For those expecting Governor Cuomo to rescue them from having to return to in-person schooling while there is still community spread of COVID-19, you may want to find a different champion.
From News 12 Westchester:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that he would allow children statewide to return to classrooms for the start of the new school year, citing the state’s success in battling the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement by Gov. Cuomo clears the way for schools to offer at least some days of in-person classes, alongside remote learning.
- Gov. Cuomo says all New York school districts have authorization to reopen. Districts must implement their plans and work with parents, according to the governor.
- The governor says schools should post remote learning plans, have a clear plan for COVID-19 testing for students and teachers, and have a plan for contact tracing that is easily accessible to parents.
- Gov. Cuomo says schools should also hold at least three listening sessions for parents before school begins in the fall. Big districts should hold five sessions.
- A separate discussion should be held for just teachers.
- Gov. Cuomo: If the school's plan is not approved by the state, the school can't open.
“Everywhere in the state, every region is below the threshold that we established,” Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters. “If there’s a spike in the infection rate, if there’s a matter of concern in the infection rate, then we can revisit."
Many New York school districts have planned to start the year with students in school buildings only a few days a week, while learning at home the rest of the time.
The largest school district in the U.S., New York City’s more than 1 million public school students had their last day of in-class instruction on March 13, just as waves of sick people were beginning to hit city hospitals. All schools statewide were closed by March 18.
The city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, has been saying since the spring that his goal for fall was to bring students back on schedule, with as much classroom time as possible while still allowing for social distancing.
That plan has looked exceedingly ambitious as other large school systems have backed away from in-person instruction in recent weeks.
Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Houston, among other places, all announced they would start the school year with students learning remotely.
De Blasio, while cautioning that he could change course at any time, had expressed hope that the relatively low rate of transmission of the virus in the city would allow students and staff to return safely.
He had also said a return to classroom instruction is vital to jump-starting the city’s economy, now hobbled by parents being forced to stay home with their children.
School reopening plans, though, face enormous hurdles.
The outbreak, while reduced, is not over in New York. Around 10,000 New York City residents tested positive for the virus in July.
On Wednesday, two unions, New York State United Teachers and the United Federation of Teachers, demanded clearer health protocols dictating that schools should shut down immediately for two weeks if any student or member of the staff contracts the virus.
Teachers are prohibited from striking in New York, but it has been unclear whether large numbers would either opt out of classroom instruction for medical reasons or simply refuse to work.
There's more. We outlined a Work to Rule for medical reasons earlier.
83 comments:
Cuomo is asking the federal government for $30 billon dollars. If he made a decision to keep schools closed, it would've been suicide on his part.
This is just a glorified delay tactic - nothing more.
I don't think there is a need to get too upset. I just don't see Cuomo approving the city's plan anyhow.
The HEROES Act is nowhere. Let the nyc layoffs begin.
Not happy that @NYGovCuomo puts a lot more effort into defining whether a chicken wing is a meal than in providing any sort of help for schools to open safely
"Teachers are prohibited from striking in New York, but it has been unclear whether large numbers would either opt out of classroom instruction for medical reasons or simply refuse to work." OR RESIGN!
There are not enough teachers to implement the cockamamie hybrid model. If enough teachers threaten resignation DOE will pay attention.
They will never have a shortage of teachers. I'm still in the ATR. They could care less if we resign.
Safe? Dr. Anthony Fauci says chance of coronavirus vaccine being highly effective is ‘not great’
Any uft response yet? Or just keep blindly paying dues?
UFT President Michael Mulgrew on
@NYGovCuomo
statement on school reopening: As Governor Cuomo noted, parents and teachers must be confident that schools are safe before they can reopen. In New York City that is still an open question.
Since March, the
@CDCgov
has warned against the very same settings a school/classroom are. Transmission may be currently low, but the virus hasn't changed in nature.
No one is confident that it is gone, either.
One point that I find confusing is that the city has deemed it too risky to eat inside a restaurant and ALL other indoor activities for fear that the virus will surge. If it is too risky to eat in a restaurant, why is it not too risky to teach in a poorly ventilated classroom?
