Learn about MORE this summer: Can YOU imagine a transformed UFT?

Hi All,

If the idea of a different UFT intrigues you. . .if you can imagine a union that stands up to the attacks on us and our students. . . having a say in what OUR union does with OUR dues money. . . . if you want a union that recognizes the racism and inequity in our school system and organizes us to fight against it. . . a union that actually helps you organize at your school when problems arise. . . 

Members from NYCoRE, GEM, Teachers Unite, ICE and TJC (the last two were the caucuses in the UFT already fighting for change) began meeting a couple of years ago with the goal of combining our groups' strengths in order to transform OUR union. This winter MORE, Movement Of Rank and file Educators, was born. 

Check us out HERE.

AND DEFINITELY. . .

Come to our Thursday Night Summer Series at:      

LOLITA Bar - located at 266 Broome Street (Between Grand & Delancey Streets) NYC, take the F to Delancey St. or the J, M, Z to Essex St.

MORE in the SUMMER

5pm-8pm

Each “listen & learn” discussion will be preceded by a brief membership meeting at which all are welcome, and followed by happy hour socializing & schmoozing

July 12 –

The Roots of MORE:  The UFT, Then and Now – Historical perspective of caucuses in the UFT over the past half century. {With Michael Fiorillo and Norm Scott]

July 19 –

Union Elections- Nuts & Bolts- How do you do it anyway?

August 2 –

“Each one, Teach one:” MORE Messaging and Outreach

August 16 –

Growing into the Fall: Launching our Fall Campaign

 

Spread the word--help build MORE!

Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/MOREcaucusNYC

Follow us on Twitter: @morecaucusnyc

Check out MORE’s website: MOREcaucusNYC.org

Email us at: more@morecaucusnyc.org

We want to hear from you! Check out MORE’s online discussion forum to get the latest news and goings on, and to join in the conversation.

UPDATED: Lakeview Sit-In Raided in Late-Night Police Action

THE ED DEFORM PLAGUE, SUPPORTED BY THE POLICE, RUNS RAMPANT. IS OBAMA BRINGING TROOPS HOME TO USE AGAINST THE RISING RESISTANCE TO ED DEFORM? WHAT NEXT, DRONES?

Oakland, CA—At 4am on Tuesday, July 3rd,

At 4:00am more than ten Oakland Unified School District police arrived at Lakeview Elementary and a few minutes later ordered the group of parents, teachers, and community organizers there to leave. The group had been sitting in there for 17 days, while conducting a popular People's School for Public Education at Lakeview Elementary to protest elementary school closures in Oakland. Lakeview Elementary is located at 746 Grand Ave. Oakland, across from the Grand Lake Theater. Please come down now if you are in Oakland and awake.

CONTACT:
Joel Velazquez 510 473 5635
Jack Gerson 510 682 4381
Nick Palmquist 650 384 5581
Rebecca Rozo-Marsh 51073549

Visit our blog at saveoaklandschools.org

I posted the above earlier from my Blackberry but wanted to provide more context so I am reposting.

Jack Gerson was part of the "Another View in District 14" teacher group (which morphed into a caucus around 1974) I was involved in back in the early 70s when he taught in NYC. He's been an activist in Oakland for a long time as a high school teacher and union activist in a fairly progressive NEA local.

Before Jack sent the above out, he sent me this last night:

Hi Norm,

How are you? I guess the last time we've had contact was at the post-NEA convention conference in Chicago last July, organized by CORE / CTU and PEAC / UTLA.

Maybe you've heard about the takeover of Lakeview Elementary and the People's School there. I'm one of the organizers of that action, which is aimed directly at fighting school closures and, consequently, has to confront many of the other key planks of the corporate agenda for shutting down public education. We've made the Oakland school district uncomfortable enough to post a long statement on its home page (and circulate it to media) trying to justify why it's closing public schools. The Lakeview sit-in asked me to write a reply to it in the name of the whole group, and we're trying to get it circulated as widely as we can. We'd really appreciate it if you could put some or all of this up on ednotes online (and any other ways you could find time to do).

By the way, we did a public pot-luck dinner and movie last night, and the movie was "Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman". Thanks for doing that -- it's really a valuable tool.

Video: A Brief History of the UFT from Fiorillo and Lamphere

There were many workshops at the State of the Union conference held in Feb. 2012, an event that can be viewed as the founding of the Movement of Rank and File Educators, though the group was not named until months later.

