UFT Election, ATR Update: Luck Be a Lady and Her Name is Norm

I drew first and picked Jia Lee for top of the ballot.

I had a busy day yesterday. I had a lunch date with a teacher who was going to put MORE election lit in the mailboxes of 5 neighboring schools (Lunch With a Chapter Leader I Met for the First Time) followed by a meeting at 52 Broadway to draw ballot positions for the UFT election - as I reported, UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016.

I met up with New Action's Michael Shulman at the UFT for the 4:30 meeting run by Amy Arundel. I reported on some of the issues yesterday: UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016

Amy's first comments were about my ATR posts:

• ATRS Targeted by Brienza Consultant Firm Formerly ...
• An ATR Tells Us a Story - Where is the UFT's Plan

Amy disputed that Brienza was hired as a consultant by the DOE and said she had checked with the DOE and they had no record. She said that most likely the school itself had possibly hired them but also felt that there should have been no contact with the ATR since that should be handled by the field supervisor. She wanted me to give her the name and particulars about the ATR but I would not do that until further consultation with the ATR. I shared some information about the case but was not specific. I felt the union has been letting him down. She promised to rectify that situation.

We had a very lively discussion on the ATR situation where we disagreed on the UFT's agreeing to allow ATRs to be shuffled to multiple districts. Amy, who I and many others respect, claims the wider exposure has helped ATRs get jobs and out of the ATR pool. I felt that more ATRs are hurt than helped by this change. Amy promised to assist in any way possible to help this ATR and I will follow up with her. I know some ATRs who have been helped behind the scenes by Amy.

Once we got that out of the way we got down to election business.

In addition to Amy, the meeting was attended by some members of the UFT election committee. Ellie Engler, David Hickey and Leroy Barr were in the room. Solidarity had the time wrong and their rep, Michael Herman, had to participate by phone.

Each candidate for the officers and exec board are on a folded piece of paper and each caucus draws and the order on the ballot is determined. One caucus did not meet the 40 candidate requirement and that issue is still up for discussion. I will report in detail on this aspect later tonight.

There were multiple drawings for individual ballot positions. First came the president and I drew first and hit the jackpot - Jia Lee will get the top line. Mulgrew will be 2nd and some other guy will be 3rd.

Then we drew for each candidate for the Ex Bd divisions and Ex Bd at large. We alternated between Leroy, Amy and I and I also got the first draw for high schools and drew Mike Schirtzer who will appear at the top of the high school ballot. He owes me a dinner.

The rest went fairly hum drum and we were done by 5:30.
The UFT election committee is meeting today at 6 after the DA to make some final decisions.

Today is a UFT delegate assembly followed by a MORE happy hour. We are bringing 10,000 election leaflets to the DA so we have enough for people to take back to their schools. Last time we brought 5000 and didn't have enough. MORE will have an organized crew on hand to log which schools are being covered.

Here is the MORE announcement:

Please pick-up you election fliers at UFT 52 Broadway NYC from 3:45 to 6:00pm. Post DA Happy Hour 6:00-7:00pmBlarney Stone 11 trinity place - one block way. Please take for your school , nearby chapters, and for your friends to distribute.

Chapter Leaders and Delegates please support our resolution to calling for an end to test based evaluations and motion to amend the receivership resolution.

http://morecaucusnyc.org/2016/03/20/get-test-scores-out-of-teacher-evaluation/

Before the DA I am dropping our lit at various schools in lower Manhattan with MORE's John Antush. Between us and New Action we may be getting out 70-80 thousand pieces of lit.

Lunch With a Chapter Leader I Met for the First Time

I had a lunch date with a teacher, a long time supporter going back to ICE, who was going to put MORE election lit in the mailboxes of 5 neighboring schools followed by a meeting at 52 Broadway to draw ballot positions for the UFT election - as I reported, UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016. 

I'll report on the latter in a follow up.

It was quite a pleasure meeting this contact whom I only knew from anonymous comments on blogs. He is a long time reader of all the major NYC ed blogs and one of the most knowledgeable people I've met, showing me the importance of the blogging community in providing an alternate source of information to the rank and file people who are not racing around to meetings and doing organizing outside their schools. He shares this info with his colleagues so he is doing the important work of education, the first pillar of Ed Notes' triad of educate, organize, mobilize. There are other readers of Ed Notes like Roseanne McCosh who do the same.

He made sure to share the info MORE was putting out on the contract with his staff and even people who were contract supporters are coming to see that he was right.

When we have people in hundreds of schools doing this kind of work we will begin to shake the union.

But make no mistake about it - Unity knows this can be a threat and monitors people to track where there are cracks and focuses attention on schools like this.

He told me quite a story about how Unity micromanagement has increased by putting pressure on chapter leaders to conform. I also learned that the DOE has put pressure on principals to kill the opt out movement - this school had a higher percentage of opt outs last year and apparently came up on the DOE radar. For years he held back but now feels it is the time to step up. He commutes and doesn't have a lot of time but I told him to come to one DA and hang out with the crew sometime. We found we had a lot in common despite a 30 year age difference.

I had written that I would take him to lunch but he insisted on taking me to lunch. I know he is reading this and I have to insist that the next time it is on me.

You know that I was not for running in the elections but the election process leads to meetups like this and makes it worth it.

If you want to take me to lunch or have me take you to lunch, you know where I am.

UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016

I'm heading over to meet a teacher for lunch who has volunteered not only to put #MORE2016 election leaflets in the boxes of his own school but to do 5 other nearby schools. The lunch is on me - and if you want to have lunch on me (not literally) send me a list of schools outside yours you are covering.

I will be throwing the tumbling dice

Then I am off to the UFT to take part in the drawing for slate positions on the ballot. A caucus needs to meet the threshold of 40 candidates in order to get a slate line. If they don't have 40 candidates, as long as the candidates get the petitions signatures, the candidates would have to run as individuals.

This 40 candidate threshold was part of the UFT election announcement and ratified unanimously by the election committee which consists of representatives of all three caucuses that have declared they are running.

