AFT SUPPORTS BIDEN, SANDERS AND/OR WARREN

The NY Times split their Democratic presidential primary endorsement between Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. It was a move that many thought was ridiculous. Leave it our national union, the AFT, to go one better by splitting our support in three. Our union is for Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and/or Elizabeth Warren. Why did they leave out Amy and Pete?

We figured there was no way AFT President Randi Weingarten would support Bernie in the primaries so we have to admit we were 1/3 wrong. That said, this three way support and help is a fairly lame move that leaves Randi wiggle room as a superdelegate (party leader) to maneuver if no candidate gets a majority of the delegates out of the primaries, which would result in no  candidate having enough delegates at the Democratic convention in July to secure the nomination in the first round of voting.

The candidates and the media have deduced that Bernie might end up with the most delegates but maybe not a majority (50%+1). His plurality (most delegates but not 50%) would necessitate a second ballot where the superdelegates would vote. The superdelegates are no longer involved in the first ballot because of rule changes made after 2016. If they steal the nomination from the candidate with the most votes, all hell will break loose.

Randi says 300,000 members were involved in the process. Were any of you involved? I was not asked nor was my wife.

Finally, I must admit that watching Bloomberg getting destroyed at Wednesday's debate was quite enjoyable. At least Randi is not considering a Bloomberg endorsement currently.

The resolution in full:

AFT SUPPORT FOR 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

WHEREAS, one year ago, the American Federation of Teachers executive council adopted a resolution establishing the AFT’s 2020 presidential endorsement process, and, since that time, the AFT has conducted the most intensive, inclusive, transparent and engaging presidential endorsement process in its history; and

WHEREAS, unprecedented engagement has led to more than 300,000 members having participated in the endorsement process to date, including in the public education forum the AFT co-sponsored with union and community groups; 10 separate candidate town halls involving every constituency; five regional meetings with state and local leaders; and numerous telephone town halls, member surveys and polls; as well as state and local affiliates conducting their own programs of member engagement; and

WHEREAS, the following membership consensus has emerged:

1. Donald Trump is an existential threat to the values and aspirations of our members and those we serve;

2. While several candidates share our values, three—Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren—share our values and have significant support within our membership; and

3. In our quest for a better life for our members and the communities we serve, to preserve our democracy, and to defeat Trump, we must ultimately be unified and support the eventual Democratic nominee; and

WHEREAS, Vice President Biden, Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren have a record of working with us over the years and standing with us on public education, higher education, healthcare, and labor and civil rights, and, as a result, they have received the highest levels of support of our members, including endorsements from AFT affiliates at the state and local levels, as well as AFT members running as delegates in support of their candidacies; and

WHEREAS, the majority of delegates will be allocated in the next two months, and it is critical that members, affiliates and leaders at the national, state and local levels continue to grow our engagement and ensure our collective voices are heard and influence the political dialogue; and

WHEREAS, Trump and his appointees, including Betsy DeVos, threaten our democracy, climate, public education, healthcare, public services, freedoms and way of life; and

WHEREAS, the stakes in this election require our solidarity; nobody can be on the sidelines, and the energy of educators, nurses and public service professionals must be supported, nurtured and activated in this election; and

WHEREAS, we are unified both to defeat Trump in the 2020 elections and to elect someone who will join us in fighting for these values:

RESOLVED, until the American Federation of Teachers decides to make a national endorsement in the primary process or at the AFT convention, the AFT urges the affiliates, members and leadership, including the three AFT national officers, to be actively involved in supporting and helping Vice President Biden, Sen. Sanders, and/or Sen. Warren.

BLOOMBERG HORRIBLE FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION; DE BLASIO SUPPORTS BERNIE

Here is a portion of a Guardian piece comparing Mike Bloomberg to Donald Trump on education.

Nominating Michael Bloomberg would be a disaster for public schools – and for the Democrats’ chances at beating Donald Trump in 2020. Because when it comes to education policy, it is virtually impossible to tell the two billionaire politicians apart.

Like Trump and his inept secretary of education, Betsy Devos, Bloomberg is a fervent backer of privatizing and dismantling public schools across the country. Education, in their view, should be run like a business.

While other establishment Democrats have begun changing their tune in response to the “Red for Ed” movement, Bloomberg’s campaign spokesman has made it clear that privatization will be a core message of his 2020 presidential run: “Mike has always supported charter schools, he opened a record number of charter schools as mayor of New York City, and he will champion the issue as president.”


Indeed, Bloomberg succeeded in massively expanding privately run but publicly funded charter schools during his term as mayor, increasing their number from 18 to 183. His controversial push to “increase school choice” closed over 100 schools in low-income communities and entrenched New York City’s education system as the most racially segregated in the country.

Further down:

If anything, the main difference between Bloomberg and Trump is that the former has spent far more of his immense personal fortune to boost corporate “education reform” and local candidates driving this agenda. The New York Times reported last week that Bloomberg has spent millions to promote charters in the state of Louisiana alone. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: Bloomberg’s foundation in 2018 announced its plan to spend $375m to promote charters, merit pay and the sacking of “failing” teachers, among other reforms.

Later in the Guardian piece, the authors Dr. Heather Gautney and Eric Blanc explain education reformers thinking on the problems in the schools:

According to corporate education reformers, our country’s education crisis is produced not by systematic underfunding and social inequality, but rather by the inherent inefficiencies of the public sector, intransigent unions and bad teachers. Bloomberg has often been shockingly direct in expressing his contempt for teachers. In 2011, during a speech at MIT, he suggested that if he could have it his way, he’d “weed out all the bad” New York City educators by cutting “the number of teachers in half”. He insisted that coupling these cuts with doubling class sizes would be “a good deal for the students”.

Bloomberg may actually be worse than Trump on education if we follow where they put their money and how much they care about the issue.

I am a Bernie supporter (speaking for me and not ICEUFT here), although when I heard Bernie's newest surrogate Bill de Blasio speak for him the other day, I almost became ill as Mayor de Blasio has done very little to turn around Bloomberg's policies on public education which were a total disaster for the public schools.  I can acknowledge that there is universal pre-K under de Blasio and the current mayor doesn't promote charter schools like his predecessor did (there are 263 now in NYC, up from when Bloomberg left and 31 more scheduled to open soon).

However, the basic tenets of how Bloomberg ran the schools in an anti-teacher way with hundreds of gotcha lawyers making life miserable for teachers have not changed with de Blasio as mayor. The public is still ignored under a mayoral dictatorship; class sizes have not been reduced and don't forget the academic fraud. I guess I can say that Sanders is widening the tent with a pay-to-play pol like de Blasio who The Daily Beast dubbed "Bullshit Bill" on board so maybe this could be construed as a positive development and I shouldn't despair. It's a step up compared to Bloomberg and Trump.

I digress. If Bloomberg does buy the nomination of the Democratic Party, I will not vote for him no matter what. I will vote third party or leave the ballot for President blank.

CSA TENTATIVE CONTRACT HAS PAID PARENTAL LEAVE WHERE NEW PARENTS STAY ON PAYROLL

The Council of Supervisors and Administrators (NYC Principals and Assistant Principals union) has reached a tentative contract with the Department of Education and New York City. For salary increases it is basically the same as the UFT's except there is an extra increase for middle school and elementary school principals so they can start to catch up with high school principals who make more money. Then, there is Paid Parental Leave.

One of the biggest supposed gains from the UFT in 2018 was "winning" Paid Parental Leave for new parents. A close examination reveals that UFT members pay for this benefit ourselves and the city makes money on the deal as this analysis from the Independent Budget Office explains in detail. We broke those numbers down here and here to show how UFT members got fleeced by NYC by delaying raises for two and a half months in the current contract in exchange for the city giving the UFT Welfare Fund a fixed amount of money to administer Paid Parental Leave.

When a UFT member is on Paid Parental Leave, that member goes OFF DOE payroll so to the DOE they are on an unpaid leave. Therefore, that member does not accrue service time, pension time or sick leave time while on the leave. The IBO says this saves the city $14.5 million annually. How about the CSA?