One workshop was "Democracy in the UFT Past and Present with Michael Fiorillo and Peter Lamphere." Here are 2 videos with their presentations. Michael covered teacher union history up to 1968 and Peter did the post-68 years. The entire 1 hour session with Q and A is here: https://vimeo.com/45094713

On July 12, Michael and I will be doing some more union history as part of the MORE summer series with a focus on the opposition caucuses since 1968 through the roots of MORE (at Lolita Bar on the lower east side at 5PM).

https://vimeo.com/45094559









===========

The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

From Susan O and Khem I

Former NYC and now North Carolina parent activist Khem Irby who helped expose some of the charter scams here --- having had much experience as a charter parent writes on charters in NC. Examiner.com: Charter parents believe start early, start strong

And Susan Ohanian in her regular update has so much good stuff I'm putting it all in. Make sure to check out her comments by clicking on the links.

Do NOT miss Evelyn O'Connor. It is especially ironic to hear her words as the NEA Rep Assembly is meeting.

We have two new cartoons:
Circle the Wagons
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=791

Quiz
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=663

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Are the new national academic standards rotten to the (Common) Core?
Maureen Downey/
Atlantic Journal-Constitution  Get Schooled Blog
2012-07-01
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=294

A Georgia superintendent takes on the Common Core

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Test That Can Determine the Course of Life in China Gets a Closer Examination
Edward Wong
New York Times
2012-07-01
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=9832

Here's another idea for Bill Gates.

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Summer Reading List
Claire Needell Hollander  & Laura N. Arneson
New York Times
2012-06-27
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=293

Read on for a cockamamie idea, verging on child abuse.

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Turnitin Partners with Education Council to Develop Common Core Grading Rubrics
Turnitin
Sacramento Bee Press Release
2012-06-25
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=292

See educators run to the Common Core money.

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Ghosts of PATCO and the Coming Battle for Teachers
Alan Morse

2012-06-30
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1028

About the coming CTU strike? Alan Morse, who lives in Maine, says we should ALL 'be ready.' Be ready to support Chicago teachers.

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To the editor
Laura N. Arneson
New York Times
2012-06-27
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1455

I am so glad that someone answered the outrageous opinion piece about the books necessary to gain 'world knowledge.' The author of that revealed only that she's drunk way too much Common Core Kool-Aid.

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Career test for kindergarteners in the works
Josh Lederman, Associated Press
Denver Post
2012-07-02
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1355

A new digital tool to test academic and behavioral skills will target students starting in kindergarten.

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MUST watch!!!
Evelyn O'Connor
Cooperative Catalyst
2012-06-30
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1354

Wowser. Wowser. Don't miss this.

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A Bar Exam for Teachers?
Steve Clemons
Atlantic online
2012-06-29
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1353

The kettle of fish at the  Aspen Institute sure stinks and dues-paying members of the AFT should certainly ask what Randi Weingarten is up to.

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Consultant reforming Algiers charter schools raised idea of displaying D grade on signs, memos and shirts
Mark Waller
 The Times-Picayune
2012-06-29
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1352

The consultant pushing to overhaul the Algiers Charter Schools Association raised the idea of prominently displaying the state-assigned letter grade of D on shirts worn by employees, memos and signs.

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Doubts persist on Memphis, Shelby County school merger plan
Gary Shorb & Michael Kelley, comments by Jim Horn
Memphis Commercial Appeal
2012-06-29
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1351

Jim Horn tears apart the Gates resegregation  plan for Memphis and Shelby County  Tennessee.

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Why Bother Educating the Poor?
Gerald Coles
Living in Dialogue blog
2012-06-27
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1350

Gerald Coles speaks truth to power and ticks off commentors at the Ed Week website. It is a tough message. It IS on target.

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Parents, Join the Resistance!
Nina Bishop

2012-06-26
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1349

Please join this Colorado parent in an effort to get the ACLU involved in supporting the rights of parents to opt their children out of oppressive standardized testing. All she is asking for is a letter from you.

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Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy Schools network rolling in money but still wants 50% increase in management fees from state
Juan Gonzalez
New York Daily News
2012-06-25
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1348

Here we see more taxpayer support of private entrepreneurial  interests, while public schools can't even supply toilet paper.

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This abandoned Walmart has been reclaimed as a public library
Jess Zimmerman
Grist List
2012-07-02
http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=770

Some good news from Texas.

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Mayor Bloomberg's School Closings Blocked by Arbitrator
United Federation of Teachers & Lisa Fleisher
Press Release & Wall Street Journal
2012-06-29
http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=769

The Bloomberg reform plan, which is an attempt to capitalize on the Duncan plan, has been blocked by the arbitrator.

