The Incredible Shrinking UFT Election: Unity Wins, Unity Wins

I made my prediction on the outcome of the UFT election. Duhhhhhh!

Here's the leaflet I handed out at the Feb. 13, 2019 Delegate Assembly - which was today. I got some positive feedback and a few scowls. This may be a serial. Look for the next installment at the March DA. If you want to share with others email me for a pdf.

The Incredible Shrinking UFT Election: Unity Wins, Unity Wins
Three Opposition Caucuses compete for anti-Unity votes
By Norm Scott

When UFT members get their election ballots in March, they will have a choice of four slates. And Unity Caucus will win every position. New Action, MORE, and Solidarity will vie with each other for the anti-Unity vote, which in 2016 totaled around 12,000 votes. This will be the first time in my (fading) memory that three distinct slates will be “challenging” Unity, clearly making it impossible to win anything, yet alone the election as a whole. Over the past 40 years, anti-Unity totals have varied between 10-12,000 votes, but these totals may drop due to the confusion of 3 opposition slates. In the recent contract vote, the NO votes also totaled around 12,000, a consistent anti-Unity block, but a snippet given there are almost 200,000 members, including retirees. 70% don’t vote. Why? Because UFT elections are a locked box with Unity in total control due to the number of at-large positions where retiree votes are a major factor. Only divisional Ex Bd positions are winnable - elementary (11), middle (5) and high school (7) Ex Bd seats where retirees do not vote. And to win any of these requires one caucus opposing Unity. And the only chance to win those is to have a united opposition.

With nothing at stake this time vote totals will drop, especially with the recent 85% contract approval. Each caucus is running a limited slate of about 45 candidates. Call this one “the incredible shrinking election.”

The inability to unite is a naked admission that nothing can be won. Yet we see false misleading messages of bravado (we need to change the leadership of the UFT) in opposition literature. Ignore what they say and consider it fake advertising.

There was a lot of hope in 2016 when New Action left its 12 year coalition with Unity Caucus and ran with MORE, attracting well over 300 candidates, considerably extending the outreach of the opposition. Solidarity was a new and unproven caucus of relatively few members and didn’t even gather the required 40 candidates needed to run a slate and did not get on the ballot. (This time it appears they will.) The high school seats were won by the opposition and when adding up the middle school votes, a win in both divisions was possible this time. The only thing that made sense this time was for everyone to run as a united front. Some of us tried valiantly to put this together but failed.

So what happened? MORE refused to run with anyone else and is using the election to push its program. New Action wanted to run with MORE but not with Solidarity. Oy vey! Talk about taking the eye off the prize: mining those 12,000 anti-Unity votes to build a far-reaching opposition as opposed to promoting the brand of your own caucus.

Furthermore, MORE leaders make it clear they have no intention of trying to win any seats (declaring the winning of high school seats in 2016 “a disaster”) and purposely running only candidates for at-large non-winnable positions.

MORE has morphed from its original idea of a “big tent” opposition where various ideologies were welcome in the contention of ideas to a much narrower ideology based on the political positions taken by the old Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) which merged with ICE/UFT in founding MORE in 2012. That coalition has fallen apart and ICE members were invited to leave MORE and many have. ICE/UFT has divided loyalties in this election, with many, including myself, sitting this one out, skeptical that the 20 year old TJC ideas of strike preparation that had failed to resonate with the rank and file from the late 90s through 2012 will strike gold this time. MORE is counting on the red state and big city teacher strikes in Chicago, Denver, Oakland and Los Angeles to resonate with UFT members. We in ICE/UFT (no longer an electoral caucus) think these ideas require deeper discussion, including the key issues of our pay vs. theirs, Taylor Law penalties, working conditions here and there and the 87% contract approval, a contract which MORE opposed vehemently. The MORE leadership did not want to have these discussions and ICE/UFT is the only place in the UFT where these discussions are taking place.

I and others have pretty much given up the ghost of building a viable opposition and we have become free agents, unattached to any caucus. MORE elected High School reps Mike Schirtzer and Arthur Goldstein, CL of the 300 member Francis Lewis HS, seeing no alternative, have been wooed by Unity and are running as independents for the EB on the Unity line with no strings attached. Mindy Rosier-Rayburn came to MORE after leading a valiant battle against charter school magnate Eva Moskowitz’ attempt to throw her school out of the building. Mindy has become a political force of nature, one of the early leading voices for Bernie Sanders (and a Bernie delegate to the 2016 Democratic Party convention) – a position contrary to the UFT leadership. She has now joined Unity without having to sign the loyalty oath.

How did MORE lose an entire progressive wing of the opposition over the past two years? For that answer see Education Notes at the March Delegate Assembly or get details at the blog, ednotesonline.com.

School Scope - Where Do Public Advocate Candidates Stand on Education Issues?

Published Feb. 8, 2019 www.rockawave.com

School Scope: Where Do Public Advocate Candidates Stand on Education Issues?
By Norm Scott

I ask the question because from reading The WAVE’s coverage based on interviews with some of the candidates, I don’t see questions or comments related to push-button education issues like over reliance on testing, teachers being evaluated based on tests, support for public education and schools, as opposed to privately managed charters which pull funding from real public schools while also imposing rigid and oppressive controls over children while also suffering a high turnover rate of teachers, the education-industrialist complex which enriches itself on the backs of policy decisions pushed by their lobbyists, the class size debate, and more.

