Should MORE be LESS? The Key to Organizing Opposition in the UFT is to Decentralize

I've attended a few MORE meetings. While I was very impressed overall, they did not seem particularly interested in the issues of micromanagement and harassment that go on in many elementary schools, which is what keeps those teachers too busy, preoccupied and exhausted to get more involved politically. Also, a lot of our younger teachers are not aware of their union history -- in my school (which you know, I believe, in District 14) the vast majority of newcomers had no clue. There were also many TFAers - don't know if that's the case in the district as a whole, but the TFA fellows frequently don't stay in the profession, and therefore are not interested...

Comment from Leigh on Facebook, Talking About UFT Elections - Double Oy Vey! -
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/…/talking-about-uft-elect…

Leigh raises some good points. Before responding, let me digress a bit. History is important and Ed Notes tries to handle that issue - but maybe we need study groups.

Since Shanker the concept of a strong leader/personality has been the norm -- the UFT has had only 4 presidents since Shanker took power. And often the opposition caucuses have had clear leaders and personalities. My goal in helping form ICE was to dilute the leadership - everyone should be encouraged to lead. It didn't always work out that way because we didn't attract enough people willing to take on these roles. I'm pretty happy with the direction MORE has been going -- since we started 6 month steering committee terms we have had almost 30 people take part. If I asked someone to name the leader of MORE they would come up with a dozen names - some may be louder than others - but we have successfully gotten more people involved than I could have dreamed of - and the key is that so many are in the 6-15 year teaching range and in their 20s and 30s - a new wrinkle in the opposition since the 70s.

But there are also inherent problems in a diffused leadership situation - sometimes people wait for others to act - someone has to pick up the ball. That is the essence of what Leigh is saying - sure people are concerned about these issues but the mechanisms to address them - are not yet in place. 

I would also point out that on the other side MORE is open and flexible enough for Leigh to come in and take over that aspect and lead the way in the battle -- people would jump on board. I think MORE's failure has been to make it clear that this is possible - meetings are often so centrally managed.

My recent thinking is decentralizing so people are empowered to act - to organize. To make it easier for people like Leigh who want MORE to tackle an issue to jump in.

I see the upcoming UFT elections as a way to establish some ways of doing that. There may be resistance from some who see that a centrally managed campaign is essential - and aspects of that do need to be taken care of. But if MORE

Here was my response to Leigh on facebook.

Norm Scott  
 -- your comment has given me some food for thought. This system is too big to crack without decentralizing -- and one of my goals is to get MORE to function with that mentality. Many of us have never been entirely happy with MORE meetings, especially the earlier ones where people did a lot of talking and not doing. This past year we began to focus more on getting work done --like chapter leader assistance - they are often keys to getting a fightback going at the school level - but one saturday a month is really not the way to get things done. MORE's elementary school people are concerned but as you say too busy to do much about it. I think what is needed is a MORE elementary school group that tackles the specific problems in a committee not in a meeting - maybe break the meetings in 2 and have the committee meet - then follow up on their own. If you are interested in working on issues like these let me know. One approach would be more to focus on these issues at the district level - not on the central where there is not much that can be done. So maybe getting some D 14 elem school teachers together might be an idea. If one district gets some changes that model can be shared with others. 

Can the UFT/Unity Leadership Benefit From a Negative Supreme Court Right to Work Decision?

Norm-  rumors persist that the UFT leadership is quite concerned with the upcoming Supreme Court decision regarding dues check-off. Right now the court appears to reflect 4 v4 with the swing vote vital. Question?? If the union lost the dues check-off in your opinion would that perhaps allow the UFT to strike when a future impasse happens?? Leadership has been quite hesitant to even consider a strike with the dues check-off a vital concern..... COMMENT ON ED NOTES:  UFT Election Question: Why Focus on HS Seats to Exclusion of Elementary?

UPDATED:
There's lots of talk at the weekend conference of national caucuses in Newark from 15 states and what the unions will do. We have people from Wisconsin who have an enormous burden to keep people in the union - they must be re-certified every year -- but we've heard amazing stories of how they have managed to get people to stay in the union.

I was wondering what the UFT would do if the Court rules against the unions, especially unions that have capitulated to ed deform and sold out members. I heard stories about Unity-like unions that make your hair curl - go-along, get-along, non-fighters, etc--- gee, if you read Ed Notes you didn't even need to go to Newark to know that. But also about people who sill steal elections, use any dirty tactics to win, etc. I'll get more into some of this stuff in the future - how even if the opposition were to win in a UFT election, there would be a court case challenging the result or they would find ways to manipulate things to keep anyone else from taking power.

In unions like these we may expect mass defections. How would the UFT react in the face of mass defections?

The meat of the thesis I want to offer is that oppressive undemocratic union leaderships - like the UFT - are not as afraid of loss of members to agency fee as people are assuming. Let me explain but first clear up a misconception the comment expresses.

