Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
[Principal] Garg received poor marks on the DOE’s school survey for her first year at CPE 1, with a 45 percent approval rating. That compares to an average 95 percent across the city. In five out of eight categories for “effective leadership,” no teachers rated her competent.
The school, founded 41 years ago by legendary educator Deborah Meier
with a distinct philosophy that favored collaboration with teachers and
parents, has long been hailed as a model in the progressive education
movement.
“It’s a school that is falling apart. It is chaotic, incoherent and
rudderless,” said Kenya Dilday, parent association co-chair and the mom
of a third grader.
Parents say that more instructional support is needed for the
200-student school where 11 out of 17 teachers are new since last year.
“We are listening to the concerns of this school community and
providing support to ensure we are meeting student and family needs,”
DOE spokesman Will Mantel said.
This is a great piece by Amy Zimmer that exposes the Farina regime. The only problem is that it makes the DOE look incompetent when in reality the destruction and chaos at Central Park East 1 was and is intentional. Remember other top performing schools like Townshend Harris and La Guardia where these type of principals have been installed.
The principal of CPE 1 is a Farina Hit Woman sent in to destroy the schools. Garg should get a bonus for accomplishing her mission. The first step is to drive out the established teachers (10 of whom Garg had investigated and one sent to a rubber room). The 11 new teachers who were hired by Garg must love her.
At what point do we hold the Farina led DOE accountable for the outrages? And where is the UFT?
Kindergarten Applications Plummet at Once-Coveted School Amid Controversy
Central Park East Mixed Chorus performed at Carter Burden Center for Aging on January 21, 2015.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Sybile Penhirin
MANHATTAN — East Harlem mom Kaliris Salas-Ramirez had to wait a month to get off the waitlist and score a spot just to tour Central Park East 1 when visiting elementary schools for her son two years ago.
This year, the school at Madison Avenue and East 106th Street had barely enough parents to fill the tours. At a recent evening open house, “literally one parent showed up,” Salas-Ramirez, now co-chair of the parent association. The small and diverse lottery-based school — considered the
forerunner of progressive public schools in the city — garnered more
kindergarten applicants per available seat than any other school in the
city for the the 2015-2016 school year, according to Department of Education data. Nearly 570 families listed the school as one of their 12 choices on
their kindergarten application, vying for just 30 seats. That breaks
down to about 19 applicants per seat. But that was before Monika Garg took over as principal last September, touching off a revolt from long-time teachers and parents who claim she is not supporting the school’s progressive foundations of inquiry-based, child-centered learning. This year, according to school insiders, roughly 280 families
applied. That’s still a high number given the dearth of seats, but it’s
half the number of families who applied in 2015. “It really has been heartbreaking to see a school like CPE I that has
such an incredible reputation and amazing teachers be destroyed in a
year,” Salas-Ramirez said, noting that parents who did tour have
expressed grave concern about the new leadership. After the school community launched a petition last year to oust Garg, tensions are still high at the school.
In five out of eight categories for “effective leadership,” no teachers rated her competent.
Parents say that more instructional support is needed for the
200-student school where 11 out of 17 teachers are new since last year.
A consultant came in September to observe, parents said, but there
was no follow-up. Another consultant versed in progressive education
arrived this month, after families pleaded with the DOE to send more
help.
“There is structure with progressive education,” Salas-Ramirez said.
“That’s why you need mentorship and leadership, teamwork and
collaboration. You have to be so intentional in the work. You have to
direct the conversation of these children in a way that get kids to have
an ‘a-ha moment’ without you telling them what it is.”
The school, founded 41 years ago by legendary educator Deborah Meier
with a distinct philosophy that favored collaboration with teachers and
parents, has long been hailed as a model in the progressive education
movement.
With its focus on social emotional development over a more
test-centric approach, the school has drawn a lot of families — across
East Harlem’s District 4, Harlem’s District 5 and the Upper West Side’s
District 3 — who opt out of the state’s standardized English and math
exams.
Yet, while the number of students who sit for the test remains small,
they typically outperform citywide averages — until last year.
The scores of the children who sat for the tests fell below the state average for the first time ever — and that was after Garg instituted a test prep program and teachers have been implementing a more “hybrid” traditional/progressive model, according to parents. “It’s a school that is falling apart. It is chaotic, incoherent and
rudderless,” said Kenya Dilday, parent association co-chair and the mom
of a third grader.
“We feel that the many new teachers could well turn out to love and
excel at CPE1’s particularly pedagogy. But as of now, they are
confused.”
Dilday fired off a letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen FariƱa
complaining of various problems with the school's leadership, including a
$100,000 grant application that the principal said she filled out
through the Manhattan Borough President’s Office. While all other schools that applied were awarded the grants, CPE 1 was not, Dilday said.
The Borough President’s office told parents it never received the
application, and the principal told parents that she applied but
couldn’t find the school’s name on the drop-down menu for the
application, so she filed it under Central Park East High School. This year, Dilday is taking over the responsibility of filing the application, she said.
“The parents are working so hard, the teachers are working so hard,”
Dilday said. “It’s a sad place now, but maybe one day it will be happy
again.” Garg did not respond to a request for comment. DOE officials said the superintendent was continuing to support the
school, noting the progressive education consultant who was recently
dispatched there.
“We are listening to the concerns of this school community and
providing support to ensure we are meeting student and family needs,”
DOE spokesman Will Mantel said.
As
a result of her actions, more than 1/3 of veteran staff members are
leaving the ... and maintained by a large group of concerned parents at Central Park East 1.
