HOW WILL IT BE ENFORCED THAT SCHOOL BUILDINGS ARE SAFELY REOPENED?

I know everyone is completely freaking out, justifiably so, because Governor Andrew Cuomo has appointed Bill Gates to reimagine schools in New York. We thought we were done with the Bill Gates' education hobby. I will join in with any plan to oppose Gates on NY schools. His track record with small schools, teacher evaluations based on testing, and Common Core is atrocious.  If anyone needs a reminder of how terrible online schools are, go to this Network for Public Education page. No teacher or parent or student wants to reimagine school the way Cuomo and Gates do. Thousands of emails have already been sent to the Governor opposing his reimagination of public schools. Send one yourself, please and sign this petition opposing permanent online schooling.

At the city level, our completely moronic Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn't seem to know there are billions of dollars that can be cut from the budget without threatening to layoff city employees. Other politicians are already shouting from the virtual rooftops about the abundant waste that can be found before workers such as cops or teachers are let go. Gates, Cuomo and de Blah Blah are all worth publicly resisting.

 It is not a pretty picture at the present time and we must collectively be engaged in the struggle. That said, if Cuomo and Gates don't completely kill brick and mortar public education by September, educators and students may have to go back into school buildings and there could very well be a second wave of COVID-19 headed our way although I pray it does not occur. If the second wave hits, who is going to ensure that faculty and kids are safe when we return to schools?

Do any of us trust the Department of Education or the City of New York to get the reopening right?

I listened super-carefully yesterday to Michael Mulgrew's hour-long interview on Talk out of Schools on WBAI with parent activist Leonie Haimson. I am not sure why there were no phone calls on Wednesday's program as usually the phones are open for callers on Talk out of Schools. Maybe it was recorded. Mulgrew doesn't like tough questions as anyone who goes to a UFT meeting that he runs knows so I wonder if no phone calls were a condition for his appearance.

Leonie did ask Mulgrew about reopening the schools. He answered in typical Michael Mulgrew form: a huge roar that was completely toothless. I tried to transcribe his words when he was asked about reopening around the 4 minute mark. I listened a number of times to make sure I got what he was saying down accurately. This is not quite a transcript of his answer on reopening but it's close enough:

The UFT is putting a big push on what's needed to be in place to reopen schools. It is complicated but certain conditions were NON-NEGOTIABLE. Whatever the rules are, have to be followed. The city was not following the rules before we closed down. The state had put out if there were any positive tests, schools had to be closed for 24 hours and contact tracing had to happen. They said every school would have to have cleaning supplies and go through a deep cleaning on a nightly basis. None of that happened; it happened here or there. The first school was closed; they did contact tracing. That was the last piece of evidence we had. Then it became more frustrating because we received more and more reports; we pushed them back at the city. Custodians were telling us they did not have supplies to do what the city was asking them to do. We had positive test results the city was ignoring because they said now they were only going to recognize positive test results if they came from the State Department of Health, which from an actual person getting the results takes days to get back those results. This is not negotiable. This has to be followed. If it isn't, we're going to work with parents to go after those people that aren't doing this.

You heard it from the UFT President. We are going to work with parents and go after people that aren't following protocol. A few seconds later he said these things would have to be addressed immediately.

But what if they are not Mr. Mulgrew? We all know safety protocols won't be addressed properly in many buildings.

We now have Mulgrew admitting in even greater detail that in March the UFT knew multiple buildings were infected but the UFT didn't do anything to stop the kids and staff from going in. They never advised people to get out of dangerous situations. By the time in March he is referring to, we knew what had happened in China and Italy with COVID-19. We were aware this was deadly. How can the UFT knowingly letting us go into work to get sick be acceptable to anyone? I know I keep harping on this but the UFT's inaction was beyond disgusting.

What's just as bad, maybe worse, is Mulgrew hasn't changed in how he will handle it in the fall. The UFT will demand that the DOE cleans up buildings, checks everyone's temperature and does contact tracing. If they don't, we'll hide behind the parents.

I have a suggestion. How about posting something like this when school buildings are reopened if building protocols based on medical science are not followed?

WARNING: The UFT has found this school building is unsafe. We are strongly advising every employee and every student not to enter this building until it is safe. We will continue to educate remotely until the building is deemed safe by scientific experts.

Some lawyerly types can adjust my language appropriately but I believe protecting our lives and the lives of the students is the most important reason the Union exists. For any of the caucuses or independents, can you get behind a resolution saying the UFT will strongly advise its members to keep out of infected school buildings?

The UFT shut down the system for a week in 1993 because of asbestos in schools. We all walked out of Jamaica High School with UFT approval in 2006 because there was no running water in the building.  President Randi Weingarten stood alongside me the next morning to make sure the school was cleaned and the water was flowing. The Union's job now should be ensuring that buildings are as safe as possible before we go back.

In the end, we have to all try to stay healthy. We must be at full strength to fight Cuomo, de Blasio, Gates and oh Bloomberg's back too. Did I forget Betsy DeVos and Trump?