This is not about dues checkoff
No matter what the Court rules the UFT will still get dues checkoff - where the DOE deducts dues and sends it to the UFT so they don't have to collect dues themselves -- that is the much worse threat to them - and the reason they won't ever strike because they will then lost dues checkoff for a period of time, like they did around 1982 as a result of the 1975 strike.. [If you want to read the 1982 court decision here is a google doc.]

What is agency fee?
Some people don't join the union - there are over 3000 such people in the UFT - but in non-right to work states they still pay dues because the union represents them in collective bargaining. They can file grievances and are entitled to representation but can't vote in union elections and may even lose the right to attend union meetings. That would change if the Court rules against the concept of agency fee - and make every state right to work.

There are already a batch of anti-Unity types who are drooling at the thought of not paying dues to the UFT to punish them. How unhappy would the UFT/Unity leadership be to lose these people even if there is a loss of revenue from them? In essence the UFT pays to remove a block of anti-Unity votes and if UFT elections reach the day where they are getting close, this helps them keep tighter control of the UFT.

One thing I've learned - and had reaffirmed at the weekend meetups with caucuses battling Unity type unions - is that they will stop at nothing to keep control of the union, even if it means undermining and weakening their own union. There is historical precedence and when people told me their local horror stories and how shocked they were to find this out I got the idea that it is important to share some of the histories of repression on the part of the Unity like leaderships.

More to come.

NYT: Judge Rules New York Teacher Exam Did Not Discriminate Against Minorities

The ruling is a departure from earlier decisions by the same judge, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, in which she threw out past certification exams. It... symbolizes a significant moment in a long-running tug of war between two policy goals in education: making tests for new teachers more rigorous, and increasing the diversity of the nation’s teaching force...NY Times

This is about a recent exam but the other cases are still in play. This earlier decisions by Kimba Wood affects a case that goes back 15 years. Ed Notes was a strong supporter of the teachers who were suing. Sometimes outcomes count. If a much higher proportion of certain ethnic groups fail an exam what do we do about it? In the case of the DOE they fired thousands of people who had struggled to pass. Look at the fireman exam which was thrown out due to the overwhelming white fire department as an example.

Why do some fail? The lack of a high level of literacy often due to poor neighborhood schools or language issues including certain dialects is the reason I would use. I heard it every day from some great teachers I worked with - a certain lack of facility with the language that is often needed to extract the fine tuning on exam questions.

When this issue hit the UFT in the late 90s, Marc Pessin, a well-known, controversial and often divisive figure since the 70s who ran for UFT President a few times with different caucuses he formed, formed yet another caucus, the Progressive Action Caucus (PAC), to focus on this issue and ran for President of the UFT in the 1999 election. With New Action having emerged from a merger of TAC and New Directions (the first caucus Pessin had led before they tossed him out in the late 80s) in 1995, PAC was considered a divisive threat to New Action's ability to win seats on the Exec Bd.

I agreed with the idea of forming a group to focus on the issue of so many people of color getting chopped from the system and supported their actions at the DA but did not think their running in the elections with their own slate helped their cause (they only got 2% of the vote.) I had teachers in my school affected by the same situation. One teacher failed 8 times and lost her job, but my principal loved her work and made her  a para mentoring the teacher who replaced her. The former teacher gave up trying because her nerves were frayed by the process. Then 2 years later someone convinced her to go in and wing it - and she passed. So for bad test takers, emotions can screw you up.

Here is the Times article (thanks to Jeff Kaufman for sending it along).


Judge Rules New York Teacher Exam Did Not Discriminate Against Minorities

UFT Election Question: Why Focus on HS Seats to Exclusion of Elementary?

I have always wondered about the focus on HS seats ... what is up with that? So unfair to the elementary schools... Question on FB in response to Ed Notes, Talking About UFT Elections - Double Oy Vey! - 

I wouldn't say exclusion - but there are 700 or more elem schools and no opposition has had enough outreach to them. There used to be about 100 high schools - now there are around 450 - but still a reachable number. 

If you are an elementary school teacher and want to become a point person in your school in the election campaign we will connect you up to others in your district. Email more@morecaucusnyc.org.

My initial reaction was to recall the famous bank robber Willie Sutton's response to the  question of why he robbed banks: It's where the money is.

Organizing in Elem Schools Must be District Based
The opposition activists over most of UFT history came from the ranks of high school teachers. Only groups I have been involved in - CSW in the 70s, ICE in the aughts and MORE now, have had some elementary activists but never enough critical mass at the district levels to have much impact -- and elem schools are very much district based and under the control of Unity through its district reps.

Voting outcomes in elem school divisions over the many election cycles show about a 20-25% vote for the opposition while totals in the HS have ranged from 35-55% for the opposition - the only seats ever won against Unity. If in next year's election, the elem school opposition vote cracks 33% that would be a sign of change. But most elem schools are just not reachable by the opposition.

