UFT Election Update: Take the Long March

There are so many comments out there on FB and blogs about how important it is to get rid of Mulgrew - and there is no time to waste.

They are so wrong to focus on Mulgrew rather than the Unity machine, which has been around for 55 years with only 4 leaders. But the important thing to note is that the machine endures while leaders don't - both Al and Sandy died way too young which seems to be the reason leadership changes - Sandy followed Al to the AFT and Randi followed Sandy when she died and the assumption is that when Randi leaves for greener pastures (we do wish her good health) Mulgew will move up to her place and someone is now sitting at the UFT who will be the next Mulgrew - and after a short honeymoon where things don't change, there will be desperate calls to get rid of Mr./Ms. X. I mean, who ever heard of Mulgrew until Randi chose him as her successor when it became clear that she would be leaving the UFT for the AFT -- only Shanker tried to do both jobs as president for a decade from 1974-1985 -- and no one else can get away with that today. So there will be a new UFT president at some point in the future. Just not this year.

The point is - focus on the machine, not the person at the top. And to beat the machine you cannot use drones from the air - or the internet/social media/blogs etc. Ground troops are needed to root out the rot at the school and district levels. That is a long view and teachers nearer to retirement don't have the time or patience to fight that ground game. So they often scream and rant and call for shortcuts - like let's sue them - over anything.

Hopefully, the 20, 30 and 40 something activists and organizers are willing to build a ground game and endure the trials and tribulations of doing so.

UFT elections are just temperature checks of where the ground game is at. And over the past 25 years, the ground game has been a zero-sum game with slight ebbs and flows, even as caucuses come and go.

The UFT Election Committee
Each election a committee is formed and each caucus is invited to send a rep. Not much is decided by the committee, other than setting election time tables and rules. But if there is a dispute, the committee decides and since Unity stacks it, we know how they will decide - like let's say every retiree vote is lost in the mail and MORE wins - Unity will go to the committee to protest the election - that procedures they set up themselves were somehow violated. If stacked courts must decide, so be it.

Amy Arundell chairs the UFT election committee and overall I would say that most people in the opposition find her one of the positive forces in Unity to deal with. I reported on who is on the committee (How Many Unity Slugs Does it Take to Run an election) and that in my estimation the election process would begin at the January DA based on the historic timetable before the last election, which was pushed back to February in 2013 due to the effects of hurricane Sandy. If the early Jan. scenario is followed ballots will go go out in March, if the latter February timetable, in April - which will include one week off for the holidays, thereby taking away some important campaigning time for the opposition to Unity Caucus. Ballots should be counted in late April-early May or mid-late May depending on when petitions are officially released.

What is important about the time frame is that from the day petitions are made available until the day ballots are counted, sometime in April or May, is that any UFT member can go into any school and put election materials in the mailboxes.

The standard campaign tactic is for every slate to race around to as many schools as possible stuffing 40 or 50 thousand leaflets into boxes, which apparently few bother to read - based on the election turnout. Some say the reason is these leaflets sucked - I don't agree - they may have sucked but I think people just dump stuff out of their boxes and even if they read the leaflets the election is irrelevant to most.

Unity will stuff 4 different glossy ads into every mailbox in the city, using their Unity Caucus machine and their full-time employees like District reps where they don't have people. Yet their vote totals are also abysmal.

MORE cannot reach every school and I contend that if it could stuff every box it wouldn't change very much.

The key is having people in the schools on the ground. But wait, you say. Unity has that and still can't get out the vote. And that is an interesting point.

Given the votes the opposition has gotten in the past, I estimate that a lot of them are coming from schools with MORE/ICE/GEM (and New Action from 1991-2001) people who are respected and work hard to tell people about the election. There just aren't enough of them - yet.

This time Unity will put lots of money into getting votes that they deem favorable to them out. They will send people into schools where MORE has strength to try to siphon off what they can and Unity CLs will be adopting some of E4E tactics - treating the staff to pizza parties for those who bring in the ballots for a mass vote.

By the way, each slate running does get a 2-page spread in the NY Teacher, which apparently few bother to read.

Next time I will tell you why much of this effort is a waste of time - unless it fits into a long-term strategy - which hopefully is a framework MORE is operating within - though there are times I am not so sure.

The key is for a caucus to establish a regular communication network reaching out to hundreds of schools, not just for the elections, but on a regular basis at the very least every 2 months throughout the year.

Jia Lee, UFT Presidential Candidate, Chastizes Mulgrew Over ESSA Support Alert

We have been reporting on ESSA:

• Massive Charter Giveaways in ESEA/ESSA Re-Write, P...
• ESEA/ESSA Pushed by UFT/AFT/NYSUT After Supporting...
• Randi/AFT/Mulgrew/UFT/E4E Join Deformers in Suppor...

Is ESSA a Hoax?

Ravitch, who supported ESSA but is posting all sides, just posted:
Nicholas Tampio, a professor of political science at Fordham University, argues that the Every Student Succeeds Act is a sham.

