Seriously folks....

.... let's talk educational steroids. Pump up those test score and grad rate muscles.

Cream the best kids.
Lose the potential chronic low scorers.
Encourge failing students to take the so much easier GED's.
Have teachers mark their own students' tests.
Pay "merit" pay to teachers so they have an incentive to pump that iron. Ditto for bonuses to principals.
Pressure teachers to pass kids who can fog a mirror even if they are rarely in class and have barely passed anything.

And it's all so legal. Barry Bonds should have been a teacher.

Barry, Mike and Joel: It Ain't Tainted

The connections is so obvious, this post can pretty much write itself. Barry and BloomKlein have been using the same cream(ing) to get similar results - pumped up everything - home runs, grad rates, test scores. Tweed has been slipping the cream into Leadership Acad. water coolers.

Barry is significantly more honest and up front than Mike and Joel. No one got hurt. Teacher and student lives weren't ruined. Just a few extra home runs. Didn't Babe Ruth spend whole nights in whore houses drinking and carousing? Give him an asterisk for using artificial stimulants.

If Joel and Mike get the Broad prize on Sept. 18, as expected (Broad giving BloomKlein a prize is like Halliburton giving the Bush administration an award for fiscal responsibility) we need to prepare an asterisk the size of the Goodyear blimp to put next to Mike and Joel's "achievements."

(Any photoshoppers out there want to take a shot at this?)

What Tweed Hath Wrought

Fleeing the coop

While critics of the BloomWeinKlein reforms of the schools in NYC often focus on the big picture, a snapshot of what happened in 1 school can offer a great insight.

I got such an insight last night when I had dinner with a group of colleagues from my old school where I spent 27 years as a teacher and 5 more in district tech support. I won't go into all the gory details, but you might have read in this space about the teacher of 22 years removed in handcuffs by 5 cops in front of the entire community on trumped up charges of a parent instigated by the principal.

Yes, the principal was the focus of my former colleagues' wrath. Leadership Academy and all that - following the Lead. Acad. Princ. (LAP - dogs) pattern to get rid of every person in the building who preceded her. Only about 7 people remain from when I was there. The departed are in no way poor teachers but the best and most experienced. I was glad to hear the person who I considered one of the best teachers I ever saw (I spent serious time in her classroom) has just flown the coup. She absolutely despised this LAP and was one of the few willing to demonstrate her disdain. Of course the LAP is probably very glad to see this great teacher, who was so beyond excellent that any attack on her would have been laughed at, be gone.

The irony is that even the people handpicked by the LAP are also leaving. I hear so many of these stories repeated from LAP schools. One teacher at another school told me 28 teachers have left in 3 years. In the old days the departure of so many experienced teachers was a warning sign of a principal out of control. In the world of Tweedledee these principals get a bonus.

But the really "fun" stuff were their descriptions of the willy-nilly ways teachers have been forced to teach. The TC model with rugs taking up half the room while kids at their desks were forced into such tight spaces that discipline became so much more of an issue. From a massive binder where all kids of "data" -- yes the big word - that will never be used - are kept. This principal, being in the empowerment zone was able to design her own assessment. So now teachers have to do 5 report cards and spend enormous time filling out useless paper work instead of teaching. Oh yes, there is an Aussie trainer in the building doing more spying than instruction.

One story is that another teacher who left the school and has since left teaching knows someone who was involved in the creation of the balanced literacy training videos Lucy Calkins made. Teachers have complained that there are too many kids that cannot function in this environment and that many more discipline problems result but have been told to shut up and that these problems are the result of their poor teaching. When these video were made, whenever there was a kid who could not focus, Calkins ordered he/she be replaced with a more docile, cooperative kid.

Well, the upshot is that there is not all that much difference in the school's results before the arrival of the LAP when the obvious easier rubrics, easier tests and questionable marking procedures - -the hallmark of the improvement of scores under BloomKlein and discipline is a mess. This LAP has managed to alienate teachers, parents and children with a heartless and arrogant treatment of all.

I could go on - and they did for a few hours last night. They told of teachers with 18-21 years being excessed when the LAP complained that special ed kids brought down the scores. They have avoided ATR status -- not through the Open Market System which failed them utterly - but through personal contacts at other schools. One teacher asked the union how he could be excessed since the contract says if you have 20 years this can't happen. He was told to file a grievance. He asked why he has to go through this since this is such an obvious violation of the contract and he is still left with having to look for jobs since the vicissitudes of the grievance procedure are well known. The union should be able to pick up a phone and get an instant response. They shrugged.

For decades we have called for penalties for administrators who engage in obvious violations -- cut into those bonuses -- but the UFT/Unity leadership just laughed at us.

