#MORE2016 @NYCORE: Building a Teacher Movement Through the UFT Elections

MORE and Change the Stakes is involved in 3 workshops at next week's NYCORE conference which is expected to attract a 1000 attendees. I'll be there taping the keynote and hanging out with lots of good people.  Here is the message sent out by Presidential candidate Jia Lee.

Dear Friends!

MORE is excited to be hosting, once again, at NYCoRE's Conference Day, held on Saturday, March 19th (9:30-6:00)
Location: James Baldwin School, 351 West 18th Street Manhattan, NY 10011

Workshop Session 2 (2-3:30): Building a Teacher Movement Through the UFT Elections ECE, MH 106 

The 2016 UFT Elections this April is an opportunity to organize and mobilize rank and file teachers in NYC. Last election, less than 20% of active members voted. This is indicative of a mass sentiment of disempowerment and lack of voice in our union and profession. Join the Movement of Rank and File educators for a discussion on the nuts and bolts of the election, as well as a historical context. Participants will collaborate around strategies to get out the vote and to spark conversations at their schools around how our working conditions directly impact our students’ learning conditions.

AND PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT DISCUSSION! It's time to put an end to Receivership NOW! 

Workshop Session 3 (3:45-5:15pm): Receivership Schools: Stop the Policy NOW! MH, ECE 101

Under recently passed laws, schools that are categorized as falling in the bottom 5% of “low performing” schools can be placed into receivership, where the state will appoint an “independent receiver.” This can be a person or organization, including a charter chain, to run the school.  The receiver has authority to change the calendar, dictate instructional approaches and remove staff. Of the 144 schools on the NYS Receivership list, 62 of them in NYC. Members of the NYS Receivership and NYC Renewal Schools Action Group and Change the Stakes are working together to discredit and end the NYS Receivership policy.
Aixa Rodriguez: Teaches ESL at Foreign Language Academy for Global Studies,in the Bronx. Jane Maisel: Member of Change the Stakes & teaches in School of Education at CCNY.

AND Please Join the parents and educators of NYC Opt Out 

Workshop Session 1: (11:15-12:45) NYC Opt Out: This is the Crucial Year!
101

Last spring approximately 20% of NYS families opted out of the Grade 3-8 high stakes tests. Despite all our efforts to stop NYS Education Department’s damaging policies, the only protest the NYSED has noticed is Opt Out. In response, NYSED has recently tried to stifle protest with a combination of threats and superficial changes, while leaving in place the most damaging aspects of high stakes testing, which hit low-income communities hardest. In this practical session we will share strategies and plan together. Those from outside NYC are also welcome. It’s time to finally end high stakes testing!  

KEYNOTE: Bettina Love featuring Justis Lopez

Register Today!

Check out Schedule

 

A (Tiring) Day of Robotics at Javits

Masters of ceremonies Mareen and John flank one of my favorite coaches, Eric Greene, who ended up winning the Championship after 14 years as a coach. He will be taking his team to St. Louis for the internationals. Retired NYC teacher and master coach Veryl Greene (no relation) mentored the team.

Congrats to Eric Greene and mentor Veryl Greene (no relation) for winning the New York City FLL championship yesterday. Eric, after 14 years of coaching, is taking his school from St. Albans, Queens to the international event in St. Louis.

Boy am I wiped. I dragged myself into the house at 7 last night without chills, without a voice and very hungry. This was my 15th year at a FIRST LEGO League robotic championship, the last 14 as volunteer. I became a volunteer for FLL soon after I retired in 2002, so I am pretty attuned to the support and lack of from the DOE over this time. I'll get to this in a followup post but first I posted this on facebook with my photos:

Oh what a day yesterday at the FIRST Lego league (age 9-14) 80 team event, Junior FLL (age 6-9) and 3 day first robotics high schools from as far away as London, Brazil and Far Rockaway at Javits convention center Saturday March 12.

To make it clear, there are 3 concurrent events.

FIRST LEGO League was an all-day event on Saturday with 80 teams, including public, charter, private, neighborhood home-schooled teams and for profit orgs where parents pay to enroll their kids on a team. I have seen the public school share of teams drop drastically over the years I have been involved, which spans the years from Harold Levy through Bloomberg and Di Blasio. I will address this issue in another post, especially since Carmen Farina spoke and lamented the fact that the event was not dominated by public schools -- she should look in the mirror if she's looking for a reason.

The high school kids (FRC), who come from many public NYC schools  began to arrive Thursday evening  to set up their pit areas. Friday was for practice and tuning their robots. Saturday and Sunday was the competition. I went back to the FRC pits on Friday and was surprised to see a team from Far Rockaway HS Campus, the Queens HS for Information, Research and Technology. The students beamed when my pal Tony Homsey told them we were from Rockaway. I asked if they knew Jeff Kaufman who is not teaching socials studies and coding at the school and they were so excited at the mention of his name. Saturday Jeff,  who is running on the MORE slate for Exec Bd at Large, did come and we had a great chat with a lot of insight about a small school with a good principal who Jeff admires. In all my years of knowing Jeff I have never heard him say nice things about his principal. This guy must be gold. Jeff introduced me to the coach who also happens to read my School Scope column in The Wave. What a task he has taken on to do this work. The team, which won the FIRST rookie award, is called Birch Bots. Here are some photos I took of the team:

A team member collecting memos.

So many people I knew stopped by the pit admin station where I was on duty all day, including Sterling Roberson from the UFT. Farina spoke at the opening but I was too busy to go over and hear her.  My question to Farina and the UFT:  Do they offer real support or a photo op?

More photos:

 Here are some Junior FLL photos at their exhibition for ages 6-9.

The participation medals - long time Staten Island coach Ray Cottrell, center

Old pal Laura Allen of RoboFun stopped by.

Popular every year: Talking robot

The pits

It really was the longest day. After a Friday night of revelry at the

The kids at the RTC

Rockaway Theatre Company gala event at El Caribe, it was out of the house at 6:30 to pick up fellow volunteer Tony Homsey. We didn't get back to Rockaway until 7 PM. I had and have no voice, which my wife is celebrating.