Jia Lee, MORE's presidential candidate is on the case:

ON ESSA:
Cross-Post from MORE

The Disturbing Action Alert from Michael Mulgrew

by Jia Lee, Chapter Leader, The Earth School
MORE/New Action 2016 Candidate for President of the UFT

Here is the disturbing email that all UFT members received on Tuesday, December 1, a day before the Federal HELP Senate Committee was to vote on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), called Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). UFT President Michael Mulgrew urges us to contact our senators to “Vote Yes” and I can only stare in shock at the screen.

In what is being touted as a fix for the many problems of No Child Left Behind, members have a right to know that the full 1,059 page reauthorization came out only a few days before the vote. While it includes removal of teacher evaluations based on test scores and leaves the decision to the states, this does not do enough to disconnect misguided “accountability” measures from schools through the use of standardized testing. Further, there are grave problems that reek of catering to private interests. By now, we know that since NCLB, education policies have been rooted in the interests of private corporations and groups, such as ALEC, the Waltons, Rupert Murdoch, Bill and Melinda Gates and others. Read on to find out more that is being uncovered as the public has a chance to read and digest the densely packed document.

The logical “Action Alert” we would hope to expect would not just include a call to contact our elected officials to “Vote No”, but we would have been given the chance for some kind of analysis, even if there is a lack of time for discussion. There is a deja vu in the feeling of being rushed to take a position on something we hardly know enough about, such as the last contract negotiation.

Here are just some of the reasons why any UFT member in NYC, if given the chance to fully understand for ourselves the implications of ESSA, would never take an action to support its passing. Linked are the numerous articles by trusted and respected education experts in the movement to save our schools, responding to the the problems within this legislation that will most likely go into law. ESSA is riddled with language that opens the way for continued benefits for edu-corporations and venture philanthropists who the UFT leadership purports to fight against:

• The bill was issued for review on November 30 and then rewritten and redistributed one day before the vote. That hardly gave time for senators to exercise protocols for democratic debate over the 1,000+ page document. That alone should raise red flags, and in a world where folks are really following the presidential election, it makes sense that the UFT and AFT would support the passage of this bill, since it removes the federal role in how states determine testing and accountability. After all, the AFT announced an early endorsement of Hillary Clinton, whose connections to the elite would benefit from taking the issue off the table altogether.
• There is still annual testing mandated for grades 3-8 and high school science, with reporting based on race, class and English Language acquisition. The federal government did not remove the 95% standardized test participation rate currently necessary for schools and districts to avoid potential penalties, and has doubled down on heavily discouraging parents from choosing to opt their children out of standardized testing. Annual testing is, above all, a cash cow for testing and ed corporations. This will now be continued at the state, rather than federal level.
• Under Title I, Part D, “Pay for Success” investors can earn money for not referring students for special education services. This is alarming since, across the city, state and nation, our most vulnerable students are not receiving the services they are legally entitled to and need as it is. Read more here, in a piece that is posted on Diane Ravitch’s blog.
• Under the rewrite, teacher preparation programs now incentivize programs organized by the very venture philanthropists who have churned out short-term teachers for placement in poor urban districts with the goal of increasing student achievement through test scores. Read the Washington Post piece by Kenneth Zeichner, member of the National Academy of Education and professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. and another must read piece by Mercedes Schneider here.
• Taking a step back, the entire process was political, with little to gain for our students, teachers and public schools. In fact, many of the components provide the space to increase charter caps, create an influx and incentivization of Teach for America type programs, alignment of tests to standards (Common Core or state produced), and the biggest hits are to our students who are English Language Learners and to special education mandates under IDEA. Read for yourself.

Instead of doing this analysis, the leadership credits the UFT, AFT and parents across the country for putting pressure on elected officials to remove the mandates for teacher evaluations based on value added metrics. This is incorrect. The UFT and AFT never placed any such pressure. In fact, they whole heartedly agreed to No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. 

It was the grass roots organizing of parents, teachers of conscience and supporters of public education who made the opt out movement a force of change. Mulgrew once stated at a delegate assembly in June of 2015 that 19 teachers in a Brooklyn high school were being rated “ineffective” by their administrator. According to him, their VAM score saved them. We say that there is clearly some other problem that needs to be addressed at the school when an administrator is gunning for 19 teachers. Many teachers in our city can attest to the micromanagement so prevalent in our schools. Instead of addressing this most pressing issue for his members, Mulgrew tells us it’s fine when it works in his favor politically. 

Call to Action: If you feel compelled, United Opt Out has created an online petition where you can add your name to the list of people who are calling for senators to Vote NO.

Join MORE caucus as we continue to call for a broader analysis of the ESEA reauthorization to understand how this will impact our schools, communities, students and our profession. 

