EMAILS WE GET EMAILS AND A DA REPORT FROM NYC EDUCATOR

I have decided that I enjoy sitting out Delegate Assemblies as non-delegates are exiled to a room on the 19th floor and have to watch on video.  Fortunately, NYC Educator attended yesterday's emergency DA and filed this report. 

For those of you who don't want to close read it, our fight-back strategy seems to be a massive public relations campaign.  Not a bad start but it looks to me to that this will not be enough to stop the well funded Cuomo anti-teacher express from harming us in a significant way.



iceuft@gmail.com is our email address.  We look forward to receiving your emails and there were a couple of really good ones that came in the last couple of days.  With permission, here is one which I admit is edited a bit.

Hi James,

Just to change the subject for a moment from Cuomo's pending attempts to destroy public education, don't you think it's strange that eight months after the UFT contract ratification, there is still no UFT contract available online or in print. All we have is the 2008-2009 contract, and the most recent MOA (with details still to be added).

In the meantime, administrators all over the city are walking all over our supposedly re-negotiated rights - regarding excessive paperwork,  lesson planning, and observations, etc. - and we don't have a current, official document to protect ourselves with.

Any thoughts on that?

Cheers,

Bennett Fischer

Art Teacher

PS 231K

 

It is kind of strange that there is no printed or online version of the new contract yet.  Usually what happens is the Board of Education and UFT would get together and agree where each of the terms of the new Memorandum of Agreement would fit into the contract.  They then insert the new language and print new copies of the contract that they send to members.  I guess they are too busy now to be bothered with this mundane task. 

 

This next letter I did not get permission yet to print so I will do it anonymously.

 

What is the latest on retro pay for retired teachers?  Amazing how long this is being kept under wraps.

 

I am going to surprise some readers here by predicting this will be resolved by the February deadline.  As for the actual money, let's hope it comes as soon as possible.  UFT needs a victory and the Mayor can easily throw them this bone.

 

Keep writing and we will keep responding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DON'T BE PRESSURED BY CALLS FOR UNITY FROM LEADERSHIP WHO HAVE DONE NOTHING TO FOSTER IT

Later today (Thursday) there will be a rescheduled emergency Delegate Assembly to discuss the UFT's reaction to Governor Andrew Cuomo's plan to strip teachers of many of our remaining rights.

Cuomo has made a number of anti-teacher proposals that will hurt students, parents, and public education. Now that Sheldon Silver has resigned as Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Albany politics are a great unknown.

While we have to work to support a decent new speaker and continue the political battles, anything we salvage through the political process in Albany will more than likely not be enough to move forward a strong pro-public school agenda.  We must mobilize at the school and community level to save public education as we know it in New York.

Under these desperate conditions, I fully expect UFT President Michael Mulgrew to call for unity among the members. He will probably argue that any internal division will embolden our enemies.

Under normal circumstances,  he might have a point. However, these are anything but regular times. Mulgrew and his loyalists from Unity Caucus are in no position to call for a temporary halt to dissent as they in many ways are responsible for our current predicament and have done nothing to make us feel like we are one union.

Remember that it was at the January 15, 2014 DA where we introduced the resolution to repudiate Cuomo. Mulgrew's Unity Caucus voted it down. Throughout the year, Unity at the city and state level stayed neutral in the election for governor and then doubled our defeat by pushing for but failing to gain Democratic control of the State Senate.

Now, Mulgrew and the new heads of NYSUT have no real plan after the governor is repaying us for staying neutral, as opposed to endorsing his opponents, with an attempt to basically finish off teachers with a proposal to base half of our annual ratings on student test scores on inappropriate, invalid/unreliable common core exams. The union's reaction has been a call for us to tweet Cuomo until he cries uncle. In addition, Mulgrew last year shoved an inadequate contract down our throats while attempting to stifle all dissent. While many members continue to feel battered in the schools, leadership continues to thrive.