Some candidates have been ruled ineligible to run due to their not being a member of the union - ie, not paying their dues. I have heard that 2 of the roughly MORE/New Action 300 candidates have been so ruled and we accept that decision as our bad for not making sure all our candidates were union members.

We will get the exact numbers this afternoon and I will be rolling my lucky dice to try to get MORE/New Action the first position on the ballot. We will then draw for each candidate's position on the rest of the ballot. In reality, 90 percent of the voters just check one of the slates and send back one sheet instead of going through the 20 page booklet picking out candidates. When we do our post-election number crunching we ignore those non-slate ballot votes because they vary so much and do not give much of a picture.

Betty Rosa In, Tisch Out - Ding Dong

Dr. Betty Rosa just elected Chancellor of the Regents!

The tabloids are crying that this is the end of ed deform.
Kudos to Leonie Haimson whose hard work played a role in making this happen.

A little celebratory ditty from Fred Smith

Merryl T we roll along
Roll along, roll along.
Merryl T we'll roll along;
Your Core was Level I.

Betty's here to right the wrongs.
May she stay strong where she belongs.
Betty's here to fight the wrongs
And she speaks the truth.

Betty's here. She knows the score.
'Bout Common Core and much more.
Betty's here. She's Level 4.
At last we have real hope.

Fred

ATRS Targeted by Brienza Consultant Firm Formerly Run by Mulgrew's Sister

An ATR told me an interesting story. In addition to a field

supervisor, he was also visited by some guy from a company called Brienza Academic Advantage who told him they were hired by the DOE to "assist" ATRs - read that as - "assist the DOE in getting rid of" ATRs who have been targeted.

Michael Mulgrew's sister, Kathleen Mulgrew-Daretany, was the COO of Brienza, as reported by Sue Edelman in an April 28, 2013 article:

During her leave, Mulgrew-Daretany worked as chief operating officer for Brienza’s Academic Advantage, a Brooklyn-based company that sells teacher-training seminars and student tutoring. She is listed as COO in a Brienza’s organizational chart filed with the DOE. She left “last year,” a company official said.

DOE payments to Brienza’s rose from $5,109 in 2002 to $10.9 million in 2012, when the city received No Child Left Behind funds for after-school tutoring, officials said.

What happened when this Brienza guy observed the ATR? Well, the ATR was not actually teaching a class but in there to assist another teacher and during the lesson played no role at all.

So how astounded was he when this Brienza guy tells him he wants to meet on the ATRs prep to discuss his "lesson" and see where it could be improved.

"But I didn't teach a lesson," says the ATR.

The Brienza guy ignores what he said and insists there was a lesson.

Surreal in some worlds, but in the tangled relationship between the UFT and the DOE, business as usual.

Let's follow the bouncing ball:

• The UFT abandons ATRs to the fates and refuses to give them any representation by allowing them their own chapter. 
• When challenged the UFT/Unity leadership says "ATRs are not a permanent position."
• The DOE agrees with their partners at the UFT - that the ATRs are not permanent and has a plan to phase them out. They spend an enormous amount of money hiring field supervisors - known among many ATRs as "failed supervisors" in previous positions.
• In addition to the failed supervisors being used to go after ATRs we now find out that they have hired Brienza, whose COO was the sister of the UFT president.
• Brienza is clearly hired not to assist the ATRs but to assist the field/failed supervisors in removing ATRs who become a target.
• They are all being very careful to make sure that when they observe the ATRs they are covering in their license areas and they often badger the people in the schools to make sure to get certain classes for the ATR, better if they are the worst classes in the school -- yes, some people at the school level are annoyed enough at these FS and consultants to be supportive of ATRs whom they think are doing a good job in a bad situation.  

In all of my criticism of the UFT I rarely accuse the leadership of out and out corruption. But someone explain to me how they are so silent while enormous amounts of money is being spent to monitor people who are in essence substitute teachers. In the over 100 year history of the NYC school system, have outside agents ever been hired to monitor subs? So we know that the way a sub does his or her job is and has always been irrelevant as long as they are not utter incompetents.

So it is clear that the very purpose of field supervisors and Brienza is to get rid of people by putting enough pressure on them to get them to leave. We know that there are union officials who have been told about these stories. Public silence.

That the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership is complicit even if not outright, but by their silence.

An ATR Tells Us a Story - Where is the UFT's Plan of Assistance to Defend an ATR Under Assault?

A MORE contact, a former chapter leader, reached out to us

Support should be in quotes

because she felt an ATR who was rotated into her school and had impressed many people, was being set up by the field supervisor (failed supervisor in many cases).

In one of the best conversations I've had with an ATR, it took a few fascinating hours for me to get the full story from the ATR and it is clear there is an unfair vendetta going on coming from the field supervisor on up. Other than one scumbag principal, the other schools being rotated into have been fairly supportive and even in some cases resisted attempts to set him up. (Yes there are witnesses to requests that he be given the worst class timed to the field supervisor visit.)

I got names and numbers as we worked up the chain of command but still have to do more digging.

Because our primary aim is to protect the ATR we are treading very carefully and not publishing many details and may not be able to do so until things are further along in the process. The good thing is that the fear he was operating under seems to have been broken once it became clear what his fate will be.

We are also developing a strategy of defense that goes beyond the narrow confines of what the UFT offers, which is precious little. One of the options on the table is trying to use contacts in MORE to look for job openings that might free him from ATR status (One MORE CL has already gotten 4 ATRs regular jobs in his school.)

When and if the full story comes out we will see just how the UFT does as little as it can. Like when you ask if the DOE people can do something that is outrageous the UFT response is "they can." End of story -- no sense that they will try to fight the rule that allows the response "they can."

This ATR has been in a lot of schools and has a smart analysis of what is working and what is not in each one. A deep repository of knowledge of just how deep this system sucks resides in the body of ATRs - and this is just one part of the story of why the DOE wants to break so many ATRs to the point where they appear to be paranoiac lunatics.

While he says in every school most teachers are miserable, there are still a bunch of schools where he came away with respect for the principal and the rest of the administration. There was only one school with an awful principal and when we can we will expose the school and the principal. We will also praise and slam the particular people up and down the line who helped or acted like slime.