Let’s take our native Republican, Erich Ulrich, whose half page front page photo in the Jan. 25th edition of The WAVE was joined by another half-page of coverage on p. 12.

Memo from the RTC: Andrew Barth Feldman Opens on Broadway in Evan Hansen as Wizard of Oz Hits Final Weekend

Published in The WAVE, Feb. 8, 2019

Memo from the RTC: Andrew Barth Feldman Opens on Broadway in Evan Hansen as Wizard of Oz Hits Final Weekend
By Norm Scott

Exactly two years ago, Andrew Barth Feldman was a 14-year old on the stage of the Rockaway Theatre Company’s Young People’s Workshop production of Singin’ in the Rain playing the role Donald O’Connor made famous as Cosmo Brown in the film version with his amazing dancing. Last week Andrew made his Broadway debut as the lead in Dear Evan Hansen at the age of 16, to a great deal of publicity, apparently the first teen to head a Broadway show. Groups of RTC people were there for his first two nights, when he received standing ovations. While everyone at the RTC knew Andrew’s talent would take him far one day, people are wide-eyed at the speed with which this occurred. Now the entire theater world and a good section of the public, due to the amount of media coverage, know what everyone at the RTC knew over the past 5 years.

Chicago CORE Caucus Holds Internal Election

Slate Z has won the Leadership Slate Run-Off election.... FB post

I think there's something brewing in Chicago but I am not clear exactly what yet. With a general union election coming this May, the ruling CORE caucus is picking a slate. But in what seems very unusual, they had to hold an internal election. That would be like Unity holding an internal election to decide who is running for president in the general union election. There certainly seems to be some divisions in CORE, and from what I've heard, somewhat analogous to what went on here in MORE. Except in MORE they just throw you out if you disagree. Well, some people in CORE did try to purge the late George Schmidt and failed (CORE Attempted Purge of One of Founders George Schmidt Failed in Chicago - Eight Women of Color Speak on George's Behalf).

Mike Schirtzer sent me some links. Here is what info I have: Slate Z won with 63% of the vote over Slate W. Now check the people on the losing side - slate W - which lost almost 2-1. I don't have any info on what the issues were that caused this division - caucuses within a caucus -- actually, when MORE first former I argued that there were factions in the room and maybe that should be recognized. Recently I've been attending Democratic Socialist (DSA) meetings and discovered that they too have internal caucuses.

Sharon Schmidt has been trying to keep Substance updated. Here is her post from Feb. 1 with the W slate.

CORE slate endorsement from CTU Recording Secretary Michael Brunson

As the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) chooses its slate for the May 2019 union elections in an online vote this week, long-time CORE member and CTU Recording Secretary Michael Brunson urged CORE voters to support Slate W:


President: Jesse Sharkey
Vice President: Jackie Ward
Recording Secretary: Nancy Serrano
Financial Secretary: Tammie Vinson

For Trustees:
Drew Heisserman
Nancy Serrano
Tammie Vinson
Alison Eichhorn
Lois Ward

Does this mean the people who have been running the CTU for 9 years did not win?

Here are some FB comments with hints of the divisions:

This was a win for principles and CORE values. Never before has the ruling caucus had to win an election. Just like we made history when we forced Rahm into a runoff. Those that value transparency and democracy won when we pushed the machine to a runoff. We have a Machine leadership whose campaign tactics reflect their expertise in being “King makers” and “election strategy” and “campaign tactics”. It’s a shame what they did to Drew and Allison. 

Phew. That's a heavy comment on the leadership. Here is a peace gesture:

 Now it’s time to unite and defend CORE
AND
Unity for the Municipal elections

Hopefully we will that right

Karen: “...if we want justice then we have to change the political landscape.”

(Reference to upcoming municipal elections)

We'll update if more info comes in.

The Daily Howler on AOC

I get a kick out of the commentary and comments which range from left to right on this blog.

Markey defers to Ocasio-Cortez!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019

In praise of talent—and gumption: Talent is always in short supply. Also in short supply?

Gumption.

We've been thrilled by the talent, but also by the remarkable gumption, of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Yesterday, we were appreciative of the way Senator Markey deferred to her in the public roll-out of the Green New Deal proposal.

Good for Markey, and good for Ocasio-Cortez, whose gumption has been inspiring. It isn't every day that this combination comes along. We'll only wave this one caution flag—celebrity can do vast harm.

We were glad to see Markey behave as he did. Gumption must be served!

(Mateo, on Halloween evening, in Jim Sheridan's 2003 film, In America: "When luck comes knocking at your door, you can't turn it away.")

AnonymousFebruary 8, 2019 at 2:05 PM

Gumption definitely. Talent? Ask yourself if you'd say she had talent if she spoke the same content in the same valley girl manner, but weighed 400 lbs and looked like a female Michael Moore. It's OK, this kind of misjudgment happens to all of us.

Gunk MillerFebruary 8, 2019 at 3:59 PM

Yeah - Bernie Sanders. What a piece of ass.

Jeff Kaufman in The WAVE - Far Rockaway High School Programmers Take 1st Place in Queens Regional Hackathon Meet

Over 10 years ago, Jeff Kaufman, a warrior in the battle against Unity and a former ICEUFT member of the UFT Ex Bd along with James Eterno, got out of the business of opposition caucus politics, pointing out there was nothing much to gain in terms of growth.