I hate linking to the Campbell Brown faux journalism site The74
but Mike Antonucci is one anti-union journalist who does a degree of honest, though biased reporting. (You will rarely read a positive report on a teacher union.) His report below is loaded with some
juicy info on the AFT - Mike covers the NEA more extensively.
I did some editing to focus on the AFT - if you must go read the entire article at the - ugh - 74.
Why are numbers of AFT members pertinent? A good chunk of UFT dues goes to the AFT, which is run by Randi Weingarten in the same vein as, oh say, your average dictatorship. But also once the national attacks come on the teacher unions, especially post-Friedrichs, these numbers will be a base point.
Mike after doing research has not found what happened to the drop in 69,000 AFT members over the past year.
When I started work on the article I thought I'd be able to determine
where AFT lost the members, but no affiliate reported losses of that
magnitude (except for WV). I think maybe they miscounted in 2015 and
corrected in 2016. But they'll never tell me.
Maybe given that we may see big drops in membership over the next few years as non-union charters and vouchers decimate public schools, they decided to adjust the numbers so the losses don't seem to come so fast?
Here are the key bullet extracts from Mike's piece with some appended Editorial Notes.
AFT routinely claims it has 1.6 million members.
AFT reached a record-high 1,613,448 members in 2015.
[L]ast year - 2016 - the union reported 1,544,143 members.
More than 600,000 working AFT members belong to merged NEA/AFT local and state affiliates. Though their dues and representation rights are split between NEA and AFT, both national unions count them as full members.
[Ed Note: So when you add up the NEA and AFT totals -- subtract 600,000].
Almost
41 percent of AFT’s members live and work in New York and so belong to
New York State United Teachers. But NYSUT reported a 13,000-member
increase in 2016.
I'll have my own comments on the Unity/Stronger Together talks, maybe later today or tomorrow. People ask me what ST brings to the table and I say - the mere act of running against Unity is an existential threat. All dictatorships see elections as a threat even if they expect to win by 90%. I guarantee that Putin is concerned that 10% votes against him. Randi won re-election in the AFT last summer with well over 90% of the vote. And we know that does not reflect reality.
357,000 AFT members are retirees, who pay no dues
330,000 AFT members are part-time employees. AFT’s 1.6 million members equate to a dues-paying equivalent of 854,000 full-time employed teachers.
[Ed Note - I questioned Mike on this point since we pay dues in the UFT though not sure if any of that goes to AFT- Also - 60,000 of the retirees are UFT. What about the nurses and home daycare workers and any other AFT members who are not teachers? And then in NYC there are over 40,000 UFT members who are not teachers per se -- social workers, paras, guidance -- functional chapters.In NYC the numbers of classroom teachers are less than 70,000 in a union of around 170,000.In the last contract around 106,000 people voted - over 90% - retirees didn't vote.In the election all UFT members could vote -- around 170,000.]
Mike replied:
AFT says, "Retiree Members are members for life and pay no dues during retirement." It's UFT alone that's charging you. NEA charges $30/year, which might help explain why they have fewer retired members than AFT even though they're twice the size. Nurses and other certificated employees pay the teacher rate. Full-time support workers pay about two-thirds of that. Part-timers pay according to whether they work 1/2 time, 1/4 time or 1/8 time. This is all just the AFT portion. Local dues vary greatly.
Here is most of Mike's analysis: Analysis: The Strange Disappearance of 69,000 AFT Members
A tide of whining arose enmasse from Trump supporters who had
to watch as millions of people worldwide has a joyful day marching on Saturday while they had to stay home and stew about the "lib sore losers" while at the same time absorbing a barrage of alternate facts.
"I had to spend my entire weekend studying alternative facts while all those losers were having a blast," lamented one Trumpet, a woman who had difficulty coming to grips with the woman's march.
"Most of those millions of marchers were the same people who voted illegally in the election, thus depriving our glorious leader with the electoral majority he deserved," said a make Trumper. "They are criminals and should be arrested and they will be once we expand the prisons to the size of stadiums. Pinochet did that in Chile, didn't he?" When it was pointed out that many of those in the Chilean stadium after the overthrow of Allende were never seen again, the Trumper said, "Aha, there are your millions of illegal votes."
Long Island Presidents (teacher union local leaders) led the fight against Senator John Flanagan's reelection in 2016... NYSUT would not endorse Flanagan's opponent in the election... Flanagan has rewarded our generosity by signing a letter in support of confirming Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. He is the only New York official who signed the letter.... James Eterno at ICE
Andy Pallotta brought John
Flanagan to that Board of Directors meeting to try and convince the
Board of Directors to overturn what the LI Presidents decided... Beth Dimino
I always remember the late Gene Prisco's usual comment when the UFT or NYSUT supported someone awful -- they were good on our dental plan.
A note from PJSTA President Beth Dimino…
NYSUT Members…
Flanagan alt fact
Here’s a reminder that I believe is pertinent at this time. Last August there was a NYSUT President’s endorsement conference to decide who NYSUT would endorse in the November elections. Well, even though I knew it was a farce, I went to that meeting to represent my members. The Long Island Presidents were tasked with deciding whether or not Flanagan and Marcellino should get a NYSUT endorsement. Not only did we as a group demand that these men not get the endorsement, we had other candidates that NYSUT could have endorsed. Our recommendations went to the NYSUT Board of Directors. Andy Pallotta brought John Flanagan to that Board of Directors meeting to try and convince the Board of Directors to overturn what the LI Presidents decided. NYSUT leadership has their own agenda completely devoid of the needs or wants of rank and file. As the Executive Vice President of NYSUT, Pallotta, has gotten us Tier 5/6, 50% of our APPR dependent upon our student’s scores on the NYS Assessments, and another term for Flanagan and Marcellino. Pallotta has unfettered access to ALL Vote Cope Funds. Donating any money at all to Vote Cope is counter productive and is in direct opposition to our own best interests. Call your business office tomorrow and reduce your Cope contribution to $0 until NYSUT Leadership changes.
