Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
Access to all of our current providers at the existing
Medicare rates
COMRO Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations of New York City
c/o Professional
Staff Congress/CUNY
OFFICERS:61
Broadway, 15th Floor
Stuart Eber, PresidentNew
York, NY 10006
Armando Mandes First Vice-Chair
Edward Hysyk, Second Vice-Chair
Eileen Moran, Secretary
June 9, 2021
Commissioner Renee CampionChairperson Harry NespoliMartin
Scheinman
Office of Labor RelationsMunicipal Labor
Committee.322 Main Street
22 Cortland Street125 Barclay Street, Room 540. Port Washington, NY
New York, NY 10007New York, NY 1000711050
Re:
Medicare Advantage Plan
Dear Commissioner Campion, Chairperson Nespoli and
Arbitrator Scheinman:
The Council of Municipal
Retiree Organizations (COMRO) requests that the Municipal Labor Committee and
NYC directly and publicly address the concerns of 200,000 retirees and our
40,000 dependents over the pending proposal to move retiree health care
coverage from Medicare/ Senior Care to Medicare Advantage Passive PPO. Retirees
affected by these proposed changes have not been provided adequate and timely
information nor has there been an opportunity to discuss the vendors’ proposals
in the context of our current plans.
This is the only way the
various union delegate assemblies can make informed decisions about our health
care today and theirs in the future.
The City and the MLC must
provide in writing to all retirees a chart that compares the existing plans to
the proposed plans. The chart must include the following benefits that we
already have.These benefits are
essential to the health and welfare of NYC retirees and their dependents:
1.Access to all of our current providers at the existing
Medicare rates even if they are not part of the vendor’s network and at no
extra cost to us. (Despite assurances that any provider who accepts
traditional Medicare will be reimbursed by the plan, the inverse is not
true. For a variety of reasons, some physicians are unwilling to deal
with any Advantage plans due to the difficulties of billing and
reimbursement as non- physician
REPRESENTING AND ADVOCATING FOR OVER 250,000 NEW YORK CITY
MUNICIPAL RETIREES
Medicare claims are sent to Traditional CMS.Out of Network physicians would have to
submit their claims to the Medicare Advantage Plan)
2.Access to all hospitals and specialty hospitals across the
country that currently accept Medicare. This is particularly relevant to
patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Hospital for Special Surgery.
3. No gatekeepers permitted to evaluate our
physician referrals to specialists, surgical procedures from our doctors,
physician orders for CT, MRI, ancillary services and other treatment plans
which are between the retiree and the physician.Retirees must remain in control of their own
health care and not have it dictated by an insurance company that requires
prior authorization for services. We do
not have these barriers now, and we do not want them in the future. Gatekeepers
can delay or deny our necessary health care, interfere with appropriate
treatment options and can cause permanent damage and even death.
4.How the City and the MLC will evaluate the
provisions of the contract and quality of care during the term of the contract.
5.Guarantees of maintaining the current costs
to the retiree.
We look forward to your detailed responses.
Please contact me at (917) 673-4917 or seber93296@aol.com for
further discussion.
Sincerely,
Stuart Eber
Stuart
Eber, President
cc: Armando Mandes
Harry Greenberg
Edward Hysyk
Eileen Moran
REPRESENTING AND ADVOCATING FOR OVER 250,000 NEW YORK CITY MUNICIPAL
RETIREES
Mayoral candidate Maya Wiley has been getting increasing support from progressives in NYC, and NYC KidsPac, a group that has focused on educational issues, has endorsed Wiley. In a recent poll she popped into second place ahead of Yang and behind Adams and Garcia.
Sunday, June 13th, a Wiley rally was held on a street corner in Jackson Heights to support her lowering class size initiatives.
Daniel Alicea, a special ed middle school teacher in Far Rockaway, who has become a prominent voice in NYC educational and union politics, was the first speaker and made a powerful statement.
NYC Kids PAC endorsed Maya Wiley for Mayor a month ago -- in part, because of her strong advocacy for smaller classes and other progressive education policies.
Since then, Maya has also been endorsed by AOC, Diane
Ravitch, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Nydia
Velasquez, Hakeem Jeffreys and many other trusted leaders & organizations and has been quickly rising in the polls.
Here are the videos of Amanda Vender, Shino Tanikawa and Danny Dromm who followed Daniel. Wiley clip to come after processing.
