UFT Rolls Over When Eva Comes to Call

UPDATED: Tues. June 27, 2011, 8am

I find this infuriating. It expresses precisely why these battles have to be fought at the grassroots levels.


http://gothamschools.org/2011/06/27/charter-school-advocates-demand-uft-apology-but-get-debate/#more-62138

Leroy Barr, a union vice president, and parent Sabrina Williams and Lynwood Shell, a Morehouse College student who is working this summer in the education division of the United Negro College Fund, which works with Achievement First charter schools.

Williams and Shell accused the union of trying to diminish choice for families who have opted out of traditional public schools. But Barr told them that the UFT’s objection is not to charter schools or even to the concept of co-location, but to the process that the Department of Education has used to allocate school space.
“So why is the lawsuit not against the DOE?” asked a parent who had been listening in.
“It is,” Barr said. “You are a byproduct of our fight with them.”

Eva sends out her political operatives and the UFT lays on its back with its paws in the air. Pathetic. Like someone said - they are like a boxer who says "no mas" in the first 30 seconds of a fight. No wonder Eva is so emboldened.

You know, some people would say it is a brilliant move for the UFT to come out and offer snacks and coffee - I can live with that. But make the case for the ultimate goal of charters instead of nodding about how much they agree on. I have had dialogues with HSA parents and they actually agree with lots of what I say - but say they are doing what's right for their own kids. I tell them that they are the ones who are the key not HSA and that their kids would do well anywhere because if their interest in their child's education. I tell them it is fine to send their kids to Success but why are they allowing themselves to be used as political shock troops for Eva's personal ambitions. At least try to create a little doubt.

I tend to whine when I see no spine.