NYS AFL-CIO STAYS OUT OF GOVERNOR'S RACE FOR NOW BUT WHY NOT ENDORSE TEACHOUT?

I suppose it is a small victory when the New York State AFL-CIO stays neutral (at least for now) in this year's election for governor instead of supporting the anti-union, anti-public education Governor Andrew Cuomo's reelection bid. I thought they would outright endorse Cuomo and they still might after the Democratic primary.

Notice how the decision on a governor's endorsement by the AFL-CIO was tabled so it can be raised again later.  If Republican Rob Astorino is making headway in the polls after Labor Day, look for labor to come to rescue Cuomo in the fall.

In addition, as Reality Based Educator pointed out, the big public employee unions (including the UFT), who provide major financial support for the Working Families Party, already backed Cuomo in May by using their financial clout to make sure he received the Working Families Party ballot line for governor.

What is the problem with being outright opposed to Cuomo?  There is an alternative to Cuomo running in the Democratic primary in September.  Her name is Zephyr Teachout.  (I have printed her education platform below taken right from her website.)

Is there much in Teachout's education program that we could not support?  Yes we have been fooled by Democratic Party candidates many times in the past but her platform compared to Cuomo's pro-charter school, pro-high stakes testing, anti-teacher, anti-worker record gives Democrats a clear choice.

I'm not speaking for ICE or MORE but as a registered Democrat, I have no problem publicly supporting Zephyr Teachout and I will vote for her in September.

The main argument against unions endorsing Teachout is she has no money while Cuomo has plenty so he can spend huge on advertising which means Teachout has no chance of winning.  This is a valid perspective; Teachout is a super long-shot however she might not have to win to have an impact.

When a politician is as awful as Cuomo has been for us, what will it take to say we stand on principle and oppose him?  Do we always just play politics so maybe a politician won't be so horrible to us next time?

I realize unions must often navigate in tough political waters but the Public Employees Federation, a large state union, has stepped up and endorsed Teachout as has the Buffalo Federation of Teachers.

NYSUT-UFT, AFL-CIO neutrality says volumes about where our leadership actually stands which is with Andrew Cuomo.



Teachout's education platform

THE BEST PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA

Public education is the foundation of democracy. That’s why so many members of the founding generation in America promoted free public education. I was lucky to have the chance to attend great public elementary and high schools. My first real job out of college was as a special education aide in a rural public school. I know from personal experience that strong public schools are essential not just to learn the skills and gain the confidence needed to thrive in today’s economy, but to build the knowledge and experience every citizen requires to become a full participant in political society.

Governor Cuomo has abandoned our public schools. His drastic budget cuts are short- sighted and entirely unnecessary. Under his tenure, class sizes have swollen to record levels, depriving students of the attention they need. New York school districts have had to eliminate tens of thousands of educator positions, amounting to more than 10 percent of the entire teaching workforce. This means schools have had to slash art, music, and sports, among other programs.

What makes this even more outrageous is that Governor Cuomo did not make these cuts because state coffers were empty. He made these cuts so he could cut the taxes of New York’s wealthiest individuals, of New York’s wealthiest banks, and of New York’s wealthiest corporations. Worse yet, after intentionally starving New York’s public schools, Governor Cuomo charged New York’s public school teachers with failing New York’s students. He then used this charge to justify calling for the privatization of schools and for the imposition of draconian testing requirements.

One of the prime duties of the governor of New York is to safeguard our public schools from any private interest that threatens their public purpose. Yet Governor Cuomo, in his four years in office, has rarely even visited a public school. As Governor, I would dedicate myself every day to restoring New York’s public schools to their rightful place as the best in the nation. Specifically, I would pursue the following five strategies:

a. Full and Equal Funding for Public Education

New York spends $8,700 less per pupil in poor districts than we do in rich ones. That makes New York the sixth most unequal state in all America when it comes to school funding. This also means that New York is in violation of its own Constitution, which requires the government to provide a “sound, basic education” to every student, no matter his zip-code. I believe this constitutional obligation should be our floor, not our ceiling. New Yorkers have a right to demand the best public schools in the nation, with small class sizes, arts, and physical education for every child.

I would work to make funding more fair and equitable. Despite a promise to the contrary, Governor Cuomo has actually widened the funding gap between poor and wealthy districts.

b. End High-Stakes Testing

Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, we’ve seen a culture of test-and-punish overthrow actual teaching and real learning. New York State entirely botched the implementation of Common Core, which has ushered in an unrelenting regimen of tests. Governor Cuomo’s system of basing teacher evaluations on student tests has corroded actual learning.

We should slam the brakes on the barrage of high-stakes testing. This means halting both the new Common Core tests and tests that are part of the teacher evaluation system. We need to undertake a thorough reevaluation of all high stakes tests, with full input from educators and parents.

c. Protect Against Privatization

Governor Cuomo has promoted a private takeover of public education policy, by opening state coffers up to charter schools, which serve only three percent of New York’s students. In New York City, meanwhile, he has mandated that city taxpayers pay rent for privately run charter schools to the tune of $11,000 per pupil, thus fueling their massive expansion at the expense of public schools.

We should protect our public schools from privatization schemes, including the diversion of state funds to private schools through vouchers or back-door tax credits. We should repeal provisions enacted in 2014 that hijack control of decision-making about charter school co-locations out of the hands of local governments and that mandate that New York City pay for charter school rent.

d. Empower Local Communities

I would eliminate the undemocratic provisions of the cap on local school budgets— falsely sold as a tax cap even though it caps nobody’s taxes. Specifically we should hand back to local voters the right to control their own school budgets, by eliminating the requirement of a 60 percent supermajority. We should return to the principle of one person, one vote in school budget elections.

e. Suspend the Suspension Pipeline

We must end the ‘school to prison pipeline’ where excessive use of school suspensions for minor infractions deprive students of education, leaving them behind. Suspensions actually increase behavior problems and decrease school safety. In many urban communities there is a school suspension crisis—with huge racial inequalities in suspension rates. Greater suspension rates lead to higher expulsion rates and to increases in school-based arrests. This cycle starts with high suspension rates for young students, even as young as pre-k and kindergarten. We need solutions, not suspensions. We need to transform the culture in school buildings to support teachers and students, foster collaboration, teach problem-solving, engender real responsibility and accountability and keep students in school. This approach, called “restorative justice,” has proven highly effective. Due to a local community organizing effort in Buffalo, the implementation of these reforms have already led to a 30 percent reduction in suspensions. Students cannot learn if they are not in school.

DIANE RAVITCH ENCOURAGES CRITICISM OF UNION POLICY AND PRACTICE

There is no more famous critic of corporate school privatization than NYU Professor Diane Ravitch.  Her blog along with the Washington Post Answer Sheet, written by Valerie Strauss, are two of the leading places to go for strong criticisms of the corporate drive to destroy the public school system.

Ravitch has been very careful about not denouncing the leadership of the teachers unions by telling us we need to support people such as her friend AFT President Randi Weingarten.  However, on Thursday she posted something written by AFT member Kipp Dawson that is quite critical of the undemocratic nature of the UFT.  The UFT basically controls the AFT as Dawson pointed out and both unions are run in a top-down way.

This is the first time I can recall an almost direct attack from Ravitch against the Unity Caucus, Randi's faction of the UFT. Unity enforces party discipline with a loyalty oath.  Unity members  must vote as the leadership tells them or they are ousted from the party.

