Good MORE Story @ Brooklyn Rail

MORE election campaign put into context in this excellent piece that drills deep with quotes from a slew of MOREs.

A Groundswell of Teachers Wants More

http://brooklynrail.org/2013/03/local/a-groundswell-of-teachers-wants-more

by Ari Paul
 

In January, United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Michael Mulgrew once again became a public punching bag when Mayor Michael Bloomberg denounced his union’s reluctance to acquiesce to his demands regarding teacher evaluations, comparing the UFT to the National Rifle Association. In a way, the name-calling helped Mulgrew’s standing among the rank-and-file, clarifying to them that the lack of an agreement was the result of Bloomberg’s intransigence.

But the members of the union’s new dissident caucus Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE) point to the fact that Mulgrew touted his willingness to make compromises on the issue that would erode job security for teachers and further turn public education into an eternal test preparation course. “You have to question the approach of collaboration when the people you are collaborating with are out to destroy you,” said Julie Cavanagh, the 34-year-old Brooklyn special education teacher running for president on the MORE slate in the UFT election in April.

One part of this campaign is demanding better advocacy for schools’ issues, such as resisting privatization, merit pay, school closings, and the emphasis on standardized tests. Another is taking the union beyond these “bread and butter” issues, in order to make it an agent of economic justice in order to address the societal issues that affect public education. But on a grander level, MORE, modeled after the dissident Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) that took control of the Chicago Teachers Union in 2010, is organizing against what it sees as corporate unionism that keeps teachers in this target position, with few tools to fight back. Once a hardscrabble union in the early Albert Shanker era, the UFT is now a top-down special interest lobby that shows its strength not through massive demonstrations but via the work of its well-paid army of technocrats.

Bloomberg’s three-term tenure has placed unionized teachers on the defensive. In the past 10 years, 100 schools have closed in the city and teachers have been without a contract for three years. Teachers no longer get reimbursed for school supplies, even though as Cavanagh explained, “the average teacher spends hundreds if not thousands of dollars out of pocket each year.” Teachers are buried in administrative busywork, she claimed, and noted that even though there is a cap on class size, the union’s leadership hasn’t enforced it. Bloomberg’s last budget proposal before he leaves office includes cutting 2,500 teacher jobs through attrition.

Throughout the onslaught against union teachers, Mulgrew’s Unity caucus, which has held uninterrupted power in the UFT for five decades, maintains its position in part through allowing its retirees to vote in elections as well as by appointing district representatives rather than electing them. Dissidents claim these staff jobs are political rewards for caucus loyalists, who in turn hand down information from the central office to chapter leaders regarding day-to-day representation issues, but don’t interact with the rank-and-file and have little interest in bringing workers into the fold. “There’s no way to promote things within the union,” said Seku Brathwaite, a math teacher in Manhattan running for executive board with MORE. “If they don’t want to deal with something they close it off.”

As a result, few teachers get educated about how the union works and they have few avenues to participate, which is why MORE proposes to elect rather than appoint district leaders and tie staff salary and benefits to those of the members they work for. “Teachers and guidance counselors are frustrated by a lack of communication,” said Rosie Frascella, a high school teacher running for executive board with MORE. “There’s no education on what a union is. That’s something that my union is struggling with because we lost what that means. We think of a union as ‘my health insurance and my dental plan’” instead of a way to have “a collective voice inside our schools.”

Cavanagh is the cheery face of dissident militancy. Unlike her running mate, long-time International Socialist Organization activist Brian Jones, she’s fairly new to rabble-rousing, going to her first protest in 2009 to demonstrate against school closings. Between taping a campaign video and entertaining her 7-month-old son on a Saturday afternoon in January, she explains that MORE is the consolidation of two dissident factions, Teachers for a Just Contract and the Independent Community of Educators, and includes members of the New York Community of Radical Educators, the Grassroots Education Movement and Teachers Unite.

Cavanagh admits that the campaign against Mulgrew will be an uphill battle. “We’re trying to get into other schools, into mail boxes,” she said. “We have a team of bloggers, and the traditional boots on the ground.”

And while a victory for the dissidents in 2013 seems unlikely, MORE sees the organizing as direly necessary. “Our main strategy is to use the elections as an outreach tool to build a better rank-and-file movement around the city,” said Queens math teacher Peter Lamphere. “The UFT election is one of the few times when rank-and-filers can go into any school and it’s a chance to expand the reach of the message for more union democracy and social justice unionism to schools where we haven’t been able to get that out.”

The election might not result in Mulgrew’s ouster, but the hope is that it will ignite a discussion of whether the union can move beyond the role of filing grievances and negotiating contracts. Rather than a narrow focus on collective bargaining, MORE wants teachers to be part of a labor movement that fights the social and economic injustices that help produce educational inequality.

“It’s hard to teach students when they have a full time job after school or they’re undocumented or they’re living in a homeless shelter,” Frascella said. “In my school, I’m dealing with students who survived an earthquake in Haiti. There are a lot of different issues that are going on. We need to be looking at different ways to support our students.”

Mulgrew, who would not comment on the election, has gained attention and respect among politicians and observers as a pragmatic player in the education reform debate since becoming president in 2009 and winning overwhelming reelection to a full term the next year. Most notably, he worked with the Department of Education to end the notorious “rubber rooms,” where teachers under suspicion of wrongdoing would sit idly for months or even years while their cases were stalled in the backlog. Under his watch the UFT has used legal channels to attempt to stop school closings and has supported legislation that would give more community input when charter schools want to occupy public buildings.

“Teachers’ unions have to be about education reform themselves in order to continue to have public support and to continue to reach their goal of educating students and protecting the interests of teachers,” said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, who has written extensively on labor in education, including a biography on Shanker. “Education reform is here, it’s going to continue to be here, and the question is how you shape it.”

He added that the perception is that unions are solely about resistance to change, and haven’t been proactive in offering new reforms on their won. “This would seem an odd time for a kind of the left to suggest the UFT hasn’t gone far enough,” he said.