If DeVos does become education secretary, Democrats will of course blame the Republicans.... But the record shows that Democrats can’t just blame Republicans for her
ascension. It was actually Democrats who helped pave the road for DeVos
to take the helm of the Education Department. Democrats have in recent
years sounded — and acted — a lot like Republicans in advancing
corporate education reform, which seeks to operate public schools as if
they were businesses, not civic institutions..... Valerie Strauss, WAPO
Explaining Corey Booker -- I have had to tell too many people who said they would like to see Booker as the Dem party candidate in 2020 about his history -- as ed deformer supremo - with his pal Chris Christie -- his vote for big Pharm, his being connected to Betsy DESasaster. I saw a pic yesterday of my friend's daughter proudly standing with Booker and I wanted to gag.
No Dem ed deformers will be acceptable for any future campaigns and our union leaders better get this straight or they will go down to another disaster in 2020. But then again, by then there may not be much of a union left.
I have my own theories about DeVos. The Dems now need the teacher unions more than ever and need to put on a show. It is the Republicans I believe who are getting nervous, especially those who are aware of the Bloomberg appointment of Cathie Black, which turned into a national joke until Bloomberg pulled the plug after 3 months. Trump will never admit he made a mistake and will stick with Betsy even as she sinks and threatens the entire deform movement with ridicule. Lamar Alexander has postponed the vote and I believe they may be working behind the scenes to have a quick backup that will be on the surface better but in reality worse because they won't be a joke and will execute a lot of what DeVos would have done but with competence and slickness. Ideally from their point of view, it will be a person of color, preferably a female. Not Rhee but someone black.
As for our wonderful unions, the DeVos situation is a distraction from the real local battles we meed to be fighting. The last Unity leaflet bragged about their leadership nationally on this issue -- remember how they sat on their hands like little mice for over a decade or more while NCLB, RTTT, bogus teacher accountability plans, mayoral control -- all the trappings of ed deform. They are so demoralized that they want to brag about a win of any kind. Beat Betsy and then whatever comes after no matter how bad is pushed as their victory-- and there will be little fight left in them -- they are always fighting the wrong battles.
By embracing many of the tenets of corporate reform — including the
notion of “school choice” and the targeting of teachers and their unions
as being blind to the needs of children — they helped make DeVos’s
education views, once seen as extreme, seem less so.
Diane Ravitch linked to this piece today but also leaves out the union.
Valerie Strauss wrote an excellent article about the hypocrisy of Democrats
who now loudly oppose Billionaire Betsy DeVos, but spent the last eight
years bashing teachers, unions, and public schools while pouring
billions of dollars into the proliferation of privately-managed charter
schools. Once Democrats became cheerleaders for school choice, they
abandoned the principle that public schools under democratic control are
a fundamental public responsibility.
I urge you to read this article, which recounts the perfidy of
Democrats who fell for privatization and betrayed public education. In
many cases, support for charter schools opened the door to billionaires
and hedge funder donations, to groups like Democrats for Education
Reform and Education Reform Now and Families for Excellent Schools.
Think Corey Booker, Andrew Cuomo, Dannell Malloy. Think of the silence
of the Democrats as the U.S. Department of Education spent more than $3
billion on charter schools. How do they now express opposition to
DeVos’s love for charters (and vouchers). She has exposed their
hypocrisy.
Diane has been viewed by some as a defender of the Dem party. Though we saw some of that we also have seen her go after Dem ed deformers as she does in the rest of her post to supplement the Strauss piece:
In March 2011, President Obama and Secretary Duncan were in Miami
with Jeb Bush to celebrate the “turnaround” of Miami Central High
School. At the same time, thousands of working people were protesting
the anti-labor policies of Scott Walker in Madison. Neither Obama nor
Duncan ever showed up in Madison to show support for the teachers and
union members who support Democrats.
The other point that needs to be added is that a month after Obama,
Arne, and Jeb met to toast the turnaround of Miami Central, the state
education Department in Florida listed it as a “failing” school that
should be closed. I reported this in “Reign of Error.” The press never
did report it. Why were Obama and Arne burnishing Jeb’s “credentials” as
a “reformer?” Paving the way for Jeb’s good friend Betsy DeVos.
Strauss:
Public education was seen as a civil right. Republicans have looked at
public schools less as vehicles of social equity and more as places that
are supposed to prepare young people for college and careers, an
endeavor that should be measured with the same types of metrics
businesses use to gauge success. Some Republicans have looked at public
schools with suspicion, in some cases seeing them as transmitters of
liberal and even godless values.....
But now some Democrats who were entirely or largely on DeVos’s education
reform page are having second thoughts. Booker said he had some
“serious” concerns about the Trump education agenda. DFER, after
initially putting out one statement that tried to separate their
pleasure at the DeVos nomination from their dislike of Trump, issued a
second one that said: “From what we know about the education agenda of
President-elect Trump and Mrs. DeVos, we are deeply troubled.” Then, on
Inauguration Day, it put out a statement saying it could not support her
nomination. So now we have Democrats worrying about DeVos’s tenure at
education
But then again many of our UFT members, seeing the past 15 years of Bloomberg and de Blasio also think the NYC public school system and the union as a dead end and once the assault comes on heavy may just sit on the sidelines asking, "exactly what are we defending?"
