This is from a piece at NY1.
Quietly tucked away in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget is a four-year extension of mayoral control of city schools, which is set to expire in June.
We reported on this on Tuesday.
Just what is the UFT's position on mayoral control?
On Wednesday in his President's Report, Michael Mulgrew said according to our minutes:
Mayoral control: we have not supported it for NYC. We do not want to go back to school boards.
So what does the UFT want? Quietly tucked away in the NY1 piece is this:
The teachers union here in the city supports mayoral control as a concept, just not its current iteration. They think it needs to be amended to include more checks and balances.
When does Mr. Mulgrew intend to tell us what those checks and balances are? We fought for checks and balances on mayoral control in 2009 and got some insignificant cosmetic changes to the law.
You do have a say on this. There is very little doubt about what United for Change Presidential candidate Camille Eterno would do if elected.
This is what she said in a January 2 speech:
Let’s not forget that mayoral control of the schools is up this year in Albany. If we don’t fight it, Michael Mulgrew will agree to a watered-down version of the same old garbage. It’s up to us to put the public back in public education.
35 comments:
I am excited to vote for Camille Eterno for UFC president. However, I really think she needs to step up her presence in the social media and press. Too many teachers do not know who she is or that a woman is running against Mulgrew in just a few short months.
Mulgrew is not being truthful. He is fibbing.
Mulgrew has always supported mayoral control as he played along in the political game with his
bosses in Albany (Cuomo) and NY city (Bloomberg and de Blasio).
Mulgrew has always functioned as a political stooge for Albany and Tweed.
Mayoral control has turned out as a catastrophic policy for NY urban education.
Mulgrew's participation at the backroom table has led to disturbing results for the schools.
Mulgrew's "checks and balances" is code for UFT dues (your checks) and a balanced UFT budget
(Balances). You have to read through the coded messaging.
Time for a change, our kids have not shown any significant improvements under Mayoral control.
Everything has turned into chaos and confusion for all of us who serve in educating nyc's children.
Local communities are the best recourse to have a say at the table in educating the children within each community. Community activists may have a pretty good idea of what the needs are for children within their own communities as opposed to a one size fits all approach.
Our children are not a one size fits all!
If mulgrew supports mayoral control he opposes teachers. Such a leader has no legitimacy and if reelected will no doubt destroy our Union
Agree 7:49 Camille you have to get on social media every day. Twitter a few times a day. Get linked to others who oppose Mulgrew. Social medida is a huge free way to get yourself out there. Many many teachers don't know who you are. Facebook groups, twitter, you need to get on them in full force. You must garner the support of all the younger teachers in addition to retirees and they are on social media.
Nobody thinks the word control is problematic? You don't control people, you control a car or an airplane. Mayoral control is just a euphemism for dictatorship.
Is your wife finding all the emails of the chapter leaders around the city to coordinate and have chapter leaders go back to the teachers round her ideas?
Needs way more presence like someone mentioned in social media and try and get on fox or abc to speak out against Mulgrew.
Think you both need to get over this vaccine mandate and get thousands of school safety as well as thousands of teachers and aids back in schools its enough already!
9:40 is right. I think people have grown numb from all the fear porn used to justify this illogical segregation. The city is even banning kids from the Museum of Natural History for not getting the shot !
It is not about banning kids from a museum. It us about keeping people out of the hospital
I want to know where the candidates stand on the day to day abuse that we are subjected to. Excessive paperwork, Danielson, coercive scholarship meetings. My union rep mentioned that she was assured that they would not use scholarship against us, which is not entirely true for those who don't have tenure, since that is the number one issue that is brought up when tenure is denied. But whether they use it against us or not is beside the point. It is HARASSMENT and COERCION and is meant a form of bullying and I'm sick of it. I don't give a rat's ass whether they use it against us or not, but I don't want to have them sit in my face asking about what I've done about the student who has been absent for four years.
Not getting a teacher schedule until the day before classes begin so that you can not plan any lessons beforehand. If you are special education, it is an even bigger problem because you don't know which subject you're going to teach, or whether it's ICT or standalone.