This was followed by a post today where Ravitch questions one of NYSUT's baffling political endorsements for 2014.  Our union is supporting the leader of the renegade Democrats, the pro- charter Jeff Klein, who led the group that allowed the Republicans to control the State Senate. He is also one of two Democrats who voted to take away New York City teacher seniority protections.  Klein is being challenged in the September primary by Oliver Koppell. 

Perdido Street School took down this endorsement yesterday. 

By asking for an explanation of the Klein endorsement, Ravitch was lobbing a softball right over the plate for Unity foes to swat out of the park.  ICE's very own Michael Fiorillo stepped up to the plate to hit his usual grand slam as he summed up for Ravitch the union's twisted reasoning for backing Klein.

If only our membership would read this en masse.

Michael Fiorillo says:

August 16, 2014 at 12:52 pm

Endorsing an oily bottom-feeder like Klein is just part of Unity’s workaday world. NYC teachers who’ve been around for a while probably have not-so-fond memories of the UFT leadership giving its annual John Dewey Award to Republican governor George Pataki, and then stabbing Democratic gubernatorial candidate and long-time UFT ally Carl McCall in the back some years ago. It’s typical behavior on their part.

After all, this is an organization that continues to endorse Mayoral control of the schools (except when the Mayor tries to rein in charter schools, in which case they silently stand by and allow him to be knee-capped by Cuomo/Moskowitz), did nothing to keep Bloomberg from buying an illegal third term and then gave him a de facto endorsement in 2009, takes pay-offs, er, investments, from Gates and Broad, supports Common Core and the testing regime that motivates it, as well as test-based teacher evaluations. The hostile takeover of public education would have never, ever, had the “success” it found if Weingrew had not accepted its premises.

Unity often appears invincible, given their choke-hold on power and the frequent cleverness with which they manipulate it, but everything runs it’s course, and these people have been enjoying their one-party state, and the double pensions that accompany it, for more than half a century. Unity Caucus is literally the last of the great political machines.

However, Unity Caucus is trapped in a dilemma: it fattens off the apathy and demoralization of its grossly manipulated membership, yet that very same apathy and demoralization inevitably lead to the weakening of the union, which ultimately endangers their hold on power.

The stronger they appear, the weaker they in fact are.

Michael Mulgrew can threaten to punch us all in the face – everyone, that is, except Andrew Cuomo, whom he kneels before – but he is now widely seen as a joke and embarrassment, and it’s hard to maintain monolithic power when your ostensible leader is a literal punch line.

Like the Communist Party in East Germany, which it ironically resembles in its inner “Democratic Centralist” workings, Unity will continue to be invincible, until it isn’t.

COMMON CORE TEST SCORE RESULTS BASED ON LOWER CUT SCORES

Please let's not talk much about results of Common Core tests.  No spin and no need to call anyone any names or punch anyone in the face.  The increase in scores was predictable but hardly reflective of anything.

Part of this year's incrementally higher test scores can be attributed to the geniuses at the State Education Department merely lowering the cut scores.  What this means is the students needed to answer a lower percentage of questions right this year as compared to last year to achieve the same score.

It is all explained by Lace to the Top.

"Results of the ELA tests are up 0.1%, but the cut score was lowered by 2% (3rd grade).  In 2013, students needed to receive 35 out of 55 possible points to achieve a passing score of 3.  In 2014, students needed to only receive 30 out of a possible 49 points to receive a passing grade of 3."

Has standardized testing been sufficiently debunked yet?

If you need more evidence, read Julie' Cavanagh's critique in the Daily News.  She hits it out of the park too.

From her piece:

"It is no surprise that the results mirror the struggles and deep flaws in our society.  Of course, the goal was never to actually fix our schools -- there are no profits in doing that.  There are no profits in providing small class sizes, experienced educators and services like counseling, tutoring and family support -- proven reforms that would benefit all students.

Instead, the focus is on unproven standards and the tests that supposedly measure our student's
competency -- written by the very people who profit from their use."

STATE UNION WON'T OPPOSE CUOMO

New York State United Teachers is remaining neutral in the 2014 governor's race. At its endorsement conference this week, NYSUT decided not to support Zephyr Teachout for governor in the Democratic primary or Howie Hawkins from the Green Party in the general election if Teachout loses the primary. We are not opposing Andrew Cuomo's reelection.

NYSUT's neutrality will clear the way for the AFL-CIO, to endorse Cuomo just like in 2010.

Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association President Beth Dimino reports over on Facebook how NYSUT had the opportunity to oppose Cuomo during the endorsement conference: "There were many who called for endorsements of Teachout and/or Hawkins."  

Yet another Revive NYSUT promise goes down the drain.  President Karen Magee's Revive NYSUT campaign literature in the fifth bullet said her caucus was "Against Cuomo."  They further emphasized, "We are not pro-Cuomo.  We have called him the Scott Walker of New York." Our new leadership group had a chance this week to align the NYSUT endorsement with their campaign literature, but just like with Common Core, they have once again they failed the test.

So much for the new NYSUT bosses listening to the rank and file.

This endorsement action pretty much fits in with the theory as to why Randi Weingarten had a major role in the coup to unseat Dick Iannuzzi as NYSUT President. Over at Ed Notes, Norm Scott reported on this in February: "My sources say that Randi could not accept Iannuzzi and crew's blatant rejection of Cuomo which would leave her without a role to play with the big boys on the state Democratic Party level. My sources say that it is more important to her than even considerations of splitting NYSUT."  Good sources Norm!

See the list of NYSUT endorsements here. 

Were any of you asked about any of these?

REPORTERS QUESTION WHY SO FEW ATRS TOOK THE SEVERANCE PACKAGE & WHY MULGEW SUPPORTS COMMON CORE

I was trying to relax yesterday and escape the education and union worlds for a while but was interrupted multiples times as three reporters contacted me about a Department of Education press release (see below) on the Absent Teacher Reserves.  A different member of the fourth estate called asking for my view on UFT President Michael Mulgrew's speech at the AFT Convention in defense of the Common Core where our leader said he was going to punch someone in the face.

ATRs

The press seemed interested in why there were so few takers for the ATR severance money which amounted to a few thousand dollars.  I responded easily by saying we need jobs and we're well qualified, mostly experienced teachers who are looking to teach.  I called the severance money insulting and ridiculous.  For the DOE to claim they are saving money is absurd as the few people who took the severance pay were probably going to leave anyway. 

Geoff Decker from Chalkbeat actually found a real live ATR who accepted the money.  Not surprisingly, the teacher could have retired anyway.  You can find the NY 1 piece here (It was nice working with Lindsey Christ again who in the past was very fair when it came to Jamaica HS) and also linked is a recent article in the NY Post on ATRs by Sue Edelman.

It seems none of our intrepid print journalists want to write about (or maybe their editors didn't see fit to cover) the contradiction in the press release that I pointed out to them.

The DOE says, "There will be no forced placements." OK but then two lines later they declare: "If a teacher from the ATR fails to appear at interviews or fails to accept a teaching position he or she is offered, the teacher will be deemed to have resigned from the school system."  That sounds like forced placement to me.

