LA Dreamin: Alex Caputo-Pearl Wins Run-Off for Presidency with 80% Over Incumbent Warren Fletcher

Breaking: Alex Caputo-Pearl, the Union Power candidate for UTLA President, just defeated Warren Fletcher, the incumbent UTLA President, in the run-off election, winning 80% of the vote, completing a Union Power sweep. Alex won just short of 50% in round 1.

Alex is well-known nationally:

...half the teachers at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles found out they had been dismissed from their jobs as part of a "conversion" process. Among them was Alex Caputo-Pearl, who I first met two years ago when I reported on Crenshaw. This isn't the first time the district has attempted to remove Caputo-Pearl, an outspoken activist, from Crenshaw. In 2006, as he was organizing neighborhood parents to fight for better school resources, such as up-to-date computers, he was forcibly transferred to a more affluent school across town. Parents complained and he was eventually reinstated. Caputo-Pearl is part of a dissident, left caucus within the L.A. teachers' union, and he has written in the New York Times about why he has become a critic of Teach for America. He opposes tying teacher evaluation and pay to student test scores, and is critical of the expansion of the charter school sector. 

---- Dana Goldstein,  "An Activist Teacher, a Struggling School, and the School Closure Movement: A Story from L.A.", May 2013

For those who say only a caucus with a bread and butter program can win, we give you the latest developments.

We expected Alex to win but this is overwhelming. Alex was in the first class of Teach for America over 20 years ago but never left the classroom. He did social justice work and was a target of administrators for his organizing ability.

Back in the summer of 2009 I went to LA with Megan Behrent and Sally Lee for meetings with unionists from Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and LA. We learned a hell of a lot. On my last day I had the wonderful experience of hanging out with the crew from CORE when they were invited over to Alex' house for breakfast. What deep education conversations took place, especially between Alex and CORE's Jackson Potter and Kritsine Mayle, both of whom were helping run the Chicago TU less than a year later.

The LA people had a share of power on the Exec Bd, went backwards in the next election but formed new coalitions with Alex leading the way.

The CORE crew from Chicago also had to take part in a runoff after getting about a third of the vote. In the runoff against the Unity Caucus-equivalent caucus in power, they captured over 60%. The broom sweeps clean.

One of our friends from DC who was at the 2009 event, Candi Peterson, is not VP of the Washington Teachers Union.

It is astounding that the ed press has such little recognition of this revolution going on in so many urban school systems, mostly from the impact of ed deform and the collaborative nature of the union leadership in power for so long. 

Of course MORE, in the belly of the beast, with a Unity Caucus still powerful and geared up to fight off any challenge from the school level up, has a long way to go.

Randi is smart enough to recognize this threat and she has been taking mildly stronger stances -- but always watch what she does, not what she says. Remember - she joined the original board of inBloom, now defunct and buried (by Leonie). Her instincts are ed deform, but she is no dummy - Alex's victory by such a large margin will get her attention.

Of course we will see the ultra left attack Alex for not being willing to drive the union off a cliff. And there will be attacks on Alex from the right and ed deform crew in general.

Below the jump are just a few links to EdNotes articles mentioning Alex - Or just use the search box.

Ravitch and Weingarten Misdiagnose Pearson Issue --- by A Newark Teacher

Note - This article is written by a teacher in Newark who often writes for Ed Notes, not by me. I take a more nuanced view of where Ravitch stands on Randi and the teacher unions but I won't get into that here.

By shrouding the test in secrecy, Pearson denies information to teachers to help diagnose student needs. The tests become useless by having no diagnostic value. ...teachers will be fired and students will be failed and schools will be closed without seeing the validity of the instruments of punishment.  This is wrong.

Diane Ravitch

These gag orders and the lack of transparency are fueling the growing distrust and backlash among parents, students and educators in the United States about whether the current testing protocols and testing fixation is in the best interests of children.

Randi Weingarten

Diane and Randi have the Pearson issue ass backwards.  High stakes tests were never intended to assist in the diagnosis of student academic needs.  In my district in Newark, scores are not reported to teachers until the following school year when most teachers are no longer responsible for instructing those particular students.  The purpose of the tests is to impose the consequences of closing "failing" schools and firing the teachers employed in those schools.  Gag orders on exposing test questions are not fueling backlash against standardized testing.  Common Core tied to high stakes testing tied to punitive consequences are the bedrocks of the marriage of the federal government to the school privatization industry.

Alan Singer reported in the Huffington Post that Pearson may be in serious financial trouble. According to Investopedia.com, Pearson underperformed the SandP Index by 23%. Singer suggested that Pearson may be over-extended in its ambitious push to expand its education, digital services and testing programs. The company is concerned that the United States market might shrink due to resistance to Common Core and testing. Will Pearson losing market share bring good tidings to Randi? Randi would be dismayed to discover any chinks in the armor of the federal privatization movement. Henry Mance of Media reported a 6 percent decline in Pearson sales in the first quarter of 2014. Randi shrewdly calculated that she might bolster Pearson sales in the United States by pressuring them to be more transparent in releasing test questions to the public. Randi miscalculated the depth and the breadth of the anger amongst students, parents, teachers and administrators over Common Core inextricably linked to endless testing. As a teacher, I am  fully competent to assess and plan appropriate instruction for my students. I could not care less about ludicrous test questions devised by Pearson and others.