I marched in New York. It was the most poorly organized march that
I’ve ever been to – and I’ve been to many. At the same time it may have
been the most inspiring. For some reason, thousands were made to stand
almost immobile in penned areas for hours with no idea of what was
happening. But so we did. And at last the march began. And then
everywhere you looked you saw more people coming. And more and more
and more. Hours later, more were marching. And you knew it was worth
it. ..... Mass Revolt Against Trump in New York and Across America
Took part in the most magnificent march in NYC today. Since there were staggered times for people to arrive there is no easy way to make an accurate count. Word is that is was 400k. I saw Patrick at about 10:30 for about 30 seconds around the MORE banner but then we all were split up and stood still for hours in gridlock but who cared? We expected to end up at Trump Tower but when we finally began to move around 1PM is was a slow crawl. And no cell or internet service so at 45th st and 2nd ave I cut over to 3rd Ave to call my wife who was meeting a bunch of ladies over at our place. So I headed over there to march with them.
We periodically checked in on the coverage. Faux Fox news ignored the rallies or mocked them. Have fun boys trying to not cover what is about to happen.
175,000 in Chicago. Hundreds of thousands in Los Angeles. 125,000 in Boston. 500K in DC. World wide? Millions. And it is only the beginning.
With some MOREs before being separated
I was on 3rd Ave before 10 AM and people on every block were streaming east all morning.
We were with a MORE contingent which got separated on 2nd Ave and 47th Street.
The UFT was supposed to have something to gather around but no one I know saw anything. No sense of organizing at such an opportunity.
Every person on the street seemed to be involved in the march. I've never seen anything like it here.
So many women of all ages with men there too. People were happy but also pissed.
My wife, not an activist, was as gung-ho for this as anything I've seen in almost 50 years. I pity Trump.
I am not articulate enough to make sense of all this so I'll leave it to Patrick:
Nothing like this has ever happened before in American history: one day
after the swearing in of a new president, a massive nation wide revolt
and rejection.
No American president has ever inspired such a response, but then no
American president has so repulsed and frightened and insulted the
American people as deeply as does Trump. .....Mass Revolt Against Trump in New York and Across America
For the Hillary Haters (HH) who have spent most of their time over the past 3 decades bashing the Clintons, the reality of the Trump inauguration finally hit home today that the rest of their lives will be meaningless.
There was some hope when Ed Notes reached out to a lifetime HH member asking him what he would be focusing on.
"Joe Biden is our next target," he said.
"What have you got on him," I asked?
"Plagiarism," he said, but realizing how ridiculous that sounded so soon after the Monicka Crowley and the Melania plagiarism flap, he decided to join the others and jump.
.... by the time he had graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1968, at the height of the antiwar movement, his politics had veered to the left. To avoid the draft, he became a public-school teacher in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, where he moved with his wife, the former Frances Marie McGettigan, whom he married in 1969...
As a teacher, he became embroiled in a racially charged debate in the largely black Ocean Hill-Brownsville district over what should take precedence in the tumultuous transition to school decentralization: community control over hiring, or the seniority rights of unionized teachers.
Mr. Barrett sided with nonunion teachers on the hiring issue, but he also documented malfeasance by the local school board and reported it to prosecutors and in The Voice, revelations that led to federal corruption charges.... NY Times Obit
The death of reporter Wayne Barrett, who was born a few months after me, reminded me of the 2 times I met him. It was not long after my political activation in 1970-71 and local school board elections in those post 1968 teacher strike days were the hot bed of school politics, often between the UFT political machine and local community forces. The major battle ground was District 1 on the lower east side where a UFT slate was running against an activist slate which was supporting the local superintendent who I believe was named Luis Fuentes. Forces were needed on election day- which was in May - to reinforce the ground game against the power of the UFT. I took a day off to assist that day and went down to volunteer where I met a beautiful young couple who were there to volunteer too -- Wayne and Fran Barrett. We spent the day working the campaign and I really liked them both and hoped to spend some more time with them but that was it. After that day there was no contact.
The next time I ran into Wayne was years later at my childhood friend's -- Marty Needelman's -- wedding. Marty was a legal aid lawyer in Williamsburg where I taught and ran in the same circles as Wayne. Marty and crew had been involved in the local school board politics in District 14 and it was through him that I met Lew Friedman who, with people in his school - IS 318 -- had begun a local teacher based newspaper called Another View - me entry into both activist politics and a muckraking form of citizen journalism. By that time Wayne was already a famous journalist for the Village Voice.
It was Wayne who exposed Randi Weingarten's distortions about her teaching career. See links below for more Barrett articles on the UFT of which he was a major critic.
Goldy Locks From Duncan to King, From bad to worser And now to DeVos, We've gone to ursa. From choices, if anything, That now seem frivilous, We've picked someone Who's truly horribilis. But don't be fooled; Come to your senses. Betsy's mom will soon have contracts Selling schools bear traps and electric fences. fred
Hey Fred -- every school must use Blackwater for security and Amway products required for all schools.
"The Syracuse teachers union president says she was suspended after she uncovered a fellow officer’s inappropriate use of a computer during an audit.”
The Syracuse Teachers Association situation
is escalating. President Karen Fruscello apparently discovered another
union officer was routinely surfing for porn on an office computer.
The executive board, consisting entirely of members from an opposing
caucus, suspended Fruscello, reportedly for conducting an unauthorized
investigation, but has yet to take action against the unnamed porn
surfer.... Mike Antoucci at Intercepts/Educational Intelligence Agency....