The quote they use from Chancellor Carmen Farina adds to this confusion as she states: "We are pleased that through this educator's contract, we were able to develop a process that is mutually beneficial for the DOE by reducing spending and for the teachers who have chosen to leave. And we are doing so while respecting mutual-consent hiring. There is no forced placement of these teachers.”  (Emphasis added by me)

Let me understand them: Teachers are not going to be forced placed but if we turn down a position or don't show up for an interview we will have resigned.  How is that not forced placement? 

The Farina/DOE anti-teacher bias is fully on display here.  The DOE means ATRs won't be forced on principals but we can be compelled to accept positions at poorly run schools where no teacher in their right mind would want to be employed.

Is there respect for the mutual consent doctrine as Farina claims?  She needs to be called on this statement. There is no mutual consent doctrine for ATRs.  We have to survive until June in a school we are forced placed in. At that time we can request to escape from our provisional assignment.

Many of us will be forced placed and we will then be subject to a harsher disciplinary process, including truncated dismissal hearings since we are still ATRs.

MULGREW'S TIRADE AT THE AFT CONVENTION

I am so glad Norm Scott traveled to Los Angeles to record much of the AFT Convention.  Norm paid his own way to go to LA.  We should take up a collection to reimburse his airfare, hotel and meal expenses.  Why should only Unity Caucus members who sign the loyalty oath to do as Mulgrew tells them attend conventions on our dime? Norm did a fine public service by recording floor speeches at the AFT Convention and filing numerous reports.

Thanks to Norm, anyone can watch the video of Mulgrew's defense of the indefensible Common Core State Standards and make up their own mind about whether his argument makes any sense. 

Norm and I both told Daily News reporter Stephen Rex Brown how he needs to follow the Bill Gates and Eli Broad money to see why the AFT-NYSUT-UFT are such avid cheerleaders for the Common Core, even though most teachers know these so called standards are just tools for more high stakes testing of teachers and students, while also being used by the education profiteers to make loads of money.  The union is in on the foundation money gravy train so of course they endorse Common Core. Teachers who wrongfully lose their careers because of junk science based evaluation systems linked to Common Core and Race to the Top (which the union also endorsed) are just collateral damage as far as they are concerned. 

To be fair, AFT President Randi Weingarten believes we have to work with the reformers or they will destroy us just like they have basically killed off the industrial unions in this country. When I was on the UFT Executive Board, she called me naïve. She claims we are adapting to tough political times to survive.  I disagree.

I believe if teachers fought back like we were part of a real union at the city, state and national level, teachers, parents and students would rally to our cause and we would emerge victorious.  We could truly save public education if we really used union power instead of trying to appease the people who want to wipe us out.

As for Mulgrew's demeanor, yeah he was insulting but I agree with Norm how we wish Mulgrew would address our enemies with the same defiant tone he used during his AFT floor speech.

Read Norm's important commentary over at Ed Notes.


Full email from DOE press office on ATRs:

Education Reporters,

I want to update you on the first phase of our effort to reduce the size of the Absent Teacher Reserve pool. As part of the new contract with the UFT, if eligible individuals in the ATR pool decided to leave, they got a severance pay-out that was a sliding scale based on years of service up to a maximum of 10 weeks of pay. In the one-time window to take the package that ended this week, 115 people in the ATR, including 97 teachers, opted for a severance package. The average compensation afforded to each was 9 weeks of pay.

Reducing the Size of the ATR Pool:

The deadline to apply for the buyouts was Monday, August 4. As of this spring, there were 1,131 teachers in the ATR pool, with around 1,300 including all UFT titles. Please note that there is no ATR pool over the summer—a new one is established each year when the school year commences. Based on those leaving the ATR as a result of these packages, we expect to begin the coming school year with a smaller ATR pool than last fall. Note: the ATR is historically at its highest point in the fall, as the hiring process is still underway. At the beginning of last fall, it stood at nearly 2,000 teachers.

Cost Savings:

These buyouts represent significant long-term cost savings for the Department. On average, employees who took the compensation package earn $93,000 annually and as a group, when fringe benefits are included, the cost of maintaining these teachers in the ATR would have totaled $15 million in the coming year alone. Instead, the Department anticipates paying around $16,000 per employee for a one-time cost of $1.8 million total.

Further Tools to Reduce the ATR Pool:

Reducing the ATR pool and helping qualified teachers find permanent positions and helping those unfit for the profession move on to other careers continues to be an important priority for the Department. The severance package represented the first step in our new procedures to reduce the ATR pool, and over the coming months, we will move forward with other measures to further reduce the pool based on tools in the new teachers’ contract, including:

·         The DOE is facilitating interviews and introductions to help ATR teachers re-enter the teaching force.  Principals retain the power to hire or decline to hire a teacher from the ATR. There will be no forced placements.
·         If a teacher from the ATR fails to appear at interviews or fails to accept a teaching position he or she is offered, the teacher will be deemed to have resigned from the school system.
·         Starting later in the fall, the DOE will assign ATR teachers to schools with vacancies where they can be used on a temporary, provisional basis to cover classes and be considered for the vacant position. Principals can remove ATR teachers from these assignments at any time.
·         If an ATR teacher in a temporary, provisional assignment in a vacancy demonstrates documented problematic behavior more than once, the DOE will initiate a special 3020a process to expedite disciplinary action including potential termination.

Here is a quote for your use from Chancellor Carmen Fariña: “We're developing a world-class school system, and to do that, we need world-class teachers educating our students. We are pleased that through this educator's contract, we were able to develop a process that is mutually beneficial for the DOE by reducing spending and for the teachers who have chosen to leave. And we are doing so while respecting mutual-consent hiring. There is no forced placement of these teachers.”

Thanks,

Devora

UFT REMINDS MEMBERS OF STAPLES BOYCOTT

I don't know if our post last week was read by UFT leaders but I do know today they acted properly by telling members about UFT's Staples boycott.

We here at ICE like to point out when the union does something well.

The email from the Staff Directors is copied below.



Dear James,

As you begin to spend the $77 that teachers will receive in Teacher’s Choice funds for 2014-15, please keep in mind that the UFT is supporting the AFL-CIO boycott of Staples.

Through its retail partnership with Staples, the U.S. Postal Service is privatizing postal operations and replacing living-wage, unionized Postal Service jobs with low-wage, non-unionized Staples jobs.

Read the UFT resolution to boycott Staples passed at the June Delegate Assembly.

As in previous years, to participate in Teacher’s Choice, you will need to submit receipts as proof of purchase. These receipts must accompany a Statement of Purpose/Accountability form. Once this form is available for this year, it will be posted on the DOE’s Teacher’s Choice website. To qualify under Teacher’s Choice, purchases can be made as early as Aug.1, 2014 but no later thanFeb. 28, 2015.

Sincerely,

LeRoy Barr and Ellie
Directors of Staff

LETTER TO PROTECT TENURE FROM PEOPLE WHO WEAKENED IT

A call to action came in my email three times in the last day (see below).  The first one came from AFT President Randi Weingarten; then the same email arrived from UFT President Michael Mulgrew and finally version three was sent from NYSUT President Karen Magee. The final time it was signed by all three to show its importance.

The email says the UFT and NYSUT are already mobilized to fight Campbell Brown as she goes after tenure with a lawsuit and a public relations offensive against teachers' fundamental rights.  Even though I will support almost any union action, including this one, I am sorry but I am not feeling enthusiastic about battling for my rights alongside leaders who regularly surrender them.