We have a summary of the new CSA contract from their website.

Here is the Paid Parental Leave part in full:

PAID PARENTAL LEAVE WITH RETROACTIVE BENEFIT
• CSA members are now entitled to receive up to 25 work days of Paid Parental Leave (PPL) at 100% of regular salary without coming off payroll. PPL is defined as leave for the birth of a child to a CSA member or the placement of a child, under the age of 18, with a CSA member for adoption or foster care.
• The start date of an eligible employee’s PPL will be their option. Additionally, CSA secured the right for eligible employees to take the 25 work days on an intermittent basis up to six months after the birth, adoption or foster placement.
• Eligible employees will continue to accrue annual and sick leave during PPL, and they may also use accrued leave, child-care leave and any other applicable leave benefits.
• Eligible employees may use PPL immediately after being hired.
• CSA fought hard to secure a rare retroactive benefit extending PPL to eligible employees who became parents (birth, adoption or foster) on or after October 1, 2019. Those CSA members are entitled to use up to 25 work days of PPL up to six months from the date of the birth, adoption or foster placement.

To be fair, 25 school days in certain times of the year would be less than the UFT's six full weeks. However, supervisors have flexibility to use the days whenever they want to within six months of the birth, adoption or foster placement. They stay on payroll where they accrue summer pay and sick bank time while on Paid Parental Leave. UFT members do not unless they use their sick bank days for the leave.

We paid for our Paid Parental Leave by extending our last contract by two and a half months. How much did the CSA extend theirs to get their extra salary for middle school and elementary school principals as well as the PPL benefit?  The Chief Leader reports that it is 2 months and 6 days longer compared to the UFT's contract.

CSA members also have retention rights to old positions if they do not receive tenure in their current jobs. I don't think I have to tell readers of this blog how well CSA members are protected compared to UFT members. It is kind of hard to believe they also actually got a provision in their new contract to hire more assistant principals.

From the CSA summary:
In order to ensure a safe and secure environment in every school building, the DOE has agreed with
CSA that it is best practice to have at least one Assistant Principal per school. Going forward, superintendents will have to justify a plan that ensures a safe and secure environment in the absence of an Assistant Principal. 

On healthcare, where are the savings the UFT agreed to?
Again, right from the CSA summary:

All current health care benefits have been fully maintained for in-service members and retirees.

In addition, as a reader pointed out, CSA members along with Professional Staff Congress members (CUNY teachers) still collect 8.25% fixed interest on their Tax Deferred Annuities while UFT members get only 7%. Look at the PSC provisions for adjuncts to see real increases. Oh and by the way PSC members get 8 weeks Paid Parental Leave that counts as service time.

What both the DOE administrators and CUNY professors have in common is they are in unions. I think we can say that the current contracts prove again that these are stronger unions than the extremely weak UFT which continues to live off victories won over a half century ago. CSA and PSC held out and worked without a contract in this round of bargaining while the UFT settled months before our contract even expired. They made some little gains compared to us. I think that is clear and they didn't lower their fixed TDA rate in the process.

It would be cool if our independent Executive Board Representatives would ask about CSA or PSC.

In the end, it is up to the rank and file to come together to say they have had enough of Michael Mulgrew's ruling Unity Caucus. I ask again: when will the sleeping giant that is NYC teachers wake up?

TODAY AT 5:00 P.M. IS THE DEADLINE IN NYS TO CHANGE PARTY REGISTRATIONS TO VOTE IN APRIL 28 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY

In 2016, some of my colleagues at Middle College discovered too late that they were not registered Democrats and because New York has a closed primary, they could not vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary.

We want to remind everyone that today, February 14, is the deadline to change party registration in NYS to be able to vote in the April 28 Presidential Primary. I know many voters are independents. It is nothing to be ashamed of not wanting to belong to any of the parties, however you have to be a Democrat to vote for Bernie or another candidate and to vote NO to Bloomberg. Every teacher should vote against Bloomberg who is a two time George W Bush supporting, Iraq War Neo Con Republican who funded the Republicans in the New York State Senate who tried to destroy public education by promoting charter schools and ending reverse seniority based layoffs for NYC teachers. There's so much more including the racial profiling with stop and frisk and horrible labor contracts we toiled under while he was mayor that we have never recovered from. I have nightmares thinking about a Bloomberg presidency.

From New York State Board of Elections:
Voter Registration Deadlines
April 28, 2020 Presidential Primary Deadlines

CHANGE OF ENROLLMENT (N.Y. Election Law Section 5-304(3))
An application to change one’s party enrollment for any primary election in 2020 must be received by the board of elections no later than February 14, 2020.

For your County Board of Elections Address, go here.

For a Voter Registration Form, go here.

Print the form, then drop it off at your home County Board of Elections before 5:00 P.M. and then enjoy Valentine's Day and the vacation.

Any questions?

BERNIE SANDERS OPPOSES CLOSING SCHOOLS; ANYONE GOING TO ASK BLOOMBERG ABOUT THIS?

Senator Bernie Sanders has again weighed in on education on the side of public school students, parents, teachers and their union in attempting to keep a D.C. public school open against the wishes of the D.C. Chancellor.

From the Washington Post:

When it comes to the future of a public school in the nation’s capital, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken a stance: D.C. leaders should keep it open.

The Democratic presidential candidate waded into a contentious local debate Tuesday when he criticized D.C. leaders on his campaign’s Facebook page for their decision to close Washington Metropolitan Opportunity Academy at the end of the academic year.

The school — known as Washington Met — is an alternative middle and high school in the traditional school system that serves students who struggled in mainstream classrooms.

Here is the Bernie Facebook Post on closing schools in full:
Bernie Sanders
February 11 at 10:11 AM · 
It is unacceptable that we are closing public schools in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. Together alongside Washington Teachers’ Union and teachers across the country, we will make transformative investments in our public schools, our teachers, and students.
Students from Washington Metropolitan Opportunity Academy, an alternative charter school in Northwest, made final effort to save school at D.C. Council meeting.

The absolutely nauseating commercials that Michael Bloomberg is carpet bombing the airwaves, cable lines and internet with touting his record in NYC should include how he closed schools and displaced so many students and teachers. For what? He certainly did not improve education in NYC. I cannot vote blue no matter who if it is Bloomberg.

Sanders defending teachers and public schools is real. The D.C. situation just gives some further evidence.

Speaking of the primaries, I kind of figured the freakout was coming if Sanders won New Hampshire.

From a post from last week:

If Bernie wins by a lower than expected margin in New Hampshire, we will hear about how it is really a loss. We will also be reminded how he won a much higher percentage against Hillary in New Hampshire in 2016.  I am certainly not the first or only one who sees the huge anti-Bernie bias. We have to ignore the noise. Might be time for another donation.

I didn't think it would be this bad with Chuck Todd calling Bernie supporters like me "Brown Shirts" and Chris Matthews talking about executions in Central Park. It's only going to get worse.

POST OPINION PIECE BY MY FORMER COLLEAGUE SAYS SAFETY MAY BE TURNING AROUND IN SCHOOLS

I don't know what it is about Jamaica High School but teachers and other UFT members who worked there are not shy about publicly exposing Department of Education issues. We also are not afraid to use our names. Marc Epstein wrote many pieces for various publications. Look him up. Every reader here knows I never had a problem speaking out. Also, don't forget blogger Chaz worked with us at Jamaica for years too.

Another Jamaica op-ed feature writer is J. Bryan McGeever, who worked as an English teacher for many years at our school and now teaches at an alternate learning center.

Here is some of Bryan's latest opinion piece in the NY Post:

 I teach at a New York City Alternate Learning Center, a k a a “suspension school,” meant to offer intensive help to students who get into serious behavioral trouble. Reading Hizzoner’s speech in the quiet morning hours before class, I realized my colleagues and I had identified the threat to NYC years ago, at least when it comes to education.