Included is an interesting story about a consulting firm hired to help go after ATRs that has ties to the Mulgrew family.

One clear sign you have become a target - whether an ATR or not - is when they ask you to sign the dreaded "Plan of Assistance" and the "log of assistance" where they demonstrate how they "helped" you.

Maybe it is time for ATRs to ask the UFT for a plan of assistance on how they will stand up for you and keep their own log of non-assistance.

Help the IS 192Q FLL Robotics Team Go to the Nationals in St. Louis

I spent part of last Friday and all day Saturday at the Javitz Convention Center at the FIRST Lego League (FLL - ages 9-14) 80 team robotics competition where I have been a volunteer since I retired from the NYC school system 14 years ago. This year’s theme was “Trash Trek” where the project mission was to make less trash or improve the way people handle the trash we make. The teams had to run a robot three times on a field where they had to complete missions related to the trash concept within 2.5 minutes for each run. They also had to go before a panel of judges and present a research project related to topic in addition to a technical presentation showing how they built and programmed their robot. The overall winner is chosen based on all these factors.

This year’s winner was the team from IS 192Q from the St. Albans area of eastern Queens which is coached by Eric Greene who won for the first time. Eric has been a heroic figure for me since he joined our program 14 years ago as he managed to keep the robotics program going through all these years. This was no light victory since the competition came from many of the most elite private schools in the city which have many more resources than Eric has. Eric can now take his team to St. Louis for the international championship but needs to raise funds to do so. The team is from a lower middle class area (hard-working parents making ends meet), with possibly a few kids from the lower income level; it is a mixed income area. Eric is running a Go Fund Me Campaign and put out this request for assistance:

The FLL Champion robotics team from IS 192Q in St.Albans - Help to St. Louis

“We are the Robotics Team from IS 192 in St. Albans, Queens, New York. The team is made of seventh and eighth grade students. We just won the 1st Place Champion’s Award at the NYC FIRST LEGO League Championship tournament. Our team is now invited to the FIRST (World) Championship tournament in St. Louis, Mo. This event will take place April 27 to April 30. There are 14 members on the team. We would like everyone to but some families are unable to afford the trip. The money will go toward airfare, hotel, meals, and other expenses. We need the money as soon as possible so we can plan the trip and see how many students and parents would like to go and who needs financial help. It would be great if they all could go because everyone contributed to the team’s success.”

Here is the site if you want to help: www.gofundme.com/eru9tz9q

UFT Elections and #MORE2016: What is to be learned?

MORE is getting requests for election literature from people we don't know. I made a bunch of drops at schools yesterday (and stuffed some boxes in schools where we don't have a contact.) Is that a good sign? Maybe.

When some of my young colleagues in MORE get overly excited I play the role of Debby Downer. I've seen this movie too often in the past. As my old pal Jeff Kaufman told me this past weekend: things must change drastically externally before the union will change. While the loudest anti-Unity voices seem to think things have changed drastically over the last 15 years - and in some ways they certainly have changed - I think they ain't seen nothin' yet. We have seen a  slow-drip of losses coming out of an alliance of the UFT, DOE and CSA. The UFT control of communications has kept most UFT members from hearing all the stories. Most are not blog readers.

The major role I see UFT elections playing is offering an opposition an opportunity to extend and build their own communication network. But if that network only operates during the brief election period every 3 years, that is just marking time.
My major goal in this election is to extend whatever network MORE has and get it to operate on a permanent basis to bring information and goad people towards being more active in the union.

Ed Notes readers should know what I think of UFT elections - they are a distraction. But they are also a way to galvanize people, at least for a time. I'm not sure why some people get excited for an election that is pre-determined but I guess hope springs eternal. Dozens of people you talk to say they don't like the union leadership and in your mind it becomes hundreds. And then you find that even the those people forgot to vote.

Remember how much opposition there was to the last contract? Well, pretty much the same 75% that matches the rough Unity vote voted for the contract. The major difference between the contract vote and the UFT election vote was that 92% of UFT members voted while 20% vote in the UFT elections. And don't forget that retirees vote in the latter. Yet the percentages voting for the Unity line were similar. What I did see was a batch people who were so turned off by the contract that they came to MORE and are now key people and also, encouraged by MORE, have taken on the job of chapter leader.

Some people have surmised that the 20,000 NO contract voters might be pissed enough to vote opposition to Unity which would definitely raise the opposition totals this time. I am not getting my hopes up. I don't measure things by votes but by the people who jump into the water and sign on to help build an opposition to Unity. We have a new MORE steering committee with such people.

Each of those people bring their schools and their social network along by sharing information on what the union leadership is doing. And that can translate into votes. I'd have to see hundreds of people doing this before I become an optimist.

I know that in each election in the past, even for a hardened realist like me, my expectations exceeded the outcomes. This time I think I have finally lowered my expectations to a point where they match reality. But surprise me, please!

I am most interested in helping build a long-term infrastructure for an opposition caucus that can one day challenge the Unity Caucus machine. I constantly look within MORE for signs of that happening and I can see how the election process offers hope for  progress as more people get involved. Given past history, many election activists are just that -- active during elections. Makes sense because there are concrete things to do. The problem for a group like MORE has been the interregnum between elections when the level of activity and commitment drops.

I can see MORE already thinking beyond the election - to the summer series of educational workshops, a regular newsletter using the distribution network, advocacy for the groups in the UFT not being dealt with fairly -- untenured, senior teachers being pushed out, schools threatened with receivership, ATRs, rubber roomers, paperwork overload -- I would love to push for a job action on this -- extending the opt out movement -- freeing teachers from threats if they talk to parents. (I think there may be some surprises brewing in the NYC opt out numbers this year.) But MORE can't just complain about these situations. It has to actively go out and try to organize these people into a force for their own interests. MORE people have to think more like organizers than just activists. Organizers don't pontificate or run to every rally. They get names and numbers and do follow-up calls and go out and meet with people where they are at and build networks. There are precious few of those.

For me, the election period can't end too soon - and it will at the end of May -- so MORE can get on with the intense work that has to be done by a fairly small group of dedicated people who will continue to stand up for what is right.