At the state union level, Cuomo has not, however, left the newly elected Revive NYSUT leadership out in the cold. Four new officers and one incumbent, helped enormously by UFT leadership, ousted former NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi and his increasingly anti-Cuomo team.  The governor rewarded the new Revive group by signing a bill granting NYSUT officers credited service time in their districts for time spent as NYSUT officers. They will now get the same double pensions at the state union that Unity officers, district representatives and special representatives receive here in NYC.

Are NYSUT'S new handsomely rewarded officers up for the real fight it will now take to save public education? Can the leadership of the UFT and AFT lead this struggle?

Norm Scott of Ed Notes fame often compares AFT-NYSUT-UFT leaders to Vichy France where Marshal Petain infamously collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II. I think Norm's analogy is somewhat harsh. Instead, I would rather compare AFT-NYSUT-UFT top brass to the British government before and during the early stages of World War II. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in the end proved to be an honorable person because he relinquished power to do what was best for the people of Britain.

Chamberlain has gone down in history as the man who gave away 1/2 of Czechoslovakia to Hitler at the 1938 Munich Conference. His appeasement strategy obviously failed when Hitler then took over the rest of the country and then went after Poland in 1939 thus starting World War II. Chamberlain's government then went to war but most historians feel they were unprepared. By 1940, after an unsuccessful Norway campaign and just before France was about to fall rapidly to Hitler, there was a vote of no confidence in Britain's Parliament that Chamberlain won easily but he still stepped aside which allowed Winston Churchill to become Prime Minister. The opposition Labor and Liberal Parties would have nothing to do with working with Chamberlain. Even at the low point of a major war, dissent continued.

Churchill subsequently placed opposition Labor and Liberal Party leaders in prominent positions in his wartime coalition government including making Labor leader Clement Attlee the Deputy Prime Minister. It worked; the country survived The Battle of Britain in 1940 and Hitler was eventually stopped by the US and the Russians along with Britain by 1945. After the Germans were defeated, Churchill lost the next election to Labor's Attlee who used a wartime report as the basis for the modern Welfare State.

My purpose in telling all of this here is not to say that the plight of teachers today is analogous to what Britain faced in 1940. Losing our profession, as bad as that may be, does not compare with the sacrifices the people of Britain and many other countries made during World War II that should never be forgotten.

My point is that when any organized entity calls for being unified at a time when it is threatened, its leaders must show they are willing to put the needs of the whole ahead of their own personal interests. Britain's leaders did that brilliantly during World War II.

Can anybody today see Randi Weingarten, Karen Magee or Michael Mulgrew sacrificing their perks or positions for the good of the membership, which except for loyalty oath signing Unity Caucus members and a few others, has completely lost confidence in them?

I didn't think so.

Their main strategy of playing the political game has been such a colossal failure; we need a new plan that requires more than tweets, emails or even rallies. Can they be truly inclusive?

I am picturing readers laughing right about now and saying, "Are you serious James? Not in a million years."  "They'll concede a few Executive Board seats but they will not do anything of any substance to fight back."

I will support almost any union action but at the same time, we must continue to criticize our union heads for their failures. When Mulgrew-Weingarten-Magee call for unity, I recommend asking what they are prepared to sacrifice in the name of unity and then point them to Britain in 1940 as an example of how it was done properly.

STARVE THE DATA BEAST TO SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NY

It's close to the end for public education as we know it in New York State. The corporate money backed, anti-public education Governor Andrew Cuomo is looking to kill off what is left of teacher, parent and student rights with his diabolical agenda for the schools.  UFT President Michael Mulgrew accurately stated that Cuomo wants all things Bloomberg in a year.

The reaction from the UFT and our state union NYSUT to the governor's proposal to annihilate the education landscape has been to say we are at war but will the unions fight on the right battlefield?  So far, we have been waging a political fight for more education funding. Instead, we should be working with parents and students on a strategy to save public education in this state in a way that just might succeed.