The hiring halls were a joke as the excessed were separated from the new teachers. Excessed people were given a sheet telling them how to interview. New teachers were given shiny red folders (so it was obvious to the interviewer which group people were in) with maps of districts listing openings.

We ended the evening of ribs and beer with a toast all who have escaped, hopefully to better place, and a wish that the 55-25 retirement package (which we called bogus since it was not to cost the city anything) promised by the UFT/Unity leadership to sell the '05 contract will one day come to pass (probably at the expense of the teachers themselves who will be willing to pay just about anything) to free the rest to go to the promised land of retirement.

These are the people running the UFT

Son Of Unity has left the following comment [about 50 times on many posts on many blogs]

Seriously, does ICE even serve a real purpose other than to drive a wedge within our union? Has ICE ever accomplished anything worthy of mention? And no, a sham presidential candidate in the last election, shoddy quality YouTube films, and heckling during the Delegate Assembly doesn't count. -Son Of Unity, the next generation I'll be back!

Let's see now Son of Unity. You just spent more than an hour in the summer time doing this. On blogs that serve no real purpose according to you and therefore probably are not even read by anyone but families and pets.

We can't wait for your next visit. Maybe it will keep you too busy to screw the membership of the UFT. Hey, aren't you the guy with the Green Dot on your forehead?

Son of Unity being prepared by Unity Caucus faithful for his Jihad against the ednotesonline and other blogs critical of Unity Caucus.

Teaching Fellows in The Village Voice

A great read in The Voice this article reveals many of the fault lines in the Teaching Fellows program. The answer to the problem - paying them as interns and using them as assistant teachers in the classroom for a year - will not be forthcoming. Tweed finds it perfectly acceptable to have this turnover rate even when when in the words of the Fellows themselves the kids are severely shortchanged in the first year and possibly 2nd year of teaching. It is always interesting for the "No Excuse" administration at Tweed to always make excuses instead of taking a problem and solving it.

There's a lot more to say since I entered teaching out of a similar program in many ways in the late 60's, a program I am sure Joel Klein also came out of, something you never hear him talk about. Know why? Because it was hell - he got out in about 6 months and seems to have banished the memory.

Look for an update to this post later. The full article is posted at Norms Notes.

UFT/DOE Plan for ATR's

Modeled on the day laborer concept, the UFT and Tweed have agreed on a plan to address the numerous ATR's (absentee teacher reserves) who have been left out in the cold by closing schools and a failed Open Market System. ATR's will line up at 6 AM at specially designated Transfer Stations. Principals will be given pick-up trucks and drive around picking up teachers.

"We feel we have finally come up with a plan that is fair and equitable for all," said a UFT spokesperson. "It is true principals will be allowed to ask teachers to jump as high as they can while the truck is moving and those that are able to grab on without falling off will be hired. But the old system was much worse."

How "Open" is the Open-Market?

... the title of a post by blogger Syntactic Gymnastics, indicates that even newer teachers are having trouble with the much bragged about (by the UFT) Open Market System. Check the "Do You Hear Snoring" guest post on this blog and note the defensive "myth- fact" post by an obvious UFT official.

They trash a system that they set up and maintained for 40 years before BloomKlein and brag about the system they replaced it with. They supported the BloomKlein myth that the problems with the school system were due to the right of teachers to take seniority transfers, which everyone knew were often manipulated by principals. Like people with long commutes waited forever to get jobs in Staten Island while all these young teachers who were politically connected on the Island were filling up schools. Naturally, the weaknesses of this system were exacerbated by the looseness of the language of the contract and the lack of UFT enforcement of the existing contract at the time.

I worked in a school for 27 years and never saw one case of someone taking a UFT transfer into my school. And our colleagues who took transfer to "better' schools because they grew wary of teaching the most difficult children, found it so much easier to teach when they made the move to middle class schools and often overcame initial principal resistance when they proved to be among the best teachers in the school. Discipline certainly was not a problem for them.

But this became the big BloomKlein argument - that the UFT contact forced principals to take people they didn't want. (I wonder of they give police precinct or fire house captains or any city agency head total leeway in who ends up working or them? There is such a thing as civil service rules for a reason -- to prevent the very corruption we are seeing.) Klein claimed he wanted the right to transfer senior teachers into poor performing schools and then with UFT assistance set up a system where these schools would be penalized by hiring these more expensive teachers.

I know a licensed high school math teacher in his 60's (only teaching a few years, stil with a fairly low salary, an indication more of age discrimination) who has not been able to get a job for the past year when he was an ATR. The UFT will say, "Hey you're getting paid." He said he physically just cannot do another full year as an ATR and will probably quit.