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Online Testing, and How Pearson Sent Wyoming Back to Paper
Jim Horn & Jill Barshay
Schools Matter blog & Hechinger Report
2012-06-26
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4247

Even worse than the technical snafus imminent in online testing are these predictions of round-the-clock testing.
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----------------------
Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

Still Fighting for Single Payer: National Nurses United Press Release

Obama can't beat me in a debate arguing single payer on health care. But he never seemed interested in trying.

In my blog last night (Why Is Being Mandated to Pay Auto Insurance Not a Tax?) I mentioned that I had 2 debates in the gym with anti-Obamacare(ites) (one of them a para in the UFT) and left them thinking. In fact just about anytime I have this debate I feel points in favor of single payer win out. [Check out this web site for the full SP case].

So people on the left are pissed at Obama for not using his bully pulpit to argue more strongly the benefits of SP, instead using his pulpit to go after teachers. How ironic that the US ranks 37th in the world in health care but all we hear from Obama/Duncan is how low we supposedly rank in education.

I do understand the political realities -- as expressed in the NY Times Week Review section yesterday by Ross Douthat arguing that Obama had to make deals with the insurance and drug industries to keep them from throwing their power against Obamacare -- and it worked. Both got their pound of flesh. Douthat argued that both FDR and LBJ did the same thing.

I beg to differ. Yes, LBJ and FDR ultimately did deals but they did use their bully pulpit to argue the strong case and then used that as a starting point rather than surrendering at the first sight of opposition. Obama could have made powerful arguments (certainly more than me) for single payer and then offer compromises off that.

And where are the unions on this? Here, National Nurses United makes a strong statement for single payer and calls on labor to keep up the fight. Don't forget that the long-term effects of Obamacare will reduce the Cadillac plans many union members have to dust and reduce medicare too. So as you will read below, the fight is just beginning.

Court Ruling Does Not End Healthcare Crisis Or the Need to Continue the
Campaign for Reform

The Supreme Court decision should not be seen as the end of the efforts by health care activists for a permanent fix of our broken healthcare system, said the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses today.

To achieve that end, the 175,000-member National Nurses United pledged to step up a campaign for a reform that is not based on extending the grip of a failed private insurance system, but “on a universal program based on patient need, not on profits or ability to pay. That’s Medicare for all,” said NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN. “It is not time to stop, but a reminder to begin that effort anew.”

“Nurses experience the crisis our patients continue to endure every day. That’s the reason we will continue to work for reform that is universal, that doesn’t bankrupt families or leave patients in the often cruel hands of merciless insurance companies,” said NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN. Stepping up the fight for Medicare for all is even more critical in the
midst of the still persistent economic crisis,” added NNU Co-president Deborah Burger, RN, noting that nurses have seen broad declines in health status among patients related to loss of jobs, homes, and health coverage. NNU has been holding free health screenings and hosting town halls on the ongoing healthcare crisis over the past two weeks – and hearing daily
reminders of the ongoing plight of many patients.

In addition, NNU will be joining with Michael Moore to host a national town hall later this summer. “The continuing fiscal crisis at all levels of government and the anemic economic recovery remind us that rising healthcare costs and shifting costs to workers burden our society, cause much of these fiscal problems, and limit the opportunities for working people. Only real cost control through a national health program can solve this crisis. Improved Medicare meets that challenge,” said Ross.

“Medicare is far more effective than the broken private system in controlling costs and the waste that goes to insurance paperwork and profits, and it is universally popular, even among those who bitterly opposed the Obama law,” said Higgins. “Let’s open it up to everyone, no one should have to wait to be 65 to be guaranteed healthcare.”

The Affordable Care Act still leaves some 27 million people without health coverage, does little to constrain rising out of pocket health care costs, or to stop the all too routine denials of needed medical care by insurance companies because they don’t want to pay for it.
* * * * *
Excerpts from Paul Krugman's "The Real Winners"
New York Times
Published: June 28, 2012

So the law that the Supreme Court upheld is an act of human decency that is also fiscally responsible. It’s not perfect, by a long shot — it is, after all, originally a Republican plan, devised long ago as a way to forestall the obvious alternative of extending _Medicare_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicare/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) to cover everyone. As a result, it’s an awkward hybrid
of public and private insurance that isn’t the way anyone would have designed a system from scratch. And there will be a long struggle to make it better, just as there was for _Social Security_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_security_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) . (Bring back the public option!) But it’s still a big step
toward a better — and by that I mean morally better — society.