Recent reports on Adams' comments last year that new technology would allow teachers to cover 400 students. I have a better idea that will save a mint.
There are a million kids in the NYC system, give or take 50 thousand. So if a teacher can handle 400 why not make it a hundred thousand. Hire ten teachers at a million bucks apiece and shift to complete remote system. Use the money saved to get top level tech for the kids. Even pay for daycare centers for them.
Each teacher gets a staff for support - model the call centers in India.
This preps us for the next pandemic and may even prevent a spread.
Transportation systems will be relieved and traffic too no more yellow school buses to block your street.
Now what if we need some in person events? Just use stadiums - Imagine Yankee stadium as a classroom -- and you'd reduce class size from 100K to 50k.
And best of all -- sell off all school real estate for condos. Can I get a penthouse in Stuyvesant?
Please join us at a Rally for Maya Wiley and Smaller Classes!
When: Sunday, June 13 at 10:40 AM
Where: Jackson Heights, Queens at 81 St. and 34 Ave.
Map here. Nearest subway: 82nd street (#7 line) or Roosevelt Av/Jackson Heights (#7/E/F/M/R).
As you know, NYC Kids PAC endorsed Maya Wiley for Mayor a month ago -- in part, because of her strong advocacy for smaller classes and other progressive education policies.
Since we endorsed her, Maya has also been endorsed by AOC, Diane
Ravitch, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Nydia
Velasquez, Hakeem Jeffreys and many other trusted leaders & organizations and has been quickly rising in the polls.
2. Today is the first day of early voting. You can find your polling site here. You can also download and/or print all our endorsements on one handy page to take to the polls.
3. Our friends at Class Size Matters have prepared a handy guide with charts
comparing all the leading mayoral candidate's positions on education,
from charters to Mayoral control to class size. Please check it out.
It includes a reference to what Eric Adams claimed at a mayoral forum
last fall: that good teachers can teach 300-400 students remotely. If we’ve learned one thing from the pandemic, is that remote learning with large classes doesn’t work.
Corporate money has a very tight grip on both parties - AOC on Chris Hayes - who changes the subject to attack McConnell - Dems are off the table for criticism.
Thursday, June 10, 2021
AOC appeared on MSNBC, the bastion of corp Dems with Chris Hayes and slammed the corp Dems while Hayes looked on like a deer in the headlights -- he made no comment and changed the subject. She exposes Manchin on his bi-partisanship as bullshit -- he has voted for non-bipartisan bills in the past. He is using it as cover for his corporate sponsor. She points out Koch and The Heritage Foundation from the right are cheering for him out loud. "They are doing a victory lap over Manchin's refusal to change on the filibuster."
Rev. Barber gets it. You can't build coalitions by focusing only on race but you can on the intersection of race and class. He replies to a question about how to build such a coalition in the heaviest pro-Trump state. He is building a coalition of all races based on common interests in one of the poorest states. The corp Dems silently cheer Manchin for obstruction in the interests of the corporations. That goes a far way to explain why Dems are dirt in a state that they used to dominate. Dems have abandoned them.
Here's a clue as to why Dem party, controlled by Corp Dems, is despised by so many and is getting nothing done, even with control of all 3 branches. Despite the attacks on the squad coming from the right - I have friends who claim Biden is under their control - LOL - progressives play a tiny roll, though with a big megaphone, which often doesn't get you any real power.
By the way -- I also need to remind you that the UFT/Unity Caucus power elite is totally on board with corp dems and if the progressives were ever to primary Gottheimer, the UFT would support him - but of course they don't endorse in Jersey.
David Dyan American Prospect is an often must read. We know the Republicans are scum but we need to remind ourselves often that so are many - if not most - Dems. Just look at the mayoral race.
Gottheimer Rakes In Cash From Rent-a-Bank Practitioners He Supports
Yesterday, I wrote about how House Democrat and co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is trying to block a resolution
that would eliminate a Trump-era rule allowing predatory lenders to
partner with federally chartered banks to evade state interest-rate caps
and charge whatever they want for consumer loans. I noted that
Gottheimer is one of Wall Street’s go-to Democrats, and that he’s raised
over $6 million from the finance, insurance, and real estate sectors
over the course of his short congressional career.