Aren't we being told all the time that there is a drastic shortage of licensed math teachers?

But this is just another case of spinning reality by the UFT (and BloomKlein too). It's an old theme we studied in college in a course on Shakespeare - appearance and reality. UFT officialdom is all about appearance and spins reality to shape it to put themselves in the best light. And of course, we see the same from BloomKlein. Both the UFT and the DOE have massive PR departments.

Here is a reality check:

What is Randi Weingarten most preoccupied with? (choose one)

a. Protecting the rights of teachers in the schools who are under attack, dealing with the problems of ATR's, senior and excessed teachers?

b. Assuring that Hillary Clinton gets elected by planning on taking over as AFT President and using the national platform to assist Clinton?

Tweed's Trojan Horse

Bloomberg/Klein Intentions Revealed

The Department of Education is pledging to help solve a charter school space crunch, pointing to an aggressive campaign to close a slew of city-run schools in the next two years.

A new accountability plan slated to begin in September will place about 70 schools under consideration for closure in 2008, creating potentially dozens of abandoned school buildings for charter schools to take over. Chancellor Joel Klein's Office of New Schools is touting the possibility to charter operators desperate to find new facilities as their schools grow."

Thus begins "School Closures May Open Way For New Charters," an article by Elizabeth Green in the NY Sun that exposes in one of the clearest ways we've read the true intentions of BloomKlein: To turn over as much of the school system to private operators as possible and to facilitate this by manipulating school closings so they can turn over entire school buildings where there will be no public oversight and little or no union presence. (Oh, sorry! That's already the situation in most schools.)

Phew! For a while we thought they were going to sell off all schools in hot neighborhoods to condos developers and adopt our idea to build stadiums where 50,000 kids at a time can be taught. Shhhhh!

Actually, when you tie all the building of housing without asking developers to account for where kids will be going to schools, it all begins to make sense. Drive people with children who can not afford to live in NYC out by turning over local schools to charters which will never be able to handle the large numbers of students. What will be left are overcrowded schools with high class sizes (note how the Ross Charter based at Tweed just had their class size capped at 20) loaded with the most at-risk students who will be doomed to fail.

The insertion of charters into school buildings targeted for failure could be compared to Trojan Horses. Well, at least Troy didn't abandon their experienced warriors. The invading forces of BloomKlein will ultimately find their Achilles heel as in the post BloomKlein tight lips will become unsealed.

And by the way, where it the UFT on this? Jumping right in and trying to get a piece of the gravy by setting up its own charter schools in public space.

Green's full article is posted on Norm's Notes.

Lisa Donlan from the District 1 (lower east side) Parent's Council, who blogs here, commented on the NYC Education News Listserve:

In a mailer from Saint Ann's School I found an article by the founder of the charter school Girls Prep, class of '84, who writes:

" To introduce choice and accountability into the system, Bloomberg and Klein encouraged the creation of 45 charter schools with in the city... Intrigued by this I met in the fall of 2002 with Chancellor Klein to ask whether he was serious about letting private citizens run public schools. "Serious?" he asked at our first meeting. "We need public charter schools to show the other public schools how accountability works. Would it be easier for you to start if I gave you free space in a public school building?"

Of course the article fails to describe the PS where the charter has been "incubating," other than pointing to its location in a "tough neighborhood, right next to the housing projects that line the East River." No mention of the 250 kids who are 98% minority, 89% of whom are eligible for free or reduced lunch that attend this NYSED designated School In Need of Improvement. Rather than support the high needs children served by this community pre-K - 5th grade school, the charter school set prefers to use " free space," pushing out a District 75 school in the process, to serve another set of almost just as poor and nearly as highly concentrated group of minority children, half of whom commute an hour to attend the school.

Why? According to the author, it is because " our lack of overhead means that we can pay our teachers more. In exchange, our teachers work longer hours and a longer school year, and can be fired if their students do not show progress. We find that this deal- better pay for better performance- attracts talented teachers." As a result, there are 200 applicants for 4 new teaching positions next year, he boasts.

If the PS gets an F next year, Girls Prep can start rolling out their plans for expansion, maybe even a Boys Prep to boot, with all that "free space" up for grabs.

Joel Klein Bounced to Rubber Room by Aris

Another gem from Gary Babad:

GBN News has learned that in an ironic twist, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has been suspended from his duties and placed in a Department of Education “Reassignment Center”...

Now playing at the NYC Public School Parents Blog

NCLB: Test the Kids

Susan Ohanian and the gang at the Educator Roundtable have concocted this fabulous video:

Now showing at:
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_stories.html?id=347
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=520DAgjCHdc

Do you hear snoring?