Randi Weingarten routinely weakened tenure and seniority rights for teachers in NYC with deals she negotiated when she was running the UFT. The UFT gave away the right for teachers in the city to have a three person panel hear our tenure trials.  City teachers must face a single arbitrator in dismissal hearings instead of a three person panel as happens in the rest of the state.  NYC teachers can also be suspended without pay before a tenure hearing based on probable cause from what are often biased Special Commissioner of Investigations reports thanks to Weingarten's appeasement strategy. 

Add to this when schools close or downsize, as happens all the time in NYC, seniority means next to nothing.  Thanks to Weingarten's 2005 giveaway contract, teachers are thrown into the Absent Teacher Reserve pool when schools phase out or programs are cut.  Teachers become substitutes who are tossed around the system and have fewer rights than colleagues. She also agreed to weaker due process for teachers having difficulty with time and attendance.  As AFT President, Weingarten has continued her concessionary strategy when helping to negotiate contracts in places such as Newark, NJ and for other locals.

Under Michael Mulgrew's stewardship, tenure-seniority rights have been further eroded in NYC as he and NYSUT accepted a dreadful new teacher evaluation system to get some federal Race to the Top peanuts.  Under the new system, much of our annual rating is based on student test score results which research shows are not reliable measures of teacher effectiveness (junk science).  After two annual ineffective ratings, as long as a validator agrees a teacher is ineffective, the burden of proof in tenure hearings will soon shift to the teacher to prove he/she is not incompetent.  Ask any teacher who went through the similar Peer Intervention Plus program under the old system if they had any chance in their dismissal hearing after an outside (non Department of Education) intervener said they were incompetent? The answer will be no from what I have been told. Note the burden of proof was still on the employer; by next year it will move to the teacher. 

Absent Teacher Reserves have had tenure protections further diminished under Mulgrew as ATRs are now shifted from school-to-school on a weekly basis.  In addition under our latest contract, if two principals can cite an ATR for undefined "problematic behavior", the Department of Education can bring the ATR up on charges in an expedited one day State Law Section 3020a discipline hearing within 50 days.  The ATR can then be summarily dismissed based on whatever problematic behavior turns out to be.

Under the new contract if an ATR misses two mandated interviews without giving adequate notice (up to the DOE to say what that means), that teacher is considered to have resigned without any tenure hearing and will have to fight to get back on payroll. 

Tenure has been so eroded in New York City that it is a shell of what it once was.  Statistics show many cases end up with teachers resigning or retiring so don't buy it when someone claims how it is impossible to fire teachers. Forcing someone to quit has the same result.  Anybody who believes the myth that tenure guarantees teachers jobs for life (or even full due process in NYC) does not know what they are talking about.

Furthermore, almost half the teachers in the city have their probationary period extended or don't receive tenure at all and the union does nothing but complain about why so many new teachers are leaving on their own.  Maybe one of the causes of newer teachers quitting is because they have so little union protection. The great myth is the union is so powerful.  In reality it is a paper tiger, declawed long ago and therefore an easy target.

The endgame for this fight against tenure led by Brown, high powered attorney David Boies and their secret huge donors is our union will fight back loudly (busy work for the membership) and then quietly appease the Democratic party establishment by possibly agreeing to chip away a little more at the tenure law in New York State, particularly for New York City teachers. That's right, we will face further concessions where our union will declare victory when we give up more of what is left of our rights.

The only variable preventing this from being an almost surefire result is the ethically challenged, anti-public school teacher Governor Andrew Cuomo is making Nixonian style mistakes concerning his role in interfering with the Moreland Commission investigations of corruption in NYS government.  Thank you Reality Based Educator for nonstop coverage over at Perdido Street School. As a result of this scandal, teachers may not be frontline targets in Albany for a while.

The email from our three renowned union leaders is in full below.


        

From:	NYSUT (leader@nysutinfo.org) This message is in your inbox because you've indicated interest in this sender.
Sent:	Tue 8/05/14 3:05 AM
To:

Teachers are under attack again. And we need your help to fight back.              Last Monday, former journalist Campbell Brown announced a lawsuit in New York going after teachers' job protections. That lawsuit, Wright v. New York, is a copycat of Vergara v. California. Brown's organization -- cynically named the Partnership for Educational Justice -- has hired some of the fanciest PR firms in the country to sell their snake oil, including the firm that ran Mitt Romney's 2012 online campaign.              We need to make sure that our friends, neighbors and allies understand who Campbell Brown is, and who she really represents. Will you help us spread the word by sharing this story with your friends and networks? Share on Facebook and Twitter.                            Brown and her friends want to sell you the same "blame teachers" line we've seen from Michelle Rhee and right-wing politicians for years. They'll tell you tenure means a job for life and that due process makes it impossible to dismiss ineffective teachers. Now, emboldened by a radical ruling in California, they're spreading this case across the country, starting in New York. This couldn't be further from the truth. In New York, teachers are granted tenure -- and due process protections -- after 3 years of success in the classroom. Once your boss grants you tenure, due process simply means they must produce just cause to discipline or terminate you. Due process gives teachers the protections to speak up for their students, stop cronyism and innovate in the classroom.                                         At the AFT convention, delegates said "enough is enough." We passed a special order of business to fight back so we could move our country forward. We need to stand together now.                           It may seem like a small act, but sharing this story is important. Brown and her friends will spend millions of dollars on slick PR to confuse people and put the blame on teachers and our unions. She'll say she's fighting to represent students and parents. We need to make sure our friends hear the truth about who she represents from us. Share the real story on Facebook Share the real story on Twitter We're going to fight this with everything we've got. In New York, NYSUT and the UFT are already mobilized. Together we'll fight in the courts, on the ground and in the media. But we have to start by making sure people know what's really going on. You can make a difference, just by sharing this story and telling you friends what's really going on. In Unity, Randi Weingarten Karen Magee Michael Mulgrew P.S. See how Campbell Brown dodged your questions last week on the Colbert Report here. NYSUT - New York State United Teachers -- 800 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, NY 12110-2455

MERCEDES SCHNEIDER BOOK METICULOUSLY EXPOSES SCHOOL REFORM FOR THE MONEY SCAM IT IS

Mercedes Schneider, a well respected teacher-researcher from Louisiana, takes down the motives of the so called education reformers in a new book called, A Chronicle of Echoes: Who's Who in the Implosion of American Public Education.

Here is a review written by Seth Sandronsky in Counter Punch. (Thanks to Jeff Kaufman for sending it around.)

Sandronsky's analysis of Schneder's work contains this key section on Common Core State Standards:

"The CCSS is not piloted, or tested. Classroom teachers are uninvolved in pushing the CCSS, and its 'evidence' for improving students’ learning is a mirage, unlike the Gates Foundation’s dollars distributed to both political parties, think tanks and the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association. This is influence-peddling the old-fashioned way: buying it.

There you have education reform summed up in less than a paragraph. 

Schneider goes further than the most notable critic of education reform Diane Ravitch.  Ravitch is very careful about not criticizing the teacher unions whereas Schneider is willing to include union leaders like Randi Weingarten in her attacks. 

WHERE IS A REMINDER TO BOYCOTT STAPLES IN UFT TEACHER'S CHOICE EMAIL?

Teacher's Choice is money allocated to teachers and other UFT members to spend on school supplies for the classroom.  Teachers make purchases between August 1 of this year and February 28, 2015 and then submit receipts along with an accountability form to schools.