In fact, we had narrowed it down to one man: the then-new mayor. The ­moment de Blasio resolved to keep disciplinary suspensions to a bare minimum and described ALCs as nothing more than way stations on the school-to-prison pipeline, we understood that the threat to our schools was coming from within.

The immediate results were ­calamitous. We know about the brutal fights in cafeterias, the spitting in an administrator’s face without consequences, the “wake-and-bake,” marijuana-addled teens who can barely keep their heads up. When I interrupted two students copulating in a stairway during the early years of the de Blasio administration, it was an omen of the coming breakdown in order.

“You know,” the administrator said as we waited to speak to a hearing officer, “they weren’t really hurting anybody.” Higher-ups have suppressed incidents like that one for years, so the mayor could crow about a 50 percent drop in suspensions.

No one wants to discipline children with an iron fist. My child attends a city school. All we seek is sound judgment and common-sense discipline to teach effectively.

But with pressure from de Blasio and his ideological allies, it’s game over for order in schools, right?

Actually, no.

Bryan then describes changes taking place within the schools.

If the mayor refuses to maintain order inside our schools then the system must save itself. That may be happening now.

The suspended students at the ALC are not condemned children like the mayor would have New Yorkers believe. Nor have they been singled out because of race or religion. They’ve merely suffered a setback in their young lives. They arrive to the ALC community to recharge and ­regroup before returning to their home schools with invaluable experience. Then we call their parents to congratulate them.

So, Mr. Mayor, we won’t be projecting any bat signals over City Hall, and we certainly won’t be looking to you for help. We’re going to do it ourselves. It won’t be easy, but extraordinary happenings have always blossomed inside New York City schools. What were the odds of a kid from Hunter College HS creating a masterpiece titled ­“Hamilton,” an English teacher from Stuyvesant winning the Pulitzer Prize or even Simon running into Garfunkel at Forest Hills?

Is school safety starting to turn around?

UFT/NYSUT/AFT TAKE CARE OF RETIREES WITH NEW LAWS

Two new laws help retirees.

From NY Teacher:
If you work for a public employer after retirement, there is a limit to how much you can earn during the calendar year. That amount increased to $35,000 for 2020, up from $30,000 last year, due to legislation signed in December.

As for our TDA required minimum distribution age, that increased from 70.5 to 72 years of age.

From NY Teacher:
The age at which required minimum distributions must begin has been changed from 70½ to 72. This change is effective for individuals who reach age 70½ after Dec. 31, 2019, and who have since left active service.

Retirees vote. It matters.

NATIONAL POLL FINDS HUGE SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS

The National School Boards Action Center released a 2020 national poll on how the voters feel about education. If k-12 schools were the main issue in the election, pro-public school, pro teacher candidates for office would win handily.

Some of the poll's findings:

• 80% are favorable to teachers in their community, including 45% who are very favorable
• 72% are favorable to public schools in their community, including 34% who are very favorable
• 58% are favorable to local school boards, including 21% who are very favorable.

How about on funding?

• 64% think funding for public schools should be increased
• 26% think funding should be kept the same, and only 6% thinking funding should be decreased.
• Of those who believe funding should be increased, eight out of ten would support an increase in funding even if it meant they would pay more in taxes.

On charter schools:

• 65% agree that local school boards should have oversight of charter schools just like they do for other public schools since they are taxpayer funded, including 51% who strongly agree

This poll was bipartisan with both a Democratic Party and Republican pollster doing the polling.

On what issues concern the voters on education, this is directly from Markets Insiders article on the poll:

Funding, school safety, real world learning and teacher shortages were identified as both big problems and extremely important issues to address. 

You are not likely to see these results talked about when we hear from the candidates running for President who are almost never asked by the media about education.

The public is clearly on our side. We can grow a collective spine and we would win, even on the safety concerns. 

BERNIE CLAIMS IOWA VICTORY AT NH PRESS CONFERENCE

I have not been shy about being a Bernie supporter and donor. Bernie's plans for education and labor are the best we have seen from a major party candidate for president.

Sanders held a press conference on Thursday to claim victory in Monday's Iowa Caucuses  Debacle.

Here is what the Sanders campaign texted to supporters:

Bernie Sanders WON IOWA with 6,000 more votes. Now let's win NH. Make this one of the best fundraising hours of our campaign yet. Donate: http://bernie.to/IAwin

As Bernie says, in elections, the candidate who gets the most votes wins.

I am usually not a big conspiracy guy but once Bernie's lead in Iowa seemed to be confirmed with real data, then all of a sudden the Democratic National Committee was calling for a recount. Also, why were the small satellite caucuses counted last (pro Bernie and everyone knew it) when they were compact so easy to tabulate and held before the big caucuses? As soon as it appeared that Sanders might really have won, suddenly it was time for a recount.

Iowa does not pass the fairness smell test. It is not incompetence of the Iowa Democratic Party. The party establishment locally and nationally would rather lose to Donald Trump than have Bernie and his supporters take over the party machinery. It looks like they will back recent Republican turned Democrat oligarch Michael Bloomberg before Bernie if Biden falls and now surging based on questionable data Pete Buttigieg doesn't resonate.

The new criticism is Bernie didn't increase the turnout much in Iowa compared to 2016 or he didn't get as high a percentage of the vote as he got in 2016. Forget that there were only two candidates running against him back then but there are eight running in 2020. Media is also not publicizing how the Sanders campaign was hugely successful reaching out to the minority community in Iowa to increase that turnout.

If Bernie wins by a lower than expected margin in New Hampshire, we will hear about how it is really a loss. We will also be reminded how he won a much higher percentage against Hillary in New Hampshire in 2016.  I am certainly not the first or only one who sees the huge anti-Bernie bias. We have to ignore the noise. Might be time for another donation.

If the Bernie crew does withstand all the garbage the Democratic Party and media elite as well as Donald Trump and the Republicans throw at them, a better country with some trust in its institutions just may emerge. Let's hope.

Did I mention that entrance polls in Iowa showed that roughly 6 in 10 caucus goers favor single payer health coverage for everyone. That means one insurer for primary healthcare: the government. If someone gets sick, all of us take care of that person. What a concept. 32 of 33 advanced nations cover everyone. The United States as the wealthiest nation should join that club.

But how will we pay for it? Bernie's plan calls for a 4% tax on middle class people and a higher rate on the wealthy with money that employers save by not buying health insurance being mandated to go back to employees. Let's say that figure is too low and it really needs to be an 8% tax. Right now NYC pays about $20,000 a year to Emblem Health for each of us who choose HIP or GHI. If a teacher making $100,000 a year paid $8,000 for Medicare for All, the city would not have to pay anything but instead they would have to give that $20,000 back to each employee. We would be up $12,000 and with no copays,  deductibles and we could go to any doctor.

I do not agree with everything in Bernie's platform and I am much more of a social democrat than democratic socialist but Sanders is by far the best candidate out there for working people.

I am speaking for me here and not ICEUFT.

MULGREW IS A BIDEN DELEGATE

We are still not sure who the front-runner is right now in the Democratic Party nomination for president. We all predicted that the establishment would go into total freak out mode if Bernie Sanders comes anywhere close to getting within a few thousand miles of the nomination. The party's Iowa caucus debacle would seem to reveal that the establishment conniptions are only going to get worse as the lengthy campaign season unfolds since win or lose, Sanders and his people aren't going away. One notable establishment figure who knows where he stands is UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

From the NY Post:

New York City teachers’ union president Mike Mulgrew is backing Joe Biden for president.

Mulgrew, head of the United Federation of Teachers, is listed as a Biden delegate on petitions of voter signatures the former vice president is submitting to the state Board of Elections this week to qualify for ballot status in New York’s April 28 Democratic primary.

It's not a UFT official endorsement but it may as well be as the UFT is one of the most top-down organizations on the planet. Now if Biden sinks, which is very possible, there will be plenty of egg on Mulgrew's face. The answer at that point is not to quit the union but to rise collectively to take it over or start something better.

