Julie C live tweets from Chicago Plus Slideshow from Opening Speakers

Julie is tweeting at #Chicago @jcavanagh15

Here is a down and dirty slideshow of the  opening meeting.

Chicago Chats/UFT Giving Up Co-Location of Charter - With a Little Help From Friends

Weds., July 6

We just woke up to the news that the UFT made a deal with Christine Quinn to move its charter out of a public school in East NY Brooklyn into a new building - with the help of $2 million. At least that is the way the NY Post is framing it. But watch the UFT try to spin this one to teachers after they lost teachers choice - my 3 roomies are already screaming about it. The argument that other charters are already getting money for new buildings is a lame excuse. "This is our union" they are saying and we have been screaming about not only the co-loco issue but the fact that charters are destroying the fabric of the public school system. (See the Post article below.)

"This is capital fund money that should NOT be going to charters, it should be going to building more public schools," said GEM's Julie Cavanagh (one of the directors of the critically acclaimed film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman", who has been battling the invasion of her school, PS 15, while also being critical of the vast amounts of public money being funneled to charter schools to the detriment of public schools.

Note how this is revealed when school is out - not a word at the Delegate Assembly - note how "council aides said the grant was being discussed months before negotiations with the Mayor."

This cements the idea that the UFT will endorse Quinn for Mayor and also continue to support mayoral control. I may just bet my Tier 1 pension on it.

Chicago news
We were up late last night at a dinner hosted by Chicago Teachers Union caucus CORE - Caucus of Rank and File Educators. For those not aware, CORE is sort of the Unity Caucus of Chicago in the sense that they are in power. CORE people are proud to show their colors as opposed to Unity which tries to hide the fact they they even exist from the members - except during elections.

People were coming in last night from all over the nation and conversation flowed around many issues, but the NEA endorsement of Obama was causing quite a stir. I'm sure that will come up again today at the conference. It is interesting that the NEA convention just left town and remnants will be at the conference today.

Oh, in case you haven't been following,  I wrote about it yesterday:

In Chicago for National Educators' Conference to Fight Back for Public Education

My 3 wives are dragging me down to breakfast. More tonight. Maybe some video.

Here is the NY Post piece:

$weet deal on UFT charter

By SALLY GOLDENBERG

Last Updated: 3:46 AM, July 6, 2011

The City Council awarded $2 million to the politically powerful United Federation of Teachers for its Brooklyn charter school amid intense negotiations with the union to avoid teacher layoffs.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Brooklyn Councilman Erik Dilan sponsored the allocation, to be distributed in Fiscal Year 2013.

The funds -- part of a $375 million capital-projects budget -- will be used to plan "a potential new building that would incorporate the UFT charter schools with a community center and health clinic" in East New York, union spokesman Peter Kadushin said.

The union's charter school shares space with traditional schools, and the money would help the school relocate to an independent location.

Council aides said the grant was being discussed months before negotiations with the UFT to avert Mayor Bloomberg's threatened 4,100 teacher layoffs.

The UFT and the council signed off on a deal to avoid layoffs by giving up a year of teacher sabbaticals, making both the union and Quinn look like victors in the budget battle.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Privatization Outrage in Detroit!

The transformation of Catherine Ferguson Academy into a for-profit charter is an attack on the students, educational staff and population as a whole. It is part of a nationwide trend to undermine public education and privatize schools. Detroit, as Obama’s education secretary said, is “Ground Zero” in education “reform”—that is, the looting of public education by corporations and Wall Street speculators.

Detroit’s Catherine Ferguson Academy to be Privatized
What is Evans Solutions, Inc.?

By Nancy Hanover- wsws.org21 June 2011

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/evan-j21.shtml

A protest of the closing of the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a Detroit school for pregnant teens, became a victory
celebration. Actor Danny Glover speaks as Dalisha Thomas, 17, with daughter Kendall, listens.
REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Public Schools’ Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts announced last week that the Catherine Ferguson Academy (CFA), as well as two other alternative schools, the Barsamian Preparatory Center and the Hancock Preparatory Center, will be transformed into for-profit charters run by the Detroit corporation Evans Solutions, Inc. (see “An attack on public education: Detroit’s Catherine Ferguson Academy to become for-profit charter school”).
 

The survival of the nationally acclaimed CFA has been hailed as a victory by the Detroit political establishment and its supporters. The fact that the school has been transformed into a charter has been deliberately ignored or downplayed. It is quite possible that the closure announcement was a smokescreen, with the charter deal waiting in the works to be presented as a “victory.”
 

This sordid deal is, first of all, about money. All three schools were targeted for charterization because their per-pupil costs exceeded Michigan’s state aid formula. DPS receives about $7,600 per pupil from the state and an additional $500 million from grant funds. The cost to run CFA was $12,619 per student, with Barsamian requiring $35,636 per pupil, and Hancock $31,689. EFM Roberts has stated that converting CFA to a charter will reduce spending by $2 million.
 

The Barsamian and Hancock Prep Centers did not receive the press attention of Ferguson. They provided students who have been expelled from the Detroit Public School system with additional support, including counseling geared to the development of social skills and conflict-resolution services.
 

Evans Solutions is a for-profit Education Management Organization (EMO). One of its first tasks will be to brutally slash spending, a necessary step toward making the schools profitable. This will require eliminating crucial services and slashing wages for teachers.
 

The aims of Evans Solutions can be deduced from a look at the company’s current portfolio of schools. Evans now runs the Blanche Kelso Bruce Academy, begun in 2001 with two sites, and now expanded into six locations. These schools are designated “strict discipline academies.” They only serve those young people who are required by law to attend them, due to adjudication by the legal system.
 

The only educational experience Evans Solutions currently has is with this law-and-order model. The company also works closely with “faith-based” operations such as the Samaritan Center, St. Jude Center and the Don Bosco Hall.
 

In a 2007 court settlement, Evans Solutions paid out a $47,500 settlement to Doris Bennett, who was fired by the company after she revealed to her supervisor that she had breast cancer.
 

Blair Evans, the owner and superintendent of Evans Solutions, started his career in juvenile incarceration before entering the charter business in 2001. His ability to get control of CFA and the other schools is connected to his longstanding connections with the Democratic Party and the county police.
 

Blair Evans’s older brother, Warren Evans, has held the positions of Detroit Police Chief, Wayne County Sheriff and Chief of Operations for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. He ran for mayor in the wake of the resignation of Kwame Kilpatrick. Evans oversaw the construction of the new juvenile detention center in Detroit, which contracted his brother’s Blanche Kelso Bruce charter for its education services.
 

In his 2009 election campaign, the elder Evans crudely stated, “I don’t care what you do to the [DPS] curriculum…the biggest problem with DPS is public safety.”
 

Most notoriously, Warren Evans was forced to resign as Detroit police chief after deploying the TV reality show “The First 48” to film a raid that resulted in the death of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in 2010. Stanley-Jones was first burned by an incendiary flashbang grenade, then shot by police.
 

Warren Evans’s ex-wife was former Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, a close ally of the city’s former mayor, Democrat Kwame Kilpatrick.
 