The full Krugman piece is here.
* * * * *

LABOR CAMPAIGN FOR SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE STATEMENT ON SUPREME COURT RULING'

Excerpts
(reprinted from Campaign's website)

The jury is still out on what effect this decision will have on the actual healthcare that Americans will receive under the ACA as well as its effects on the long-term prospects of the fight to make healthcare a right for everyone in America. Certainly, a more sober assessment of the healthcare realities faced by most working Americans and their families would show that we are a long way from President Obama’s aspirational vision.

Coming at the end of a Supreme Court session that was especially cruel to the labor movement, it is perhaps to be expected that there would be some celebration at what was widely seen as a defeat of labor's worst enemies. But this must not detract us from the urgency to prepare for a renewed assault on employer-provided healthcare benefits.

At a recent strategy meeting of the LCSP Steering Committee and Advisory Board, we heard from union leaders from around the country who are seeing the writing on the wall. Public employee benefits are under the gun in nearly every jurisdiction. Union Benefit Funds, often the gold standard in employer-funded healthcare, are facing threats to their very survival as ACA regulations impose new mandates while new state insurance exchanges potentially draw off their youngest and healthiest participants. And the 2018
"Cadillac Tax" is beginning to look more and more like a "Chevy Tax" as continued
healthcare inflation will trigger this penalty on the hard won benefits of millions more union members than originally predicted.

What Happens Next?

The Affordable Care Act is now indisputably the law of the land. This will create new conditions and new challenges. Many millions will undoubtedly benefit from increased access to healthcare and regulation of the private insurance industry.

Many millions more will find out that the right to buy health insurance is not the same thing as the right to healthcare. States will be required to set up healthcare exchanges by 2014 and state-level innovation—including state single-payer reforms—will be barred until at least 2017 (although President Obama did re-affirm his support for efforts to move that date up to
2014).

Certain things won't change, however. Healthcare will still be treated as a commodity and a profit center rather than as a human right. Millions will continue to be denied access to basic healthcare. Costs will continue to rise two, three, even four times faster than our wages while quality deteriorates. Employer provided healthcare will continue to go the way of defined benefit pensions and healthcare fights will continue to be the biggest cause of strikes, lockouts and union busting.

The labor movement has no choice but to fight on for healthcare justice. And we in the Labor Campaign for Single Payer vow to re-dedicate ourselves to this fight to remove healthcare from the bargaining table and make it a right for everyone in America. We believe that it is labor's historic responsibility to lead this effort and we will not rest until it fulfills this mission.
* * * * *

The Price of Health Care
By ROSS DOUTHAT

Why Is Being Mandated to Pay Auto Insurance Not a Tax?

When both the left and the right think the Supreme Court was wrong on Obamacare I don't know whether I'm coming or going ------

I line up with Reality-Based Educator in most ways. Certainly on the single payer -- extend Medicare to all position on health care (See his comment below this post at NYC Educator.)

Before going on, your homework is to check this LINK: http://www.counterpunch.org/20...
 
I have been most influenced by my wife who spent 35 years working in hospitals on the admin/billing end. She dealt with all the blood-sucking insurance companies and had the most respect for the government people at Medicare who were the most responsive and competent and caring to try to do the right thing. OK, so it's just anecdotal but don't expect me to bother doing any real research other than talk to her.

Anyway, she has been a confirmed single-payer advocate. But as she pointed out when I sent her RBE's comments, we weren't getting that so she was rooting for SCOTUS to back Obamacare. In fact, I've rarely seen her so engaged in a political outcome as this one. (I was fairly ho-hum in comparison.)

I am caught between RBE and my wife but as a hard head lean toward RBE -- except that coming down as anti-Obamacare lines me up with Republican slime.

Then at the gym yesterday I got into 2 discussions with anti-Obamacare people, one a UFT member and the other a right leaning businessman who hates Obama with a passion -- he opened the discussion by saying, "I hear Obama is moving to Egypt to join his brothers." In both discussions I brought up the car insurance issue - I know the response is that it is states not feds -- but the concept is sure the same as a mandate.

Apparently the UFT member didn't know that at 65 he will be tossed out of his health care program and MANDATED into medicare, a truism since, oh, the mid-60s. So why not just extend that to all? Expensive -- yes. But as my wife points out less expensive than the other options. And as my wife always says, if they got the fraud out of the system it would be real manageable. Imagine if hey hired people like my wife who knows the system inside and out to be bounty hunters -- offer them a % for finding fraud. I could buy that pink Cadillac.