Some of that is not due to mayoral control. It is due to abusive practices by Administration and their Superintendents. Letting unvaccinated back to school is the least of my problems. We really don't have that many who left because of that, but we do have quite a few who left because of the ongoing abuse.
@1:44 pm
These abusive practices, for the most part, were put in place by the Chancellors (Joel Klein, Dennis Walcott, Carmen Farina..) who were appointed at the pleasure of mayors that they serviced. The rest of the abusive practices were instituted by Albany because Andrew Cuomo wanted them. He wanted them because his campaigns were financed by charter school advocates from the hedge fund industry.
The organizational culture of New York city public schools is toxic by design.
The Plutocrats and their highly compensated stooges seek the privatization of the public schools. They want school choice vouchers and privately managed, non-union charter schools.
Don't take it personally.
1:35 why deny the museum?they are spreading it in schools.
3:06 - I don't really care who put it in place. The issue is, what is the UFT Leader going to do, or try to do, about it? What are the candidates saying about it, because I don't hear anything. And what do you mean don't take it personal...taking it personal would suggest that I think it's only happening to me. I understand it's the culture, but when are we going to collectively take our power back and try and stop it?
You seem to be resigned to the abuse.
What are the retired members going to do back mulgrew?
@1:35 wow you are vaxxed and this is how you want the future to be kicking kids out because they need to be vaxxed when perfectly healthy? The narrative with liberals arresting 9 year old is fine, if this happened under Trump would be nazi this.
It's time to get out of your bubble otherwis stay home rest of your life. These mandates will be gone sooner than you think.
Leave 1:35 alone. Once that fourth shot comes out, they will venture out of their basement for the first time since March 2020. Give them time. They are a little slow when it comes to backtracking. They will eventually catch up to the CDC and Reuters.
Thank goodness the anti vax folks are a minority in nyc not to mention the civilized world. I wish them no ill will. Please turn off fox news and news max and listen to some good music
@12:20 right because the liberal news media you watched hoodwinked and brainwashed you for years and years. Now you are a looney toon. Anti mandate not vax, the science and fauci have been wrong like you have been your whole pathetic life. REad some books not written by a liberal.
Need to go to Belleview and check yourself in, best of luck.
Scholarship Reports: Had meeting with my Assistant Principal to discuss the number of students failing my Senior and Freshman classes. My highest class passing rate is 48% and the rest are below 40%, I was asked to "review the Semester Grades with very kind eyes." I fear that my observations will suffer if I do not cave to get, "at least 70% in each class." All students that are failing do not attend on a daily basis and I have no assignments from them.
Please advise.
Send students an impossible amount of work equal to what you feel is fair to earn a P. Document that you have designed and provided a path for success.
Excellent,
Much thanks
@11:07,
My school offers after school and Saturday school per-session to babysit students who are making up work they missed during the semester. Teachers and administrators make nice $ in per session and the students magically do enough work to earn that 65.
Could you ask about doing something like this? Would your students, or at least some, show up?
1107,
Nothing personal, but you don’t get the game. This is the doe. It’s run by politics.
You are hiring yourself by not passing nearly all students. And yes, your observations and possible livelihood will suffer.
Ask yourself this: Who does failing kids hurt? You or the kids? The kids don’t care. You do.
They will get pushed through whether you fail them or not. Is what it is.
Go along to get along.
If you’re viewed as a team player and reliable and pass most kids, nobody bothers you.
I have a quarter of a century in this job and after year 2 or 3, I was told this exact sentiment and my life got better.
The doe is not worth the good fight. Put that good heart towards your friends and family, so your best at the job, but at the end of the day, don’t fight the good fight.
6:27: I don't buy what you said. I also have almost a quarter century in the doe and I still give honest grades. It's about respecting the kids and yourself. You keep giving the kids free grades, you are going to get the reputation as an easy teacher. Also, you are making it harder for the next teacher which could be you because the kids will think they have to do nothing to pass. It's just like saying, well we don't expect much from you because you are poor and a child of color. If more and more teachers gave honest grades, it would be a lot easier on all of us. Also, what is going to happen when we return to giving Regents exams, and all these kids are passing English but getting 30s on the exam? Also, don't forget you an be investigated for passing kids who shouldn't be passed. Look what happened in Maspeth.