Guest Column by Woodlass

You've heard about scripted lesson plans for the classroom? Wait until you see what the DOE has scripted for us now.

They've just sent excessed educators a hefty "Placement Guide," which is a manual on how to let the Open Market System process you. Once again our employer has confused us with our students, and once again a very sleepy union is taking it on the chin. They, too, want to keep us barefoot and pregnant: to stay with the kids, do what we're told, and keep our mouths shut.

The new guide starts with this pandering come-on: "We hope this guide will give you an understanding of how the job search process works." If you really want to know how the Open Market works, just read the recent blogs. It "works" to further destabilize the system and hurt the educators in schools that are being closed or restructured, particularly those who teach the minor subjects and exercise their political voice.

There are some questionable sentences in the opening pages about hiring practices being changed in the teacher contract in 2006. I looked at the 2003-7 contract posted on the UFT website and I actually don't see anything in there about the Open Market system, particularly where it would hurt us most, in the article on excessing (17.B). Which contract are they referring to, the next one? I didn't know contracts prepared for a future date apply to the current moment. Correct me if I'm missing something here.

Then follows a deprecating little section in this guide of "tips" for conducting a successful job search, six DOs and DON'Ts that are basic for anyone looking for a job, much less educators who might have actually taught the subject themselves. After some "Job Search Strategies" on pages 7-8, you'd have to see the remaining pages to believe the content of this enormous script. There are 11 pages of how-to instructions: how to research schools, update your resume (sample provided), write a cover letter ("a basic three-paragraph" one no less), communicate with principals (two more pages of DOs and DON'Ts), prepare and take an interview (I guess they think all of us are getting them: Double Not), and much about a demonstration lesson. The last pages are filled with administrative info on certification, office hours, and the like, and finally my favorite -- an Appendix consisting of a long list of "Action Verbs."

I have said it many times before. The people who are running the DOE despise teachers. They see us as minions, not as educators, and having no regard for our degrees or our experience, they send us scripts so we can fit better into their plans. These are of course driven by corporate values and do not serve the public. They have degraded a school system many of us would have been happy to put our own kids in, even if we didn't have to.

Do you hear snoring? It's the union.

NYC Grad Rates Rising?

Samuel Freedman's column in today's NY Times (posted here) finally touches on the source of DOE claims for rising grad rates. Of course the DOE attacked the teacher (unfortunately there were a few negatives). I raised these issues in my 2 minute presentation at the July PEP meeting. Teachers have been reporting grade inflation, being told to mark the exams of their own students (with a wink), enormous pressures to pass kids who are failing, etc.

The state ed department has a hand in all this to make sure everyone all around looks good - easier exams, shady rubrics (if the kid fogs a mirror, PASS.)

A column I wrote in The Wave and on this blog called "Indecent Exposure" back in December touched on these issues:
Inflated test scores and cover-ups of massive cheating scandals in addition to scores being pumped up by constant test prep. “Test-mania fuels cheating at many schools, teachers say,” said just one headline that is just the tip of the iceberg. The overwhelming majority of school personnel will remain silent due to fear. (Maria Colon, the union rep at JFK HS in the Bronx, was persecuted because she exposed her administration, which has gotten off Scot-free.)

Teachers toe the line, especially newer, inexperienced teachers. The attack on senior teachers (anyone with about 7 years in today's world) is not just about money, but compliance in solidifying the sham BloomKlein are pulling.

At the end of my presentation at the PEP I pointed out that we can see even higher grad rates once the principals get their hands on the bonus money.

Going up, anyone?

Privatization & Mayoral Control

Mayoral control of school systems is a symptom rather than a cause. What has occurred is privatization of policy over public schools, where people like Eli Broad and Bill Gates get to use their private money to make public policy and shape urban public school system the way they want to without public oversight. Mayoral control is their instrument since it allows then to do their thing without having to open themselves up to public scrutiny. All they have to do is get Bloomberg, et al on board, which is easy to do by the offer of money.

Can you imagine them getting away with this in places like Scarsdale? "We think you should break up your high school into small schools."

All over this nation, local people have some say over their schools. But not the people in urban areas that have given themselves over to mayoral control. When the UFT agreed to this model, we should not pretend they did not know what they hath done. They hath proven themselves part of the Broad/Gates cabal of corporate takeover of the public schools to the detriment of students, teacher, parents and the general public.