James Eterno and I didn't take the same path and now with the chaos in the opposition in the UFT we see that Jeff was on the right track. We have discussed taking up golf.

Since then Jeff has come out to Rockaway to coding teach at the former Far Rockaway HS campus - the school was closed and divided in multiple schools. Jeff has urged me to stop by and check things out and maybe even volunteer - I do have a coding background. So maybe this blog will morph into something else -- coding and golf.

Note the theme the kids worked on was social justice oriented. Jeff doesn't get enough credit for the work he has done in that area, especially prison reform.

Good luck Jeff and kids in the next level of the hackathon.

Far Rockaway High School Programmers Take 1st Place in Queens Regional Hackathon Meet

By Jeff Kaufman

On NYCDOE Governance - the ICEUFT Plan from the past- Keeping the flame alive

With mayoral control locked in, alternatives are pretty much off the table in the poilitical world. And in the UFT. When mayoral control first came up in 2001-2, the UFT supported it while I as Ed Notes opposed it, one of the lone voices openly standing up. I was in touch with George Schmidt in Chicago, which had had mayoral control since 1994 and knew the consequences. So I tried to be Paul Revere and warn everyone - but to no avail. This was pre-ICE days and none of the other caucuses took up the issue. 

The Making of Juan Guaidó: How the US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader | The Grayzone

Juan Guaidó is the product of a decade-long project overseen by Washington’s elite regime change trainers. While posing as a champion of democracy, he has spent years at the forefront of a violent campaign of destabilization. ....

Only a few months ago, the 35-year-old was an obscure character in a politically marginal far-right group closely associated with gruesome acts of street violence. Even in his own party, Guaidó had been a mid-level figure in the opposition-dominated National Assembly, which is now held under contempt according to Venezuela’s constitution.
But after a single phone call from from US Vice President Mike Pence, Guaidó proclaimed himself president of Venezuela. Anointed as the leader of his country by Washington, a previously unknown political bottom-dweller was vaulted onto the international stage as the US-selected leader of the nation with the world’s largest oil reserves. 
While Guaidó seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, he was, in fact, the product of more than a decade of assiduous grooming by the US government’s elite regime change factories. Alongside a cadre of right-wing student activists, Guaidó was cultivated to undermine Venezuela’s socialist-oriented government, destabilize the country, and one day seize power.

What a wonderful character being pushed to bring "democracy" to Venezuela - I say with tongue planted deeply in cheek. Democracy means the freedom to privatize and steal Venezuelan oil. Actions of the neocons run true to a 170 years of history of interference in Latin American politics. Even if Maduro was Allende like he would be under attack. He's not.

https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/

Memo from the RTC: Wizard of Oz Hits Second Weekend

Memo from the RTC: Wizard of Oz Hits Second Weekend
By Norm Scott
Jan. 28, 2019 - Published Feb. 1, 2019 in The WAVE - 

The RTC Young People's Musical Theatre Workshops’ presentation of the Wizard of Oz opened last weekend, with two weekends to go. With an enormous talent pool of a hundred children and teens, the producers created two entire casts which will split the ten performances. I saw the Emerald cast while video taping upstairs from the booth and can’t wait to go back to see the Ruby cast this weekend. Walk the yellow brick road right to your seats.

School Scope: Teachers Go Wild with Strikes in Virginia, Denver, Los Angeles, and a Wildcat in Oakland

Published in The WAVE print edition, Feb. 1, 2019. www.rockawave.com

School Scope: Teachers Go Wild with Strikes in Virginia, Denver, Los Angeles, and a Wildcat in Oakland
By Norm Scott
January 28, 2019

Teacher strike fever has struck the nation. Last year we saw the anti-union Trump red state strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky. Teachers revolted, not only against the Republican state legislatures and governors, but against their own union leaderships that often urge caution. This week thousands of teachers in Virginia left their classrooms to march in a rally at the capitol. Virginia Educators United, a grassroots campaign formed by educators, parents and members of the community, organized the rally on Monday. The movement has spread to blue states where stronger union leaderships have taken leadership. Denver teachers are going on strike. Teachers are getting the message that going it alone as a union without outside support is a losing proposition. Pay has been a key factor, one reason we won’t see similar actions here in the UFT.

United Teachers, Los Angeles (UTLA) strike Ends - Charter Schools Curbs on the Agenda
In Los Angeles, the pay issue seemed to take second place – both sides agreed on a roughly 6% raise. Contrary to what has happened here in NYC where the opposition to Unity Caucus’ domination of the UFT has been in disarray, in 2014, a group of teachers in LA came together under the banner of “Union Power” an amalgam of various groups and independents and won the election under the leadership of Alex Caputo-Pearl. I first met Alex about 10 years ago when he was a high school teacher and also an elected member of the UTLA Executive Board and it was clear he had a strong vision that went far beyond narrow trade unionism. (See NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/us/charter-schools-los-angeles.html).

Caputo-Pearl and his team began preparing the membership for a strike from the day he took office, with 99% of the teachers supporting a strike. They built alliances with parent and community groups by not only emphasizing raises but also calling for drastic class size reductions and more support personnel like librarians, school nurses and guidance counselors. And through these tactics, they seem to have won a great victory.