I asked the right winger who is in his 70s if he was unhappy with medicare. Not. Then I brought up the deals about keeping us from buying drugs in Canada. Know what he said? Exactly what the UFT member said to me a few minutes before --- Canada doesn't regulate their drugs as effectively as the FDA -- you know, that awful fed govt agency. He read an article. I asked if he checked to see if any of the drug companies were behind that article (bet they were.). He smiled and wandered off --- finding it easier to work out than argue with me.

Here is RBE's comment followed by a response by NYC Educator:

Yesterday's SCOTUS ruling was a loss, in my opinion.  The federal gov't now has the legal right to force everybody to buy crappy private insurance - no matter how little money you have or whether you'll actually be able to use it once you pay for the premiums.  You don't buy the crappy, expensive insurance, you get penalized via the IRS.  Yesterday's ruling also enshrines the private insurance monopoly.  Say goodbye to ever getting single payer. And finally, those of us with health insurance provided by our employers will soon be dropped from these plans, as the Obama plan rewards companies that drop employer-provided health insurance and penalizes companies that do provide it.

Here's a good quote on Obamacare:

"What this bill does is not only permit the commercial insurance industry to remain in place, but it actually expands and cements their position as the lynchpin of health care reform. And these companies they profit by denying health care, not providing health care. And they will be able to charge whatever they like. So if they're regulated in some way and it cuts into their profits, all they have to do is just raise their premiums. And they'll do that. Not only does it keep them in place, but it pours about 500 billion dollars of public money into these companies over 10 years. And it mandates that people buy these companies' products for whatever they charge. Now that's a recipe for the growth in health care costs, not only to continue, but to skyrocket, to grow even faster. "

Marcia Angell, Harvard Medical School, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine

And here's another:
"The real losers in the latest Supreme Court decision, however, are the people of the United States. Not those who will be  required to go out and buy some over-priced, minimal coverage, rip-off insurance plan offered by the private insurance industry, or to pay a  “tax” to the IRS for not doing so, but everyone. This is because the  Affordable Health Care Act is not affordable. It does little or nothing to control health care costs, which are destined
to continue to gobble up an ever increasing amount of the total US Gross Domestic Product as well as of corporate profits and families’ incomes.

The new federal version of Romneycare simply prolongs the day when the US finally does what it should have done decades ago, should have  done during the first Clinton administration, and should have done at the start of the Obama administration: namely expanding Medicare to  cover all Americans.

Instead of going for this option when he had broad and enthusiastic support as the newly elected president, Obama deliberately shut out all discussion of the Canadian-style approach to national health coverage — a national program of government insurance for all, with doctors’ rates and hospital charges negotiated by the government — and instead devised a
scheme that leaves the whole payment system in the hands of the private insurance industry, and effectively lets doctors and hospitals charge what they can get away with.
Obama did this because he was a huge recipient of money from all sectors of the health care industry — the insurance companies, the hospital companies, the American Medical Association, the big pharmaceutical firms, and the medical supply firms.

ObamaRomneyCare is at its core an enrichment scheme for nearly all elements of the Medical Industrial Complex, with the possible exception of the lowly family practice physician, nurses, and hospital workers."


LINK: http://www.counterpunch.org/20...

NYC Educator

It also insures my daughter and all children of insured families to age 26, and I have read it provides subsidies for some. Tax is minimal, like one percent, and I believe a program like this can be improved. I agree with much of what you wrote, however. Much of the negativity presented already exists, so you're right, that does not represent improvement.

Turn Around This

...city officials have also argued that turnaround is also the fastest way to help the schools improve because it would allow them to shake up their teaching staffs overnight....  Gotham Schools

And there it is, the entire idea behind the ed deform national agenda. Place the blame on the teachers for every failure while avoiding responsibility. Thus the myth of the bad teacher.

What even some teachers failure to understand -- and the union itself fails to point out (intentionally I might say) is that the overall idea is to reduce teacher union contracts to ashes so that ultimately the average pay will drop drastically (remember that salaries are the highest costs of education) and teachers can be squeezed into sweat shop work places and with no protections or other options (all schools in the urban areas ultimately to be standardized) either leave or continue working. And by making it a snap to become a teacher, the revolving door is a win-win for them. And NO PENSIONS since no one will ever reach pension age. And think of the productivity. More classes, more hours, less pay -- except for a few getting lots of money in some kind of merit system so they can hold the carrot in front of the poor rabbits.