WE HAVE TO STEP UP IF WE WANT TO CHANGE THE SCHOOLS AND UFT

Last week we wrote about Sue Edelman at the NY Post being informed by Councilman Robert Holden that the FBI is investigating NYC schools for fraud. It inspired a rather big response of mostly anonymous comments. Save your keystrokes; I'm telling you writing anonymous comments, although it shows the blog has readers, is basically a waste of time if you aren't willing to take the next step.

I was contacted by a reporter seeking to find further information on what one particular comment stated. I asked several contacts at a particular school to expose the fraud, telling them they could be confidential sources and their anonymity would be protected. After a week of trying, it appears nobody will talk to the press, even if assured anonymity.

The comments here are a nice lead for the reporters but a journalist has a professional obligation to verify what is told to them. They also require some documentation. This is why I keep saying to stop complaining about the UFT if you are not willing to do anything to change the situation. At Jamaica High School, we were not shy about going to the press if it was necessary. They weren't bashful at Forest Hills either. Their aggressiveness helped cause a change in leadership. Jamaica was closed but we had some integrity. All of us survived and most of us were fine in other settings. After we protested with everything we had, even Mayor Bloomberg slowed down school closings in the last two years of his misrule of NYC. Our fight was a big part of that.

I understand the pressure on teachers from administration can be enormous to pass students who have done nothing but complete an internet packet of makeup work or to not report safety incidents. A new teacher recently told me of being advised by senior colleagues that when it comes to passing undeserving students, the teacher has a choice between having integrity and having a job. Ouch!

The reader who keeps commenting that nothing will change could be right only because too many teachers are not willing to stand up for themselves and each other. That is what a union is for. We need one badly. That is why I keep saying to band together with other teachers and stop whining about the DOE/UFT. This is a call for collective action, not a call to abandon a union. Unions are still the best hope for workers to achieve a better life. Change from within our union can come from the rank and file and not the leadership who is invested in the status quo.

ANOTHER QUEENS KID IS ATTACKED IN SCHOOL AND NOTHING HAPPENS

The latest from the NY Post on a school assault where there were no consequences for the attacker. This is a portion of an article written by Selim Algar.

An 11-year-old girl was attacked in another videotaped Queens school assault — but administrators never removed her assailants from class, her father told The Post.

Marco Rosero, 42, said he was forced to pull his traumatized daughter from MS 217 in Briarwood after administrators, cops and Department of Education anti-bullying staffers blew off his pleas for help.

“Something has to be done about what is going on in these schools,” the furious sanitation worker said. “No one cared. No one helped. My daughter was too scared to go back to class but the kids who attacked her were right back in their seats.”

The Chancellor has apologized for not responding to the District 26 parents over their children being hurt.

“I, in no way, shape or form want to show any disrespect to any parent that wants to be heard and I apologize because as a parent myself, I can only imagine the pain parents are feeling when their children have been hurt,” Carranza said.

Is that enough?

If there are no consequences for student and also administrator bullying behavior, bullies will thrive. That is unfortunately what we hear from our reports of  many out of control New York City schools.

NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION GIVES CANDIDATE SANDERS ALL A'S ON SCHOOLS EXCEPT FOR ONE B WHILE BLOOMBERG GETS STRAIGHT F'S

For anyone who wants to see how the presidential candidates feel about K-12 education,  I would recommend that you go to the Network for Public Education Action's 2020 Presidential Candidates Project page. It rates all of the candidates in several areas concerning education.

We have already highlighted, and it is worth noting again, how Bernie Sanders achieves an NPE Action grade of A for who is donors are (people like me), an A for being opposed to public money going to private schools (vouchers), an A for his stance on charter schools (he agrees with the NAACP's call for a moratorium on new charters), and an A for who he is affiliated with. If not for a B in testing, Bernie would have received a perfect NPE Action report card.

Here is what Bernie said about charter schools at an NEA forum on education:

“Taxpayer money should be going to educate our kids, not to make Wall Street investors even richer than they are,” he said. “And our proposal puts a moratorium on all new charter schools until we have a full understanding of their impact on public education.”

For education advice, the Sanders campaign reached out to Diane Ravitch, who is one of the top advocates in this country for public education. Please read her latest book: Slaying Goliath. She chronicles the battle to save public education. If you want to see how Sanders listened to Diane, just look at his Thurgood Marshall Education Plan. It is pro- public schools. Also, read Bernie's Workplace Democracy Plan. He is public education and union friendly.

NPE Action gives Bernie the best overall grades for public education of any of the candidates. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden received decent ratings from NPE Action but Warren is affiliated with some key people who favor privatization and the former Vice President voted for No Child Left Behind which Bernie opposed. Biden has also associated with some questionable ed deformers. He isn't bad on education but Bernie is just better.  Even my friend Chaz, who is very centrist politically, gives Bernie a grade of A on education.

Here is what Chaz says 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 student demographics and percentage of high needs students as the neighborhood schools.

GRADE A

Chaz blames Biden for former President Barack Obama's ultra anti-teacher education policies and therefore gives him a grade of F but I kind of think Biden's wife Jill, who is a community college teacher who I heard speak when I worked at Middle College, is a positive influence on him. AFT President Randi Weingarten told activists that teacher unions went to Vice President Biden as an important person who would listen to us during the Obama years. I wouldn't give him an F.

It is too early to tell but the race for the Democratic nomination may come down to Bernie vs Biden which should at least move the education agenda a little in our direction. However, I have a nightmare scenario for us and that is Biden implodes and Michael Bloomberg takes over the moderate lane and actually catches a head of steam as he buys off potential opposition to his agenda like he did when he was mayor. The entire country could conceivably have to live with what we endured in NYC. For education, that agenda won't be pretty.

I was reminded by a friend last week of when Bloomberg's henchmen came to Jamaica High School to tell us why they were closing us and informing the community that they were turning one of our Ed Options Programs, the Gateway Program, into a separate school. They actually said with a straight face that the Gateway teachers were better than the regular Jamaica teachers. We were the exact same teachers!

Let's go to what NPE Action says about Bloomberg on education. His grades are F across the board.

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg said he would not rule out spending a billion dollars of his own money on the 2020 election. He is his own donor and his education policies are designed to support his ideology which supports, charters, testing, school closures, merit pay and the evaluation of teachers by test scores.

Trump also gets all F's from NPE Action but Trump doesn't seem to care much about education enough to make it a priority. Iif Bloomberg is the Democratic nominee, I'm voting third party.

I think the best course of action for me now is to make another donation to Bernie. Maybe others will too.

DIANE RAVITCH CAN'T UNDERSTAND FORMER LABOR LEADERS WORKING AGAINST TEACHERS

Andy Stern was the one time leader of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Diane Ravitch today is reporting on Stern joining the board of the Broad Foundation, a notoriously anti-public school anti- union organization.

Diane quotes from this piece in Splinter:
Stern developed a reputation as a business-friendly union leader, known for striking deals with companies that were often seen as too weak by many in the labor movement. Under the guise of modernization and growth, Stern seemed to lose his connection to the grassroots, radical, people-powered aspects of the union world. In 2010, The Nation quoted one union leader as saying, “Andy Stern leaves pretty much without a friend in the labor movement.”

Diane then writes about other labor leaders who are left to work against their former constituents:
George Parker was president of the Washington, D.C., teachers union at the time when Michelle Rhee became chancellor and started her famous campaign to crack down on teachers. At the end of his term in 2011, he teamed up with Rhee and spoke out against the same issues he had once championed. He went to work for Rhee’s Students First and joined her campaign for charters, vouchers, merit pay, and test-based evaluation. Now he works with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Paul Toner was vice-president, then president of the Massachusetts Teachers Union from 2006 to 2014. After his term ended, he joined the “reform” movement, as a Pahara-Aspen Institute Fellow, a graduate of the Broad Academy,  and currently executive director of the Gates-funded Teach Plus, which is generally pro-testing and anti-union (its CEO is John B. King Jr. and its board includes DFER favorite, former Congressman George Miller). 