That’s partially why the Chicago teachers’ strike, characterized as an energized show of force, was a particularly awkward moment for labor’s ruling aristocracy. It proved to be a successful collaboration between teachers and parents fighting for better schools. Moreover, it was a strike against a Democratic mayor, Rahm Emanuel, a close ally of President Barack Obama, which took place during the latter’s reelection campaign.

The action, indirectly, was also against the status quo of public sector unionism, which is based on a close relationship between unions and the Democrats, who, when it comes to education, are major proponents of charter schools and shrinking teachers’ union power. For example, during run-up to the strike, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a former UFT leader, split her time between addressing members in Chicago and attending the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. One of the nation’s most prominent unionists faced the labor’s most famous question: Which side was she on? Answer: It wasn’t clear.

That is why this election is not just a local union election. Including Weingarten, three of the four presidents of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have been former UFT leaders. The UFT, once the largest local union in the country, has the majority of delegates in the AFT. “The UFT essentially controls the national union because of the delegate count,” Cavanagh said.

An impressive showing by MORE may embolden other dissidents in other cities where teachers unions have been under the gun of charter school C.E.O.s and politicians, or at the very least, send a message to the union’s leadership that more militant action must be taken, like the teachers’ refusal to use standardized tests in Seattle earlier this year. MORE does not want to be wedded to talking to systems managers who want to turn schools into businesses, but instead demands community control of schools, where pedagogues and parents stand at the forefront of policy making.

That’s a far cry from the system New York City has now. Take, for example, former Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s comments to the Council on Foreign Relations last year that the biggest problem with American public education was its failure to produce enough qualified workers and people to advance American foreign policy. In this view, public education is not a social good, a place for critical thinking, in order to develop critical minds and life skills. Instead, it’s an increasingly privatized training ground for the American empire.

At present, the leadership of the UFT and the AFT do what any pragmatic union does: Fight to increase the pay and benefits inside the existing system. But what anyone interested in education as a public service needs is a collective, Mario Savio-like rejection of the idea of education as an industry, with teachers being the mere employees, and students the raw material. Any other path turns the union into a mirror image of its supposed adversary, a service-oriented entity that deals with monetary transactions for company employees—rather than a social group of like-minded thinkers participating in a democracy. 

Ed Deform LA Dreamin' Turns Into Nightmare

While we were celebrating Steve Zimmer’s thrilling win over Kate Anderson in the Los Angeles school board race, the corporate reform crowd had to figure out how to spin this embarrassing defeat. Here it is, fresh from Twitter: Deasey kept his school board majority! Monica Garcia was re-elected! Big money saves Deasey! Inconvenient facts: The billionaires put together about $5 million to beat Steve Zimmer, who is a member of the school board in his first term... Diane Ravitch

Monica Garcia’s re-election was never in doubt , especially as she had 5 opponents and outspent the others more than 10 to one.  The key battle was Zimmer’s seat. See yesterday's LAT: "Deasy's supporters regard Zimmer as a swing vote." http://shar.es/jQZeW. Now they’re trying to change their spin for the media.   They must think we are all idiots. ---Leonie Haimson

“This election, with its shockingly outsized spending has revealed a hidden agenda, as old as the hills. With massive institutions and systems is embedded the opportunity for equally massive personal gain. Prerequisite is private control, wrenched from what was formerly public, democratic governance. Couching this banality of greed in educational ideology has been an effective strategy, but tonight’s results suggest a whisper of increasing awareness and resistance to uncontrolled and unbridled, unjustified change.... LA Parent 

Poor Bloomberg. Tossed a million bucks into the LA school board race and made no difference. The more the billionaires push, the more people turn from supporters or neutral into opponents. We see people switching sides every day. Ultimately the deform movement will crash. Just hope to be around to see it.

Diane Ravitch has the latest: A Parent Reflects on the LA Election

This parent was not opposed to charters. She didn’t pay much attention to battles over school issues, although her own children attend a public school in Los Angeles.

But when she realized that millions of dollars were flowing into the school board race, many from out of state, she began to realize that something big was going on. 

She realized that the big money was interested in something other than its stated aims. She realized that the rhetoric of “reform” was a cover for privatization of public goods:

“This election, with its shockingly outsized spending has revealed a hidden agenda, as old as the hills. With massive institutions and systems is embedded the opportunity for equally massive personal gain. Prerequisite is private control, wrenched from what was formerly public, democratic governance. Couching this banality of greed in educational ideology has been an effective strategy, but tonight’s results suggest a whisper of increasing awareness and resistance to uncontrolled and unbridled, unjustified change.

“Because the evidence is starting to pour in. The Reform School agenda which seeks to install privately setup small, isolated, corporately run charter schools are at best no worse than their public counterparts, and reach a small, select subset of the public besides. They result in breathtaking segregation and privation and an impoverished educational landscape. They leach public resources. Unaffordable, now, are the rich opportunities of varied educational “services” like music programs and art programs, lending libraries and speech and behavioural therapists. This School Reform Emperor has no clothes, and the evidence while slow to come in, is arriving at last.”

 And this:  How Corporate Reformers Explain Big Loss in Los Angeles

Video: Julie at Murry Bergtraum HS - Roots of Her Activism

Julie describes the process that led her to become an activist beginning in 2009. From the invasion of the charter school, helping lead the fight against it, seeing the bigger picture and helping organize and lead the demo at Bloomberg's home, to her understanding of the role the UFT was playing and not playing in the ed deform movement to becoming the unanimous choice to run for President on the MORE ticket.

What she doesn't say is that in just a few short months of activism she took this city by storm, winning parents, teachers and community activists over to the cause of defending public education. One prominent perceptive non-educator/leader said to me early on before Julie became interested in the internal union stuff that she should run for UFT president, which was the first inkling I had of Julie's potential to reach way beyond the parochial union internal crap.

Then we did the movie and that made her a national figure. Not only did she make the movie as a narrator but she drove so much of the engine, even doing massive work in organizing our premiere and recruiting Diane Ravitch to be our keynote speaker. Everyone who has contact with Julie on a day to day basis just loves the experience, even when she is a pain in the ass.