What Joel Klein Really Wants

From his first days Klein claimed the UFT contract hindered his ability to place experienced teachers in schools of high need and wanted the ability to do so. The UFT basically agreed but claimed (for public consumption) they wanted some merit system to get people to work in these schools. The extended day idea in the Chancellor's district under former chancellor Rudy Crew was a form of this idea. When I started teaching in '67, schools classified as special service (poverty areas) gave extra preps to teachers for years, a form of merit pay, so the idea is not new.

What Klein, with the assistance of the UFT, has put into place is a system that just about guarantees the chance of experienced teachers ending up in these, or any, schools, is very unlikely.

The ideal contract for Joel Klein

Woodlass, in a follow-up comment on the ICE blog post by Jeff Kaufman on the evisceration of seniority, made a very cogent point exposing BloomWeinKlein.

Thanks for the historical and structural overview described in the post and the first comment. You can rely on ICE to provide background information on grave union issues such as these, and I regret deeply, both on a personal and a collective level, that the people running this union and ultimately responsible for maintaining our existing job protections break so frequently with long-standing union goals.

I would like to comment on something the Chancellor has pushed for and what he has actually done.

One of Klein's earliest and most continuously iterated goals has been to be able to put good experienced teachers where they are needed, in the more difficult schools. His two recent initiatives, the Open Market hiring system and the way teachers will soon be paid (directly from the principal's budget), have not only hobbled his cause, but have shown him to be duplicitous.

Experienced senior teachers who indeed want to work in tough schools for a variety of reasons (the commute, the level, the challenge) have just become expensive. It is attractive for a principal to avoid calling them in for an interview, let alone hiring them.

Young teachers who spend a year or two in a difficult school are already looking to transfer out, to what they think is a better school in another district or out of New York City altogether. There is no reason for a new teacher to settle into a school with a difficult environment or one they're not happy in when adequate skills and a low salary makes them highly marketable. They'll apply to the schools with good reputations, and by gosh, they'll get those jobs.

It used to be that job vacancies were frozen until excessed teachers were placed, but the Human Resources people are no longer allowed to do this. The vacancies will be filled with new and fairly newly instructors, some of whom do not yet have a Masters. And even before these young teachers get tenure and full certification, they too will get the chance to look for and take that job in a "better" school. This is not conjecture, I already know of many examples.

The Lead Teacher program puts a few experienced teachers in difficult schools - for a salary bonus, and for only half their time teaching. That's a failure for the city's kids no matter how they spin it, and since it's a form of merit pay, it's a failure for labor, too.

There is not one item in the chancellor's agenda that will put good experienced teachers in full-time teaching programs in difficult schools and make them want to stay there.

The Chancellor is a fraud, the Mayor still backs him, and it looks as if Union leadership has a different agenda than what's in our best interest. I can't believe they thought these schemes would be of any use to the profession in the long run. It's something else, and they don't want us in on it.

As I pointed out in a comment on the ICE blog:

We should not view the issue solely from the perspective of teacher rights. One issue I would like to deal with is the argument Klein makes that a school system should not be about job protection but about teaching and learning. Weingarten I believe goes along with these beliefs as evidenced from her actions and by info from the inside that she talks about getting rid of bad teachers and not being worried about protections. I believe there's an argument to be made that seniority rules create stability and school cultures that overcome the instances of the bad teacher being protected (I still think there are as many poor teachers if not more since BloomKlein and many people loyal to the principal will be protected no matter how bad they are.) Stable schools include experienced people who often share their knowledge. Kids have long-standing relationships with teachers in these schools. The assault on seniority had done as much damage if not more to the educational institutions as it has to the traditional union perspective that you raise.

UFT To Members: Seniority is No Longer An Issue Because We Eviscerated It

......was posted by Jeff Kaufman on the ICE blog.

It lays out the basic seniority issues very well from the teacher rights point of view.

We should not view the issue solely from the perspective of teacher rights.

Joel Klein makes the argument that a school system should not be about job protection but about teaching and learning. Sounds noble if you don't know the real deal. Weingarten goes along with these beliefs as evidenced from her actions in relation to seniority protections and by info from the inside that she talks more about getting rid of bad teachers than about being worried about protections.

There's a case to be made (NEVER by the UFT, of course) that seniority rules create stability and school cultures that overcome the instances of the bad teacher being protected (I still think there are as many poor teachers, if not more, since BloomKlein and many people loyal to the principal will be protected no matter how bad they are.)

Stable schools include experienced people, many of whom share their knowledge and do the real training of newbies. Kids have long-standing relationships with teachers in these schools. The assault on seniority had done as much damage, if not more, to the educational institutions as it has to the traditional perspective of job protection.