Public School Academies (PSAs) or charters were first legalized in Michigan in 1994. Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency (Wayne RESA), the agency that charters Evans Solutions, Inc., approved its first PSA in 1995. It now oversees 90 schools with 53,000 students, about 17 percent of the county’s 313,000 public school students.
 

According to the annual report, “Profiles of For-Profit Education Management Organizations,” put out by the National Education Policy Center, enrollment of students in for-profits nationally is growing at a rapid pace. Since its study began, the number of schools managed by for-profit EMOs has increased from 131 to 729. At present, 31 states have authorized the operation of for-profit EMOs.
 

Michigan is, by far, the state with the highest number of for-profits, at 185. The NEPC report also notes that while Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a crude indicator of school competence, of the schools managed by for-profits, 47 percent, or nearly half, failed.
 

The transformation of Catherine Ferguson Academy into a for-profit charter is an attack on the students, educational staff and population as a whole. It is part of a nationwide trend to undermine public education and privatize schools. Detroit, as Obama’s education secretary said, is “Ground Zero” in education “reform”—that is, the looting of public education by corporations and Wall Street speculators.

In Chicago for National Educators' Conference to Fight Back for Public Education

I got into Chicago on an early flight and you may not be hearing much from me over the next few days since I am hanging out until Saturday. But I will try to put up some updates and even some video if possible.

I'm excited at the development of this July 6 conference which will gather activists from all over the nation. I've been involved with the planning of the event since March and it has all come together.

Here is the schedule for the conference:

http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=bkq8upcab&oeidk=a07e3xak34sa0d7cfb4

We have a large contingent from NYC going representing a variety of organizations. I count at least 6 GEM people going and a bunch from other orgs in NYC. Four of us are sharing a suite, so expect lots of pillow fights.

Off to do some sightseeing and eating. I'm looking forward to hanging with George Schmidt. We just were howling over George's very funny and on target review at Substance of his favorite new teacher movie "Bad Teacher."

I'm not sure why, but he included this pic of GEMers at our rally at the premiere of "Waiting for Superman". What a crew! I think I spot some of my roomies. Better go get the pillow!

Wearing capes and name tags that read "I am a public school teacher, talk to me" New York teachers (above) protested the premier of the teacher bashing movie "Waiting for Superman" on September 26, 2010, in Manhattan. Substance photo by John Lawhead.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.-

Winerip on Jamaica HS and CL James Eterno, Video of Student Doreen Mohammed, James Liebman Returns as the Class Fool

James Eterno, Jamaica's representative to the teachers' union, has been portrayed in the news media as a man who cares more about preserving jobs than - as the mayor never tires of saying - "putting children first." That is not how Kevin Gonzalez sees it. For Kevin, Mr. Eterno is the United States history teacher who stayed late to tutor his students, helping Kevin earn a top score of 5 on the Advanced Placement test.
Doreen and Gerard definitely feel put first. Jamaica had no college adviser this year - until October, when Mr. Eterno stepped in. "Before Christmas break he stayed late to make sure everything was perfect to send to the colleges," Gerard said. "Mr. Eterno went way beyond." After Doreen was accepted to Columbia, she spoke with people at the admissions office. "They told me how Mr. Eterno kept calling them about me and faxing them stuff," she said. 

(And let me remind people that James has a little 2-year old of his own at home.)


Here is a video I shot of Doreen Mohammed speaking at a press conference at Tweed in support of the NAACP/UFT suit about how the DOE denied her school resources - and she also talks about James who was there) and the other teachers at the school who supported the students. Many of these, James included, will soon be ATRs vilified by the DOE and Educators $ Excellence. Children first indeed.



http://youtu.be/J1vpqAMtmAQ

One of the myths perpetrated by ed deformers is that being a strong union rep is incompatible with being a strong teacher. Mike Winerip in today's amazing article on Jamaica HS with the above paragraph on James Eterno (who I should point out was the candidate who ran for UFT president against Michael Mulgrew in the 2010 UFT elections) certainly punches a whole in that myth.

I've been working with James Eterno in ICE for the last 8 years. Everyone knows James is an outstanding union Chapter Leader and a passionate defender of his school. But while I pretty much assumed James was a great teacher, he was often too modest to talk about things like that he was the teacher of the year at Jamaica HS a few years ago.

I have always thought that union activists should merge their defense of teacher rights with their defense of children. I always used to criticize James for separating the two. In the campaign for president of the UFT, if James hadn't been forced to spend all his time defending his school, I had hoped he would have brought in the experience of working with students and how it informed his activism. I met with a young 2nd year teacher/activist the other day and we both could agree that the kids were the best part of the job. I still think so.

Some conspiracy theorists might surmise that this comes out on July 4 when nobody is around to read it. Not I. Wait - on second thought.....

Here is Winerip's must read piece.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/nyregion/a-failing-school-not-to-these-students-at-jamaica-high.html?ref=nyregion http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/nyregion/a-failing-school-not-to-these-students-at-jamaica-high.html?ref=nyregion

After Burn
One of the things I liked about the way Julie Cavanagh framed the issue was that having strong teacher rights made her strong in advocating for the kids and parents in her school. Now that she has become chapter leader we will see people like her and Eterno bringing these issues to the fore.

After Burn2: James Liebman returns for a class fool performance

As James S. Liebman, the Columbia law professor who developed the city report card, wrote in an e-mail: “Good high schools aren’t satisfied when just a few kids get into strong colleges. They aim for all kids to do so.” Education Department officials point out that the graduation rate at Jamaica has stayed at about 50 percent for years.

But it is also possible that the deck has been stacked against Jamaica High, that the 15 “worst” high schools have been packed with the students with the worst problems. According to an analysis by the city’s Independent Budget Office, these schools have more poor children (63 percent versus 52 percent citywide), more homeless students (6 percent versus 4 percent), more special-education students (18 versus 12). For 24 percent of Jamaica High students, English is a foreign language, compared with 11 percent citywide.

The “worst” high schools are sent the eighth graders who are the furthest behind: their average proficiency score on state tests is 2.6 out of 4, compared with 2.9 citywide, and more of these students (9 percent versus 4 percent) are over age, suggesting they have had to repeat grades.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Attrition Will Be Worse Than Anticipated/Haimson Speech at PEP on Class Size

I believe the attrition will be worse than indicated. I was speaking to a teacher of over a decade who said she is not going back. She has until August to let them know and will wait for the last minute. Her disgust was so apparent - she said she would only go back if by some miracle her Leadership Acad principal (she used the expression Leadershit Acad princ) was gone. What kind of job will she look for? Anything she said. The teaching job is just not worth the stress. This is a top level 2nd career teacher who would rather take a meager pension than continue to put herself through the pain.

I hear stories of other people- especially those who had their tenure extended by a year for clearly political reasons - the principal or superintendent trying to demonstrate how vigilant they are being while they admit to the teacher their teaching is OK. Stories are that 50% of the teachers did not get tenure or were extended. Sources tell me many of these young teachers are livid and are OUTAHERE!! Some of them are - or were - supporters of of the Gates funded anti-teacher group Educators $ Excellence (no matter what they say), which makes believe there are no politics in the system.