There are some implications - possible for NYSUT - in the story currently playing out in Syracuse where the STA board removed the recently elected president, as reported by Mike Antonucci,
A NYSUT election is coming in April - remember that 3 years ago Stronger Together (ST) Caucus created a serious challenge to NY State Unity Caucus (which includes NYC Unity) and MORE was involved by running for 5 seats and Arthur Goldstein ran on the ST slate for NYSUT Ex VP against Andy Pallotta --- The Unity slate had the support of the big city 5 unions -- Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers and of course NYC. If there would be a break from some of the big 5 -- say Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester, and ST could get close enough to create a serious challenge and Randi's control of he AFT, where NYSUT has one third of the membership, could be threatened.
So what's really going on in Syracuse and does the fact that an independent was elected as president without having the support of anyone on the Ex Bd in any way relate to the NYSUT election picture? According to Antonucci something about porn is involved -- now I know you all are going to keep reading.
Lesson 2: Historical record
I've always maintained that if one day MORE won power in the UFT and it was close, Unity would protest to the AFT that there were irregularities and the AFT would find an excuse to overturn the election. Back in 1985 when Michael Shulman of the NAC coalition of multiple caucuses (New Action emerged as one caucus in 1995) won the high school presidency, Unity wouldn't seat Shulman, protested to some agency and got another election 8 months later while Shulman had to sit and wait. Shulman got even more votes but his term of office was cut short, meetings were held without him once he took office. Unity dumped one of the major UFT founders, George Altomare for daring to lose to Shulman and mounted a campaign to make sure he lost in 1987, which he did.
The New Action coalition came back in force in the 1991 election, winning both the high and junior high Ex Bd seats -- 13 - the most ever for an opposition -- but won nothing in 1993, which gave Unity 100% of the EB -- and they immediately pushed through a constitution change to make all divisional VP elections at-large - which NYC Educator explains in today's post -- Downsides of Democracy.
What about Detroit and Steve Conn, anti-Randi who was elected while the Ex Bd was tied to the former pro-Randi president? Steve was removed as president. Rules called for a referendum which needed 2/3 to get him removed but came up short -- while still over 50%. They just ignored that rule and refused to re-seat him. This story was a big bone of contention at the AFT2016 convention, pretty much the only bone of contention given the union leaderships of Chicago and LA having a love affair with Randi.
Here are the EIA/Intercepts posts on the Syracuse story.
The lede in this story reads: “The Syracuse teachers union president says she was suspended after she uncovered a fellow officer’s inappropriate use of a computer during an audit.” That doesn’t make much sense, and the details aren’t very illuminating either. Another story tells us what the inappropriate use was. But make your way down to the 12th paragraph and you see:
Fruscello first took office in July. She defeated six-year president Kevin Ahern in an election. The rest of the elected board ran with Ahern as part of the “Professional Partners” caucus. Fruscello ran as an outsider determined to disrupt business as usual at the union.
I don’t know if Fruscello is a crusader for transparency or another Steve Conn, but a careful examination of the Syracuse Teachers Association bylaws shows the union’s executive board has no authority to “suspend” anyone, much less the president. It can recommend to the union’s representative assembly that the office be declared vacant if the president “has been grossly negligent.” It then takes a two-thirds vote of the RA to remove her. How long before AFT sends in the paratroopers to restore order?
* The Syracuse Teachers Association situation is escalating. President Karen Fruscello apparently discovered another union officer was routinely surfing for porn on an office computer. The executive board, consisting entirely of members from an opposing caucus, suspended Fruscello, reportedly for conducting an unauthorized investigation, but has yet to take action against the unnamed porn surfer. Yesterday, acting president Megan Root released this statement:
The Syracuse Teachers Association deeply regrets that what should have been an internally handled personnel issue has become a salacious matter for the public. It is always STA practice to handle personnel matters in a way that preserves our members’ confidentiality and right to privacy. The Association is disheartened that Karen Fruscello is so insistent in trying this issue through the press. Her statements and behavior do not serve the members or the Association and are regrettable. The Association needs to be able to conduct our investigations internally and privately to ensure that our members are given due process. Karen Fruscello’s actions are damaging, harassing, and interfere with the work of the Association.
The reference to due process is rich, considering the lack of due process for Fruscello’s suspension and the fact that STA’s bylaws do not authorize the actions the board has taken. The appeal to confidentiality and privacy is also a straw man, since the identity of the alleged perpetrator has not been disclosed.
The article below I wrote will be a lead article in the Ed Notes I prepared for handout at today's Delegate Assembly. If you are going stop by and say hello and take a copy -- I am only printing about 300 so first come first serve. If you want a pdf to print them out in your school email me.
Also make sure to pick up the MORE Delegate Assembly newletter today which has articles by Jia Lee and James Eterno on the evaluation system plus articles on defending immigrant students and using the Trump presidency to mobilize progressive educators.