UFT Deal with Green Dot: New Low for UFT Leadership

Teachers for a Just Contract sent out an email with a nuts and bolt analysis of the deal the UFT and Green Dot have made. They point to the lack of democracy in making these decisions. But the blank check given Weingarten due to the failure of the opposition to make a serious dent in the Unity machine in the '07 UFT elections is the backdrop.

Eventually, the Unity rank & file in schools that does not get jobs and other perks may figure out that the free conventions may not be worth the hell Unity policies have been putting people through. Of course, many of the Unity R&F are chapter leaders and have the ability to work out deals with principals to protect themselves while others get screwed. Some naive Unity people think that when Weingarten is at the AFT things might change for the better with someone like Michelle Bodden in charge. They are wrong.

What is missing from the TJC analysis is the backdrop of the whys and wherefores which we have been exploring on this blog.

The fact must be emphasized that Weingarten is in step with the Bloombergs, Eli Broads, the charter school movement, the Democrats/Clintons, etc. The deal with Green Dot makes sense if the UFT still gets dues even if the members are screwed.

Read the TJC post in its entirety at Norms Notes.

NYC Educator has an excellent post today on mayoral control. I commented in response to this statement: Ms. Weingarten's job is to represent the interests of working teachers.

Weingarten's real job is to distract, deflect and control the labor movement in NYC (like did she really want the TWU to win their strike?) and in the nation. Corporate and certain political interests could not find a better person to sell and execute their plan. She is the master of deflection and deception.

No one should be fooled that she is somehow incompetent or bamboozled by BloomKlein or Eli Broad or the Clinton/Democratic party interests which include Green Dot's Steve Barr. She is the perfect agent.

The UFT has become a perfect metaphor for a company union. More proof if this will come September 18 when the Broad prize is announced and BloomKlein will win it in a political deal to sell their program nationally. Of course, the UFT already has $1 million of Broad's money for it's charter schools.

There has been some agitation on Leonie Haimson's nyceducationnews listserve for some action on the part of parents (and hopefully, independent teachers) on that date to protest in front of an adoring national press. Expect the UFT to sit on its hands - unless a large enough outpouring of teachers joining parents will force the leadership to try to deflect people in other directions. Like maybe wear a black armband and spend 30 seconds walking around the schools so no one will notice.

UFT: Masters of Deflection

The UFT response to teachers asking for help has been “Wait till September.” It could be a song:

Wait till September
We hope you won’t remember
Just how much you’ve been screw-ew-ed.

Even when people get some attention, they often don’t realize the UFT leadership tries to deflect people from taking action either on their own or even worse (for the leadership), in concert with others. It takes some people years to realize this. The goal is to stop anything from getting organized and if the threat is serious enough they may actually do something (or give the impression they are doing something.)

Remember the supposed Age Discrimination suit? The entire purpose was to deflect people from taking action on their own. When people inquire about it with the UFT’s Sherry Boxer, she says she has no info and refers them to the EEOC. Call the EEOC and they tell you Sherry Boxer knows exactly what is going on. If you try to get added on the case, they say “NO Dice.” Of course, why would the UFT want hundreds and maybe thousands of people listed? The might actually win and then how would they explain it to Bloomberg?

A conversation with a regional DOE official…
"We couldn't believe it that the the union signed off on this thing." And later: "Before when a teacher was excessed, we could freeze the vacancies til the teacher could be placed. Now we can't do that anymore."

Without this agreement, many of the DOE reorganization plans would have been blocked. Certainly, the ability to hold schools accountable for teacher salaries could not be implemented.

So, when you get the attention of the UFT, keep an eye out for

THE MASTERS OF DEFLECTION

The NY International Fringe Festival

All of New York (downtown Manhattan, at least) is a stage...

I’ve been a volunteer at this wonderful event for the past few years. Last year I was a cameraman on the 10th Anniversary film they are making and got the chance to film lots of the plays and interview actors, directors and others. People come from all over the nation and around the world to put on their plays. Hundreds of them with a top price of $15, all down town (usually 14th St and below). It runs from August 10-26. Daytime (often starting around noon) and into the night.

You will see performers promoting their plays (at least 5 performances of each) all around the city. Last year a group came in from Chicago by bus and would pull up while the dancers did their number on top of the bus. Nice trick in NY traffic.

Get tickets online www.FRINGENYC.ORG or stop by at Fringe Central (80 Carmine St,, corner of Varick St.) Number for info is: 212-279-4488

I'll be spending a lot of time at Fringe Central and at some of the shows helping out so look for me if you stop by. Or call me if you're in the area and need assistance with something: 917-992-3734.

Better yet, if you have some time, volunteer for a 2 hour shift which gets you a free ticket.

Of interest to teachers:

Pedagogy: Can working for the Department of Education be worth more than just a $10 co-pay?

