementary school VP candidate Yelena Siwinski's commentary on UFT inaction today compared to the days of wine and roses that the UFT will be celebrating this evening at the 50th anniversary bash.

Also, please keep working through Friday to get out those votes. You will be surprised by how many members still have not voted. Word of mouth is our best way of lifting our vote total.

The CUTS
by Julie Woodward
Truman HS Delegate

Today's big message at the DA (and at other UFT meetings, not to mention the Chapter Leaders Weekly) was to get everyone to call or fax state assemblymen and senators regarding the budget cuts. They say we're "faced with staggering cuts to education coming from Albany totaling $1.4 billion to the state, more than $600 million to the city, and an average of more than $11,000 per classroom."

Here's an easy link to an online petition form which when submitted, coughs up another email you can send to others to get them to write in as well. State Assembly 518-455-4100 Look up State Senate 518-455-2800.


Mulgrew announced today, as Weingarten used to, that the union's "core belief and motivation" has always been fighting for children. That's not exactly the position I'm looking for the union to take with my dues money. It's like saying the most important job of the of the police union is to fight for the man on the street, or the teamsters for the companies they service. To me it's a bit disingenuous for a union to adopt a child advocacy stance to further its own agenda, but if you're comfortable pushing that line up at Albany – as Mulgrew is encouraging you to do and which you might want to do if you have kids going to NYC schools – go with it.


An interesting thing Mulgrew told us at the D.A. today was that Albany is telling him they're not doing any more funding for NYC because Klein will waste it all.


He also said that the State Ed Dept is "broke." They eliminated positions by attrition and the offices are empty. Now they want to do away with Regents Exams this year because there's no money for them. Mulgrew advocated to make sure they do process them on the grounds that "you have to have standards." I'm not sure the reasoning behind that. The Regents system has changed a lot since my kids were of college age. At that time they were told that many colleges outside of NYS didn't care if you took a Regents or not. Maybe someone who knows more about the current Regents exams can tell me whether these tests are totally necessary these days.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi,



As you enjoy your break consider finding that pink envelope the American Arbitration Association sent you. If you do, I recommend you vote for the ICE/TJC slate.

(As a disclaimer, know that I am running for one of the at-large positions, my name is buried deep in there somewhere, but if you vote the slate it will count for me).



My reasons for joining ICE/TJC are the following:

1. ICE/TJC are for democratic unionism. Unity is machine politics and back room deals with the mayor. Now that the mayor has spit in their faces they are in a state of shock.
2. ICE/TJC have a vision for democratic schools where teachers have rights as professionals. Unity believes in nothing other than more dues, double pensions for their staff and patronage jobs.
3. ICE/TJC are for digging in and preparing for confrontation. Unity has been the "if you can't beat 'em join'em" party. Randi was way too cozy with Bloomberg. Mulgrew is all chest-beating. HE HAS NO PLAN.



Unity has painted us into a corner with one accommodating contract after another. We cannot postpone the day of reckoning, for every year we do our position only gets worse and worse.

We need to call these so called ed reforms like Charter Schools and NCLB and Race to the Top for what they are: UNION BUSTING. And union busting is CLASS WARFARE.



We must show other working New Yorkers that our fight is theirs. That, if they want a future for their children with rights on the job and a decent standard of living, the fight must start now. We are the standard bearers. If we collapse there will be no organized group out there to replace us.



Voting for ICE/TJC is taking that first important step to moving forward.