Revive NYSUT (Pallota/Mulgrew) OK With Non-Union Pre-k While Rolled by Sellout Dems on Charter Support Bill

The IDC exists to allow Cuomo to regularly triangulate progressive voices out of any legislative actions. Dick Iannuzzi knows this and was actively working to undermine the IDC structure. Andy Pallotta well............

Stronger Together supporter

Dick Iannuzzi "[pre-k] teachers would be unionized workers and employees of the school district. Therefore, they would be obligated to be represented by the collective bargaining units." Where does Revive NYSUT slate stand on this? Andy said, "We'd be happy to have them as members," and Andy's staff responded, "The real issue is to ensure that you have high-quality pre-K, that it's connected to standards and curriculum, that you have highly qualified, certified teachers in those programs, not to get distracted by that issue."

I received these communication below earlier today. IDC Democrats working with State Senate Republicans just put a royal screwing with a big charter giveaway bill. Their newest member, Tony Avella, in 2009 was with us in trying to stop an Eva invasion of PS 123 in Harlem. But he was running for mayor. I guess changing your politics whenever is OK. Shame on Tony.

It looks like the IDC [Independent Dem Caucus] is working to screw us (again)...

On the MAC The Senate Majority [(Republicans + IDC)] is poised to pass a budget resolution which includes: --Giving tax credits to wealthy donors via a back-door voucher scheme -- the intent is to use public funds to finance the costs of a non-public school education;

--Increasing per-pupil funding for charter schools which comes directly out of public school coffers; and
--Providing NEW facilities funding for charters and forcing co-locations of charter schools – displacing public school students – and directly benefitting Success Academy C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz

CALL YOUR SENATOR NOW - 1-877-255-9417. Press 2 to speak with your New York State Senator.
https://mac.nysut.org/stop-plans-to-abandon-public-school-children

It is important to remember who in NYSUT Leadership was calling the IDC out back in October for failing to deliver on our agenda and who was apologizing for them? How do you spell A-N-D-Y?

We will have to continue settling for legislative defeats and inadequate compromises until Andy realizes the IDC are not our allies. The IDC exists to allow Cuomo to regularly triangulate progressive voices out of any legislative actions. Dick Iannuzzi knows this and was actively working to undermine the IDC structure. Andy Pallotta well............

If you have not yet read the article in Capital New York, read it it will be enlightening.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/10/8535024/nysut-head-says-idc-alliance-didnt-work-gets-corrected

Beth Dimino on Facebook on the pre-k issue:

I guess unionization does equate to quality for some labor leaders? This is an affront to what all unionists believe and Dick responded as such.

Collective bargaining is a right and is why we have the highest quality public education in New York State.

We are a union that believes in collective bargaining as a fundamental right to advance worker, civil and human rights -- [Andy's]  "we'd be happy to have them as members" does not reflect the reality that collective bargaining is not something nice to do for workers but something that advances our collective mission of fairness on behalf of all workers and their families.

Why would these workers want to organize w NYSUT in the future when we are unwilling to fight for their fundamental rights now?

Labor Leader, Dick Iannuzzi "teachers would be unionized workers and employees of the school district. Therefore, they would be obligated to be represented by the collective bargaining units"

Where does Revive NYSUT slate stand on this? Andy said, "We'd be happy to have them as members," and Andy's staff responded, "The real issue is to ensure that you have high-quality pre-K, that it's connected to standards and curriculum, that you have highly qualified, certified teachers in those programs, not to get distracted by that issue."

REALLY?! Read below for all the facts!

Labor leader : Pre-K first, unionized teachers second
By Jessica Bakeman
5:00 a.m. | Mar. 14, 2014
ALBANY—The statewide expansion of pre-kindergarten proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo would likely require using a mix of union and non-union teachers.

But traditional teachers' unions don't plan to fight to include all pre-K teachers in their ranks, at least initially. Whether pre-K teachers are unionized is a distraction from the more important point, which is a need for high-quality programs, a statewide union leader said.

Since the 1990s, New York has tried to implement a universal pre-K program, but the funding was never there. Today, half of the state's four-year-olds are enrolled, mostly in half-day programs. The state spends about $400 million annually on the program, which includes classes in schools as well as in community-based organizations, like Head Start centers or YMCAs.

Only about 40 percent of pre-K teachers, those who teach in schools, are eligible for the salary and benefits collectively bargained by traditional teachers' unions. The other 60 percent work in the C.B.O.s; some are covered by other unions but make far less than their public-school teacher counterparts, despite having the same qualifications, and the rest have no union protections at all.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio have put forth competing proposals for funding pre-K, and both are contingent on using C.B.O.s to expand. In Cuomo's statewide plan, there simply isn't enough money to use all unionized teachers; in de Blasio's proposal for the five boroughs, C.B.O.s would make up in space what public schools lack.