So why have the teacher unions signed onto so much of this plan by supporting the concept of charters and turn-arounds, the essence of which are replacing teachers and until recently closing schools? But don't worry about the oligarchs running our unions -- they will do just fine while the members sink. I'll leave dealing with that to a follow-up later which will link back to this blog but note this for a start from this blog:

Yesterday, Randi Weingarten proposed a Bar Exam for potential teachers.  Ignoring the different needs of each region she proposed a national standard for teacher readiness. yet another one size fits all approach. Feeding the naysayers, here proposal implies that yes, perhaps the one size fits all approach just might work.

In other words, Randi is joining the deformers in the teacher blame game, agreeing in essence with ed deformers assault on teacher training programs. But what would a teacher union leader who had no formal training and taught semi-full time for 6 months know about that?

And this from RBE:

How Will The UFT Pull Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory?

I want to share an email that came in this morning from a teacher who is at one of the schools rescued the other day -- rescued temporarily as so many bloggers are pointing out. This teacher gets it.

Here is an article from GothamSchools that suggests why Bloomberg went with the "turnaround" strategy rather than phase out.

http://gothamschools.org/2012/04/24/unraveling-three-and-a-half-months-of-turnaround-twists-part-i/

Here is an excerpt that gets to the heart of the matter:

But city officials have also argued that turnaround is also the fastest way to help the schools improve because it would allow them to shake up their teaching staffs overnight. Here’s what we reported when Bloomberg vowed to go through with the turnaround plans even after the city made progress on teacher evaluation negotiations:

Bloomberg said the aggressive overhaul strategy was necessary because no teachers would be removed from schools because of low scores on the new evaluations for at least a year and a half.

“It would be unconscionable for us to sit around for two years and do nothing, so we’re going to use the 18-D process,” he said, referring to a clause in the city’s contract with the teachers union that the city says allows turnaround’s rehiring process.

What a waste of time and energy this has all been. Instead of being able to concentrate on being an effective teacher and receiving help from the start, the entire school community has had to deal with years of threats from the DOE and the NYSED. We never received help, only threats and attacks. Not once did we have meaningful PD sessions in the past three years. Not once. If [my school] was such a lousy school, where was the help from the DOE? In fact, the faculty and staff had been trying to figure out how to move forward on our own. Pleas for help to the DOE went unanswered. We, in our particular case, were stuck with a weak and ineffective principal who could not figure out how to deal with any of the threats against our school community. He never called faculty meetings because he was too afraid to even face us. So we rose to the occasion and tried to fend for ourselves. We called in Pedro Noguera and other advisers on our own to try and move forward. Noguera, to his credit, met with us on numerous occasions. We formed our own committees to address our needs without the administration helping us. Fight Back protests arose out of this effort and were meant to inform the DOE and the community of our successes. Teachers formed action committees with the help of the Alumni Association and came up with strategies to strengthen our school. Never any help from TWEED. I can only imagine what it may be like to be able to go to work and think only about being an effective teacher in my school as compared to being an effective teacher who also has to always fight and struggle for what is right.

=======

The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Leonie Has questions about turnaround, phase out and next steps

 Leonie Haimson sent this to her listserve. If anyone has answers leave a comment and I'll forward them. Or email me.
 --------------------
NYT story on the mediator’s decision below. I have so many questions about this whole matter still, which I would like people on the list to answer if they can.

The turnaround plans of course made no sense in the first place to me but then most of what DOE does make little sense.

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/06/29/city-loses-arbitration-on-staffing-for-24-turnaround-schools/

First, Al Baker, the new guy on the NYT education beat, writes:

The decision was a victory for the United Federation of Teachers and the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. They argued that the plans to recast the 24 schools, known as turnaround schools, ran afoul of contracts and contrasted with more deliberative ways that city schools are usually phased out.

1. BUT is a phase –out really “more deliberative” or better in any sense?
Or is it worse, meaning ALL the teachers at the phase-out school can ultimately be excessed, and ALL the students in schools like Robeson and Jamaica suffer the damaging effects as the school is phased-out, including fewer services and classes year to year as the death-watch continues?

Also, as the “new” schools put in place of the phase out school exclude the sort of high-needs students in the original school, making the supposed “improvement” hard to judge – these same sort of at-risk kids are sent to other schools nearby, which then causes them to struggle and ultimately be shut down. Isn’t it better to keep the same kids in the building at least? If this strategy was merely an attack on the union in the first place, why didn’t DOE use the phase-out model for these schools? Is this still a possibility for the admin now?

2. Which leads me to this question: why did the DOE choose this version of “turnaround” rather than their usual “phase-out” – b/c of the fed funds in the SIG grants cannot be applied to phase-out schools? But Walcott said that even if they didn’t get SIG money they were intent on doing this anyway.