The elected school board in LA has been under the control of the pro-charter billionaire boys club led by Eli Broad and they have installed hedge fund managers instead of educators to run the schools, with a pro-charter bent. Broad tried to push through an initiative to turn half the schools into charters. Broad wasn’t successful in trying to undermine public education, but hasn’t given up. Charters get support as a way break teacher unions, as has been done in New Orleans which no longer has any public schools. The UTLA’s call for a moratorium on charters got some results, at the very least putting a discussion in the public sphere.

[Speaking of charter moratoriums, here in NYC some district community education councils are taking stands against charter expansion in their district. Tonight [Tuesday Jan. 29] I’m going to the District 15 CEC meeting (Park Slope and Sunset Park) where such a resolution is on the table.]

The media, other than the right wing Fox types, has been mostly friendly to teachers over their recent struggles. What is interesting is that LA is a the first big city strike since Chicago in 2012 started the strike fever and California is a blue state totally controlled by Democrats, many of whom have also been charter friendly. My litmus test for any candidate running for president is whether they showed up on the UTLA picket lines or offered support, threatening contributions from pro-charter hedge hogs.

Let’s see how many candidates in the upcoming Public Advocate campaign take a pro-union, anti-charter stand. The WAVE is taking this election seriously and doing some great work. I will be perusing the interviews with the candidates for where they stand on the big education issues of the day.

Norm is one of the few people in NYC not running for public advocate but check his blog, ednotesonline.com, in case he changes his mind.

The fight continues ✊️: NYC DOE OTs & PTs ratify contract after first contested agreement since 1995

Statement on behalf of OTs & PTs for A Fair Contract

NYC DOE OTs & PTs ratify contract after first contested agreement since 1995

Press kit 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZxZ0jXBFxy4m3m6gzYrj3zaNyc1cangW

The results are in: a new contract was ratified by United Federation of Teachers-represented occupational therapists (OTs) and physical therapists (PTs) who work for the NYC DOE by fewer than 100 votes in a department that is 2,700 strong. The OTs and PTs For A Fair Contract campaign was opposed to ratification because it makes little improvement to our working conditions, which are our student’s learning conditions.

Therapists were blindsided by this deal. We were given one day to process it, one day to try to rearrange childcare and second-job commitments to travel to a union borough office to vote, one day to shift gears after having rejected the initial contract put forth in October 2018 and protesting relentlessly for parity, resources and respect ever since. The night before the vote, around 50 OTs and PTs spent hours at the monthly Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting awaiting their last chance to educate Chancellor Carranza and the mayor’s educational policy advisors about why they are so dismayed by the city’s offer. The PEP members’ responses revealed a woeful lack of understanding of the our working conditions. Geneal Chacon, member representing the Bronx, had this to say:

“I do not have a child that receives any of the services, but, I am that parent volunteer who is very visible in the schools and I notice the work. The hard work…. So, I get it. I’m totally with you. That is something that I do support. That you guys are coming out and you are asking for equity and equality. Because I think you do deserve it. I don’t know the specifics, this is the first I’m hearing of it, so thank you for the very detailed information.”

Our demands for parity were not met because we will still earn significantly less than our colleagues in the special education department including speech therapists, counselors and social workers. Our educational differential, or the income earned for receiving a Masters or Doctorate degree, is $5,000 short of what teachers and speech therapists are granted. Therapists hired after September, 2019 will be placed on a track to senior status that will be 4 years longer than at present. That’s 4 more years with a salary that can hardly keep up with the cost of living in New York City and the costly price of post-graduate level college debt. While we serve students with disabilities, we are still not given, in legally binding terms, the right to receive benefits under the Family Medical Leave Act to care for a loved own should a disabling condition impact them. To the city’s credit, a clause in our contract will attempt to correct this inequity through establishing a committee to encourage and ensure leaves.

Our demands for resources were not met because we were not provided, in legally binding terms, access to an appropriate work space. The Blue Book formula which articulates required space utilization in schools does not ensure an appropriate setting for occupational and physical therapy. Children with disabilities should not be receiving therapy, or any other kind of academic instruction for that matter, in hallways or rooms that are otherwise used by multiple groups of people, with multiple activities co-occurring, as a standard operating procedure. When schools are co-located, as often times they are, therapy rooms are the first to disappear and be converted into offices for more administrators. That common practice leaves children, their teachers and related service providers in a substandard setting (i.e. basement, boiler room) or sometimes none at all (i.e. hallway, lobby or vestibule). Not having a consistent, appropriate space in which to provide services and teach is a travesty of justice that is nothing short of institutionalized discrimination against students with disabilities.

Evelyn Choudhury is the parent of a child with an IEP who attends PS 111, a school facing the loss of its therapy room as the result of a co-location. She has this to say: “As a parent whose school experienced a co-location and is going through another one, it seems imperative for parents to advocate for the integrity of therapeutic services. Many times PT/OT rooms are left out of the co-location planning which  directly affects the children and therapist.”

Our demands for respect were not met. We are dedicated, direct service providers for children with disabilities and yet, we are not worthy of enforceable access to the benefits afforded under the FMLA. We were given contractual clauses that pledge to form committees to address resource and benefit shortfalls that our campaign has raised. But without legally binding terms, this set of toothless, unenforceable clauses is insufficient. We ask ourselves what kind of contract the families we serve would want. Would our contract be satisfactory to families of children with disabilities?