Here was the response I gave on FB.
 
On the whole, the focus on HS is because the most active people have been in HS over the 60 year history of the UFT. They organized the first strikes. HS teachers are not in a position to organize elem school teachers - I was one by the way for 30 years - and it is up to elem school teachers to take more control. We don't need votes only but active people in the schools to challenge the Unity line. Look at the votes in just the last election. There were 36,000 elem school ballots sent out and MORE got 1100 votes, New Action around 700 and Unity around 5200. Whereas in HS - out of 19000 votes sent out, Unity got 1575, MORE 1440 and New Action around 450 - but the New Action votes went to Unity due to their alliance. If MORE and New Action votes were together Unity would have lost in the HS. But even if New Action and MORE were together in the elem schools Unity still would have won 2-1. Fact is the opposition has never been able to establish a toehold in most elem because Unity has such a base there - and uses its district reps to keep control - the elem school environment is much more conducive to repression for a number of reasons and people generally are not as militant or willing to get involved. But some progress is being made where MORE has a base in elem schools in certain districts with a bunch of Chapter leaders who are independent or in MORE.

 

New Blog by Parent Activist Nancy Cauthen of Change the Stakes

I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new blog, Dreaming Forward: Inequality, Education and the Politics of the Future! http://dreamingforward.org/. I hope you'll take a look, share it, give me feedback, tell me what you'd like to see me write about, etc. The idea for this blog has been in the works for a very, very long time, so I'm very excited for it to finally go live -- no turning back now!
Nancy

Nancy Cauthen is one of the remarkable activists we've met through CTS. She is very responsible for their web site and so many other things that goes on. She is also on NYSAPE steering as the CTS rep. And she gets what the UFT is all about:

Whatever criticisms educators might have of high-stakes testing in NYC, the leadership of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which is the largest local of NYSUT, the state teachers union, has made it absolutely clear that they do not support opt out and will not protect any teacher saying anything that could be construed as promoting opt out among parents. In contrast, NYSUT locals in some areas, particularly Long Island,  have been in the forefront of promoting opt out.

Her latest blog deals with the reasons for the lower opt out rates in the city.

Explaining NYC’s Opt Out Numbers

Her initial blog was: My Take on Education “Reform” in New York State

Teacher Gets Job in Charter School, Cries When Sees Contract

I heard this story today from a non-teacher friend about his daughter. It is not easy to convince the general public about onerous charters. But I didn't have to say much after he saw how his daughter reacted when she saw all the things she would be required to do as a charter school teacher, a lot of it without pay. She cried - and then heard the magic news - she was offered a position in a local public school. She threw the charter contract in the trash.

This happened in my own neighborhood so it hits close to home. Teachers want unions, they want rights, they want to get paid for their work, they want health care and a pension.

Now of course as a UFT non-tenured teacher newbie she won't have a lot of rights for many years - maybe never. Another daughter of a friend in a public school in her 3rd year just had her tenure extended. Out of about a dozen teachers, all of them were denied by the superintendent and a howl went up - so a handful got tenure -- and a principal admitted to me many denials of tenure are due to principal career decisions to show stats to indicate how tough they are on tenure -- especially after Cuomo-like attacks about how could teachers be competent when so many kids do poorly on tests.

With charters proliferating, and with their high teacher turnover and burnouts, replacement shock troops are needed - especially low-salaried newbies. Inexperienced teachers goes a long way to explain the need for harsh discipline codes and big pushouts in charters. The ed deform agenda is aimed at undermining public schools and one aspect is to drive down the competition for teachers so charters can lower salaries and benefits -- increase their labor pool.

Talking About UFT Elections - Double Oy Vey! -

Every time I get into the weeds of the complexities of the UFT election process, people nod off. There is just so much misinformation out there. The other day a prominent supporter of another caucus commented on facebook that retirees only vote for president, spreading the kind of misinformation that encourages support for crackpots. Retirees vote for every officer position and the majority of the exec board and all 750 AFT/NYSUT delegates who go to conventions as the shock troops (cadre) to control the nationwide teacher movement. In other words there is a lot more involved in UFT elections beyond the presidency and unlike other cities like Detroit or Newark where you can have different caucuses take different positions - Unity makes sure it is a lock for them and keeping out ANY voices of dissent is a priority. That is why even if MORE captured the 7 high school Ex bd seats, that would be viewed as a major threat to Unity.

Roseanne McCosh, one of the most astute people in the UFT, sent me this email in response to some of my posts on the UFT election (Are UFT Elections a Joke?). She has become a strong MORE ally with great ideas.

Hi Norm, 
It's rare that I can't weigh all that is to be said on a matter and come down in favor of one side but that's the case with MORE's involvement in the 2016 election.  If MORE runs they need to be honest with people and not get their hopes up or they will lose any momentum they gain between now and spring 2016..  

