I began receiving calls at home Friday afternoon even before I left for a meeting from teachers livid with rage regarding the actions of WalBloom. Teachers at these schools, kept in the dark all day, were handed piles of notices to give their students - a letter from Walcott to their parents blaming the union for the loss of the $60 million and announcing that the schools would be closed on June 30 and reopened the next day as a new school. Everything remains the same - except that all teachers must reapply for their jobs and only half can come back.Its seems clear to everyone, mainstream media included, that the situation around education in our city has shifted radically in the last 72 hours with the Mayor's State of the City speech.
Basically, the mayor has declared war on the UFT, abandoning any pretense of negotiating and instead trying an end-run around the union at the 33 Transformation and Restart schools (where negotiations around an evaluation system collapsed over the new year). For those of you who aren't following it, it involves closing the schools and reopening them, with the same students, but forcing the teaching staff to reapply for their jobs and only hiring half of them back (the rest forced to find another job, or wander their district as itinerant ATR subs).This is basically a desperate escalation on the part of a Mayor who is trying to regain momentum after the Cathy Black debacle and claw back something of an "education legacy" for himself in his last year in office.---- comment from a teacher activist.
Some students more outraged than teachers
One caller told me it was not the teachers who seemed most upset, but the students, who often take the attacks on their school and their teachers personally. He said a bunch of kids came to his door and wanted to know what he was going to do about it. "Fight" he said. The kids patted him on the back saying they would help. I'm not sure the level of organizing going on amongst students --- teachers take a great risk and thus the students have to do it themselves --- though there are some advocacy groups doing some work with student. If students join teachers in enough force by walking out of schools or better, go on strike, that would do more to unsettle Bloomberg than just about anything the UFT can and will do.
What will the UFT do?
Will the UFT go beyond legal action? They will probably sell legal action as the way to go. But if teachers begin to take actions outside the bounds of the union structure, I can see the leadership, fearing the loss of their ability to keep things under their control, might be forced to take more militant action, though what that might look like is hard to say. Ad hoc groups of teachers are already calling for restarting the Fight Back Friday campaigns of last year, especially if they can make it happen in as many of the schools under attack as possible.
Teacher activists spurred to greater action
I was at a meeting with a bunch of teachers late Friday afternoon - all long-time activists. One is from one of the 33 schools under attack and another teaches at the Morris HS Campus where Bloomberg made his speech. Both were seething - and whatever level of being an activist takes part of your life away and can become a drag at times - both seemed spurred on to even greater activity by events over the last few days.
What happened on Friday afternoon inflamed teachers. They were told to give out a letter from Walcott to take home to parents blaming the union. I bet a hell of a lot of these letters got trashed.
We also heard the story from the Morris campus where Bloomberg spoke on Thursday and how it was turned into an armed camp with hordes of police invading the school. Teachers were even threatened that if they went out during lunch to join some of the rallies protesting Bloomberg the police might not allow them back in. There were reports that police were trying to get info on teacher activity from security guards.
The reason Bloomberg went to Morris was because it was one of the early large schools closed and stuffed with small schools. While Bloomberg touted Morris as a success, Leonie Haimson was raining on his parade at the NYC Parent blog by pointing out that there was no success.
The Real Deal on Morris High School & Bloomberg’s Failed Education Policies
And the blog followed up with:Bloomberg's State of the City address: an administration that has run out of education ideas -- even bad ones
Bloomberg's damaging education proposals to cost $350 million per year
In the meantime, other groups have been organizing protests, rallies. Boy will the copes be kept busy chasing after each of these.Parents and students from the schools that are currently on the 2012 SCHOOLS CLOSING LISThave decided to join together and support each other in the fight to save their schools. Listed below are just a few of the actions that will be taking place in the upcoming weeks. Please come out and support our parents and students in their fight. NUMBERS EQUAL POWER!JANUARY 16: 9:30 AM: BAM In Brooklyn. Support parents from Satellite Three, from Brooklyn, who will be protesting school closures before Chancellor Walcott gives his education speech at MLK event. See attached flyer for detailsFIX SCHOOLS, DON'T JUST CLOSE THEM!JANUARY 18: 4:30 pm: 233 Broadway- Rm 720. Plan parent & student action for Feb 1. Also planning what to do on Feb 9- day of the PEP vote!
FEBRUARY 9: 4:00pm onwards. PEP Votes on School Closings-- Brooklyn Tech H.S.FEBRUARY 1: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm-- Union Square. Students & Parents from closing and failing schools/ Mayor 13% (percentage of Black & Latino students prepared for college). More details later.
==================Remember to join this facebook page on school closings:Www.facebook.com/closingschoolsisnottheanswer Support Legacy High School students who organized an "occupy your ears" event making hundreds of calls to DOE, PEP, Elected Officials, etc.
http://www.facebook.com/events/323146817716488/ Many parents/students will be having local actions at DOE hearings at their schools-- from boycotting to protesting. Please let us know what you're planning & post to this email list!Please call me with any questions.Fight, fight, fight-- a great education is a Right!miliMili BonillaCoalition for Educational JusticeAnnenberg Institute for School ReformCell: 347-901-1049
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.
(Thank you for posting the valuable letter to staff. This gives us a better taste of the city's tone.)
ReplyDeleteFriday the 13th of January will surely go down as the Friday Afternoon Massacre. Hundreds of quality veteran teachers will become ATRs.
Chronic unhealthy stress has been a hallmark of the NYC teaching experience in the last several years. It will intensify for the staff at the 33 under-the-gun schools. I've written about administrator bullying and teacher job stress at my post this morning at NYCity Eye.
It is unfortunate that this is being treated as the usual done deal in all of the press.