We will continue to advocate for our professions, our children and our right to equal pay for equal work. We are mostly women; we have children of our own; we have disabled children of our own. We know this fight is bigger than us and that it is vital to continue.

Despite our criticisms, we are public school proud and union proud. We  believe our efforts can raise the standards within the institutions we hold dear when it comes to respecting the needs of children with disabilities and those who work to see them flourish. The key to bringing about the changes we envision is an activated membership and a union with transparent procedures that encourages membership involvement and initiative. 

Breaking - Contract Passes - OT/PT Voting Report - They Get 90 Minutes Off - Big Whoopie!

UPDATE from UFT: Final DOE-UFT contract ratified: Occupational and physical therapists, school nurses and supervisors of nurses and therapists voted on Jan. 31 to ratify their new contract. Nearly 60 percent of the 2,176 UFT members who cast ballots voted “yes.” The contract passed by a majority of each of the three UFT chapters in the bargaining unit. Thank you for helping to spread the word to school nurses and therapists in your building about the importance of voting.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "OT/PT contract vote with less than 48 hours notice...":

We were informed of the contract the night before (!) and given permission to leave 90 minutes early the next day to vote.
The message from the UFT stressed that we would need our UFT membership cards to enter the UFT building, which is not and never has been true (you just need picture ID). The guard on the first floor stalled people asking if they had received their UFT cards, when they said no, he insisted they must have gotten them, when I showed him that I had downloaded the UFT app, but not added my personal information, he wanted me to fill that out then and there---I finally just asked if I could please do it later and he reluctantly let me and the others go up. Why would they pick this one day to enforce that? I can only think they must have been hoping people wouldn't vote. Besides it being a polar vortex, so it was literally dangerous to be outside, but they said the rush was so we could get our 2% raise by Valentine's Day. So sentimental!!!

Unity Caucus apologists jumped down my back over my not reporting that OT/PTs got 90 minutes off to go vote. Jeez! Happy now that I reported on your largess?

NY State Leg: ZERO for teachers

A rant from a friend about the UFT and its legislative friends and governor.

This is the main part of the NYS legislative season.The UFT gave him the entire left-wing of the state party. They gave him the WFP. They hosted the damn meeting where unions were told to stop supporting WFP. And what has the union asked for in return?

NOTHING! Not one perk. No beef up of pensions. No relief of teacher certification. No commitment to help with medical benefits. Nothing

Right now, there are 2534 pending pieces of legislation before the NYS Assembly. Pension perks for retired cops like gangbusters!! HORSES who are retired from service will be getting extended rights.

ZERO for teachers. Just this eval law (that, frankly, any smart pol would support anyway).

Click the link. Hit "search". See for yourself.
https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?sh=advanced

NOTHING!

I don't even give my own wife and kid that much for nothing.

LA Contract Updates - View from the left with Jeff Bryant and the right with Mike Antonucci

[LA teachers] tell you they want to curb charter school growth, not because it threatens their union, but because charters threaten the very survival of public schools. Latona teachers I spoke with described competition from surrounding charter schools as an existential threat to their school and an undermining influence on the public system.... Jeff Bryant

UTLA created a graphic to promote its achievement of reducing secondary English and math classes from a maximum of 46 to 39. “This is effective immediately,” it says. But that provision also belongs to the new contract and won’t apply until next school year. Teachers with 46 students will still have 46 students until then.Whether the contract is a good or bad deal for one side or the other is a value judgment that is now moot. Both sides agreed to it, and now we all will have to enjoy or live with the result. UTLA members last week ratified the agreement, and the school board unanimously voted to ratify it Tuesday afternoon. Behind the broad claims of what the contract does are some facts that haven’t been clearly highlighted in the reporting. For example, there are actually two tentative agreements. .... Mike Antonucci, LA School Report (Part of the anti-union 74

While we see glowing reports of the victory in LA it is always good to get a variety of perspectives. We know the purpose of the 74 crowd -- the make the victory look like less than it was -- but we also have to be willing to take hard looks. But look through the lines of Antonucci posts for signs of shading. On the whole though his view is worth keeping in mind.

I'm interested in the charter angle and I'm surprised that people don't bring up the important fact that charters undermine the neighborhood schools, especially a key ingredient of stability, the elementary school and a regional middle school. Even high schools here in NYC used to be neighborhood based. [NOTE: Last night I attended and taped part of the District 15 CEC Vote on Pause for Charters where a reso to curb the growth of charter schools was passed.]

I've never been a big fan of Dana Goldstein, who used to write for the Nation and now is a national education reporter for the NY Times. Yesterday's report on the LA strike and charter schools had so many charter slugs' comments and avoided some of the real issues with charter schools:

1. Success of Los Angeles Teachers Strike Rocks Charter Schools, and a Rich Supporter

   Supporters of charter schools are back on their heels in Los Angeles and across the country after a wave of mass teacher walkouts.

   By JENNIFER MEDINA and DANA GOLDSTEI

I did like Jennifer Medina when she covered local ed for the Times.
Today, Goldstein has a personal piece with some comments about LA president Alex Caputo-Pearl and touches in his being in the first Teach for America class - something never mentioned and I think pertinent because he has turned against so much of what they stand for.