Here is the problem folks. Randi is beholden to Bill Gates for his financial contributions to the AFT. Randi loves Bill's Common Core experiment. She enjoys hobnobbing with the financial elites of our society. Diane seeks to portray BFF Randi in the best possible light. Randi was "deeply disturbed" to read in The New York Times about issues teachers, principals, parents and students were raising about Pearson tests. Randi is handsomely compensated to represent the interests of teachers in this country. She has to read The New York Times to familiarize herself with teacher opposition to Pearson testing? 

She could talk to any teacher in my school for five minutes to get a run down on the quagmire of standardized testing. Those teachers would patiently explain the correlation between low standardized test scores and high poverty neighborhoods. Unlike the teachers in schools in more prosperous neighborhoods across town, who are for the most part rated effective or better, the hard working, highly qualified teachers in schools in our neighborhoods are more likely to be caught in the partially effective and ineffective traps. Randi's strategy is to minimize the onslaught on public education by pinpointing gag orders one time and VAM on another occasion thereby avoiding both a big picture analysis and an action plan.

In Newark, State Superintendent Cami Anderson's One Newark Plan has encountered some glitches in the past week.  The administration was unable to meet its self-imposed deadline for informing families which schools their children will attend in September. They are having difficulties working out the transportation details.  If the goal is to move children all over the city to purportedly advance equity, transportation would appear to be a key component of the plan.  So Randi when you get done writing BS letters to Pearson about marginal issues, you could hop on Amtrak from DC to Newark and help Cami and her pals figure out transportation routes.  If you have any spare time, there is a long line of teachers who would benefit from real union leadership.

A Newark Teacher

Parent Activists Expose Chalkbeat Bias in Letter to Editor

We are concerned that your inadequate and one-sided coverage of the forced privatization of our schools has been unduly influenced by the same forces that have biased the Governor – the huge pocketbooks of the organizations and financiers that back them.  ...

Is Chalkbeat a wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart?

Chalkbeat’s failure to assign a reporter to the event  glaringly contrasts with your close and detailed coverage of every move made by the charter operators and their backers.  Indeed, you published two different stories on the charter march across the Brooklyn Bridge, three different stories on the Albany rally for charters (though you failed to disclose that Gov. Cuomo was actually behind it) ,  and  on March 29  you ran two stories on reactions to the budget bills, BOTH from the point of view of the charter operators.  ...Letter from parents elected to public school community education councils

We know all about the bias at Charter - er - Chalkbeat - even worse then when they were Gotham. Look at the lame response that they can't cover everything -- the hypocrisy of which this letter notes. But also note how they tried to bury this letter from parents who are actually elected in their local Community Education Council school districts. Compare this to the coverage charters, which often don't even allow PTAs, get.

Some disagree with calling on Chalkbeat to attend and report on our events because they will shade them to look inconsequential. "Better no coverage than Chalkbeat coverage" is one mantra. Let them spend their time reporting on their fellow ed deform fundee, E4E.

Leonie commented

Interesting no mention of the words of “charters” or “co-location” in the title.  A very thin and unconvincing response.  No mention or link to the letter on the homepage, in their morning newsletter, or anywhere else that I can find. 

Read the letter and comment -- if you can (I couldn't)
.
http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2014/04/23/email-to-the-editor-state-budget-protest-coverage-inadequate/

Here is the entire letter and Chalkbeat response. 

Two weeks ago, members of the city’s Community Education Councils protested the state budget deal outside the New York Public Library and then marched to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New York City office. Chalkbeat covered the event with a short post (“Rally against state budget draws hundreds to midtown“) and received the following letter to the editor in response:

Dear Chalkbeat:
We are writing to protest your inadequate coverage of the April 10th rally and march on the Governor’s office. Outraged by the charter giveaway that Governor Cuomo engineered with the help of the Legislature in this year’s state budget bill, many hundreds of parents, teachers and students gathered on the steps of the NY Public Library before marching  to the Governor’s office.

This unprecedented rally, organized primarily by Community Education Council members citywide, in just a week,grew out the anger and betrayal felt by parents and community members at the way the Governor and legislature essentially gave away NYC public schools  to millionaire education investors.

Rather than sending one of your reporters to cover this event, you only posted a short blurb clearly taken from the press release after the fact.

Chalkbeat’s failure to assign a reporter to the event  glaringly contrasts with your close and detailed coverage of every move made by the charter operators and their backers.  Indeed, you published two different stories on the charter march across the Brooklyn Bridge, three different stories on the Albany rally for charters (though you failed to disclose that Gov. Cuomo was actually behind it) ,  and  on March 29  you ran two stories on reactions to the budget bills, BOTH from the point of view of the charter operators.