3. Or was the DOE prevented from choosing this model in the first place, because these 33 schools – now 24 schools -- many of them in Queens and at 100% utilization or more, are so vastly overcrowded and there are so few other large high schools left, the phase out model simply wouldn’t work? b/c as enrollment is reduced in these buildings at much lower levels, as the old school phases out and the new ones phase in (with enrollment capped at lower levels) there would be nowhere for the students who would have attended the original schools to go?

Also, Baker writes this:

The plans have included replacing all the principals, screening the existing staff and rehiring no more than 50 percent of it.

Yet nearly from the beginning, Walcott and those in charge of this process at DOE have said there would be NO 50% quota for firing or rehiring. King’s decision last week in which he said he would allow the granting of the SIG money only if at least 50% of the staff was replaced seems to contradict the DOE assertions.

So why did DOE insist otherwise? Was it b/c of the union contract that said at least 50% of the staff must be kept on? And if the idea was really to attack the union, what’s stopping the DOE from doing phase-out now? The idea as expressed above that this would cause even more chaos?

READ THE NYT ARTICLE BELOW

Bloomberg Reversal of Fortune: Union Wins on Closing Schools Suit

Implications will be deep. Back later as blogs reverberate.

http://www.uft.org/press-releases/doe-closures-24-schools-violate-union-contracts-says-arbitrator

DOE “closures” of 24 schools violate union contracts, says arbitrator

June 29, 2012

The Department of Education has tried to “close” 24 schools and immediately re-open them under new names. An independent arbitrator has found that, for purposes of our contracts, the “new” schools that the DOE claims it is creating this way are in reality not new schools.
As such, the DOE’s attempts to remove half the personnel in these schools are a violation of the school district’s contracts with the unions.
Based on this decision, the current staff in these schools has the opportunity to remain there for the next school year, though those who have found new positions elsewhere are free to go to those new jobs if they choose.
This decision is focused on the narrow issue of whether or not the mayor’s “new” schools are really new. The larger issue, however, is that the centerpiece of the DOE’s school improvement strategy — closing struggling schools — does not work. Parents, students and teachers need the DOE to come up with strategies to fix struggling schools rather than giving up on them.

Also see:
Http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/06/29/schools-closings-blocked-by-arbitrator/

Celebrate Sweatshop Free Upper West Side

Join us at the 1-Year Anniversary Celebration of the Upper West Side community campaign to create a neighborhood that upholds ethical business practices. 

I was told about this event by a friend. My parents were both ILGW - my mom was an operator starting in 1920 and working until I was born and my dad was a presser through the early 1980's. This is more about sweatshop restaurants than the classic version of sweatshops but I am looking forward to checking it out.

1-Year Anniversary Celebration June 29, Friday, 6-10pm 214 W. 97th St 214 W. 97th St (between Amsterdam & Broadway) Food & Drink, Music & Dancing *program starts at 7pm Join us at the 1-Year Anniversary Celebration of the Upper West Side community campaign to create a neighborhood that upholds ethical business practices.  Come celebrate our victories and accomplishments, including Tomo Sushi, Shun Lee Palace, U Like Garden, Land Thai, V&T Pizzeria, as well as the Saigon Grill Boycott, the city-wide launch of the Domino's Pizza Boycott, and 60 small businesses that pledged to be "sweatshop free." Please RSVP to sweatshopfreeny@gmail.com  or call 212-358-0295      Please consider donating to support the community's efforts! Click on the link below or make out a check to National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, memo: Sweatshop Free, and send to P.O. Box 130293, NY, NY    Co-Hosted by the Justice Will Be Served Campaign: Chinese Staff & Workers' Association, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, 318 Restaurant Workers' Union

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MORE Endorses National Resolution on High Stakes Testing

The Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), a caucus within the UFT, has endorsed the National Resolution/ on High Stakes Testing.

Of all the attacks and issues affecting educators, some might be surprised that the high stakes testing issue is causing a level of activism amongst the broadest swath of teachers. Why? Well, that is the issue affecting most teachers, even those not under direct personal attack. This is especially true of elementary school teachers, the group often considered the least militant group of teachers. Just the other day 2 teachers showed up to a Change the Stakes meeting pretty much out of the blue, fed up at how their teaching has been purloined. I should remind people that Ed Notes was taking these positions from the very beginning in 1996-7 and that was one of the issues that attracted people who eventually formed ICE in 2003. We were the only caucus to take on that issue and continued to do so through the 2004, 07, 10 UFT elections. NYCORE also took on this issue and that was one of the points that brought ICE and them together, the foundation of GEM. You'll note that our movie goes beyond a simple critique of Waiting for Superman but takes the testing issue head on.

