MOREistas Kevin Kearns and DOENUTS on UFT Mayoral Endorsement

One of the real treats of staying involved is getting to meet these guys, both activists in the true "emerging from the rank and file" style I am so impressed with. When there are hundreds of them doing this kind of work we will see a sea-change in the UFT.

In today's blog post DOENUTS posts Kevin's important piece on the mayoral race where he puts forth bottom-line requirements for a UFT endorsement after first doing a root analysis where he raises the specter of Anthony Weiner being in a run-off with Quinn, currently a not unlikely event, with Thompson being in the best position to stop him. But oh the problems with Thompson, from Tisch to D'Amato.

While many of us believe Thompson is a poor choice due to his connection with Merryl Tisch, I am starting to second guess that notion due to the rise of Anthony Weiner.  The prospect of a Weiner/Quinn runoff is a very real, and downright scary, possibility, and Thompson would be far more likely to ease up on the Bloomberg reforms than either of the two.  For months I have said that Liu is the best candidate, and on principal I do believe he deserves the UFT endorsement.  He is the most labor friendly and the most progressive, and if we really believe we can “make a winner” then he should be our guy.  If you are not going to endorse the candidate who you believe is the best, why endorse at all?  Still, Liu’s chances of making a runoff even with the UFT endorsement are very slim, and if the UFT wants to pick a winner he is not the best choice, DeBlasio is.  He is the second most labor friendly/progressive and with a hard enough push could make it into a runoff.  However, endorsing Liu, DeBlasio, Thompson, or Albanese could all be for naught if a) they can’t win the race, b) they really are just pandering to us c) if elected they won’t follow through on many of their promises.  Maybe it is time for the UFT to stop talking about an endorsement of a candidate and really push what is most important: The issues that affect their members and the students in NYC.

Kevin goes on to list the issues:

• An immediate and permanent moratorium on school closings/colocations.
• A complete end to mayoral control. 
• A fair contract with no givebacks and back pay: In a way this last one is a bit comical.  We cannot have a contract with no givebacks, since we just gave up a ton of rights last weekend, without a new contract.

Yes, a new contract was just imposed and the UFT is making sure to duck the required vote by the members.

Read the entire piece at DOENUTS:

January 1st 2014: The Day After No Future

Baby, I'm Crazy While a NYC Parent Says I May Not Be

People -- some even in MORE -- have branded me as a "crazy" due to my constant assault on the UFT leadership.

Thus I was surprised to get this email from a parent activist, fairly newly minted (a year) activist -- someone who is enormously respected on so many levels -- who I had no idea read this blog who sent this.

Norm, I have to confess that when I first read your writings (only a little over a year ago), I was impressed but thought you might be a little bit of a wild-eyed radical. Now I see you as a paragon of reason and common sense and have absolute faith in your vision. I wish you were a wild-eyed radical, because that would mean the world we're actually in made more sense than it does. Thank you and keep writing always!

Glad to have another "crazy" on board.

I decided over a decade ago that I wanted little part in working with the leadership on anything given that they coopt and distort and in fact why help them look better to the members once you decide that the only solution is for them to be gone?

By the way, I did try from the earliest days of ed notes in 1997 to appeal to Unity and in fact they asked me to join --- gee, I could have been a slug like Stuart Kaplan --  promising me that Randi would change the union. It took me almost 5 years to figure out it was getting worse.

My recommendation to MORE --- do your thing -- educate, organize, mobilize -- and ignore them as much as possible  --- except to hammer them. Don't let them get you tied up in their shit. But I am still amazed that even some old hands ICE think that if we don't participate they will attack us. Duh! Did you see the assinine Unity attacks during the election on Gloria who did participate and on Julie for not taking sick babies to the DA?

My point is going after Unity will all guns blazing will get as many friends for the opposition as people who get turned off and in fact, the election results prove no one is really listening. MORE got around 3-4000 votes from non-retirees and should work to find those people and organize them. Obviously they didn't buy the attacks on MORE from both New Action and Unity.

Alas, I am a tiny voice in MORE and they may need to spend the next 40 years being hammered by Unity  -- at which point there will be a Tier 12 pension --- the reverse pension like a reverse mortgage -- in which YOU pay the DOE when you retire and an aging Mulgrew will get up and tell us how Mayor Emma Bloomberg wanted you to turn in your teeth upon retiring but he stopped her in the tracks.