Watch both the short version (5 minutes) and the full version (52 minutes) and you will see she wasn't chosen just because she is a pretty face or has a cute baby (though both did enter my devious mind). I became a fan from the first 10 minutes I met her in July 2009 despite the fact that we immediately clashed over my outsized criticism of the Unity leadership, which she contended was and is at times off the wall. Guilty! While she has become my teacher in many ways with her enormous wisdom, I still rebel against someone half my age and young enough to be my daughter. Some say that other than my wife, she is the only one who has found a way to bring me under control. For that alone she deserves your vote.




http://youtu.be/4Wl0CKFVq3A

The full 52 minute version is on vimeo as Julie takes on some tough questions and answers them with intelligence and style, all of which is missing from the Gotham piece. Watch it at the link below as I don't want to slow up this site any more than it is already.

https://vimeo.com/61162249


Julie's activism story is a companion piece to Assailed Teachers powerful blog on the roots of his activism even more recently than Julie's.

MY GROWTH INTO A UNION ACTIVIST: A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS

This is so strong I have reread it a few times to absorb all the complex points he is making. What a fascinating guy Assailed is. We are both historians of a sort and I could talk history with him hours.

And see Why I joined MORE pieces at the MORE blog.

I consider these people game changers in terms of the growth of resistance to Unity and the growth of a movement. They went from awareness to a high degree of activism so quickly. And they bring such a high skill set to the table.

The fact that MORE is being built by people like this is a sign of optimism. We just need more of them.

There are two types of activists inside the opposition.

The on the job converted -- I call the rank and file. My root of activism.

and

The politically active people on the left who would be active in any union and in fact purposely go to work in a setting that allows for their activism to operate. They are often key organizers. But their numbers are so low that if we relied on them alone we would be marking time.

And in fact that is where the opposition has been for much of the last 40 years. A combo of left along with some on the job converted. (Though I often wonder that with probably hundred or even thousands of teachers out there who might describe themselves as leftists and are active in some causes outside the union, why aren't they working with MORE?)

MORE will not go far unless the rank and file emerges and merges into MORE -- and the election campaign has certainly activated a portion of the membership that has not been active before and the real victory in this election would be keeping these people active and grow their connection to a post-election MORE. If MORE fails to do that it may find itself back in the same position as other caucuses that began life with a fire and ended up as a flicker.

Just sayin' to my MORE pals.

Look for my follow-up of pics of the new faces of the opposition coming up soon.

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

MORE Candidates Cavanagh and Jones Do Cute Baby Tricks

Lots more below

New Action Attempts to Distort Reality

New Action in their mailer to chapter leaders made references that they were ONLY opposition caucus. Every reporter talking to MORE people have said that Mulgrew/Unity/UFT have refused to discuss or give a comment on MORE or the election. We wondered what their strategy would be. Mostly, they are just trying to pretend that we do not exist.
--- a MORE member

In the UFT elections members will see three caucuses on the ballot but only have a choice of 2 presidential candidates since New Action is endorsing Mulgrew, claiming if they win he would be a better president than he would if Unity wins. You really can't make this stuff up.

Last spring Halabi contacted a MORE member asking for sit-down between MORE and New Action and such a meeting did occur in the fall. It seems he has amnesia/

Gotham linked to a JD2718 blog post where he discusses James Eterno's recent blog post with these comments:

James Eterno, a leader of the ICE caucus,...I don’t usually link an opponent caucus (I support New Action), but James’ speech, on the ICE blog, is worth reading.

James is a leader of the MORE caucus and is running for high school executive board in which he would replace Halabi if MORE wins those seats. But why not use a little distortion, which is New Action's purpose -- toe confuse UFT members. ICE has done nothing as an oranization at any UFT event in years while MORE has been incredibly active.

I left this comment at Gotham:

Is Gotham joining the JD2718 and New Action/Unity attempt to blot out the existence of MORE, (certainly John Gambling recognized MORE in his interview with Julie Cavanagh -- and note no Gotham mention --- listen to the interview to see MORE is real -- http://www.wor710.com/player/?mid=22943474&station=WOR-AM&program_id=johngambling.xml&program_name=podcast)

Really, if Gotham is going to link it should do some basic fact checking. Maybe tell JD2718 that ICE is no longer a caucus as he claims in his post. But then again he must have forgot that months ago he as a leader of New Action requested a meeting between New Action and -- what is that new caucus again -- oh yes, MORE. Amnesia must be at fault given that it has been blasted all over the place that ICE, TJC, NYCORE, GEM and others have all come together to form MORE.

But why give any credence to a real rival to his caucus, New Action, which will be endorsing some guy named Michael Mulgrew in the upcoming UFT elections in exchange for some guaranteed seats on the UFT exec bd, thus leaving UFT members with 2 choices for president: Julie Cavanagh or Michael Mulgrew. A vote for New Action will be a vote for Mulgrew. The choice is obvious -- except to JD2718 and other New Action members, even though some of whom have cast their lot with MORE in this election. Guess the message didn't filter up the New Action food chain. Or more likely an intentional attempt to distort reality. Too bad Gotham goes along with this sham.

Julie Cavanagh Appears on Gambling Show, Bloomberg's Favorite

And boy did Julie hold her own. Hear her response on the "what about bad teachers" and his defense of mayoral control where she deftly deflected his attacks on local community controls. And even he only grudgingly gave Bloomberg credit for raising results just a bit.



http://www.wor710.com/player/?mid=22943474&station=WOR-AM&program_id=johngambling.xml&program_name=podcast

Misuse of Official Union Communication by UFT Chair of ESL/Bilingual Committee

[UFT District Rep] Charlie Turner was at Tilden for a UFT meeting today and used part of his time to get sigs for Unity officer petitions.  --- a correspondent

Ah, yes, using an official union position on your dime to lobby for Unity. So, what else is new?

The MORE blog has a piece Why We Need MORE written by a teacher, Colleen Adrion, who has tried twice to put MORE literature into mailboxes at District 22 middle school, only to be rebuffed by both the principal and the UFT chapter leader. With every rebuff, the MORE people get more incensed and determined. She went back and was rebuffed again. And she will be back. (In the 2010 election a Unity  CL slug at Fort Hamilton made me come back 3 times so nothing is new.)