What
I didn’t know then is how the small group of companies that
specifically use this tactic of laundering loans through banks to charge
higher interest rates have funneled support to Gottheimer. I did mention
that Opportunity Financial, an online lender that charges 160 percent
interest on its loans in 24 states thanks to a partnership with FinWise
Bank, gave a total of $1,500 in twoinstallments from its political action committee to Gottheimer in the 2019–2020 election
cycle. The CEO of OppLoans, Jared Kaplan, personally gave Gottheimer $500.
Norm -- I wanted to share with you my latest Gotham Gazette piece
co-authored with Wendy Lecker of the Education Law Center about why
this year, to do right by our kids, the Legislature must restart the
clock on NYC's obligation to lower class size by passing S.6296 and A. 7447.
We have only four more days before the Legislature closes for the year. Please call the Legislative
leaders today, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea
Stewart Cousins, and ask them to bring these bills to the floor for a
vote.
Call Speaker Heastie at 518-455-3791; here is what you can say when you speak to his staff or leave a message:
Hi, my name is x and my phone number is y. I am calling to urge Speaker Heastie to bring A. 7447
to the floor, the bill that would require NYC to update and implement a
five-year class size reduction plan. The state’s highest court said
that smaller classes would be necessary to provide NYC student their
constitutional right to a sound, basic education. Now that we are
getting full state funding, NYC should be requiredto lower class size
in our schools. I would appreciate a call back to let me know Speaker
Heastie’s position on this important bill and whether he will allow the
members to vote on it.
Call Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins at (518) 455-2585, and say:
Hi, my name is x and my phone no. is y. I am calling to urge Leader Stewart Cousins to bring S.6296
to the floor for a vote, the bill that would require NYC to update and
implement a five-year class size reduction plan. The state’s highest
court said that smaller classes were necessary to provide NYC student
with their constitutional right to a sound, basic education. Now that we
are getting full state funding, NYC should be obligated to lower class
size in our schools. I would appreciate a call back to let me know her
position on this important bill and whether she will allow the members
to vote on it.
Finally, if you have time, please put the info here on our google doc so we can track who has been called and what response if any you’ve gotten from their staff.
As always, thanks for your support, Leonie
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
This article by Rachel Cohen from The Intercept is one of the best I've read on the bait and switch to Medicare Advantage as it exposes the flaws.What it doesn't address is WHY are unions doing this? And it you are far from retirement be worried - cost savings on your backs will be next. The goal of the Dems, Rep and unions seem to be to wipe out public insurance plans: the UFT is “generally at the beginning” of the trend.
UPDATED WITH COMMENT BELOW FROM RETIRED UFT MEMBER WHO HAS FAVORED A MEDICARE ADV PROGRAM
Generally a well-balanced read, Ms. Cohen's. One fact wrong:
managed care, in the form of HMOs (the first form of Medicare
Advantage) began in the 1970s, not 2000, then was formalized in a 1997
Budget Act and revised thereafter. They are now what's known as Part C,
though that term is not much used. "Original Medicare" was set up in
1965 as Parts A and B. MAs manage Parts A and B in private structures
and are required by law to offer nothing less than Original Medicare. In
many ways they offer more.
Secondly, Ms Cohen is not
factually wrong here, but makes it seem as if there's something wrong
with having to get a referral for specialized care. Primary physicians
can handle a lot of ailments. People frequently self-diagnose an illness
and traipse off to a specialist when the primary could have handled it.
Not only that, once the referral is made to the specialist, they don't
have to keep visiting the primary to get additional care from that
specialist. When the referral period is "up," they just have to call
the primary for another referral. The primary's involvement becomes
virtually nil. And what's more: the primary is keeping records of your
whole health picture, which is not a specialist's job. There's an
advantage to having one doctor know the whole of a patient instead of
just his sinus cavities.... UA (https://underassault.blogspot.com) https://wikis.westchesterlibraries.org/sbic/demystifying-medicare/
Here are key excerpts with the full article below the break.
One study Meyers worked on found that Medicare Advantage beneficiaries were more likely to enter lower quality nursing homes
than those on traditional Medicare. Other research by Meyers found that
about 30 percent of Medicare Advantage plans have narrow primary care
networks, and even more have narrow psychiatry as well as mental and
behavioral health options. Limiting provider options is “one way plans
can save money,” Meyers said.