It does take some doing and some number of years to come to the point I have. One of the contentions I and some others have with the opposition over time has been a too willing attitude to hop to when the UFT leaders ask --- serve on committees that we know are Unity stacked or any other thing you can think of.

I believe there are a number of people out there who want people to mash the UFT leadership -- in fact many of those read this blog.

Albany Rally on Testing Draws 25,000 and some Pineapples and Hares

I didn't go because I ain't a-marching anymore -- this week.*

Leonie has some reports, the first with text of her speech and a video.

http://bcove.me/ltvtqi55

Video of massive rally in Albany today and my speech

The rally in Albany was massive today; with estimates of 25,000.  You can get a sense of the size from the video below.  I was honored and excited to be a part of it.  Let's hope it is just the beginning of a real movement to rescue public education, led by teachers, parents, administrators and students, to take back our schools.  Here is my speech:

We are here today to call upon the Governor and the Legislature to do what is right for the children of New York. 

Children need good schools. Children need small class sizes.  Children need experienced and caring teachers…But instead of giving New York's children what they need, the Governor, the Legislature and the Regents are intent on giving our kids more tests.

Parents are outraged as to how our public schools are being undermined by policymakers who do not seem to realize how their decisions are hurting New York State’s children. 

From the testing obsession, to budget cuts, class size increases, and rampant sharing of private data, the needs of our students and the priorities of parents are ignored, and our trust in government is eroding every day. 

Rather than give our children the smaller classes they need, the corporate reformers claim that personalized instruction will be provided through software and data analysis.

So the state is providing all our children’s most sensitive personal information to a corporation called inBloom Inc. funded by Bill Gates – which in turn plans to give this information to for-profit vendors w/o parental consent. 

Because of protests from parents, four states have announced they are pulling out of inBloom –– but the arrogant and reckless bureaucrats in the NYS Ed Department are still intent on going ahead no matter what. 

NYS is now the only inBloom client willing to risk the privacy and the future of more than 3 million public schoolchildren of the entire state by putting their names, test scores, disability status, health records & disciplinary records on a vulnerable cloud -- managed by Amazon.com with an operating system by Wireless, run by Joel Klein and owned by Rupert Murdoch.

And not only parents should be worried – inBloom is also collecting personal teacher information, including your social security number and the longitude & latitude of your home address, as though they wanted to send a drone missile to your home.  They are putting this data together with your students’ test scores, and the reason you were let go from your last job – so that there can be a national black list of teachers based upon unreliable value-added formulas.

Collecting data and providing it to for-profit companies run by people like Rupert Murdoch can never substitute for the personal interaction a child has with his or her teacher.  You cannot be replaced by a machine.  

Today we come together to say, enough of this arrogant dismissal of the voices of parents, children and teachers; enough of the damage being wreaked on our schools.  We will not stand for it any longer.  It must end today.

And this:

Nikhil Goyal on fire at One Voice rally in Albany today

And this from Reality Based Educator:

The Hare And The Pineapple Show Up In Albany To Protest Standardized Testing

Nice article in the Times Union on the protest up in Albany:

 In somewhat of a different context though I am increasingly feeling that marches are good for the soul but don't lead to much.

Phil Oakes: I ain't marching anymore

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5pgrKSwFJE

Black Agenda Report - Bill Thompson: The powerful lobbyists and their clients are making sure that Bloombergism will continue without Bloomberg

Freedom Rider: Et tu Bill Thompson?

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 00:03 — Margaret Kimberley

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by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Bill Thompson, the Black candidate for mayor of New York City who endorses stop-and-frisk and has reactionary Republicans collecting money for his campaign, is betting that Black people are chumps. “The powerful lobbyists and their clients are making sure that Bloombergism will continue without Bloomberg” – with a Black face. Haven’t we seen that movie before?

Freedom Rider: Et tu Bill Thompson?

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

“Not surprisingly, the old guard of misleaders including former mayor David Dinkins and Congressman Charles Rangel, have endorsed Thompson.”

Former New York City Comptroller William Thompson could be running as the incumbent mayor of New York City. In 2009 he came within a few percentage points of defeating Michael Bloomberg and his multi-million dollar war chest. Thompson would have been New York’s second black mayor, but he narrowly missed the cut after being hypnotized by Bloomberg’s well orchestrated plan to create a sense of inevitability. Thompson might have pulled off a huge political upset, but instead conducted a timid campaign and paid the price.