Today, the Senate passed the bill and Obama is expected to sign it. Mike Antonucci at EIA lays out the next 15 years under ESSA:


 

Randi Invades Detroit

Randi sends in shock throops in Detroit union takeover

How does one rally the membership against a state takeover of local schools with a national takeover of the local union?... Mike Antonucci, EIA

About 6 or so years ago Randi parachuted into Detroit to help negotiate another sell-out contract along with retired DFT president Keith Johnson. That worked out as well for DFT as for Newark, Washington DC, Philly, etc. 

David Bellel's graphic

Over the past decade, EIA's Mike Antonucci and I have chronicled AFT takeovers of local unions, not only over corruption like Washington DC but over locals that want to leave the AFT or because AFT leaders don't like the politics of the elected union leader, like Detroit which we reported on in August

Ed Notes Online: The Trial of Steve Conn: Is Attack on ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../the-trial-of-steve-conn-is-attack-on.html

Aug 4, 2015 - The Detroit Federation of Teachers executive board put president Steve Conn on trial this morning for conduct detrimental to the union. Even though Steve won 2 elections, they just threw him out of the union.

Last August, the executive board of the Detroit Federation of Teachers ousted its perennially agitated president, Steve Conn. When the rank-and-file had an opportunity to weigh in, a majority favored Conn’s return, but the margin fell short of the necessary two-thirds.

Oh, democracy. Even though Steve had the majority, they just decided to throw him out of the union so he could not win again.

In past AFT takeovers they sent in shock troops which Mike hinted at:
 there’s still the danger that AFT could airdrop the locksmiths and take over the whole operation.”

But that wasn't necessary:

Well, the airdrop wasn’t required because the DFT executive board opened the gates and let the army in.

And the best part:

“Internal elections would be temporarily postponed to permit all DFT leaders and members to focus, for now, on the goals of the campaign.”
Conn couldn’t run again for the presidency because he was also booted from the union, but certainly there was a danger that one of his allies could activate his base and regain the office.

You see, I often tell people in the UFT who think that taking over the union is just about beating Unity in an election that there would be consequences - they would protest the election to the AFT (Randi) and they would rule there were "issues" and then just take it over and maybe even put the elected president on trial.

How much fun will it be if they every decide to have a union election in Detroit if Steve Conn's people actually win again? Just throw all of them out of the union. I believe Steve is trying to organize a counter union and force a vote on which one teachers would choose.

Here is Mike's full report:

AFT Set to Assume Control of Detroit Local

And the Detroit News report.

And by the way, this Friday MORE is doing a support event for the Puerto Rico union, which actually broke free of what they termed the "bloodsucking AFT" a decade ago - they were too far away to drop in the troops and the AFT sued and lost.

Here are some ed notes pieces over the years on the situation in Detroit (One day I have to dig up the video of Steve Conn heckling Randi at a rally in 2012 at the AFT convention.)

Ed Notes Online: Detroit Teachers Recall of Weingarten Ally ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../detroit-teachers-recall-of-weingarten.html

Feb 14, 2010 - Detroit teachers have been fighting to recall DFT President (and major Randi Weingarten ally) Keith Johnson as part of the fight to stop the Arne ...

Ed Notes Online: Weingarten Ally, Detroit Teacher Union ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../weingarten-ally-detroit-teacher-union.ht...

Jan 15, 2010 - See comment 2 by Mike Antonucci of the EIA who checked the Detroit Fed of T web site which says the recall was illegal. Read on to where I ...

Ed Notes Online: Randi's Nightmare Continues: Steve Conn ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../randis-nightmare-continues-steve-conn.ht...

Jan 28, 2015 - Ed Notes Online: Detroit Union Election - Is Randi guy in ... Dec 06, 2010. Detroit teacher Steve Conn (above center) spoke to the Peace and ...

Ed Notes Online: Randi's Nightmare: DETROIT TEACHERS ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../randis-nightmare-detroit-teachers-elect.ht...

Jan 17, 2015 - Detroit teachers elected Steve Conn to head the Detroit Federation of Teachers today. Conn ... Posted by Norm @ ed notes online at 7:56 PM.

Ed Notes Online: January 2015

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Jan 31, 2015 - At a demo in Detroit at the AFT convention in 2012, Steve constantly heckled Randi ... Ed Notes Online: Detroit Union Election - Is Randi guy in .

Massive Charter Giveaways in ESEA/ESSA Re-Write, Part 1 - Jim Horn

this corporate welfare bill will send billions in federal grants to segregated “no excuses” charter school companies, venture philanthropists, and real estate developers over the next six years. ...Schools Matter, Massive Charter Giveaways in ESEA Re-Write, Part 1

Why would our union leaders support a bill that will end up costing thousands of jobs for union teachers nationwide? My guess is that they know we are in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire stage and are managing the dismantling as they lead teachers into the fire.