On Guns and the Apple Privacy Battle - It's About Protecting US from Abusive Dictators

I watched the 60-minute segment last night on Encryption and things suddenly became crystal clear. Using the word "privacy" makes it seem that we are willing to let terrorists be protected so we can keep our precious emails private. But watching that Russian guy who wrote a program to protect dissidents in Russia and had to leave the country for his own protections made it so clear this is not about our emails.

If there were cell phones in Hitler's day would we advocate relaxing encryption so the Gestapo could root out opponents? Since most of the world is under some authoritarian rule and we claim we are for democratic movements, then handing the keys to these dictators to root out not terrorists but those who are trying to organize opposition to these dictators.

And we know full well we may not be all that far away from facing our own fascist dictatorship here. Imagine trying to protest a president Trump as his version of the Brown shirts go after you?
The ability to organize, which terrorists are using, becomes our tool when we are oppressed.

As for guns - well think of the registration issue and how that would be used by a dictator to send people to your house to confiscate them. We know the right wing charges that Obama was going to do that were a joke. But what happens when the shoe is on the other foot and the right is in control? They will have the guns and the progressives won't.

Can we become Russia when we have a Putin-like president who has the support of 90% of the people?  Or worse, Germany where Hitler was enormously popular? If you are a student of history it is not far to get from there to here. And will the day come when the only option you might have left as a dissident is to become a terrorist yourself?

Just some thoughts on a rainy Monday morning.

#MORE2016: Hard to Keep Up With MOREs All Over the Place

Jake Jacobs, ‎New York BATs, MORE candidate for UFT Ex Bd At-large

March 11 

FULL HOUSE IN NEW PALTZ: Amazing job at public education forum at SUNY New Paltz tonight with Jia Lee, Marla Kilfoyle, Lisa Platt-Rudley, Bianca Tanis and Zephyr Teachout

I got there a bit late, but I heard Jia Lee talk about creating superior alternatives to testing in practice, as she uses in her school, and the risks she had to take in becoming an opt-out parent and teacher. Marla's dramatic ... See More

— with Jia Lee, Marla Kilfoyle, Lisa Platt-Rudley and Zephyr Teachout.

Over the weekend, MORES were involved in a meeting and also this event in Jackson Heights:

Good turnout today of concerned Jackson Heights parents who - like so many others - aren't happy with the current state of public education in NYC. MORE teachers were in attendance, and the opt out workshops had the greatest number of participants.....Katie Lapham

MORE's Kevin Prosen, standing

You know I was concerned that the UFT election would be a distraction for MORE and keep them from doing their basic organizing work. But as you can see above, MOREs are out there. Jia Lee was in some select company at New Paltz as reported by NYCBAT Jake Jacobs. The growing ties between MORE and the BATS is a move in the right direction and Jia deserves a lot of the credit for her tireless work in building bridges toward a movement that goes beyond a narrow caucus interested only in challenging the union leadership. I view the movement as building a wall around the leadership and trapping them in their own little world - a disconnected leadership head with no body.

Peter Zucker realizes the remarkable qualities of MORE and Jia in this incisive post that in so many ways expresses MORE in ways that people deep on the inside haven't been able to. Peter, coming from the outside after having left MORE for a while perhaps has a more perceptive view. I had to miss Saturday's meeting because of robotics but hearing from Marilena and Peter below gives me an idea I missed a good one. From what I know, Peter and Marilena are very different politically yet both had such positive feelings about the MORE meeting. Meetings, frankly, in the early days, often led to some friction. Hopefully this is a sign of smoothing the edges but I have to give Jia Lee a large amount of credit for helping smooth these edges.

Hey all,

If you didn't get a chance to attend Saturday's election rally, you missed a truly inspiring and inspired afternoon. I haven't been able to attend MORE events in a while but I'm so glad I didn't miss today. I walked outta the LGBT center feeling hope and pride. Executive slate members - your leadership, thoughtfulness, creativity and passion was truly felt. It's Saturday and y'all deserve a toast - along with everyone else who's been doing the hours and hours of behind the scenes organizing, discussing, emceeing, hosting, etc.

Cheers,
Marilena

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL

I Really Now Get It About MORE - I get it. I really, truly, finally get MORE. Driving home from the MORE meeting today I had an epiphany (If that is what you want to call it)

During the breakout sessions today I was commiserating with Jia Lee about this and that. The subject came around to how I had a shitty personal week and I started to share with her some of what I had gone through during my exile from the DOE.

Jia was so empathetic, so calming in her tone, her manner, and her words that I felt safe to open up. In fact so safe, I asked Lauren Cohen, knowing what she had gone through in the past, to join in.

And as the three of us were talking both their words and actions dawned on me which only finally hit me once I was in The Bronx.

MORE is not just a caucus looking to unseat the powers of the UFT. MORE is a place where teachers, educators, families, and the community can come and get support and not be judged nor looked down upon. Anyone can reach out to anyone at MORE and not be asked anything in return other than you walk away feeling better.  ..

Every time I talk with Jia I learn something new. Jia is a wealth of knowledge. Not just with education and unions. But of writers, historical facts pertaining to the working people, and to philosophies that affect us all. Isn't this someone that we need to lead a our union?

I'm happy enough to have Jia helping lead MORE.

Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator says:

I'm very proud to be running on the MORE/ New Action High School slate, headed by James Eterno, one of the most knowledgeable and experienced unionists it's been my pleasure to know. This is who I want representing NYC high school teachers. We have not taken oaths to rep leadership in lieu of membership and we never will.

My former neighbor Josmar Trujillo, not a teacher, posted this on FB:

The best recognition you can get: young people.
MELS Middle School in Queens profiled a bunch of activists for their book. Lucky enough to be one of them! Big smile on my face now... And Timothy Ford & David Garcia-Rosen. Now that's good company!

So here's another MORE, David Garcia-Rosen, a fellow candidate like Arthur for the high school executive board, being recognized for his amazing work in organizing athletic leagues for underserved small schools. 

