Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote a pro-public school op-ed piece today in USA Today. The Vermont Senator is very favorable toward teachers along with our unions while he opposes high stakes testing and wants a moratorium on charter school expansion.
Some highlights:
Wednesday marks 18 years since the signing into law of No Child Left Behind, one of the worst pieces of legislation in our nation’s history. In December 2001, I voted against NCLB because it was as clear to me then, as it is now, that so-called school choice and high-stakes standardized testing would not improve our schools or enhance our children’s ability to learn. We do not need an education system in which kids are simply taught to take tests. We need a system in which kids learn and grow in a holistic manner.
Under NCLB, standardized tests were utilized to hold public schools and teachers “accountable” for student outcomes. As a result, some schools that underperformed were closed and their teachers and unions blamed.
The long-term effects of this approach have been disastrous. NCLB perpetuated the myth of public schools and teachers as failing, which opened the door for the spread of school voucher programs and charter schools that we have today. Some of these charter schools are operated by for-profits; many of them are nonunion and are not publicly accountable.
Further down:
Fortunately, educators, parents and students across the country agree. From West Virginia to California, teachers have been striking to demand real investment in their schools, instead of tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. In some cities, teachers have refused to administer tests that do not improve learning, and increasing numbers of parents and students are opting out of standardized tests and demanding more effective ways of assessing student performance.
We must build on this grassroots movement. If our children are to succeed in the 21st century economy, we need to recognize that there are no shortcuts around real investment in public education. Even the best educational assessments are of limited use if schools are underfunded, our teachers are disrespected, and millions of students and their families are living paycheck to paycheck.
As president, I will address these challenges by making transformative investments that eliminate one-size-fits-all solutions and put our students, our teachers and our public schools first.
This sounds very positive for us. Contrast this with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. There is a NY Post piece on Bloomberg's soon to be released education plan touting charter schools as he runs for the Democratic nomination for president.
Some low-lights:
Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg may have backed off supporting stop-and-frisk, but he plans to double-down on another controversial policy from his time as New York Mayor — expanding charter schools.
Bloomberg will soon roll out an education plan that will include backing the privately managed schools as an option for families, his campaign office told The Post — drawing a contrast with other top-tier Democratic presidential rivals.
“Mike’s education plan will absolutely promote charter schools,” Bloomberg campaign spokesman Stu Loeser insisted.
“The record number of charter schools opened under Mayor Bloomberg is clear. That isn’t changing.”
Bloomberg's plan on charter schools aligns with Cory Booker, Donald Trump and his Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
On the contrary, Bernie states:
My Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education addresses these fundamental problems by increasing teacher pay to start at $60,000 a year, empowering teachers to craft thoughtful assessments that consider all aspects of a student’s academic progress, and putting a moratorium on charter schools and the federal charter school program until they can be made publicly accountable.
I understand the UFT/AFT not taking a position on who to endorse in the primaries although I disagree with them as I would follow United Teachers of Los Angeles and endorse Bernie. Since the UFT/AFT won't take that step, can we at least take a position that we will under no circumstances endorse Bloomberg, Booker, Trump or any other candidate who favors charter schools to the detriment of public schools? How about members demanding the UFT/AFT leadership take this position?
89 comments:
Explain to me what "investment" looks like. How will that get students to show up, behave, read, write, do their work, not go to sleep, put cell phones away, take hats off...
More money for laptops so students can watch videos on youtube? Not gonna change anything.
Would you rather have Bloomberg?
What would sanders have done? Now that WW3 is canceled, how will the Left argue that killing Soleimani was still bad? I'm sure they'll find a way. Put politics ahead of country at all costs. That's the Democrat way.
So the media's new narrative is that Iran is more rational than Trump, so no war. You are now declaring the Iranian regime, which hangs gay people from cranes, oppresses women, and pursues global terrorism, more rational than a president using basic deterrence strategy.
I want a charter school promoter in the White House. I hate the kids so much I want public education dismantled and all of us fired. That's why I quit the UFT.