Thompson is now running for mayor again in a crowded field of candidates who are all current or former office holders, yet none has emerged as a clear favorite. Consequently he has a better than even chance of winning the Democratic primary. Yet this possibility of electoral success turns out to be a very bad scenario for black New Yorkers.

Thompson lagged behind his competitors in fund raising until very recently when former Republican senator and now powerful lobbyist Alphonse D’Amato emerged as his mentor and lead check bundler, accounting for $125,000 in contributions. D’Amato is now a king maker in New York state, and his rationale for supporting Thompson doesn’t bode well for black people.

D’Amato is quite clear about why he has chosen Thompson. He knows that he has a good chance of winning and is satisfied that he is someone “who doesn’t frighten business,” adding that “They don’t have fear of Bill Thompson, that he’s going to do some radical proposal that’s going to hurt their business,” Thompson is equally attached to D’Amato, declaring that he is “proud to have his support.”

“Former Republican senator and now powerful lobbyist Alphonse D’Amato emerged as his mentor and lead check bundler.”

There you have it. The billionaire mayor will finally be gone, but no one gets the job without bowing and scraping to the big money people. Working people in New York city have faced a loss of jobs, housing gentrification, charter school privatization and perhaps worst of all an ever expanding police state epitomized by Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policies. The powerful lobbyists and their clients are making sure that Bloombergism will continue without Bloomberg. 

The mutual admiration society with D’Amato was the first bad omen, but Thompson himself confirms that black voters have even bigger reasons for unease. It turns out that the black candidate doesn’t really have a problem with the infamous stop and frisk program. He has said publicly that it isn’t so bad after all, and that criticism of it is an “over reaction.” More than 700,000 people have been stopped and searched by the police for the flimsiest of reasons. People are arrested for putting their feet on the subway, or for not having any identification. Young people are ordered to empty their pockets and are then arrested if they are in possession of marijuana. More than half of those victimized, 55%, are black, while 30% are Latino.

Thompson’s reasons for minimizing the stop and frisk horror isn’t very mysterious. White New Yorkers happen to be quite satisfied with stop and frisk and Thompson can’t be elected mayor unless he gets more of their votes than he did in 2009. He and his check bundlers hope that telling white people what they want to hear will be the key to victory in November. Thompson has made a political calculation, but he should have every expectation that all voters are making their own calculations too. 

Are black people who have been given summonses for loitering at their own homes, who have been stopped dozens of times, or who have spent hours or days in jail without having committed a crime supposed to just forget their experiences and vote for Thompson? Thompson may think so but that is no reason for anyone else to be similarly deluded.

“White New Yorkers happen to be quite satisfied with stop and frisk.”

He is betting that the prospect of his presence in the mayor’s office will be such a treasured goal that nothing else will matter. The desire to see a black face in a high place can be quite dangerous. It is the quest for black politics which should be all important, and not necessarily the quest to see black politicians in office. 

The candidate who gets black votes in the Democratic primary should be the one who stops the charter school onslaught against public education, who creates and protects jobs for working people and who stops the encroachment of gentrification which displaces entire communities. Stop and frisk is closely linked to gentrification. It is the tool used to remind those who didn’t get the memo that their time in New York City is up, and they ought to leave town before sundown.

It is heartening to see that some public officials and candidates are not taken in by this cynical deal and have spoken out against it. Not surprisingly, the old guard of misleaders including former mayor David Dinkins and Congressman Charles Rangel, have endorsed Thompson, stop and frisk, and its architect, police commissioner Ray Kelly.

It is all too sad to be believed. While the president of the United States gets away with behavior that black people would have never accepted from anyone else, the pernicious political model is spreading around the country. One Obama is bad enough, the model of talking over the heads of black people to speak directly to white people need not be replicated by anyone else. 

Candidates have a right to make appeals to any group of voters that they like, but voters have the right to make their own choices, including the right to support so-called third party candidates or to sit out elections and work towards a better day. If any candidate decides that the votes of one group are more important, then people in other groups should feel free to spurn their advances. Not voting for a person who violates one’s principles is itself principled. Doing otherwise amounts to little more than acting like a chump. Bill Thompson and other politicians spend their time and efforts hoping for just that. They should be disobliged of this idea as strongly as possible. There shouldn’t be any chump voters in New York City in 2013.