I'm sure that none of the teachers in my school understand how the elections are rigged since I'm the one who disseminates such info and I'm just starting to get a handle on it myself. You posed the following question in your post, 

"On the other hand, how exactly do you sell people on getting involved in an election that can win only such a small sliver of 7% of Ex bd and no officer or AFT/NYSUT delegate positions?"   

To that I would say....by defining even 1% as a win.  By saying that it's about having the voice of the working classroom teacher present on the Ex Bd.  

(This is where my knowledge on the issue gets fuzzy-----why the focus on HS seats? Is it just a matter of MORE's resources? Out of the 100 seats, how many do retirees NOT vote on?  I'm afraid I need to read "UFT elections for Dummies" to fully understand everything.)  

[NOTE: I will respond to these questions in a follow-up].

I agree with you that getting a stronghold in individuals schools is imperative.  Unity has support in schools by the default position of apathy.  While scoring the ELA exam this year I met a 20 yr teacher who never votes bc she doesn't believe the ballots are really counted.  Try as I might to convince her otherwise, she would not budge.  How many teachers like her are out there?  What would it take to get them to just fill out the damn ballot?  It would take, like you said, a spokesperson in each school.  That's not going to happen quickly.  And like you, I would hate to see support taken from schools since that's where MORE needs to be to gain traction.  OY VEY is right!  

So in a nutshell....using all your resources to win a few seats is not a good idea.....if it means not getting more hands on deck in individual schools.  So I guess it's a matter of MORE being honest about it's limited resources and what they can take on at this point in time.  If they run, I'll help get out the vote at PS 8.  If they don't run, I'll still help to show my colleagues why we need to support MORE.  In either case, I will be upfront with my colleagues so they don't expect to wake up to a non-unity prez anytime soon.  

My quick response is that MORE seems to have come to a similar conclusion - that the elections are a building process. In the past after the elections gains in outreach were not consolidated as people lost energy. MORE did get almost 5000 votes in 2013. So MORE is continuing to do the work it has been doing in concentrating on building local organizing groups around the city and concentrating where it has the resources while adding an election component to the mix.

Today: Press Conf Demands Eva Return $8 Million as Hedge Hogs Rape Puerto Rico and Attack Public Schools for More profit - And give to Eva

PR crisis, like Katrina in New Orleans, is another disaster capitalism opportunity to destroy public education. When will Arne Duncan say: The Puerto Rico default is the best thing to happen to PR?

[Major Success Academy supporter] Paulson & Co. was one buyers of Puerto Rico's record $3.5 billion sale in March 2014. 
of the largest

Hedge Fund Economists Want Puerto Rico to Lay Off Teachers to Fix Debt Crisis... Time

Puerto Rico can avoid a costly default by upping taxes, cutting teacher jobs and closing schools, a group of hedge fund economists proposed in a report released on Monday, offering a controversial solution to the island’s “unpayable” $72 billion debt crisis. The report, commissioned by hedge funds holding several billion dollars of Puerto Rico’s bonds, highlights the island’s rising education expenditures against the backdrop of countless school closings and waves of poor families fleeing to mainland America.

Gee, hedge hogs killing an economy and targeting public schools and teachers. Can someone connect the dots for us?

It would, in particular, be a terrible idea to give the hedge funds that have scooped up much of Puerto Rico’s debt what they want — basically to destroy the island’s education system in the name of fiscal responsibility... Paul Krugman, NY Times

I saw this little tidbit in the Krugman piece on Monday on the Puerto Rico debt crisis. But Krugman, as usual when it comes to education, doesn't connect the dots -- that the PR crisis, like Katrina in New Orleans, is another disaster capitalism opportunity.

This morning at 10AM some dots will be connected.

Success Academy Pressured to Return $8.5 Million Hedge Fund (Dirty Money) Donation

PRESS ADVISORY

Success Academy Pressured to Return $8.5 Million Hedge Fund Donation
The charter school chain in New York City should not accept any money tied to the suffering of Puerto Rican children and families, many of whom already live in poverty

WHAT: Advocates will call on Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy to return an $8.5 million donation of “tainted money” from controversial hedge fund manager John Paulson. In Puerto Rico, where many New Yorkers and Success Academy families have roots, Paulson is profiting from the debt crisis. He is linked to austerity measures that may lead to deeper cuts in school funding and wages for workers that will harm Puerto Ricans. Success Academy’s expansion should not benefit in any way from the suffering of Puerto Rican children and families.

Fifty-six percent of Puerto Rican children already live in poverty, and now hedge fund managers like Paulson want to threaten access to educational opportunity just to make bigger profits.

WHO: Education advocates, parents, community leaders, and concerned residents of New York. Leaders and members of the Hedge Clippers, Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Make the Road New York, Strong Economy for All, Citizen Action New York.

WHERE: Steps of City Hall, Lower Manhattan, NYC.

WHEN: Today, August 5, 10 a.m.