When will we find out if our medical accommodations were approved?
How can dems/cuomo/uft say Florida is bad, then open everything up, which will get more infections, like what happened in Fla
Hi all. I am not comfortable with going back for my family's sake. However, I also do not enjoy remote learning. (I know, such a diva! Hahah!) I am thinking about resigning my position, but would have to do so by today for my tenure to not be affected. Does anyone know if there is a special COVID leave I could take so I could stay in the system?
As far as the HEROES Act, and all the money we supposedly need to run the city...
MNUCHIN: “we did not make any progress today”
Here are my issues/problems:
1) He has never addressed the fact that New York City is not really in phase 4 like the rest of New York state. It is inconceivable to me that we cannot go to a restaurant to eat inside but we can go and teach in unsafe school buildings.
2) It is now in the hands of NYSED and the DOH to approve or disapprove of the NYC DOE's plans to reopen (instructional and safety). Cuomo said that assuming a plan has been given in (not all districts have), there should be a decision by Monday. Can anyone confirm that the DOE has given in the plan? Does anyone know how we would find out about the approval/disapproval? This would be the safety part. Does anyone know about the approval of the instructional part?
3) Districts are to publish online by the end of next week, their testing, contract tracing and remote learning plans. We should monitor what the DOE does with this.
4) Nobody, as far as I know, from the DOE has clarified the remote/in person situation yet. Some people have said that the plan is to have two teachers for each person class. If this is the case, how is it going to be possible to obtain the number of teachers that are necessary for this to occur? Has this plan even been confirmed by the DOE at all? If the DOE plans to have two teachers for each in person class and there are not that many teachers, how would it be possible to open?
5) What do we do about our ineffectual union leadership? Mr. Mulgrew's email yesterday clearly indicated that he has little regard for our thoughts and opinions, having chosen to unilaterally agree to changes in our contract without taking these changes to it members? Regardless of what is thought about the specific changes, my concern is how can we have faith and trust in him when he done this. While it is conceivable that he is doing this as part of a larger plan that we are not privy to, he and his staff had to have known that after this email, many members would be angry yet nothing was communicated to put our fears to rest. To ask that we have blind faith in him given his actions and communications is not warranted.
6) In what direction do we go now, if we are worried that our interests are not protected? I am hearing some people talk about the possibility of a strike. But I also heard a member talk about something interesting (sorry--I don't recall your name but know that if you reveal yourself I will be happy to give you credit) who raised this: we are not unwilling to work. We are all willing to work--but not in dangerous school buildings. What if we showed up at our computers with lesson plans, ready, willing and able to teach? The Taylor Law says nothing about place. Now, obviously, it is more complicated than that. We would need to communicate this ahead of time because students would be showing up at buildings. And I am not saying that this is something that WILL be necessary; there may be any number of reasons between now and when school resumes that we may be remote (the number of teachers problem in #4 above). However, we should think about our back up plan.
A lot of Tier 6 people may be gone.
“It was a disappointing meeting,” Schumer said, saying the administration couldn’t go “much above” the existing $1 trillion. Schumer says Dems willing to go around $2T.
Gov Dewine had a positive test, which was wrong. That's how we are gonna do things in September?
And another...
Princeton scraps in person teaching
Princeton University reverses course, announces that all undergraduate programs will be fully online for the 2020 fall semester.
In a letter, President Eisgruber writes: “The pandemic’s impact in New Jesery has led us to conclude that we cannot provide a genuinely meaningful on-campus experience for our undergraduate students this fall in a manner that is respectful of public health concerns...(2/3)
...and consistent with state regulations and guidelines.... We will continue to accommodate on campus those students whose situations make it extremely difficult or impossible for them to return to or study from home.” (3/3)
I spent the hours from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. yesterday, like so many New York public school parents, on Zoom calls for two of my kids’ schools, growing increasingly frustrated at being forced to make a choice with little information — but also angry and disappointed that instead of leading, the mayor and chancellor are passing the buck to parents.
