The COVID-19 pandemic will hopefully be brought under control eventually in spite of our inept at best, evil at worst, leadership. As we move ahead, one of the big issues in NYC is the sunsetting of the state law giving the mayor control of our schools in 2022. What will happen with the schools should be a big issue in the race for mayor this year.
One UFT member is taking ending mayoral control seriously. Daniel Alicea is hosting his second virtual forum on Sunday evening. Sign up here. I will be watching and listening closely.
Norm and James:
“We continue our collective journey to build a coalition of community rights-holders to Reimagine Our City Schools.
This Sunday, January 31 , at 8 PM we will discuss viable 21st-century alternatives to mayoral control that democratize school governance.
This a must-attend event if you want to reclaim our city schools for our New York city children and neighborhoods.
Join education activists and advocates from The People's Board of Education and the Parent Commission as they share their visions for schools FOR AND BY THE PEOPLE.
Join like-minded educators, parents, and leaders championing fundamental change of our public schools that anchor our city's communities.
Join education activists and advocates from The People's Board of Education and the Parent Commission as they share their visions for schools FOR AND BY THE PEOPLE.
Join like-minded educators, parents, and leaders championing fundamental change of our public schools that anchor our city's communities.
RSVP for the Zoom discussion at:
31 comments:
How does each mayoral candidate stand on Mayoral control? I think most would be in favor of it especially Yang.
I don't see mayoral control much different from a corrupt school board. What am I missing? Does anyone really think things would improve much for NYC teachers? I'm keeping an open mind. Would love to hear what you guys think.
I began my career in the late 90's when the system was under Board of Education control. Although that was far from perfect, we were never micromanaged, and teachers were treated with dignity, professionalism and respect. In 2002, Mayoral control began almost simultaneously to the beginning of the Bloomberg regime. In short order, schools were closed, the chaos of shared building spaces amongst multiple schools ensued, community district offices were disbanded, and Regional Offices were opened. Everything became centralized to Tweed. The micromanagement of teachers dictated by non-educator educrats downtown trickled down to Principals who's mandate was to further a gotcha system. Principals were given Galaxy payroll budgets, and the system encouraged paring down the payroll by witch hunting those staff with the highest salary. In my strong opinion, Mayoral control began a draconian era of teacher disparagement and marginalization. At the same time, the Leadership Academy, a Bloomberg creation, took educational neophytes and whipped them into one year wonder principals, whose main charge was to systematically railroad veteran competent teachers. At the same time, the 2005 contract gave away some of the critical elements and tools teachers possessed, particularly seniority transfers.
Most teachers I've spoke to, including my wife who is a 30 year veteran, have all said that Mayoral control i.e. Bloomberg taking control of the system, took every single bit of fun out of the profession, and turned the job into a daily form of torture and drudgery. Before mayoral control, cordial and congenial relationships between the UFT faculty members and a school's administration were the norm, rather than the rare exception that exists today.
To sum it up, while Board of Ed. control was far from perfect, Mayoral control of the NYC schools has been an abject failure of colossal proportions. Least of which has been the erosion of the teaching profession. It can be said with objective certainty that any shortages that exist today of skilled teaching professionals has directly been impacted by Mayoral control of NYC Schools.
I believe that the future of the New York City Public School rests with discontinuing Mayoral control of the system.
Well said 2:40.
I agree. Don't forget that Bloomberg made it almost a Communist system. Remember he appointed 8 out of the 13 panelists for the policy for education board which means that if those 8 members want to keep their jobs, they would vote with whatever the mayor wanted. Also, if Bloomberg wanted it, it was done. I remember having the community meetings on school closings. They did absolutely nothing. The panelists' minds were already made up. At least of board of education would have more checks and balances and more parental and teacher input.
Did they address this With? With a low of 16 degrees, elementary schools with window based ventilation were open.
UFT, how do you sleep at night knowing the conditions of your members?
Mayoral control is equivalent to political control by the NY Democratic party establishment.
It will be difficult to get rid of their autocracy/plutocracy.
Corporately controlled main stream media has the backs of the politicians on mayoral control.. They exert their influence with endorsements, campaign coverage and non-coverage, scandal coverage and non-coverage in a multitude of ways that make them allies with the political elites. The media is all for keeping the public schools under mayoral control.
Who do you think owns the NY Post, the Wall Street Journal, the NY Times? Are they the friends
of the working class, the poor and the middle class?
It will take a big fight to unshackle the chains of mayoral control, period!
The key to all this is the UFT. Mulgrew has been vacillating at best on the issue of Mayoral control and corrupt at worst. He’s for and against it. He’s says he against it, but will allow the mayor to control it anyway - just another item that he can trade away or withhold depending what mold the next mayor is created from, i.e. Bloomberg or DB. They are both prime examples of why we should never have mayoral control. It Boggles the mind how different and equally disastrous both were and are. Bloomberg’s stench still greatly offends our warehouse schools of babysitting and the slaves that toil to maintain them.
This is the question , I was pondering. Did anyone say anything? Was it discussed anywhere? I've heard nothing, so sad
Teachers are a joke. I’m ashamed to be a member of this profession. Leaving windows open and having kids sit around in freezing temperatures to “protect the safety” of the school community is state sanctioned child abuse. I called my son’s AP and let her know and called in a 311 complaint too. If you can’t handle the conditions of teaching during this joke of a pandemic then it’s time to look into another profession.