MORE BACKGROUND: Paulson has focused on transforming Puerto Rico into a low-tax, high-luxury playground for the wealthy. As a Bloomberg News headline put it, “Paulson’s Paradise Lures Rich Fleeing Taxes.” He has purchased $120 million of Puerto Rico’s debt. Like other hedge fund managers, he is looking to collect massive profits from his investments – even if it means drastic austerity measures like cuts to public education funding and wages that will destroy the lives of families and children. Paulson’s paradise is a nightmare for Puerto Ricans.

Message to the Lying NY Post: Credit Recovery Was a Bloomberg Creation to Get Grad Rates Up -

From 2005 to 2013, the city’s four-year high school graduation rate jumped by more than 40 percent, while its dropout rate halved — imperfect metrics, perhaps, but telling nevertheless.-- Bob McManus, New York Post

McManus is a real knee slapper. The Post is taking credit for exposing cheating based on reporting by Carl Campanile and Sue Edelman. Cheating under Farina because the Post has a political vendetta to tear down de Blasio and Farina. What is true is that Farina covered up the Bloomberg mess. But the Post won't admit it is a Bloomberg mess.

Look at grad rates like crime stats, which seem to be rising and will doom be Blasio.  Bloomberg phonied grad rates (and crime rates - I still think there are way more murders and Bloomberg is hiding the bodies) and now if Farina fixes the mess grad rates will go down to where they should have been and the Post will hammer her for that. It's a no win.

Chalkbeat does go into the credit recovery history and they have been covering that issue for years.

Here is their comprehensive run-down of links to the story.

where credit is (and isn't) due

Chancellor Carmen Fariña unveiled a six-member task force that she's pledging will take steps to root out cheating following a spate of reports and investigations that found evidence of academic malpractice.

• Chalkbeat,
• New York Post,
• New York Times,
• SchoolBook,
• Wall Street Journal

Five of the six members are Department of Education staffers with close ties to Fariña and the sixth still hasn't been named, leading some educators to wonder about the task force's independence.

• New York Post

Academic wrongdoing tied to credit recovery and grade-changing has long preceded the current regime under Fariña. Chalkbeat explains what credit recovery is, why high schools use it and why it's being abused.

• Chalkbeat

The New York Post remains unimpressed with Fariña's vow to clean up credit recovery, calling it a "fake fix."

• New York Post

Post opinion writers joined the discussion, with columnist Bob McManus writing that Fariña and de Blasio aren't directly to blame, but "responsibility for the scandal is hers, and Mayor de Blasio’s, and they must answer for it."

• New York Post

Post columnist Adam Brodsky writing that the academic improprieties were predictable and that Fariña could have moved sooner to safeguard against them.

• New York Post

City Council members were divided on whether to hold hearings on schools that illicitly inflate graduation rates, although leaders Melissa Mark Viverito and Daniel Dromm downplayed a need to further probe the issue.

• New York Post

The Trial of Steve Conn: Is Attack on Detroit Union President a Randi Coup?

I've always said that if Unity and its ilk lose an election they will try to steal it back any way they can. If the opposition in NYC were ever to win or even get close they would undermine the UFT before yielding power. When Steve Conn won the presidency over Randi's gang in Detroit, his days were numbered.

“This is nothing but a political attack on my leadership by the remnants of the old defeated leadership of the DFT,” Conn said. “They lost at the ballot box; so now they are trying to win with a coup.”

We commented the other day on EIA's report of the Randi/AFT takeover of a Florida local - Randi's Joke About Democracy as AFT Deposes another union leader.

Here is Mike Antonucci's report from EIA on the trial of Steve Conn:

The Detroit Federation of Teachers executive board put president Steve Conn on trial this morning for conduct detrimental to the union.
Conn called on members to show up at the hearing. “I know that many, many of you will be as upset as I am at this news, and I would like to offer my time to talk with you,” he wrote on the union’s web site. “I am still hopeful that, even at this late hour, we may be able to reach a settlement — especially if you and other members are willing to help us early Monday morning.”
“Many, many of you” turned out to be about 50 people. Conn also knew that the hearing was to be held in executive session. His supporters were not admitted and the police had to be called to clear them from the entrance.

I have to find my video of Steve Conn heckling Randi at her public appearance in Detroit at the AFT12 convention. Steve is part of BAMN - By Any Means Necessary -- the only group that has run against Randi in the last few AFT elections.

I met Steve's lawyer, Shanta Driver - also of BAMN, at the SOS summer event in 2012 - she is no lightweight. This should be fun to watch.

Here is the more detailed report from the Detroit News.