The reality is that this is exactly what the deformers want to happen as it helps push the temp teacher/peace corps concept that they are aiming for where there will be no need for pensions at all and where most teachers will be at extemely low salaries.

The lessons of making a job that was stressful to begin with into a 24/7 stress factory will lead to a lower level teaching staff than the ed deformers started out with. Unfortunately we will have a mostly privatized/deregulated system where proof can be hidden and it will be another half a generation before the counter reformation takes hold,  though there are already signs of it beginning.

The above was my comment after Leonie Haimson posted this:

Though the worst was averted, the city budget deal is still only a very partial victory for our kids.

In essence, the deal came about because the city finally acknowledged what the many have long warned:  Bloomberg's failed policies and the worsening conditions in our schools have persuaded even more teachers to leave voluntarily than usual, which mitigated the need for layoffs. 

Nearly half of the 6,100 teaching positions that the budget cuts would eliminate will still be lost -- an estimated 2,600 -- through attrition, and these teachers will not be replaced, despite rising enrollment.  This will certainly lead to the fourth year in a row of increased class sizes in our schools and probably even sharper increases than have occurred in more than a decade.

Children in the early grades will experience the worst of it, as Kindergarten enrollment is rising especially fast.  Grades K-3 will suffer the largest class sizes in twelve years--with an even larger class size equity gap between NYC children and those in the rest of the state. 

All this, despite Bloomberg’s original campaign promise to reduce class sizes in grades K-3, a court decision in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case and state law passed in 2007 requiring that the city lower class size in all grades, several audits showing DOE misusing millions of dollars of state class size funds,  and a growing body of research indicating that smaller classes lead to more learning, narrow the achievement gap, and are a significant determinant of success later in life.
Another problem with this deal is it sets the stage for yet another budget battle next year; in which the interests of children will again be pitted against those of millionaires as well as Tweed bureaucrats with flawed priorities. 

As parents, we need to redouble our efforts to pressure our political leaders, including the Governor, the Mayor and the Speaker of the City Council, to adequately fund our schools and provide NYC children with their right to smaller classes and an equitable chance to learn.

Leonie Haimson

Leonie Haimson makes the best and most persistent case for low class size as she did at the June 27 PEP meeting. Here is a video of her speech:

Why Does Diane Ravitch Hate Children?

Just brilliant satire---

America's education reform movement -- the most significant reform movement in the history of this planet -- is just concluding another amazing school year.  Politicians of all stripes and parties have come together to say, "We will not accept inferior teachers destroying the lives of our children anymore".


With grim budget cuts necessitating layoffs, we are reminded once again that seniority based layoffs make as much sense as saying that U2 should have to keep Bono as their lead singer just because he's been with the band for 30 years and has tenure.


For the past 30 years, education reformers have had to fight the forces of the status quo, but in that time we have agreed that certain changes must be made to education:

• The business principles that have made our economy great should be applied to our schools as well.
• We need a common curriculum 
• We need frequent standardized testing
• We need a longer day and school year to allow more time for increased test prep
• We need a rich curriculum focused like a laser on only math and reading
• We need an end to tenure and LIFO policies
• Younger perkier teachers are superior to the old saddle horses who too often dominate public education.
• The best teachers for poor inner city students are young, preferably Ivy League educated young people from well to do families.
• Charter schools are superior to public schools because they can council students into leaving and public schools must teach everybody.
• We should fire the bottom 1/3 of all teachers every year.

These points are the hallmark of true education reform. They bind together Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Chris Cristie, Arne Duncan, and myself.  Several forces of the status quo have naturally opposed these moves, but lately one of the worst critics has been Diane Ravitch.

READ ENTIRE PIECE AT: http://laststand4children.blogspot.com/
Why Does Diane Ravitch Hate Children?

Charter School Attrition Exposes BS of Supposed High Grad Rates

Take a look at these examples of charter school attrition. C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S. does excellent work.
https://sites.google.com/site/casilips/graduation-rates

I'll just throw up - I mean that literally and figuratively - just a few charts (we feature similar charts taken from Edwize in out film that wow the audience.) Go to the site to see a gaggle of them.

I'm picking on SEED in Washington DC because it was featured in Waiting for Superman as the nirvanna of charter schools. See the trailor where Davis Guggenhein left out some inconvenient truths:
http://www.seedschooldc.org/page.php?pid=64

Wowie - ONE HUNDRED PER CENT GRAD RATE - if you just manage to lose a bunch of kids who might not have graduated along the way.

Actually, don't get me wrong. I think the SEED concept of boarding during the week (like they do in the Cuban PUBLIC SCHOOL System) is great. But let's be honest about the whole thing.

Here is the way SEED has been described in all the hype:

SEED School of Washington DC

From an August 13, 2010 webpage with video segment on the NewsOne website
"In a neighborhood where only 33 percent of students make it through high school and few go on to college, the Seed School in Washington DC is making a difference to get its youngsters on the road to success.  Most students entering the Seed School do so three grades below grade level. Upon entry, students are set up in dormitories during the week and allowed to spend weekends at home. This year, the school proudly reported a 100 percent graduation and college acceptance rate."  A video segment on SEED from MSNBC can also be viewed on this webpage.

Here's the bad news:

GET LOTS MORE CHARTS HERE:

CASILIPS - Citizens Against Special Interest Lobbying in Public Schools

The Gallery of "100% Graduation Rates"

All the schools mentioned below have been publicized as having "100% graduation rates." Each of the graphs below shows the enrollment of a cohort of students (class) as these students pass from 9th grade to 12th grade over a 4-year period. In each case, the number of students in the cohort group drops significantly from 9th grade to 12th grade, indicating large attrition. Yet the schools were able to claim "100% graduation rate" on paper by recording all students who departed as "transferring" to other schools by "choice."  It is questionable whether enough followup was done to ensure that these departing students really did continue their education.  Further, it is not clear why a high school should be so completely absolved of responsibility for attrition.  A better way of measuring graduation rate is needed.

Message from Teacher in England on the Strike

Sent to a friend:

Our public sector workers got a lot of bad press for striking.  Lots of teachers I know went on strike, but I didn't as my union hasn't voted for that at this stage.  One of our main issues (along with the similar issues you face) is that of our pensions.  We have two perks in teaching - good holidays and a good pension.  Our salaries do not equal our other professional counterparts, but knowing we would have a good pension have kept teaching unions quiet for a long time.  Unfortunately, the pension we all signed up to is being destroyed and the governement is asking us all to pay around £100 a month towards it, whilst our final pension will on average be worth £50,000 less! 

Who knows what will happen, but our current conservative government don't respond well to strikes (remember the miners of the 1980s!). 

The world isn't how it should be.  I'm currently marking GCSE religious studies papers and the main essay question is; "You should always stand up to unjust governments".... do you agree?  Quite apt at the moment eh?