UFT Elections: It's Mostly Over - For Me

I won't leave until the Viennese table tonite

Now that I've completed my main task for MORE - Petitionology - UFT Elections/#MORE2016 -my role will be like the Car Talk Chauffer - PickUP AnDropoff - which I did yesterday by picking up boxes of MORE/New Action leaflets at the printer and dropped off to get them out of my hands so I am not tempted to do too much more work over the next 2 months until the ballots are counted - though I expect to be there for the count because that is so much fun watching the retiree vote come in in droves.

You know I don't think much of UFT elections other than they are a chore that must be done.

I am not a fan of stuffing mailboxes in hundreds of schools because I think it basically doesn't get many votes. As you know I believe you get votes not in an election but between elections by organizing schools. To me the election is a temperature check of how well that work has been going. If MORE and New Action pull the same combined numbers as last time then there are lessons to be learned from the outcome -- if they want to continue to challenge Unity in an election forum they cannot win they must focus on expanding their school organizing. Otherwise follow my advice and don't run.

Until the election is over and we can analyze the outcome I can focus on my other interests, most of which involve other volunteer organizations like MORE is. I love working in volunteer orgs.
The Rockaway Theatre Company - I have a role in Follies opening in June- building the sets, etc. 

Robotics in FIRST LEGO League, gardening at my house and maybe helping out at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and maybe seeking new ventures like learning how to do some landscape painting.

Look at my upcoming schedule over the next week.

This morning I took a hot yoga class.
I came home and did some preliminary spring pruning and cleaning up in my garden.
I'm leaving soon for the Javits convention center to help set up for tomorrows 80 team FLL tournament. We will be there from 2-6 and then it is off to the Rockaway Theatre Company gala annual dinner at El Carib in Brooklyn with a cast of hundreds.
Tomorrow morning we're off at 6:30 AM to Javits where we will be working until 6PM.
Sunday is a day of rest, as is most of the rest of the week other than going to Book of Mormon curtesy of cousin Dan who is taking my wife and I to the show.
Saturday March 19 I am videotaping the NYCORE keynote at their conference which is expected to attract 1000 people and MORE is having a workshop.
Sunday night is dinner with the old 1970s crew of people.
Tuesday night is my writing group meeting.
Wed is the DA followed by the MORE happy hour - I look at the DA as a social event.

For me a light couple of weeks.

My theory is you have to be like a shark - keep moving to stay alive. And eating anything in sight, which tonight at the RTC dinner I will do to excess - I won't leave until the Viennese table no matter how early I have to get up tomorrow morning.

MORE Candidate Jake Jacobs: Hillary’s Current Ed Advisor Was Behind NCLB

Could O’Leary be on the short list for US Secretary of Education, seeing how John Podesta actually makes the determination? And how jarring is it that the unions have quietly been part of this?... Jake Jacobs

One reason teachers who are paying attention to ed deformers are opposed to voting for Hillary, is a record of supporting ed deform going back to the early 80s in Arkansas. I was interviewed by a reporter for a major national newspaper today and the Hillary/Randi connection is the subject of his piece. Boy did I give him an earful by showing how our union has backed versions of ed deform since the early 80s.

Jake Jacobs is running with MORE for Executive Board at large. Jake comes from the BATS. Mercedes Schneider picked up this story on her blog which I repost below.

Jake's piece touches base with why so many teachers are rejecting Hillary, some even willing to go Trump. I received these 2 comments from readers as an example.

I made my decision. Not sure about any other Bernie supporters but if I have to choose between Trump and Hilary I hold my nose and vote for Trump. I'd rather cut off my nose than vote for Hilary. I will not reward corporate whore democrats with my vote...

I will vote for Sanders in primary. I will vote for Trump over Clinton and head straight to my internment camp...

Jake's work here reminds me of why I am proud to be part of a group like MORE that can attract people like him.

https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/nycs-jake-jacobs-hillarys-current-ed-advisor-was-behind-nclb/

March 9, 2016

The following post comes compliments of Jake Jacobs, New York City art teacher.
  Jake Jacobs
***

HILLARY’S CURRENT EDUCATION ADVISOR WAS BEHIND NCLB?

Jake Jacobs

If you were shocked by the 2012 John Podesta/Jeb Bush video where the biggest Obama, Clinton and Bush fundraisers effectively called a truce over corporate education reform, be sitting for this one: Last June, Fortune magazine featured Ann O’Leary, “the wonk shaping Hillary’s plans for the country.”

In charge of economic and education issues for Hillary, O’Leary is an ivy educated lawyer and senior fellow at Center for American Progress (CAP) who served in Obama’s transition team and most recently worked for billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, a perennial Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegate and board member at CAP. From the article:

“O’Leary’s connection to the Clintons dates back to the ’90s, when she worked in the White House…O’Leary is a diehard policy wonk, especially keen on anything that affects families or education. As Clinton’s Senate aide in 2001, she was at the center of No Child Left Behind — a once popular education initiative that has since soured in the public mind.

“It was a really important moment,” she says of the law, which Ted Kennedy crafted and George W. Bush signed. “When you look back at what happened, this was serious, bipartisan, constructive work. We were committed to high standards and helping states get there.”

Implementation, she concedes, has been a rocky road — and she praises bipartisan reform proposals. On the newest flashpoint in education, Common Core, she notes that it was an initiative created by governors, not Washington, and notes that it has worked better in states like California, where cautious implementation preceded any focus on test-taking.”

O’Leary, like John Podesta, looks across the aisle to find agreement, for example on the issue of single-parent homes:

“…one place where she is staking out fresh ground..[t]he percent of children being raised by single parents at the middle and lower end of the income ladder…Conservatives have long cited research showing the link between family structure and income mobility. O’Leary gets this, and in our interview offered numbers to prove her point. “You will hear Hillary Clinton talk about this,” she says. “Even saying it out loud is important.”

THE SHELL GAME: O’Leary is co-founder of the Opportunity Institute, a nonprofit that seeks to promote legislation to help children and families from “cradle to grave.” Some goals seem noble, like parental leave and teen pregnancy prevention, but what about K-12 education?