While we get a good response from the union people at the top when we get stopped from distributing, behind the scenes we find it interesting that the message hasn't reached some chapter leaders.

Here are a few reports from the distribution field:

I just walked into office of JHS 210. I ran into the chapter leader and  delegate in the main office. I showed them the letter and pamphlets. The principal walked out and stated at 2001 letter confused. They didn't let me put them into mailboxes. They had to call legal. I will be back. The chapter leader is Mr. Zander.

-------------------

We were successful in PS 3.  Office secretary was lovely and directed us to the mailboxes (and restroom)  She suggested that we speak to chapter leader who was as nice as could be.

PS 41M was another story.  We struck out completely.  AP in office got chapter leader down.  CL (Susan Schenker) refused to do anything without permission from DR (Dist 2), who she called but could not reach. We showed her the letter - which she noted is dated 2001, when Harold Levy was chancellor! - but no go.      ------------------

This problem goes away when every single school has someone in it willing to put MORE materials in the mailboxes on a regular basis. That is the real internal battle in this election --- not trolling for votes but using the election to build up the forces in the field for a ground game. So if you are in a school and have not seen MORE lit consider redressing this vast imbalance between Unity and MORE and get MORE info to your colleagues.

Now, Unity tries to control every chapter leader it can get its hands on so it can control its message in the schools with on the ground people. Only when MORE can begin to match this ground game can it truly challenge the Unity machine.

Unity has total control of the UFT functional chapters (guidance, social workers, retirees, secretaries, etc -- the largest voting block in the UFT) and uses them to manage the delegate assemblies. They also make sure to control the various UFT professional committees and use them to their political advantage.

Here is one communication from Josie Levine who heads the UFT ESL/Bilingual Committee who recently used her position to lobby for Unity, which some people tell me is a violation of the Landrum-Griffith Act which addresses internal union elections.

Thanks to those who've sent in their registrations for the March 7th workshop.  Please remember that I will be out of town until right before the workshop and that some of you may not receive confirmations. I have kept my word to the members of this listserv, never shared it (though many have tried to get your emails), and don't send you jokes. Though I have read some gems.

But it is that time of the year again when we will be holding UFT elections.  Many of you indicated three years ago that you appreciated my letting you know that I am a member of the UFT's Unity Caucus, the caucus, or party of the UFT Presidents.

This email is to keep you updated on the reasons why Mike Mulgrew deserves our vote:

UFT/Unity President Mulgrew's leadership has.....

--Taken a stand against Bloomberg's policies

--Fought to improve our working conditions

--Won the fight to prevent layoffs

--Preserved our tenure rights

--Protected ATRs from layoffs

--Won closing schools lawsuit and arbitration

--Won SESIS arbitration

--Provided assistance to thousands of Hurricane Sandy victims

--Restored the vacation days before Labor Day

--Increased Welfare Fund benefits twice in two years

For the above reasons, I am letting you know that I will be voting UNITY when the ballots are mailed and I urge you to do the same.

In Solidarity,

Josie Levine

UFT Chair:  ESL/Bilingual Committee

MORE's Karla Tobar is a member of the committee and wrote this in response:

Ms. Josie Levine,

My name is Karla Tobar. I am a bilingual teacher and a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) Caucus.

On 2/24/13 you sent an email to the UFT ESL/Bilingual Committee email list stating why UFT members should vote for UNITY Caucus in the upcoming UFT elections.

I strongly believe in democracy and to that end am asking to send an email to the UFT ESL/Bilingual Committee in a timely manner and of equal length to the one I received stating the reasons UFT members should vote for MORE in the upcoming UFT elections.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

So far Josie Levine has not responded. Karla will be back.

For MORE on this issue see DOENuts (Did Unity 'Jump the Shark' Somewhere Along the Way?) and Assailed Teacher MY GROWTH INTO A UNION ACTIVIST: A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS

The Loooong Week Ending in a B-Day Show Me the Beef

With today being my 68th birthday culminating with our yearly visit to "One if By Land" (Barrow St. in the village) where I get my required annual dose of Beef Wellington, I feel I need to review the past week of intensive activity. Wait, let me get my cell phone calendar out, as I can't remember past Friday.

My fave table by the window

Much of the week, with the due date March 6 to get on the ballot, was focused on managing the MORE petition campaign along with fellow retiree Ellen Fox. The two of us took care of the petitions in the 2007 and 2010 ICE campaigns. Ira Goldfine and Vera Pavone had done the 2004 initial ICE campaign and Ira was a vet from the 70's NAC coalition campaigns when we ran full slates of 800 people so he taught me well. I will get into some details of the petition campaign next week.

Last Saturday we held a long-planned MORE event at CUNY (see videos on the MORE site) where we asked people who had finished to turn in their petitions and also sign batches we had prepared. While trying to manage that I was also filming the event and also working on a MORE commercial and it was a rainy day which always screws things up. That was one of the most hectic days of the week. But they were all hectic.

Sunday we went up to visit our friend Gene in the hospital at Mt. Sinai and as we often manage to do, find a restaurant to top off the day. We has to prep our house for the beginning of a massive reconstruction job on our damaged areaa starting on Monday so we had to get home.

Future kitchen and new bathroom

 So Monday early, Matt, our contractor, arrived with 2 young -- very young -- workers and I gulped - until he told me that Mateo is the son of Jose who had done an amazing job on our bathroom reconstruction in September. After they ripped out the storm-damaged dowstairs bathroom we saw turmite damaged wood and rotting ceiling floor boards above from leaks in the upstairs bathroom: instant decision -- rip that one out too to make it easier to do the work. Only problem is we can't claim Sandy damage to that one. Oh, well, easy come, easy go.

Future studio apt for when wife throws me out

My day times most of the rest of the week were taken with looking for plumbing supplies, toilet decisions, tiles, etc. I visit Loews and Home Depot every day and now know every plumbing supply place in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, my wife, who has become an internet bunny who can turn up info on everything was chained to the computer researching shower bodies. (Not bad for someone who has no idea how to turn on the computer.)