Trump in White House, nobody fired. Nothing is changing.
It’s going to be game over in the near future. Bloomberg or Trump, charter, privatization of everything and a completely passive, comatose UFT. The death knoll will be a President Bloomberg. People aren’t aware of what he did here in New York City and no one seems to be informing them. Does Bloomberg have something on Mulgrew? Isn’t it time we woke up the comatose Uft and start fighting? Bloomberg is going to come with his steel toed boots and kick the UFT, and it’s rank and file, to death.
There are two words to sum up why not to vote for Bloomberg despite all his disastrous policies: Cathie Black! This is the person you want making decisions for our country. Also, who is Judy Scheindlin to say he did great things for NYC. She wasn't even living here when he was mayor. Go back to your Kangaroo Courtroom.
Nothing will change, for better or worse, same complaints will exist. He isnt empowering anybody. No such thing. Give me examples of what will change.
A Sanders pro union NLRB would be in our favor for sure. Federal government bureaucracy would be pro labor and pro worker.
Diane Ravitch covered Sanders' piece too.
One error here: 90% of charters are non-union, not some. That is why charters have the enthusiastic support of right-wingers like the Waltons, DeVos, Koch, and other billionaires (see Slaying Goliath for a comprehensive list of the billionaires, foundations, and corporations that support testing and charters)
Big difference if Sanders wins.
A little more from Jacobin:
In a piece entitled “Why Bernie Sanders is Tough to Beat” the often-hostile New York Times reporter Sydney Ember observed, “His anti-establishment message hasn’t changed for 50 years, and it resonates with working-class voters and young people who agree the system is corrupt and [that] it will take a revolution to fix it.” Mike Allen correctly noted that the media rarely treats Sanders “with the seriousness warranted by his sustained popularity and fundraising. Like in 2016, Sanders has a legit shot to win the nomination — and an unshakable base to brace him.”
Expect the right wingers here to freak out completely if Sanders momentum keeps going. Jacobin again:
"With Sanders’s campaign looking stronger than ever ahead of the first caucuses next month, parts of the US media seem to have finally put the Bernie blackout on pause and gotten wise to the reality that the Vermont senator is indeed a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. If the current polling is borne out and Sanders enjoys success in early primary contests, expect another yet shift in the media climate: this time of a far darker, more dramatic, and infinitely nastier kind."
Again, give me specific examples, what does empower teachers mean?
Look at what is happening around the country where teachers are fighting back. NYC is an outlier here. A Sanders presidency would accelerate the teacher movement.
Reminder from Bernie Sanders that he voted against No Child Left Behind, *one of the worst pieces of legislation in history.
Fighting back to produce what? Still not telling me how my daily experience would be different.
I will support sanders when he admits what the real problems are in the school system.
Hands down, the best candidate on testing, education, everything.
His administration will listen to us. No new charters helps us a lot. Were you around pre Klein? It was much better for teachers.
Ravitch on Bloomberg:
It was a curious fact that when billionaire Michael Bloomberg was mayor of New York City for 12 years, he had complete control of the public schools yet did not have any fresh ideas about how to improve them.
This should not be surprising, because he was never an educator. He hired another non-educator–Joel Klein–to be his chancellor. The two of them relied heavily on McKinsey and other consultants to guide them. They hired lots of MBAs to staff top positions. They hoped to adopt a corporate style of organization, which made sense because they had low regard for actual educators.
He adopted every aspect of No Child Left Behind: high-stakes testing, closing schools, firing teachers and principals. He loved opening small schools, and when they failed, he reopened them with a new name so they could start over.
New York City was a faithful replication of NCLB, with punishments and rewards leading the way.
His main idea was to hand schools over to private charter operators, assuming that they would have better ideas about how to run schools than he did.
Some of the charter operators made a point of excluding low-performing students, which artificially boosted their test scores.
Some closed their enrollments in the fourth grade, so they would not have to take in new students after that point.
Some kicked out kids who were in need of special services.