Teachers Call for Return to S/U Ratings Despite UFT Sell Job
Our leadership has been telling us how much improved the evaluation system is over the old S/U system which principals could abuse. Now they tell us we have hard facts – hard facts? Based on how kids perform on tests? The abusive principal argument is a lame excuse for them to cave in to ed deform policies. Principals can abuse the process just as easily through drive-by Danielson observations. The union agreed to 4 evals while state law mandates 2. Let’s say you are an experienced teacher who your principal has complete confidence in and doesn’t feel the need to observe you more than once a year. Tough. You know what I want these 150G people to be doing instead of observing teachers? Run the damn school. In my 35 years in the system, observing teachers was a fairly minor blip on what principals had to do. I mean schools are tough places to rum. Why pay them all that money if you don’t give them the right to decide how many observations a teacher needs? Now, are there abuses where principals are out to get someone? Yes. But instead of wrestling these abusive principals to the ground by exposing them publicly and pressuring the de Blasio/Farina administration and the CSA to curb their attack dogs, the UFT plays nice. Do ya think the de Blasio admin needs UFT support in the coming election? It is time for our leaders to put some skin in the game – to spend political capitals on going after these principals instead of using them as an excuse to make an already bad and unfair eval system worse. A teacher comments [edited] on James Eterno’s ICE blog:
I am making $85,000 right now. I would take a ten grand pay cut if we could revert to the old "S" and "U" evaluation system with only one announced observation per year. I suffer severe anxiety and insomnia due to the stress of Danielson drive by observations. Every day I go into school wondering if today is "the day" of an unannounced observation. I feel like I am walking on eggshells filled with acid. I have a cordial relationship with my admin but the stress of the observations is overwhelming. My admin, like all NYC admins are forced to do these horrible drive by observations. Back when we had the "S" and U" system with only one announced observation, I loved my job and going in to teach. Now, it is like we are all treated like newbie teachers. You are only as good as your last observation. Each day is as stressful as the last wondering if today will be the day that an admin walks in with a Danielson list. After 18 years of teaching, this is the most stressful time to teach in my career. I do not, nor ever did really stress out over misbehaving students. That is something I can deal with on my own and is not a problem. However, the fear of somebody holding my entire career, home, and income, in their hands is what sends fear into my heart as well as those of countless other NYC teachers. The irony right now is the UFT had the chance just a few weeks ago to revert back to just two observations and only one of those observations would be unannounced. What did the UFT do? They left us out to hang dry. I am disgusted.
Talking Points
Why Not Use the S/U System Which Worked for – oh, a 100 Years?
The Abusive Principals Argument from the UFT Doesn’t Hold Up.
The JOB of the UFT is to FIGHT abusive principals, not use the excuse that they are the reason to support faulty evaluations systems.
The witch hunts to root out the so-called “bad” teacher are bogus smoke screens to destroy the teaching profession by ed deformers.
Why does our union aid and abet? Has anyone figured how just how much we are spending to evaluate teachers in this insane push endorsed by Obama, Cuomo and most Democrats and Republicans?
How many teacher votes did the Obama/Arne Duncan assault cost Hillary?
See the MORE Caucus handout for articles by Jia Lee and James Eterno on the evaluation system.
Eterno on the ICE blog: Three times as many observations as the state calls for.
The numbers in this chart may not be totally accurate since our final two years are for 2.5% and 3%. For 28 months, TWU just got 2.5% and 2.5%. We just made up some of the lost ground. So check the math. James Eterno will be doing a comprehensive breakdown on the ICE blog.
I wasn't marchin' anymore but I am this time. I'm meeting up with the UFT and MORE at 10:30 on 47th bet 2nd and 3rd.
Even my wife is gung ho but she is marching with a group of women later in the afternoon and wants me to hang around and join them so I may be marchin' two times. Will it do any good? I don't have that much faith in marches but why not?
Women's March in New York
Date:Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017 Time:10:30 a.m. Location: 47th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues (look for the UFT banner)
There will be a rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza from 11 a.m. to noon. After the rally, we will march south on 2nd Avenue, then west on 42nd Street and north up 5th Avenue to Trump Tower.
The city has failed to provide steady leadership at JHS 145. There have
been three different principals and five different assistant principals
over the last five years. There hasn’t been an assistant principal
since this school year started.
Isn't it time to let the teachers and parents pick the principals?
Two teachers at JHS 145X place the blame on the DOE. I was wondering where the UFT, so often a partner in crime in the renewal school program with the DOE, stands on this closing. Informal word is that there has not been much support but if anyone connected to the UFT in the Bronx or at central has more info, please share - you hear, Howie Shore?
How the city failed our students at a closing Renewal School
City Department of Education executives tasked with improving the poorest-performing schools are grossly incompetent. As a result, a marginalized and very vulnerable group of impoverished minority students in the Bronx face eviction from their neighborhood school.
That’s the inescapable conclusion if one really scrutinizes how the DOE handled, or mishandled, Junior High School 145, which they now propose closing for its poor student performance on state tests.
We are veteran teachers at JHS 145, which was one of 94 struggling schools identified for a turnaround via Mayor de Blasio’s high-stakes, $150 million-a-year School Renewal Program. In November 2014, the mayor and Education Department heralded the program as a shining example of innovation that would provide the resources, training and
JHS 145, once known as the Arturo Toscanini School, is in one of the poorest congressional districts in the entire country, and gang violence is rampant.
There are approximately 300 students. At least 20% are living in homeless shelters or temporary housing; 21% have learning disabilities, and 18% have gone extended periods of their lives without any education at all.
Of the 300 or so students, more than 130 are just beginning to learn the language. But the department has admittedly failed to provide adequate English as a Second Language instruction.
“All students in the program are suffering because they are entering so far behind and we don’t have enough ESL teachers,” according to the Education Department’s 2016-17 Renewal School Comprehensive Education plan for JHS 145.
And that’s only one of many examples of how the DOE, and by extension the mayor, has failed these kids.
The city has failed to provide students with teachers who are certified in the subjects they are teaching. Nearly 14% of teachers at the school last year were teaching subjects in which they were not trained. In the all-important subject of math, “several teachers lacked the content knowledge necessary to effectively teach the course that they were assigned,” according to the Education Department document.
While the school tried to bring the teachers up to speed, “the gap in
content knowledge proved too expansive to close within one year.”
The city has failed to provide students with access to a computer lab.
The school was forced to dismantle the computer lab it previously had
and convert it into a regular classroom because of a space shortage
after the Education Department gave 17 classrooms to a charter school
two years ago.