Diane's conclusion:
Everyone has a right to change his or her mind. I did it myself. Still, I was not the leader of an organization; I was an individual who said, “I was wrong.” I admit that I don’t entirely understand how someone goes from being the president of a labor union to opposing the people they previously represented. 

I usually agree with just about everything Diane writes. Here, I  can clarify that it isn't that difficult to understand why union leaders switch sides. There are labor leaders who are careerists and becoming the president of a union gets a leader some power and money. It can be intoxicating and there are lucrative job opportunities available for these leaders outside of the union movement. I am not at all surprised that some succumb to these lures. Power, more so than representing members or a movement, is what motivates them.

The UFT-NYSUT-AFT takes care of its top level people financially so there really isn't a need to jump ship to cash in but would anybody be surprised if one of our union leaders takes a well paying gig that is anti-union after leaving union work? Former NYSUT Executive VP Alan Lubin is an exception but he kept getting money from the union after he left to start his own company.

FBI INVESTIGATING NYC SCHOOLS (Updated on how to protect yourself and your colleagues)

Here is a portion of the latest from Sue Edelman in the NY Post:

The feds have started looking into allegations of widespread academic fraud in New York City schools, a Queens lawmaker says.

City Councilman Robert Holden met this month with officials in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York after his call for a federal probe of “deep-rooted fraud” in the city Department of Education.

“I’m encouraged by my meeting with the US Attorney. His team is taking this seriously,” Holden told The Post.

FBI agents have already contacted several whistle-blowing teachers whose names he provided, Holden added.

I have stated repeatedly here that the UFT should get ahead of this and stop being a cheerleader for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Those who think that the best course of action to take is to just go along and pass everyone may be in for a letdown as an update on the situation at Maspeth High School shows. It looks like they are attempting to turn a dean into the fall guy here.

From another Sue Edelman piece:

A Maspeth High School math teacher and dean who students say gave them answers on Regents exams and texted with them has been removed, The Post has learned.

Danny Sepulveda was escorted out of the Queens school in late December “due to an ongoing investigation,” the city Department of Education confirmed.

DOE officials said the investigation was “unrelated to academic fraud.”

But Sepulveda, 30, is one of several teachers who gave kids answers during Regents exams, according to statements given to investigators.

DOE officials say this is "unrelated to academic fraud." This may very well be true. It also may be the case that this teacher is a convenient scapegoat for the scandal at this school.

Many schools badly need integrity. I again suggest that every UFT Chapter that needs to should use Article 8B and 24 in the Contract to make sure there is some legitimacy in the grading process. I am copying in full below the piece we wrote in November on using the Contract to protect yourself and your colleagues. This becomes even more relevant now that it looks like the FBI is probing the schools.

YOU CAN FIGHT GRADE INFLATION/FRAUD BY USING THE UFT CONTRACT

I have been attempting for a long time to get the UFT members who read this blog to step up to the plate to take action in defense of teacher rights.  I haven't been overly successful for sure except for inducing comments. Unfortunately, anonymous comments here or comments on Facebook aren't going to do anything more than allow people to vent about horrible working conditions in many schools. For anyone who has a spine or wants to grow one, please don't comment but rather take action. The Contract is generally on our side when it comes to student grades. Let us now examine how to use it.

Article 8D. Students’ Grades
The teacher’s judgment in grading students is to be respected; therefore if the principal changes a student’s grade in any subject for a grading period, the principal shall notify the teacher of the reason for the change in writing.

We as the professionals are contractually entitled to judge students as we see fit (within guidelines) and a principal must inform a teacher of a grade change and put the reason for the change in writing. Administration must go on the written record to challenge a grade a teacher gives. If teachers have a school or departmental grading policy that they are adhering to, those teachers are on very solid ground contractually. It is important to document why any particular student received a certain grade. If someone is worried about being cited for not doing interventions, documenting contacts to guidance or home should be sufficient to have grades respected and it does not have to be multiple home contacts, especially if there are 34 students on a register.

I can already read the anonymous comments. I will save you the trouble.

"Anonymous said: If I assert my rights and give the students the grades they deserve, the principal and the assistant principal and maybe the superintendent will be in my room the next morning and I will be given all 1's on a setup Danielson observation."

Or

"Anonymous said: Are you crazy James? The day I grade honestly is the day I will have corporal punishment or some other charge thrown at me. No, I am going to play the game to survive."

Or

"Anonymous said: The kids don't do any work and don't show up and still pass. They feel entitled to freebies from the liberal government. I can't stop it so I'm opting out of the union instead of fighting for my rights. At least I'll have some extra money that I can put it in my TDA that only gets 7% (not 8.25%) interest because of the UFT."

Or

"Anonymous said: My principal requires us to contact parents every other day if we want to fail a student. It's easier to just pass them all.

Or

"Anonymous said: My chapter leader goes out for drinks every Friday with the principal. He won't do anything if I ask him to. My colleagues won't listen to me so I'm not doing anything."

Please spare me the above nobody will support me comments, thank you. I won't print them!

I agree with you that doing this alone might not be the smartest action if you do not have tenure, your principal is crazy, your chapter leader loves your insane principal, or you are devoid of even the slightest hint of a backbone. On the other hand, if a teacher asserted his/her rights over grades being respected and then received a negative observation, I would advise that teacher to file an APPR Complaint immediately in which I would counsel them to scream retaliation from the highest mountain peak to the chapter leader, the district representative, or if that doesn't get a response to Sue Edelman at the NY Post, to Councilman Robert Holden, and finally to ICEUFT where if you provide us with evidence, we would publish the name of the school and the principal if you are so inclined. I bet Norm (EdNotes) and Chaz would support you too.

I understand this is not easy. If you are reluctant to stand up for yourself by going at it alone as it might just be next to impossible, would you consider collective action? Workers should fight collectively.

If teachers want to fight grade inflation-fraud as a chapter, the Article 19 mandated UFT Consultation Committee meetings with the principal are a great place to raise grade inflation/fraud at the chapter level. Then, there is the often ignored Article 24 process. Again, from the Contract:

ARTICLE TWENTY-FOUR
PROFESSIONAL CONCILIATION
The Board and the Union agree that professional involvement of teachers in
educational issues should be encouraged. However, it is recognized that there may be
differences in professional judgment.
A. School Level

1. Where differences related to school-based decisions in one of the following areas
cannot be resolved, a conciliation process will be available to facilitate the resolution of
these differences:
a. Curriculum mandates
b. Textbook selection
c. Program offerings and scheduling
d. Student testing procedures and appraisal methodology
e. Pedagogical and instructional strategy, technique and methodology.

In order to utilize the conciliation process, the 
UFT chapter may request, through the
Union, the service of (a) person(s) identified as expert in conciliation. Selections of such
person(s) will be made by the Board and the Union from a list of conciliators mutually
agreed upon by the Board and the Union.

2. Within five school days, the Board Coordinator will contact the appropriate
superintendent who will promptly advise the Board Coordinator as to whether he/she will
directly address the issue.
a. If the issue is addressed by the superintendent, he/she should resolve it within ten
school days. If not resolved, the Board Coordinator will assign a conciliator at the end of
that period.
b. If the superintendent does not respond to the Board Coordinator or advises that
he/she is not addressing the issue, the Board Coordinator will assign a Conciliator within
five school days.

Notice that one of the issues that has to be addressed if a chapter asks for it is "Student testing procedures and appraisal methodology." Teachers are contractually entitled to a voice on testing and appraisal. If the standards at a school are nonexistent, as people here are constantly writing anonymously, then use the Article 24 process. Get it to the superintendent as fast as possible. Publicize it. I think chapters could very well be successful. Please no comments about the chapter leader sleeping with the principal. Get a group together and light a figurative spark under the chapter leader.