Even more importantly, you have failed to cover any of the substantive issues and reasons behind our anger, including how unprecedented these charter provisions are, how they apply only to NYC, how they will  detract from the city’s already underfunded capital plan and cost the taxpayers millions of dollars, while thousands of public school students will continue sit in trailers or in overcrowded classrooms, without art, music, science or therapy and counseling rooms, or on waiting lists for Kindergarten.

The very headline on the short ex-post facto blurb you ran on the  rally omitted any mention of the charter school issue, Your summary of the charter provisions in the budget bill as “safeguards for charters” was biased enough to have been written by the charter lobby itself.  In reality, the bill forces PREFERENTIAL treatment for charters, not safeguards.  There are overcrowded school communities in NYC that have been waiting for over 20 years for a public school to be built for their children, and they will continue to wait, while hedge-fund backed charters will now automatically receive space, on demand and free of charge.

It has not escaped our attention that the Walton Foundation helped finance the expansion of GothamSchools into Chalkbeat, and that the same organization is a prominent backer of the school privatization movement and contributed to the virulent $5 million ad campaign that directly led to the preferential provisions in the state law.  Your organization also counts among its financial backers many other prominent charter school supporters and board members, including the Gates Family Foundation,  Whitney Tilson, Boykin Curry, Paul Appelbaum , Ken Hirsch, Charles Ledley,  Kate Shoemaker and others.

In order  to appear unbiased by the sources of your funding and safeguard any journalistic credibility, your organization  should  cover the  point of view of the thousands of NYC public school parents who, though we may not be wealthy,  feel that our children have been dispossessed, displaced, and potentially evicted from their public schools, cheated out of their fair share of space.  We, too, represent an important constituency in the debate over privatization, and constitute an important voice to be heard.   We are concerned that your inadequate and one-sided coverage of the forced privatization of our schools has been unduly influenced by the same forces that have biased the Governor – the huge pocketbooks of the organizations and financiers that back them.

We urge you to publish this letter in your blog and respond to it.
Yours sincerely,
Shino Tanikawa, CECD2
Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters
Lisa Donlan, CEC1
Teresa Arboleda, CCELL
Eric Goldberg, CECD2
Deborah Alexandar, CECD30
Theresa Hammonds, CECD3
David Goldsmith, CECD13
Ann Kjellberg
Valerie Williams, CECD75
Rachel Paster
Angela Garces, CECD6
Beth Cirone, CECD2
Ellen McHugh, CCSE
Victoria Frye, CECD6
Miriam Farer, CECD6
Isaac Carmignani, CECD30
Eduardo Hernandez, CECD8
Amy Shire, CECD13
Michelle Kupper, CECD15
Jordan Margolis, CECD14
Debbie Feiner, CECD14
Organizational affiliations for identification purpose only

Chalkbeat responds - ho, hum

The bottom line is that the protest was clearly well-attended and unique in its CEC-wide organization, and we wish we had been there.

We make decisions about coverage every day based on the fact that we can’t be at every relevant event in the city or it would be impossible for us to provide any deeper coverage of these issues. We regularly attend, and skip, events that reflect a variety of viewpoints. That’s why we work to keep readers informed about events we don’t make it to with posts like the one we wrote about this protest.

Those decisions have everything to with our sense of how we can best add to the “education conversation” happening across the city, and nothing to do with our funders—who make it possible to do what we do, but don’t influence our coverage.

Other feedback? We’re all ears.

Rosie Rocks: Explaining Teacher Opposition to High Stakes Testing

I'm so glad I leaned in and taped this fantastic interview MORE/NYCORE member Rosie Frascella did with a PIX reporter -- you won't see this on the air --except for a few words from Rosie on Channel 11. As Rosie spoke I kept saying (to myself) - "wow, wow, wow" as she heated up and her passion about teaching came through so clear. Rosie's interview is the best commercial teachers could have - and if the UFT had any brains they would turn this into a commercial....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9Gg37nC3A&feature=share&list=UU9iVb99ewF1omA6LbPUWEOg





And a few pics.

Teachers Unite Meeting Saturday, noon at Ya-Ya

I can't make the TU meeting due to the MORE meeting

(morecaucusnyc General Meeting Sat. 4/26)

I am an original TU member. I just don't have the time to get involved deeply in the work they do ... I am more focused right now on the work MORE is doing in the union and the work Change the Stakes is doing on testing. But the work Teachers Unite does is very important. This Saturday they are focusing in the School Leadership Teams -- which I believe is a key to democratizing our school system by empowering staff and parents.

 

Note the great graphics below.

Info found here too: http://teachersunite.net/node/88

Join Teachers Unite as we make democratic school leadership a fun and lovely topic!