There was a time when some of the very same people and organizations (ahem, the UFT/AFT/NYSUT) supported NCLB. Some of the very same people are backing this ESEA rewrite which is not about local control but handing things over to increasingly rightwing, pro-privatization forces at the state level. Will these same people one day (soon?) lament their support as public education gets buried further under the charter onslaught?

federal funding favorability will go to states that do not “impose any limitation on the number or percentage of charter schools that may exist or the number or percentage of students that may attend charter schools in the State”... With a continuing federal mandate to fix the bottom five percent of schools, the ESEA rewrite will provide at least a billion dollars each year to fund charter school expansion, thus further weakening public education.  The new grant programs will be fashioned to provide minimal oversight and maximum autonomy to charter companies and their corporate support organizations, and for the first time, private non-profit corporations will be classified as “state entities,” thus eligible to apply directly for federal grant programs....grants will be funneled to states that have established infrastructure to help charter companies in facilities acquisition and/or the handing over of public properties at rock bottom prices.  Federal help in corporate real estate acquisition signals the full maturation of a charter industry that will be worth hundreds of billions

Jim Horn reports at Schools Matter:

Massive Charter Giveaways in ESEA Re-Write, Part 1

Eva is trying to build a little empire in this corner of District 14 - There are two other Success Academy schools within a three block radius of each other

No way can this school be claiming 1400 applications... Pat Dobosz

We know how Success and other charter inflate demand while seats at their schools remain empty. Call for the 1400 names to be made public - a good project for an ed reporter - foil them - and break the phony charter demand bubble. This area of south Williamsburg/North Bed-Stuy was always a rough area of District 14. In my final year I was sent to the IS 33 building to pick up a computer and we heard gunshots outside. This was around noon. Since then there gentrification bubble has moved in - Eva picks her spots.

Here is more from Pat:

Bust Success Charter Phony Demand Bubble

PS 297 is located in D14. There are two other SA schools, one at the old IS 33 building and one in PS 59 all within a three block radius of each other. No way can this school be claiming 1400 applications. The other schools from what I see in the morning are not having their doors broken down. Their numbers do not look excessively high as the children enter the buildings. Often parents apply unwittingly to SA as they do to other area schools out of the Pre-K or K programs, but have no intentions of attending
or are steered away by teachers, friends and family. Myself and a colleague have discouraged many parents from going to SA.

Eva is trying to build a little empire in this corner of D14. She is trying to slide into this school quietly and without fanfare, thinking this is a neighborhood that is asleep. She also has a SA at the other end of the district in MS 50 and her husband has Citizens of the World in the middle of the district. All in prime real estate. It's not about the children. It's about Eva
expanding her empire. please drop a note to: D14Proposals@schools.nyc.gov

Education

Success Academy Would Limit Special Needs at Bed-Stuy School, Critics Say

By Camille Bautista | December 4, 2015 4:31pm | Updated on December 7, 2015 8:56am

@CamBautista

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Plans to move a Success Academy charter school into Bed-Stuy would rob an existing elementary school of space used by special needs students, opponents said.

Parents and educators at P.S. 297 met to discuss the proposal Thursday, with many vowing to fight it.

Dozens of students, parents and teachers attended, with many holding handmade posters that read “Save Our School.”

Dozens of students, parents and teachers attended, with many holding handmade posters that read “Save Our School.”

Success Academy, founded by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, is looking to open a new location that would be shared with P.S. 297’s Park Avenue building at the start of the 2016 school year.

But some educators fear the proposed co-location would take over much needed space that the elementary school currently uses for its special needs students. And they said another Success Academy would not benefit the community.

Camille Bautista · DNAinfo Reporter

Does Bed-Stuy need another Success Academy? Should charter and public schools share space?

•  2
 
•  5

VOICE YOUR OPINION ON NHSQ! 

The charter school already operates two sites within a three-block radius of P.S. 297.

“As CEC members, we question the aggressive expansion of Success Academy,” said Mirian Lopez, vice president of the Community Education Council for District 14.

“As a member of the school community, we ask, why does Success Academy need any more schools?”  

Success Academy has more than 30 locations throughout the city, with plans for more over the next few years, according to reports.

Those opposed to the proposal say their main concern is the possible loss of a second-floor wing dedicated to services like occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy.  

“The students with special needs would be the ones who lose the most,” said CEC 14 member Roberto Portillo, adding that it would be “irreparable to the community.”

P.S. 297 serves kids in pre-k through fifth grade. In the 2014-2015 school year, 26 percent of students were listed as special needs.

If approved, Success Academy Bed-Stuy 3 would have up to 160 students in kindergarten and first grade starting in 2016, and add one grade level each year, according to the city’sDepartment of Education.

As the proposal is still up for vote and concrete plans are not set for the layout of the co-location, Success Academy could not provide comment on the specifics for which spaces would be utilized, according to a Success Academy spokesman.

There is demand in the area, according to the charter school network. Success Academy received about 850 applications from parents who live in School District 14 and roughly 550 applications from parents who live in nearby District 16, the spokesman added.

While some detractors pushed back against a co-location, others outright protested another Success Academy in the neighborhood. Anonline petition was launched in Novemberobjecting the proposal.