David Suker
If you were the Mayor of NYC and one-third of the NYC budget was dedicated to the NYC DOE and you are held responsible for the schools, wouldn't you want some say it how it managed?
Is the issue mayoral control, corrupt politicians in NYC and NYS, corruption in the DOE, a bloated DOE budget, apathetic taxpayers, all of the above? I don't think I would mind mayoral control if NYC had a mayor that was ethical, moral, principled, etc. Since such a mayor does not exist, mayoral control should not exist.
I agree with 2:40. The system had its issues before mayoral control, but Bloomberg set the decay and ruin of the NYC DOE in motion. Bloomberg was so arrogant that he thought he could break the NYC DOE and the UFT and rebuild the DOE according to his vision and without a teacher union. How come Bloomberg doesn't have a CEO Academy for his business? He knows this would be preposterous for his business but he thought it wonderful for the NYC DOE! He did nothing to suppress his disdain for the NYC DOE and the UFT. He did set the demise of the DOE in motion. He didn't accomplish the complete ruin of the DOE but after 12 years, he passed his ruin on to DeBlasio, who has continued the downward spiral.
2:40 IS SOOOO CORRECT! I too started teaching in NYC in the late 90's. Back then it was a wonderful time to be a teacher. There was no "gotcha mentality", there was no micromaegement of staff. The UFT was actually respected by the BOE and the contract was enforced in every single way. However, the most crucial thing that I miss the most about teaching back then was that veteran teachers were loved by all for their experience. Admins were not targeting veteran teachers due to fair funding or any other bullshit. I remember teaching in my first building and there were teachers there that had been there for 25+ years. Now veteran teachers walk around with targets on their backs. The new breed of wonder teacher sticks around for a few years and then either moves on to a new profession or takes off to the suburbs where teachers and the profession is valued. Sad state of affairs for sure. I would NEVER tell someone to be a teacher in NYC these days.
Democrats want control control control they prefer we all rely on the government.
I would not mind mayoral control if we had a competent, bright, out the box critical thinker,
someone who genuinely cares for students, teachers etc. When you have people like Blomberg, Diblasio, the egregious pathetic little ego man Cuomo who most people like sheep believed how great he was as a governor charge absolutely destroyed us.
What scares me is who would be in control with no mayoral control. Tier 6 are so doomed I have no idea why you even teach in DOE as tier 6, might as well be a waitress in hell.
Wall street is exposed, Biden the dictator exposed, truth will come out. Fauci has been heavily involved in this virus years ago even when Obama wanted it to stop.
I have been critical of Biden but calling him a dictator is a huge stretch.Biden the dictator won't even put in a hard travel ban. Get real.
Biden with 45 Exec Actions and Orders in 10 days? Like that? After he said that action was only in dictatorships?
Stop it. Biden campaigned that he would be doing many executive orders to turn around Trump's. It hardly makes him a dictator. He hasn't even done a necessary hard travel ban.
In October 2020, while answering a question, Biden said there are “things you can’t do by executive order unless you are a dictator. We’re a democracy, we need consensus.”
Biden didn't say you can't use executive orders to turn around your predecessor's executive orders. Please move on from this.
What about on equity? Was that Trump also?
The fact that none of you even attach your names to anything you post is proof what schills you are! What are you afraid of?
David Suker
Misspelled shill. Not that any of you are smart enough to notice. 😂😁😂
Communist system? Bloomberg? He certainly did not give power to the community. Please don't red bait. I think you mean he made it more of a corporate system.
7:29: Exactly. I remember when you didn't mess with veteran teachers. If a veteran teacher were ever excessed, he/she was placed into a another school in his/her district even if it meant bumping out a new teacher. Also you had Seniority transfers. I became an atr 2 1/2 years ago and I lost all my seniority rights. You would never see this happen to a veteran years ago. I built up over 20 years of seniority only to have it stripped away in one day due to a rehiring committee.
That’s okay David Suker. Spelling errors do happen. Just make sure you bundle up outside—because it’s very shilly.
@12:32 Actually a more autocratic and corporate system. Just like Covid 19 has multiple variants, fascism has variant forms. One of them is Bloomberg's autocratic corporate education model, period!
Agreed, it is very much an anti democratic system, and not communal in any way. Imagine thinking Bloomberg is a communist? hahaha How far right has this country been pulled?
Biden...
• 1974 voted against desegregation
• 1994 Crime Bill will help the black community
• Revoked permits for pipeline
He pretends to like LGBT but..
• 1993 he voted to ban gays from the military
• 1996 voted against gay marriage
If someone is trying to take from me or silence me I don't care what their label is. Bloomberg was and is a scumbag. Communist, fascist, democrat, republican, independent, progressive. Labels don't matter. Actions do. And to David Suker. What am I afraid of? Your insults. I'm shaking in fear. Not sure how I'll ever live with myself knowing David Suker doesn't respect me. I mean THEE David Suker after all.
I’ll just talk to a tree then. At least then I’ll know which tree is an im imbecile.
Hey Suker. In case the trees confuse you, it's the the one with all the mirrors on it.
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