DFT’s Conn goes to union trial on misconduct charge

Shawn D. Lewis, The Detroit News 7:48 a.m. EDT August 3, 2015

(Photo: Detroit News file photo)

Detroit — Detroit Federation of Teachers president Steve Conn went on trial Monday on internal charges of union misconduct as a split within the union intensified.
Union executive vice president Ivy Bailey first announced the charges in a June 25 letter to members posted on the DFT website.
About 50 teachers showed up outside the office of the Detroit Association of Education Office Employees, 115 W. Willis, where the proceeding conducted by the union’s executive board was being held. Conn had urged supporters to show up.
The union members were denied entrance to the hearing, and police were called.
About six Detroit Police cruisers, including a K-9 unit, swarmed the parking lot after Conn and his supporters tried to gain entry into the closed meeting.
The board was holding a trial involving internal charges of union misconduct.
The teachers and other supporters chanted and clapped their hands while several men, who refused to identify themselves, barred them from entering.
“We are the union, the mighty, mighty union,” the union members chanted.
One unidentified man in a dark suit and tie barred entry saying, “All these people can’t be in here.”
Shanta Driver, a lawyer representing Conn, countered, “Then we will be prevented from properly presenting our case. You should get a hall big enough so all our witnesses can be represented.”
The police officers stood around, talking briefly to Driver, then one of them ordered everyone — except for 10 witnesses finally allowed inside — to leave the parking lot, because it was on private property.
A Conn supporter took names and phone numbers of people in the parking lot. Driver suggested they not go far if they leave, because they could be called as witnesses later in the day.
Driver told Conn’s supporters they still could protest on the sidewalk outside the parking lot, which they did.
Bailey barred reporters from the trial, saying it was a closed meeting. She said the board could make a decision Monday.
Tension has been growing in the DFT since Conn was elected president in a runoff over Edna Reaves, who was executive vice president, in January.
In her June letter, Bailey alleged Conn committed “violations of the DFT constitution and bylaws and conduct detrimental to the union.”
Bailey said members charge that Conn has attempted to cancel regular meetings and failed to preside over them; has improperly called “special mass meetings”; and has conducted meetings without agendas, without allowing members to speak and without proper and valid votes.
The letter also accused Conn of allowing local members “to be threatened and abused at meetings” and failed to pay the union’s per capita dues to the American Federation of Teachers and AFT Michigan.
Katarina Brown, a teacher at King High School, called the proceedings a witch hunt.
“Instead of us fighting each other, we should be knocking on doors to get more students enrolled in DPS,” she said. “Steve Conn has done nothing wrong. He’s done more for us than any other union president and he fights for the rights of all of us. All of us will be jobless if we don’t fight for our rights.”
Teacher Regina Dixon of Coleman Young Elementary School said she was there to support Conn.
“These are horrible charges,” she said. “The executive vice president is trying to take over as president and it will not happen.”
Teacher Sharon Jamison of Mann Elementary School called the charges “bogus.”
“They want (retired DFT president) Keith Johnson’s agenda, and to put Ivy Bailey in to continue it,” she said. “We need to fight what is going on, and we can’t do it with Keith’s agenda or we’ll lose everything.”
Conn addressed the crowd before they converged on the building entrance.
“This is nothing but a distraction,” he said. “They want to crawl into the pocket of the emergency manager (Darnell Earley) and stay there. I am determined to fight for the teachers and students. I was elected to do a job to defend your rights, and no one is going to stop me in that fight. There shouldn’t be backroom meetings. People of Detroit will stand with you as long as you stand up for yourself.”
Bailey contends the trial is proceeding because Conn failed to attend a meeting she requested.
“Many members have brought forth serious charges against DFT President Steve Conn,” she wrote in an undated message titled “Monday’s trial” to members on the DFT website. “The constitution and bylaws require me to attempt to resolve the matter through an informal conference. Steve Conn chose to not attend the conference. After Conn failed to show up for the hearing, the matter was referred to the elected executive board, as required by the constitution and bylaws. The executive board unanimously voted to go forward with the charges.”
Conn steadfastly maintains it is an ongoing effort to unseat him, calling the trial a “kangaroo court.”
“The accusations against me by the executive board are baseless and false to the core,” Conn said in a statement. “This is nothing but a political attack on my leadership by the remnants of the old defeated leadership of the DFT. They lost at the ballot box; so now they are trying to win with a coup.”
He continues saying the DFT executive board opponents do not have a strategy for the union and its members, other than “resurrecting the losing ideas of my predecessor about cooperating with the governor’s emergency manager as he methodically dismantles Detroit’s public schools.”
In a statement, Conn countered that he still has not been allowed to see anything beyond Bailey’s summary of the charges against him.
“That is just one of many blatant constitutional and procedural violations, he said in the statement. “The executive board is completely unfit to act as a jury. They are the initiators and instigators of nearly all the allegations, and they have been witnesses to many of the events. There is also evidence that they have already met and decided the trial’s outcome ahead of time.
“I posted a lengthy initial response to Bailey’s statement on the union’s website (www.dft231.com ) several weeks ago, which is still there.”
East English Village Preparatory Academy math teacher Nicole Conaway called the trial “an extremely divisive and dangerous distraction” in a statement.
“We are at a key turning point in rebuilding the power of the DFT, especially with the fight now to defend our health care against a massive assault by the governor and his emergency manager,” she said. “This trial will only serve the purposes of our union’s enemies.”
SLewis@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2296

Substance celebrates its 41st year, Influence on Ed Notes, 1994 EdWeek Article

SUBSTANCE ANNIVERSARY, HISTORY... Substance begins 41st year... Series of historical articles planned... to be labeled SUBSHISTORY (Date)...