Eric Draitser Here's my interview with Jia back in November http://store.counterpunch.org/jia-lee-mercedes-schneider.../

What to Make of "I'm for Bernie or Donald?" Who's to Blame for Trump?

To imagine that Donald Trump is a sort of comb-over John the Baptist for some eventual progressive Jesus is a fiction we force on ourselves by faith, not by reading history. For most of the last century, progressives of various sorts were always convinced that nationalist self-assertion could be magically transmuted into progressivism. By “heightening the contradictions” or showing “capitalism with the gloves off,” authoritarian contempt for parliamentary democracy might be magically transmuted from the wrong kind of rage into the right kind of reform.... Adam Gropnik, The New Yorker ---

This comment really touches on an element of the Bernie-Trump axis which is the theme of this piece.

A few hours ago we received a photo from my brother in law of my sister in law wearing a Trump shirt - they are at the Trump rally in Boca and believe me it is not to protest. My wife is virulently anti-Trump and sent back some little ditty. I just laughed. Passover this year will be fun as my wife includes a Trump button on the sedar plate as a substitute for the bitter herbs. I can't wait to read the section where we name the plagues: vermin, frogs, boils, the first born, Trump.

A transcript of our festive meal would reveal the underlying truths of Bernie, Trump and Hillary supporters. I think the April 19 NY primary comes before the festive meal so we will have lots to have a food fight about.

 ...nationalism sufficiently strident can get by with an eclectic or completely vague economic program both in promise and in practice. Fascism may have appealed to the economically insecure, but it did not appeal by giving them an economic answer. It appealed by giving them an enemy. As in France, or throughout Europe now, the extreme right flourishes not because there is insecurity but because they have an answer for insecurity: blame the Muslims (they’ve also blamed the Jews, though they’re quieter about that right now). Or: blame the Muslims and the Mexicans. They work, in the classic manner, not by providing answers to insecurity but by blurring the lines between genuine anxieties and imaginary fears and then by offering an imaginary solution—the Jews/Muslims/terrorists/Commies who are coming—to the imaginary fears as though that would alleviate the real anxieties.... Adam Gropnik, The New Yorker ---

Gropnik identifies himself as a conservative and his piece below my commentary is worth reading.

He touches on the Ted Cruz charge that Obama is to blame for Trump:

It isn’t Trump or his followers who are really to blame for his rise; it’s the circumstances that produced them and the guys, chiefly liberals, who they think created those circumstances.

Not that this is what they are talking about but is there some sort of Bernie-Trump axis and Trump's trying to blame Bernie for the protests is a sign that he recognizes that lurking among Bernie supporters are people who will support him?

The other day a Bernie supporter called the Brian Lehrer show and said if Bernie doesn't get the nomination he would vote for Trump over Hillary. Brian was astounded, not only at the notion but that this was a respected progressive caller who had called a number of times in the past with a high degree of credibility. Brian asked him to explain. He said he could not vote for a corporate, free trade Democrat once again and would prefer to take a shot with Trump. Are there progressives for Trump who are just ashamed to say so?

I wrote about this Trump-Bernie axis on Dec. 30: The Trump Whisperers in Supposedly Liberal Circles.

Now that Trump is making the ridiculous claim that the Bernie campaign is sending protesters to disrupt the Trump rallies - which I believe actually wins Trump more supporters -- and is threatening to send people to disrupt Bernie events we are reaching a new wrinkle where the other candidates, even Hillary, are pushed to the side. Really, if Bernie thinks he can be the nominee who better to run against than Trump?

I remember waking up in the morning WINS reporting on the Bobby Kennedy assassination. It is indelible in my memory. You know we've seen the possible future in the past when violence erupted which led to assassination attempts and scapegoating - ie George Wallace, the Kennedys, King. Can't you just see some Republican Party saviors looking for a Mexican they can scapegoat an pin an attempt on Trump on - if you believe the conspiracy theories of the past, why not? I have also been worried about Hillary given the hatred she inspires. But I also worry about Obama even if not a fan - I still do and only hope all ends well.
Are we in 1968 territory?

Anyway, our teacher pals in Chicago played a role in the shutting down of the Trump rally on Friday. I have mixed feelings on these protests but haven't sorted it all out yet. I am not a protester in that way. I prefer doing things outside rather than inside.

One of the links between Bernie and Trump is economic woe with the free trade issue at a focal point. Gropnik addresses and disparages this notion:

There’s often a strong need on the part of progressive people to believe that all ailments are essentially economic and that, therefore, if there is a political program that isn’t economic in its emphasis it must be surreptitiously economic in its real purpose. It’s a little like Freudian analysis: since all neuroses are sexual traumas, then a sexual trauma will always be found. But one of the fundamental and tragic lessons of the last century is that nationalism can exist on its own as a cause and faith and belief attached to the most meagre shreds of any kind of economic project. That’s the way Mussolini worked, or, later, Berlusconi. People still identify—yes, let’s go there—Hitler’s rise with the currency inflation of the Weimar Republic. And yet that panic had already passed; Hitler’s appeal, as any reader of “Mein Kampf” can find, was very marginally about economic grievances, almost entirely to feelings of aggrieved identity and unavenged humiliation.

In a follow-Up post I will offer the other side - where the thinking is that Trump is more populist than racist.

Here is the full Adam Gropnik piece.

March 9, 2016

Roots and Rot: Dodging the Blame for Donald Trump

By Adam Gopnik

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/roots-and-rot-dodging-the-blame-for-donald-trump 

#MORE2016 @NYCORE: Building a Teacher Movement Through the UFT Elections

MORE and Change the Stakes is involved in 3 workshops at next week's NYCORE conference which is expected to attract a 1000 attendees. I'll be there taping the keynote and hanging out with lots of good people.  Here is the message sent out by Presidential candidate Jia Lee.

Dear Friends!