Labor leaders in New York said expanding access to pre-K is more important than ensuring collective-bargaining rights or wage parity for all teachers.

“The real issue is to ensure that you have high-quality pre-K, that it's connected to standards and curriculum, that you have highly qualified, certified teachers in those programs, not to get distracted by that issue,” said Steve Allinger, legislative director for New York State United Teachers, referring to whether pre-K teachers are unionized.

Allinger said the expansion would help union members by ensuring that students are more prepared to succeed when they enter the K-12 spectrum.

Although it doesn't appear that NYSUT is going to make unionizing pre-K teachers an issue in the potential expansion, “We'd be happy to have them as members,” said Andrew Pallotta, executive vice president.

NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi, though, seems to be out of sync with his colleagues Allinger and Pallotta, who run the union's legislative efforts. Tensions have been high at NYSUT, since Iannuzzi is facing a contested election next month, during which he will face a slate of challengers that includes Pallotta.

Iannuzzi said his interpretation of both proposals is that they are attempts to add a new grade to the “continuum of education” and would therefore utilize unionized public-school teachers.

“What we would expect to see, both in New York City and statewide, would be that a really universal pre-K program would be part of the public school program,” he said, “in which case [teachers] would be unionized workers and employees of the school district. Therefore, they would be obligated to be represented by the collective bargaining units.”

There are 5,615 pre-K teachers in New York, as part of the state's current program, according to state records. Of those, 3,221 work in New York City.

Sixty percent of pre-K teachers statewide work in C.B.O.s, and 40 percent are in public-school classrooms. The breakdown is the same in New York City.

Three-quarters of pre-K teachers statewide are certified by the state Education Department. In New York City, that figure is 61 percent, because teachers who are on a “path to certification” are allowed to teach while pursuing their education and training. In the rest of the state, 94 percent of pre-K teachers are certified.

While nearly all C.B.O. teachers in New York City are in some type of union (though not traditional teachers' unions), that's not the case in other cities. In Rochester for example, there are 105 full-time equivalent pre-K teachers, 45 in schools and 60 in C.B.O.s. Of those 60, 58 are certified, but only 21 are unionized.

Assembly edcuation committee chair Catherine Nolan, a Democrat from Queens, said there are inherent differences among pre-K programs offered in different settings, “and some of those differences are OK, because that's the history of it.”

“I think we're going to have a lot of models to have a successful UPK,” she said. “Do I think everyone should get as much money as possible? We always want people who are well educated to be well trained, well compensated, but there are clearly going to be differences.

“If we can move the ball forward with more UPK money, we'll cross some of those bridges later,” Nolan added.
Senate Labor Committee chair Diane Savino, who is a member of the Independent Democratic Conference and from Staten Island, said concerns about whether teachers would be unionized as part of the pre-K expansion is “putting the cart before the horse.”

She said there are often circumstances where workers in the public and private sectors earn different salaries and benefits for the same services. For example, child protective services employees working for non-profits make more than those working for city agencies, she said.
“Those agencies have often been the pipeline,” she said, adding that early-career employees might start working for the city and graduate to the non-profits when they gain more experience.

With pre-K, that pipeline is a problem, said David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center and an expert on a New Jersey program that's seen as a national model for high-quality pre-K.

He said an equitable universal pre-K program should offer uniform quality across settings. In New Jersey, the C.B.O.s struggled to keep teachers, because once they were more experienced, they would leave to work in a public school, where they could make more money.

“You're going to have to confront the issue of comparable pay and benefits in each setting in order to keep that quality,” he said. “You can't have a situation where one program has certified teachers who are making substantially less than the public school program down the street, and that's really the issue of funding.”

Elizabeth Lynam, vice president and director of state studies for the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan research organization, said historically, the state has used C.B.O.s to keep pre-K costs down.

“What we've seen in the current program is that the non-profits have not been able to implement a lot of the quality requirements because they don't pay the rates to do it,” she said. “It's hard for [C.B.O.s] to be out in the labor market with $10 to $15 dollar-an-hour wages and think they're going to get people with masters' degrees.”

G.L. Tyler, director of political action for DC 1707, a union that represents child care workers in New York City, said after three years in a C.B.O., a pre-K teacher with the same qualifications is making almost $20,000 less than one in a public school.

He said C.B.O. teachers have been organized since the 1970s and fighting for wage parity for that long.

“I've been with the union for 20 years, and there has always been a lot of our members who want to remain in the C.B.O.s, because they enjoy working with 2, 3, and 4-year-olds,” he said. “It has to be a certain dedication to do that, and they have it. But they should be paid more for it.”