Bloomberg’s favorite charter chain was Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy, which used all of these tricks to get astonishingly high test scores.
Bloomberg was obsessed with data and test scores. He even adopted Jeb Bush’s policy of letter grades for schools (which his successor Bill DeBlasio abolished).
The New York City charter industry practiced all the tricks of raising test scores by manipulating the student population.
In addition, the charter sector mastered the ability to organize mass rallies, flooding legislative halls with students and parents, pleading for more funding for new charters (which they could not attend since they were already enrolled in charters).
So pleased was Bloomberg with his charter policy that it is now the centerpiece of his national education agenda.
He doesn’t care about the nearly 90% of kids who are enrolled in public schools.
He believes in privatization.
If elected, he could retain Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education and maintain continuity with Trump’s education agenda
Wall Street Journal: Not Jacobin.
Be Prepared for President Sanders
The Vermont socialist could soon become the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.
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By Jason L. Riley
Jan. 7, 2020 7:05 pm ET
Bernie Sanders significantly outraised his Democratic presidential rivals in the final three months of 2019. He is very much in the hunt for the first three contests of the primary season. He has run second, behind Joe Biden, in national polls for most of the past year and matches up better head-to-head against President Trump than either Elizabeth Warren or Pete Buttigieg. When Sanders supporters complain that the political press isn’t giving their guy the attention he deserves, they have a point.
Does sanders condemn...
@IlhanMN
on sanctions against ���� Iran:
"This makes no sense. Sanctions are economic warfare"
@IlhanMN
on sanctions against ���� Turkey:
"It would be a humanitarian & geopolitical disaster"
Ilhan Omar is against sanctions, exept when the target is the one and only Jewish state
Part of Bernie's workplace democracy plan. Establish federal protections against the firing of workers for any reason other than “just cause.”
If you don't think that helps untenured teachers, you are crazy. No more at will employment.
Bernie says teachers arent failing. Obviously, based on almost everybody, there is grade fraud, students arent learning, dont show up, do nothing in school and students are ill prepared for life. Who is failing, teachers or students or both?
Society
Ok, society, that would be student parents???
Parents, students and institutional racism.
Speaking of Krugman (won't mention latest cp news): Paul Krugman: "By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's." 2020 Paul Krugman
P.s. "institutional racism lol? I'd say you can't make this stuff up but people clearly have.
Bernie never held a real job in his life but has managed to become a multi millionaire and own three houses. That's my kinda socialism!
Bernie. Only in America! Lmao.
About 40% of nyc public school teachers should be fired imho. What a scam
Can you give me several examples of institutional racism?
Yes, there is institutional racism as people complain here all the time about no discipline code in many mostly Africam American or Latino schools but in elite schools with mostly white and Asian kids like Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science, there are consequences for student behavior and real standards.
George W Bush talked about the soft bigotry of low expectations. His solution was bullshit (No Child Left Behind) but the problem is racist for sure. The victims are the many decent kids who want to learn.
Carranza posted a picture this morning on twitter, he is sitting with studnets in a restorative circle, at least 2 studnets are wearing hoods. I thought the discipline code said no headgear. It is his code, he is sitting there.
Let's dispel the myth that NCLB was wholly a Bush creation. It was Rep. George Miller (D-Socialist) who drafted the bill in the Education committee and pushed it in the House, while Sen. Ted Kennedy (the moral icon) pushed it in the Senate. Both houses of Congress were in the hands of our "friends" at the time. Bush wanted an education bill, and would not vote against a bill named 'No Child Left Behind.' Bash Bush all you want for signing it into law, but keep in mind who wrote it. But by all means, vote for the Dems, they care about the working man (as long as he's gender confused and an illegal immigrant.)
Bernie Sanders voted NO on NCLB. Nobody said it wasn't bipartisan insanity.
Think about 12/23/19. Scream, bitch and moan to the UFT and the Democratic Party that NYC Public School Teachers want an endorsement for a pro-public school candidate and a public statement disavowing all that Bloomberg did as head of the DOE. Mulgrew and Weingarten are simply dishonest and incompetent; need to be shamed into doing their jobs.