The Contract is there for members to utilize. The UFT should get ahead of the grade inflation/fraud issue instead of making nice-nice with management, particularly if the grade inflation/fraud is as widespread as readers here are leading us to believe.

For those who would rather hide in the corner and just play the game, this issue is not going away. Please read today's NY Post editorial.

The conclusion:
Bottom line: Most city kids aren’t getting the “sound, basic education” that courts have ruled the state Constitution requires. But it’s not, as past lawsuits have suggested, about the money: It’s about the DOE’s top-to-bottom complicity in hiding its failure.

Rather than face the truth, Mayor Bill de Blasio recently suggested, “There’s something wrong” with the National Assessment of Education Progress tests (the gold standard of US exams!) because they show no progress in city schools. In other words, he’d rather the fraud continue, so he can claim success.

Federal prosecutors spent years getting the goods on the city Housing Authority’s systematic coverup of its failures. Holden’s entirely right to ask for a similar exposé of the school system.

The forces that hate public schools like the NY Post Editorial Board are going to use grade inflation-fraud as another excuse to privatize the schools. We can and should get ahead of them by blaming the city and central Department of Education for the lack of integrity in certain schools as this is a top-down dictatorial type school system. We should be demanding that grade inflation is stopped and that integrity is restored to the schools. Empowering teachers is the way to accomplish this as it was done before former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Chancellor Joel Klein basically destroyed teacher voice at the school level. UFT chapters were a very good check on the system before Bloomberg-Klein.

There is one major caveat here. I am asking for reasonable standards and responsible grading. I was often considered a rather easy grader but now my standards would be considered rigorous. I am definitely not condoning teachers who demand graduate school level work in a high school course and find every student lacking. We can start to restore some sanity by pushing for an easily enforceable seat time requirement for a student to receive credit. Joel Klein took the 90% attendance requirement to be promoted out of the Chancellor's Regulations. Let's insist that it be placed back in.

For those who think this can't be done legally, I submit a part of State Education Regulation 104.1:

Purpose:
(3) ensure sufficient pupil attendance at all scheduled periods of actual instruction or supervised study activities to permit such pupils to succeed at meeting the State learning standards.

And further down:
(v) a description of the school district, BOCES, charter school, county vocational education and extension board or nonpublic school policy regarding pupil attendance and a pupil's ability to receive course credit. Any board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board or county vocational education and extension board that adopts a policy establishing a minimum standard of attendance in order for a pupil to be eligible for course credit shall have the authority to determine that a properly excused pupil absence, for which the pupil has performed any assigned make up work, shall not be counted as an absence for the purpose of determining the pupil's eligibility for course credit under such policy. In the event a board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board or county vocational education and extension board adopts a minimum attendance standard as a component of its policy, such policy shall include a description of the notice to a pupil's parent(s) or person(s) in parental relation as well as the specific intervention strategies to be employed prior to the denial of course credit to the pupil for insufficient attendance.

Positive change can occur but more people have to step up and demand it.

VERMONT AFT LATEST UNION TO ENDORSE SANDERS; WHAT ABOUT UFT?

AFT Vermont has endorsed Bernie Sanders for President (see below). Sanders is winning over more unions than any other Democratic candidate.

This is from Politico:

Most national unions haven’t picked a favorite yet in the Democratic presidential primary.

It’s been a boon for Bernie Sanders.

Rather than harming Sanders, a longtime labor ally who has promised to work to double union membership as president, the reluctance to offer endorsements at the national level has enabled more progressive-minded local unions and labor groups to come out in force for the Vermont senator.

Sanders has already racked up 11 labor endorsements, more than any of his Democratic rivals, most of which are from local, regional and statewide unions. And some are among the most powerful labor organizations in early-voting and Super Tuesday states.

"He’s picking up more labor endorsements because the national unions, almost without exception, have not made endorsements, which implicitly or explicitly sets the local and regional unions free,” said David Kusnet, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton who co-authored a book with an ex-AFL-CIO president. “He has a lot of friends and fans and supporters in the union movement, and some of them are succeeding in pushing their local labor unions to endorse him.”

This includes large teachers unions including the second largest local in the country: the United Teachers of Los Angeles and the biggest independent teacher union in the country: the Clark County Education Association.

Of course, the UFT, NYSUT and the AFT are not among the unions supporting Bernie. After the UTLA Sanders' endorsement,  I put the odds at about 10 billion to 1 on the UFT backing Bernie in the primaries. Those odds have come down a bit as Bernie is now surging in the polls but I still see the UFT as one of the unions that may try to block Bernie. He wants workers empowered; the UFT leadership I don't believe strongly stands for this position. It's time for Bernie supporters to stop dithering and waiting and call for the UFT Delegates to take an up or down vote on a Sanders endorsement in the primary while it still means something.

Is there a UFT Delegate who supports Bernie who would raise a resolution for the UFT to endorse Bernie? His labor friendly Workplace Democracy plan is the most pro-worker proposal I have ever seen from a major party candidate for the White House. His Thurgood Marshall Education Plan is the best education program that any Democratic candidate has ever put forward. My favorite part of each:

• Establish federal protections against the firing of workers for any reason other than “just cause.”  When Bernie is president he will fight to make sure workers cannot be fired “at will” and will sign a “just cause” law to protect workers and their constitutional right to speak out and organize in their workplaces.
• Protect and expand collective bargaining rights and teacher tenure.

Here is what Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said of Sanders' labor backing in the Politico piece.

Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under the Clinton administration, suggested that Sanders’ success stems from his work courting unions and their members, including by proposing to offer them advantages if Medicare for All passed. Under his plan, businesses whose workers have union-negotiated health care coverage would have to renegotiate their contracts if single-payer became the law of the land — and direct any windfall to the employees.

Our health plans which cost the city around $20,000 apiece annually would be replaced by Medicare for All. According to Sanders, our cost as middle class people would be a 4% tax so for someone making $100,000 after deductions, that's $4,000. Even if we double that figure to account for the city paying into the new system, we are talking $8,000. Add in the savings if a huge part of the Welfare Fund is replaced and we would be in good shape to get some real money back in our pay. Do you really care if your insurer is GHI or HIP or the federal government?

Here is how Bernie's Workplace Democracy Plan explains our refund:

A fair transition to Medicare for All: 

Bernie will require that resulting healthcare savings from union-negotiated plans result in wage increases and additional benefits for workers during the transition to Medicare for All. When Medicare for All is signed into law, companies with union negotiated health care plans would be required to enter into new contract negotiations overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. Under this plan, all company savings that result from reduced health care contributions from Medicare for All will accrue equitably to workers in the form of increased wages or other benefits.  Furthermore, the plan will ensure that union-sponsored clinics and other providers are integrated within the Medicare for All system, and kept available for members. Unions will still be able to negotiate for and provide wrap-around services and other coverage not duplicative of the benefits established under Medicare for All.

If a UFT Delegate wants to collaborate in writing a proper Bernie endorsement resolution, I would be glad to assist.

 · 

***Endorsement of Senator Sanders for President***

AFT Vermont, a state-wide union representing five thousand higher education and  healthcare professionals, today endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for president following an overwhelming vote by the members who participated in the union's process.

The union emphasized Sen. Sanders's longtime and consistent support for working people and organized labor, which he has demonstrated by walking picket lines, supporting organizing drives and contract fights, and championing legislation to strengthen unions in the face of attacks on organized labor. The union also expressed deep support for the Senator’s broader policy agenda and track record, with a focus on legislation that lifts up the working class such as universal healthcare, making card check the law of the land, and tuition-free public colleges and universities.

"There are very few other elected officials who have done all that Bernie has done for AFT Vermont and the labor movement,” said Deb Snell, President of AFT Vermont. “Senator Sanders has always been a strong supporter of the goals of our union, including free college tuition, ending the nursing shortage, and raising the standard of living for all Vermonters. For this reason and many others, our union members voted decisively to endorse Senator Sanders as the next President of the United States."