Today is the deadline for parents to select 100% remote learning if they are not ready to send their kids back to school in person, under whichever blended model their school is planning on using to open come September 10, assuming infection rates stay under 3%. The question really is – opt for in-person if you believe that the Department of Education has it together to provide a safe and rigorous learning environment at your child’s school for all involved. But better be prepared for 100% remote anyway, for it could switch to that at a moment’s notice, and most likely will.
There’s something really wrong, I think, with how we are being asked to make this choice. On those Zoom calls, we were told, again and again, to act in our own interests, to pick what’s best for our own families. In the middle of a pandemic, with complete disregard for implications for public health or the interest of our particular school community?
That’s not leadership in a crisis. Why do Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza believe that we can’t be trusted to act in the common interest? If what makes sense for society at large is to prioritize the working parents of elementary-school kids, then let’s keep the high school kids home — for instance.
My kids are older – middle school and high school – and they can, even if they don’t want to, study remotely. I learned yesterday night that just one student showing up sick would put the entire middle school on remote schedule as the teachers are expected to cycle through all the in-person classes across the grades. What are the chances that one kid won’t get sick? I worry it will be on our conscience, not the DOE’s, if a teacher or principal dies because we chose to send our kids to school, even if we did so with insufficient information and not understanding wider implications – because we are being asked to make that decision.
I know, everyone’s situation is different, and we all weigh risks we face differently. But good leaders ask for compassion and understanding and sacrifice from everyone in a crisis. They earn our trust by offering thoughtful, truthful, and well-articulated guidance about what would be best for the community at large, realizing there will be tradeoffs and making those calls, and helping individuals make informed decisions within those constraints.
Right now, the City Hall is asking for those things – compassion and understanding and sacrifice – only from teachers and other school workers. We keep being told just to “choose what’s best for your family.”
So Cuomo does a conference call instead of his usual briefing. He sounds like he can barely speak. Nobody is going to convince me he didn't get COVID in Georgia two weeks ago when he refused to mask or self-quarantine.
However school re-opening gets sorted out, one thing is clear Mulgrew must go.
This was to punt on supts and county executives , when things go wrong, Cuomo not to Blame
You want Mulgrew to go so much? Did you opt out or are you still supporting him?
Hopefully, one positive result of this is MULGREW WILL BE GONE. All the people who don't both to vote, who think a 1% raise is exceptable by voting yes to crap contracts.
I can see a sick out coming. Cuomo pulled a Trump by passing the buck to school districts this way when the shit hits the fan he can say it wasn't his doing. Just like he does when he says the federal government didn't tell us the virus was coming from Europe. It was all over the news. He just chose to ignore it. Safety first=right to work from home. I'll go back when it's save to go to sit in a resturant, mall gym, museum etc in NYC.
And another...
Jersey City, NJ...Remote only
Layoffs coming. Can't open anyway.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Pelosi and Schumer only interested in Bailout Money for poorly run Democrat cities and states. Nothing to do with China Virus! Want one trillion dollars. No interest. We are going a different way!
MORE-UFT
@MOREcaucusUFT
So many unanswered Qs,
@NYCMayor
@NYCSchools
@DOEChancellor
around funding, resources, infrastructure, logistics, and, most importantly, safety! And yet today is the day they're touting to have parents apply for their students to be fully remote (which they can do anytime btw!)
Chancellor Richard A. Carranza
· 23m
THREAD: Today, we submitted our district plan to the State Education Department, which details our health, safety, and instructional guidance to all @NYCschools. This plan applies to every school in the system and is the basis of each school’s individual plans.
I'm doing Edmentum for summer school and the work the kids do is 3rd grade at most. The kids are giving work in half completed if even that and these are schools that boast 90+ graduation rates.
Maybe we get a payroll tax cut. Would be nice for someone who actually works to get something.