“We’ve gotten some verbal assurances from the unions, like Mulgrew
said Memorial Sloane Kettering would accept Medicare Advantage, but
let’s see that in writing,” said Eber. “No one has given us a written
explanation of how the city expects to save $600 million, yet the vendor
is going to make a profit and retirees won’t pay the price.”
studies have shown that individuals in Medicare Advantage plans tend to utilize fewer health care services,
including preventative care. “This suggests that some of the tools that
Medicare Advantage plans are using to control costs are pretty blunt
instruments,”
This past spring, in an annual federally mandated analysis on Medicare,
the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission wrote that “the current state
of quality reporting in [Medicare Advantage] is such that the Commission
can no longer provide an accurate description of the quality of care.”
“They’ll be saving money on the backs of retirees.”
A deputy commissioner from the Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations acknowledged
that such pre-approval from insurance would likely be required for
municipal retirees under a shift to Medicare Advantage. Cost savings
often come from making it harder for patients to access services.
Diane Archer, president of Just Care, which offers health and
financial information to seniors, said if New York City moves forward
with the shift, “they’ll be saving money on the backs of retirees” who
need expensive care. Corporations and unions nationwide have been able
to avoid an outcry over similar cost-cutting moves “because the majority
of people they’re moving are in good health and value what appears to
be additional benefits; they generally don’t understand the
financial and administrative barriers to care they will face when they
need costly care.”
“Unions can negotiate something better for their retirees than people
can get on their own in the Medicare marketplace, but I don’t think it
will be anywhere as good as what they have now,” said Archer. “Mulgrew
explains that people will still have premium-free care, but he doesn’t
explain that they could have out-of-pocket costs that will be
prohibitive if they develop a complex condition.”
New York City labor groups aren’t the first unions to look to
Medicare Advantage as a way to cut costs. Experts predict that there
could be a marked increase across the country over the next few years as
local budgets come under more strain.
Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, noted that
Medicare Advantage is being considered at a time when organized labor is
under attack from multiple levels, including over pensions and retiree
health care. Unlike traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage invests
heavily in sales representatives who market their products nationwide.
“They always have an answer, but it’s just like if you’ve ever been
pitched to buy a timeshare,” Lawson said. “Yeah, those people make a
good pitch; it doesn’t change the fact that it’s just a hustle.
the UFT is “generally at the beginning” of the trend.
Health care researchers say it’s not necessarily true that New York
City retirees will be worse off under Medicare Advantage, but the lack
of good data makes it hard to be confident. “Surprisingly little is
known about how much Medicare Advantage enrollees pay out of pocket for
the services they receive overall, across plans, according to health
condition, or in comparison to beneficiaries in traditional Medicare
(with or without supplemental coverage),” wrote Kaiser Family Foundation
researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018.
Jason Abaluck, an economist at Yale whose research
found great variation among Medicare Advantage plans, told The
Intercept the existing evidence “is not completely clear that [New York
City retirees] will not have a more efficient plan and of the same
quality” under Medicare Advantage.
New York City Unions Prepare to Shift Retirees Off Medicare
To
cut costs, public sector unions are planning a switch to Medicare
Advantage, a privatized program whose impact on care is not well
understood.
The Mayoral race is looking like the Belmont. A long mile and a half to go. Am I going to get canceled for comparing the candidates to horses? With Wiley taking a great leap, I expected some quick hit on her. And sure enough:
Lee Fang
@lhfang
·
Maya Wiley, the NYC mayoral candidate who wants to cut $1 billion per year from police, pays for private security on her block in upscale Prospect Park South. A neighbor recounted her demands for more aggressive NYPD policing after her partner was mugged. https://nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-ope
This will be front page of the NY Post. But actually, Lee Fang misrepresents what the article was saying --- but Wiley will also have to respond and it will be a tough ride as she tries to thread a police reform needle.
Garcia is a sudden convert
to the cause of charter schools, which have become, over the last two
decades, emblems of the neoliberal project.... Garcia had no history
discussing any kind of education issues before this mayoral race. She’s
made it clear, thanks either to her genuine belief in charters or her
awareness that rich people who support charters will donate to local
campaigns, that’s where she stands now.... The editorial board[NYT] , which prides itself on its liberalism, did not seem
to know or care that Garcia’s views on housing are not very different
than Bloomberg’s—or even Adams or Yang’s, for that matter. Voters who
take their cues from the Times may not care either. .... Ross Barkan, https://rossbarkan.substack.com/p/kathryn-garcia-reclaiming-the-neoliberal?