The UFT is taking credit for the City Council increasing our Teacher's Choice allocation to a whopping $77 this year. This is up from last year however in years past when the city was doing well financially, we used to receive allocations well over $200.  So no, we should not be smiling. 

The worst part about the UFT email bragging about the program is there is no mention of the AFL-CIO, AFT, UFT boycott of Staples. 

Thanks to Mike Shirtzer from MORE, I was reminded of this issue yesterday.

In June the UFT Delegate Assembly unanimously voted to boycott Staples (go to the bottom of the lengthy report) because Staples was opening up full service postal windows in some of its stores. The windows were being staffed by poorly trained, low paid non-unionized employees instead of well trained unionized postal workers. 

In July, Staples pulled out of this original arrangement with the Postal Service but the boycott continues as postal workers said the privatizing is continuing under a different name.

Here is the latest on the boycott from The Nation.

As the back-to-school shopping season is upon us, it is a great opportunity for the UFT to publicize to teachers as well as parents and students how we need to use our dollars to stop this blatant privatization scheme. 

If the UFT won't remind people of the Staples' boycott, this blog will and we encourage readers to pass the word along:

Don't spend a dime of Teacher's Choice or any other money at Staples!

 

 

The UFT email in its entirety is below.

Dear James,

We hope you are enjoying your summer.

Every year, usually beginning in late summer, you and other teachers spend money from your own pockets on supplies you need to educate your students in the coming school year.

We want to let you know that we have secured an increase in Teacher's Choice money to about $6.1 million to help cover what you and other dedicated educators spend.

The amount for teachers has increased to $77 for 2014-15.

We know that many of you spend several times this amount each year on materials to further your students' education.  The increase will help to offset some of your expenses.

As in previous years, to participate in Teacher's Choice, you will need to submit receipts

as proof of purchase. These receipts must accompany a Statement of Purpose/Accountability form.

Once this form is available for this year, it will be posted on the DOE's Teacher's Choice website.

To qualify under Teacher's Choice, purchases can be made as early as Aug. 1, 2014 but no later than Feb. 28, 2015.

Sincerely,

Leroy Barr and Ellie Engler
Staff Directors

BUFFALO TEACHERS SUPPORT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CUOMO; HOW ABOUT NYSUT?

The Buffalo Federation of Teachers earlier this month endorsed Zephyr Teachout for governor in the Democratic Primary against the ethically challenged Andrew Cuomo. 

Cuomo is turning into just another politician who is fodder for late night TV comic Jon Stewart.

As for our state union NYSUT, when is the NYSUT revival coming?  I thought Karen Magee's Revive NYSUT campaign literature said they were "Against Cuomo."

 


Magee has been in power since April as NYSUT President.  This is the leaflet featuring her slate's campaign promises.  It would be nice if they kept a few of the major ones.

SOME BIASED TENURE TRIAL STATISTICS FROM WSJ

I am no fan of the Wall Street Journal.  However, today's article with NYC teacher tenure trial statistics is somewhat interesting reading because there are some actual, although incomplete, figures presented. 

Looking inside the numbers, it is clear that teachers who choose to go to a hearing, rather than settle beforehand, usually receive a fine. That seems to fit in with anecdotal information we have heard over the years.

However, the Journal does not put in their big chart (copied below) and barely mentions that out of 826 cases filed by the Department of Education, "Hundreds of cases settled, often with teachers agreeing to resign or retire, and hundreds haven't been resolved."  Their chart shows only 261 decisions out of 496 resolved hearings. That leaves 235 which they agree are often resignations or retirements.  Add say 150 resignations or retirements to the forty terminations and their chart would look completely different. See how statistics can be played with.

The Journal is obviously trying to lowball the numbers on how many teachers are no longer working in the system so they can prove how hard it is to terminate a tenured teacher.  This shows their anti teacher prejudice. If someone resigns or is forced to retire, they are no longer teaching in the system.  I gather that in private business many employees are urged to resign or retire rather than be fired but showing these statistics for teachers would not fit in with the Journal's preconceived notion that the Department of Education can't get rid of us.

They also neglect to note how many teachers are completely exonerated in the 3020a process. That number from what we have been told is so small that to print it would make the union look weak and that would also not coincide with the right wing myth on how strong the union is.

Remember all of these cases were heard under the old evaluation system.  Under the new evaluation system's weakened due process provision that will start in 2015 in NYC for most teachers, there will be a presumption of incompetence after two ineffective ratings.  The burden of proof will shift to teachers to prove we are not incompetent if a validator upholds an ineffective rating. 

 

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS USED TO WIN WITH MILITANCY & CAN WIN AGAIN

A pivotal turning point in labor history was in 1981 when Ronald Reagan fired air traffic controllers who went on strike.  Thirty three years later the downward spiral for organized labor in general and public employees in particular has not been reversed.  Believe it or not, those controllers, who Reagan portrayed as greedy, had public support a decade earlier when they were fighting against forced overtime.  It was an airline safety issue.

Now that basic collective bargaining rights are either gone or under assault in the public and private sectors throughout the country, labor needs to take a look at why strikes were successful before the 1980s and revive the militancy weapon wisely.  For those of us who work for the government in New York, it is almost unimaginable to think of a job action but they used to happen with some degree of regularity throughout the country.

As Joe Burns noted in a recent Labor Notes essay on the history of public sector strikes: "Winning public employee strikes, then and now, depended on a union’s ability to frame the issues, garner community support, and thereby exert political pressure on policymakers to settle."  This is very difficult in the age of the media barons and unlimited money from billionaires flooding political campaigns but it is not impossible as recent teacher job actions and/or credible threats have shown.

Striking is a fundamental worker right.  Public employees in New York State have basically given up that right because we are fearful of the harsh penalties of the Taylor Law (we are fined two days pay for every day on strike) but without the strike weapon, we are engaging in, as Burns put it, "collective begging" with our employers. There is no need for management to negotiate in good faith and we pretty much have no recourse.*

We should be seeking common ground with the public to show that it is in the general public's interest to have a strong labor movement.  Then we can exert pressure on politicians so they know that their jobs will be in jeopardy if they don't stand with us on important issues.

For our union, the United Federation of Teachers, we  could easily start with the Comptroller's Report released earlier this month showing how one in three NYC public schools are overcrowded.  Lower class sizes/building new schools (instead of shoving schools inside of existing ones) should be at the forefront of the UFT's agenda moving forward. We can rally our members and the public around these issues.  Reasonable class sizes should also be a contractual demand for sure.

Opposition to Common Core should also be a no brainer for our union.  The public is with us here too.

A revival of the UFT and many other unions must start at the grassroots level and requires person-to-person organizing.  We cannot depend on the detached union hierarchy to lead as they are far removed from the work place so they are not impacted by what they negotiate.

If we don't get it together soon, we will continue to spiral downward until all of us will be at will Walmart style employees.


*The Triborough provision of the Taylor Law keeps NYS public employee contracts in effect, after they expire, until there is a new one.  However, at the end of any mediation, non-binding arbitration or other process, workers need to be able to have the legal option to withhold their labor until there is a new agreement. For some unions the process ends in binding arbitration.  For NYC teachers, it just ends after non-binding arbitration.  Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was successful in just waiting the teachers out and subsequently we accepted an inferior agreement where most of us won't be paid in full until 2020 for monies owed to us from 2009-11 (some won't be paid at all and are suing) and many of us have had our due process rights weakened.