Parents criticized Success Academy’s methods Thursday, recalling their children's past experiences at the schools and saying the network does not adequately provide for special needs students.

Robert Gilliam, whose 10-year-old son attended Success Academy Bed-Stuy 1 a block away on Tompkins Avenue, said his son was “broken” and “devastated” by his time at the charter school.

His son, Jordan, was in need of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and did not receive the services he needed at Success, Gilliam said.

“For about six months, everything was fine. Once his reading comprehension went down and he had to get an IEP, everything changed,” Gilliam said. “He got disregarded like a piece of rag.”

The staff at P.S. 297 helped Jordan in his transition, he added, and the proposed new charter school would take what little space the elementary school has.

“Success is nothing but a money game. It’s nothing but about the numbers,” Gilliam said.

A Success Academy spokesman cited a survey administered by the DOE last year, in which 98 percent of Success Academy parents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the overall education their kids were receiving.

In addition, 15 percent of Success Academy students last year were listed as children with disabilities, he said. 

The charter school chain has recently faced criticism for singling out poor-performing or difficult students. Supporters have praised the network for students' high performance.

Another parent, Shanna Charles, said her experience at Success Academy Bed-Stuy 2 was “horrible,” with her son being suspended twice a month and the staff trying to “push him out.”

“Success Academy does not need to be inside P.S. 297,” Charles said. “This community has suffered enough.

“The only thing we should try to do in this community is try to build it up — and Success Academy is not a part of that.”

Teachers and students echoed similar sentiments, with many arguing that the proposed space for the charter school could be used for P.S. 297’s expansion.

“Why shouldn’t we be afforded the opportunity to grow our students beyond the fifth grade?” asked guidance counselor Jessica Cashman.

“Why do we have to let them go when we have the space to possibly make ourselves bigger and better than we already are?”

In addition to P.S. 297, the building currently provides space for community organization Good Shepherd and previously housed The Ethical Community Charter School, whichshuttered at the end of June.

Now, the building serves approximately 256 students from the elementary school, making it “under-utilized” since it has the capacity for 659 students, according to the DOE.

Parents, teachers and community members can weigh in on the proposal by sending comments to D14Proposals@schools.nyc.gov or by calling 212-374-0208.  

The Panel for Educational Policy is scheduled to vote on the plan at 6 p.m. on Dec. 16 at the High School of Fashion Industries at 225 W. 24th St.

ESEA/ESSA Pushed by UFT/AFT/NYSUT After Supporting No Child Left Behind and RTTT

Wait - they want to take the power from the fed ed dept (Obama/Duncan) and hand it over to the mostly right wing state anti-union governments? And even those not right wing might as well be - ahem - see one Andrew Cuomo.

Our great union leaders want you to forget how they sold the very ed laws they are not trashing. The major reason they want you to support the  ESSA/ESEA - (the old act renamed) - is that it gets rid of aspects of NCLB and Race to the Top that our union leaders supported in the first place.

Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator: ESSA--Now Less Crappy than Before


I'm not even sure it is less crappy than before in the hands of the states.

Jim Horn at Schools Matter:

•  ECAA "would set the country back more than a half century" 

• The Good News: ECAA Will Bring an Era of Open Rebellion.

• Say NO to ECAA (Escalating Charter Assistance Act)...
• ESEA Will Mean 50 Fronts in the War Against Corpor...
• NPE Turns "Opposition" to ESEA into Fund-Raising O...

 I love the Escalating Charter Assistance Act - which the state governments will enforce with gusto. No wonder groups like E4E support it.


Also see James Eterno at ICE:

STRONGER TOGETHER NOT CELEBRATING EVERY CHILD SUCCEEDS ACT

I would rename this as Every Child Succeeds or Off With the Heads of Teachers of those who don't succeed. And let's keep the definition of "succeed" a moving target so we can push out union teachers.

Our leaders at the time of NCLB in 2004 had their little stool at the table and urged passage of the act.


Ed Notes, (the hard copy) was on the case at that time:

Subject: No Child Left Behind- Ed Notes, March 2004
Reacting to Federal Guidelines, the state of Florida, which has been high- lighted as a role model for student testing by the Bush Administrationʼs Department of Education has released the following memo: 

In response to President Bushʼs Federal No Child Left Behind Act, stu- dents will have to pass it to be promoted to the next grade level. It will be uniformly adopted by all the states, thus illuminating Florida to a glorious front runner position in education, it will be called: the Federal Arithmetic and Reading Test (FART). 

All students who cannot pass a FART in the second grade will be retested in grades 3-5 until such a time as they are capable of achieving a FART score of 80%. If a student does not successfully FART by grade 5, that student shall be placed in a separate English program, the Special Mastery Elective for Learning language (SMELL). 

If with this increased SMELL program the student cannot pass the required FART, he or she can graduate to middle school by taking a one-semester course in Comprehensive Reading and Arithmetic Preparation (CRAP). 