There are a few election lanes - the left/progressive with Wiley seizing control as Stringer/Morales fall, the right with Adams/Yang and the neo-liberal right-center with Garcia whom the NYT and Daily News endorsed. Reminder to Trumpies: The NYT is NOT LEFT. The business community apparently now sees Yang as a joke, incapable of managing this city. Capable management is at the top rung now which is helping Garcia and even keeping Stringer alive -- even from the business community which sees him as taking a progressive lane for this election and would move center if he wins.
Ross points to Garcia on housing, which as we saw with Bloomberg who built built built often half empty housing while ignoring infrastructure to go with it, allowing public housing to go under in the hope that unliveable conditions will drive people to move to Florida, will make the city even more affordable and when there are no people, there is no commerce. Bloomberg is a major cause of homelessness and the city housing crisis.
Someone [Garcia] who believes landlords with millions of dollars in equity
experience struggles similar to what tenants, many paying most of their
income to rent, endure is not going to side with the working class.
Garcia is a Park Slope home-owner, which likely makes her a millionaire
on paper. The suffering of a city tenant isn’t something she can
possibly know. And it’s not clear she wants to know it. It’s a
myth that small, hard-working landlords control most of the housing
stock in the five boroughs. They are not lavishly funding the Real
Estate Board of New York.
Mulgrew ignores Garcia threat
It was interesting that the left and center occupied by Mulgrew have told people not to rank Yang or Adams but do not include Garcia who may echo Bloomberg more than anyone. Tell me again, which side is the UFT leadership really on when it ignores Garcia on the charter cap?
For all the revolutions in politics today—the rise of the democratic socialists,
the ascendance of AOC—the neoliberal approach, in municipal politics at
least, has not left us. As predicted in the 1970s, CUNY never would be
tuition-free again. The stock transfer tax, effectively ended in 1981,
would not come back. The massive affordable housing projects of
midcentury and earlier—Parkchester, Electchester, the Coops, Stuyvesant
Town, Peter Cooper Village, the vast tracts of NYCHA housing—would be no
more, replaced with market-rate development that would, from time to
time, parcel out units to a few middle-class residents.
Barkan digs deeper than we've seen on Garcia - who in some ways is an empty vessel too - moving her politics to where the money is:
[Garcia's] platform has several progressive proposals.... But there is another Garcia, a truer Garcia—a
manager, a technocrat, a neoliberal skeptical of the most fundamental
safeguards against the violence of the free-market in a city that is
chasing out its working class and poor. She doesn’t hide this,
exactly—she’s a blunt person—but it comes out only with enough prodding.
Garcia is a sudden convert
to the cause of charter schools, which have become, over the last two
decades, emblems of the neoliberal project. If government-run education
is said to be failing, why not have the public pay for private schools
and circumvent those nasty teachers’ unions? Charter schools did not
exist in New York for almost the entirety of the 20th century. Now,
we’ve been conditioned to believe that a school system can’t function
without them. Yang and Adams are supporters of charters too, and the
left-wing Dianne Morales actually founded one. Garcia had no history
discussing any kind of education issues before this mayoral race. She’s
made it clear, thanks either to her genuine belief in charters or her
awareness that rich people who support charters will donate to local
campaigns, that’s where she stands now.
Morales dramedy continues, as former employees are pro and con
THE CITY spoke to more than a dozen of Morales’ former
staffers about their experiences at Phipps under her. Most wished to
remain anonymous so they could speak freely without professional
consequences. The people broadly fell into two camps: those who had
been working at Phipps before Morales took over and detailed how she
fostered a work environment rife with anxiety and mistrust, and those
who praised what they called her inspiring, visionary leadership. The
latter camp was made up overwhelmingly of employees she hired. ‘[It was] like the cult of Dianne.’ Overall, all the former employees agreed: Morales was charismatic, extremely smart and fiercely loyal to her people.... The progressive Democrat’s current woes
reflect past management issues, some ex-employees said, while others
defended her as a strong leader. Morales charges she’s being undermined,
but is “managing the disruption.”