Hope the cause is a success and things start to change for both sides of the Atlantic!

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Where did all the money go?

I just came across this laying on my computer messy desktop - I think this was a leaflet from Staten Island that Loretta Prisco sent - this was given out on the SI ferry by her.

Since 1980 the economy has doubled in size, yet adjusted for inflation, most wages have barely increased. So…Where did all the money go?

Almost all of it went to the super rich. The top 1% used to take home 10% of the nation’s total income, now they take home more than 20%.The super-rich have 40% of the nation’s entire wealth.    

With wealth, comes political power-especially power to lower their tax rate. Pre- 1980, the top tax rate was 70%, now it’s less than 35%. Much of the super rich’s income is capital gains on which they pay 15%.

Tax revenues are less than 15% of total revenue creating: the deficit, overcrowded schools, roads sacrificed, limited library hours, firehouses and senior centers closing, cuts in senior and youth programs and much more.

Instead of joining together for jobs and wages, many workers are scared and are competing for jobs and wages. Union vs. non-union, private vs. public, native born vs. immigrant.       

   

The middle class can no longer borrow as before, nor do we have the purchasing power to get the economy growing, which means… the only way to grow a strong economy is to keep a strong middle class.                                                   (edited from Robert B. Reich)

So…where can we get $$$? - $4.7 billion?

·       Ending subsidies to the big five banks

·       Closing hedge fund loopholes

·       Cutting NYC contracts to the big six banks

·       Demanding the electronic mortgage recording system pay owed fees

·       Taxing the super rich 

·       Taking 1/3 of our $3 billion surplus for services

·       Restoring the commuter tax and establishing a progressive one

·       Taxing insurance companies as all other businesses are taxed

            (Suggestions from the Independent Budget Office, The May 12 Coalition).

Walcott Speech at PEP Makes Baby Cry

http://youtu.be/foRoS7nNu0Q

Tom Crean Comments at the June Delegate Assembly

Here's a follow-up to our report (Getting Physical and UFT Delegate Assembly Reports from James Eterno) on the UFT Delegate Assembly from Tom Crean, Chapter Leader of MS 218K who was the lone voice who spoke against the budget deal.

Hi Norm


As you have already stated on ednotes I was unfortunately the only speaker allowed at the Delegate Assembly against the UFT's deal with Bloomberg that averted layoffs. There was, as James Eterno has pointed out, much more that could have been said especially about the position of ATRs. I chose, however, to look at the wider question of cuts to education, how this will affect teachers as well as students and parents and how the cuts could have been stopped.


Anyway here is the gist of what I said: 

Michael Mulgrew in his report stated correctly that the budget the City Council is about to agree contains a range of cuts to social services and the layoff of 1,000 city workers. What is not correct is to suggest that the budget won't contain major cuts to education on top of all the other cuts to education in this city in recent years. We are all greatly relieved that there will be no layoffs of teachers. But the deal we are discussing implicitly accepts a reduction in the teacher workforce of 2,600 which in addition to previous cuts amounts to a reduction in the order of 8,000 teachers in the past three years. In my school, IS 218, we experienced class sizes of 37-38 in the 7th and 8th grade this year and it wasn't until well into the school year that we got partial relief in the 8th grade. With cuts this big in the workforce, our experience at 218 will be increasingly common. It may be true that our pay and benefits are not being cut in this deal but it is inevitable that, for large numbers of us, our working conditions will be further degraded.


The cuts and attacks against public education are part of a wider corporate offensive against the public sector and the working class in this country. Bloomberg is the sharp end of this in New York but Cuomo is not far behind. The question may be asked: how could we stop such an onslaught? The answer history gives us is social struggle. If you are looking for a model look at the civil rights movement. On May 12 we took a step in that direction. As Micheal Mulgrew stated previously it was good that we got out of the pens. We marched on Wall Street alongside other unionized workers and activists and gave vent to working class anger. And there are a lot of angry working class people in this city right now. From there we should have steadily escalated the resistance and made clear that business as usual was over until ALL the cuts were taken off the table [as we all know the resources are there; it's a question of priorities, those of Wall Street vs the needs of ordinary people] If necessary there should have been mass civil disobedience; instead in the end we chose to break the front of labor.


All the best,
Tom Crean
Chapter Leader MS 218, Brooklyn

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Comment on my video statement on Success blood-sucking cancer charter network

Bravo Norm!

My school is co-located with an HSA in Harlem. Every single one of our classrooms, related service and administrative offices have been moved every single year that we have been co-located with Harlem Success Academy.

This is disruptive, disrespectful and has had a destabilizing effect on our school community. Our students, parents and educators are being treated like refugees in our own school building, all in order to privilege the millionaire and hedge fund backed charter school HSA. Parents, students and teachers must re-acclimate themselves to an entirely new and different school layout every year.

These moves take place in our public school, while Harlem Success renovates the classrooms that our students have been forced to vacate. Last year HSA projected 125 kindergartners for the 2010-2011 school year, but only enrolled about 80 something.

This inaccuracy, or lie if you'd prefer, provided HSA with extra space while 4 of the related services in our public school (we serve a high needs population of self contained and English language learner populations) were forced to squeeze into a 2/3 size classroom that provided no privacy. Co-locations do not work and the privileging of charters is at the expense of our most vulnerable students, families and the public education system!

The idea that charters provide choice is an absolute joke! Our parents did not choose to have their children taught in unsafe basement classrooms (our public school students were forced into classrooms that were created in our building's basement next to a boiler room for the past two years, while HSA took all of the newest classrooms in the building) or to have their children moved around their school building like refugees. They did not choose to be second-class citizens in their own school building.

The Grand Coalition Against Teachers - and a Bonus Video of - Me at the PEP

Hey, is it July already? You mean we've passed the last day of school? My how one loses track in retirement.

...anyone who brings up out-of-school factors such as poverty is both defending the status quo of public education and claiming that schools can do nothing to overcome the life circumstances of poor children. The response is silly and, by now, tiresome. Some teachers will certainly be able to help compensate for the family backgrounds and out-of-school environments of some students. But the majority of poor children will not get all the help they need: their numbers are too great, their circumstances too severe, and resources too limited. Imagine teachers from excellent suburban public schools transferring en masse to low-performing, inner-city public schools. Would these teachers have as much success as they did in the suburbs? Would they be able to overcome the backgrounds of 15.6 million poor children? Even with bonus pay, would they stay with the job for more than a few years? Common sense and experience say no, and yet the reformers insist they can fix public schools by fixing the teachers.

The Grand Coalition Against Teachers, By Joanne Barkan - posted at TFT (The Frustrated Teacher)

 I know we're preaching to the choir here, but Joanne Barkan's article should give you much ammunition when you get into those July 4th arguments with teacher bashers. Here's the link.

Where Barkan doesn't go in this piece – and there may be follow-ups – is the motivation of the ed deformers in the "blame the teacher" campaigns:  Defanging the unions (non-unionized charters, Teach for America/Educators 4 Excellence shock troops, merit pay) - not that the unions have put up a strong fight - but at least they have the ability to bring a unified teacher force to the table. In the ed deform world each teacher is on an individual contract and competing with each other. That is the holy grail of ed deform. While luring teachers with the promise of higher pay through merit pay, they will be able to lower the average teacher salary substantially - think of the south.