But in the midst of all this I had to focus on making sure most petitions were delivered by Thurdsday eve, a decision we made to give us time to make sure all was in place. Thus began a mad scramble to get "where we stand" info from an enormous number of people -- this was my end of the responsibility while Ellen handled the candidate info. So I was semi-panicky all week that if my plan didn't work we would not be on the ballot after all that work. And I drove everyone crazy, myself and my wife included.

And we are still sharing one car so she gets it in the day and I get it late afternoon. This has put a crimp in my ability to go to schools to put lit in boxes but the amazing beauty of the MORE campaign is that I don't really have to since so many people are doing it -- a revelation for me who had to shlep all over the city in the past elections.

Tues night I signed up to cover the Graphics Communications closing schools hearing on W. 49th St. and that was a surreal event where the audience was mostly Eva's Success People who were getting the building, a few teachers and most bizarrely the UFT district rep and school chapter leader who spoke with folders hiding their faces to make sure I didn't film them while not being all that worried that Eva's hired cameraman was doing the same. As I said, BIZARRE, but that's Unity Caucus irrationality for you.

Weds we were getting 3 deliveries: tiles, a frig and a freezer and I had promised to go to Murry Begtraum to film Julie's appearance -- and OMG how great did Julie do with a crowd of vet teachers under attack -- a group some people had predicted that such a relatively young teacher and an elementary special ed teacher to boot, might have trouble with. Julie never ceases to amaze me. But I will tell you just why I think she is so awesome another time. The must see video will be up in a day or two.

Thursday was the major petition delivery day and we set up meeting spot at COSI near Union Sq. And MOREs came from all over to drop off petitions. When the day started I wasn't sure where we stood but at the end of the day we were in good shape -- and a special thanks to someone I won't name here -- a non MORE member - who in one day, responding to my sense of panic - responded by getting us 80 sigs. When I got that news I was able to relax for the first time. If he reads this he knows that I owe him big time for making this effort. (But I won't wash his car).

Friday was the Bay Ridge Happy Hour organized by Kit Wainer and Mike Schirtzer and I got even MORE petitions back. Plus some bar food and a few bears. What a relaxing way to spend time with current and future MOREs. We need MORE parties and less meetings. (Next MORE meeting btw is next Sat, Mar 9, which I can't make due to all day robotics at Javits -- come on down to that too.)

Saturday was petition organizing day at Gloria's in Park Slope. And what a pleasure to see both my favorite Julies on one place. Julie and Jack dropped in to drop off petitions and my old partner in crime in ICE -- the always amazing Julie Woodward (the Under Assault blog), who had retired a few years ago, came down from upstate to help us. And I forgot the unique organizing skills she brings to the table. What might have taken us the entire afternoon was completed in a few hours. Boy have I missed her. Oh how to drag her back into this work!

Thanks to Julie W I was able to race home to get ready to head over to the Rockaway Theatre Co. postponed production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Howard Beach (due to the Ft. Tilden theater needing mucho reconstruction). We first hit our fave Italian restaurant - Ginos in Howard Beach. I was taping so got a good spot. The show was so amazingly well done with such talented people on every level of the producation I can't contain myself. I am going back next Friday and maybe Saturday too. I will try to put up some highlights. GO if you can. They are raising funds to restore the theater. My fave moment was seeing one of the wonderful young actresses, a middle school science teacher, see a bunch of former students who showed up to see her. I got a great pic but won't put it up yet -- will the DOE put her in a rubber room for hugging former students?

And here I am, waiting for my wife to return upon which we will go to yet another plumbing supply store, then head over to hang out with Gene who was released from the hospital yesterday and then on to my meeting with Mr. Beef Wellington.

Please Join Us on Monday, March 11th for a community screening of 180 Days Well Spent

Participatory Action Research Center for Education Organizing (PARCEO)

In memory of Linda Levine, educator, activist for justice in education, and remarkable human being

Please join

Participatory Action Research Center for Education Organizing,

together with Bloomingdale Family Program; Change the Stakes;

Graduate School of Education, Bank Street College of Education;

Metro Center at NYU; New York Collective of Radical Educators; New

York Performance Standards Consortium; Parent Leadership

Project; Public Science Project of the CUNY Graduate Center;

Teacher’s College Institute for Urban and Minority Education; and

Time Out from Testing,

for a community screening of

180 Days Well Spent

a collaboration between parents and educators about creating good schools for our children without high stakes tests

Monday, March 11, from 6 until 8 PM at Cafe Amrita, 301 W 110th Street (between Frederick Douglass and Manhattan Avenue)

Children are welcome!

A discussion will follow the twelve-minute film with:

Dani Gonzalez, parent organizer, and Marilyn Barnwell,

Bloomingdale Family Program, both in the video; Ann Cook,

New York Performance Standards Consortium, co-founder,

Urban Academy, & one of the video’s editors; and Flor

Donoso, Parent Leadership Project.

Light food provided. Cash bar.

Moderated by educator Edwin Mayorga 

Portelos v DOE Motion To Dismiss Denied

GAME ON! Portelos could also sue the UFT over poor representation. Note his suit against his Chapter leader, a New Action Caucus candidate in the last election, Richard Candia.

Federal Judge to DOE: MOTION TO DISMISS DENIED

For those of you who are following my crazy saga, you know I filed a Federal lawsuit (Portelos v DOE) last June. It is against the City, DOE, and Berta Dreyfus IS 49 Principal Linda Hill. They attempted to silence a parent, who is an educator, who has a backbone and is apparently thousand times savvier than them…the failed.

The city attempted to dismiss my case and my attorney  Bryan Glass, Esq., just sent me great news this morning; honorable Judge Roslynn R. Mauskopf has denied that motion. In non legal words…Game On! 


We start deposing witnesses soon. We are starting with Principal Linda Hill, former SLT Chairperson Susanne Abramowitz, former UFT Chapter Leader Richard Candia and former NYC DOE HR Director Andrew Gordon. 