If by age fourteen the student cannot FART, SMELL or CRAP, he will earn his promotion in an intensive one-week seminar This is the Preparatory Reading for Unprepared Nationally Exempted Students (PRUNES). 

It is the opinion of the Florida Department of Public Instruction that an intensive week of PRUNES will enable any student to FART, SMELL or CRAP.
This revised provision of the student-testing component of the House Bill 110 should help clear the air.

And I published this piece by Greg Palast

NO CHILDʼS BEHIND LEFT: The New
Educational Eugenics In George
Bushʼs State of the Union by Greg Palast

Education Notes March/April 2004 

Go ahead, George, and lie to me. Lie to my dog. Lie to my sister. But donʼt you ever lie to my kids. 

Deep into your State of the Siege lecture tonight, long after sensible adults had turned off the tube or kicked in the screen, you came after our children. “By passing the No Child Left Behind Act,” you said, “We are regularly testing every child ... and making sure they have better options when schools are not performing.” 

You said it ... and then that little tongue came out; that weird way you stick your tongue out between your lips like the little kid who knows heʼs fibbing. Like a snake licking a rat. I saw that snakey tongue dart out and I thought, “He knows.” 

And what you know, Mr. Bush, is this: youʼve ordered this testing to hunt down, identify and target for destruction the hopes of millions of children you find too expensive, too heavy a burden, to educate. 

Hereʼs how No Child Left Behind and your tests work in the classrooms of Houston and Chicago. Millions of 8 year olds are given lists of words and phrases. They try to read. Then they are graded, like USDA beef: some prime, some OK, many failed. 

Once the kids are stamped and sorted, the parents of the marked children ask for you to fill your tantalizing promise, to “make sure they have better options when schools are not performing.” 

But there is no “better option,” is there, Mr. Bush? Whereʼs the money for the better schools to take in the kids getting crushed in cash-poor districts? Whereʼs the open door to the suburban campuses with the big green lawns for the dark kids with the test-score mark of Cain? 

And if I bring up the race of the kids with the low score, donʼt get all snippy with me, telling me your program is color blind. We know the color of the kids left behind; and itʼs not the color of the kids you went to school with at Philips Andover Academy. 

You know and I know that the testing is a con. There is no “better option” at the other end. The cash went to end the inheritance tax, that special program to give every millionaireʼs son another million. 

But youʼll tell me, you took tests as a youth. I know you did. And you scored on the Air Guard flight 
test 25 out of 100, one point above too dumb to fly. But you zoomed past the other would-be flyboys. They were stamped, “Ready for ʻNam.”

And you took a test to get into Yale. And though your pet rock scored a wee bit higher than you, your grandpa on the Yale board provided the “better option” which got you in. 

Here in New York City, your educational Taliban, led by Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has issued an edict to test the third-graders. Winnow out the chaff - the kids stamped ʻfailedʼ - and throw them back, exactly where they started, to repeat the same failed program another year. The ugly little irony is this: the core of No Child Left Behind is that failing children will be left behind another year. And another year and another year. 

You know and I know that this is not an educational opportunity program - because you offer no opportunities, no hope, no plan, no funding. Rather, it is the new Republican social Darwinism, educational eugenics: identify the nationʼs loser-class early on. Trap them, then train them cheap. 

No Child Left Behind is of one piece with the tax cuts for the rich, the energy laws for the insid- ers, the oil wars for the well-off. Someone has to care for the privileged. No society can have winners without lots of losers - but drug-free, functional and cheaply maintained. 

And so we have No Child Left Behind - to provide the new worker drones that will clean the toilets at the Yale Alumni Club, punch the cash registers color-coded for illiterates, and pamper the winner- class on the higher floors of the new economic order. 

Greg Palast is author of, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,” which has returned this week to the New York Times bestseller list. View Palastʼs writings for Harperʼs, The Guardian (UK) and BBC television at www.GregPalast.com.
You can also see this article on- line: http://www.gregpalast.com/ detail.cfm?artid=310&frm=eml 

ED. NOTE: Teachers, parents and academics have come together to fight against the evil doer perpe- trators of NCLB and the 3rd grade retention policy. Join them! 

UPDATED: How Many Unity Slugs Does it Take to Run an Election? UFT Election Committee Formed

And the answer is . .....

A UFT election committee has been formed.

The members serving are:

Unity Caucus: Amy Arundell, Chair; Dwayne Clark, Ellen Driesen, Paul Egan, Washington Sanchez*, Mary Vaccaro


MORE/New Action: Kit Wainer, Michael Shulman

Solidarity: Quinn Zannoni

This committee makes the decisions governing election procedures. Meaning Unity makes the decisions because they get 6 people and can outvote the others.

Some guesses about the election timetable.

Jan. 13 Del Ass: Petitions are made available.
Each Caucus has about 6 weeks to complete the process of petitioning, which, unless you are running a minimal slate, is a royal pain in the ass. Over the years we have discussions as to whether to try to run hundreds of people or a smaller slate to make petitioning more manageable.