Let's summarize the political situation as it stands today:

• Cuomo wants to kill off public education by doing the following: using student test scores on one exam for half of each teacher's evaluation while most of the other half would be based on a classroom observation from an evaluator from outside our schools (this would neuter principals too), taking over, closing and privatizing more schools, making it easier to open charter schools, giving state money to private schools, raising from three to five years the time it takes for teachers to get tenure, weakening tenure, and imposing merit pay.
• The State Legislature is in disarray because of Speaker Sheldon Silver's arrest. Since Silver is our closest ally in the Legislature, this may strengthen the governor's hand in bargaining. Relying on the Assembly to save us probably won't work.
•  The NYSUT and UFT leadership response so far has been to focus on getting more money for districts. The strategy has already backfired as Cuomo responded by linking extra state funding for districts to passage of his anti-public education agenda.

Many would argue we are done and let's just agree to take the best surrender terms we can get. I disagree and so do many activists across the state and the country.

Now is the time to starve the data beast.

There is one way out of this mess that might actually work. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis told us at the Caucus of Rank and File Educators Conference in 2013 that in order to stop the testing madness, we must starve the data beast.  Think about that for a second or two. 

We have the power to deny the people at the top the data they need to bludgeon teachers, students and schools with.  Remember, it is up to us to supply the state with the student data. We administer and grade the exams. Our pupils take them. We could make a mockery of the horrific testing system for sure.

• What if no students took the inappropriate, invalid/unreliable common core state exams?
• What if teachers refused to administer/grade them? 

Our friend Beth Dimino from Port Jefferson Station is refusing to administer the exams.  And so is Jia Lee, a New York City teacher. *  Dimino famously accused former State Education Commissioner John King of child abuse in 2013 because of Common Core. Is it wrong for all of us to have nothing to do with tests that we consider to be child abuse? It's time for us to turn this movement against high stakes testing into an avalanche against the governor's education agenda.

As a first step, every union local in New York State should be passing the New York State Allies for Public Education resolution to starve the data beast.

Resolution to Support “The I Refuse Movement” to Oppose High Stakes Testing

WHEREAS, the purpose of education is to educate a populace of critical thinkers who are capable of shaping a just and equitable society in order to lead good and purpose-filled lives, not solely prepare that populace for college and career; and

WHEREAS, instructional and curricular decisions should be in the hands of classroom professionals who understand the context and interests of their students; and

WHEREAS, the education of children should be grounded in developmentally appropriate practice; and

WHEREAS, high quality education requires adequate resources to provide a rich and varied course of instruction, individual and small group attention, and wrap-around services for students; and

WHEREAS, the state assessments are not transparent in that–teachers and parents are not allowed to view the tests and item analysis will likely not be made available; and

WHEREAS, the assessment practices that accompany Common Core State Standards – including the political manipulation of test scores – are used as justification to label and close schools, fail students, and evaluate educators; therefore be it

RESOLVED that NYSUT opposes standardized high stakes testing that is currently pushed by the Federal and State governments, because this testing is not being used to further instruction for children, to help children, or to support the educational needs of children; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT advocates for an engaged and socially relevant curriculum that is student-based and supported by research; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will embark on internal discussions to educate and seek feedback from members regarding standardized high stakes testing and its impact on students; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will lobby the NYS Board of Education to eliminate the use of high stakes testing; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will ask that all of its members have their own children refuse to take the Grade 3-8 assessments: and be it further  

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will organize other members and affiliates to increase opposition to high stakes testing; and be it further

RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution will be sent to the NY State Board of Education, the Governor of NYS, and all members of the NYS legislative branch; and be it finally

RESOLVED, that after this resolution is passed by the YOUR LOCAL’S NAME Representative Council, an appropriate version will be submitted to the American Federation of Teachers for consideration at the AFT July 2015 Convention and to NYSUT for consideration at the 2015 RA.

If this resolution lights a spark and is supported around the state, we may just change the terms of the education debate.

Don't get me wrong, however, passing this resolution will not be enough to stop the Cuomo machine but it certainly would be a great way to change the focus of the education discussion.  We would then need to galvanize our supporters to further starve the data beast.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew is calling for an emergency meeting with community allies on Tuesday and then the UFT will be having an emergency Delegate Assembly on Wednesday.  We support these meetings. Is the UFT capable of pivoting from a political fight for more funding to actually mobilizing our membership to do more than just make some phone calls or send some tweets? 