How does decision-making work in NYC education policy? What levers of power do we have under mayoral control? How does knowing this stuff guide our organizing strategies when it comes to educational activism? Answer these questions through conversation with NYC’s coolest educators and community allies at our next Member Meeting.

Saturday, April 26th
Noon-2pm
@ The YA-YA Network
224 West 29th Street, 14th Floor
A/C/E/N/Q/R/1/2/3to 34th St.

Schools Are Us!

Democracy only works if you #useit

"Schools Are Us" is an instructional guide and grassroots organizing tool from Teachers Unite about the power that parents, students, and educators have to make change in their schools. 

We want to share it with you! 

Created in collaboration with CUP and designer Silas Munro, this issue of Making Policy Public includes a fold-out poster that lays out the different levels of decision makers who govern NYC’s schools. School and organizations across the city are using Schools Are Us to map out organizing strategies and engage school stakeholders in political education about school governance structures.

"This is the guide for parents to demystify the governance structure of the DOE, the largest school district in the U.S. For a parent to interact with and understand the governance structure [of the DOE] they need easy access. This is that entry point... This poster is it!"

-Rob Bowen, educational activist

You can see the whole guide here. 

To request hard copies for your school or organization, write to sally@teachersunite.net. 

In addition to the guide, Teachers Unite has developed complementary tools and resources, including:

• A BINGO game (attached) about School Leadership Teams, Comprehensive Education Plans, and NYC school system history. The answers to all the questions (plus a description of Presidents Councils, the Chancellor’s job description, and more) can be found in the guide

• Workshops tailored to your school or organization about the guide, the power of SLTs, and more. For more information, visit our website.

• Your Schools, Your Voice: a report by Teachers Unite and the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center about the impact of Mayoral Control on community participation in schools.

Where is the Right Wing on the Charter Takeover of Local Education?

How interesting that the right opposes common core because they see it as mandates from the federal government but ignores parent trigger laws and the charter school movement, which are more invasive takeovers of local education control - by both government fiat (see NYState Cuomo backed charter give-away law removing mayoral authority to charge rent or deny space in public schools.)

On the surface, the right and tea partiers support movements that kill teacher unions by signing onto the phony "choice" concept. In reality, the charter movement removes choice from local communities that pay for and support their public school. An outside charter management organization like KIPP, by gaining political support from outside the community - say the governor or state legislature - can force a community to divert funds from its own schools to support an invading charter.

In essence, this boils down to the very same issue the right is complaining about when it comes to the common core.

Glenn Beck, where are you?

Eva Moskowitz/Success Academy Once Again Prove It's About Real Estate, not Children

Today's reports at Chalkbeat point to the phony show Eva put on yesterday about gaining space for her 3 poor little denied charters. Even the usually fawning press looked through the cracks to see that there were actually negotiations going on while Eva openly lied to say they were not.

What the press is not getting is that what Eva is really complaining about is that she is not getting the 3 hand-picked public school buildings she really wanted:

• The beautiful building in Harlem housing the Mickey Mantle school for special ed kids - PS 149.
• The very large August Martin campus in Queens.
• And the  Murry Bergtraum massive building in lower Manhattan.

I've been saying since day 1 of the Moskowitz political operation - this is about real estate -- the long-range plan is to totally take over public school buildings in targeted locations where the buildings themselves have value -- imagine the day when Eva occupies the entire building after getting the public schools kids tossed -- like she wants the autistic kids out at Mickey Mantle. Her hedge fund pals offer to "buy" the building for a song -- "hey, the DOE won't have to pay to maintain it -- we'll help you out by taking it off your hands - then shortly after - whammo -- air rights and condos. Imagine what Murry Bergtraum in lower Manhattan is worth?

She will not satisfied with the substitute buildings de Blasio is offering and will look to any excuse to raise a ruckus to try to get back into the buildings she wants.

Here are the links from Chalkbeat.

Inn fighting

Success CEO Eva Moskowitz ratcheted up pressure on the de Blasio administration to find new space for three of her schools.

• Chalkbeat,
• Capital New York,
• Daily News,
• New York Post

Join CTS in Test Protest on the Steppes of Tweed Thursday, April 24th, 4PM

Bodies do count -- real bodies, not phony ones Eva closes her schools for. So if people help pack the steps of Tweed into overflow, it does make a difference. So, yes, I shall leave the comfort of my backyard and shlep into the city for the event - camera in holster. Hope to see you there.

Please join us for rally and press conference to demand Not One More Year Lost – Our Children are More than a Test Score!

WHEN:    Thursday, April 24th @ 4 PM

WHERE:  NYC Department of Education, 52 Chambers Street

WHO:      All families, educators, and supporters of educational justice

HOW:      More info here and please accept and share the Facebook invite

WHY: We will be uniting to demand policies that support our children and our schools.
What do we want?