Two true stories from my high school:
1) My AP told me that I was passing too many students and that they know if they come to my class and don’t give me a hard time, they’ll pass. I asked him what should I do differently. He told me not a thing and that the principal loves me.
2) A teacher told me that he failed an entire class, and so the principal called him in. The principal wanted to know how he could have failed the whole class. The teacher informed him because they don’t know anything. The teacher told him that if you email me a memo with the names of the students you want me to pass, I’ll change their grades. That ended the matter.
Tuesday, January 25, 2022 10:23:00 AM Hit it out of the park. Ask for a follow up email to confirm that you need a % passing rate. That email will never come. Don't worry about passing any student that has not earned the grade or put in the effort to earn a grade. Passing these kids will hurt them. They will become the section new section 8 unemployed because they will have the impression they will be carried along for their entire lives.
Had a student ask me yesterday, "Am I passing now, I put my name on all of the Google Classroom Attendance Sheets?" After informing his father of his failure he yelled at me because his son graduated MS and only had to put his name for attendance for an 80 in all of his classes. Maybe this is why many students can not even write a complete sentence.
Grade fairly and give the grade they have earned.
Yes, when I started at the board of ed. they tell you make sure you get it in writing. If the principal refuses to give you something in writing #1: it doesn't exist and #2: they know what they are asking or requesting you to do is illegal.
8:31 why do you say " well we don't expect much from you because you are poor and a child of color". Do you mean to tell me that only children of color are getting a free ride? Well, I know that's not true because I've worked with many white students, who also didn't deserve to pass. There are white students in the DOE ya know. I expect a whole lot from all student, but it's not their fault that the system is broken. Whose fault is it that they were sent to remote learning without advance training on how to log onto their classes, or without distribution of working equipment. Whose fault is it that disruptive students are allowed to remain in the classroom and the ones who want to learn can't hear a damn thing? I'll pass them and not feel bad about it at all. If they don't show, that's a different story
8:50: No teacher is going to admit it, I agree, but that is what we are telling the kids when we pass them for doing nothing and trust me it's happening in schools that are majority of children of color. I know we can go back and forth on this forever, but Annie Sullivan once said to Captain Keller, who was the father of Helen Keller, Where will your pity get her when you're under the strawberry plants?
Here is the thing we won’t admit, but know. The kids who are on that border of failing/passing aka 65’s never even see their report cards. They are now online and those kids and families don’t log in. So, it’s a meaningless argument. Give these kids 65’s and move on with life.
Don’t give 80’s. That’s a joke!
65 and move on.
Focus on the kids who actually care!
Those are the ones who don’t show up, don’t try and come in late when they come in. You can’t win those battles.
I say make it harder for the kid and the school. There won't be a change in the doe until they see the policies they have aren't working. When we keep passing undeserving kids, the doe is under the impression that what they are doing is working. Look at last year's graduation rate that magically went up despite all the supposed learning loss. A higher graduation rate will just mean the mayor and chancellor can pat themselves on the back more. The public deserves the right to know the doe isn't working.
749,
Do you really think the doe doesn’t know what’s going on?? They are behind what’s going on.
The general public is clueless and that is why they are the general public!
9:33 you are very small minded and want to place all the blame on students of color for a failing system. Students of ALL races are passed undeservedly. I know that for a fact so yeah, if you keep repeating the lie Ill keep correcting it.
7:49 the DOE knows exactly what's going on. Theyre behind the coercive "scholarship meeting" tactics and withholding tenure because of it. Teachers should subject themselves to hostile meetings and dressing downs? I think not. How about the next UFT President put an end to that. Now THAT would make a difference.
That is part of Camille's plan on supporting probationary teachers to put a stop to abuse of new teachers.
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