The UFT-NYSUT need to wage a war with the governor on a front where we can emerge victorious. Let's unite to starve the data beast. Don't give Cuomo and the State Education Department the data they need to hang public education with.

*We are not in any way shape or form advocating for individual teachers or groups of teachers to commit acts of insubordination by not administering or scoring exams. We are calling for our unions to lead this fight and find a way for all of us to be legal conscientious objectors.

MS. LEE GOES TO WASHINGTON; CUOMO PROPOSES FINISHING US OFF WHILE SHELLY SILVER IS ABOUT TO BE ARRESTED

MORE-Change the Stakes teacher Jia Lee went to Washington DC yesterday to testify before a US Senate committee discussing reauthorizing No Child Left Behind.  Jia gave powerful testimony in opposition to high stakes testing.

Back in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed finishing off public education as we know it officially yesterday.

Meanwhile, our top ally in Albany, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, is reportedly going to be arrested today on corruption charges.  This will probably throw Albany into a little disarray. 

A big news day for sure.

STRONGER TOGETHER WRITES TO NYSUT LEADERS

Today is the day when Governor Andrew Cuomo will release his plan to radically change public education as we know it in New York State to the detriment of students and educators.

The opposition caucus in New York State United Teachers called Stronger Together has responded in advance with a letter to NYSUT's leaders demanding a fight on more than just the school funding issue.  UFT President Michael Mulgrew revealed last week that the union's main goal in Albany would be getting more money for public schools this year. This looks like it is the plan at the state union level too.

Stronger Together urges a wider battle against Cuomo's education plan. Here are some highlights of their letter to NYSUT's leadership:

While NYSUT’s response to date seems to be centered on fighting economic issues, a bully politician is attacking teachers at the core of our professionalism. School funding is critical. For too long, the
Governor has ignored the glaring funding crisis in our most needy rural and urban schools. We are writing to emphasize that protecting our APPR, as it stands now, with a focus on local control, is a concurrent top priority. Clearly the Governor made changing it his top priority, and likewise, its defense must be our top priority.

As local leaders we are dismayed that the Governor’s letter was sent to the Chancellor on December 18th and a month later we have yet to hear a full-throated defense of the evaluations we have negotiated. More importantly, we have yet to hear a full-throated attack of the junk science behind VAM scoring. We have ceded too much ground to education reformers, by turning over our curriculum and judgment to the representatives of hedge fund managers and charlatans hiding behind standardized tests. And lest we forget, where is NYSUT legal on Cuomo’s libelous statements of convicted sex offenders being in the classroom? That kind of juicy headline yet again demonstrates the lack of truth or gravity behind his assertions; the rank and file is not happy that it has not been aggressively addressed.

The rank and file can't be lying down here.  It's up to us to save ourselves.

POLICE JOB ACTION LESSONS

I expect the Monday morning quarterbacks to start using their perfect 20-20 hindsight to declare defeat for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and their President Patrick Lynch after the recent PBA job action.  By having a slowdown officers achieved no tangible gains. Mayor Bill de Blasio never apologized to them; they still don't have a contract. In addition, they are now a divided union, as Juan Gonzalez reported on Tuesday, with dissidents ready to challenge Lynch for his job. On the surface this looks like a major PBA setback. 

We desperately need some objective pro-labor analysis of what went on and is continuing.  Reading Daily Kos oppose the job action while criticizing Bill O'Reilly's support for it was more irony than anyone could possibly handle.

The PBA has been without a contract or raises for years. Their pay lags behind what other police officers in the area earn. The PBA contract dispute is in arbitration and I don't see any possible way they will emerge with anything much better than the uniform pattern setting 11% over 6 years and 7 months that their supervisors agreed to in recent settlements. This is a major issue.

