Without Perdido Street School to go to each day, some other bloggers are picking up some of the slack.
For some expert national and statewide analysis of the union and politics, I would head over to B-Lo Ed Scene where you get Sean Crowley's inimitable style. Sean has a very interesting take on the state and national unions and their lack of responsiveness to their members. He notes how presidential endorsements are made and if they come top down, the union usually endorses Hillary Clinton but if the rank and file are involved, they want Bernie Sanders.
Norm Scott joins in with some Randi bashing over at Ed Notes. Norm criticizing AFT President Randi Weingarten is like the sun rising in the east but here his analysis of Randi Weingarten working the ground game for Hillary Clinton in Iowa is worth thinking over even though I disagree with the conclusion from Mike Antonucci that Norm cites. Mike claims that having Randi and NEA President Lili Eskelson Garcia working for Hillary doesn't help teachers because Hillary won by such a small margin yesterday.
I think one of the lessons to be learned from the Iowa Caucuses is that ground game really matters in politics. Donald Trump doesn't have one and he did not win. Having people going door-to-door for a candidate is very important to winning elections. Word of mouth publicity can't be beaten so Randi probably had an impact. Whether or not the early Clinton endorsement was wise is a different matter. I don't know of too many Hillary Clinton supporters at work and certainly she gets no love among my blogger friends who think of her only slightly more positively than the devil.
Speaking of ground game, in a union election this means having real live people in a school to spread the word about candidates in that election. Mulgrew's Unity starts every UFT election with a huge advantage simply because of their huge reach in the schools. Whether or not these people are bought and paid for is irrelevant.
As for the Democrats, having the party establishment behind Hillary Clinton means Bernie Sanders will be fighting a huge uphill battle and will need to do more than come close to a draw, as he did in Iowa, to win the nomination. Don't forget those Democratic super-delegates will be overwhelmingly behind Hillary. Turning them around requires Sanders to knock out the favorite.
The establishment has kind of rigged the process in a similar way that the UFT has fixed things so the retirees vote in union elections but nobody but Unity can get to them except in one NY Teacher ad every three years. Add to that the patronage Unity hands out for their people in the schools and you have a very non-level playing field. Bernie Sanders is playing on a similar tilted field so I truly identify with him. If he didn't vote for the Murphy amendment that continues test and punish education policy, I might be one of his enthusiastic supporters.
Switching gears totally, for some analysis on New York City healthcare for municipal employees, go to DOE NUTS blog. While almost every teacher he knows has GHI-CBP, plenty of teachers use the other part of Emblem Health called HIP. There are no co-pays for doctor visits in HIP but one must stay in the network and get referrals for specialty care. I do concur with most of DOE-NUTS analysis and think we are about to pay more for less healthcare.
Finally, it's always good to take a look at NYC Educator each day. Today he is blogging about how teachers are overworked and evaluations are ridiculous. Well worth a read.
So there are just some quick suggestions on where to look while we miss Reality Based Educator.
4 comments:
I wanted to leave this comment on the DOE NUTs blog but could not find a comments section. It is an error to state that we never pay for our coverage. Upon retirement, there is a $235. or so monthly fee for a member and spouse that is taken out of monthly retirement allotment.
When you become Medicare eligible that amount goes up a bit. Plus there are monthly charges to pay directly to Medicare. The prescription coverage changes radically upon retirement, and way more radically when Medicare kicks in.
Please reconsider your perspective on Bernie Sanders. There is no perfect candidate. I believe that he, of all the candidates, is pro public education. Edification could be in order, and he is the man most likely to be interested in learning more about the dire situation that our current president has vastly escalated. Like the military complex.
I like much of what Sanders is saying but I have been burned too many times on education by so called progressives. Let's take Bill de Blasio as an example. Sanders support for the Murphy Amendment was a huge red flag for me. He voted for test and punish as recently as last summer. Has he reversed his position? If so I would be happy to reconsider. He was absent for the ESSA vote I do believe.
On medical isn't that fee for an optional rider which is recommended upon retirement because as you point out the UFT Welfare Fund no longer pays for prescription drugs? Doesn't UFT reimburse some of that money if you are in SHIP? Don't the checks usually come right before UFT election time?
Just saw this comment, see below, on Maureen Dowd in NYTimes, Hillary Battles Bernie Sanders, Chick Magnet. I have been wanting to respond to your comment about having been burned so many times. I like what this person said, so I'm posting it here for you to read:
Voters like integrity and know it when they see it.
Sanders has it.
When voters are convinced that you are not in for yourself, but for the greater good, they will respect you even when they disagree with you.
Mike Mansfield, in 1968 voted for the gun control act and yet the citizens of Montana, where guns were sacrosanct, sent him back time and time again as their senator to Washington because he was as straight as an arrow.
Bernie is just as straight and this, more than his politics, is what makes him so attractive to so many voters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/opinion/sunday/hillary-battles-bernie-sanders-chick-magnet.html
There is so much more that I could say about Sanders, such as, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a movement because that is what Bernie is doing. Out of that movement will come the torch bearers of the future.
Feel the Bern. Join us, we cannot do it alone.
Anon 2:10; I am completely perplexed by your contention that you pay. Research from the Citizen's Budget Commission shows that you do not pay. Please see slide 6 and please understand that the name 'doenuts' is a bit of a misnomer. I am very particular, paying careful attention for accuracy, about the facts which I present in my space. It is an error to call my assertion an error.
http://www.slideshare.net/LuisTaverasMBAMS/report-his-01282013
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