- We want real learning every day NOT test prep

- We want transparent, developmentally appropriate and valid assessments
- We want child-centered, rich curriculum

- We want standards that truly support child learning

- We want funding for schools not for private testing companies

Make your own signs!!  Some of the themes for the action are:

- We demand REAL accountability from the top, not on the backs of our children

- Listen to the parents

- Release the test

- Our children and our jobs as teachers are NOT FOR SALE

- Keep the money in the classroom

–
Change the Stakes
www.changethestakes.org

Follow us on Twitter or on our Facebook page

Please sign our petition to demand that NYS give parents the right to opt outhttp://signon.org/sign/give-new-york-state-parents.fb1?source=s.fb&r_by=322644

–
Visit us on line: https://www.changethestakes.org
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/changethestakes,https://www.facebook.com/BoycottHighStakesTests

Shades of the NYSUT Split: Cuomo Aims to Avert 3rd Party Challenge by Undermining Working Family Party

...the fact that the party’s activists and unions are not currently on the same page means, at the very least, a challenge from the left could get as messy for them as it is for Cuomo ... Does the party exist primarily for the purposes of contracts and pensions, or for the broader ideals of economic and social justice? If solely for contracts and pensions, is labor’s recent success at the bargaining table more likely to continue by pleasing the governor and harming WFP, or protecting the party that gave the movement its leverage in the first place? Is there any line an official can’t cross, if that official is willing to cut deals at election time?..... Blake Zeff, Capital NY.

A Smart UFT Leadership Would Begin a 3rd Party Anti-Cuomo Campaign Immediately.

Of course I'm being facetious. This fascinating article by Blake Zeff at Capital (Cuomo’s plan to undercut the W.F.P.) is an example of how unions can use their power to wrangle some concessions, even minor, from slug politicians like Cuomo over the idea of a 3rd party challenge to Cuomo that would siphon off a good chunk of support.

Perdido has a few good pieces on this issue:

Cuomo Seeks To Pit Unions And Working Familes Party Activists Against Each Other 

Howie Hawkins Says Working Families Party Should Nominate Him To Take On Cuomo In General Election

Working Families Party Leadership Doesn't Sound Like They Want To Take On Cuomo

Apparently Cuomo is worried, especially after the Sienna poll (What The Siena Poll Means For Cuomo's Re-Election Chances) about 3rd party challenges.

Andrew Cuomo and his capable team will do all they can to dismiss Tuesday’s stunning Siena poll showing him increasingly vulnerable to a challenge from the left by the Working Families Party. But there’s no denying the threat such a challenge poses—to his margin of victory, and to his reputation in the national party.

There is a split in the Working Family Party (WFP) - the activists despise Cuomo and want to run a candidate. The union faction (as expected) want to deal. Apparently this has worked as Cuomo is desperate to avoid having a 3rd party in the election.

The governor knows he’s got two ways to mitigate this threat. One is to get the party to forgo its challenge and give him its ballot line, as it did in 2010. The other is for him to render the party impotent. The WFP’s largest union affiliates, such as 32BJ, 1199, and the Hotel Trades Council (1199), are in a position to help him in both of these regards. Remember the Andrew Cuomo who ran for his first term on a promise of bringing the unions to heel? That same governor has quietly but decisively reversed course in recent months, delivering key unions several items on their wish-lists, just as the threat of a Working Families Party challenge began to circulate.

Back to that WFP factions:

Behind the scenes, the Working Families Party is basically composed of two separate factions at this point: the activists and many of the large unions. For the most part, the activists deplore the governor, who has made a mockery of their progressive ideological vision, opposing them on everything from tax policy to charter schools to campaign finance reform. These are groups like Citizen Action, and individuals who have been active in the party for years and spend their time petitioning on weekends. For many of them, the idea of giving Cuomo the ballot line is abhorrent, and will remain so unless he delivers on one of their pet issues like public financing of elections--something he's shown no inclination to do to this point. 

The WFP factions are analogous in some ways to the NYSUT split over Cuomo between Revise and Stronger Together, which would have been tougher on Cuomo that Revise. So don't expect my somewhat factitious headline about the UFT/NYSUT supporting a 3rd party candidate -- or threatening to do so - will have any legs. Remember, that split was basically over the Cuomo issue, with MulGarten concerned that the Iannucci faction would block an AFL/CIO Cuomo endorsement. So don't expect them to support any 3rd party move. But some interesting intrigue:

... realistically, if the governor is to have a chance at winning the WFP ballot line, it may have to be driven by the union side of the party. While the unions don’t particularly love his record either, they also have very practical concerns that the activists don't have to even consider: concrete items like contracts and pensions for their members that the governor can control directly. As a result, while many activists are firmly anti-Cuomo at this point, unions, who need things from the administration, are not.

Watch what happened with some of the unions which wrangled some concessions from Cuomo, concessions that some consider birdseed.  