The hiring freeze is OVER
tNYCDOE Wants to hire Neachers. NOW. for THIS September
http://teachnyc.net
vbgbfhn
Coming next
1) deferral of one weeks pay
2) layoffs of teachers
3) delay of the next raise (May 2021)
4) Infection rate increasing in classrooms
But if you are worried about Michael Mulgrew not being able to survive do not worry.None of this will affect him. He still will make his $300,000 salary. Remember he does not teach. Never has to enter a classroom. In a way he kind of reminds me of Trump. He knows he can get away with anything and teachers will keep voting for him. But when the next UFT election comes ask yourself this question. Are you better off today then you were three years ago.
NY NURSES SAY NO: @nynurses say 1 million children + 100k teachers in poorly ventilated spaces for 15-30 hours per week will be a “super spreader event” posing “grave public risk”.
Citywide rates may be low but in communities of color they are 4-5x higher https://t.co/8t5eqEVtIW
538, did you opt out, or still paying his salary?
Just got my covid test results, it took 15 days. New York City has to do better, otherwise how can we possibly open our schools?
We are living the Hunger Games in New York. Odds are against us and there is only favor for the elite.
After telling us that he talks to billionaires who fled the city for their second homes in the Hamptons to escape the pandemic and who send their kids to private school “all day every day”, @NYGovCuomo has decided NYC public schools should reopen.
No restaurants? But...From the NYCDOE reopening plan: "Breakfast and lunch will likely be served in classrooms, to support social distancing and minimize interaction between groups of students."
Remember that this is the very same Cuomo that sent Covid 19 infected patients back into nursing homes and caused the unnecessary deaths of thousands of nursing home patients.
I think that thousands of teachers will become infected with Covid 19 this year. Some of those teachers will die and others will infect their family members who will die.
You can not use the bathroom in your building. Where will you go when you need to use the bathroom?
Are you sacrificial employees? Are you New York's meekest ready to die for stupid?
Remember that of the 10 largest school districts in the United States, 9 of them will be fully remote at the start of the school year. New York City is the only one willing to risk teacher
lives during the pandemic.
Teaching in school sb ok once we can go to the gym or movie.
Why do we even vote for the contract if Mulgrew can change it without a vote?
I suspect that what Mulgrew did is over-reach with regard to our union rules and labor law.
WE SHOULD CHALLENGE IT IN COURT AND USE THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OUST MULGREW.
James, if we return to school and and work under these changes, I will opt out next June.
I will not be gullible again and fall for you pipe dreams about having a union.
I don't care if I will be just a lone wolf.
And again, Nulgrew folds like a cheap suit.
@6:06...Exactly. The wealthy will be ok. Not to say they shouldn't be however the working class always gets the boot and black folk...we know what we get. If i were still working I'd head to work sneezing and coughing and masked up with my shield and gloves and wipes. They'd assume i was either crazy sick or both. I'd tape 7 ft around my desk and all top windows would be wide open.
I warned all you guys. You got suckered for another year. No surprise.
Georgia second grader tests positive for coronavirus after first day of school, forcing class to quarantine
Dont worry...55% of coronavirus patients still have neurological problems three months later: study
And another...
The MTV VMAs will not take place at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center as planned, Page Six has exclusively learned.
The plug got pulled on the plan at the 11th hour Friday after both MTV and Barclays mutually decided not to have the event inside the arena over safety concerns, sources said. The show will go on, however, at various outdoor locations around the city.
thinking of resigning due to this announcement today by Cuomo. If I resign without notice during this situation you think it would be possible to get re-hired later? How can one give notice when you are resigning because of hazardous work conditions? “Ill expose my body and my family to covid for 30 calendar days so I can protect my livelyhood ?Advice please...
TRUMP: Payroll tax cut until end of year.
Unemployment benefits till end of year.
Extend eviction moratorium.
Did you see that video of that school in Georgia. This was a suburban middle class high school in white suburbia and few of the kids were wearing masks. The superintendant said it's impossible to enforce the masks. If it's impossible there, how will it be possible here?