This ties in to Barkan's next article on the rise of education entrepreneurship where there's a whole lot of money to be made out of education. First you kill of the only force capable of putting up opposition. Then you milk the cow until a generation later - or less - it is clear what it was all about. By then it is too late.

Thus, my intense  anger at the UFT/AFT/NEA (which opens its meetings today in Chicago) for basically laying down in front of the ed deform juggernaut. Every single UFT official talks about how they are not against charter schools or even co-locations when they are done right. When I talk to them they seem to understand what is afoot but are helpless to get in the way other than trying to make the procedure work - procedures set up in a stacked deck. Thus the law suit to "make them do it the right way." I won't get into the whys of how the union functions because that is a longer story about the ideology behind the AFT/UFT, an issue some of us will be exploring this summer in study groups.

Here is a short video of my speech to the PEP on Monday about charters.

http://youtu.be/UVBC9_YB1lE



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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Joy to the world -gangsta charter investigated - NY Post

"It's about time the AG's Office takes a look around -- they'll have a lot to work with," said one ex-staffer. "Mr. Melendez always likes to say that finances and compliance are the two things he and the board handle exceptionally well, but this doesn't pass the laugh test." 

Just desserts in today's NY Post article (below) by Yoav Gonen for Believe Charter network founder Eddie Calderon-Melendez who harassed Susan Ohanian with threats after she wrote about his chater takeover of the library at IS 126. Teachers who left the school had been in touch after Ed Notes wrote about the school but were very afraid to talk. We broke the story in May 2010 of the $100 reward recruitment poster that Jenny Medina at the NY Times picked up on. There is no better example of inequity that these schools are still open -

Here was a comment from a teacher at the school:

I'm currently a teacher under the Believe network and would love to whistle blow... once I am no longer employed by the network. In fact, Melendez received public criticism a few years ago for firing a teacher without due process who circulated the DOE pay scale among her WCHS colleagues and mentioned the dirty u-word. No one at the school who hopes to continue to work there for more than 48 hours would dare approach the UFT or even think about doing so, since firings come fast and furious. Right now our best hope is that someone who made it out can fight the good fight (from a safe distance)!  

I've been in touch with the teacher who is now teaching in another state and I think I asked her to contact Yoav who has been following up on the story for months. I imagine some of the hordes of former teachers are talking to Yoav, who used Ed Notes source material as part of his investigation.

Here are some links to Ed Notes articles:
Dismantling the IS 126 Library

Education Notes: The Title of "The Worst Charter in the World ...

May 09, 2011

Ultimate charity fund-raising event: A roast of Eddie Calderon-Melendez. Charge $50 a plate and invite current and former employees (mostly former). We'll make enough to cure cancer. Williamsburg Charter High School has ...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Brooklyn middle school students squeezed out of study space by 3 ...

Oct 06, 2009

Eddie Calderon-Melendez , founder of the Believe High School Network, which runs the charters, said the use of shared space is negotiated every year. ...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Ohanian on Brooklyn Charter School Thug

Jun 04, 2010

Ultimate charity fund-raising event: A roast of Eddie Calderon-Melendez. Charge $50 a plate and invite current and former employees (mostly former). We'll make enough to cure cancer. Williamsburg Charter High School has been unfairly ...

Charter $$ probe

AG eyes 3 schools in W'burg

By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter

Co-Locos Exposed

In Patrick Sullivan’s opinion, the only real hope for PS 9 is if the chancellor has a change of heart, and grants them the right to expand into a K-8 school. “Rather than help successful public schools,” Sullivan said, “the DOE is more focused on giving preference to charter schools…and certainly the fact that the money behind the schools is from a lot a people the mayor knows helps the charter school agenda.”

Julie Cavanagh also believes cronyism is at play, and points out that the founder of PAVE, Spencer Robertson, received $26 million to build his charter school after his father, hedge funder Juilan Roberson donated $6.75 million to Bloomberg’s New York City Center for Charter School Excellence, and various other pet projects of Bloomberg’s. (There are other claims of the Robertson Foundation and Bloomberg’s funny business here.)

Good article on co-locations from popular Brooklyn Based blog

http://brooklynbased.net/blog/2011/06/tracing-the-roots-of-co-located-schools/

Comments on the NYCEDNews Listserve:

This article has some serious factual errors.  Though clearly there are far more co-locations now, and many more highly damaging ones b/c of increased overcrowding and an administration out of control, there were far more than 12 co-locations when Bloomberg came into office in 2002.  

The article completely ignores the fact that the  small schools reform movement, which resulted in many co-locations, was founded by Debbie Meier and Ted Sizer about 25 years ago.

Leonie Haimson


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I never said the therapists do not see kids if they can't find a space. I said they find a substandard space such as staying in the classroom, or spend their time looking for space. I did mention programs being canceled due to space, but not mandated programs. I cited my boys group, a partnership with the Red Hook Justice Center, which I had to cancel on a few occasions because we didn't have a space to meet. No less egregious, but want to be clear that we make every effort for our kids to get their mandated services despite the cancer that has consumed our school building.

Next year we will have two rooms that seven related service providers will have to share. One of those rooms is not a room "assigned" to ps 15, but a room our community partner will share with us. I have no clue how we will meet our kids needs after next year and the last several years have been insufficient in terms of space.   I will continue to repeat myself on this issue ad nausium until it is fixed: the DOE MUST account for services for children with special needs in the instructional footprint. Any less is discrimination.

Thanks to Nicole for this article- it is impossible to navigate this issue and get it all right, but this was a fair piece and does a good job of highlighting the inequities of co-location. It is a very complicated problem; I understand space is an issue across the city-- but we shouldn't deny space to some for the benefit of others. You can't rob occupational therapy from Paul to give Peter's charter school office space.

Julie Cavanagh
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While I feel like an old timer  pointing to  a more accurate vision of "history' ,  there are some slight nuances to the points made  in this article that deserve mention. As the article makes clear, "Bloomberg and then-Schools Chancellor Joel Klein resurrected NYC’s small school movement."  Indeed, the small schools movement that predates these gates funded "reforms"  differes greatly from the 'close 'em and start over w/ new kids' model BloomKlien set up after taking control of the governance of our schools in 2003.A number of East Village school were spawned  a result of that earlier movement;  new, alternative-visioned schools, sharing space in the traditional district schools that had emptied out during the city's fiscal crisis. When DoE employee, MAK Mitchel, the Executive Director of School Governance for the Department of Education,  states that:  "Few schools were co-located back then", which she estimates  as " less than 12",  she negates the trans-formative nature of  these new schools and the all-choice equity and diversity based  admissions plan the elected school board introduced in District One.  By 2005 when BloomKlien began parachuting charters and other new schools into communities, more than 80% of District One  community schools were sharing space. The prior methodology, based on 5 years MOU's  that took into account growth and changes in programs; building councils consisting of all the stakeholders;  and a common supervisor, the community superintendent, to set the vision and work through conflicts, worked to actually reform the community district schools.The history of schools within schools goes back well before it was captured by this administration's attempt to reform schools by offering a portfolio  of choices , privatization of public education , and accountability by high stakes standardized tests.Those attempts have failed miserably- maybe it is time we go back to our roots- our grass roots, and let communities make decisions about our kids and schools again. 