Here it splinters into another organization called Partners for Each and Every Child (sound familiar?) and it gets reformy, looking for “strong policies” to improve “student outcomes”, taking aim at teachers, schools, families and communities. They talk about lobbying all 50 states to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and define Community Schools, providing “infrastructure” such as policy drafts, staff, research and communications, while the larger CAP octopus directs campaign cash, astroturfing and revolving door jobs.

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND: The “Partners” group itself is chock full of ex-Duncan aides, ex-Clinton administration officials and CAP associates, but in particular, key staffers from the US Dept. of Ed’s Civil Rights division, such as Molly Mauer, Guy Johnson and Andrew Amore.

This is very interesting in light of the recent battle over federally mandated annual tests in the recent ESSA law, where “civil rights groups” formed the supposed firewall for keeping annual tests, even after it became clear that the rank and file in these same groups opposed the tests. “Partners” touts their alliances with civil rights organizations, elected officials and state and local education officials, the type they indubitably hire after leaving office.

The funding for this group is no surprise, coming from the Gates, Carnegies, Hewletts and Ford foundations, but also from the AFT and NEA, meaning this is “teachers” money, used since at least 2013 as part of the CAP crusade to set up what Politico has called Hillary’s “policy shop in waiting.”

IT GETS WEIRDER: This part doesn’t involve education, but Ann O’Leary’s marriage to California Supreme Court judge Goodwin Liu became an issue when Hillary’s emails were released. They revealed that O’Leary asked Hillary in 2009 to get Obama to nominate her husband for the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Hillary did so, but had O’Leary write two sets of talking points for her, one meant for White House counsel painting Liu as “more liberal” while another set was sent to Sen. Feinstein making him sound “not too liberal”.

Liu’s 2010 nomination was withdrawn after a Republican filibuster, but this illustrates not only how super-tight Hillary is with O’Leary, but how much Hillary was actually influencing Obama right from the start.

Could O’Leary be on the short list for US Secretary of Education, seeing how John Podesta actually makes the determination? And how jarring is it that the unions have quietly been part of this?

(Click image to enlarge.)

Petitionology - UFT Elections/#MORE2016: Today is Final Day to File Petitions to get on Ballot

Gloria and me getting ready to eat

What me worry? We are done. Gloria Brandman, Michael Shulman and I handed thousands of pages of petitions to Amy Arundel and Ray Frankel at the UFT yesterday afternoon.We've been seeing Ray for over 40 years at these things and seeing her still doing this work even if she is on the other side is still a treat. Ray has to be pushing - I better not even try to guess her age but I hope she is still there in 2019.

I am free, free at last from the burden of organizing and managing the MORE/New Action petition campaign.

Call me a petitionologist. One of the few things I am an expert at.

We needed 900 for our officer slate. We got 1800. For the
divisional Ex Bd positions - elem (11), middle (5), high schools (7) and functionals (19) - we needed 100 for each of the 42 candidates and we were getting so many signatures we told people to stop gathering signatures. Look at the petition. It only holds around 40 signatures and to get to 1800 you can imagine how big a stack that is.

The UFT Executive Board is made up of these 42 plus 48 Ex bd at large (any UFT member can sign) plus the 12 officers.

We had so many great candidates we had to prune our list. All our other 200 candidates are running for the AFT/NYSUT RA delegates. Thus we have roughly 300 people on the slate.

We monitored the numbers every week so we knew where we stood. The amount of coordination, especially since we were working with New Action, was at times intense. Having NAC's experienced Jonathan Halabi as a partner on this made a big difference as we gathered and coordinated the information from 300 hundred candidates. And we could have had many more if we wanted but given the time frame and work involved we decided to save an entire forest by cutting things off at 300.

The only way I can get a project like this done is to obsess about it obsessively. So my mind has been cluttered over the planning and execution and now I can rest.

We were actually done on Saturday. They came by planes, trains and automobiles - and by foot to deliver piles of petitions all day.
We brought in a great team, including the always awesome Julie Woodward who used to write the Under Assault blog who comes out of retirement every 3 years to help us review and organize the petitions. Julie, Pat and David Dobosz, Gloria, Dan Doyle, Kit Wainer, Ashraya Gupta, Michael Shulman, Jonathan Halabi and others did yeoman work. Every one of our AFT delegate were put in folders in alphabetical order.

And our team did an amazing job, working from 10AM to 4PM. Still, I am always concerned until we actually turn over the petitions. Fires, floods and who knows what else can wipe you off a slate. I made sure not to leave the petitions in Rockaway in case a sudden Sandy hurricane or tsunami hit. (Yes I am that crazy.) I had to shlep a suitcase full down to 52 Broadway.
 I feel I have become an expert at organizing an effective petition campaign for UFT elections, which began Feb. 3. I wrote about it then: #MORE2016 - UFT Election Season is At Hand - Petitioning begins today through end of May. With the mid-winter break in the middle of the campaign our people had to hustle to get it all done with time to spare. Special thanks to Roseanne McCosh at PS 8X for chipping in with a good number of signatures. And to one of our own heroes Dan Lupkin at PS 58 for getting 14 people in his school to run and for coming in with a major batch of sigs. Also to Kevin Prosen at IS 230Q for delivering BIG numbers. Julie Cavanagh at PS 15k and Kit Wainer/Mike Schirtzer at Leon Goldstein and Arthur Goldstein at Francis Lewis HS plus our crew at Fort Hamilton HS also came up HUGE.

This is the 4th straight petitioning campaign I have organized since 2007, 10 (ICE) and 2013, 2016 (MORE).

I honed my strategy based on these experiences - what went right, what went wrong - see, experience does count.

This time, rather than view petitioning as a burden, we asked people to use their time as an organizing tool to tell people about the election and why MORE is running. We hope that in our schools where people actively petitioned that will translate into votes in May. But who knows? If our people don't engage their colleagues from now through the end of May to get them to vote it won't make much difference.