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

Parents Present Pearson With $38 Million Invoice for Use of Child Labor for Field Tests

VISIT CHANGE THE STAKES

Press Contacts:

Kemala Karmen optout@parentvoicesny.org                              
Janine Sopp   janinesopp@gmail.com

For Immediate Release

Parents Create Invoice to Showcase the True Cost of NYSED/Pearson’s “Stand-Alone” June Field Tests:
$37, 991, 452

“The State Education Department Should Be COLLECTING from Pearson, Not Handing Out Our Tax Dollars for Tests of Dubious Value!”

New York City – Concerned parents, who wonder why it should be assumed that their children would serve as uncompensated research subjects in a commercial R & D product development process, have drawn up a bill, payable to the people of New York State, for the creator of the stand-alone field tests, Pearson LLC.

To arrive at a “Balance Due” of $37,991,452, parents calculated the value of their children’s free labor, including the opportunity costs of lost instructional time and resources, and added these to the real costs to schools of administering the June tests. They unveiled the invoice at a press conference held in front of Tweed Courthouse on the morning of June 6th. At that time, they also announced that at least 37 New York City schools had parents opt their children out of the tests; on Long Island, more than 30 schools saw test refusals. Organizers were also aware of resistance at 4 schools in the Westchester and Hudson regions. [List of schools at end of this document.]

The design for the invoice, which originally enumerated only the services provided to Pearson by one child, emerged in the lead-up to 2012’s parent-coordinated campaign against the tests.  It encapsulated the resentment parents felt; their children were being inducted into a study without their parents’ informed consent, and without any direct benefit to the students or their schools. “If Pearson wants to use my daughter to ‘field test’ during the school day,” opined Brooklyn parent Johanna Henry, “they will have to pay us, and they need to get in touch with me in order to negotiate a fair price.  I will use the money to provide my child an enjoyable and relevant learning experience.’”

This year, as parents continue to fight the field tests, the invoice has been expanded to reflect that NYSED gives away to for-profit Pearson the services of 434,000 3^rd through 8^th graders (a number derived, in part, by assuming average class size). These services would be worth $32,550,000 (if child labor were legal), an amount roughly equal to the sum ($32,136,276) that New York State has contracted to pay Pearson for 5 years of test development. Moreover, the State essentially donates to Pearson the salaries of the teachers ($1,541,250) and assistant principals ($753,519) who coordinate and administer the tests.*

Former DOE analyst Fred Smith, who provided technical assistance with the invoice to parents from grassroots groups Change the Stakes and ParentVoicesNY, was alarmed. “Usually corporations and foundations make charitable contributions or donations

to public institutions or to support public works,” said Smith.  “Here, SED has arranged it so that we, the client or end-users are giving away time, money and opportunity to the benefit of a private company.”

The invoice also includes a line for taxes that the state could be collecting from Pearson for its unreimbursed expenses. The tax bill alone comes in at more than $3 million, a scenario that especially rankles during a time when schools are being asked to do more with less. “Our schools are being cut to the bone, but city and state education officials always manage to find staggeringly large sums of money for all these tests and test prep materials,” claimed Sharmeela Mediratta, a Queens parent whose daughter did not take the field test.

Organizations who contributed to our list of 2013 field test opt outs include: Change the Stakes, ParentVoicesNY, Restore Education Funding – Nyack/Valley Cottage, Time Out From Testing, Long Island Opt Out (list in formation)

# # #

Schools Where Parents are Participating in the Field Test Boycott

This list is growing, as not all schools have administered tests yet and we are not in touch with all schools where opt outs are happening. At this point there are 37 in NYC and at least 34+ outside of the city. (Long Island submitted the names of districts rather than individual schools, of which 30+ saw opt outs)

Schools in New York City

  East Village Community School

Neighborhood School

Earth School

  PS 40/Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Ella Baker School

Institute for Collaborative Education

  PS 75/Emily Dickinson

 PS 87/William Sherman

  Central Park East I

  PS 173

  3 schools in District 3 who wish to remain anonymous

  PS 8

PS 9 - Teunis G Bergen

 PS 11 -Purvis J Behan

PS 132 - The Conselyea School

PS 257 - John F Hylan

PS 15 - Patrick F Daly

PS 29 - John M Harrigan

PS 39 - Henry Bristow

PS 58 - The Carroll School

MS 88 - Peter Rouget

PS 107 - John W Kimball

The Brooklyn New School

PS 154 - Magnet School for Science and Technology

PS 230 - Doris L Cohen

PS 261 - Philip Livingston

PS 295 - Studio School of Arts and Culture

PS 321 - William Penn

The Children's School

 New Voices Middle School

 MS 447 - The Math and Science Exploratory School
 MS 448 - Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies
 PS 139 - Rego Park