“I’m honored to have the support of AFT Vermont,” said Sen. Sanders. “These educators and nurses are putting in the work every day to support Vermonters, and they deserve our support in return. We have the labor movement to thank for building this country’s middle class, and we must strengthen the middle class today by fortifying the power of organized labor in Vermont and across the country.”

In 2018, Sen. Sanders backed the UVMMC nurses in their strike, hosting a press conference with the union as well as calling into a rally to deliver words of encouragement and support to the nurses on strike. A strong, unwavering advocate for unions across all sectors, Sen. Sanders has the most thorough and extensive plan of any presidential hopeful to strengthen the rights of American workers and the labor movement, outlined in his Workplace Democracy Plan.

CARRANZA RESIGNATION WOULD NOT SOLVE SCHOOL SYSTEM'S MAIN PROBLEMS

I read the letter that the Queens Chronicle editors imagine Richard Carranza writing in which he tenders his resignation (see below).

Note to the Chronicle: Changing chancellors will not matter very much. The primary problem is a mayoral dictatorship over our NYC schools. As long as one unitary executive has complete power over our education system in this city, the schools will continue to be a no accountability zone. The main job of the school system will not be to educate kids but to make numbers look good for the mayor, even if it means fraud.

Bill de Blasio is a lame duck mayor. What does he care if the graduation rate the schools are producing is bogus and everyone knows it? The low stakes National Assessment of Education Progress scores are essentially flat. Young people are not suddenly getting smarter. They are just being pushed through to make the last two mayors look good. De Blasio will just keep repeating that NYC has the highest graduation rate ever and saying that we are investigating and dealing with a small number of cheaters.

In reality, the data driven obsession that started with Michael Bloomberg has just continued under de Blasio and his two chancellors who have kept the Bloomberg-Joel Klein bureaucratic, anti-teacher culture intact. The UFT has mostly been silent (forget the part of the editorial where they say the UFT is not happy). The Union is mainly quiet in my opinion because de Blasio answers Michael Mulgrew's phone calls and yes this mayor has been better on charter schools so Mulgrew talks about NYC as a model system. That is a big mistake but Mulgrew has even less accountability than the chancellor. Just read the comments here and you can see what a nightmare teaching has become for many teachers in NYC. Carranza is a symptom. The disease will continue to spread until there are some real checks and balances in the schools. The UFT used to be a powerful check. It no longer is. (The UFT won't be more effective if it is weakened by mass defections unless the dissidents start a new union so please spare me the comments on not paying dues.) 

It's up to us to scream and yell and do whatever we have to in order to make the UFT again a check by calling out what is going on instead of leaving it to Sue Edelman or Salim Algar at the NY Post or the Safety Agents' Union or the Council of Supervisors and Administrators.

The Chronicle editorial:

Rather than continuing to sow racial divisions, to walk out on aggrieved parents, to wink and nod at grade-fixing, to alienate elected officials and to allow little girls to get pummeled in the middle school cafeteria, New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza should resign. He’s welcome to do so by copying and pasting the following onto his letterhead and having it delivered.
Dear Mayor de Blasio (Bill),

It is with heavy heart that I write, but I have no choice.

As you know, when confronted by parents in Bayside, Queens, whose children had been assaulted by other students — one of them sexually, along with months of harassment — I turned tail and ran. I had to. Sure, this was at a meeting of the District 26 Community Education Council and there were cops in the room, but it was scary. I don’t know what these outerborough parents are capable of, and I’m the chancellor — I can’t let them touch a perfect hair on my head.

You saw the video of that girl getting a beatdown at MS 158. Man, she got pounded. That one teacher made a half-hearted attempt to grab her, but then he let her go and she just kept on going. That’s when she jumped onto and off the table to carry on the assault like some pro wrestler. It would have been nice if the teachers actually stopped her before she got back on the table to do that victory dance, but can you blame them? They’d get sued, and we’d just have to settle. Plus, we’re all about restorative justice, not stopping kids from doing what they please through physical measures.

So now we’ve got the teachers union saying the lack of discipline is lowering morale and making it harder to manage classes. The CEC put out an announcement that mocked me between the lines. Seven elected officials, from City Hall to Capitol Hill, issued a letter demanding answers.

I’ve got none, your honor. I’m an ideologue and I’m afraid.

Everything else is a mess, too. In nearby District 28, we’re trying to get Jamaica parents to let their kids be bused to Forest Hills and vice versa because we have to force desegregation. These people just keep moving into neighborhoods with other people who look like them! And when we come in and tell them there’s a better way, just put your 12-year-old on that city bus for a couple hours a day, they get all upset. We have to make a show of getting “community input,” but man, imposing change from above is stressful.

You saw how we failed to do that with the Specialized High School Admissions Test. Of course fewer Asian kids will get into the SHSAT schools if we make it so more black and Hispanic students do; we all know that. But those darn parents fought us and they won! Now if we want a more balanced enrollment, like it was years ago, we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way, and improve the elementary and middle schools black and Hispanic kids attend. That’s hard!

And you know I have it on impeccable sources that when a Queens Chronicle editor asked Rep. Grace Meng if she thought I was dealing with the SHSAT from a position of good faith, there were about five seconds of silence before she said I had a lot of ground to make up for but she’s willing to work with me. The air was heavy in those moments!

We both know kids aren’t learning better than when I arrived. Graduation rates are up, but that’s because standards are down. If that wasn’t the reason, the kids would be doing better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and they’re not. Think Maspeth High School is the only one where the staff helps kids cheat? Think again.

I couldn’t take the heat in Bayside, my friend, and I gotta head out. This whole town should be called Hell’s Kitchen!

Richard A. Carranza

Chancellor, New York City Department of Education

CUOMO CALLS FOR 3% INCREASE IN SCHOOL SPENDING

Yesterday Governor Andrew Cuomo presented his executive budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Many were worried that there would be a cut to education funding or aid to New York City because of a projected $6.1 billion gap in the state budget. Relax folks, the funding is coming to the schools, although nearly not as much as education advocates feel is necessary.

From City and State:

$178 billion: That’s Cuomo’s proposed total spending in the upcoming budget, a relatively small 1.2% increase over this year’s $176 billion budget, and well within Cuomo’s oft-stated pledge to keep growth below 2%.

$2.5 billion: Cuomo is once again assembling a so-called Medicaid Redesign Team, which he last did in 2011, with a goal in finding that much annual savings from the state’s administration of the federal health care program for low-income New Yorkers. It’s likely to be a difficult goal. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released a Medicaid audit last week finding ways to save only $800 million.

0: Cuomo promised “zero impact on local governments” from the Medicaid redesign – as long as those city and county governments stayed within a 3% cap on growth. It’s yet to be seen whether this will calm local leaders like de Blasio.

$826 million: The planned increase in local education spending, which Cuomo deemed the “largest foundation aid increase of my administration.” When Cuomo faced a $10 billion budget deficit in 2011, he actually cut school aid by $2.7 billion. This year, he promised no cuts, and proposed raising education spending to $28.5 billion – the largest line item in the budget.

3%: Despite the deficit, Cuomo hopes to increase both education and Medicaid spending by that much. “I don’t think any New Yorker would want to choose between health care and education, and I don’t think our government should either,” he said. Instead of enacting cuts, Cuomo said he plans to close the budget gap by reducing the rate of growth. 

Once the State Assembly and State Senate add some more by the April 1 budget deadline, it looks as though there will be no great changes or cuts. For education there should a decent amount of money coming to the school districts in fiscal year 2021. Just as in years past, I very much doubt that much, if any, of the increase in funding will find its way to the classroom in many schools in NYC.

MS 158 PROBLEM ILLUSTRATES HOW INTEGRITY IS NOT VALUED UNDER MAYORAL CONTROL

In this day and age, trying to sweep school safety incidents under the carpet is bound to fail because cameras are ubiquitous. The video of the student beat-down of another pupil at MS 158 in Queens should shock everyone but won't surprise people who work in NYC schools.