One thing we know. Unity will pull out all stops to win everything and you will see your teacher mailboxes flooded with Mulgrew literature. In addition you will be getting visits from Unity slugs under the guise of union business, which to me is a violation of some sort but other than complain, what can we do about it?

Another angle Unity has is that they get all the petitions and can see which schools we have strength in and they can then focus their people on targeting these schools for visits and extra literature.

But thus is the nature of the Unity machine and why they are so hard to make a dent in. But MORE will continue to challenge them throughout this election and beyond. It ain't over till it's over.

After we were done we went down to the 3rd floor cafeteria with Michael Shulman to enjoy a celebratory meal. Now it's on the the election campaign and a massive distribution of literature to the schools which we have the right to go into to put lit in the mail boxes.  If you want lit contact MORE or me.

I am a happy guy getting this mess off my hands

The Nation: Charter School Violence Spiked at Double the Rate of Public Schools

The despicable Families for Excellent Schools is exposed in this Nation piece. FES must disparage public schools to counter the Eva bad pub. Elizabeth Green at Chalkbeat carries Eva's water in a more subtle way - Beyond the viral video: Inside educators’ emotional debate about ‘no excuses’ discipline - but I'll get to that another time.

And let me know if you see a link to this article at Chalkbeat.

 Why Has Charter School Violence Spiked at Double the Rate of Public Schools?

Meanwhile, charter advocates continue to criticize the safety of traditional public schools.

A few weeks after The New York Times released a controversial video of a Success Academy Charter School teacher lashing out at a student, New York City’s deep-pocketed charter school advocates are looking to shift the public narrative on who is committing violence in city schools.

Over the last few weeks, Families for Excellent Schools, a charter school lobbying and advocacy group with close ties to Success Academy, has placed TV ads, held a press conference, and taken to social media, claiming New York City public schools are in a violent “state of emergency.” The charter school campaign appears to be a response to the public backlash that Success Academy has received for its controversial disciplinary approach.
 Taking state data, which includes “violent” incidents not involving the police, Families for Excellent Schools asserts that between 2014 and 2015 schools suffered a 23 percent uptick in violence. The public action was meant to undermine New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently claimed school violence has gone down, thanks to his administration’s softer disciplinary approach.
A Nation analysis of the charter school group’s data, however, suggests the move may backfire, since the numbers also show that charter schools themselves reported a far higher spike in incidents of school violence, 54 percent, more than double that of the public school average between the 2014 and 2015 school years.

MORE at: http://www.thenation.com/article/why-has-charter-school-violence-spiked-at-double-the-rate-of-public-schools/

Can Teacher Unions Pull Out the Vote for Hillary? Maybe Not

The UFT pro-Bernie crowd might have lived with Hillary if there was a fair and open debate in the UFT about who do endorse. The lack of democracy in the UFT/AFT/NYSUT will come back to bite them.  As Mike Antonucci points out below, the NEA and AFT did not deliver for Hillary in Michigan. Can NY be far behind?

The overwhelming union commitment of staff, money and resources to Hillary’s campaign should be producing overwhelming margins for her in union households, and helping her margins with other demographics. How impressed can she be with the relevancy and value of NEA and AFT if they can’t even deliver their own members?... Mike Antonucci, Intercepts

Yes, Mike is a libertarian anti-union commentator. But he always uncovers such nuggets.

With things heating up around the upcoming NY State primary, the UFT will pull out all stops to prove it can deliver for Hillary.

Tom Murphy who is chapter leader of the UFT retired teacher chapter, which pretty much controls the UFT elections, sent this out:

Volunteer to help Hillary Clinton win

Please join us to volunteer at our phone banks for Hillary Clinton on Monday, March 28 through Primary Day on Tuesday, April 19 to make calls to our members and fellow union members.
Sign up to volunteer »

Murphy used the traditional scare tactics about Trump, etc. The fact that Bernie was never put on the table as an option for UFT members will come back to bite Unity Caucus in the primary and beyond. I wonder if it will affect the UFT elections too. I can't think of one MORE person who had declared for Hillary though there are some leaners based on fear. One of our officer candidates, Mindy Rosier, it very active in the Bernie campaign and is running for delegate. How great would it be to see Mindy at the convention?

What I am getting from teachers is that given Hillary's ed deform background and loyalty to corporations and Wall Street they cannot vote for Hillary. Some say they would rather vote for Trump - and these are not right wingers. Others say they will go for a 3rd party. I am predicting troubles for Hillary in the NY State primary from not only a segment of UFT members but from all union members. Of course Hillary will probably win due to the African American vote, though in Michigan younger black voters under 40 went for Bernie.

Here is Mike's complete post:

African-American Voters Doing For Hillary What Unions Cannot

Posted: 09 Mar 2016 10:19 AM PST

I can always tell what kind of night it was for Hillary Clinton by heading over to the NEA and AFT web sites and checking the press releases. If NEA has one about its “robust, targeted, and well-organized communications and field programs” or AFT has one with a headline containing “Union Members Pivotal…” it means she won. If there is nothing, then the affected state has been dropped down the memory hole.

If you remember way back to last October, when the NEA board of directors approved the Clinton endorsement, the union distributed talking points to its activists to explain the decision. Among the reasons given were:

* “Acting now allows us to pick our champion, and build credibility with the campaign, and that candidate, while demonstrating our value as a real player with substantial political power to bring to the table. We need to ensure that our views are part of the conversation on policies and priorities – not to concede that space by sitting on the sidelines. Acting now gives us a valuable voice in the room early, and often when it comes to working with the next administration.”

* “When we waited until the RA vote in 2008, we were one of the last organizations to endorse Obama. This left us, and our key issues in a position of little relevancy to the candidate and excluded us from being part of the team. We’ve learned that when we don’t act soon enough, campaigns go around us and organize our members without us. By the time they receive our official recommendation, their platforms are developed and they are well on their way to winning or losing.”

So the idea was to prove relevancy and value to Clinton by demonstrating political power. The problem is that even in the states Hillary won, she captured the union household vote by relatively small margins. Last night, Bernie Sanders won the union household vote – 49% to 47% – in Michigan, of all places.