KAREN MAGEE FLIP-FLOP

Remember the New York State United Teachers election this past spring.  The first promise made in the campaign literature of Revive NYSUT, the victorious but now defunct caucus, was that they were against Common Core.

As NYC Educator reported last week, that pledge has been openly broken by the recently elected NYSUT President Karen Magee. 

Here is part of her floor speech at the AFT Convention taken from Education Week as she rose to support Common Core with minor revisions: "I pose the questions to you today: "If not standards, then what? A free-for-all? Everyone does what they please? No common base? No common method to look at what they're doing?"  She goes on by adding how the implementation was botched but the Common Core is a real opportunity. 

However, in her Revive election literature it stated point blank that her slate was "against Common Core." 

Promise made-promise broken.  That didn't take long.

Our friends in the Chicago Teachers Union had an AFT resolution to oppose the Common Core as these are not standards but a way to make money for corporate education privatizers by testing kids and teachers to death.  The UFT dominated AFT defeated this resolution in committee.  Funny how Magee backed the UFT position and abandoned her pledge on Common Core because her literature further declared, "We are not puppets of the UFT."  Have they disagreed on anything of any substance yet? 

Then again, maybe it's not so funny because she needed the guaranteed bloc of 34% of the votes that come from the UFT to be elected NYSUT President.  Those voters were of course bound by caucus obligation to do as President Mulgrew and the other leaders of Unity Caucus told them to do so they voted for Revive.

They are also bound at the AFT Convention to do as Mulgrew tells them so they make up a huge voting bloc in the national union too and thus supported Common Core.

Revive also claimed they were "against Cuomo."  Anyone think NYSUT will support Zephyr Teachout in the Democratic primary for governor in September?  I doubt it too.

Revive was against Gates funding too.  Anyone believe they are pushing on that issue?

You get the idea.

TENURE STRIKES BACK

The inane decision by a California judge to say tenure for teachers is unconstitutional in that state has not even been implemented, pending a very winnable appeal, but it has received widespread media attention and now a NY copycat suit. 

However, why not the same coverage for a recent judicial decision in the more conservative state of North Carolina affirming tenure?  This more rational judge would not permit the State Legislature to diminish teacher due process rights, which is all that tenure for K-12 teachers really is.

The NC Legislature last week even dropped a proposal to tie teacher pay raises to voluntarily surrendering tenure.

Check out this editorial from the News and Observer in Raleigh.  The problem throughout the country is not firing teachers, it's teachers leaving on our own. This is the line from Raleigh that caught my eye:

"...it is irresponsible lawmakers, not incompetent teachers, who must be held more accountable."

Summing it all up perfectly is our friend Arthur Goldstein in the Daily News. Everyone should read his defense of tenure from Wednesday's newspaper to see how it protects good teachers.

See also Norm Scott in the Indypendent.

And thanks to Reality Based Educator, here are two more pieces defending tenure from this past week over at Salon.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/12/3931765/tenure-ruling-affirms-Everyone should read Arthur Goldstein's defense of tenure from Wednesday's Daily News to see how it protects good teachers.the-right.html?sp=/99/108/#storylink=cpy

LIRR STRIKE SCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY & NOW AVERTED

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has basically rejected the findings of two non-binding Presidential Emergency Boards that called for 17% raises over 6 years for Long Island Railroad workers.  This has set the stage for a possible LIRR strike on Sunday. 

The MTA, it seems, would more than likely accept these terms if the workers would agree to force employees not yet hired (the unborn) to agree to an inferior pension tier as well as higher costs for healthcare.  Most new government employees in NYS have already been forced to settle for diminished retirement benefits (Tier VI).

My guess is the MTA is counting on workers not going on strike to protect yet to be hired union members.  Management probably believes union members will sell out the unborn.  However, if two sets of arbitrators appointed by the President agree to one set of numbers and the union doesn't get that money, then the union has essentially lost so they will rally members over that issue.

As for comparisons with what city teachers just settled for, clearly 17% over 6 years on the table for LIRR workers is substantially better than 18% over 9 years that the UFT agreed to in May. In addition, teachers already have the Tier 6 concession and the evaluation system givebacks so our contract terms are much worse than what arbitrators proposed for the LIRR employees.

I know, I know LIRR workers aren't covered under the Taylor Law that bans most strikes in NYS by government employees.  We would suffer draconian penalties if we engaged in a job action.  All the more reason why we should be fighting strongly to restore our basic human right to strike.

UPDATE THURSDAY: Strike Averted
It looks like the LIRR workers will get 17% over 6.5 years but they will have to make healthcare contributions and there is a lower pay scales for the yet to be hired. We will look at the specific details before we give a full analysis

SHAMELESS PLUG FOR MY BROTHER'S STOP AND FRISK OPINION PIECE

My brother John Eterno and his fellow researcher Eli Silverman are at it again explaining in a Daily News Op-Ed why there should not be an NYPD study on stop and frisk and its relation to shootings. 

Even if there is a 100% correlation between more stops (legal and illegal) and fewer shootings, Eterno and Silverman argue that police must still follow the law.  That is the sound opinion of the authors as police engaging in illegal activities undermines our democracy. 

If you can, please try to get a hold of Eterno and Silverman's book, The Crime Numbers Game.  It's well worth the effort.  You see how government's play with numbers.  Crime statistics are like school test scores: made to dance anyway someone wants them to.

NYC V CHICAGO IN LA: NY WINS BATTLE BUT CHICAGO HOPEFULLY WILL WIN TO SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION

The AFT yesterday passed a resolution supporting Common Core State Standards while the teachers I know basically hate them.  Education Week and Ed Notes have coverage of yesterday's floor debate at the Los Angeles AFT Convention.  The back-and-forth on Common Core ended up being NY v Chicago and the more militant Chicago Teachers Union certainly won the debate in my mind but the UFT had their pro-Common Core resolution carry because of their Unity Caucus discipline.

From Education Week, here is our colleague from Chicago Sarah Chambers summing up why Common Core needs to go:

"These standards are crippling our students' education and their joy of learning.  As a special ed. teacher, I've seen my students transformed from smiling children excited about learning to students who cringe when they're made to read passages several grade levels above their [abilities].  This resolution speaks to the promise of the common core, and this promise is to test, test, and over-test our babies.  Do not fool yourselves: You cannot have the common core without high-stakes testing."

And now for UFT President Michael Mulgrew's view:

"I have heard the stories about how Eli Broad and [Bill] Gates and a flying saucer full of Martians designed these standards. ... Now we have teachers unpacking the common core, and we are seeing the promise. What bothers me more than anything is the idea that the AFT would back down from a fight. Those standards are ours; the tests are ours; we are fighting because they took tests from us, and we're going to take it back from them. It is our profession."

The Chicago response from Michelle Gunderson:

"The common-core standards were not created with teaching and learning in mind. They were created with testing in mind. The College Board got together and decided what their students should look like, not our students."

You get the idea.  Just like at the Delegate Assembly in NYC, the UFT (easily the largest local in the AFT), with their huge loyalty oath signing Unity Caucus bloc of votes), has enough influence to ram anything through so our national union remains supportive of Common Core while those of us who teach are again left wondering why we pay union dues.