“As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.” the Greek Philosopher Diogenes

Read the full document here: Portelos v DOE MTD Denied

UFT Defends Its Charter Co-loco

Really, there is nothing left to say. For once even I am speechless. For now.

From Gotham Schools.

NEWS: In a twist, UFT gets attacked over its charter school co-location

The strength of the United Federation of Teachers’ opposition to contested co-locations is being tested.

The union has been so hostile to the city’s controversial space-sharing arrangements within school buildings — particularly those involving charter schools — that it sued the Department of Education to put a stop to them. And union organizers have regularly rallied around unpopular co-locations as a potent weapon to discredit Mayor Bloomberg’s education policies.
But in a twist of fate, the union’s own embattled UFT Charter middle school is now set to move into public space where it’s not welcome. Students, teachers and the administration at J.H.S. 292, a 750-student district middle school with a gifted and talented program and robust performing arts offerings, are vehemently against the plan and organizing to reverse it.
According to the city’s planning documents, J.H.S. 292 is using twice as much space as it needs and would give up 21 of its 50 full-size classrooms to the incoming charter school. The UFT Charter School’s elementary grades already operate in the building.

All together, the UFT Charter School would have 40 classrooms next year, 11 more than J.H.S. 292, even though the two schools would have around the same number of students, according to Gloria Williams Nandan, J.H.S. 292′s principal.

At a public hearing about the space-sharing plan Wednesday evening, Williams Nandan said the disparity struck her as not just unfair, but a little ironic as well.

“Come September, our teachers will lose their classrooms and there begins their dilemma, for when our teachers are kicked out of their classrooms, to whom will they turn?” she testified. “Their union? Oops, sorry, it’s their school that would have taken over their classrooms.”

Supporters for J.H.S. 292 packed the school’s auditorium for the hearing. Eighty people, most of whom opposed to the plan, signed up to speak. In between, there were performances from a marching band, African drummers, karate students, and pairs of dancers doing the waltz.

Students have even written business letters to Chancellor Dennis Walcott aligned to Common Core literacy standards.

“The assignment was to express our opinions about the recent proposal,” said Isabel Lewis, an eighth-grader, explaining her work. She wrote that she opposed the plan because she was concerned about overcrowding and student safety. “Due to the fact that we had already learned persuasive writing recently, they wanted us to use the techniques they taught us.”
Allowing charter schools to share space with district schools at no cost has been a signature education policy of the Bloomberg administration. The policy has allowed the city’s charter sector to expand quickly in a city with a tight — and pricey — real estate market. It also let the Department of Education fill space vacated as the Bloomberg administration phased out more than 150 low-performing schools, in a school closure push that the UFT has resolutely opposed.

Usually, the union would get behind a school with so much community support in pushing back against a co-location plan.

“Our objections have been to co-locations where there isn’t enough room and/or community opposition,” UFT spokesman Dick Riley emailed Gotham Schools in response to a question about UFT Charter School’s proposed co-location plans.

But in this case, it was the UFT that asked for the city make the move. As part of a plan to improve the academic performance of its middle grades, the union sought to move the school under the same roof as its elementary school, which has been coexisted peacefully with J.H.S. 292 since 2005. In fact, the move was an important condition on which state education officials renewed the struggling charter school’s right to operate this week.
“It’s like you have this house where you use up every square inch of space and then you have to give up half that space to a school that really doesn’t deserve it,” said Jennifer Barrett, who coordinates J.H.S. 292′s performing arts programs, which she believes could be most affected.
Barrett was among several people at the hearing who questioned whether the UFT Charter middle school should even be allowed to stay open because its students have struggled academically for years.

Supporters of the co-location plan said that since city had already pegged J.H.S. 292′s building as underused, it would just fill the space with students from another school if the UFT Charter’s middle grades did not move in. It would be better, they said, to build on an existing relationship.
“All of the same things they’re concerned about, we’re concerned about,” said Craig Taylor, a music teacher in the UFT’s charter elementary school. “We just hope that we can make this work.”

Above, watch a video of Michael Maiglow’s testimony at Wednesday’s public hearing. Maiglow, a social studies teacher at J.H.S. 292, was among 80 speakers who signed up to testify at the heated hearing about the city’s plans to place a union-run charter school in a district school building.

MORE Releases UFT Election Ad

Share this with the people in your school.




http://youtu.be/XusIasWTHrg

Thanks to Darren and Mollie who took a big chunk of time to do the work on this. D and M were 2 of the key people on our film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman (which if you haven't, you should see why Julie and Brian are superb for leading the MORE slate).

D and M's next task is to put our film up on you tube in sections which MOREs will show to the people in their schools -- really the most comprehensive response to the ed deform movement. They have really turned into pros.

One of the great things about MORE has been so many people taking on different tasks, freeing me to laze around. Really, this election campaign has required less of me than any of the 3 previous ones, with the key being, other than petitioning, I don't have to make many decisions. "Just tell me what to do," is my mantra. But Mike Schirtzer (MORE VEEP cand) do you have to do that every 10 minutes? Looking forward to out drinking him at today's Bay Ridge happy hour.

Here is the email sent out.

Spread the word about a positive alternative to the UFT leadership... Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Why we need MORE from our union  Take a few seconds to share this video link far and wide on Facebook, Twitter and encourage your friends, family  and colleagues to do the same.  http://youtu.be/XusIasWTHrg

Copyright © 2013 MORE Caucus, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you are excited about changing the UFT and signed up at a MORE meeting or our website, MORECaucusNYC.org. Our mailing address is: MORE Caucus New York New York, NY 10001 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

http://morecaucusnyc.org

VOTE FOR MORE this April in the UFT officer elections!

A diverse slate of educators from across the city will challenge their union's incumbent officers in April's UFT election. Gathered under the banner of MORE (Movement of Rank and File Educators), these UFT members have pledged to build alliances with parents and communities in an effort to stem the city and state's ongoing attacks on New York City's public schools. MORE is a positive alternative to the current leadership of their union.

MORE was formed in 2012 by UFT members working in all five boroughs, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Through their experiences as teachers, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, related service providers, secretaries, and parents MORE members became frustrated by the current direction of education reform.