After making these points that point to the futility of the police slowdown, I stand by an earlier posting where I stated that the police showed how a union (albeit a very different kind of union) can pull off an illegal job action even in the current political climate and without much public support (see this Quinipiac College poll; see also Lynch's predictable defiant reaction).  The Taylor law penalties for public sector job actions have not been invoked, nor are they likely to be, against the police who refused to do a big part of their job for weeks. Police Commissioner William Bratton agreed on National Public Radio that there was a protest or job action going on. That was a significant admission.

The problem the police had with their slowdown was they didn't have anything specific they were asking for in public except for an apology from the mayor for being disrespectful. Detailed demands could have easily been leaked to the press but they were not. Everyone had to speculate about what the job action was all about.  It looks like it was a mistake not to ask for something concrete as they have done in past disputes with City Hall.  That seems to be one of the main contentions of the PBA dissidents.

I agree with the dissidents on this tactical failure. I think the city will be generous on items such as bullet proof glass for police cars, new bullet proof vests and upgrading precincts. The police look to be in a positive position concerning making gains to their working conditions.  We can be reasonably certain the PBA will not be asked to take givebacks.  Labor militancy, even if the PBA President went way over the top with his rhetoric against Mayor de Blasio, has left the average officer no worse off in the end than when this started.

Looking into the future, if PBA President Lynch survives a challenge and wins reelection, he may continue to pursue a political strategy against the mayor but his hand here appears to be weaker and that is something progressives can be happy about.  While de Blasio has been a disappointment when it comes to those of us who work in the schools, a Mayor Eva Moskowitz would be exponentially worse.

As for my feelings about the police as part of the working class, I again urge everyone to read former TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint's amazing Portside piece on the police and community.  Roger sees police as workers and links our struggles. 

He writes:
In New York, some of the very former governors and mayors who gave the police hell to get raises, insisted on underpaying them, leaving them without contracts for years on end are today, once again, claiming to be their best defenders and crusaders. Why is that? Could it be because, they see an opportunity to use the cops to discourage and put down a movement that could help change America and challenge their rape of the country's wealth? Cops and firefighters should think hard about where their better interest lies and who their true allies are. Tomorrow, the attempt to rob them of their pensions will return to the front burner. And when contract time comes they will be left out in the cold and standing alone. Who should their leaders serve? Their members best interests or those of the rich and powerful?

It's more than irony that both the leader of NY's PBA (Pat Lynch) and Eric Garner grew up as sons of NYC transit workers. Not only was Pat's father a lifelong transit worker but Pat himself worked briefly as a conductor. Eric Garner's mother is a retired train operator, his sister is an active duty bus operator as are cousins who serve as active transit workers (train operator). So not only is it literally true that "That could have been any of us," but the loyalty being exercised by the leadership of the PBA to the interests of the rich and powerful, is misguided and misplaced on this count too.

The best way to stop the continuing downward spiral for working people, including teachers, police, transit workers and many others might be for us to combine the power of many unions into militant action. I made a suggestion to then UFT President Randi Weingarten at the Executive Board in 2005 to form a militant alliance of teachers and transit workers before we gave away so many of our rights that year in a horrible contract.  My friend Sam Lazarus was urging me on.  Needless to say, our idea went nowhere and working people are worse off as time has gone by.

MULGREW REVEALS UNION'S ALBANY TWITTER STRATEGY AT DA

Thanks to Arthur Goldstein's Tweets, we have a report from the January Delegate Assembly, the second DA in a row where I could not make it to the visitor's section because of other commitments.

The scariest part of this DA was a portion of President Michael Mulgrew's report when he discussed our strategy to fend off Governor Andrew Cuomo's full scale attack on the teaching profession and public education.  We are apparently only going to selectively fight back.  Here are a few of Arthur's Tweets covering this section.

Arthur explains our dilemma concisely in this one:

Arthur Goldstein‏@TeacherArthurG Jan 14

Two things-we have to engage because you know what they're trying to do. Cuomo wants all things Bloomberg in one year.