If we opt out of paying union dues due we still get welfare fund benefits like dental prescription and optical???
I know health insurance and hospital coverage is from our employer ( I have GHI and blue cross blue shield )
What what about the dentist and pharmacy benefits?????
Yes, you still get all benefits. I opted out 2 summers ago. How many times must this happen until the rest if you wise up? When is the strike? The opt out?
You can't opt out until June.Opting out now is just idiotic because you pay and cannot vote in any chapter elections.City pays for drugs, dental and eyeglass benefits. UFT Welfare Fund just administers it whether you are in the union or not.
Yeah, sure, so they get convinced by James next June to not opt out...AGAIN. Maybe after returning to work and ending up on a deathbed will convince someone. It didn't last March.
Cuomo is a genius. This way he gets to appear reasonable by giving the mayor enough rope to hang himself. He can call out the Blasio for being unable to execute his plan
So what if one is called to a meeting that can result in a letter to file.
More importantly I want to opt out NOW
Not wait until June. We were remote and I dont recall receiving Any notice of this right in June
What are my chances of opting out now?
Better before labor day or it does not matter
Thanks to the experts for their hslp
8:53, You really depress me. I write this blog in large part to try to persuade UFT members that they can have better representation, not no representation. Our readership keeps growing. It is in our collective hands to improve our working conditions. You and a couple of others read every post religiously and have one reaction to every screw up from Mulgrew: opt out. Opting out will just make things worse.
We have made a difference working together within the UFT this year. UFT members got together and started calling in sick en masse on March 15. It was a major cause of schools closing on March 16 in spite of Mulgrew's people telling members not to call in sick. I got that from a very reliable source.
Our blog posts then helped convince members not to go in on the 17th,18th and 19th for the useless and probably infection spreading PD. We take pride in what we got out there. It probably stopped some from getting infected. Having even a small balance to what Mulgrew says within the Union is necessary. It's our role.
I have asked you over and over to please take your anti-union propaganda elsewhere but you keep coming back. In the name of free speech, I allow it but you are not helping our cause as UFTers.
As dissident groups are coming together to plan how to fight back against Unity (Mulgrew) and DOE for September, it would really help if we could try to be unified where we can be and not continually tell members to drop out when at this time it isn't even possible.The answer is to work together, not to go at it alone.
A 7-year-old Georgia boy who died of Covid-19 attended a Chatham County church where two elderly members had died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Being told by a school leader when they reached out for information on qualifications for “isolation room leader” and “COVID-19 coordinator” since school forms need to get submitted to the state, the response was “just put someone down.” This is not a plan. This is negligence.
The opt out period is over for 2020. End of story. Look at the Contract. It is in June. Join the movement for change within the UFT that is growing. We will protect each other like union members are supposed to do.
James, can you read? Are these members being served? Is this safe? Ok, so what is the next specific move?
And another...
There's been a sharp decline in Manhattan rentals as people move away from big cities to the suburbs due to Covid-19. https://cnb.cx/3kdeCKR
The strong sees through the "opt out" comments. The message that you dont run from the umbrella of the union but speak out against the leadership is not loss on many many members. The problem is how to get people to act as a group. Together we win. We are the union. Fight. #Good trouble
10:16, Come to a caucus meeting and find out and maybe help decide what the next move is. Oh no you can't if you are out of the union.
Waiting 4 Support, People like yourself fill me with some hope.
Well done, uft. As usual.
Very big deal, and not only b/c it’s the 2nd largest district in NJ. JCPS was under state control for decades and only got local control recently. Making a stand like this would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.