1. In 13 Years of Education Reporting, So Much Has Changed

   Covering recent teachers’ strikes, including the latest showdown, in Los Angeles, has brought into relief a shift in the conversation.

   By DANA GOLDSTEIN

   

   Jan. 30, 2019

Jeff Bryant has been uncovering ed deform for years and here he focuses on the charter school issue in the strike.

LA Teachers on Charter Schools:  LA teachers make the case that charter schools are an existential threat to public education

Truth is, the financials of charter schools have never added up.

I spoke with teachers on the picket lines during the Los Angeles teacher strike about why they made curbing charter schools part of their demands...

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/25/los-angeles-teachers-make-the-case-that-charter-schools-are-an-existential-threat-to-public-education_partner/

The left press on the whole is raving about the magnificent victory - see ISO view in Socialist Worker by Gillian Russom - written the night of the settlement and she didn't have time to peruse the contract in depth.

My right wing buddy Mike Antonucci, who writes for the despicable 74 and its front LA School Report, dilutes the victory. But as always, Mike uncovers some interesting issues.

Antonucci: Things you might not know about the Los Angeles teacher contract

Mike Antonucci | January 29, 2019

*Updated

OT/PT contract vote with less than 48 hours notice, only one day of voting, and at only five locations citywide!

From a retired chapter leader

Norm
I thought you might be interested in seeing this text that just came my way via an in-service CL friend.

OT/PT contract vote with less than 48 hours notice, only one day of voting, and at only five locations citywide! (Not to mention the strictly chump-change "improvements.") When it comes to voter suppression, Georgia, Florida, and Texas have nothing on the pros at the UFT!

Here is the UFT missive hailing another round for democracy in the UFT. 

LA Teacher Strike Cools Embrace of Charters - NYT Plus Norm in The WAVE

I had just sent in my story for this week's WAVE when I picked up the NYT and saw this:

 Carrying protest signs, thousands of teachers and their allies converged last month on the shimmering contemporary art museum in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Clad in red, they denounced “billionaire privatizers” and the museum’s patron, Eli Broad. The march was a preview of the attacks the union would unleash during the teachers’ strike, which ended last week.

As one of the biggest backers of charter schools, Mr. Broad helped make them a fashionable and potent cause in Los Angeles, drawing support from business leaders like Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix; Hollywood executives; and lawmakers to create a wide network of more than 220 schools.

Mr. Broad was so bullish about the future of charter schools just a few years ago that he even floated a plan to move roughly half of Los Angeles schoolchildren — more than 250,000 students — into such schools. In 2017, he funneled millions of dollars to successfully elect candidates for the Board of Education who would back charters, an alternative to traditional public schools that are publicly funded but privately run.

His prominence has also turned him into a villain in the eyes of the teachers’ union. Now Mr. Broad and supporters like him are back on their heels in Los Angeles and across the country. NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/us/charter-schools-los-angeles.html 

Front page of the Times doesn't tell the full story - like all the charter scandals. But it does show how an aggressive union leadership can help turn the tide. Have you seen any signs of that here in the UFT?

Here is my story for the Feb. 1 edition of The WAVE:

School Scope:  Teachers Go Wild with Strikes in Virginia, Denver, Los Angeles,  and a Wildcat in Oakland

By Norm Scott

January 28, 2019

Teacher strike fever has struck the nation. Last year we saw the anti-union Trump red state strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky. Teachers revolted, not only against the Republican state legislatures and governors, but against their own union leaderships that often urge caution. This week thousands of teachers in Virginia left their classrooms to march in a rally at the capitol. Virginia Educators United, a grassroots campaign formed by educators, parents and members of the community, organized the rally on Monday. The movement has spread to blue states where stronger union leaderships have taken leadership. Denver teachers are going on strike. Teachers are getting the message that going it alone as a union without outside support is a losing proposition. Pay has been a key factor, one reason we won’t see similar actions here in the UFT.

United Teachers, Los Angeles (UTLA) strike Ends -  Charter Schools Curbs on the Agenda

In Los Angeles, the pay issue seemed to take second place – both sides agreed on a roughly 6% raise. Contrary to what has happened here in NYC where the opposition to Unity Caucus’ domination of the UFT has been in disarray, in 2014, a group of teachers in LA came together under the banner of “Union Power” an amalgam of various groups and independents and won the election under the leadership of Alex Caputo-Pearl. I first met Alex about 10 years ago when he was a high school teacher and also an elected member of the UTLA Executive Board and it was clear he had a strong vision that went far beyond narrow trade unionism. (See NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/us/charter-schools-los-angeles.html).

Caputo-Pearl and his team began preparing the membership for a strike from the day he took office, with 99% of the teachers supporting a strike. They built alliances with parent and community groups by not only emphasizing raises but also calling for drastic class size reductions and more support personnel like librarians, school nurses and guidance counselors. And through these tactics, they seem to have won a great victory.

The elected school board in LA has been under the control of the pro-charter billionaire boys club led by Eli Broad and they have installed hedge fund managers instead of educators to run the schools, with a pro-charter bent. Broad tried to push through an initiative to turn half the schools into charters. Broad wasn’t successful in trying to undermine public education, but hasn’t given up. Charters get support as a way break teacher unions, as has been done in New Orleans which no longer has any public schools. The UTLA’s call for a moratorium on charters got some results, at the very least putting a discussion in the public sphere.

