NYSUT PRESIDENT PALLOTTA TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER NY SENATE FLIPS TO DEMOCRATS

NYSUT did its job helping to elect Democrats to the New York State Legislature. No longer will we have to worry about the Independent Democratic Conference or the Republican controlled Senate as the regular Democrats had a great night last Tuesday in New York. Democrats have a clear majority in the state Senate, a huge majority in the Assembly and at least on paper a Democratic governor in Andrew Cuomo.

Not at all astonishing that NYSUT President Andy Pallotta would take a victory lap.

This is Pallotta in the Albany Times-Union:

In New York, fed-up teachers Tuesday night played a major part in flipping the state Senate — to change the state's broken system of standardized testing and teacher evaluations.

While NYSUT has always been a political juggernaut, the past five months have jolted our union's political action operation more than anything since Sen. Alfonse D'Amato attacked teacher tenure in 1997 — and was sent packing because of it.

Last June, faculty rooms buzzed with anger after Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, his entire Republican conference and five Democrats betrayed them in the waning hours of the legislative session. A bipartisan bill — sponsored by 55 of 63 state senators — died because Flanagan tied evaluation reform to a last-minute proposal to add more charter schools. Flanagan turned his back on teachers to curry favor with the billionaires who bankroll the GOP conference and the charter industry.

Two weeks later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against public-sector unions like NYSUT in Janus v. AFSCME. While NYSUT today is as strong as ever, the decision affirmed for many that corporations and the wealthy have unfairly rigged the system against working people.

Last month, Flanagan rubbed salt into those wounds. He called NYSUT's more than 600,000 hard-working members — the people who teach in our schools and colleges, and care for the sick in our hospitals — "a force of evil."

Enraged NYSUT members had had enough: With Flanagan in charge, the Senate would never change, they reasoned. The makeup of the Senate itself had to change.

NYSUT members — who are truly "forces of good" — relentlessly campaigned for a new Senate, knowing the stakes have never been higher. Everywhere I went, I heard the same refrain: It's time that New York has a Senate that listens to educators and that fights for good health care, a sustained investment in public schools and colleges, and for policies that help working people, not billionaires.

We agree with you President Pallotta but the problem is those same billionaires who bankrolled Flanagan funded Cuomo as we pointed out before the election.

Keeping this in mind, expect NYSUT to ask for little change to evaluations and to get a bill passed that still ties teacher evaluation to student assessments. They will only be somewhat different assessments. If you want to see the entire teacher and principal evaluation law repealed and a truly professional evaluation system become the law in NYS, sign our petition and spread the word to others to do the same. Maybe we can get somewhere with our new progressive State Legislature.