By George N. Schmidt - August 1st, 2015 | 0 comments

With the publication of the August Home Page here at substancenews.net, Substance begins our 41st year of publication. Substance began as a mimeographed newsletter, produced on a Gestetner mimeograph machine, in August 1975.

August 1 was an historic day for Chicago-based George Schmidt and Substance, the model for the print edition of Ed Notes. One of the things I find very funny about the accounts of the Chicago union miracle from many groups, including MORE during its "Lessons if  Chicago" summer series over the past few years, is how the role of a monthly well-read newspaper played in capturing the union by the CORE caucus is ignored. (Substance also played a role in the victory of the opposition led by Debbie Lynch in 2001.)

Substance influence on Ed Notes
My groups in the 70s had been getting Substance but then lost track. At an ed tech convention in Chicago in 2000 I ran into George at an anti-testing workshop where Substance, by that time a full 20-30 page monthly tabloid, was distributed. We connected and I subscribed.

I began Ed Notes in 1997 as a UFT delegate assembly only monthly that grew from 1page to 16 letter size pages by the time I retired in 2002. I was

producing up to 1500 copies for the DA since people asked me for copies for their schools. It was clear that I couldn't continue growing a newspaper that had to be hand printed on any machine I could borrow and then stapled by me. George's model of a cheaper to produce in bulk tabloid began to make sense. One of the reasons I retired in July 2002 was to give me the time to turn Ed Notes into a tabloid that could reach tens of thousands of teachers. It would cost me a couple of thousand dollars a year but that seemed like the biggest bang for the buck. (And people did want to contribute.)

That July 2002 George was in NY and I invited him out to my house in

Rockaway to meet with some people who were Ed Notes supporters - a group that over a year later turned into part of the nucleus that formed ICE in October 2003. He wowed us with his stories and inspired us in ways to spark activism. I had already started writing and soliciting articles and laying out the tabloid ed notes and the first issue with a print run of 12,000 copies came out in September 2002. The lead article was:

Coming Soon to a School Near You: Mayoral Control 

Ed Notes was the first to go after the concept, which the UFT supported and also go after Joel Klein from day 1.

Below is an embedded but poor copy for you to peruse. You can read a clearer version at scribd: https://www.scribd.com/doc/273300755/Ed-Notes-Fall-02-ID

Ed Notes Fall 02 ID

Here is a report from George on the anniversary:

Consider the story below, that we will be reporting on August 1. It is an example of how the owners of Chicago's media, the same corporate plutocrats who have imposed "school reform", choke off the history that we need to know -- and that the working class needs to know. As we've discussed, the ruling class has blacklisted Substance (and George Schmidt) for a long time. Think about it...

3. AUGUST ANNIVERSARY AND THE ED WEEK ARTICLE. "...Substance is a throwback to the in-your-face underground newspapers of the late '60s and early '70s..." The article below was published in Education Week -- more than 20 years ago! Since then, the blacklist has expanded to the point where reporters from Chicago's corporate media are forced to deny the existence of Substance -- even as they read and utilize the materials we publish. Read below what the national weekly Education Week reported long long ago:

The Muckrakers (Originally published in Education Week)
August 1, 1994

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/1994/08/01/9sub.h05.html

Sunday With Susan (Ohanian)

Yummy - new content from Susan. Her comments are what make these stories so yummy. Click on the links.

Nancy Bailey hit to the bone with 'Common Core and Close Reading: Shouldn’t College Work Stay in College?' I put her piece up on Twitter and it was passed on. A lot.

There's actually a Good News item, one that pulls at the heartstrings: Good boy, good adult mentor, good world sharing books.

I am not religious but every year I donate  to Camp Agape VT. Their mission is to provide a week of Christian camping to children who have a parent locked up in the Vermont correctional system. My understanding is that they give each camper a pack of books of high interest, a Bible, and a fishing pole. Who could top that?

Of course we have a couple of new cartoons. Check out:

http://susanohanian.org/cartoons.php

and

http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php

On to the Revolution,

For the sake of the children, REFUSE!


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To the editor
Susan Ohanian
New York Times
2015-07-31
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1809

The New York Times film critic is more observant of kindergartners' needs than is the editorial board.

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Who's In Charge?
Kate Taylor with Ohanian comment
New York Times
2015-07-31
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1996

Dirty money goes with dirty pedagogy.

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Groups That Back Bloomberg's Education Agenda Enjoy Success in Albany
Kate Taylor
New York Times
2015-07-29
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1995

Although this article is about the big money influencing New York City education policy,the story--and the money--certainly is not unique to New York.