Expect ballots to go out in early- mid-March and returned 3 weeks later.

This is the official opening of the election campaign and until the day the ballots are counted every UFT member has the right to go into any school and put material in the mailboxes.

[I have never accepted this judgement and go into schools to put stuff in mail boxes when I can get in. And I often can.]

In reality, schools are not always notified by the DOE that you have that right - the Unity crew is perfectly happy with that since they have the district reps stuff mailboxes with glossy Unity election material bragging how great Mulgrew is in schools where they don't have anyone.

So when you go in you often are told you have no right - often by a Unity chapter leader.

Then you call the UFT to complain and they call the DOE to tell the school you have the right which can take a few days and then you have to go back.
And then you find that a Unity slug - like Patti Crispino - pulls all your stuff out of the mailboxes. Or tells Security not to let you in again.

Very important for our reps to raise immediately at this meeting: 

Notifying every principal that starting Jan. 13 (if that is the day petitions are released) through the day ballots are counted in April or May that we have the right to go into schools to put materials directly into mailboxes. Not leave it with someone, etc.

We need to stress this point time and again so our people do not waste time arguing with secretaries or having to come back.

We also need the UFT to notify all chapter leaders of this fact so we don't get Unity people claiming we don't have the right.

Announcements must be made at the DA and in the NY Teacher.

Also - the use of district reps who are UFT employees for stuffing mailboxes should be raised.

Naturally, you have the right to hand out lit in your own schools at any time - though your chapter leader may tell you you don't.


*You'll notice my favorite Unity whipping boy slug/goon, Washington Sanchez. Now there's a fair and balanced guy. Putting this guy on this committee is an insult to every UFT member. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Due to my respect for James Eterno (see his comment below) I removed some of the comments about Washington Sanchez. James is a very forgiving guy. Washington was one of the goons who tried to stop James from watching the vote at the NYSUT 2014 RA at the Hilton - when Sanchez tried to stop me I ignored him and he kept confronting me until Emil Pietromanco broke it up.

He was also the guy who confronted my at the AFT convention in Seattle for attending a Progressive Caucus meeting - assuming I had crashed it when in fact I had paid my $25 to join. When he appoints himself as Sargent at arms and plays the part of a goon he will not escape from scrutiny.

Choosing Among Megalomaniacs for President

They grant him all of the virtues that you’ve observed, but tell you that he’s the antithesis of a team player. His thirst for the spotlight is unquenchable. His arrogance is unalloyed. He actually takes pride in being abrasive, as if a person’s tally of detractors measures his fearlessness, not his obnoxiousness. Do you hire this applicant?... Frank Bruni, NY Times

NY Times columnist Frank Bruni knows nothing about education - actually his columns on education are cause for the category of "laugh out loud." I've done a few pieces on the Bruni joke:

• Ed Notes Online: August 2015

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.html

Aug 31, 2015 - Great shot at the NY Times' ed-no-nothing Frank Bruni by Kevin Prosen, who is one of the most knowledgeable and effective chapter leaders at ...

• Ed Notes Online: The Trouble With Frank Bruni

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-trouble-with-frank-bruni.html

Aug 20, 2014 - Joining the anti-teacher fray is former NY Times food writer Frank Bruni, another clueless NY Times columnist writing on education (see David ...

• Ed Notes Online: Frank Bruni Coddles Ed Deformers 

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../frank-bruni-coddles-ed-deformers.html

Nov 27, 2013 - NY Times restaurant critic/columnist Frank Bruni has some propaganda piece out about the Common Core State (sic) Standards that equates ...

• Ed Notes Online: The Daily Howler on Frank Bruni Piece on ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../the-daily-howler-on-frank-bruni-piece.ht...

Oct 30, 2013 - What is worth noting about the Colorado ed story and the Bruni article is ... Everyone knows about schools: Frank Bruni doesn't seem to know a ...

So I basically won't read Bruni pieces in the Times because when he knows nothing about something I know why should I believe he knows anything about things I don't know?

Maybe one has to be a MegaloM to run for top office but these guys (and mostly they are guys) are scary stuff, but Bruni caught my eye with this piece about the apparently despicable Ted Cruz.

His freshman roommate, Craig Mazin, told Patricia Murphy of The Daily Beast: “I would rather have anybody else be the president of the United States. Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book.”

This quote is even more telling:

The political strategist Matthew Dowd, who worked for Bush back then, tweeted that “if truth serum was given to the staff of the 2000 Bush campaign,” an enormous percentage of them “would vote for Trump over Cruz.”

Holy crap. Even crypto-fascist Trump over Cruz? (Is Donald Trump a Fascist?)

Anyone but Ted Cruz

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/opinion/anyone-but-ted-cruz.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

Hey, since Bruni is so interested in education, maybe he will do a column  on the presidential election in the UFT. He wouldn't have to do much rewriting.