So people who cant measure up, as a default, call racism, or institutioanl racism. That way, nothing can ever be their fault.
I have some questions about resigning.
Question 1: I am afraid I might be discontinued...
First year my MOTP was developing and my MOSL was highly effective.
Second year my MOTP was effective and my MOSL was effective.
This is my third year now and my 2 observations so far are mostly ineffective and developing. I have about 4 or 5 letters in my file (mostly for "not replenishing substitute work" during days I was absent. One of those days I had the work LABELED for each period ON MY DESK, but it wasn't in the FILE CABINET for make up work so I got a letter). What are the chances of being discontinued? I don't even care for tenure at the moment. I think my principal really has it out for me.
Question 2: I am teaching under a Trans-B (fellows). My certification expires at the end of this school year. All I am missing for my initial certification is my EdTPA, which I planned on finishing in the next few months... but is it even worth it to finish it? I do want to teach. My current situation at school is making me hate work, but I think after a break I can return even stronger. Would a leave of absence/resignation affect getting my initial certification? My Trans-B ends in July.
Question 3: If I resign and give notice, do I keep any benefits? Isn't there something called COBRA? Does that apply to me?
I know I wrote a lot, I appreciate any clarity anyone can offer and will definitely make time to speak to the UFT.
Has anyone else heard that the superintendent of district 11 has mandated that all administrators conduct walk throughs in all classrooms once a week
Is there a DOE policy on students replacing or compensating the teacher’s property that they broke?
@6:17, You’re joking right? Just asking that question tells me you are completely out of your element. I wish you the best.
Contract Article 3I2: The Board of Education will reimburse teachers, in an amount not to exceed $100 in any school year, for loss or damage or destruction, while on duty in the school or while on duty on a field trip, of personal property of a kind normally worn to or brought to school, or on a field trip, when the teacher has not been negligent, to the extent that such loss is not covered by insurance.
Does that answer you 6:17?
6:12, Please email us at ICEUFT@GMAIL.COM so we can help and also contact your chapter leader and district rep. We need to start the fightback immediately.
1:34, I agree we need to yell loud on endorsements.
Yell about the 1.4% average raise over 11 years
“If market is up, talk about wealth inequality; if the market drops substantially, talk about the president’s failing economic policies.”
So I want to quit teaching. I’ve realized that while I love the students, like many of us, there are a few that make it unbearable and administration doesn’t respond in terms of behavior or the academic failure of other students as a result of the behavior of a few. What are some options that I can go into with this masters degree to make a difference without losing my will to live.
I have a student who is everyday physically beating me and my co teacher up. What rights do we have? If we show a sense of frustration and a parent complains about us and feels we aren’t on the same team and that parent feels disrespectful based on how the message came out , do we have rights? It’s extremely frustrating.
A little off topic, my apologizes. A teacher recently notified me James with proof, that any teacher that files a complaint about a school, admin or principal - the complaint is directly emailed from the UFT to the principal with that teachers name. If this isn’t proof of a UFT -CSA agreement, I don’t know what is. No wonder everyone is so afraid.
The UFT district rep for my school does communicate with my principal, providing names, information and copies of emails, anytime someone from my school contacts him either through phone calls or emails. This has happened at least twice this school year.
Report the District rep then to the VEEP if you feel he is not representing you.
Nice job UFT, even CSA is mad about discipline...The president of the city’s principals unions blasted the state of school discipline on Wednesday in a letter to Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
“In many schools, misconduct is on the rise, leading some students to believe that there are little or no consequences for disruptive, openly defiant, threatening or even violent behavior,” wrote Mark Cannizzaro (right), head of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA).
Despite the city Department of Education’s claims that classrooms are calm in spite of massive drops in suspensions and arrests, the letter says a CSA survey of 2,300 New York school leaders found that only 31 percent were satisfied “with the direction of the DOE with respect to student/staff safety.”