MORE's UFT Presidential Candidate Julie Cavanagh sees the union as a vehicle for positive change. As Cavanagh explained, "A school should be the heartbeat of its community, a place for educators, students, and families to come together. Instead, the Mayor has turned schools into test-prep factories, and UFT officials, who have supported Mayoral Control, have gone along with him." MORE believes "Our working conditions are our students' learning conditions!" We need union leaders that fight for the schools our children deserve.

In addition to running in this spring's UFT elections, MORE organizes events ranging from educational forums and protests to social gatherings. For information about MORE visit www.morecaucus.org. www.facebook.com/MOREcaucusNYC www.twitter.com/MOREcaucusNYC

Two MORE Happy Hours Today and Two Next Friday

MORE HAPPY HOURS FRIDAY MARCH 1, 8; 

CAMILLE AND JAMES WILL BE AT QUEENS GET TOGETHER AND I WILL BE AT THE BAY RIDGE EVENT WITH MIKE SCHIRTZER AND KIT WAINER.

We Promise - food, fun, drinks, great conversation, and good times!

Are you:

ü  Nervous about a pending teacher evaluation deal?

ü  Wondering what a more democratic, member led union could look like?

ü  Sick of the onslaught of paperwork, Danielson, Common Core, Test Prep, Unfair Evaluations?

Come meet MORE's candidates. We will have election literature to distribute at your school

We are a new rank and file organized caucus of the UFT, we are running in the April ’13 elections as a positive alternative to the current leadership

All Teachers, Counselors, Paras, School Staff  and Friends are welcome.

Please bring all your friends and forward this email

Fri March 1st 4-7pm Bay Ridge Brooklyn 

Harp Bar

7710 3rd Ave (btwn 77th & 78th St)

https://www.facebook.com/events/532409363448887/

Fri March 1st 5-7pm Nassau/Queens 

Nancy's Restaurant

255-41 Jericho Turnpike (near Little Neck Parkway)

Floral Park

Fri, March 8^th4:30 – 6:30 Uptown Manhattan

Noche Mexicano

842 Amsterdam Ave at West 102nd St

Fri. March 8th 4-7pm Bronx

The Clock Bar

112 Lincoln Ave. btwn Bruckner Blvd and 134th St

https://www.facebook.com/events/380286228745924/

The Distributive Law, Redux

I rewrote the piece for The Wave to make it more Rockaway specific. Jeez, looking at the crap I blog aboug a week later makes me realize just how crappy it is in first draft. I really ought to read my stuff sometimes before hitting "send." It will be in the Mar. 1 or Mar. 8 edition of The Wave.

The Distributive Law
By Norm Scott

Some people ask why I am so pissed at the UFT’s Unity Caucus which has run the union since 1960. Among many reasons: if the UFT had taken an early stand against the assault on neighborhood schools by closing them down- at all levels, but in particular the high schools, there was a chance to have undermined the education deform “everyone needs choice more than one quality local school” leading to closing/opening/closing/multiple schools in a building. Attending the Sheepshead Bay HS closing hearing on Feb. 20 reinforced my reaction. I said this to the UFT Brooklyn Borough Rep as I handed him a leaflet with good talking points about how closing ANY school is bad policy. If the UFT had been able to look ahead -- like so many progressive people were able to do (The Wave from as far back as when Far Rock was closed) - well, that's spilt milk. The UFT prefers to forget history.

Out of schools on a regular basis for 8 years, I break into a cold sweat walking into one. The UFT election campaign forces me to visit schools to put MORE election materials in mailboxes, which the DOE allows us to do. I begin at the K-8 school on my corner: DENIED, despite showing the Assistant Principal a permission letter. “I’ll ask the chapter leader to do it," she said. I explain there are different caucuses in the union and the CL might not be interested, especially if a member of Unity Caucus. Then: "I'll have a school aide do it." I explain the DOE doesn't want employees being used which is why we have permission. Still NO. "I'll have Tweed give you a call and I'll be beck," using my best Arnold voice. And I will.

On to Beach Channel campus with 4 or 5 schools (I lose count). Roam through one of these institutions and get a picture of the failure of the Bloomberg “multiple-schools-in-one building” policy. At the metal detectors I run into a MORE supporter, one of 19 teachers left at Beach Channel. He does his mailboxes. Now to find the other schools. People don’t seem to know how many schools in the building or where they are. Islands in the stream. Loads of security people sitting in hallways – schools protecting themselves against the others? BCHS campus, a sprawling 3 story building, used to be chock full of activities all over the place, full of life, as all comprehensive high schools used to be. Now? The overall bustle seems missing, except for the pockets each school occupies. Every single person I meet is extremely cooperative and friendly and kids seem nice.

I talk to a secretary (each school has 1 or 2). We know many people in common and did the Sandy personal recap. When a school like BCHS had 10-12 secretaries there was a division of labor. Now in each school enormous work falls on a few, multiplied by 5 schools. Imagine: paying 4 or 5 principals, APs, secretaries with who knows how much duplication of work? Bloomberg a great business manager? Just as Ma Bell was broken up and recombined into basically two companies today, one day all these fragmented schools will start merging or absorbing each other. Makes good business sense. The Bloomberg era is about politics, no education, and in the long run, not about good business sense.

Then, on to the local 6-12 school across the street, competing on different grades with the high schools at BCHS and the K-8 school a mile away. One of the BCHS schools opened a few years ago, was flying high but suffers as the nearby 6-12 school draws some top students. Imagine: 4 or 5 high schools within 300 feet of each other. Of course this hard to get into 6-12 school can't take all kids, so there have to be other schools that will be forced to. Thus, the reinforcement of a dual school system – for both students and teachers – think of the different conditions teachers and students face in the schools with different populations just down the hall or across the street. How crazy is this?

Then off to another elementary school building with 2 elementary schools on different floors. Am I dreaming or in the midst of a nightmare? The former neighborhood school in that building was closed down -- twice in a 5 year period with mostly new teachers each time. I remember going there with leaflets in Jan. 2009 when the school was being closed/phased out for the second time. Really, someone ought to do a book. If there are any real investigative ed reporters left in town, an expose on this entire sham.