It was no coincidence, in this context, that the governor reversed course last week and delivered a new contract for the Transit Workers Union with raises for MTA workers, despite his previous, long-running insistence that pay increases were a deal-breaker. That wasn’t the only Cuomo-blessed concession to key WFP union affiliates in recent months. The Communications Workers of America was able to kill what it called “ damaging deregulatory legislation” that initially appeared in both the governor’s and State Senate’s initial budget proposals, before ultimately disappearing.

32BJ got a boost with its campaign for airport workers’ wages, when Cuomo’s appointee to the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, publicly announced his support in January for enhanced pay and benefits. (“We are thankful to Gov. Cuomo,” Figueroa declared in a press release in response).

And 1199 got roughly $380 million in the recent budget to support a pay increase for home health care workers. In return for all this magnanimity, labor sources suggest, several of the key unions in the party—like 1199, 32BJ, HTC, and possibly, now, TWU—are leaning toward endorsing the governor and, certainly, away from supporting a protest candidacy.

 But -- there's a big BUT.

While unions tend to play a key role in most political decisions made by the WFP (like the New York City mayor’s race, for example), statewide elections are different. They require that the party’s state committee—not the executive board—determine at the end of May who will represent the ballot line in November. And it just so happens that a significant number of the 200 or so seats on the committee are filled by anti-Cuomo activists in the Citizen Action mold. (As Liz Benjamin reported last month, more than 100 state committee members participated in a conference call at that time “to discuss the possibility” of not endorsing the governor.) Cuomo could still appeal to those activists by addressing one of their pet issues, particularly public financing, before the WFP state convention in late May. But doing that could also cost him some major concessions from GOP senate leader Dean Skelos.

So let's get this clear. The decision on the 3rd party rests with the activists, not the unions. For Cuomo to try to buy off the activist faction he would have to alienate his Republican pals (Isn't he really a Republican after all? My suggestion is he run against Christie and the rest of the slugs for the Republican nomination against Hillary.)

And here is where Cuomo gets the chance to break the WFP:

Assuming the activists still oppose him, it raises the possibility of individual unions—like 32BJ, 1199, and HTC—backing the governor and the Working Families Party simultaneously challenging him. And that’s when Cuomo would go to work undercutting the party.  If WFP were to launch a challenge to the governor, one theory gaining currency in Albany circles is that he could urge the unions that want to continue to do business with him after he wins to cripple the party’s future efforts by starving it of funding. 

Like I said above - some parallels to the Stronger Together/Revise NYSUT split. (And don't we know that Cuomo played some behind the scenes role in that scenario?)

Several Albany insiders I (Zeff) spoke to suggested that the governor could even conceivably seek to revive the Liberal Party, which is reportedly eyeing a comeback after effectively having been killed off by the WFP (and, unwittingly, Cuomo) in 2002, as a new home for some of those large unions, instead of the WFP. Maybe. But the fact that the party’s activists and unions are not currently on the same page means, at the very least, a challenge from the left could get as messy for them as it is for Cuomo.

 Here Zeff raises an important fundamental point:

 Given this possibility, here are some questions the labor side of WFP must now consider: Does the party exist primarily for the purposes of contracts and pensions, or for the broader ideals of economic and social justice? If solely for contracts and pensions, is labor’s recent success at the bargaining table more likely to continue by pleasing the governor and harming WFP, or protecting the party that gave the movement its leverage in the first place? Is there any line an official can’t cross, if that official is willing to cut deals at election time? “The union doesn’t have permanent friends or enemies,” 1199 president George Gresham, whose union was famously known as Martin Luther King's favorite, said recently. “We have permanent interests.”

Mull this entire scenario over with thoughts of the UFT/NYSUT political operation in mind.

A Harlem Public School With Long Waiting List Struggles Against Eva/Succes Expansion

I always questioned those phantom charter waiting list - used politically to claim demand. The press always mentions the point favorable to charters but never talks about demand for the public schools. Here is a great example where a Harlem public school sharing space with the avaricious Eva that had 10 applications for every open position - yet is being forced to give up even more space to one of Eva's schools.

Harlem public School losing space to SucAcademy charter gets 10X application for every open seat; good story below. http://go.shr.lc/1fkBwqw 

See also interview with former Suc Academy teacher at Epoch Times here: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/632464-inside-success-academies-a-former-teacher-tells-all/

Demand for Harlem School Spots Should Prevent Charter Growth, Leaders Say

By Emily Frost on April 22, 2014 10:33am 

@efrost1

 

Slideshow

Frederick Douglass Academy II Fights Back Against Charter Expansion View Full Caption