 

Lisa Donlan

David Greene - Why I ain’t ain’t marching anymore (with apologies to Phil Ochs) - Save Our Schools (SOS) March- July 30 in Washington

I march because of what this war on education will do to my former colleagues and the new teachers with whom I work.
I march for change.
I march for reform.
I march for academic freedom.
I march for curricula and methodologies to develop the best-informed, critical thinking, problem solving students in the world.
Most of all I march for our kids.


David Greene

MARCH WITH GEM ON JULY 30

 I said the following to an ed deform slug from CEC6 at Monday night's PEP - a guy who loves Joel Klein and anything the ed deformers do - he got up at the mic and attacked the NAACP and UFT law suit as a job protection program - he said to me why can't people be civil - I responded: "There is a war on. One side has the atom bomb and the other side - the side of truth, justice and the American way – has pee shooters and he has chosen to be on the side of the people with the bomb." Sort of shut him up.

As I reported this morning, at yesterday's DA Yelena Siwinski asked Michael Mulgrew about the SOS march in Washington DC on July 30 (http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org/) and whether the UFT would support it. Mulgrew said they would support(we think he said that) and the AFT has already endorsed but that every major education leader would be in South Africa that day. I love that because we don need no stinkin leaders there – imagine Randi Weingarten preening in front of that crowd, though it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't figure out a way to be in 2 places at once.

I know people are asking for the UFT to provide a bus for those who want to go on July 30 and come back that night. Many of us in GEM are going to the pre- march 2 day conference on July 28 and 29 (our film is being shown in two auditoriums at the same time at American University on July 29 and we are doing a GEM workshop on July 28 at 10:30 AM). But if you want to go for the march only send me your name and if we get enough people the UFT may get that FREE - I repeat - FREE - bus.

Well, here are a bunch of good reasons to go in an absolutely brilliant post from David Greene.
(and read Diane Ravitch on Reasons for Hope).

David Greene On Why He Is Joining the "Save Our Schools" March in Washington where he makes an apt comparison to the Vietnam War. Instead of the military-industrial complex we have the edu-industrial complex.

Why I ain’t ain’t marching anymore. (with apologies to Phil Ochs)


The last and only time I marched on Washington D.C. was the Moratorium to end the Vietnam War in November 1969. Hundreds of thousands marched through the cold streets of Washington D.C. while FBI agents took pictures of us as we shouted “Peace Now” and waved our flags and signs. My friend and I had constructed a giant (we thought it novel) Peace Flag that was eventually used up on the speaker’s platform. We were so proud. We slept on the gym floor of a local parish church. When it was time to leave, at first we couldn’t find our bus to go back to NY, but eventually we did. Frankly, it is all a blur but a well worthwhile one.


I was not a joiner, a marcher or a protester. I was not much of an activist either. I had friends who were deeply involved in the movement but I was happy to get involved in conversations and do my little part to convince people, one at a time, that the War was wrong. However, when friends were deployed I felt it important to do more. So I marched.


Here we are 42 years later. I will march on Washington this July because again we must stop a war. This time it is the war against teachers, students, and education. Over the past 10 years what started as an intervention has become a full-scale assault. The parallels with Vietnam are astounding.


Now as well as then presidential decisions to begin by giving assistance in “the battlefield” became congressional acts to fund, arm and send troops. Corporations were enlisted to fund and manufacture the goods to fight. Escalation became the operating word.


This time I was content to argue against standardized testing, No Child Left Behind, and most recently, Race To The Top. This time I pointed out not how a military-industrial complex gained control of foreign policy, but how a new education-industrial complex had seized control of education policy, for their own profit.


In addition, what seemed like a good idea, TFA, had morphed into what I now call a 5th branch of the armed forces. At first it innocuously sent advisors in small numbers to educational “battlefields”. But now its power and numbers escalate as we idly sit by.


Not for nothing, but TFA recruits young men and women in a not so unfamiliar way. “Join the Army- Be All You Can be? Join the Marines- Looking For A Few Good Men? Join the Navy- It's Not Just a Job, It's An Adventure? Join the Air Force- Aim High? TFA- This could be the best career decision you make?”


TFA recruits are also thrust into a war zone, yet less prepared than my friends were 42 years ago. Often misled and naive 20 somethings, they are unarmed when they go to war to defeat the enemies of education: poverty, poor training, poor leadership, and a host of other saboteurs.


So now 42 years later I go to Washington to march again. But this time I go as more than a marcher. I go as an organizer, presenter, and activist. I do all this because the Chief Executive, Congress, and an Industrial Complex including TFA threaten the avocation I have loved for 41 years.


I march because of the high school kids and programs I see threatened by this assault.


I march because of what this war on education will do to my former colleagues and the new teachers with whom I work.


I march to teach how good high schools can be if we let professionals do the work.


I march to fix how we train new teachers (traditional and TFA) to be better able to fight the real war they and our students face day in day out.


I march to get TFA to change; to work with traditional teacher training institutions; to stop vilifying veteran teachers and actually recruit them to train their recruits; to help us recruit top talent to stay in teaching; to become "lifers". I march to get TFA to listen.


I march for change.
I march for reform.
I march for academic freedom.
I march for curricula and methodologies to develop the best-informed, critical thinking, problem solving students in the world.


Most of all I march for our kids.


David Greene

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Getting Physical and UFT Delegate Assembly Reports from James Eterno

UPDATED: Weds. June 29, 7:45AM

Balancing the budget on the backs of ATRS is not quite as awful as balancing it on the backs of newer teachers who would have been laid off but it was totally unnecessary. With Bloomberg’s poll numbers on education sinking to "Bushian Post Hurricane Katrina" levels, the UFT was holding all of the cards and should have insisted that to save money that the DOE should be compelled to place all of the ATRS into positions in their districts. 

Teacher bashing continues. When firehouses close, the firefighters aren't blamed and they are sent to another firehouse. When police precincts redeploy whole precincts because of corruption scandals, the clean cops who worked in the corrupt precinct don't have to apply to other precinct captains. They are transferred. Only teachers face the indignity of having to pound the pavement to seek a job because a program was downsized or closed. President Mulgrew said this union leaves no educator behind. This is not totally true as the ATRs have certainly been left to basically fend for themselves.--- James Eterno at the ICE blog

As much as it pains me to admit this, it's not really a bad deal for most of the membership.- Miss Eyre at NYC Educator

It is absolutely a bad deal for most of the membership - at least anyone in front of a class--- Norm Scott

I hope you all had a great final day of school. It wasn't all that great for the people who had to miss school parties to attend the UFT Delegate Assembly to vote on the recent budget agreement - see some of my posts on that over the last few days.