Randi/AFT/Mulgrew/UFT/E4E Join Deformers in Supporting ESEA (ECAA -Escalating Charter Assistance Act)

Weingarten works tirelessly to advance the agendas of billionaire pseudo philanthropists at the expense of union members who pay her salary. The teachers of my acquaintance have no use for standardized testing and the unending test preparation it engenders. They do not require national comparisons of student achievement. Every week contradictory mandates are handed down to the lowly teaching serfs.... Abigail Shure, Newark Teacher

Schools Matter

ECAA "would set the country back more than a half century" -

The requirement that a state “annually measure the achievement of not less than 95 percent of all students… who are enrolled in public schools” (page 88) on the annual assessments is still in place. The federal government is trying to force the testing without taking responsibility for forcing the testing. Now, there is the creative option for parents (or districts) to un-enroll their children during testing and re-enroll once testing is over.
With the continued testing mandate in this ESSA, the federal government should anticipate an opt-out showdown... Mercedes Schneider

More from Jim Horn at Schools Matter:

Say NO to ECAA (Escalating Charter Assistance Act)

Now that NPE, Fairtest, NEA, and AFT have bought the ESEA bag of radioactive rocks with the liar's promise of gold inside, it is best for them to pretend this deadly gift is going to make us all well. 
Don't be fooled.  Billions are guaranteed for segregated charter privatization to expand exponentially (see pp. 518-575), with charter authorization taken out of the hands of LEAs.
Call Congress and remind them that this bill will unleash an era of resistance and civil disobedience they have never seen.

Help NPE Action STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill

Now let's hear from the ed deform peanut gallery 

Educators4Excellence ‏@Ed4Excellence 12h12 hours ago

We support the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reflects many teacher priorities: http://www.educators4excellence.org/news/2015-12-educators-4-excellence-supports-passage-of-the-every-student-succeeds-act … #ESEA

UFT ‏@UFT 7h7 hours ago

Support real change in education. Tell Congress to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act - https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-to-support-the-every-student-succeeds-act-of-2015 …

  

 Michael Mulgrew:

Congress is now set to vote on a new education bill that will get the federal government out of the business of teacher evaluations and offers real relief from the testing fixation that has increasingly narrowed the curriculum and done little to close the achievement gap.
Please ask your House representative to vote "YES" to support the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015.
 

So which side is Mulgrew/Randi/AFT/UFT on? Naturally she lines up with the ed deform slugs of E4E.

Funny, but NPE keeps asking her to play a role at their yearly conference. Isn't it time to dis-invite Randi?

Here is a message from our Ed Notes' Newark stringer:

AFT President Randi Weingarten cordially invites her union members to contact their representatives and senators to voice their support of ESEA. I regret to inform Her Majesty that she will not have the honor of my presence at the festivities. In the spirit of full disclosure; I am not a general. I am not an attorney. I am not a labor organizer. I am a teacher member of the NTU/AFT and I am not an advocate of the reauthorization of ESEA. Whereas, Weingarten claims that turning over authority to states is a "sea change in education policy," I fail to see the advantage of the strategy of fighting a fifty front war (fifty one with the inclusion of Puerto Rico) when we have failed to energize our troops to combat education reform on a federal level.

The two states I observe most closely are New Jersey and New York. There is no evidence of any encouraging news for advocates of public education emanating from either Trenton, or Albany. Governor Christie has succeeded in gutting the one hundred year old tenure law aided and abetted by Democrat State Senator Ruiz. My own position has been jeopardized by this development as I labor under a CAP. Governor Cuomo is battling the public school monopoly with the assistance of Democrat and Republican state legislators alike.

Weingarten works tirelessly to advance the agendas of billionaire pseudo philanthropists at the expense of union members who pay her salary. The teachers of my acquaintance have no use for standardized testing and the unending test preparation it engenders. They do not require national comparisons of student achievement. Every week contradictory mandates are handed down to the lowly teaching serfs.

In the local arena, Weingarten has implemented every possible method to screw Newark public school teachers. Hurricane Katrina has hit Newark full force as charter schools spring up in a vacant parking lot and a Teacher Village. Innovations of merit pay and frozen steps arrive with Weingarten's blessing.

An early endorsement of corporatist Hillary Clinton for president is Weingarten's most glaring misstep thus far. I, for one, wish to file for a divorce from Weingarten and her misguided policies. If Weingarten is for it, I am against it. Contact your Congressmen and Congresswomen to voice your opposition to ESEA. It is too early to sing Kumbaya.

Abigail Shure

Mercedes Schneider: Here is the Proposed Federal Law

By dianeravitch

December 1, 2015 

Mercedes Schneider here offers the latest version of the new federal law that will replace No Child Left Behind. Prepare yourself. It is over 1,000 pages. Look for the titles that interest you. Any law that is so long has all sorts of political compromises tucked into it, and all sorts of favors to lobbyists and special interests. It is a Christmas tree, just in time for Christmas.

In this post, Mercedes analyzes the latest draft, the one that came out of the House-Senate conference committee and will likely be made law.