And just 21 percent were satisfied with disciplinary-code changes, while 30 percent were pleased by the DOE’s “direction with respect to school climate and culture.”
Cannizzaro said principals still support the DOE’s “restorative justice” approach to misbehavior, which opts for alternative de-escalation techniques over “zero tolerance” and heavy suspensions.
But the letter calls for school administrators to get more autonomy in dealing with classroom trouble.
Principals should also have their “discretion over issues of school climate and safety restored so that they can again make decisions in the best interest of all students,” it reads.
Cannizzaro told The Post on Thursday that principals are handcuffed by DOE rules.
As an example, he said a principal complained to him that a student spat in an assistant principal’s face and that a request for a suspension from a central district office was denied because it didn’t qualify.
“When things go off the rails and something needs to be done to keep the climate conducive to learning, we should be able to make that call,” he said.
DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said, “We’ll keep working closely with schools to give them the tools they need to effectively manage and de-escalate conflict, and are in ongoing conversations with the CSA about important issues impacting principals.”
We are proud to announce that our movement has voted resoundingly to endorse @BernieSanders for President of the United States.
��Join the #GreenNewDeal political revolution: https://t.co/3eXE0XsIUv
#Sunrise4Bernie https://t.co/cAO09Irndt
Likely to be "moderated" yet again as "off topic" but wutevs:
So we have an avowed comnunist who is a multi-millionaire with 3 homes, a wife with whom he honeymooned in the USSR and who is under indictment for bank fraud, and who is a guy who has never worked a regular job in his entire life...
Yep, sounds like the kinda guy most teachers I know would support. Anyone who believes in "free stuff" deserves what they get; what that is is should be obvious--another socialist paradise, examples of which history and the modern world are replete.
Well done all. Fist raised.
I say NO to the green new deal
Not off topic so no need to delete. Vote for Trump, deny climate change is real. Your choice. I am expecting tons more comments like this if Bernie wins Iowa and New Hampshire and the mainstream media and right wingers here totally freak out. Your comment might inspire me to make yet another donation to Bernie.
Oh and a democratic socialist is not the same as a communist.
Charles Payne of Fox Business News has a net worth of $10 million and he criticizes teachers for supporting Bernie. He must have forgotten his history about MLK's social justice movement to help the poor and the working which Bernie has continued for over 40 years. I guess Charles doesn't want to pay more taxes on his million$$$ so he attacks teachers as supporting socialism. #GreedisEvil
"U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the Democratic field three weeks ahead of Caucus Day in Iowa — narrowly overtaking his closest competitors, who remain locked in a tight contest just behind him."
Des Moines Register poll
There’s a new leader in Iowa, and his name is Bernard Sanders.
Des Moines Register Poll - Jan. 10, 2020
Sanders: 20%
Warren: 17%
Buttigieg: 16%
Biden: 15%
We have a ton of momentum with just three weeks to go. Now we have to finish the job. Because if we do, we will take one GIANT leap forward toward President Bernie Sanders.
Can you make a $20 contribution to our campaign today? With just three weeks to go until Iowa, if we keep fighting we’re going to win!
We are so close. Let’s finish the job.
Faiz Shakir
Campaign Manager
You see Trump's concern about Sanders:
The Sanders campaign said the shift by Trump signaled new concern. “It appears the Trump campaign has discovered what we’ve known all along, which is that Bernie Sanders is going to defeat Donald Trump,” Mike Casca, the campaign’s communications director, told BuzzFeed News. “Bernie, who has spent his entire life standing with the working class, is going to spend every moment of the general election reminding working Americans that Trump was lying when he said he would stand with them and that he would end the endless wars. He’s the most corrupt president in American history and Bernie Sanders is going to sweep him out of the White House.”
I don't want socialism, dont want to reward people who choose not to work, doubt want cradle to grave dependency, don't believe in free rides for criminals.
I don't want to be shit on any longer by greedy, selfish administrators. I want a Bernie NLRB.
In light of recent polling data, I'm gonna have to ask Biden to drop out due to electability concerns.