[Speaking of charter moratoriums, here in NYC some district community education councils are taking stands against charter expansion in their district. Tonight I’m going to the District 15 CEC meeting (Park Slope and Sunset Park) where such a resolution is on the table.]

The media, other than the right wing Fox types, has been mostly friendly to teachers over their recent struggles. What is interesting is that LA is a the first big city strike since Chicago in 2012 started the strike fever and California is a blue state totally controlled by Democrats, many of whom have also been charter friendly. My litmus test for any candidate running for president is whether they showed up on the UTLA picket lines or offered support, threatening contributions from pro-charter hedge hogs. 

Let’s see how many candidates in the upcoming Public Advocate campaign take a pro-union, anti-charter stand. The WAVE is taking this election seriously and doing some great work. I will be perusing the interviews with the candidates for where they stand on the big education issues of the day.

Norm is one of the few people in NYC not running for public advocate but check his blog, ednotesonline.com, in case he changes his mind.

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Today: District 15 CEC to Vote on Pause for Charters

Jan. 29, 2019
 

For those not aware, each of the 32 local school districts in NYC have a school board - of sorts - called Community Education Councils and they meet every month in mostly sparsely attended meetings and have almost no power - but when the CEC's take strong stands on charters it is another chip. Tonight one of the most progressive district - 15 - Park Slope and Sunset Park - will be asked to take a stand on charters by D15 Parents for Middle School Equity. I hope to be there to record it.

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Support CEC15's "Pause" on Charters  The District 15 Community Education Council (CEC15) has drafted an important and timely resolution opposing any increase to the number of Charter schools in in New York City or New York State. D15 Parents for Middle School Equity strongly supports CEC15’s resolution which proposes a 5-year moratorium on any new Charters in New York City and the completion of a system-wide impact evaluation of Charters on our public schools. New York City already houses 71% of the Charter schools in NYS. No further Charter growth should be approved without an evaluation of the impact of Charter schools on our traditional public schools - those run with public oversight. This resolution is not anti-Charter; it is simply a pause on any increase in Charters to ensure that traditional and Charter schools are working together and making progress for all our children. Review the full text of the draft resolution and send comments in support to:           CEC15@schools.nyc.gov A final public vote on the draft resolution will be held:           Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at 6:30 pm           PS 131           4305 Fort Hamilton Parkway It is important that District 15 families and educators attend Tuesday’s CEC15 meeting and show our support for this important resolution. Please share information on this meeting and this resolution with your community. D15 Parents for Middle School Equity

School Scope: UFT Election Season Opens

School Scope: UFT Election Season Opens

By Norm Scott
The WAVE - published in print edition January 25, 2019 (originally submitted Jan. 19, 2019).

This week is the formal opening of the United Federation of Teachers three month election season with a month long petitioning campaign. Final vote count will be on April 17. With over 120,000 active members and 60,000 retirees, the UFT is the largest union local in the nation. Within the UFT are political parties – caucuses. Unity Caucus has dominated and controlled the UFT since its inception in the early 60s. Over that time a variety of caucuses have risen up to challenge Unity. Over the past three decades opposition groups have only made headway in the high schools, which one or a combination of caucuses have won.

In the 2016 election I was one of the organizers for the MORE/New Action slate and we won the seven high school executive board seats out of the 100 total. It was a dent. There are almost 20,000 high school teachers but less than 5,000 voted. In fact, the turnout for UFT elections is very low – maybe 30%. Retirees can vote and they turn out in greater numbers and vote over 85% for Unity – what do retirees have to be unhappy about? I am always in the 15% minority. The retiree bump assures Unity of winning by a landslide every time so most people don’t bother to vote. In 2016, the entire opposition vote came to about 12,000.

In the 2019 election none of the three caucuses, New Action, Solidarity and MORE could come together and so they will be all running separate slates of about 40-50 people each, thus making it impossible to win even the high schools. In 2016 we had 300 people run on the MORE/New Action slate. I think it makes little sense to run in an election with no chance to win anything with a divided vote. I’m going to urge people to protest by writing on the ballot something like “United Fightback” as a call to all groups to come together in the future.

I doubt that will happen and am considering ending my five decade long fight to challenge Unity control.

Norm takes no charter money, or prisoners, at his blog, ednotesonline.com.

Weekend Update: A Birthday, a Wedding, Travel Fantasies and More Coming Today

I'm writing this Sunday morning at 6 AM - I've been up for a few hours after having fallen asleep at 9:30 last night. I've got a hot yoga class at 7:30, followed by an acting class at the Rockaway Theatre Company at 10, followed by me recording the performance of the Wizard of Oz by the kids at the theater at 2 PM. After that I can get back to my normal couch potato routine.

Let me tall you about my day Friday and Saturday. My wife's birthday was on Friday and it's her call as to what she wants to do. As part of our attempt to see the major Academy Award nominated films, we went into the city to see Melissa McCarthy's "Can You Ever Forgive Me," which was wonderful.

[Wednesday afternoon we drove out to Lynbrook to see Bohemian Rhapsody -- my wife loves Queen --- and the performance by Rami Malek will probably win him an Academy Award. (I wrote the other day about his twin brother Sami who is an LA teacher.)]