Here is most of Cuomo's wish list in a summary of his aide's letter to the Regents that Perdido Street School publicized in December along with some more indignities thrown in for good measure:

1. The evaluation system would be based 40% on a common core test or a similar student test score.
2. The 3020a disciplinary process would change so two ineffective ratings means goodbye job.
3. Making it easy to terminate some of the ATR pool in NYC
4. Teacher certification requirements would change
5. Probationary period for teachers goes to five years and then renewable tenure
6. State takeover into receivership of struggling schools and privatization of schools deemed failing.
7. Increase in charter schools, especially in NYC
8. Adding more technology to the system, including online classes
9. Merit pay based on student test scores
10. Reforming the Regents appointment process
 
Now for the UFT President's response that Arthur tweeted from the DA while listening to the President's Report:

Arthur Goldstein‏@TeacherArthurG Jan 14

Cuomo wants us to fight eval. so he can contend we don't want it.

Arthur Goldstein @TeacherArthurG  ·  Jan 14

We want to fight on issues we want to fight on. We will not be baited into a fight he thinks he can win....Cuomo doesn't want to fight on improper funding, exploding class sizes. 

Arthur Goldstein @TeacherArthurG  ·  Jan 14            

We will go at proposed 40% test score on eval. but make fight about how you are dedicated. He won't fight on that.

Time to sum it all up defenders of public education: The UFT will battle for more public school funding because we can win there but pretty much not battle in other areas because Cuomo might beat us. Concessionary unionism at its finest.

Since there is no attack strategy on our side, it means we will lose but declare victory because Cuomo won't win everything he is asking for. (We should demand an end to common core or to scrap the entire evaluation system and more.) In the end Mulgrew will claim what we really wanted was an increase in funding and since we won that we have victory.  Just forget about what we will lose.  That's compromise folks.

Our preferred methods for this epic battle will be the media and social media including a massive Twitter campaign according to Mulgrew.  We're going to stop Cuomo's diabolical education plan by responding with a million Tweets.  The governor is probably missing some sleep tonight because he is so worried about us.

I would laugh now if I wasn't ready to start crying.
  

Is this the best our union leadership can come up with as the Governor tries to finish us off? 

PRESS GETTING A LITTLE BETTER IN DESCRIBING LATEST INCIDENT AT 167-01 GOTHIC DRIVE IN JAMAICA

Another month and another safety incident hits the press in the building where I used to work that now houses four small schools.  At least in the press report they are admitting this time that it was the former Jamaica High School without naming the actual school instead of saying it happened at Jamaica High School.  Last month it was intruders and now it's pepper spray at what most likely was Queens Collegiate as it is the only school of the small schools at the Jamaica Campus that has 11 year old pupils.

Since twelve students were taken to the hospital because of the pepper spray occurrence and the building was evacuated by NYPD and FDNY, where are the calls saying that this is an unsafe campus whose schools need to be shut down or reorganized?

Maybe having one school in the building called Jamaica High School with an excellent team of Deans including Marc Epstein and Miriam Rosenthal working with Assistant Principal for Security Fran Russo was not such a bad way to run the building.  That's how it was done when it was Jamaica High School just a few short years ago.

A few blocks away at Hillcrest High School, a school with a similar student population as Jamaica's campus, there is a fine group of Deans that keeps the school under control.  I know as I worked at Hillcrest as an Absent Teacher Reserve in November and early December.

Perhaps Bill Gates was right (for a change) that breaking up big high schools into smaller ones doesn't actually work. The problem is there is a great deal of collateral damage in terms of lives that have been impacted because of the process.

DIFFERENTIATING THE BLOG BETWEEN NYSUT AND THE POLICE

On a weekend where someone sent out an article telling us how differentiated instruction does not work in the real world, this post is differentiated between the NYPD work slowdown and the reaction from New York State United Teachers to Governor Andrew Cuomo's anti-public education agenda.

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton finally had to admit on Friday that police officers in New York City are engaging in a job action. When asked on National Public Radio if there was a police protest or job action under way, Mr. Bratton replied, “There is.”  My source here is the not so pro-union Wall Street Journal. 

Whether you support the police or not, I personally think former Transit Workers Union President Roger Toussaint's very nuanced analysis hits it on the mark, the reality is there has been a police job action that is costing the city financially as most officers are neglecting a part of their job responsibilities. 