A high school teacher from New Dorp HS, Nanci Richards, has written a play, Pedagogy.

Tag line: Can working for the Department of Education be worth more than just a $10 co-pay?

She is performing in it as well. A retired teacher, with a tremendous number of acting and directing credits to his name, Michael Tennenbaum, has directed.

Info:
The play is being performed at the Center for Architecture, 536 La Guardia Place in the Village.

For tickets and information, 212-279-4488
www.FRINGENYC.ORG
All tickets are $15, non-reserved seats
The dates/times are:
August 8 @ 7:00 pm
August 14 @ 9:45 pm
August 18 @ 2:00 pm
August 20 @ 7:30 pm
August 22 @ 5:30 pm
August 25 @ 4:00 pm

A bunch of us are going to the Aug. 22 5:30 performance of "Pedagogy" and then off to dinner somewhere afterwards. Get tickets on your own and meet after the show. If interested in the dinner part let me know so we can try to find a place that will accommodate us.

200 Mystical Fictions
Another show on my definite list is “200 Mystical Fictions” by Debbie Siegel, whose dad Mike teaches at Staten Island Tech and coaches the robotics team. Debbie taught in Japan for a while. Check my blog for any other shows of interest that come up.

Green Dot, Weingarten and Dual Unionism

Let's say the Teamsters union comes into NYC and starts to organize charter schools. What would be the reaction of the UFT?

Well, that is exactly what is happening in Los Angeles where Steve Barr of Green Dot charters, Randi Weingarten's ally in crime in setting up a charter school in the Bronx, has formed a company union to compete with the LA Teachers Union. Al this is chronicled in Sam Dillon's NY Times piece of July 24 which I posted on the Norms Notes blog.

I can't tell you how may times people have said to ICE, "The Unity machine will never be beaten. Why not invite another union in like the Teamsters and set up a dual, competing union?"

Our answer has always been that this is so anti-union and divisive that it is unthinkable.

Well, maybe not. Randi Weingarten and Unity Caucus have endorsed this action with their support for Steve Barr and Green Dot. Just imagine, teachers can be Teamsters and never have to drive a truck.

Selected quotes below indicate a few basic truths:

The UFT is already a company union so there is no great leap here.

The Democractic party/Clinton gang are in this up to their ears. Weingarten is part of the gang which includes Joel Klein who also worked for Clinton.

Weingarten's undermining of the LA teachers union AJ Duffy may have some interesting play when she makes her move for the AFT presidency. It is disappointing to see Duffy backtracking. Will there be any repercussions in Chicago next July?

Here are some comments on Green Dot from another post on this blog. Note in particular the Unity hack defense and the former LA teacher, which I highlighted:

This is the end of organized labor as we know it....the article also states how Randi is helping to bring Green Dot into the South Bronx....Goodness gracious! What won't that woman do to be lauded by those who hate organized labor???? SHAME ON RANDI FOR SCREWING THE UFT MEMBERS!!!!! I hope one day she is impeached. 12:42 AM, July 24, 2007

17 more years said...
Just finished reading the article. The fact that Randi is trying to bring Green Dot to the Bronx confirms everything I ever thought about her.
I found it particularly interesting that the young teachers are so willing to embrace Green Dot, while senior teachers are hesitant (and rightfully so). With the large numbers of young, idealistic Teaching Fellows entering the ranks of NYC public school teachers, can't you see that happening here? 9:47 AM, July 24, 2007

Gene Prisco said...
Perhaps Randi Weingarten should invite the NEA to NYC to support Edison or any organization create charter schools with a union different than the UFT since this is exactly what she has done in supporting Green Dot in LA. Long live dual unionism! the Albert Shanker Solidarity Award 2007 goes to Randi Weingarten. 1:22 PM, July 24, 2007

Anonymous [Unity Hack] said...
Perhaps Randi Weingarten has a better view of education in America then the average teacher. I also read the article and what impressed me was that Green Dot has taken over failing schools, High Schools and did so with a teachers contract albeit, not the 300 page contract the LA teachers have. Maybe Randi is posturing an experiment in New York to offset the eventual dissolution of teacher unions as happened in LA. By engaging Green Dot in NY and being pro-active she will have a stronger say rather than fight the wrong fight at the wrong time. Please note that the article claims that the LA union has been fragmented and Green Dot in one school competed and drew the students away from that school district. What makes you think that could not happen in NY? Also note, that Black and Hispanic parents advocated for the Green Dot take over. Give Weingarten credit for being ahead of the curve on this issue. I believe that she will maintain core contractual values and tenure when this entire era of corporate accountability expires. 5:36 PM, July 24, 2007