The overwhelming union commitment of staff, money and resources to Hillary’s campaign should be producing overwhelming margins for her in union households, and helping her margins with other demographics. How impressed can she be with the relevancy and value of NEA and AFT if they can’t even deliver their own members?

If Clinton wins the nomination, she will owe it to African-American voters, who are voting for her in waves the unions can only dream of. They are not only rescuing Clinton’s campaign, they are saving the unions from an embarrassing loss of face and backlash from rank-and-file members.

NEA and AFT’s best-case scenario now is a Clinton presidency, but one in which she owes them no special debt of gratitude – sort of like an Obama presidency. It could be worse, but they had much higher hopes.

Bernie Michigan Win Bodes Ill For Hillary in General Election

MSNBC was shocked that Muslims in Dearborn would vote for a Jew (in my neighborhood in Queens, Muslims vote in large numbers for my gay Jewish city councilman), that African-Americans in the Northern cities vote differently than in the rural South, or that blue collar whites would vote for a socialist.
538 said Hillary had a 99% chance of winning Michigan, but careful! You know how those Greek tragedies go when people think they've defied the Oracle... Kevin Prosen, MORE

Despite the media bias against Bernie - The Washington Post Ran 16 Negative Stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 Hours - Bernie won Michigan. [See below for links to all these stories]. So funny how the two most attacked candidates by the pundits and liberal press are Bernie and Donald. Maybe they should run as a tag-team.


I was shocked last night as the results came in from Michigan. I saw them as doom for Hillary and her surrogates like Randi. Not doom in terms of getting the nomination. With the super delegates that is a foregone conclusion. But the reality behind Bernie's resilience is a giant thumbs down on Hillary.

Now what I hear in the media is: Bernie surprise in Michigan, Hillary wins big in Mississippi.  WTF! Are these 2 states even equivalent in any way in terms of the general election? Someone pointed out that the colleges in Michigan are on spring break and that Bernie would have won even more decisively.

Scare tactics only go so far. And fear of Cruz or Trump seems to be making the Democrats confident that they can get the Bernie supporters to go for Hillary in desperation. Don't count those chickens just yet.

Imagine if Bernie wins more elected delegates and loses the nomination to the super delegates like Randi? How about the teachers who support Bernie and never got a chance to advocate for him in deliberations for which candidate the union would support? I can tell you they are pissed. And maybe pissed to such an extent as to sit out the election. Or vote for Jill Stein. People who follow this stuff know full well Hillary is an ed deformer and has been for 35 years. They just won't vote for another deformer like Obama.

Last night made me think that Trump can beat Hillary. You might be saying Oy Vey but wait till you read my post later or tomorrow where I delve into the issue of whether Trump is more supportive of the working class than Hillary. Just see how many people - Democrats especially - are saying they could support Trump or Bernie - like mixing matter and anti-matter and getting a political explosion.

The assault against Bernie:

• March 6, 10:20 PM: Bernie Sanders Pledges the US Won’t Be No. 1 in Incarceration. He’ll Need to Release Lots of Criminals
• March 7, 12:39 AM: Clinton Is Running for President. Sanders Is Doing Something Else
• March 7, 4:04 AM: This Is Huge: Trump, Sanders Both Using Same Catchphrase
• March 7, 4:49 AM: Mental Health Patients to Bernie Sanders: Don’t Compare Us to the GOP Candidates
• March 7, 6:00 AM: ‘Excuse Me, I’m Talking’: Bernie Sanders Shuts Down Hillary Clinton, Repeatedly
• March 7, 9:24 AM:  Bernie Sanders’s Two Big Lies About the Global Economy
• March 7, 8:25 AM: Five Reasons Bernie Sanders Lost Last Night’s Democratic Debate
• March 7, 8:44 AM: An Awkward Reality for Bernie Sanders: A Strategy Focused on Whiter States
• March 7, 8:44 AM: Bernie Sanders Says White People Don’t Know What It’s Like to Live in a ‘Ghetto.’ About That…
• March 7, 11:49 AM: The NRA Just Praised Bernie Sanders — and Did Him No Favors in Doing So
• March 7, 12:55 PM: Even Bernie Sanders Can Beat Donald Trump
• March 7, 1:08 PM: What Bernie Sanders Still Doesn’t Get About Arguing With Hillary Clinton
• March 7, 1:44 PM: Why Obama Says Bank Reform Is a Success but Bernie Sanders Says It’s a Failure
• March 7,  2:16 PM: Here’s Something Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders Have in Common: And the Piece of the Argument That Bernie Doesn’t Get Quite Right.
• March 7, 3:31 PM: ‘Excuse Me!’: Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Know How to Talk About Black People
• March 7, 3:54 PM: And the Most Partisan Senator of 2015 Is … Bernie Sanders!

All of these posts paint his candidacy in a negative light, mainly by advancing the narrative that he’s a clueless white man incapable of winning over people of color or speaking to women. Even the one article about Sanders beating Trump implies this is somehow a surprise—despite the fact that Sanders consistently out-polls Hillary Clinton against the New York businessman.

And Bernie won Michigan. Just wait until New York when the UFT machine tries to get teachers to make calls for Hillary and gets slammed.

Unity Slug Declares: We ARE going to beat you (in the high schools)

You're mistaken, Norm. There is no pulling out stops. The vote is the vote. We're not sweating. We hope to beat you but it's hard to hate Eterno or Halabi. If we lose the seats life goes on. They're all good guys/gals. That said, we ARE going to beat you..... Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "#MORE2016: Introducing MORE High School VP and Exe...": 

Unity slug enjoying meal at Ex Bd

I love it when the slugs stop by. As I said in the post that led to the comment, I have mixed feelings about winning since I think it can be a distraction from doing blood and guts organizing. In fact that was what happened when ICE won 3 high school seats in the 2004 election. TJC won the other 3 seats. While TJC did not put a lot energy into the EX Bd, ICE people came out every 2 weeks to support Eterno, Jeff Kaufman and Barbara Kaplan-Alpert in their regular battle with Randi. The problem was we didn't use these battles as an organizing mechanism.