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Utah boy reading junk mail gets thousands of books after mailman's plea goes viral
staff
ABC via Publishers Weekly
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=887

Here's a nice story about a mailman who noticed a kid needed some books.

UPDATED - Randi's Joke About Democracy as AFT Deposes Florida Local President & Board Over Lack of

I missed Perdido Street's more extensive coverage of this story, a must read. 

Randi Weingarten Engineers A Putsch In A Florida Local Union

Over the years Ed Notes and Mike Antonucci have reported on Randi's takeovers -- just too much in a rush to get you the links.

Here is my original post from earlier focused on Antonucci's story.

In the name of “holding sacrosanct the democratic rights of its members,” the American Federation of Teachers removed from office the duly elected officers and representatives of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association (OCCTA) and placed a national administrator in sole charge.... Mike Antonucci, EIA, Intercepts Blog

Mike can be a jokester -- this one is a real knee slapper:

In an e-mail to OCCTA members, AFT president Randi Weingarten specifically named OCCTA president Diana Moore as the cause of “repeated and deliberate anti-democratic violations of local bylaws and governance policies,” particularly those “to protect against the concentration of power in any one individual.”

Poor Diana Moore, getting chopped by Randi for concentrating too much power is like Cuomo charging de Blasio with abuse of power.

Back in June Mike commented:

The Florida Education Association believes local president Diana Moore and her supporters are “coalescing control of the union in themselves at the unfortunate cost of a democratic union.” If that’s the standard then there will be an awful lot more trusteeships to come.

Hmmmm --- the UFT? If Moore goes to court she might as well cite the union Randi ran for a decade. You know Moore's mistake? Not creating a faux opposition party to give the illusion of bi-partisan democracy.

Mike's full report with links:

AFT Deposes Florida Local President & Board

DOE Gags Dewey Teachers Whose Ratings Were Reversed -- Let's Look at the Entire System of Principal Retaliation

I know that the UFT supposedly helped the Dewey teachers -- but I also know how they didn't seem to have the same sense of urgency the teachers had. What of the Discontinued under Elvin? What of the forced retirements? What of the years of misery so many teachers suffered?
 
Those teachers had to sign a confidentiality agreement not to discuss the changing of their ratings.... NY Post

Yes, they don't want these people to talk about it. Where was the UFT in protecting the rights of these teachers to talk about their own cases? Where is the UFT calling on more investigations of cheating and other abuses as scores of schools with monster principals? The UFT is best friends with the DeB/Farina regime and also with the CSA which represents principals so don't expect much from them.

The problem is there are hundreds of principals like Elvin who retaliate against teachers, many of them removed for numerous reasons, yet the ratings are allowed to stand. And that happened going back to the old U rating system -- I could see that in the 3020a hearings I attended -- the Peter Zucker case was an example - and he is losing 4 months pay on suspension over what was clearly a set-up.

One MORE member - a chapter leader - received 2 U ratings for union activity under a lunatic and was about to get a 3rd and be fired but she was mercifully removed and replaces by a benign principal - yet the history of these U ratings remain - and that school is now a renewal school and the CL may have to find a job with that history training behind.
The UFT should call on every teacher with a poor rating in a school with a suspect principal be reviewed. I would go back to the early days of BloomKlein.

Perdido Street School is on the case.

NYSED Acknowledges Principals Can Use APPR As Weapons Against Teachers -

Given an "ineffective" rating for refusing to participate in fraudulent behavior involving grade-fixing.

Gee, that doesn't sound like an "objective" evaluation system to me.

And NYSED admits as much by overturning at least four of the "ineffective" ratings of tenured teachers who appealed them.

There may be more overturned ratings - we don't know the exact number because of the confidentiality agreements

But what we do know is this - if Elvin and her assistant principals used APPR as a weapon against teachers to perpetrate their fraud, other principals and assistant principals can use APPR as a weapon against teachers for other reasons as well.

Had Elvin not been exposed in the grade-fixing scandal, these teachers at Dewey would still be working with "ineffective" ratings on their records.

You can bet there are other administrators elsewhere who have handed out "ineffective" ratings for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the effectiveness of the teacher.

We learned from Chancellor Farina this week that APPR is a sham when she acknowledged that "effective" teachers can have their ratings adversely affected by switching schools and going to teach  in a school with high poverty/high homelessness demographics.

Even the noted anti-union Post reporter, Carl Campanile, given the Post claims an exclusive on the Dewey story -- too bad they don't read Ed Notes -- takes a - sort of - pro-teacher position. Here is Campanile's story:

http://nypost.com/2015/07/30/doe-looks-to-change-low-teacher-ratings-after-grade-fixing-scam/?utm_source=Master+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=e7d9ad38f0-Rise_Shine_7_30_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_23e3b96952-e7d9ad38f0-50237593