MORE is excited to be hosting, once again, at NYCoRE's Conference Day, held on Saturday, March 19th (9:30-6:00)
Location: James Baldwin School, 351 West 18th Street Manhattan, NY 10011

Workshop Session 2 (2-3:30): Building a Teacher Movement Through the UFT Elections ECE, MH 106 

The 2016 UFT Elections this April is an opportunity to organize and mobilize rank and file teachers in NYC. Last election, less than 20% of active members voted. This is indicative of a mass sentiment of disempowerment and lack of voice in our union and profession. Join the Movement of Rank and File educators for a discussion on the nuts and bolts of the election, as well as a historical context. Participants will collaborate around strategies to get out the vote and to spark conversations at their schools around how our working conditions directly impact our students’ learning conditions.

AND PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT DISCUSSION! It's time to put an end to Receivership NOW! 

Workshop Session 3 (3:45-5:15pm): Receivership Schools: Stop the Policy NOW! MH, ECE 101

Under recently passed laws, schools that are categorized as falling in the bottom 5% of “low performing” schools can be placed into receivership, where the state will appoint an “independent receiver.” This can be a person or organization, including a charter chain, to run the school.  The receiver has authority to change the calendar, dictate instructional approaches and remove staff. Of the 144 schools on the NYS Receivership list, 62 of them in NYC. Members of the NYS Receivership and NYC Renewal Schools Action Group and Change the Stakes are working together to discredit and end the NYS Receivership policy.
Aixa Rodriguez: Teaches ESL at Foreign Language Academy for Global Studies,in the Bronx. Jane Maisel: Member of Change the Stakes & teaches in School of Education at CCNY.

AND Please Join the parents and educators of NYC Opt Out 

Workshop Session 1: (11:15-12:45) NYC Opt Out: This is the Crucial Year!
101

Last spring approximately 20% of NYS families opted out of the Grade 3-8 high stakes tests. Despite all our efforts to stop NYS Education Department’s damaging policies, the only protest the NYSED has noticed is Opt Out. In response, NYSED has recently tried to stifle protest with a combination of threats and superficial changes, while leaving in place the most damaging aspects of high stakes testing, which hit low-income communities hardest. In this practical session we will share strategies and plan together. Those from outside NYC are also welcome. It’s time to finally end high stakes testing!  

KEYNOTE: Bettina Love featuring Justis Lopez

Register Today!

Check out Schedule

 

A (Tiring) Day of Robotics at Javits

Masters of ceremonies Mareen and John flank one of my favorite coaches, Eric Greene, who ended up winning the Championship after 14 years as a coach. He will be taking his team to St. Louis for the internationals. Retired NYC teacher and master coach Veryl Greene (no relation) mentored the team.

Congrats to Eric Greene and mentor Veryl Greene (no relation) for winning the New York City FLL championship yesterday. Eric, after 14 years of coaching, is taking his school from St. Albans, Queens to the international event in St. Louis.

Boy am I wiped. I dragged myself into the house at 7 last night without chills, without a voice and very hungry. This was my 15th year at a FIRST LEGO League robotic championship, the last 14 as volunteer. I became a volunteer for FLL soon after I retired in 2002, so I am pretty attuned to the support and lack of from the DOE over this time. I'll get to this in a followup post but first I posted this on facebook with my photos:

Oh what a day yesterday at the FIRST Lego league (age 9-14) 80 team event, Junior FLL (age 6-9) and 3 day first robotics high schools from as far away as London, Brazil and Far Rockaway at Javits convention center Saturday March 12.

To make it clear, there are 3 concurrent events.

FIRST LEGO League was an all-day event on Saturday with 80 teams, including public, charter, private, neighborhood home-schooled teams and for profit orgs where parents pay to enroll their kids on a team. I have seen the public school share of teams drop drastically over the years I have been involved, which spans the years from Harold Levy through Bloomberg and Di Blasio. I will address this issue in another post, especially since Carmen Farina spoke and lamented the fact that the event was not dominated by public schools -- she should look in the mirror if she's looking for a reason.

The high school kids (FRC), who come from many public NYC schools  began to arrive Thursday evening  to set up their pit areas. Friday was for practice and tuning their robots. Saturday and Sunday was the competition. I went back to the FRC pits on Friday and was surprised to see a team from Far Rockaway HS Campus, the Queens HS for Information, Research and Technology. The students beamed when my pal Tony Homsey told them we were from Rockaway. I asked if they knew Jeff Kaufman who is not teaching socials studies and coding at the school and they were so excited at the mention of his name. Saturday Jeff,  who is running on the MORE slate for Exec Bd at Large, did come and we had a great chat with a lot of insight about a small school with a good principal who Jeff admires. In all my years of knowing Jeff I have never heard him say nice things about his principal. This guy must be gold. Jeff introduced me to the coach who also happens to read my School Scope column in The Wave. What a task he has taken on to do this work. The team, which won the FIRST rookie award, is called Birch Bots. Here are some photos I took of the team:

A team member collecting memos.

So many people I knew stopped by the pit admin station where I was on duty all day, including Sterling Roberson from the UFT. Farina spoke at the opening but I was too busy to go over and hear her.  My question to Farina and the UFT:  Do they offer real support or a photo op?

More photos:

 Here are some Junior FLL photos at their exhibition for ages 6-9.

The participation medals - long time Staten Island coach Ray Cottrell, center

Old pal Laura Allen of RoboFun stopped by.

Popular every year: Talking robot

The pits

It really was the longest day. After a Friday night of revelry at the

The kids at the RTC

Rockaway Theatre Company gala event at El Caribe, it was out of the house at 6:30 to pick up fellow volunteer Tony Homsey. We didn't get back to Rockaway until 7 PM. I had and have no voice, which my wife is celebrating.

UFT Elections: It's Mostly Over - For Me

I won't leave until the Viennese table tonite

Now that I've completed my main task for MORE - Petitionology - UFT Elections/#MORE2016 -my role will be like the Car Talk Chauffer - PickUP AnDropoff - which I did yesterday by picking up boxes of MORE/New Action leaflets at the printer and dropped off to get them out of my hands so I am not tempted to do too much more work over the next 2 months until the ballots are counted - though I expect to be there for the count because that is so much fun watching the retiree vote come in in droves.

You know I don't think much of UFT elections other than they are a chore that must be done.