This time, fairly warned, our people say they will translate what they do on the Ex Bd into information that can be shared. The growth in social media would certainly help. My problem is that I can't seem to help myself and may well find myself attending more of these meetings than I should -- between 2004 and 2007 I gained 10 pounds just from the dinners - my old pal Gary Sprung, who was in charge of the food -and he only picked the best - used to take notice of my weight gain.

In some ways I would be amused to see Unity hold every single elected position in the UFT - Putin-like control - and given that we know that the vote will be close enough even if we lose, that says something - that even if 40% of the high school teachers vote against Unity, they get no voice. And this time Unity may win without a majority if Solidarity takes enough votes from MORE. In many unions there is a run-off when there is no majority.

Well, who can't say it wouldn't be fun to see Arthur Goldstein take them on? Jonathan Halabi has been on the board for almost a decade and he is a sharp guy and knows his way around the issues. I can't predict what issues Marcus McArthur, Ashraya Gupta and David Garcia-Rosen will take on but what I do know is that within the non-loyalty oath MORE, they will have the freedom to roam that Unity does not give its people.

As for Mike Schirtzer, oy vey, what a show we can expect. I pleaded with Mike not to run because his work is so essential to making MORE run and I feel being on the EB could be a distraction. After all, Mike is turning 40 this week and if he is to take my place in 30 years as a 70 year old still battling Unity we have to conserve his energy. 

But no worries. The Unity slug has declared they will win the high school seats without any sweat. And if they do, poor Schirtzer will owe me a Peter Luger steak.

Our old pal Roseanne McCosh has her own take on the Unity slug comment:

I define winning as being smart enough and ballsy enough to recognize and counter bullshit every time you hear it. I define losing as gulping down the Kool Aid. So by my definition Norm wins every time! Roseanne McCosh

Hey, I win every time Roseanne leaves a comment taking down the slugs.

L.A. Progressive: Wanting “More” from the United Federation of Teachers: A Profile of Jia Lee

In her bid to become UFT president, Lee says she represents a large, but mostly silent body of teachers who remain frustrated with the union for not challenging damaging education polices.

Another great piece on Jia Lee, this time from Yohuru Williams in the LA Progressive   Los Angeles.

https://www.laprogressive.com/jia-lee/https://www.laprogressive.com/jia-lee/

Wanting “More” from the United Federation of Teachers: A Profile of Jia Lee

By Yohuru Williams

For the first time, during the Democratic Presidential debates from Flint, Michigan, on Monday candidates Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders actually broached the subject of education and “fixing” the nation’s public schools a phrase that regrettably has become synonymous with the rhetoric of corporate education reform.

The lack of conversation by either candidate on education beyond cursory remarks around wanting “good teachers,” sounding like more double speak for the failing schools narrative, may be due in part to the early endorsement of Senator Clinton by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) back in July of 2015. Amidst great controversy, AFT president Randi Weingarten announced the union’s support of Clinton with little input from the union’s membership.

The rush to support raised serious concerns for some teachers. They questioned not only the benefit but also the process by which the union leadership decided to back Clinton. Rather than forcing candidates to work for teachers’ votes, the endorsement may have stifled debate as Sanders and others assumed unanimous teacher support for Clinton. It is an issue that is not only pertinent to national politics but local unions as well.

Interestingly, Weingarten, who engineered the boost for Clinton was once president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in New York during Clinton’s tenure as senator there. As one of the largest of the AFT’s locals, UFT has also become a battleground on these larger issues during its own upcoming election for President.
This is due in part to the candidacy of New York City parent and Special Education Teacher Jia Lee who has challenged current UFT President Michael Mulgrew for the office. Her decision to run is due in large part to her desire to make the union leadership more accountable and to, in her words, “put the power back in the hands of the classroom educators who bare the brunt of hastily made education policies.”

In her bid to become UFT president, Lee says she represents a large, but mostly silent body of teachers who remain frustrated with the union for not challenging damaging education polices.

Although this is her first time running for Union president, Lee is certainly no stranger to activism. Despite considerable risk to her position, she has been at the forefront of several key battles including the fight to end high stakes testing, efforts to shift funding away from corporate charters like Success Academy and back to bona fide public schools, and the struggle to decouple teacher evaluations from testing. This is in addition to 8 years of service as a UFT Chapter Leader and one of the prime movers behind the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), a caucus within the UFT committed to the same core values of transparency and justice.

An impassioned advocate for sane education policies that protect rather than imperil students, Lee’s energy is infectious. Her ability to clearly articulate the concerns of parents and teachers, for instance, was on full display in January of 2015 when she testified before the United States Senate while it considered re-authorization of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act.

In her bid to become UFT president, Lee says she represents a large, but mostly silent body of teachers who remain frustrated with the union for not challenging damaging education polices. “Our schools are in crisis, in large part,” she explained in an interview back in October, “because the current union leadership is complicit in bad policy and continues to tell us that this is the best they can do.” She continued, “it’s not the time for us to re-negotiate what has already proven to be disastrous, it’s time for teachers to come together with the community and chart a new course for our union…. We are going to take back our union and lead a fight for the schools our children deserve,” she concluded.

Lee’s supporters are used to such soaring rhetoric. Her candidacy, along with the national election, has brought renewed interest and excitement around the upcoming UFT election in which Lee will head a joint slate of teachers representing a united front of MORE and the New Action Caucus.

Lee was adamant that her candidacy was more than just a critique of Mulgrew, but an opportunity to share an alternate vision of union engagement that would place the UFT on the front lines of pushing back against the corrosive effects of corporate education reform. It is also, she maintains, about restoring real representation back to the union.

As Lee conceptualized the problem, less than a quarter of current educators participated in the last election leaving the contest in the hands of a significant block of retirees, many of who no longer reside in the city and are unaware of the current calamity facing public school educators. Rather than reaching out to the city’s teachers, Lee notes Union leaders like Mulgrew spent more time currying favor with this group, whose concerns are very different from those of active teachers. As a result, the union has pursued policies and actions that have further hurt rather than helped teachers.