The city has failed to provide students with their own science lab. As a
result, they do not receive instruction on the scientific instruments
that they ultimately are tested on. The first time they will actually
see the instruments will be the day of the test, when they go to a lab
located in another school in the same building.
The city failed to provide students with textbooks that go along with
the English and math curriculums used by teachers for the entire 2015-16
school year. Teachers had to download and photocopy materials, and most
of the math modules didn’t include translation into the languages
spoken by English language learners. The city has failed to provide steady leadership at JHS 145. There have
been three different principals and five different assistant principals
over the last five years. There hasn’t been an assistant principal
since this school year started.
Yet after all these failures, students who very much need stability —
remember, one in five are homeless and an equal percentage are special
needs kids — will be evicted from their neighborhood school, and will
have to apply to other schools. The teachers will have to apply for jobs
elsewhere.
Meanwhile, those who really failed the students, and staff, will pretend they’ve done some good but it won’t be remotely true.
Donohue is a certified English teacher at JHS 145. Moss, who also
works at JHS 145, also is a certified English teacher but was reassigned
to be a technology instructor.
More troubling is the complete lack of nuance and understanding about the political make-up of their membership. Although Hillary Clinton easily won New York (59% to 36.5%), nearly three million people in New York state voted for Donald Trump. Three million votes, to put this in perspective, is approximately equal to the winning Trump vote totals in Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana combined. Additionally, Donald Trump carried most counties outside of New York City.
I found this blog called Beloved American published Jan. 4 with an interesting piece on NYSUT. It takes the position that NYSUT should focus on bread and butter and less on social justice issues. I don't agree because our schools are affected by social justice issues.
But the blogger is right that there is a certain level of cluelessness as out national, state and city union leaders go screaming into the night -- Betsy DeVos is coming, Betsy DeVos is coming. Imagine if Trump announced he was pulling Betsy and replacing her with Arne Duncan - a massive cheer goes up.
Leonie Haimson: Must read oped by teacher Arthur Goldstein who points out how many are at fault in failing kids by allowing huge classes to persist- DOE, NYSED for its refusal to make DOE comply with the law, arbitrators, and the UFT for not pushing for improvements in class size in the contract for fifty years.
At the UFT Executive Board MORE/New Action raised a resolution urging the UFT to "vigorously enforce existing contractual class size regulations." This was voted down by leadership.
It was great seeing Arthur at the MORE retreat yesterday. Four hours of retreating followed by a few Happy Hours.
The Choice Debates: Degrading the US Postal Service as a Public Institution
By Norm Scott
School Scope has been exploring the school choice debate by comparing public schools to other public services and what that might come to mean in the context of the drive to turn government into the problem instead of the solution. Let’s look at the Postal service as a public institution and what has happened to it since the election of anti-union, anti-government Ronald Reagan in 1980.
The U.S. Mail traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation, elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and transformed in 1971 into the U.S. Postal Service as an agency of the U.S. government…. Wikipedia
Wow! Good old Ben. He saw that in a democracy, a national post office was necessary as a public service and it even pre-dates our constitution and the founding of our nation in 1789. Over the past 40 years, the post office, like the public schools, is another public institution that is under attack, using the standard op of diverting funds that leads to degrading services that leads to an ultimate death spiral that could take decades, but ultimately ends up giving people less choice by taking away the public option and leaving the entire field to private interests who can raise prices to whatever they will bear.
Wiki continues: The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but still competes against private package delivery services, such as the United Parcel Service (UPS) and has part use with FedEx Express.
We know that private postal services would not go places where they could not make a profit. Yes, the USPS has a mini-monopoly over mail boxes, and we hear the public schools charged with being a monopoly too. And Yes the USPS competes. But the key is that no public funding goes to the private UPS or FedEx like it does to charter schools. Imagine choicers saying their zip code doesn’t get good service and demand the government pay to use UPS.
Most of us like mail delivery by a mailman/woman who comes to your house or mailbox 6 days a week. Or a post office in our zip code that is a neighborhood feature.
Was a public service like the postal service expected to show a profit? Not until the Reagan years according to Wikipedia: Since the early 1980s, many of the direct tax subsidies to the Post Office (with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters) have been reduced or eliminated in favor of indirect subsidies.
Like the schools, a concerted attempt was made to privatize postal services since then by degrading the US Postal Service in order to open up venues for profit making companies. (I’ll get to the Staples operation in a minute.)
Wiki continues: (Note the BOLD)
Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to be paid into an account to fully prefund employee retirement health benefits, a requirement exceeding that of other government and private organizations, revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced declining mail volume, prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.
Forcing the USPS to prefund the pensions, while looking progressive on paper, was actually a dagger to the heart.
Another classic privatization operation similar to the school choice op where money is funneled away from public into charters (and soon to come vouchers), thus starving the public institution until is becomes so degraded and inefficient, its foundation begins to crumble and its demise becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
One of the interesting recent stories is how the USPS outsourced package shipping to 500 Staples stores, leading to a boycott of Staples – teachers were asked not to shop there for school supplies by the union. Well, that deal hasn’t worked out and the USPS is pulling the plug on the partnership. The postal workers’ union successfully argued its case in front of the National Labor Relations Board – a Board that under Trump would be unlikely to rule in favor of unions.
For those anti-union folks out there, I have been a critic of the lack of democracy in so many unions but I avidly support unions because they are often the only organized bulwark standing in the way of unfettered, run-amuck capitalism, which is the very reason the Republicans have targeted them specifically. And watch what happens to wages and standard of living when they are gone. Sadly, I believe we are about to see that happen and the outcome for the majority of people other than the very wealthy will not be pretty.