However, there is no call from the right wing press for the penalties of the Taylor Law, which prohibits job actions among public employees in New York State, to be invoked against the cops.  After the police commissioner concedes something is happening and it is being addressed internally, this slowdown should be seen as a precedent by labor in New York State. The hypocritical right wing media is supporting the police protest. Their anti-labor bias is being put on hold for a while. We should file this knowledge away to be used when necessary.

Compare and contrast police tactics and how effective they are to the reaction of the leadership of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City and the New York State United Teachers to the true disrespect shown to us by Governor Cuomo who is trying to break what he calls the public school monopoly. Cuomo has recently raised the straw man issue of teacher sex offenders and also the non-problem of the state caring more about teacher pensions than the kids.  The reaction from UFT President Michael Mulgrew has been kind of soft and our state union leader Karen Magee, while starting a little slow, has become more forceful as the title of  her weekly message to members on January 9 is, "Ready for a Fight." 

Are we prepared to fight?

NYSUT is a union with 600,000 members.  I don't expect a call for a statewide slowdown or other job action but what is the membership going to be asked to do? Calling for equitable funding among New York State school districts as some of our allies are doing and sending out some strongly worded letters are nice starts but won't nearly be enough. 

How do we express our outrage over the governor's attempt to destroy our profession?

President Magee's message:

Karen's notes: Ready for a fight

The gloves are off! NYSUT is calling out Gov. Cuomo for reneging on the moratorium bill and for his completely misdirected agenda for the legislative session. On New Year's Eve, NYSUT officers and activists from across the state -- joined by parents, students and community members -- gathered outside the Executive Mansion as Exec VP Andy Pallotta led us in chants protesting Cuomo's recent attacks on public education, pensions and teachers.

This came on the heels of our scathing condemnation of a letter from a Cuomo chief aide to Commissioner King and Chancellor Tisch outlining the anti-public ed and anti-union agenda. By the way, if you expected a voice of reason from SED and the Regents, think again. Here is Tisch's 20-page response, agreeing with the governor and, actually, adding fuel to the fire. NYSUT was out front with an immediate response calling the letter from Tisch and King disingenuous and irresponsible. Here are links from The New York Times, the Democrat and Chronicle and the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The parent-driven Allies for Public Education echoed NYSUT, sending a strong letter to Cuomo, responding in detail to the questions posed in the Dec. 18 letter.
We responded just as forcefully when the governor, out of nowhere, criticized teacher pensions and the legislators who protect them.

Sad to note that in the midst of all this, we all took time to mourn the passing of Gov. Mario Cuomo, an extraordinary figure in the history of our great state. The union proffered sincere condolences to the governor and his family.

But now, it's that time of year when the rhetoric of extremes prompts officials to begin negotiations with outrageous claims and dangerous myths. We will not let posturing, hyperbole and outright lies shape policy. NYSUT is speaking truth to power and we will stand up to the bullies.

They are looking for a fight, and we are going to give them one they'll wish they had not started.

HALF OF NEW TEACHERS QUIT WITHIN 5 YEARS

It is a national issue that close to 50% of new teachers quit within their first five years.  To many of the people who want to privatize education, this is positive news as they are succeeding in demonizing teachers and making it a temporary job. 

To those who care about the public schools, there is a retention crisis. Teacher unions should be emphasizing this problem.

Yesterday someone sent me something from Conversation Ed about why so many new teachers leave. 

The consensus: " lack of support by leadership."

Do you feel supported by administration in your school and at the district or citywide levels? 

Many of us are lucky to be working with administrators who value teachers and other staff.  Many are not so fortunate.

JAMAICA HIGH SCHOOL MARIO CUOMO STORY

Just taking a moment out of our busy battle to save public education to remember Mario Cuomo.  When I was a young teacher, Governor Mario Cuomo came to Jamaica High School to be the key note speaker at graduation.  Retired Jamaica Counselor-Teacher-Graduate Ira Lipton tells the story of how it happened in this tribute to Cuomo and a man named Joe Austin.