Karen Lewis, the President of the Chicago Teachers Union, questions the thinking of AFT leadership:

Karen Lewis @KarenLewisCTU Follow

"I can't believe we would agree to CC$$ because we're worried about bad press. When we present our reasoned arguments, we win."

I think most of us would agree that New Action's Jonathan Halabi, a press observer in LA, sums up the debate on Common Core very well when he says, "Debate is turning into UFT vs CTU.  Embarrassed that my local (UFT) is so wrong." 

Does this mean Jonathan and New Action won't be supporting Mulgrew's reelection in 2016?

In other AFT convention news, new United Teachers of Los Angeles teachers (UTLA) President Alex Caputo Pearl spoke about a possible teachers' strike out in LA.   He stated: “It’s a unionism that is willing to strike. It’s a unionism that is willing to build to a strike and strike if that’s what we need to do.”  I understand Mulgrew was on the same panel when Alex spoke.  It must have been interesting to hear the contrast in approaches as Chicago's Karen Lewis was also on that panel.

The AFT also passed a watered down Secretary of Education Arne Duncan improvement plan.  The other large national union of teachers, the National Education Association, recently called for Duncan's resignation.

Overall, we have appeasement (so what else is new?) from the AFT led by Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew but there are some militant pockets that have emerged in Chicago, LA and other places. 

As for Common Core, we'll let education historian Diane Ravitch have the last word.  This is taken from her blog:

No matter how many resolutions are passed at this or any other convention, the Common Core standards are going nowhere. State after state is dropping them or the federal tests or both. The standards ignore the root causes of low academic achievement: poverty and segregation. There is no proof that they will fulfill their lofty goals. They will end up one day as a case study in college courses of the abuse of power: how one man tried to buy American education and bypass democratic procedures. Even in states with high standards, like Massachusetts and California, there are large achievement gaps. Even in the same classrooms with the same teacher, there are variations in test scores.

THANK YOU NORM SCOTT FOR COVERING AFT CONVENTION

Norm Scott's ceaseless coverage at Ed Notes of the AFT Convention in Los Angeles should not be missed.

Hearing about AFT President Randi Weingarten talk out of all sides of her mouth that she favors democracy on whether or not the AFT should support a Chicago Teachers Union resolution opposing Common Core, while behind the scenes the UFT Unity Caucus leaders from NYC are making sure to take control of even a committee debate on the issue, is nothing new for anybody who has been to a UFT Delegate Assembly meeting.

Even the normally pro-Randi Diane Ravitch is siding with CTU while acknowledging that Randi has the NYC votes locked up to block anything in the national union.  If the Unity people from NYC want to go to another convention paid for at member expense or see a union job, they will do what they are told and will not oppose Common Core.

If one really wants to see what the AFT leadership is really about, just watch the video linked here. 

They are up to their necks in corporate school reform and asking them to reject Gates money, as some California Delegates are doing, seems kind of naïve . 

The rank and file needs to step up.

Norm we all owe you for your efforts.

MORE PRESS ON THE END OF JAMAICA AND COLUMBUS ALONG WITH VIDEO TRIBUTE

Jamaica High School and Columbus High School may not have been saved but our endings sure have been recognized. Our two schools have a great deal in common.

There is a straight news article that appears in Times Ledger in Queens with full coverage of Jamaica's final graduation.

This video mostly of Jamaica's historic building was produced by physical education teacher Mitch Abramowitz.

Also, there is an enlightening piece in Education Week Teacher by Ilana Garan, a teacher who worked at Columbus and was picked up by one of the new schools in the building.  Ms Garon shows the absolute uselessness of closing schools.

I will move onto something else but it is very hard to get the injustice of what happened to our two schools and many others out of my system.

RESPECTED NY TIMES SPORTS COLUMNIST COMPARES DOE SCHOOL CLOSING POLICY TO POL POT ATTEMPT TO DESTROY HISTORY

George Vescey is one of the distinguished graduates of Jamaica High School.  Vescey is a legendary NY Times sports columnist who also writes a blog.  Last week he gave space on his blog to Jamaica Class of 1994 graduate Kathy Forrestal to write about the last graduation. 

Comments have been pouring in from the alumni spanning several generations.  Vescey takes the time to respond to virtually all of them and some of the replies are quite intriguing including responses to the two comments printed below where Vescey describes so called "school reform" in some of the harshest terms I have ever seen.  I don't think Vescey is trivializing what Pol Pot did in Cambodia when in power in the 1970s by comparing American school closing policy to some of his goals. 

We have seen in history that attempts to wipe out the past don't succeed and school closings are definitely an attempt eviscerate history and start at the year zero.  Veteran teachers even get sent for re-education (the Absent Teacher Reserve pool) when schools are closed.  Most of their rights and dignity are taken away or they are just terminated (Chicago, DC model).  Students have to travel all over the city to find new schools.

The brutality of school closing is nothing compared to what was done in Cambodia in the 1970s, or during the French Revolution Reign of Terror, or the Cultural Revolution in China but on a very small scale, school reform follows these models of trying to do away with history.



Wally Schwartz

07/03/2014 10:06pm

 

Who killed Jamaica High? Who killed the Brooklyn Dodgers? The simple answers: Michael Bloomberg; Walter O'Malley.

 I can't say I never liked either Michael Bloomberg or Walter O'Malley. Some of the things each of them did, I liked, a lot. But for just one thing each one did, and we all know what that is, I came to hate them, a lot. 57 years ago, the Brooklyn Dodgers, after a long good run, left Brooklyn, and for that one thing, I, like many others, came to hate Walter O'Malley. Years later, I thought more about it and then I read Michael Shapiro's The Last Good Season, and I came to appreciate that maybe O'Malley wasn't the real or the only villain in the story: the people who stopped supporting the Brooklyn Dodgers were villains, too. Granted, Brooklyn's neighborhoods changed, but the old Brooklynites ran away to build new homes in the suburbs, watched the games on TV, stopped coming to the old ballpark and stopped purchasing the product. It's the same with a television show where after a while the fans stop watching the soap opera or buying the soapsuds. And there are often many reasons why that happens, some obvious, others more subtle.

 With our beloved Jamaica High--and I can say with pride that no boy or girl, woman or man, loved Jamaica High more than you or I did--there were many reasons why the old institution went out of business. We didn't need to prove our devotion or dedication, to ourselves or anyone else, but some of us came back often and again over the years, to speak with students, watch basketball games, present awards, meet with principals, plan or attend reunions in the gym, visit teachers or coaches, give out money we collected, attend meetings aimed at saving Jamaica High, or just to drive by, ponder and appreciate what our alma mater did to improve our lives and those of so many thousands of others like or unlike ourselves. We didn't only think or care about the 8:40 to 3:20 PM students who went to class with us from September to June. Beginning back in the late 19th century, about the same time the Brooklyn Dodgers were created, thousands, including your mother and my sister, traveled from one end of Queens or the other by railroad, subway, bus or foot to attend day, evening or summer session at Jamaica. Then, in 1955, the year before we graduated, Van Buren High arose. Next came Hillcrest, the new Edison down the block, Cardozo and Francis Lewis, and too many of the people from Jamaica Estates and other surrounding neighborhoods stopped buying the product and stopped supporting the school or sending their kids to Jamaica High. That was their business, and they each had their reasons, but it was once their school as well as ours.