NJ.com Politics
@NJ_Politics
· 1h
Jersey City students won’t be returning to classrooms in September, superintendent and board say http://nj-ne.ws/t6Z07Ar
Interesting, as always. I’ve been reading up on Big Mama Randi’s plans for September and they appear to be in stark contrast to her boy Mulgrew’s. She’s preparing for mass strikes and walk outs. She’s also challenging everyone who says otherwise. I’d have to surmise, based on the facts that Mulgrew has never gone against Weingarten or ever been even slightly militant, that he will publicly and privately continue to be deBlasio’s lap dog (to please him) with the silent understanding that Cuomo will not allow the schools to reopen. Cuomo certainly doesn’t care about teachers, it’s in order to thwart both Trump’s re-election plans and deflate deBlasio even further. I do not believe the schools will open this fall, despite deBlasio and Mulgrew. That makes my next point most important - the UFT no longer represents the best interests of NYC teachers and something must be done. You can no longer trust them with anything - large or small. Demand change. On a side note, Norm’s point about eliminating caucuses makes the most sense - brilliant in its simplicity. (I never heard it before!) If everyone is in Unity it can be changed from the inside out and taken away from Mulgrew and friends. Imagine that. If all discontents are in other parties nothing will ever be changed because everything is rigged against them. Something for all caucuses and individuals to ponder. Something drastic has to change with the UFT - it has finally lost all the trust and respect of its active, still teaching members.
Unity is invitation only. It is like getting into the Communist Party in China.
Listen I get it we want to make it safe. But i hear so much complaining. Is there any level of measures that you would be happy with or is this just a crusade for making it permanently remote. Schools are an essential service... period. I read people saying "I won't die for this job." First of all that is a wildly false narrative. If anyone in any job is asked would you die for your job they'd say no. Grocery store workers aren't crying about the safety of their job and they work for alot less. Nurses and docs have out lives on the line in wayyyy worse conditions. We wonder why we get no respect in the public eye. I know its an unpopular opinion but kids need us live and so do communities as a whole. Wear masks, socially distance, temp checks, test, close if you need to. There is no guarantees of safety in life. We should do as much as we can but there has to be something that satisfies us here that isn't remote only.
We're not reopening. Too many dominoes are beginning to fall, and it's obvious that Cuomo wants to dump this steaming pile of crap on de Blasio's lap.
It's a good move - when the sh-t inevitably hits the fan, Cuomo will point and laugh at the moron in City Hall.
Look at all the time and money they are wasting. To just stop now will take a big effort.
Blended learning will infect people unnecessarily. Why do that?
Maybe this will help some. There are so many at the breaking point.
https://www.lionsroar.com/how-not-to-freak-out/
DOE will hide infections like they did in the spring. Principals will bully teachers into silence. I'm retired. My heart goes out to teachers with a spine who are stuck with cowardly leadership and sheep for colleagues. Opt out as a united group or James is right. Lone wolf opt outs will not change a thing for your working environment but I do respect your right to opt out.
If that infection rate stays below the benchmark. Schools are opening. Deal with the reality. Staying fully remote until a miracle or a vaccine seems to be main counter argument. This is a dangerous path.
I would like this too as it is easy to stay out of building when being paid. For how long until the miracle comes around?
Months, years, never?
We are creating a situation for our own obsolescence. Society will not tolerate it for long. Other methods will replace public schools. No economy, no tax base, no funds to the tune of 28 billion for nyc public schools.
Financial emergency means bye bye pensions. Bye bye contracts. Many, including Lord Cuomo waiting for excuse to break unions and privatize.
Even if inaccurate, the argument that much less compensated workers of many types have been working with risk is a strong one.
NYC DOE should have opened schools in phases like overall opening.
Elementary ages, middle school ages and secondary are not same issue and are treated as though they are.
Most will get their wish - the schools won’t reopen. But that wish comes with a big price, prepare to become unemployed, if you have under five years in the system. Also prepare for fifty to seventy virtual students per class. Blending learning will remain long after the virus, Trump, Cuomo, deBlasio and Mulgrew are gone. Teaching will be very similar to a toll booth collector’s job with EZ Pass. Time to re-assess while you have the oppportunity.
Both 7:32 and 8:55 make some very valid points.
This remote learning business will become a permanent feature of education. There will be an increased incentive to push out old timers and turn teaching into basically a gig job, until even those jobs are replaced with AI.