Rockaway could be the laboratory.

Norm slogs and blogs at ednotesonline.com.

Video: MORE Candidates at NYCORE - Cavanagh, Jones, Eterno, Fiorillo

Julie and Brian brought the social justice component of MORE, Camille the trade unionism and Michael synthesized them both.... comment after NYCORE/MORE event.

NYCORE is an important component of MORE. A group of mostly young teachers, many of whom do not feel connected to the UFT, this Feb. 22 event was a first official meeting of NYCORE and the top MORE candidates which consist of the long active ICE people like the Eternos and Fiorillo and the newer union activists like Cavanagh and Jones (though not new - he was part of TJC - Brian has taken on a much larger role in union politics).

It has not been a secret that there has been a sort of yin/yang inside MORE between the  trade unionism of older ICEers and the social justice aspect of the newer generation of teachers. Julie comes out of GEM, a sort of offshoot of ICE, so she stands somewhere in the middle. (And yesterday at Murry Bergtraum, she really nailed the synthesis -- video this weekend).

In the early days someone said if we could manage to put these 2 ideas together and attract people from both angles we are on to something. I have to say, this has not been an easy process at times -  as someone with a foot in each point of view -- and let me declare right here that even within ICE I was more in the social justice camp -- but things have moved forward internally as people who did not know each other begin to work together.

Thus, this event sponsored by NYCORE led by key NYCORE union activists who have done so much within NYCORE to create more of a balance between pedagogy and union was an important bridge building opportunity. As I've said, trying to build a new caucus out of different cultures is not easy under any circumstances but extremely difficult in the midst of an election campaign. Which was why I was opposed to running a year ago. I was wrong.

In fact, as people pointed out -- and I was skeptical -- the election will be used to build the caucus as the highest priority over just trolling for votes and then going away for 3 years. That is the biggest threat to Unity - -- not this election -- but what MORE does over the next 2 years.

I have been involved on the edge of NYCORE for a decade, the only ICE person who worked with them and found many misconceptions about NYCORE inside ICE and some initial reluctance given a view that there was not a sense of trade union consciousness and possibly a touch of ed deform "bad teaching is the problem". That has not turned out to be true and this event served to bridge some of that gap as the ICE crew saw that these young teachers are just as interested in tenure, protecting their rights, etc but without a union to back them up are not sure how to go about it.

I got there too late to catch Julie's statement but got the others and all of their responses to questions. Camille doesn't get out to as many events due to childcare and a very busy schedule so it was an absolute pleasure to hear her and enlightening for many of the audience.

Videos will play best and in larger format at you tube but I cut down the size for faster loading and included them here as a convenience.

MORE Candidates at NYCORE: Camille Eterno, UFT Treasurer 

http://youtu.be/gIUkY3BJUjY




Michael Fiorillo

http://youtu.be/dP2s7hj1IsM




Brian Jones

http://youtu.be/Azj72H_xMrM





Julie Cavanagh and Camille Eterno response during Q and A.

http://youtu.be/ogmvhv0TDF8




Jones and Fiorillo Respond on Q and A

http://youtu.be/Mvdp6o6Nwto

Fighting Eva at the Ramparts: Use Publicity to Affect Her Enrollment and Reduce Profitability

I get these emails all the time because the UFT is absent from this battle (except for some minor efforts). The other day from a parent in District 30 and now from a Harlem teacher. Eva is our best organizer as people looked to GEM and now MORE to assist them in the absence of the UFT from this fight.

Norm, do you have information to convey to me as to how to stop Eva Moskowitz from bringing her Harlem Success Academy into a school. The school is having a meeting tomorrow to with parents, staff and political officials to discuss how to stop this woman.

01: How can the school show and prove how unfair it is for Moskowitz to bring in over 500 of their students and displace about 80 students in a current school?

02: Can the Campaign for Fiscal Equity be used to be thwart Moskowitz's grab for all of the money that should go to the traditional public school kids?

03: What arguments can be presented to parents, staff, politicians and others to use against Moskowitz to galvanize support and belief that the school can be saved?

04: What successes have been used to stop Moskowitz?

My response was:

I have to tell you that no one has been able to stop her. The city is in her hand. The state is in her hand and the UFT is toothless -- they are the only ones with the power and money to do anything. Some parent groups are out there fighting. Until we can stop mayoral control (which the UFT supports) they can do anything they want.

I immediately contacted Brooke Parker, a WAGPOPS Williamsburg based parent activist who, given what looks like another Eva slam dunk, offers some hope based on educating as many people as possible. You can see some of those efforts with this post on Ed Notes the other day: Brooklyn Success Academy Parents Dropping Out.

Here is Brooke's comment:

Eva's won just about every fight she's fought. But here are some of the things we did that helped change local public opinion and impacted her enrollment of students in our district:

- Gather information about your area schools - how many K-5s do you have? What are their pops of Free lunch, Reduced lunch, ELL, etc.,

- Develop partnerships with your local activists from other fronts - environment, immigration, people of color, workers rights, etc., These issues are tied together.

- We had someone sign up for the Success Academy mailing list who pretended to be interested to spy and get us all kinds of information, including when they were holding information sessions. We had about 20 parents with their children stand outside a Success Academy "Meet the Principal" event passing out this flyer and flyers about neighborhood schools and warmly invited those parents to meet OUR principals and tour OUR schools. I'd never seen Eva & her crew sweat so hard.

- CONSTANTLY stress that these schools are NOT for your neighborhood kids - particularly the ELLs. Norm wrote about how their handbook wasn't even available in Spanish (though it might be now), but it still points out how ELL and working parents are unable to thrive in that environment. http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/04/success-academy-family-handbook-only.html

- The message we put out there is that our neighborhood schools are strong and we want our kids in class together.

I'm enclosing an example of a sheet we put together.

See text below and note that this is the work the UFT should be using its resources to doing instead of pouring good money after bad into its own co-located charter school. Note the GEM link -- again -- doing the work the UFT didn't.