 JHS 157 - Stephen A Halsey

 PS 122 - Mamie Fay

Outside New York City

Lenape Elementary, New Paltz, NY

New Paltz Middle School

Nyack Middle School

Upper Nyack Elementary School

Long Island Schools or Districts:

North Merrick

East Meadow

Bayport Blue Point

Middle Country

Hauppauge

Miller Place

Valley Stream Central High District 1

East Meadow

Seaford

Riverhead

Lynbrook

Northport

Bellmore Merrick

Mt. Sinai

East Islip

Sachem Samoset Brentwood UFSD

Middle Country

# # #

** Anatomy of a Giveaway

Invoice to Pearson:

Figuring that half a day will be devoted to the field tests and administrative logistics:

For half an AP's daily salary = $753,519.  That's 3,614 x $208.50.

For half a Teacher's daily salary = $1,541,250.  That's 12,330 x $125.00.

ABC Coverage: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=9129701

Dangerous Liasons: TFA Recruiting for CECs in NYC

Some CEC's have resisted the ed deform agenda and with calls for some checks and balances on mayoral control by giving more power to CECs the vulture groups are looking at taking control of these last vestiges of official resistance -- and expect the Tweedies to assist them in anyway possible.

This just in from Leonie Haimson (see our post on the de-zoning issue -- Tweed Dezoning Push: The Ed Deform War on the Neighborhood School While UFT Silent.

In February, TFA was recruiting for CEC candidates below; perhaps they are watching the dezoning fight or anticipating a more powerful CEC in the future.

Watch out!  Wendy Kopp is married to Richard Barth, head of KIPP and most of their recruits in NYC are now placed in charter schools, which are growing fast in NYC and also have sky-high attrition rates.  The faster the expansion of charters in NYC the easier it will be for TFA to expand their base in NYC.

See also this article, about the push to get TFA alumni in “leadership” posts across the country: http://prospect.org/article/teach-america%E2%80%99s-deep-bench

Excerpt: Since its founding, TFA has amassed some 28,000 alumni. Two have made Time’s “Most Influential” list: its Chief Executive Officer and founder, Wendy Kopp, and former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor and StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee. Others have gained prominence as the leaders of massive charter operations, like KIPP Schools and New Schools for New Orleans. And TFA alums are currently the heads of public schools in Newark, D.C., and Tennessee.

What about the other 27,000-some-odd people? That’s where Leadership for Educational Equity, or LEE, comes in. LEE was founded in 2007 as a 501(c)4 spin-off of Teach for America to provide resources, training, and networking for alumni who are interested in elected office or other extracurricular leadership positions. Its goals are ambitious: by 2015, as its standard job posting reads, it hopes to have 250 of its members in elected office, 300 in policy or advocacy leadership roles, and 1,000 “in ‘active’ pipelines for public leadership.” If all goes as planned, LEE could shift control over American education reform to a specific group of spritely college grads-turned-politicians with a very specific politics.

From: New York Alumni Team - Teach For America <nycalumni@teachforamerica.org>
Date: February 20, 2013, 5:23:02 PM EST
To:
Subject: Are You a New York City Parent? Get Involved in Education in Your Community!

To view this email as a web page, go here.

If you are a parent, or know someone who is, here is an opportunity to get involved in your community: Education Councils: There are two ways to join a New York City Education Council. First, you may be appointed by your respective Borough President. Second, and more commonly, if you live in a DOE public school district AND you are a parent AND your child attends a DOE public school in NYC, you may be eligible to serve on either: i) a Community Education Council or ii) a Citywide Education Council. Education Council members are selected once every two years. For more information or to apply, visit http://nycparentleaders.org. Your application must be received by March 13, 2013.  In April, there will be at least one "Candidate Forum" per district council. These forums present an opportunity for candidates to meet and speak to parents and designated "selectors" from their community in order to discuss why they should be selected to serve on an education council. In May, final selections are made. If you intend to apply, please let us know at nycalumni@teachforamerica.org.   If you are interested in receiving assistance with the application process, please contact Dahni-El Giles of Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE) at dahni-el.giles@educationalequity.org.  For more information on Education Councils, click here. Best, The New York Alumni Affairs Team

Who Do You Trust, Your Principal or Your 3rd Graders?

In the midst of shame: The single best evaluation I ever received and more value from a child than I ever got from a supervisor.