Lee critically notes that increasing voter turnout will be vital in the upcoming election. MORE, for example, captured just 23% of the active teacher vote in the last election. If the Caucus hopes to win, they will to not only improve that number but also rally teachers around the idea that transformation is possible with a change in leadership. Working in conjunction with the New Action Caucus, Lee believes that MORE can not only increase voter participation but also revive the UFT as a body for contending not only for teacher’s rights but social justice.

Yohuru Williams

#MORE2016: Introducing MORE High School VP and Exec Board Slate

I'm way behind on sharing the list of MORE candidates for the upcoming UFT elections. The high school Executive Board slate below has a chance to win, though it is my belief that with Unity facing the prospect of dealing with a non-Unity endorsed group of people for the first time in a decade, they will pull out all stops to keep MORE/New Action from winning the high school seats. If that happened that would give Unity 100% of the Executive Board for the first time since 1994.

The candidates are:

• Ashraya Gupta, Arthur Goldstein, Marcus B. McArthur, David Garcia-Rosen, Mike Schirtzer are from MORE.
•  
• Jonathan Halabi and Kuljit Ahluwalia, are from New Action.

The breath of experienced and more recent teachers is well-ballanced, ranging from 6 to almost 30 years. If they get elected, their range of experience will well-represent all points of view.

James Eterno is running for

VICE-PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC HIGH SCHOOLS CANDIDATE


James Eterno: 
UFT Delegate and Social Studies Teacher at Middle College High School, Queens. 18 year Chapter Leader at Jamaica High School, UFT Executive Board 1997-2007
Together, we can restore dignity to teaching. Every UFT member should join the fight to repeal horrific state laws that include rating teachers on cookie cutter 1-4 Danielson rubrics and student test scores, presuming teachers are guilty until proven innocent in termination hearings and replacing teachers without any due process in receiver schools.  Mulgrew thinks everything is just fine.

I've worked with James from the early years of Ed Notes through the founding of ICE and as one of the best chapter leaders ever, who led the battle to try to save Jamaica High School, you can't find a better candidate. Of course he won't win because all officers run at-large - every UFT member including retirees vote.The last time Unity had 100% of the Exec Bd in 1994 (they had lost the high schools and even the middle schools in the previous election) they pushed through a change in the constitution taking the divisional VPs out of the divisions and making them at-large.

Retirees do not vote for the high school executive board candidates which is why they have a chance to win.

But who knows what they will do this time if they have total control of the EB without opposition - find some excuse to make every Ex Bd position at large?

If people are over-confident that MORE/NA will win these 7 seats this time, they should not be.

Look at the high school numbers from 2013:

Unity: 1585, MORE: 1435, New Action: 450

That is out of 19000 ballots sent out to the high schools.
The low turnout is not an anomaly as we've seem roughly these numbers for a dozen years.

The New Action votes went to Unity in their cross endorsement deal in 2013. Let's not assume that what happened last time is a given this time.

People who have not had the experience I have in Unity dirty tricks may be making the mistake of extrapolating these numbers onto the 2016 election and thinking that if MORE/New Action put their 2013 totals together they will be close to 2000 votes.

I think they have to do better than that to win because I don't expect Unity to stay at 1585. They took things for granted and the fact that MORE was within 150 votes of their total shook them up.

I believe Unity is beating the bushes to get themselves a cushion. Unity has been using its control of the UFT to create various high school communications devices and send out employees to key schools to beat the bushes for high school votes. And this time they have Solidarity out there taking votes from MORE/New Action. While I don't believe that Unity is behind Solidarity the outcome will be the same. Unity can only be assisted in their goal of 100% control of the Ex Bd by every vote not going to MORE/New Action out of the high schools.

I actually have mixed feelings about winning these seats. I think asking an activist group of 7 people to sit in a room full of Unity slugs every 2 weeks at an Ex Bd meeting is problematical in terms of what can be accomplished there. Donald Trump is threatening to make attendance at these meetings as a replacement for water boarding as his torture of choice.

But our people seem enthusiastic about attending UFT EB meetings, so the more power to them.

I know some of the MORE/New Action candidates fairly well.

Arthur Goldstein is a colleague for over a decade and what a bonus having him on the EB it will be.

I have come to know Mike Schirtzer very well over the past 3 years and consider him my political son. Mike is a force of nature.

I've only become acquainted with Marcus McArthur recently and hearing him speak I thought that one day he could run for UFT President. I wrote about him last week: MORE HS Ex Bd Candidate Marcus McArthur.

Marcus Brandon McArthur is a New Jersey native and Brooklyn based writer, educator, and political activist whose work focuses on race, economic inequality, education and cultural politics.  He received his B.A. in History from Morehouse College in Atlanta where he focused on the shared historical plight of African descendants through studies in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, and Brazil.  Marcus received his M.A. in Latin American History from Penn State and M.S. in Special Education from LIU-Brooklyn.  He has published works with the Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Journal and the MORE Caucus blog of the United Federation of Teachers.  He currently teaches English and Social Studies as a Special Education Teacher at City-As School.

Check him out on video at one of our opt-out rallies

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2015/05/more-teachers-silenced-nyc-public.html?m=1

I have also only recently become acquainted with Ashraya Gupta and every time I meet her I am more and more impressed.

David Garcia-Rosen I know for a long time, originally through Teachers Unite and more recently though his fight for the small school sports league which got him sent to the rubber room on the  direct orders of Carmen Farina. She was pissed that he turned down her bribe attempt job offer. She couldn't make anything stick and he's back in a school.

As for the New Action candidates, I have known Jonathan Halabi  for over a decade. We've not always been on the same page but I got to work with him on the petition campaign and we worked very well together. He knows a lot about everything and during the election process has seemed very comfortable working with the MOREs.

I do not know Kuljit Ahluwalia, who sas a chapter leader at Canarsie HS.

EXECUTIVE BOARD – HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION CANDIDATES

We need your support in order to win. It is time for a new, independent voice in UFT leadership that has different views from Mulgrew and his Unity caucus. You can help by distributing our literature, coming to our events, donating to our campaign, and urging people in your school to VOTE MORE/New Action!