Anonymous [LA Teacher] said...
I was a teacher in Los Angeles and now have retired (to Las Vegas). That article in the NY Times is full of bulls++t. The parents didn't advocate for it and the younger teachers went for Green Dot because they were duped....
The article is so misleading. Green Dot has not made any progress. They throw kids out of their schools if they harm the progress in the Green Dot school
I am shocked that your union is cooperating with this mess called Green Dot. What is wrong in NY? July 24, 2007

Selected quotes from Times article:

"Mr. Barr has fomented a teachers revolt against the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has driven a wedge through the city’s teachers union by welcoming organized labor — in contrast to other charter operators — and signing a contract with an upstart union."

"Mr. Barr, a former fund-raiser for the California Democratic Party."

"Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, is working with him to put a Green Dot school in the South Bronx. That alliance embarrassed United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents some 40,000 teachers."

"The union representing Green Dot teachers, Association de Maestros Unidos, has a 33-page contract that offers competitive salaries but no tenure, and it allows class schedule and other instructional flexibility outlawed by the 330-page contract governing most Los Angeles schools.

"Andrew J. Rotherham, who worked in the Clinton White House and is co-director of Education Sector, a research group in Washington, said, “Green Dot is mobilizing parents in poor neighborhoods and offering an alternative for frustrated teachers, and that’s scrambling the cozy power arrangements between the school district and the union to a degree not seen anywhere else.”

"Mr. Barr has not just used his charters to challenge the district. He is also an ally of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat who has also battled the Los Angeles school district, seeking mayoral control."

"Mr. Barr says that if he does not win the chance to use the Locke campus for his new charter schools, he will surround it with Green Dot’s next 10 charter schools, which are to open nearby in 2008, supported by a $7.8 million donation from the Gates Foundation.

“If the district doesn’t work with me, I’ll compete with them and take their kids,” Mr. Barr said."

CALLING ALL TEACHERS IN EXCESS!

It's time to act.

An excessed teacher, frustrated with the UFT response, or lack of, decides to take action. The UFT always prefers to deal with individuals rather than an organized group of people and WILL respond more positively (for PR purposes) when faced with a pressure group. Currently, there are other people holding meetings around certain issues. Look for updates on this blog.
____________________________________________________

This message is for anyone who's just lost their teaching position and has been abandoned by the DOE, which has broken with the rules stipulated under 17.B. of the Contract and is now claiming on p.4 of their 23-page booklet to excessed teachers that "it is ultimately your [the teacher's] responsibility to secure a new position with New York City."

As of this posting, the UFT website is not showing any sign of life regarding this most recent attack on on public school educators. Don't be confused by the link on uft.org called "Denied a Transfer? Let us know," which was not especially designed for excessed teachers. It's for anyone who's had problems with their attempts to transfer.

We're worried here about excessed educators, especially those who don't even get an interview. It is very troublesome that there are no links on the website for "Got Excessed?", "Got IMPROPERLY Excessed?", "Denied an Interview?", or "Know of Any Irregularities in Recent Job Hirings at Your School?" Maybe the union didn't see the problem coming, maybe they didn't care. Whatever is behind their thinking, they are certainly not contacting us at this time, when they could easily find out not only WHO has been excessed, but communicate with each one of us personally to find out how we're doing in this chaos.

Some of us don't share their apathy or hesitation. We think we have to act collectively and get the data for ourselves.

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS MESSAGE. Tell your excessed colleagues about it. Let's get some raw data on what's really happening to our jobs and our careers, and make sure no one is going to plead ignorance of the situation.

If you've been excessed and want to be sent some information about how things are going for you, copy and paste the questions below into a new email, answer the ones that you want to answer, and send them to: excessed101@gmail.com. You don't have to give your real name if you don't want to. The data will be compiled and you can say whether you want to be sent updates on what we're finding out.
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Your real name (optional) OR a pseudonym to prevent duplication: ________
When were you excessed? Month ________ Year _____
Seniority at the end of June 07: _________________
If you're a teacher, your subject: ______________
Otherwise, your title: _______
Used the Open Market yet? Y/N _____
No. of schools applied to: _______
No. of interviews you were granted: _____
No. of interviews you attended: ______
Has the DOE tried to place you yet (as stipulated in the contract)?
Y/N ______
Any factors you think make your excessing not your fault (e.g., school closing): ________________________
Any factors you think make it unlikely you'll be placed in a permanent position (e.g., politics, race; optional, but probably very important): ________
Additional comments: ________________________________________


Do you want to be contacted with updates on the statistics? Y/N ______
If so, your email address: _____________________________