My vote goes to the 3rd graders -- hands down. I know we are all having some fun at this provision in the John King dictum and given the understanding that King's motives are designed to degrade the teacher, I would trust the views of kids about me as a teacher even though it can be oh so easy to manipulate them, which was not beneath me. Don't all teachers do some manipulation? 

Teachers should be willing to learn from their kids. I always did listen to my kids  --- I tried very hard to have a comfortable environment in my class -- when you are in a self-contained classroom for 5 hours a day you better have. But I also know I had some arrogance as a teacher and maybe knowing they were evaluating me might have made me a tad more sensitive.

I was also arrogant enough to think that if a teacher did not have the support of their kids they must have lacked something (I think in today's times that may not be operative but depends on where you are and who is running your school.) I would say the same for parents and in fact I would love to see what parents think about me as a teacher and would probably learn a lot. One of my best evaluations came from the parent of the very best and smartest kid I ever had -- she went to Johns Hopkins in a 6 year medical program. A few years after she left my class I ran into mom (natch, a dream parent- single mom with 3 awesome kids) and her youngest on the subway and when it seemed possible I would have that child in my class the next year she seemed so happy. That made me happy -- an evaluation of sorts. But smart kids' parents are easy to please.

We hear a lot about the disruptive child but reality is that the overwhelming majority of kids are not disruptive.

I'll never forget one story where I learned one of my biggest lessons from a child. It was a Friday afternoon as a mass prep was ending and I went down to pick up my 6th grade class --- it was not the top class -- in the midst of auditorium chaos, with the AP (who I liked a lot) trying to get things organized. For some reason I was pissed at him that day and one of my girls did something innocuous but I reported her to the AP --- just to bug him (a nasty bit of personal pique on my part). And he hauled off screaming at the little girl, leading her to tears. I felt like shit, but nothing as bad as later that evening.

The phone rang and I heard sobbing. It was Beatriz -- "Why did you do that Mr. Scott?" I started to apologize. She hung up on me. Actually slammed down the phone. What a weekend in guilt hell. I tried to make it up to her for the rest of the school year and we ended up with a good relationship.

In the midst of shame, the single best evaluation I ever received and more value from a child than I ever got from a supervisor.

Tweed Dezoning Push: The Ed Deform War on the Neighborhood School While UFT Silent

You want to dezone them because you want space for charter schools.... Eva Mosklowitz was promised 40 charter schools by Joel Klein...... Tory Frye, District 6

What does dezoning mean?  Eliminating the right of any child to attend a school near his home and implementing a system of “choice,” where parents would list preferences, and their child could be assigned by lottery to any school in the district... NYC Parent blog

dezoning will do nothing do improve the quality of education.  By forcing kids to attend schools far from home, in fact, dezoning would likely lessen parental involvement, dramatically diminish the ties between schools, local elected officials and the communities in which they sit, and certainly drive up busing costs, which are already one billion dollars a year citywide.

Dezoning would also eliminate the sole legal power of the CECs currently have – which is to approve changes in zoning lines – and allow DOE to close any neighborhood public school and put a charter school in its place; something Joel Klein tried to do as Chancellor in 2009,  until he was blocked by a lawsuit.  He refused to put his proposals before the CECs in District 3 and 23 , knowing they would turn him down.  Instead he sent a letter to all the parents in the schools he had wanted to close, recommending that they transfer their children to charter schools or other public schools nearby.  Two of these schools got “A”s on the DOE school progress reports shortly thereafter.... NYC Parent blog

Has anyone heard from the UFT on this important issue? Any attempt to get some pushback going? The UFT bragged a few years ago about going to court because the DOE tried to close 2 schools that were the only ones left in their zone and won which is what sparked the Tweed de-zoning plan in the first place.
 
Here's another story basically ignored by the NYC ed media as they suck at the teat of the ed deformers.

The assault on neighborhood schooling has been the lynchpin of ed deform and from Day 1 the destruction (and villification) of the geographically based districts has been a priority. But a provision in the law giving Bloomberg control of the schools kept the district format but Klein undermined what he could with reorganization after reorganization -- regions, some other crap I forgot the name of and finally, the current corrupt network system where you find schools in each network scattered all over the city.

Why destroy neighborhood schools and the system of local support? To kill any resistance to the privatization schemes that allow alien charters to invade and to control the vast patronage inherent in the school system. There are billions to steal -- er -- be made.

I've been meaning to report on the efforts of the DOE to dezone the school system district by district. THIS IS HIGH PRIORITY ON THE TWEED AGENDA SO ASK YOURSELF WHY?