Here are parts 1-3 where I pin some of the blame people connected to DSA. Ross Barkan led the "Morales is a faux leftist campaign." Part 3 digs deep --
There is no question that the implosion of the Morales campaign and the second charge against Scott Stringer, this one 30 years later - I know, I know, sometimes things need to marinate - have boosted Wiley to the top of the progressives. And yesterday with the endorsements of AOC and Bowman (both of whom had pulled their Stringer endorsements) Wiley now has an unencumbered progressive lane since even of people vote for Stringer or Morales I can see Wiley will be in the top 4 and will get the votes of progressives as they drop off, though according to Barkan, Garcia is fooling enough progressives to deny Wiley. (I was sort of shocked to see some lefty teacher friends choose Wiley and Garcia and some Wiley and Adams -- like the hard left NY State Nurses (NYSNA). A head scratcher.
I think Yang has crested and you see that the business community is not interested in him. The leader is still Adams and I'm going to bet that going into the final week it will be Adams, Garcia and Wiley maybe pulling even with Yang - a sort of right, center and left lineup. I might have actually ranked Garcia if she didn't take the strongest pro-charter stance of them all and joined parents who were demanding schools be open no matter what.
If Wiley starts rising quickly in the polls, I expect somewhere, some
way a political hit on her -- some kid she knew in 6th grade will accuse
her of grabbing his balls.
More historical perspective from Ross Barkan:
Since 1975, every mayor of New York City has been something of a neoliberal. These
men may have varied by party or vision—a couple hewing left while
others took a more ruthless approach—but all ultimately governed under
the constraints foisted upon them by the era we still live in today. The
difference between the left-leaning Democrats (David Dinkins and Bill
de Blasio) and the oligarch-friendly Republicans (Rudy Giuliani and
Michael Bloomberg) could only be so dramatic when a certain segment of
the power elite was determining the course of events...The social democratic era, buoyed by New Deal largesse under Fiorello La
Guardia and continuing through a number of liberal Republican and
Democratic mayors, abruptly came to a halt when the city nearly went
bankrupt. The crisis mattered because it would reorder the city’s
politics indefinitely: instead of expanding the social safety net and
creating new services for the working class and poor, the new aim of the
modern city would be to make it as attractive as possible to capital.
Economic growth would be the new religion, with tax breaks showered on
wealthy men like Donald Trump....
Some sidelights
I was out with a bunch of old colleagues and one of them was ranting against teachers in general and claimed gold-bricking -- that they just didn't want to go into work and should have been made to and fired if they didn't. A former chapter leader, yet. Oy! There's troubling times ahead
Stringer probably did something. Men are sleaze, me included.
Did he pat the ass of an 18 year old waitress working for him when he
was 32 and then sort of ask her out and plant unwanted kisses which she
rejected - I think that is very possible. Look, I'm even older than
boomers and guys used to be told that girls had to reject you at least
once - or more - to appear pure. Today is my 50th anniversary and I'm
thinking back to our first date almost 53 years ago when we made out on
Campus road behind Brooklyn College. I asked her if she told me NO on
the first move I made --- which was so inept, I'm surprised we lasted that evening.
After years in the wilderness of the de Blasio administration and
waning influence in Albany, charter schools are gaining a foothold in
the city again — if the race for mayor is any barometer.
The three leading candidates in the Democratic primary are decidedly
supportive of charter schools — a dramatic shift from when Mayor Bill de
Blasio was elected eight years ago and another sign of the citywide
electorate hewing closer to the center in the June 22 Democratic
primary.
Last week, “Our City” — a left-leaning political action committee
headed by Gabe Tobias — hosted a rally urging New Yorkers to not rank
Adams or Yang, referencing the candidates' support from hedge fund
billionaires linked to school privatization. ... Politico
Of course, They're in it for the children
With the latest charge against Stringer -- how more perfectly timed could they be, 20 and 30 years after the fact -- the charter industrial complex is in great position to renew the charter wars.
Even as charters see a new dawn of sorts this election season, there is
still a movement of families and advocates who remain wary of charter
growth and are taking steps of their own to fight it. City Comptroller
Scott Stringer remains a strong candidate in the race and his skepticism
over charters was among the factors that won him the endorsement of the
United Federation of Teachers — the city’s powerful teachers union
which is helping fund a multimillion dollar, independent expenditure in
support of his campaign.