A note on the passing of Mario Cuomo.

As a student attending Jamaica High School, I always watched this man cleaning the baseball field. I never made anything of this, until after many years later as a teacher at Jamaica High School, still watching the same man cleaning the same field. Finally I spoke to the man whose name was Joe Austin.

He told me he was an old baseball coach who lived in a small apartment near the school, and felt responsible for keeping the place clean. I asked about his life and he told me he had dropped out of Jamaica High School in the 1920s to help support his family. He also told me that Mario Cuomo was one of his best players. I thought it would be a great idea to honor this man by giving him an honorary diploma.

I spoke to the Principal Bob Consigli who agreed. We called up the Governor's office and asked if it was possible for Governor Cuomo to give Austin his diploma. Immediately he returned the phone call and Governor Cuomo asked if he could be the key note speaker at graduation. Governor Cuomo delivered a great key note address and gave Joe Austin his diploma.

Years later there was still Joe Austin cleaning our baseball field. I asked how he was doing and with a smile of an old man he said great. He then said Governor Cuomo would always send a limo, pick him up and bring him to Albany for inaugurations and other events. Joe lived to his 90s and passed away in 1998. Governor Cuomo never forgot his old coach. He was even a better man privately than he was publicly.

SECRETARY OF EDUCATION DOESN'T GET IT

We're up and ready to head off to school today as another vacation ends. 

The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss put up answers to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's Tweet which asked: "What if every district committed both to identifying what made their 5 best schools successful & providing those opps to all their students?"

Just looking at this question shows how completely clueless Duncan is. 

The best answer in my opinion came from Chicago's Karen Lewis who Tweeted:

"#whatif @arneduncan, children got their lives back, their joy of discovery and a safe place to learn to think critically? Play is real."

That's what I want for my young kids.

NYSUT PROTESTS OUTSIDE GOVERNOR'S MANSION BUT AN OPPOSITION NYSUT LEADER WANTS A STRONGER FIGHT

Yesterday, New York State United Teachers (our state union) protested outside the governor's mansion after Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill he proposed that would have shielded teacher ratings from the results of common core tests for a while. NYSUT President Karen Magee led the protest.

Meanwhile, former UFT District Representative and current NYSUT Executive Vice President Andy Pallotta was inside the mansion as one of the invited guests for an open house.

We're protesting but still keeping that seat at the table.

No ambiguity in the comments coming from Beth Dimino, the President of the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association and a member of Stronger Together Caucus, the statewide opposition party in NYSUT.  Here is what Beth said on Facebook on December 30 concerning the recent Cuomo veto.

Now NYSUT is coming out against Cuomo.  Really! It was never Cuomo's intention to support this bill.  The proposition was only made to get an endorsement or to prevent a Teachout endorsement.  And NYSUT/UFT/AFT leadership fell for the trick.  Instead of whining now about this bill that we all knew he would veto, how about working to block a statewide APPR?

Beth also commented on Facebook yesterday along with a link to an NYC Educator post concerning the rigged nature of our union's democracy:

State and National Union Leadership needs to get up from their comfortable seat at the table and start representing rank and file. Our leaders make 3-5 times our salaries and seem to identify more and more with those who oppress teachers, students and public education. True Unionists work for the good of all, they are not self serving. Let us hope they wake up tomorrow morning ready to truly defend public education in the New Year!

Here is Beth again on Facebook reacting to President Karen Magee's attempt to explain NYSUT's positions on television.

Trying to sound politically correct only muddles the waters.  Here are the two answers for the next time Madam President.  1) I expected that 98% of the teachers would be effective or highly effective because NY teachers have proven over and over again that they are the best teachers in the world! 2) NYSUT will expend all of its energies to make sure that the tax cap is eliminated.  If Mr. Cuomo was happy with a paltry 53% of the electorate to get elected then school districts should not need a 60% margin to pass their budgets.  Local School Boards should have the power to determine what their local school expenditures necessitate.

Now there's a leader!

Happy New Year everyone.  This is going to be one bumpy ride for us in 2015.