HARLEM — Leaders from a local public school that students are lining up in the hundreds to attend are fighting back against a charter school's controversial plan to take over classrooms in their shared building.
Education leaders recently learned that Frederick Douglass Academy II received 950 applications for just 100 ninth-grade seats this coming school year.
The huge uptick comes amid a push by Eva Moskowitz's Harlem Success Academy to move into three of FDA II's rooms, including the 6-12 school's only art room.
In reponse, FDA II's school leadership team — made up of the principal, teachers and other staff — recently rejected a plan by the charter school to take over the art room, as well as an additional classroom and administrative space.
However, a 2010 DOE space-sharing document gives Success Academy the right to expand next year.
News of the demand for seats at FDA II stunned Community Education Council 3, which noted that the school previously struggled to attract interest. For the 2013-2014 school year, the school received just 391 ninth-grade applications, said Principal Osei Owusu-Afriyie. A year earlier, the number of ninth-grade applications was 350, he added.
The increase in applications marks "a pretty clear call for making sure they have additional space, not doing a bait-and-switch with existing space," said CEC 3 president Joe Fiordaliso.
The department tried to negotiate with FDA II earlier this spring — offering to move its existing art room into FDA II's administrative rooms — but the school leadership team held fast in its opposition to any encroachment by Harlem Success Academy, CEC members said.
"The parents don’t feel secure in the DOE’s word," said CEC member Olayia Deen.
Worried the current standoff will lead to Success Academy getting its way, the CEC is rallying behind the school and looking for ways to push the issue in FDA II's favor.
"The situation is rotten... there’s no mechanism once these space plans are set up — they don’t check them," complained CEC member Noah Gotbaum. "They don’t look at whether the space allocation makes any sense at all."
Gotbaum tried to push DOE Superintendent Ilene Altschul to stand behind FDA II at a recent metting, but she said the school's current enrollment numbers weren't high enough to justify keeping the rooms, if the DOE was going by the original space-sharing document.
"I am concerned," Altschul admitted, noting she's personally not in favor of FDA II losing rooms. "I don’t want him to lose that space."
CEC members decided they'd write a letter urging Chancellor Carmen Fariña to ask her to stop the takeover.
"These DOE officials have to stand up for our kids," Gotbaum said.
Neither Success Academy nor the DOE returned requests for comment
 

Fred Smith: Leonie brings Gloom and Doom to InBloom, Dragon Slayer Kills the Demon Seed

The accolades are rolling in for Leonie Haimson on the inBloom closing announcement. Leonie's campaign should written up in textbooks. She won a major war against the leading ed deformers.

Just look at this list from Diane Ravitch:

• The company was started with a grant of $100 million from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, to gather confidential student data and store it on an electronic "cloud." 
• The technology for collection and storage of student data belonged to Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of Amplify, run by Joel Klein and owned by Rupert Murdoch. 

Oh man! How delicious. For those who feel David cannot defeat Goliath, Leonie is one hell of an example.

[Any photoshoppers out there who want to do a cartoon for ed notes exploring this concept - use Gates/Klein/Rupert as face of Goliath and little Leonie with slingshot -- ball labelled "parent/student rights" as it smashes into their head.]

Leonie truly began this fight standing alone - a gang of one against some of the major forces behind the privatization ed movement. She was relentless to the point where I would say to myself, "Stop already! What's the point. She can't beat these guys." But Leonie did beat them - to a pulp. An example to me and everyone else -- they can be beat  --

The national leader of the fight was Leonie Haimson, leader of a New York City-based group called Class Size Matters, who testified across the nation and alerted parents to the possible breach of their children's confidential data.... Diane Ravitch

Thank You Leonie! This wouldn't/couldn't have happened without all you did to spearhead the pushback!... Susan

Wow, this statement shows this guy just doesn't get it. He thinks teachers don't get enough information about how their students are doing by working with them day in and day out, month after month, but need InBloom's data dashboards to feed them factoids and tell them which book to read or science experiment to do next. Unbelievable. Good riddance, and thanks to Leonie and everyone across the country who worked so hard to bring about this result! Now let's send Pearson packing! .... Jeff Nichols

Dragon Slayer Kills the Demon Seed.
Leonie brings Gloom and Doom to InBloom. Wow.
Yes, Jeff, we need to stop the Pearson juggernaut. Another impossible dream. Just as foolish as going up against the inevitability of InBloom... Fred Smith

Leonie Haimson Statement on inBloom's overdue demise

Hopefully, today’s announcement that inBloom is closing its doors will make government officials, corporations and foundations more aware that parental concerns cannot be ignored, and that they must stop foisting their “solutions” on our schools and classrooms with no attention given to the legitimate concerns of parents and their right to protect their children from harm.

Yet the statement issued by inBloom’s CEO reeks of arrogance and condescension, and makes it clear that those in charge still have not learned any lessons from this debacle. The fervent opposition to inBloom among parents throughout the country did not result from “misunderstandings”, but inBloom ‘s utter inability to provide a convincing rationale that would supercede the huge risks to student security and privacy involved.

Leonie's full statement here at the NYCPublicSchoolParent blog.

By the way, do you think Rupert has figured out that Joel Klein can't run anything?

Here are press links from Chalbeat:

• Chalkbeat,
• Schoolbook,
• LoHud,
• NY Times Bits,
• Capital New York (Pro)

Below the break is the statement from inBloom:

Join Change the Stakes Thursday, 4PM at Tweed - OK, Folks - It's Time to Take a Stand Against Testing

Please join us in NYC for a Rally to demand an end to high stakes testing.