The more charges against Stringer, the better a charter comeback looks. With him and Morales damaged, the best progressive shot might be Wiley - but don't be shocked to see something drop on her in the next week.
The charters have been given renewal by the awful manner in which de Blasio handled the schools during the pandemic and have opened up a dangerous channel of support from people who would risk trying something new as an alternative to any mayor running things for them. Thus the door is open to privatizing as it hasn't been since the height of the Bloomberg years. In three years the jobs crunch will come for the UFT which should take a message from the Chicago Teacher Union which actually has a clue on how to organize charter schools.
If you don't think there's war has been and is brewing - and will continue to brew in the Dem Party -- this one's for you.
In a listserve discussion of mayoral candidates, those in support of charters were being identified and echoing one of her blog posts, Diane Ravitch said, "Morales said she favors school choice, so strike her. "
Note: On the debate Morales took the strongest stand AGAINST charters, but some progressives have doubted her true commitment.
But then this comment came from a now retired person who was very tight with the UFT hierarchy until retirement:
She [Morales] should not even be a candidate...thank the so-called circular firing squad Dem progressives that are driving our City into the ground more than any GOP ever did!
Yes there is much disdain for progressives inside the UFT leadership and Unity Caucus. You can see that on social media where Unity hacks chime in to challenge progressive ideas --- and all of them echo the same talking points - it's like Unity has its own FOX news propaganda channel. Oh, that's the NY Teacher. Thank goodness no one reads it.
So imagine how they view the opposition, which varies on various levels of the left
-- if there is a credible threat to Unity in next year's UFT elections, just watch the fur fly with red-baiting ala Republican playbook - being played out. In fact Trump may be writing the Unity script - and if the opposition every did win, Unity will be calling Stop the Steal and invade the Delegate Assembly by climbing the walls of 52 Broadway with grappling tools.
“We
learned a lesson,” said Susan Kang, an active member of Democratic
Socialists of America who previously was supportive of Morales. “You
don’t go with an unvetted first-time candidate who tries to claim the
progressive mantle when you have never seen them before.”
Gabe
Tobias, a former campaign aide to both Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman, is now
working on an effort to educate voters about how the city’s new
ranked-choice-voting system will work and telling them to leave moderate
candidates like Yang and Adams off of their ballots. But even those
moderates, he notes, talk about left-wing ideas like reforming the NYPD
and meaningfully addressing poverty in the city. And had someone like
Ocasio-Cortez or Bowman or Public Advocate Jumaane Williams run, he
said, they would likely have been cleaning up in this race.
Follow the bouncing ball in the graphic above. Today we get into the nitty gritty of who did what to whom. DSA provided a lot of staffers for Morales and, in particular the Queens branch. Did sentiment inside DSA toward Morales shift away from her? Realizing her activism was short-lived but as long as she was not attracting attention, they could live with her. But as she began to make headway, what was viewed as a faux leftist became a possible threat to the DSA long-term project which is to infiltrate the Dem party with socialist ideals and candidates. They have strength in certain areas of the city to be able to elect state senators, assembly, congress and this year focused on city council. They were clear they would stay out of the mayoral race due to lack of resources but even if they did get involved on a citywide basis, it is not clear they hierarchy would have backed Morales since her career was so far from socialist ideals.
It is interesting to see what has come out of MORE Caucus which seemed to be backing Morales. She gave them an hour interview and they castigated the UFT leadership for not including her in their final four. At the May DA a reso from a MORE ally called for Stringer to be dropped from UFT endorsement and I did read some MORE comment calling for Morales to be reconsidered. (I can't verify where I read that.) The key thing is that MORE is loaded with DSA people and they run MORE. Forming unions is of the highest priority and the DSA labor group is loaded with MOREs. So how to square the revolt by people calling for a union with support for Morales? If MORE is silent on Morales now after pushing her, there is a signal of DSA abandonment.
Before we go into more detail I'd like you to check out the new version of Rising in its first edition since Krystal and Sagaar did their final show on Friday. I was pleased to see Ryan Grim repping the left and I like Emily Jashinsky for the right.
Ryan delved into the Morales campaign mess and castigated the activists. In this must see video Ryan breaks news with a story of a similar revolt in Bernie's Iowa campaign where Bernie said - don't hire so-called activists who often put themselves and their interests ahead of the campaign -- the ME generation, I guess. Since so many were from DSA, these socialists weren't acting very social. I mean, you join a campaign a month ago and with a month left you want a union?