Well, it seems that there are certain laws that put a crimp on their plans in places with zoned schools and thus by dezoning they are no longer under those laws.

They can't just dezone unilaterally because the local district CECs -- the last vestige of the concept of a geographical unit of school --  must approve -- thus their recent attempts to create dysfunction in the CECs ---

They've been going around from district to district over the past few years --  I know they tried to dezone the Dist 27 middle schools - I attended and taped a hearing - and the CEC said NO.

Here Tory Frye of Change the Stakes exposes their sham in District 6. Watch her take apart that whiny slug from Tweed.

http://youtu.be/pn64S8iSiXA




From Leonie's blog on the district 5 story:

Warning to parents and CECs considering dezoning and video from D5 hearing in Harlem

At the end of the school year and towards the end of the Bloomberg reign,  DoE has been hurriedly proposing to dezone Districts 4, 5, 6 (twice), 7 (unzoned into two large preference zones this year), 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 23 (unzoned for MS this year).  In order to achieve this, the Community Education Councils in these districts have to approve.

More from Leonie on the district 5 story with lots of video:

D5 hearing in Harlem

NY Daily News

Harlem parents oppose local 'dezoning' plan

City wants to make all elementary schools open for application. 'Neighborhood' school would be a thing of the past.

By Tanay Warerkar / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 8:35 AM

Updated: Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 10:41 AM

5

1

0

Print

Norman Y. Lono/for New York Daily News

De-zoning plans have been protested in the past. Now it's Harlem's turn.

Harlem parents blasted a city proposal to de-zone elementary schools Monday night, calling the plan the wrong course for public education.

Dozens of parents heard the de-zoning presentation by the Department of Education, but there was little trust between the bureaucrats and the public, which responded with guffaws, sneers, sighs, and screams at every turn.

“De-zoning will destabilize the powerful parent community we have built in this neighborhood,” said Tory Frye, 43, an opponent. “This new process further aims to keep parents ignorant and separated from the school system.”

There are 26 elementary schools in District 6. Students are guaranteed admission to their local school or could apply for admission to one of the eight "choice" schools.

The city proposal would essentially make all 26 schools open for application for any student in the district.

The city claims that 98% of students had gotten into their top three choices of schools in areas where de-zoning has already been implemented.

The public was not allowed to address the education officials -- that will happen at a true public hearing later this month -- but parents argued the current system already gives enough choice to the community.

“The idea that my child would randomly assigned to one school makes me very uncomfortable,” said Chantelle Bradford-Gerber, 39, whose older son started elementary school last year. “Lumping together all the schools in one district will leave more parents unsatisfied, and influence what happens in the classroom.”

Frye said she felt the city's true motive to de-zone school districts was to get rid of struggling schools to make room for new charter schools. The Bloomberg Administration has encouraged the growth of charter schools, but a Department of Education official did not specifically cite charter schools as the motivation for the de-zone plan.

“We truly believe this program will increase choice and provide equal access to everyone in the community,” said Yael Kalban of the Department of Education.

But few in the crowd -- beyond a small group of parents holding identical banners supporting de-zoning -- believed her.

The meeting was so heated that it will be continued Tuesday morning at PS 8, 465 W. 167th St. at 9 a.m. RELATED: HARLEM RAILS AGAINST SCHOOL DE-ZONE PLAN

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/harlem-parents-blast-city-dezoning-plan-article-1.1362430#ixzz2VGRx1HK6

Anthony Weiner's racially divisive attack, and apology, unearthed and broadcasted

My last WAVE column took some shots at Weiner for his education program. I didn't get time to do a follow-up on why I, a former supporter, am increasingly disturbed by Weiner. Funny when I was talking to a cormer colleague, now 81 years old, and compared Weiner to Clinton, she said "What Weiner did is much worse than Clinton. Possitively creepy."

Well, here is an incident I had no memory of. Watch lots more stuffed get flushed out as the people who want him out of the race turn up whatever dirt they can.

I just came across this from the increasingly indispensable daily update from Azi Paybarah at Capital NY. I didn't embed the video from MSNBC but you can watch it at: http://capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/06/8530627/anthony-weiners-racially-divisive-attack-and-apology-unearthed-and-

Anthony Weiner's racially divisive attack, and apology, unearthed and broadcasted

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• F.A.Q.: What does it mean for the Democrats to have Anthony Weiner gone?
• Is Anthony Weiner past the punchline phase yet?