Today: UFT Delegate Assembly to Sell Deal, Bloombe...
For Shame! UFT Victory Lap at Settlement Pilloried...(MUST READ FROM LORETTA PRISCO)

(E$E also had an end of school year party at a bar on the high line - fancy shmancy - for all their people who are not popular enough to be invited to their own school parties. I know one thing - I bet there weren't 2400 people who supposedly support them there.)

Health and welfare
I had my annual physical with Dr. Mark, who all my pals from the UFT activism of the 70s are using because he is such a good doctor. He's a pretty liberal guy. He brought up an article by Joel Klein in the Atlantic and said it made some sense. My blood pressure shot up. I gave him a copy of our film to set him straight and we talked ed deform. He gave me a prescription to lower my horrible cholesterol and told me to lose about 15 pounds. "I don't care if you drop dead tomorrow," he said - did he join Unity Caucus? - "but a stroke that disables you is something you don't want to happen." Clarence Clemmons dying at an age only 3 years older than me is certainly scaring me into trying to avoid those Little Debbies, (though the first thing I did upon leaving his office before heading over to the DA was to grab a slice of pizza). Before I left his office I went over to pay anything I owed - nada - thank goodness for Medicare.

The Delegate Assembly
They actually let guests into the DA because the place was not full but I am not in touch enough to give a cogent report of the DA. But the Unity faitful outdid themselves in patting themselves and Mulgrew on the back to such an extent chiropractors had to be called in to deal with wrenched shoulders. Many of their speakers were pre-planned (I heard conversations downstairs).

There were lots of winks but no details from Mulgrew on how the ATRs were protected but he couldn't talk about it - like he was the smartest guy in the room. After the meeting PS 193 chapter leader Yelena Siwinski and I paid a visit to Bloombergville where I took some pics and video (I'll post later).

Yelena got the floor at the DA yesterday to remind Mulgrew of the SOS march in Washington on July 30 after Mulgrew announced a major labor march on Washington on Aug. 27. Mulgrew said the UFT is supporting the SOS march but labor has to get is act together - he said he and most major ed leaders will be in South Africa at the end of July. GEM is going down for the showing of our film at American U on July 29 and we are doing a workshop on July 28. Come march with GEM on July 30.

Later in the eve, 13 of them were arrested for civil disobedience, a tactic I am hearing more and more of being used. NYC teachers have been intimidated from participating in CD due to stringent enforcement of the DOE - like jaywalk and you can be fired  - especially if you are an ATR -   ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit.

I'll repeat James Eterno's important reports from the ICE blog below which also talk about the lack of democracy (does the earth turn?). When Mulgrew had to allow an opposition voice IS 218K chapter leader Tom Crean spoke eloquently on why we should not agree to this deal - I asked Tom to write it up for Ed Notes and he said he would - even Mulgrew was impressed and said he couldn't disagree with many of the premises - thus the Aug. 27 march and call for a millionaire tax (I better check my TDA.)

James Eterno on the DA on ATRs

Tom laid out the big picture as to what people will be facing with the cuts, especially with rising class size (Mulgrew admitted during Tom's speech we have lost 8-10,000i teaching positions in the last few years) in essence a response to this statement by Miss Eyre over at NYC Educator that it is not really a bad deal for most of the membership. It is absolutely a bad deal for most of the membership - at least anyone in front of a class.

As much as it pains me to admit this, it's not really a bad deal for most of the membership. Although ATRs will be doing per diem substitute work, they'll be doing it for appointed teacher pay and benefits.  It's not good for them, I realize, and they're in the original situation for the terrible crime of having worked in a school that closed.  But they do still have jobs, with the same pay and benefits they've always had, and it's going to be pretty tough to U-rate them now because they can't be expected to properly plan or participate in the life of a school.

Well, I wouldn't bet they are not going to be U rated. I think that's the plan. What does the DOE lose in U-rating someone? It can take a year to adjudicate and in the meantime the teacher is barred from earning extra salary (there may be some other penalties) and can get so stressed that they end up leaving, especially those nearing retirement age. Call this an end run around LIFO.

This question was raised on ICE-Mail:

How assignment in district for a week at time will work for ATRs in D79 who could be sent anywhere in the city. The answer at last night’s Executive Board was that it will be looked at by the Joint Oversight Committee that is part of the agreement.

James had 2 reports, one focusing on the ATRs and the other on democracy at the meeting. I'll let you read the latter at the ICE blog (A DELEGATE ASSEMBLY THAT LEONID BREZHNEV WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD OF) while here is his report on the ATRs. Personally, I think long-term the ATRs are in trouble - the problem is most teachers don't see themselves as potential ATRs (which they may very well be once Bloomberg gets LIFO killed and they can start closing down any schools they want without worrying about the ATR issue) while I say every teacher should wear the emblem: "Ich Bin un ATR."

CITY BUDGET BEING BALANCED ON THE BACKS OF UFT'S ATRS

We have an agreement between the UFT and the city that eliminates the possibility of over 4,000 layoffs this year. We also gain increased hiring opportunities for Absent Teacher Reserves to be hired provisionally and to get considered for positions at reduced costs to principals. In exchange the UFT has agreed to suspend sabbaticals for 2012-2013 and to allow the DOE to move Absent Teacher Reserves who are not lucky enough to secure a permanent position from school to school on a weekly basis.


UFT President Michael Mulgrew's report at tonight's emergency Delegate Assembly highlighted the no layoff part of the agreement, which we are all happy about. Nobody in their right mind wants to see over 4,000 teachers lose their jobs. Mulgrew also thanked everyone for doing work with the state and city council. He told us the mayor said he wanted non seniority layoffs. He talked about opposing the mayor with the city council. He didn't, however, talk for too long about the part of the agreement that dealt with Absent Teacher Reserves becoming nomads.


The new agreement forces each principal to interview at least two ATRS per semester if they have vacancies and they are supposed to hire ATRS for vacancies and leave replacements. I don’t quite understand what happens if they interview two and don’t like them. Can they then hire someone from outside or give the classes away in a secondary school as a sixth class for special per session pay or to substitutes? UFT leadership believes these new procedures will lead to a big reduction in the ATR pool. I hope they are correct because anyone unfortunate enough to be left behind in the ATR pool risks becoming a teacher gypsy.


The agreement on page three contains the following ominous clause: "An Excessed Employee/ATR shall be assigned to a school within his/her district/superintendency each week. A 'week' shall be Monday through Friday, or shorter if the work week is less than five(5) days." Then there is clause C which says: "An Excessed Empoyee/ATR shall be notfied no later than Friday (or the last work-day of the week) if he/she will be assigned to a different school the following week and, if so, to which school. An ATR who has not been notified that he/she has been assigned to a different school by Friday shall report on Monday, or the first work day of the work day of the work week, and for the duration of that week, to the last school to which he/she was assigned." In other words, if a teacher does not find a permanent job on his or her own, buy a good GPS.