[UPDATE - In today's Rising Ryan goes deep into the charges against Stringer and the connections to is accusers lawyer to billionare anti-Stringer Steve Ross who formed an anti-Stringer PAC https://youtu.be/bjbY8iWjoPY].
On the other side, Morales brought into the campaign her personal assistant, Amanda van Kessel, who felt she had special rights and most likely came into conflict with campaign manager Witney Hu. Both are from Queens branch of DSA so that makes it interesting.
“We
learned a lesson,” said Susan Kang, an active member of Democratic
Socialists of America who previously was supportive of Morales. “You
don’t go with an unvetted first-time candidate who tries to claim the
progressive mantle when you have never seen them before.” The
collapse of the Morales campaign signals a low moment for a resurgent
left that not long ago looked set to dominate the race for mayor this
year. Back in 2020, New York’s financial and real-estate elites were so
concerned that this year’s mayoral election would herald a sharp
leftward turn in city politics that some of them started meeting
together in secret, trying to figure out how many millions of dollars to
deploy to fend off the rising tide.... With
the mayoral election less than four weeks away, the furrowed brows of
Wall Street can unclench. The spectacle of the Morales campaign staff
blowing up their own candidate seems to mark the end of any dream of a
leftist victory in the June 26 Democratic primary, and many of the
progressive organizers and activists who worked years for this moment
are left to look only with despair at the waning days of this race......
For
most of the past year, progressive hope was centered on Scott Stringer,
who, as a 60-year-old straight white male city comptroller with a long
career in government and a comptroller’s flair for spectacle, didn’t
exactly fit the young, diverse, and hype-house mood of the moment.
Stringer was surging when his campaign was derailed by an accusation
that he sexually harassed a volunteer on a 2001 campaign for public
advocate. The left-wing lawmakers whom he helped put into office in 2018
and 2020 by backing them early and campaigning vigorously on their
behalf quickly abandoned him (even as some have since expressed regrets
for acting hastily.)
Morales
seemed like a better fit. An Afro-Latina, she, like Bowman and
Ocasio-Cortez, came from outside politics. Unlike Stringer, she had
never taken money from real-estate interests (Stringer swore off the
donations once the campaign got under way), argued that the police
“don’t keep us safe,” and pledged to defund $3 billion from their annual
budget while creating “a care economy.”... had someone like
Ocasio-Cortez or Bowman or Public Advocate Jumaane Williams run, he
said, they would likely have been cleaning up in this race.
“The candidate is the problem to solve,” he said. “Not the ideology.”.... NY Mag
The hot mess in the Dianne Morales mayoral campaign: I began writing this article a month ago. "A month ago", you ask? All the current drama over her campaign came out in the past week. Well, there was other stuff way before. And throughout, when you'd expect attacks on the most progressive candidate to come from the right and center, I was seeing the critiques coming from the left. And they rang true, while the current revelelations from her former staff, many of whom are connected to DSA Queens branch, need further examination, especially given some of the tactics - like demonstrating outside Morales headquarters and demands for severance pay for people who quit, demands for a union, and more.
Earlier in her career, our "most progressive" primary
candidate worked at New Visions for Public Education, the privatizing
non-profit that profited handsomely during those dark years of school
closings.
As a general rule, it's wise to be skeptical of, if not allergic to, non-profit/NGO leftists...
I'm always cautious about the kinds of attacks and where they come from.
But
from day one I was wary of the fact she had a high profile job with
Joel Klein and I remember complaints from parents over the actions of
that agency she was in charge of though I can't say for sure if it was
under her tenure which seemed to not last very long.
What is interesting are the attacks are from progressives who doubt her progressive credentials.
It is possible she got religion in the past year and a half after a career that didn't indicate progressive politics.
Like
no endorsements of people like AOC or Bowman or others. And hedging on
whether she voted for Cuomo. They view her as an opportunist who took
the lane left open.
There is a lot of info about Diane's links to charter school industry people in this article.
She
also came under fire on a podcast with Brianna Joy Tayler, with fire
from a tenant organizer who said her boss had the highest eviction rate
in the Bronx.
MORE Caucus called on UFT to cancel Stringer and replace him with Morales
There's been a lot more reporting on the story since but I thought this NYMag story is worth a read.