Just as wonderful was that we could walk from our apartment to the multiplex in Kips Bay and back to rest for an hour before taking the subway one stop to the Gramercy Tavern on East 20th St - and how much fun was it to pass by the old UFT building at 260 Park Ave South which now has a nail salon where the front entrance used to be. So appropriate.

Well, we had a fabulous meal with great drinks and we staggered out to take the subway back -- last year were sober enough to walk.

Saturday - NY Times Travel Show and Mindy's Wedding reception

My friend Gloria had told me she was going to this much advertised show at the Javits Center, which I hadn't been paying attention to and she gave me a code for a Groupon. I saw Pauline Frommer was giving a talk at 11 - I was a disciple of her dad Arthur Frommers' Europe on $5 a day which was my bible on my first trip to Europe in the summer of 1969 - when the UFT by the way offered hundreds of cheap charter flights to Europe for a few years. Besides, Mindy's wedding reception was a short walk away at 3PM so this day was a win-win.

Hangin' With the Frommers

Her talk was very useful for tips on traveling, but the bonus was meeting her dad who is approaching 90 at the book signing - I bought 3 - River cruises, Iceland and Portugal. His Europe on $5 a day was my bible on my first trip to Europe in the summer of 1969 - on a UFT charter flight by the way -- they offered hundreds of flights in the late 60s/early 70s - quite an achievement for our union then.

After meeting Arthur and getting the books signed, I was floating around when my wife, who had gone back to Rockaway, called that her favorite TV personality, Phil Rosenthal, was giving a talk with chef Joan Nathan at The Taste of the World exhibit, which took me some time to find. She loves Phil because on his travels (on Netflix) he does foody stuff with great humor. And she was right -- he is very funny and meshed well with Julie Nathan who was cooking some tomato dish.


Phil was selling tee-shirts for charity and Joan as selling her new book on Jewish cooking, so I bought a book and Joan signed it and a tee for Carol and Phil signed it and took a photo with me - and wasn't Carol sorry she didn't go with me.

After that I had some time before heading over to Mindy's wedding reception, so I checked out all we can see in NY State -- quite a lot - and I want to do more local traveling. But we also want to go to Scotland and when I saw a guy in a kilt, I knew I had the right booth. Our great friends, the late Loretta and Gene Prisco's granddaughter is going to school in Scotland in the fall and here is an excuse to go visit.

On my way to Mindy's

Mindy and Corey's wedding reception
Well, by this time I was so loaded up with stuff, I could barely lift it all and I had to walk almost a mile to Mindy's party on West 26 St.
Mindy has become such a major figure in certain circles she has the status of using only her first name -- but now her last name is Rosier-Rayburn.

I'm not going to get into all the details of what makes Mindy so special that she attracted an enormous variety of people to this event - from the UFT, her school, her Democratic party political work - How nice to see the great lawyer Arthur Schwartz say that there was an event for Bernie being planned for that date but because Mindy is so important to so many people, they changed the date. Mindy was a Bernie delegate in 2016 and one of the first people to jump on board his campaign among UFTers -- except Mindy actually does something about things instead of just talking about it.

Arthur Schwartz pays tribute to Mindy and Corey

Mindy and a few of her pals

Well, it was so wonderful to see all the tributes floating Mindy and Corey's way. There were Dem party political operatives who just adore her for her work. I heard even Mulgrew and wife sent something.

In a follow-up I will talk about Mindy's abandoning MORE and running with Unity in this election and speculate why MORE has lost so many progressives to Unity.

Well, it's off to hot yoga and another exiting day in NormScottland.

The Tyranny of the Majority - When More Democracy Isn’t More Democratic - NYT

Around the world, rising populists and angry electorates are putting pressure, sometimes deliberately, on what Mr. Levitsky called democracy’s “two conflicting imperatives: majority rule and liberalism.” That contradiction “is as old as liberal democracy itself,” said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard University political scientist. That vision of democracy as rule by the people persists, still heard in classrooms and in campaign rallies, where citizens are told that their authority is paramount. It has set up voters for shock and outrage when they discover, time and again, that they are not as powerful as they’d thought. The checks imposed on popular will can feel like democracy failing — though it’s actually the system working as intended — provoking angry backlashes... NYT - When More Democracy Isn’t More Democratic - NYT

They say all politics is local. I'm fascinated by the machinations I've seen in the UFT and in the various caucuses. I try to connect things to local conditions. Though this is  NYT piece is mostly about BREXIT and populism, a key point it makes about tyranny of the majority applies to UFT/Unity and to the MORE Caucus where all checks on majority rule have been removed as one faction has taken control. And there is also a nascent but small right wing leaning populist sentiment in the UFT -- I will delve deeper in follow-ups.

Also see:

Federalist No. 51 (1788) In this Federalist Paper, James Madison explains and defends the checks and balances system in the Constitution. ... Madison also discusses the way republican government can serve as a check on the power of factions, and the tyranny of the majority.

Federalist Papers No. 51 - Bill of Rights Institute

And

Madison defines a faction as "a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community".

Federalist No. 10 - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._10

When More Democracy Isn’t More Democratic - NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/world/europe/democracy-brexit-populism.html