The idea of not paying all those salaries, pensions and benefits is just too tempting. And this whole crisis will be the perfect excuse to get rid of as many Tier VI (of which I am a part) people as possible.
Tier VI people were screwed anyway, and my first year in the system, I already realized that education as we knew it had no future and couldn't be sustained, so I started making plans and preparations to move over to something else.
This corona crisis just paved the road for my inevitable exit, and I suggest other people in the same camp as I am to start preparing.
Now that being said, the argument that lower paid workers are putting themselves at higher risk than teachers and how its all unfair is a completely fallacious argument.
Grocery shop and pharmacy workers, at the end of the day, are dealing mostly with adults who will listen to social distancing guidelines. The rate of spread in a store or market is nowhere near what it would be inside a school building.
This really isn't about teachers or students, if you think about it. If the virus starts spreading like wildfire in the school systems, the overload on hospital resources will be immense.
THAT is the issue, and that is what the anti-teacher crowd needs to be made to understand.
Also, we're professionals with master's degrees. We did not sign up for the kinds of risks and dangers that doctors, nurses, and police signed up for. PERIOD.
And I'm a high school teacher, so I don't care about all those entitled parents who need schools as a baby-sitting service. That is THEIR problem, let them deal with it.
8:53 opted out of the union to sit on a union blog all day. You're probably not even a teacher.
7:32 AM & 8:55 AM, I sadly agree. I feel like the powers that be have been itching for an opportunity just like this pandemic.
Valid points from some of the above posters.
Yes, we will reopen,as long as we are under the 3% and/or 5% threshold. They made that public and it is hard to believe that will change.
Yes, it is very dangerous for teachers' longer term employment and benefits if we stay all remote. The Ed Reformers wanted to go all remote to break unions and save costs, this plays into their hands. Cuomo was a supporter of some of this. The charter schools will survive but public schools won't.
Yes, the City and State budgets are in major trouble! They are talking about billions and billions of lost revenue. Unless we get Federal funding, or they borrow the funding, nothing that we used to have will be sustainable. I am not sure how long they can ride on the past revenue, maybe a year. maybe not.
Will any of the fat cats at Central or the Union lose salary or jobs? Unlikely unless there is a leadership change.
Is Federal money tied to opening schools in-person? Depends on who wins that argument.
Will people get sick if schools re-open? Even as an optimist, most likely. There is just not enough money, resources, brains, and energy being put into making it safe for millions of New Yorkers to commute to work and school and go back into poorly ventilated buildings together. The premise of "indoor school and indoor eating" is flawed, and compounded by a lack of understanding about how the disease spreads in the air inside a room.
Even worse, as the blame gets transferred from President to Governor to Mayor to School Officials to Principal, the next group to get blamed and forced to do things is teachers. Unfortunately, in NYC, as we have been learning about passing rates, student behavioral interventions, Danielson, and "bias and equity," teachers can be bullied and forced into quite a bit.
Right now though, we are ALL needed, all personnel, in the push to re-open. That makes us ALL valuable. This value is precious and if we lose it, many worse scenarios can ensue.
I agree the argument is not apples to apples. Teaching in a school is much higher risk than those other jobs.
Truth doesn't matter though, only perception. The argument is being made online on the true public forum of our time, Twitter. It also was recently written in a NYT article. The idea that collective bargaining gives teachers power that other workers do not have. This makes unions a power "opressor" in one of the more pernicious dynamics of left politics.
This will flank unions on the left, and already they are despised on the right. Unions only "friends" politically will be neoliberal corporate Democrats who are barely friends anyway and their time of dominance in the Democratic party is over.
Things for teachers are more dangerous than ever, and not just the risk of getting sick.
Give me a break, there is money. Look at how much fat is in the doe of people who go to schools with clipboards just to tell administrators the things their teachers are doing wrong, and still the ATR exists. They are literally paying teachers for doing almost nothing instead of assigning them permanently to schools, but again if it makes sense, the doe won't do it.
@Sat 732am: Thank God, a voice of reason in the wilderness.
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