I am not a fan of stuffing mailboxes in hundreds of schools because I think it basically doesn't get many votes. As you know I believe you get votes not in an election but between elections by organizing schools. To me the election is a temperature check of how well that work has been going. If MORE and New Action pull the same combined numbers as last time then there are lessons to be learned from the outcome -- if they want to continue to challenge Unity in an election forum they cannot win they must focus on expanding their school organizing. Otherwise follow my advice and don't run.

Until the election is over and we can analyze the outcome I can focus on my other interests, most of which involve other volunteer organizations like MORE is. I love working in volunteer orgs.
The Rockaway Theatre Company - I have a role in Follies opening in June- building the sets, etc. 

Robotics in FIRST LEGO League, gardening at my house and maybe helping out at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and maybe seeking new ventures like learning how to do some landscape painting.

Look at my upcoming schedule over the next week.

This morning I took a hot yoga class.
I came home and did some preliminary spring pruning and cleaning up in my garden.
I'm leaving soon for the Javits convention center to help set up for tomorrows 80 team FLL tournament. We will be there from 2-6 and then it is off to the Rockaway Theatre Company gala annual dinner at El Carib in Brooklyn with a cast of hundreds.
Tomorrow morning we're off at 6:30 AM to Javits where we will be working until 6PM.
Sunday is a day of rest, as is most of the rest of the week other than going to Book of Mormon curtesy of cousin Dan who is taking my wife and I to the show.
Saturday March 19 I am videotaping the NYCORE keynote at their conference which is expected to attract 1000 people and MORE is having a workshop.
Sunday night is dinner with the old 1970s crew of people.
Tuesday night is my writing group meeting.
Wed is the DA followed by the MORE happy hour - I look at the DA as a social event.

For me a light couple of weeks.

My theory is you have to be like a shark - keep moving to stay alive. And eating anything in sight, which tonight at the RTC dinner I will do to excess - I won't leave until the Viennese table no matter how early I have to get up tomorrow morning.

MORE Candidate Jake Jacobs: Hillary’s Current Ed Advisor Was Behind NCLB

Could O’Leary be on the short list for US Secretary of Education, seeing how John Podesta actually makes the determination? And how jarring is it that the unions have quietly been part of this?... Jake Jacobs

One reason teachers who are paying attention to ed deformers are opposed to voting for Hillary, is a record of supporting ed deform going back to the early 80s in Arkansas. I was interviewed by a reporter for a major national newspaper today and the Hillary/Randi connection is the subject of his piece. Boy did I give him an earful by showing how our union has backed versions of ed deform since the early 80s.

Jake Jacobs is running with MORE for Executive Board at large. Jake comes from the BATS. Mercedes Schneider picked up this story on her blog which I repost below.

Jake's piece touches base with why so many teachers are rejecting Hillary, some even willing to go Trump. I received these 2 comments from readers as an example.

I made my decision. Not sure about any other Bernie supporters but if I have to choose between Trump and Hilary I hold my nose and vote for Trump. I'd rather cut off my nose than vote for Hilary. I will not reward corporate whore democrats with my vote...

I will vote for Sanders in primary. I will vote for Trump over Clinton and head straight to my internment camp...

Jake's work here reminds me of why I am proud to be part of a group like MORE that can attract people like him.

https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/nycs-jake-jacobs-hillarys-current-ed-advisor-was-behind-nclb/

March 9, 2016

The following post comes compliments of Jake Jacobs, New York City art teacher.
  Jake Jacobs
***

HILLARY’S CURRENT EDUCATION ADVISOR WAS BEHIND NCLB?

Jake Jacobs

If you were shocked by the 2012 John Podesta/Jeb Bush video where the biggest Obama, Clinton and Bush fundraisers effectively called a truce over corporate education reform, be sitting for this one: Last June, Fortune magazine featured Ann O’Leary, “the wonk shaping Hillary’s plans for the country.”

In charge of economic and education issues for Hillary, O’Leary is an ivy educated lawyer and senior fellow at Center for American Progress (CAP) who served in Obama’s transition team and most recently worked for billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, a perennial Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegate and board member at CAP. From the article:

“O’Leary’s connection to the Clintons dates back to the ’90s, when she worked in the White House…O’Leary is a diehard policy wonk, especially keen on anything that affects families or education. As Clinton’s Senate aide in 2001, she was at the center of No Child Left Behind — a once popular education initiative that has since soured in the public mind.

“It was a really important moment,” she says of the law, which Ted Kennedy crafted and George W. Bush signed. “When you look back at what happened, this was serious, bipartisan, constructive work. We were committed to high standards and helping states get there.”

Implementation, she concedes, has been a rocky road — and she praises bipartisan reform proposals. On the newest flashpoint in education, Common Core, she notes that it was an initiative created by governors, not Washington, and notes that it has worked better in states like California, where cautious implementation preceded any focus on test-taking.”

O’Leary, like John Podesta, looks across the aisle to find agreement, for example on the issue of single-parent homes:

“…one place where she is staking out fresh ground..[t]he percent of children being raised by single parents at the middle and lower end of the income ladder…Conservatives have long cited research showing the link between family structure and income mobility. O’Leary gets this, and in our interview offered numbers to prove her point. “You will hear Hillary Clinton talk about this,” she says. “Even saying it out loud is important.”

THE SHELL GAME: O’Leary is co-founder of the Opportunity Institute, a nonprofit that seeks to promote legislation to help children and families from “cradle to grave.” Some goals seem noble, like parental leave and teen pregnancy prevention, but what about K-12 education?

Here it splinters into another organization called Partners for Each and Every Child (sound familiar?) and it gets reformy, looking for “strong policies” to improve “student outcomes”, taking aim at teachers, schools, families and communities. They talk about lobbying all 50 states to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and define Community Schools, providing “infrastructure” such as policy drafts, staff, research and communications, while the larger CAP octopus directs campaign cash, astroturfing and revolving door jobs.

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND: The “Partners” group itself is chock full of ex-Duncan aides, ex-Clinton administration officials and CAP associates, but in particular, key staffers from the US Dept. of Ed’s Civil Rights division, such as Molly Mauer, Guy Johnson and Andrew Amore.