Reading assignment for next time at the American Prospect, http://prospect.org/article/folly-trumponomics: The Folly of Trumponomics: It may produce a short-lived boom. Then, look out.
Dear Jim [Donohue], You and the other teachers, parents and the students, both current and graduates [JHS 145X - Arturo Tosconini School], knocked it out of the park. The next meeting will be at the school, but guess what, the DOE hasn't told us the date yet. Please stay tuned--when we get the date we would love you all to turn out. There were several local reporters there, along with Kate Taylor, who has taken an interest! The community is speaking up, and they're not happy with the DOE's "proposal." --------Jane Maisel to teacher Jim Donohue for his heroic fight to save his school
Look Eva, I give up. You can have whatever you want in the future. I'll close any school you need. I got Carmen on the case. ... Bill de Blasio
-- Ed Notes Fake News - but maybe not.
Eva wants this building
Are school closings politically motivated? Is the closing of JHS 145 a sop to Eva in an effort to blunt some of her opposition to de Blasio's upcoming election campaign - maybe even a little? A sort of bribe? You won't hear much of a peep in protest from the UFT. Did anyone see a UFT presence at last night's hearing to defend the school? If they did I will retract this part of the comment.
Testing expert Fred Smith on today's NY Times piece:
Plan to Close or Merge Schools -- JHS 145 in Bronx is pictured. Prof. Aaron Pallas quoted. Regarding mergers: At this time, with all of school reorganizing by Bloomberg and renewing by deBlasio, what are the post-merger findings--Is there improvement (considering test data and other data) in School A and B, declines in both schools, or a mixed bag? My guess is that the picture is blurry or the data insufficient to draw conclusions, but the City will continue to merge without clear evidence of benefit.
Reporter Kate Taylor commented:
The schools to be closed are all low-performing, to be sure. In the
2015-16 school year, only 8 percent of the students at J.H.S. 145 passed
the state reading tests, and only 3 percent passed the state’s math
tests. Even so, it is not clear that they are necessarily the worst
among the schools in the program. All of the six schools met at least
one of the goals assigned by the city last year. Some are being closed
for low enrollment as well.
Aaron Pallas is quoted in the article:
Aaron
Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University’s
Teachers College, said, “The fact that the city thinks that it needs to
do this for six out of the roughly 80 or so left suggests that things
are not going as well as they’d like.”
At
the same time, he said, “If these mergers and closures result in new
schools that have a new kind of energy, perhaps different staff, perhaps
a different culture, that may be better than trying to continue turning
around schools that have been struggling for a very long time.”
Interesting that Aaron echoes some of the points made by the old Bloomberg DOE officials about closing and opening schools -- reality was that "successful" new schools were based on changing the student body. When you hear the word "culture" people think - teachers and admin -- but also if you reduce the % of struggling kids that can change the culture. If they redistributed some of the kids and left everything else alone, how would that work out? Like if the kids are having so much trouble why not move 20% into schools with the right "culture" and see what happens. There is "critical mass" in terms of schools.
I also question the kind of top-down "support" the schools get - at times with bad leadership -- and also maybe not a lot of input from teachers -- if they turned a school over to the teachers - why not try that in some of these schools?
Now I am not against merging schools - after all, BloomKlein broke them up in the first place and it makes little sense to chop everything into so many little bits.
Back to Eva:
It is not only school closings that give Eva what she wants. She is aiming to take over the historic MS 50 building in Williamsburg, a school I worked in as tech support in the latter days of my career. (My frat brother, the late Lou Vidal, was the computer teacher there.) The charter front group uses PR to degrade schools in the public mind to open up space for Eva -- School District 14, covering Williamsburg and Greenpoint, is a complete "middle school desert," according to a report from StudentsFirstNY.
Pat Dobosz who is a Dist 14 community resident and retired teacher emailed:
Eva wants more school space and is making less of our D 14 schools. We have several schools that are up and coming and some are excellent. Eva is n many of our buildings and wants to increase the number of rooms she has. One school she is fighting to expand in is MS 50 that has shown academic improvement and is growing in population.
MORE's Marilena Marchetti has been on the JHS 145 case and sent this to the listserve about yesterday's school closing hearing:
This press release below is from Jim Donohue, a UFT member whose school JHS 145 in the Bronx could close. MORE proudly supported this school's fight to keep Success Academy out. As anticipated, Success is now vying to take over the entire school. They need our support at the March 22 PEP meeting where a vote on the closure will be made..... it will be held at the HS for Fashion industries 225 W 24th Street in Manhattan.
Parent/Community activist Jane Maisel has also been on the case as per her quote opening this blog post.
Here is Jim Donohue's press release for last night's hearing.
This Saturday, January 14, is a MORE retreat from 12-4. Kit Wainer has prepared a history for people so they have a basis for going forward. This is one of the most concise histories I've seen -- it would take me 4 hours and 20 pages to cover the same ground.
I only have gotten to know Kit since we began working together in MORE 5 years ago. He came out of Teachers for a Just Contract and I came from ICE. Both groups didn't always mesh very well together and I was somewhat wary of working with Kit in MORE. But happily, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with such a smart, perceptive and most importantly nice guy - despite the fact he introduced me to Mike Schirtzer who I seem to be saddled with for life.
Before reading Kit's history, I wanted to provide a prequel so there is some pre-late 80s context for the various caucus genealogies.
There is no actual beginning and end of the many caucuses in the UFT over decades.
There are links going back to the 1920s.
There is a timeline - caucuses split, combine, evolve. This is not necessarily 100% accurate as I'm too lazy to go find the relevant info --