Here is part of how the NY Post describes what happened:

Newly released video of an all-out punching, kicking, hair-pulling, girl-on-girl assault in the cafeteria of a Queens middle school is just the latest sign New York’s schools are out of control — and it has parents fuming, teachers wringing their hands and the schools chancellor literally walking the other way.

“I really don’t think he cares,” the mom of the victim in the caught-on-video cafeteria fight told The Post Friday, a day after Chancellor Richard Carranza walked out on her when she tried to confront him about the brawl at a town hall meeting for parents and teachers at the school.

“He didn’t say a word — he just sat there,” as she pleaded for action, said the mom, Katty Sterling, whose daughter was attacked at MS 158 in Bayside last week.

Later in the Post piece, a parent sort of feels for the teachers who witnessed the mayhem:

The kids are running the school, complained Jenny Suarez, the parent of a sixth-grader at the school.

“I see the teachers are just standing around not doing much. I guess they’re afraid of getting involved and losing their jobs,” she said.

QNS also has a story on last week's District 26 Town Hall.

Hundreds of concerned parents attended the standing-room-only event at M.S. 74 in Bayside, which began with prewritten questions read by members of Community Education Council (CEC) 26. But things took a turn after the father called out from the crowd requesting “just one minute” of time to speak.

The crowd yelled “answer this man,” and “let him speak,” urging the CEC and chancellor to give the parent time to express his concerns. QNS spoke to the father after the meeting, but we are withholding his name to protect the identity of his daughter.

“The school basically just covered it up and all I wanted to do was just talk. But I know they wouldn’t let me talk,” he said. “It’s just disconcerting.”

Further down:

Outraged mother Katty Sterling, whose daughter was involved in a physical altercation at M.S. 158 approached the stage and said that “nobody is doing anything” to reprimand the student who instigated the fight.

“The other student is sitting in school getting all the privileges and what is my daughter doing? Sitting at home, sick, getting traumatized,” yelled Sterling.

The chancellor and CEC members were seen conferring on stage before Aviles announced that the meeting would have to cut the meeting short. Aviles told QNS that the decision to end the town hall was the Department of Education’s decision and not the decision of the CEC.

Elected officials are involved too as they have written a letter to the Chancellor demanding answers. This is part of a QNS article on that letter:

The letter was authored by northeast Queens representatives Congresswoman Grace Meng, Councilmail Paul Vallone, Senator John Liu, Councilmen Barry Grodenchik and Peter Koo and Assemblymembers Nily Rozic and Ed Braunstein.

“These reported incidents are horrifying, and the apparent lack of action is deeply troubling and absolutely unacceptable,” said Meng. “No student should be subjected to harassment and violence at school. Our schools must be safe and welcoming environments for each and every student. When students are in school, they should be focused on learning, not worrying about their safety. Chancellor Carranza must immediately address the issues we’ve raised, and I await his reply to our letter. As the mother of two young boys who attend local public schools, I firmly believe that nothing is more important than ensuring the safety of our children.”

Having Senator John Liu as a signatory is rather ironic as Liu chairs the Senate's New York City Education Committee so he could have helped use the powers of the Senate in 2019 to end mayoral dictatorship over NYC schools. Instead, he and the rest of the Legislature renewed it through 2022.

The inevitable result of mayoral control is fraud. Teachers and administrators worry about losing our jobs. Therefore, we have to produce constantly improving statistics to make the mayor look good. In the end, we wind up with this kind of system where safety incidents are swept under the carpets while student grades and the graduation rates are artificially inflated so almost everyone passes.

The NY Post Editorial Board covered this topic and actually got it right:

 For the record, the [graduation] rate is up nearly 9 percentage points since de Blasio took office — but city students’ showing on the national “gold standard” test for educational achievement, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is basically flat.

Their Conclusion:

For the city, and probably other school districts across the state, another factor [for rising graduation rates] is cheating by school administrators. De Blasio’s system can’t seem to go a year without some new grade-fixing or bogus “credit recovery” scandal surfacing in The Post, thanks mostly to outraged teachers.

What New York needs isn’t simply rising graduation rates, but rising numbers of seniors actually ready to go to college or start a career. Any “success” short of that is just a marketing ploy.

The arrogance from the Department of Education along with the phony numbers are only going to end when teachers and parents are again empowered, as we once were before mayoral control, to be a check on the system. Could you imagine a superintendent who was accountable to an elected school board walking out on parents like Carranza did last week? We could go a step in the right direction if the UFT would do its job and show members that their union is truly supportive but in the end as long as teacher and principal ratings are tied to student assessment results and schools are judged in part based on how few incidents they have, the cover-ups, grade as well as diploma inflation will just continue.

Ending mayoral control would bring some needed integrity back to the schools. It expires in 2022 and it will only take either the State Senate or Assembly to kill it forever. Why can't we have an elected school board or borough elected boards like just about every other community  has?

1. P.S. To see how some teachers feel, please go to Chaz's School Daze and read his account on the lack of discipline and the comments.

UFT EXPLAINS YOUR RIGHTS

I copied this list below directly from Unity's Gene Mann's online publication for UFT activists called The Organizer. There are links to explanations for many rights UFT members have that are mostly not used according to what I read here in the comments and hear from around the system.

I highly recommend UFT members proceed directly to the grievance section for the harassment, intimidation, retaliation, and discrimination by supervisors part and then go to the Whistleblower protection section in the Other category to take advantage of these rights that have to be used to be effective. Member fears are legitimate but if we don't overcome them as a group, this job will never improve.

Absences

· Absences

· Attendance Procedures

· Bereavement

· Cumulative Absence Reserve (CAR)

· Educational Conference

· Excessive Absences/Lateness

· Graduation

· Jury Duty

· Religious Observance

· Storm Day Procedures

Certification

· New York City License/Appointment

· New York State Certification

Class Size

· Class Size

Disciplinary Charges

· Corporal Punishment and Verbal Abuse

· Disciplinary Actions

· False Accusations

· Insubordination

· Peer Intervention Plus

· Reassignment

· Summons

Excessing

· Excessing

Grievance

· Grievances

· Harassment, Intimidation,Retaliation and Discrimination by Supervisors

Health Benefits

· Health Benefits

Injured On The Job

· Injury in the Line of Duty (ILOD)

· Medical Arbitration

Leaves Of Absence

· Leave of Absence

· Parental and Maternity Leaves

Letter In The File

· Counseling Memos

· Letter in File

· Official School File

Observation & Evaluation

· Classroom Observations

Per Session

· Per-Session Work

Professional Activities

· Administrative Assignments

· Homeroom

· Professional Activity Options

· Professional Activity Procedures

Program Preferences

· Program Preference

· Rotation

· Teacher Programs

Salary

· Salary

School-Based Option

· Departmentalization in Elementary Schools

· School-Based Option (SBO)

Teaching

· Academic Freedom

· Bulletin Boards

· Class Coverage

· Curriculum

· Grades

· Lesson Plans

· Micromanagement

· Professional Conciliation

Teaching Help

· Mentors

· Peer Intervention Program (PIP)

Tenure

· Probationary Period

· Tenure

Time

· Extended Time

· Length of School Day

· Length of School Year

· Lunch Periods

· MOSL Window

· Other Professional Work

· Parent Engagement

Transfers

· Transfers

Transit Programs

· Transit Program

Shortage Areas

· Shortage License Areas

Environmental Health

· Environmental Safety and Health

School Safety

· Assaults

· Damaged or Stolen Property

· Disruptive Children (Behavior Problems)

· School Safety

· Victim Support Program

Supplies

· Supplies

· Teacher Facilities

School-Based Positions

· Cluster Teachers

· Coaches (Literacy and Math)

· Compensatory Time Positions

Workload

· Paperwork

Other

· Arrests

· Child Abuse

· Closing/Phasing Out Schools

· Consultation

· Discrimination

· Legal Assistance

· School Budget

· School Leadership Teams

· Social Networking

· Whistleblower Protection