• 

By Azi Paybarah

12:57 pm Jun. 3, 2013

This weekend, MSNBC's Steve Kornacki took another look at a professionally crucial episode in Anthony Weiner's past, producing a piece of literature Weiner distributed in his 1991 Council race which helped him capitalize on racial tension from the Crown Heights riots to win.

Kornacki also got his hands on a hand-written apology letter Weiner wrote to the target of that flier, Adele Cohen.



In the letter, Weiner promised to call her in order to deliver his apology "in person." That conversation never took place, according to Cohen.
The flier is a remarkable artifact. Produced days after the race riot in Brooklyn, it said, "The David Dinkins and Jesse Jackson coalition wants you to vote for Adele Cohen" and "If Adele Cohen and her ultra-liberal agenda gets into the City Council, she'll owe it to the Dinkins/Jackson Coalition. And that's a debt we'll have to pay for."

In the apology letter, Weiner wrote that the mailing was "wrongheaded and the manner was just plain dumb. I regret the harm it did to you … I made a mistake that cannot be undone. I have to live with it. I'm sorry you do as well." He added, "I hope that in time, I will have the opportunity to redeem myself to you and to the many others who are rightly angry with me."
The incident shows a side of Weiner that is little known to younger and more liberal voters (the kind who tend to watch MSNBC) who have gotten to know him, through his made-for-YouTube rants on the floor of Congress, combative interviews on Fox and regular appearances on MSNBC, as a staunch progressive.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Congratulations to Kornacki's producer Jack Bohrer, the historian (and, like Kornacki, occasional Capital contributor) who found the original flier.
The whole segment, which features a very New Yorky panel made up of Blake Zeff, Errol Louis, Howard Wolfson and L. Joy Williams, is worth watching.

Teachers Comment on King Dictum

Great comments are rolling in to many of the blogs and to Ed Notes directly.

Jeff Kaufman
One of my favorite parts of the arbitration decision was commented on by the UFT official spin. When deciding how many arbitration slots should be added to the current 175 authorized by our CBA. King, in his decision, noted that this was one of the biggest stumbling blocks to an agreement. When the talks broke down in January the UFT asked for 250 additional expedited arbitrations. This is for over 75,000 teachers. At the hearing they asked for 1000. The DOE initially offered 150 but at the hearing offered zero. Guess what King decided?
What this demonstrates is that the Union never cared about protecting its members and only when there would be a record made of the demand decided to look like they cared.
Why not have a rally to allow Mulgrew to absorb all of the credit for this incredible sellout?
----------

Hi Norm,

I am very concerned for my colleagues with the onset of the imposed evaluation plan.  While reading many of the news articles and blogs, I remembered how principals at one time was pushing the SMART goal approach.

The more I read about the 20 points that are based on SLOs and how principals will ask teachers to set goals for each of their students (HS) and the percentage of student will pass the Regents, the more it sounds like the SMART goal that teachers detested because of the excessive paperwork.

I remember how the union fought against the SMART goal and told teachers to send a push-back email to their principal.  Here's the push-back email that the union encouraged teachers to send to their principals back in the fall of 2009.

Date

Principal’s Name
Bronx School
Bronx, NY

Dear Principal’s Name:

I have read your memo/letter/email of [date] in which you instruct me to input into the school’s database weekly, monthly and annual instructional goals or SMART goals (list items that you are instructed to do; this is a sample list)  for every student I teach.

As always, I will do my best to comply with your instructions.  However, to complete this task, I need to know:
1.     what time during the school day I should use to complete these tasks;
2.     where I will be able to access a computer connected to the school’s database during that time.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,
Teacher's Name

I did a search on your blog and found this teacher's frustration posted regarding the SMART goal.  The dejavu is the part where is states that “By September 27, 2011, 100% of teachers will have MEMORIZED the names and proficiency scores of ALL students within the target proficiency ranges, along with each students proficiency score.”

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/09/report-from-field-race-to-bottom.html

This reminds me of principals like Grismaldy Laboy-Wilson, who taught for ONLY two years, became a principal at the age of 24, and taught a social studies class as a principal, where she had a passing rate that was less than 70%, will be one of the principals to abuse the new evaluation plan. 

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2010/11/whatever-it-takes-how-to-get-grad-rates.html#comment-form

I feel that these are the blogs that I would like for you to repost to remind everyone out there that the new evaluation plan may not be the best thing out there after all.