Not One More Year Lost - Our Children Are More Than a Test Score!
We demand accountability at the top, not on the backs of our children!
Thursday, April 24th @ 4 PM (press conference to precede rally) New York City Department of Education, 52 Chambers Street in NYC

Share the flier and accept and share the event Facebook invitation!

Also check out:

- Change the Stakes responds to NYC's important change in student promotion policy. 
- The inspiring video of NYC parents on refusing state exams
- Three NYC Teachers of Conscience refuse to adminster state exams

Thanks for your support.  The next general meeting of Change the Stakes will be held on Friday, May 2nd @ 6PM.  Please visit the website for updates on location. 
--
Change the Stakes
www.changethestakes.org

Join the Change the Stakes Open Forum discussion group

Follow us on Twitter or on our Facebook page

Teachers Unite: What's Your Story? Features Old Pal Matthew Guldin

We were at Sally Lee and Josh Heisler's wedding when right there in front of my eyes was Matthew Guldin who I hadn't seen for a while. We began jumping around like teenagers. He and I were in the same political group in the 70s/80s - The Coalition of NYC School Workers and hadn't seen each other in a while. Turns out that Josh and Matthew had worked together. Then he retired and has been working with Teachers Unite, which Sally founded. In this bio they even included a photo of me with Matt at one of Teacher Unite's events. Whenever we see each other we just break out laughing -- we always had so much fun. Gee, I even remember when Matt had red hair. And I had an afro.

Day 4 of our membership drive Our members say that Teachers Unite keeps them motivated to stay in the classroom. It is vital that we support them to continue.   Your donation or membership dues will: * Ensure that 10 NYC schools hire Restorative Justice Coordinators through our Pilot School Campaign targeting the DOE * Increase the number of TU workshops that train NYC educators to use and promote restorative practices * Send our members to Washington DC to share their stories and support student testimony to get cops and guns out of U.S. schools Together we can transform the popular idea of what it means to be a teacher. Please join us.  Thank you for your support! What's Your Story? Matthew Guldin Well, I never planned on being a teacher, it just hit me, in the form of the Vietnam War and the draft that would snatch us boys after high school or college. Not being a conscientious objector, nor wanting to move to Canada or jail or go to med, dental, law school or work in a defense plant, my only out was the classroom. So, I hurriedly took ed credits in my last term of Bklyn College and over the summer of '68 and joined the ranks on Sept 6, 1968. I had started an education career which has spanned most of the last 45 years and has seen me involved, happily, in most of the progressive/radical initiatives of these years.  From the struggle for Black and Puerto Rican community control of schools in the late '60s to the alternative school movement of the '60s and '70s, to the original small schools movement of the '80s and '90s led by Debbie Meier and Ted Sizer, (before it was corrupted by the Bloomberg/Klein 'franchising' of our movement in 2001), to the fight to keep the 'Regents free' 5  year waiver that Consortium Schools were granted in 1995, I've been there and participated actively, even taking leadership at times, in these struggles. At the same time, I was a delegate to the UFT's Delegate Assembly for 10 years and a Chapter Chair for 5.  Right now, I'm focusing my energy on moving the city's discipline policies from taking a Zero Tolerance approach to behavior infractions to one which bases itself in building each school into being a caring community and using restorative approaches. I believe that this 'sea change' will help us disrupt the School to Prison Pipeline. This is the reason that I've joined Teachers Unite. I've seen too many poor, Black and Latin teens drop out/be pushed out of schools and into the jails over the years. The increasing demonization of Black and Latin@ youth throughout our country and in particular in NYC, since the 1989 frame up of the Central Park 5, has led to the schools being semi militarized and zero tolerance policies being adopted as the way to handle "anti - social" (rebellious?!) behavior.  Matthew and DSC-NY allies taking a break from speaking with U.S. congressional members about changing school discipline policies. Thank goodness there's a growing coalition across the country which is reversing this trend and moving schools and school districts to transform their buildings from being alienating institutions to caring communities where kids and adults can grow together academically and emotionally. Through participation in the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC), I get to do this work as a Teachers Unite member. *          *          *          *          *          *          *        Please donate to Teachers Unite today.     Teachers Unite is the voice of NYC teachers who have limitless hope for the role public schools can have in creating a just society.  Our members are not only speaking out, they are acting out! They help schools organize Restorative Justice Teams. They collaborate with youth organizations to change the city's School Discipline Code. They produce media and resources that envision a humanistic approach to student discipline. They transform their own school cultures and advocate to the DOE and UFT for help with doing so. There is no other member organization of teachers doing this work. In fact, young people who meet our members are surprised to learn that there are teachers who don't just want to push students out of school.  We have to show parents and young people that teachers are opposed to social and economic injustice.  Please click here to add yourself to this movement today!