Besides the obvious problems of ATRS not having stability from week to week and not being able to bond with students, or know which person in each particular school to go to in order to resolve issues with payroll or their sick bank days or other items, this makes it virtually impossible for ATRs to do any per session work (extra activities for money that are pensionable.) We are truly worried that ATRS will now become third class citizens.


One of the worst parts of the horrible giveback laden 2005 contract was the loss of placement rights for members whose schools close or are excessed because their school or program is downsized. Since then, there has been a pool of teachers ranging from the hundreds to thousands called ATRs who have no permanent job and must substitute. Under current rules, ATRs usually stay in a school for a year and then can be reassigned. It is not a very professional existence but we are told by UFT leaders that at least the ATRs have jobs. In 2008 the DOE and UFT came to an agreement to allow principals to hire ATRs and only get charged on their budget the cost of half of a starting teacher for seven years. (The teacher still gets full pay.) The UFT predicted this would basically end the ATR problem but it didn't. The reasons ATRs are not hired are either because they have obscure licenses or they are activists who are not going to say, "How high?" when a principal tells them to "Jump!"


UFT Secretary Michael Mendel told me the ATRS will have a much greater chance of getting a full time position under this new agreement. Again, I truly want him to be right but I fear he might be wrong. The subsidies didn't lead to the withering away of the ATR pool and neither will this as I see it because unfortunately some principals don't care about cost as much as they care about control. Furthermore, having teachers do coverages is much cheaper than hiring someone they don’t know.


Balancing the budget on the backs of ATRS is not quite as awful as balancing it on the backs of newer teachers who would have been laid off but it was totally unnecessary. With Bloomberg’s poll numbers on education sinking to "Bushian Post Hurricane Katrina" levels, the UFT was holding all of the cards and should have insisted that to save money that the DOE should be compelled to place all of the ATRS into positions in their districts. That would save some money for sure as it would eliminate the ATR pool if DOE was not allowed to do any new hiring until every ATR in a license in a district was placed. Any remaining ATRs could cover classes in an individual school so as not to create the potential chaos that this agreement could bring.


Teacher bashing continues. When firehouses close, the firefighters aren't blamed and they are sent to another firehouse. When police precincts redeploy whole precincts because of corruption scandals, the clean cops who worked in the corrupt precinct don't have to apply to other precinct captains. They are transferred. Only teachers face the indignity of having to pound the pavement to seek a job because a program was downsized or closed.


President Mulgrew said this union leaves no educator behind. This is not totally true as the ATRs have certainly been left to basically fend for themselves.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

U Ratings Galore, UFT Ignore

UPDATED: Weds. June 30, 3AM

(If you have numbers on your school send them in)

Reports are coming in of high numbers of U ratings handed out today. Supposedly Jane Addams had 20 15 and JFK 12, including the newly elected Chapter Leader.
I wonder if any of this will surface at the UFT delegate assembly today.
If you have numbers for your school send them along.
So expect our 6 figure salaried (with double pention) Unity Caucus slug to complain about our carping and point to all the teachers who didn't get U's as a victory.

This comment came in:
At Jane Addams, 15 teachers received "U" ratings, and one received a "D". I teach there, but I am one of the lucky ones.

And an email below from a teacher which on my Blackberry I misread as FDR. I did find out that 11 or 12 teachers at FDR has their tenure extended. I am hearing from people that a number of tenure extendees are so pissed they are leaving but not telling. We'll see if anything comes of this - keep an eye on that 2600 estimate of retirees and leavees. I got a call from someone Tuesday around 3pm who left a message that he was in the act of handing in his retirement papers - a 3 or 4 year ATR who has many valuable skills but just was worn down by being an ATR - the very purpose of course. I hope he shares his skills in helping to build GEM now that he is retired.

I emailed back for more info which I will add to this post.

Hi Norm,

At FDNY HS 11 teachers of 24 received U ratings.  That has to be a new record.  And the s-o-b principal bragged today about the great graduation rate and the regents passing rates.  Who the heck is responsible for that, if not the U-rated teachers?

And to ICE-mail:

Anecdotally, at least, there appears to be a spike in U ratings this year ... at least in my district ( D75) and from what I've heard, elsewhere as well.

Lots of 'em handed out to people retirement-eligible or and/or to people top scale. Probationer got one in my school and an ATR as well, I understand. The would have *easily* passed in previous years.

Has UFT acknowledged this phenomenon? Anyone collecting data on this?

Scary stuff for everybody, but esp so for those holding the U s.

I would NOT want to be looking for a teaching position at this time, in this economy with the added onus of a U rating.

We live in a beautiful world.

Today: UFT Delegate Assembly to Sell Deal, Bloombergville Protests, Plus Video of Activists at PEP Last Night (And Happy Last Day of School!)

Tues. June 28, 2011
More on the PEP last night later tonight.

Here is a video I taped last night of Bloombergville activists singing a song to cheer people up.

Here is a press release regarding today's actions:

This spring thousands of teachers, parents, youth and allies made it clear to Bloomberg that we would not accept teacher layoffs or the manufactured education budget "crisis." While we continue to analyze
the compromise reached this past Friday, it is important to note that grassroots organizing by teachers, parents, youth and allies has been crucial to building the pressure on city and union leaders.

Let's keep up the pressure on City Council as the vote on the final budget on Tuesday. While wide-scale teacher layoffs and firehouse closings may have been averted and City Council is restoring the Geriatric Mental Health Services and Elder Abuse treatment and prevention programs, we need to support a full-scale restoration and INCREASE to ALL city services, the education budget and public sector jobs!

Join us on Tuesday 6/28 for the following actions:

Noon: Protest Bloomberg's Budget Cuts

Where? Bloombergerville, Broadway & Park Place

What? March to 49 Chambers Street where the City Council ‘Stated Meeting’ for Budget vote will take place at 1:30pm.

5pm: Family Day of Action at Bloombergville

JOIN THE BNS/BCS Political Action Coalition for FAMILY ACTION DAY TODAY   at 5:00pm to support the protesters at Bloombergville and Tell Bloomberg not to cut vital city services.

WHO? Kids, parents, families who want to keep sending the message that the remaining city budget cuts to city services and public employees will hurt New York schools and children

BRING? NOISEMAKERS -- maracas! tambourines! pots and pans! your voices!

WHERE? 250 Broadway near City Hall. Take the N/R to CityHall or 2/3 to Park Place or 4/5/6 to Brooklyn Bridge

LOOK FOR Mike and Amy in the straw cowboy/girl hats

WHAT is Bloombergville? Go to Bloombervillenow.org or search for Bloombergville on Facebook or Twitter: #bloombergville

CONTEXT. There are real revenue options that City Leaders can use to increase education and city budgets. Download the May 12 coalition report on Real Revenue Options here: http://onmay12.org/sites/default/

files/MAY%2012%20COALITION%20R

EAL%20REVENUE%20OPTIONS%20FINAL%
205.27.11_1.pdf

You can also read:

Call Bloomberg's bluff - analysis of the layoff deal from SocialistW