As UFT members we are privileged to have the opportunity to be at the forefront of a monumental shift towards economic and social justice in America and around the globe. Through mass mobilization of our membership and our allies, we will steadfastly fight for teacher autonomy, student voice, and economic justice for the 99%.



Ashraya Gupta: 
UFT Delegate and Chemistry teacher at Harvest Collegiate High School, Manhattan.
We deserve a democratic union, representative of our members. For too long, teacher interests have been cast as oppositional to student interests. But our union should make it clear that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. Let’s be the union we wish to see.



Kuljit Ahluwalia: 
Science Teacher at Queens Academy H. S.  Chapter Leader at Canarsie High School, Brooklyn  2003-2009.
As a high school teacher for the last 28 years I have seen the slow erosion of teachers’ rights and a sense of frustration.  As a former teacher at a phase out school I have witnessed how unfairly ATR have been treated.  We need to have a union that will provide equal representation and voice the concerns of all its members.


David Garcia-Rosen: 
Restorative Dean and Athletic Director Bronx Academy of Letters, Lead Organizer NYCLetEmPlay
Our students and UFT members deserve a union that fights for every school to have equitable access to resources regardless of zip code. For five years the  NYCLetEmPlay students and teachers stood up to fight for civil rights. MORE stood by their side while Mulgrew/UNITY refused to offer any support. On the executive board we will fight for better learning conditions for our students, which  are the working conditions for our members.


Arthur Goldstein: 
UFT Chapter Leader  and ESL teacher at Francis Lewis High School, Queens.
It’s time for high school teachers to have a voice and I want to give you that voice. Let’s initiate things that work for us and our students rather than counter-productive reformy nonsense.



Jonathan Halabi:
UFT Chapter Leader and Math teacher at HS of American Studies at Lehman College, Bronx. UFT Executive Board 2009 – present
Teaching is an honorable career. We help kids learn and grow. Their success is our reward. But not if we are mistreated. Not if our voices are ignored. Not if decisions that affect our schools are made out of incompetence and malice. We are running to ensure all our voices are heard in our union.



Marcus B. McArthur:  
Special Education Teacher at City-As School, Manhattan
As UFT members we are privileged to have the opportunity to be at the forefront of a monumental shift towards economic and social justice in America and around the globe.  Through mass mobilization of our membership and our allies, we will steadfastly fight for teacher autonomy, student voice, and economic justice for the 99%.



Mike Schirtzer: 
UFT Delegate and Social Studies teacher at Leon M. Goldstein High School, Brooklyn:
“We Need New Leadership!”
Classroom teachers need a voice in our union and we will be that voice on the UFT Executive Board. Our leadership negotiated a poor contract, worse than other city unions. Micromanagement, Danielson, and 1% raises with delayed retro is not what teachers deserve.  

Chilling or Laughable? Is Opt Out Movement Being Viewed as Form of Terrorism?

Illinois launches investigation into opt out students and their teachers...http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-school-testing-season-met-20160306-story.html

This is almost funny. Almost. The greatest threat to the ed deform agenda is clearly the opt out movement.

Speaking of which, TODAY:

Monday Mar 7 @PS 84K - Williamsburg/Greenpoint District 14 Panel on NY State Testing/Opting Out

250 Berry St. - I'll be there.

For more information about Opting Out, visit: optoutnyc.com or nysape.org

In the latest twist on opting out, the state launched an investigation into why so many kids in certain districts skipped state exams last year. The so-called inquiry would include questioning school staff, community members, parents and "even students if appropriate," according to a Feb. 18 letter sent to districts from state schools Superintendent Tony Smith.
The state elaborated on those plans in a Feb. 19 letter to the U.S. Department of Education, saying that "ISBE will also publicize an email address to which individuals can anonymously report information relating to a school district not meeting the 95 percent participation rate." Federal law requires that at least 95 percent of students in schools and districts take both English language arts and math state exams.
ISBE also told the federal government that it would be looking at whether "school personnel improperly influenced a student to refuse to engage in a test," which could be considered unprofessional conduct and lead to disciplinary action against an educator's license. School districts as a whole also could be in trouble if they "chose to exclude or encouraged students not to take PARCC or engaged in other inappropriate conduct," the letter stated.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-school-testing-season-met-20160306-story.html

School Horror Stories Continue in DOE With UFT Support

This is UFT election petition turn-in week in preparation for handing in the petitions to the UFT in time for next week's March 10 due date. Every one of MORE/New Action's 300 candidates requires a petition with at least 100 signatures while the officer slate needs 900. More on the petitions in a follow-up but first I wanted to share some of the conversations I've had with some people dropping off.

A 5th year non-tenured high school teacher with Yet Another Shitty Principal - a YASP - and doesn't expect to get tenure this year either. The backup solution? An application to law school to become a labor lawyer. "I can't commit to the DOE under these circumstances," she said. When I suggested a transfer to a "better" school she said she purposely entered teaching to try to teach in a difficult school and work to change things. Not without tenure she won't.

I told her MORE could certainly use her legal services when she graduates.

Then yesterday afternoon after we finished collating the petitions I dropped by a bar with a friend who came to help. She was meeting up with old colleagues including 2 school secretaries she used to work with. In just a few moments of conversation they laid out the bleak situation for so many secretaries - the work overload, how they are expected to do so much of the work principal offload onto them. One of them retired 2 days ago, not being able to stand it anymore.

Of course in both stories, of which there are so many more, the UFT is complicit. As Emily Giles wrote in the piece I published yesterday:

Mulgrew bases the power of the union on the status of his partnership with de Blasio's administration, rather than on the ability to mobilize the rank and file. The priority of the union leadership, then, is to maintain that relationship at all costs, even when it means jeopardizing the interests of the membership....

ATR Field Supervisors

Coming soon: How one school teams up to support a harassed  ATR - until rotations removes the ATR to go to another school where who knows what will happen.

The teachers are writing letters of support to be used when and if the DOE files 3020a dismissal charges.