Bernie Sanders Twitter-
Corporations that outsource American jobs, pay workers starvation wages and bust unions should not expect to get any lucrative federal contracts from a Bernie Sanders administration.
Only right wing nut jobs like the current setup.
Ok, I paid for college, didnt get a bailout. If sanders wants to bail out deadbeats, I want it reimbursed as well.
Congratulations to @BernieSanders and his campaign bc, if I am not mistaken, the person who has led this poll has gone on to be nominee in last six cycles. Leading this poll is momentous.
Hillary Clinton advisor Jennifer Palmieri
Not taking anything for granted but this looks good for Bernie. We are out organizing competition.
Bernie has the most contributions and the biggest group contributing are teachers. The UFT should consider an endorsement for Bernie. I hope to be at the DA this Wednesday with petitions for Bernie for the NYS primary. COme by and sign.
I want reparations for my paid student loans and other stuff too. My family tree contains immigrants and they weren't treated very nice. Etc.
Retro reparations for all injustices!
I will gladly quit if I'm guaranteed medical...dont tell me I have too much savings.
Chaz ain't no socialist and here is his grade on Bernie:
Bernie Sanders:
Bernie is pro public education and wants to increase teacher pay and wants to fully fund our traditional public schools while putting a freeze on new charter schools. Moreover, he wants existing charter schools to be held accountable as traditional public schools are. Finally, he also wants the charter schools to have the same studnt demographics and percentage of high needs students as the neighborhood schools.
GRADE A
The uft claims to have gotten us great contracts, why do we need federal raises?
Still wondering how he empowers us...What will change?
There will be a lot of people standing by to take credit when @SenSanders becomes #PresidentSanders. But as one who was there in the beginning I know the truth and so do Bernie & Jane. It is the base. It is you #Berners. ����
#Bernie2020
https://t.co/2QYW2so3S4 via @usatoday
Support Buttaguige or you are homophobic!
Support Warren et al or you are misogynistic!
Support Booker or you are racist!
Looks like some teachers here aren't as woke as they purport to be.
Smash the patriarchal white power structure and systemic slavery once and for all. C'mon now...!
12:28 can't figure out how a pro union, pro public school teacher as president helps us. Everything would be different with a pro worker pro teacher president. Admin would be scared everywhere.
1257, are youa eruious a=lor sarcastic? You cant possibly be naive enough to think sanders will change how a princpal or students act. Mulgrew will say that we have a friend in the white house, and everything will be exactly the same. Grade fraud, no discipline, bad contracts, small raises.
Mulgrew doesn't support Sanders. A Sanders presidency would be a game changer for teachers and working people. Yes I believe that, even in NYC. Having the federal government on our side would make a big difference.
226, tell me how
When students are sleeping in class, using cell phones, walking in and out, cursing us, no showing, when we cant fail them...What exactly will change?
Frightened, cowards will not be so afraid to exercise your rights.
So why hasn't it been done yet?
The whole city must be frightened cowards then...
Recently, our campaign has been the target of attacks from Trump and the Republican Party—because they are catching on that our campaign is THE campaign that can and will defeat them. Bernie Sanders
"This week, tens of thousands of teachers from across Florida are rallying outside the state capitol to demand real support for their public schools. They are taking this action despite the outrageous threats from Republican officials to fire them just for standing up for their students. These educators are part of a massive nationwide movement, from Maine to California, that’s fighting back against years of underfunding, privatization, and draconian high-stakes testing. I am proud to stand with them in this struggle." Bernie Sanders
I'm confused. We, or people in Florida, or people all over the country are still rallying and making demands? So when will something actually change? We haven't had decades of asking for change? haven't had dems in the white house, mayors, governors, senators? As James said, cost of living in Chicago is 43% less than NY, meanwhile they max out after 14 years. The uft is the problem? The whole country is the problem. Not much hope for change.
I agree UFT is a big problem but the teachers around the country are changing things in our favor.
@ 4:40pm is struggling. Someone help.
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