And, like the Brooklyn Dodgers, who were born about the same time but closed their doors more than half a century earlier, Jamaica High, too, has ceased to operate, although, unlike Ebbets Field, its portals, magnificent edifice and campus will remain open to educate present and future generations. We grieve together with all those who also grieve for the closing of Jamaica High, but how many who pine today cared enough to attend a rally, sign a petition, write a column, make a donation to the union, call an activist, encourage a teacher, hold up a sign or send a kid to Jamaica? They might say it wouldn't have made a difference, and maybe it wouldn't have. But maybe, just maybe, it would have.

Reply

George Vecsey

07/04/2014 8:35am

Chief, Jamaica was up against a trend. "They" can do it better by eliminating the past. That's what Pol Pot said, too.
You did what you could. GV

  

Thor A. Larsen 

07/04/2014 3:04pm

As a classmate with George and Wally among 650+ graduates in 1956, I found that when I went on to Queens College and Columbia University, the foundation I had received at Jamaica High was either equivalent or superior to any of my college classmates. When my children went to high school upstate, I realized again, that the high school education I received at Jamaica High was vastly superior. But, Jamaica High School was much more than a ‘knowledge factory’. The commitment of most of the teachers to the success of their students was very evident. The bonding of classmates remained after leaving Jamaica High School as evident today as some of us have remained connected for many years and still meet once a year. Jamaica High was NOT a ‘knowledge factory’ but a close, supportive community of learning and maturing. From relatively recent reporting by George, it was clear Jamaica High was remained a superior high school. The blame for the destruction of this fine institution lies squarely with incompetent senior school administrators and city officials who simply do not understand how schools can and should educate their youth.

Reply

George Vecsey

07/04/2014 3:26pm

Thor, I would add that my experience was mostly visiting honors classes and seeing the world through the eyes of kids headed toward Syracuse, Hunter, Boston Univ., Haverford, Harvard...plus city schools and the military...motivated kids from all over the world. I can't speak for all the classes, and clearly there were issues outside. But to arbitrarily send kids scrambling all over the city to find other schools sounds insane. Pol Pot or Mao Tse Tung, turning people out into the countryside. GV

Vescey does not wish the new schools anything but the best as he makes clear in this reply.
George Vecsey

07/05/2014 9:13am

I just want to add that I make no judgments about the educators and systems in the four mini schools in four corners of the great Jamaica building. They may indeed work for young people, and I hope they do. But the city destroyed a piece of history, because of its own failure. I wish only the best for the schools within those walls. GV

Also, we have more local press as the Queens Chronicle has a story on Jamaica's final graduation.

Jamaica salutatorian Sarah Kissoon is quoted in a Chalkbeat piece that is mainly about Columbus High School's final graduation.

CAPITAL NY ARTICLES SHOW UFT SPIKE IN RETIREMENTS (DUH) & INSIGHT INTO HEALTH SAVINGS PART OF CONTRACT

Maybe Capital NY is not your first choice for summer reading but there are two articles that caught my eye this morning.

First, there is a piece today showing that UFT retirements increased substantially at the end of this school year compared to the last three.  Did teachers take their contract money and run?  Of course they did as those who retired by June 30 will receive their 2009-2011 payments in a lump sum now rather than waiting until from 2015-2020 to get the money.  My favorite line in this article is the comment from our esteemed mayor's office: "A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said the increased retirement rate is not entirely related to the contract."

Another term worth noting is that the city is now referring to the money they owe us from 2009-2011 as "restructured payments" and not retroactive pay so as not to have to worry about paying people who resign, die or are forced out of the system.

While reading the retirement article, I noticed there was a link to another interesting piece where city Labor Commissioner Rob Linn explained how he expected to get the savings in healthcare to pay for our contracts.  As stated yesterday before I looked at this article, chances are we will see changes to benefits as opposed to us paying healthcare premiums. 

Linn worked out a similar deal for Local 1199 a few years back.  Here is how benefits could change.  Linn mentioned mail order prescriptions which UFT members already do.  "Linn also said 1199 saved money by getting its members to agree to central X-rays and blood work, rather than in doctors' offices." 

Let's see what they come up with for us.  Three out of four teachers voted to let them figure it out.

DC 37 SETTLES THEIR CONTRACT; LIRR UNIONS THREATEN STRIKE

DC 37 has settled on a contract calling for 10%  salary increases over seven years +.  It basically follows the pattern set by the UFT in May including the undetermined health savings which might be reduced benefits and/or higher copayments as opposed to us paying part of the healthcare premium. However, it does look like there is one significant difference.

It is interesting to note that the city seems to have sufficient funds to pay all of the back pay they owe DC 37 since 2011.  I don't see in any of the press reports that DC 37 members will have to wait until 2020 to get their arrears like UFT members or wait until 2018 to have higher pay scales from previous years added to paychecks.  Maybe I missed it.

Here is what the DC 37 statement on the contract says about 2014 raises: "...our members will see their base pay increase by 4.58% in September 2014.”  This is 4.58% over their 2010 salaries.  UFT members by September 2014 will see our pay rise by 2% over 2008 figures.  It appears our kind patience of waiting to 2020 to be made whole from 2008 is clearing the way for other city workers to benefit now.

I certainly do not begrudge DC 37 members their well earned raises and I can almost understand why our arrears will take so long to be paid because it is so much but why couldn't we at least have the 8% from 2009-11, that other unions received as far back as 2008, put in our paychecks now instead of waiting in stages until 2018 for all of it to be added in?

What should we be doing?  As the entire teaching profession nationally is under a full scale attack from the elites, we should learn a little from the Long Island Railroad unions.  They are threatening a strike as early as July 20th.  Please don't go yelling about how we are unprepared for any job action (I agree) and LIRR workers are not covered by the Taylor Law which prevents legal strikes by most government employees in NYS.  A committee of the United Nations has already ruled that the Taylor Law's anti-strike provisions violate the principles of free association. You won't hear the UFT talking about this at any point in the near future.

NATIONAL LABOR NEWS MIXED THIS WEEK

In case you have been enjoying the start of summer vacation and haven't been following labor news closely or you are still mourning the death of Jamaica High School like me, there has been a great deal happening in the labor world nationally.

In a very significant public sector union case, the US Supreme Court made a narrow ruling in the case of Harris v Quinn in Illinois.  It was a setback for unions in that the Court's conservative majority created a new class of employee called partial public employees who do not have to pay for representation whether or not they are in the union.  Illinois home health care workers who sued do not have to pay what is called an agency fee. 

The Court could have ended agency fee shops throughout the country, including in the UFT.   Instead, the narrow ruling in the Harris v Quinn case lets stand the precedent from 1977 that forces non-union members in the public sector to pay for the union representation they receive. (I know many of you feel the UFT does nothing for us and it would be a good thing if they had to actually work to get our money.  I will take up that issue another day.)

Justice Samuel Alito appeared to leave the door open for more of these kinds of cases when he questioned the 1977 decision that compels non union members to pay the agency fee.

For reaction, see this statement from Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

Closer to home, the clergy in Newark, NJ protested the rehiring of Cami Anderson, one of the most horrible school superintendents in the country.  A common factor in the school privatization movement is to ignore the will of the public.  This is done all the time and rehiring Anderson in New Jersey is just another example.

For some analysis of the Newark situation, read here.