This is very interesting in light of the recent battle over federally mandated annual tests in the recent ESSA law, where “civil rights groups” formed the supposed firewall for keeping annual tests, even after it became clear that the rank and file in these same groups opposed the tests. “Partners” touts their alliances with civil rights organizations, elected officials and state and local education officials, the type they indubitably hire after leaving office.

The funding for this group is no surprise, coming from the Gates, Carnegies, Hewletts and Ford foundations, but also from the AFT and NEA, meaning this is “teachers” money, used since at least 2013 as part of the CAP crusade to set up what Politico has called Hillary’s “policy shop in waiting.”

IT GETS WEIRDER: This part doesn’t involve education, but Ann O’Leary’s marriage to California Supreme Court judge Goodwin Liu became an issue when Hillary’s emails were released. They revealed that O’Leary asked Hillary in 2009 to get Obama to nominate her husband for the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Hillary did so, but had O’Leary write two sets of talking points for her, one meant for White House counsel painting Liu as “more liberal” while another set was sent to Sen. Feinstein making him sound “not too liberal”.

Liu’s 2010 nomination was withdrawn after a Republican filibuster, but this illustrates not only how super-tight Hillary is with O’Leary, but how much Hillary was actually influencing Obama right from the start.

Could O’Leary be on the short list for US Secretary of Education, seeing how John Podesta actually makes the determination? And how jarring is it that the unions have quietly been part of this?

(Click image to enlarge.)

Petitionology - UFT Elections/#MORE2016: Today is Final Day to File Petitions to get on Ballot

Gloria and me getting ready to eat

What me worry? We are done. Gloria Brandman, Michael Shulman and I handed thousands of pages of petitions to Amy Arundel and Ray Frankel at the UFT yesterday afternoon.We've been seeing Ray for over 40 years at these things and seeing her still doing this work even if she is on the other side is still a treat. Ray has to be pushing - I better not even try to guess her age but I hope she is still there in 2019.

I am free, free at last from the burden of organizing and managing the MORE/New Action petition campaign.

Call me a petitionologist. One of the few things I am an expert at.

We needed 900 for our officer slate. We got 1800. For the
divisional Ex Bd positions - elem (11), middle (5), high schools (7) and functionals (19) - we needed 100 for each of the 42 candidates and we were getting so many signatures we told people to stop gathering signatures. Look at the petition. It only holds around 40 signatures and to get to 1800 you can imagine how big a stack that is.

The UFT Executive Board is made up of these 42 plus 48 Ex bd at large (any UFT member can sign) plus the 12 officers.

We had so many great candidates we had to prune our list. All our other 200 candidates are running for the AFT/NYSUT RA delegates. Thus we have roughly 300 people on the slate.

We monitored the numbers every week so we knew where we stood. The amount of coordination, especially since we were working with New Action, was at times intense. Having NAC's experienced Jonathan Halabi as a partner on this made a big difference as we gathered and coordinated the information from 300 hundred candidates. And we could have had many more if we wanted but given the time frame and work involved we decided to save an entire forest by cutting things off at 300.

The only way I can get a project like this done is to obsess about it obsessively. So my mind has been cluttered over the planning and execution and now I can rest.

We were actually done on Saturday. They came by planes, trains and automobiles - and by foot to deliver piles of petitions all day.
We brought in a great team, including the always awesome Julie Woodward who used to write the Under Assault blog who comes out of retirement every 3 years to help us review and organize the petitions. Julie, Pat and David Dobosz, Gloria, Dan Doyle, Kit Wainer, Ashraya Gupta, Michael Shulman, Jonathan Halabi and others did yeoman work. Every one of our AFT delegate were put in folders in alphabetical order.

And our team did an amazing job, working from 10AM to 4PM. Still, I am always concerned until we actually turn over the petitions. Fires, floods and who knows what else can wipe you off a slate. I made sure not to leave the petitions in Rockaway in case a sudden Sandy hurricane or tsunami hit. (Yes I am that crazy.) I had to shlep a suitcase full down to 52 Broadway.
 I feel I have become an expert at organizing an effective petition campaign for UFT elections, which began Feb. 3. I wrote about it then: #MORE2016 - UFT Election Season is At Hand - Petitioning begins today through end of May. With the mid-winter break in the middle of the campaign our people had to hustle to get it all done with time to spare. Special thanks to Roseanne McCosh at PS 8X for chipping in with a good number of signatures. And to one of our own heroes Dan Lupkin at PS 58 for getting 14 people in his school to run and for coming in with a major batch of sigs. Also to Kevin Prosen at IS 230Q for delivering BIG numbers. Julie Cavanagh at PS 15k and Kit Wainer/Mike Schirtzer at Leon Goldstein and Arthur Goldstein at Francis Lewis HS plus our crew at Fort Hamilton HS also came up HUGE.

This is the 4th straight petitioning campaign I have organized since 2007, 10 (ICE) and 2013, 2016 (MORE).

I honed my strategy based on these experiences - what went right, what went wrong - see, experience does count.

This time, rather than view petitioning as a burden, we asked people to use their time as an organizing tool to tell people about the election and why MORE is running. We hope that in our schools where people actively petitioned that will translate into votes in May. But who knows? If our people don't engage their colleagues from now through the end of May to get them to vote it won't make much difference.

One thing we know. Unity will pull out all stops to win everything and you will see your teacher mailboxes flooded with Mulgrew literature. In addition you will be getting visits from Unity slugs under the guise of union business, which to me is a violation of some sort but other than complain, what can we do about it?

Another angle Unity has is that they get all the petitions and can see which schools we have strength in and they can then focus their people on targeting these schools for visits and extra literature.

But thus is the nature of the Unity machine and why they are so hard to make a dent in. But MORE will continue to challenge them throughout this election and beyond. It ain't over till it's over.

After we were done we went down to the 3rd floor cafeteria with Michael Shulman to enjoy a celebratory meal. Now it's on the the election campaign and a massive distribution of literature to the schools which we have the right to go into to put lit in the mail boxes.  If you want lit contact MORE or me.

I am a happy guy getting this mess off my hands