 

So I am pleased to see that the new caucus, MORE, which combines elements of all the activist groups out there, has taken this position.

 

See letter in support of the field test boycott, and MORE positions on testing at morecaucusnyc.org. The National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing is online at http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/
 

 See below for a variety of related issues:

Why I Voted to Authorize the Chicago Teachers' Strike

...among CTU members who voted, 98 percent said "yes" to strike authorization: That's 23,780 yes to 482 no.

A preschool teacher in the Chicago Public Schools explains why she and thousands of her fellow teachers voted "yes" to authorizing a strike. 

By Lara Lindh AlterNet June 22, 2012

http://www.alternet.org/education/155980/why_i_voted_to_authorize_the_chicago_teachers%27_strike

Earlier this month, members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted by a nearly 90 percent majority to give the union authorization to call a strike. Actually, around 8.5 percent of the union membership didn't vote, so they were counted as "no" votes. So among CTU members who voted, 98 percent said "yes" to strike authorization: That's 23,780 yes to 482 no. The overwhelming support for strike authorization seemed to confuse the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, who likes to assure us that he loves and respects teachers as he destroys our schools and degrades our union. But the vote didn't come as a surprise to me.

Here's why I voted, along with the vast majority my brothers and sisters in the CTU, an enthusiastic "yes" to strike authorization.

Reason No. 1: As has happened to me every spring since 2008, I was warned by my boss in March that my preschool teaching position was threatened for the following school year due to budget cuts. As I have done every spring since 2008, I spent countless hours readying my resume and my teaching portfolio, combing the want ads, and annoying my colleagues looking for another job for this coming fall. With a son, a mortgage, very little savings and a job that I love and would grieve to loose, I tried to muster the enthusiasm necessary to hunt for another job while simultaneously remaining the kind of "super-teacher" that we're expected to be in order to maintain an evaluation rating that would allow us to be hired by another principal. In May, I was informed my job was safe, but my assistant teacher's wasn't. Due to budget cuts, she's being replaced with a cheaper, part-time version.

Reason No. 2: May is supposed to be a wonderful month for preschool teachers: We ready our student's yearlong work portfolios and bask in the glow of their progress and reminisce about how far we've come. We go on field trips and have culminating projects that we enjoy sharing with our students and families. We look forward to summer break. We begin to say goodbye to the little people we've nurtured and loved and taught for the proceeding nine months. This May, I spent the entire month, as I have for the past three years, conducting a standardized test on my 4- and 5- year-old students to determine their "kindergarten readiness." It used to be that by virtue of turning 5 years old, you were deemed "kindergarten ready." Those days are over. In the name of accountability (which always seems to mean accountability for those with the least say-so), we have turned our schools into test-taking factories, with no child too young to be tested.

Reason No. 3: The day before the strike vote, my school clerk stopped me in the hallway. He had an emergency letter from Jean-Claude Brizard that we had to distribute to parents informing them of why the strike vote was wrong thing for teachers to do and insulting our collective intelligence by claiming that our leadership hadn't informed us of what was at stake in our contract negotiations. The attempt by Brizard to turn parents against teachers was expected, his condescending tone familiar, but what was unheard-of was that the letter was translated into Spanish, Mandarin, Polish and Arabic. As a teacher of English Language Learners, I was dumbfounded. We can never--I repeat, NEVER!-- get materials or information translated into our students' home languages without doing it ourselves. Was this the proverbial final straw? No, I had already made up my mind to vote "yes" because I want dignity, respect and resources for what I do and for the students I teach. But it did underline to me that if they can so easily find the resources to drag us down, then they can be forced to find the resources to build up public education.

Reason No. 4: The $5.2 million in TIF money the city council just handed to billionairess CPS board member and infamous union buster Penny Pritzker to build another Hyatt Hotel for her empire. Resources not there? Yeah, right. I voted "yes" because I have self-respect, and I was always taught (and teach) that when you stand up for yourself against bullies and liars, others will stand up with you. Well, the teachers are standing up. Will you join us?

[Lara Lindh is a Preschool for All teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.]

And so it will be Lara, as Mike Klonsky reports:

'Parents will walk picket lines...'

“There’s a huge disconnect between what the board thinks kids deserve and what parents think kids deserve. Good teaching conditions are good learning conditions. If teachers go on strike, many, many hundreds of parents will be on the picket line with them.” -- Erica Clark,  Parents 4 Teachers