More Bitch Face, DO NADA, and Unity Defender

Recently we have been chronicling events at a Bronx elementary where chapter leader blogger Proof of Life fended off a multifaceted attack by the principal while the UFT sat silent in spite of the outrages, fueling suspicion there was some connection between the UFT and the principal, who has fondly become known in these parts as "Bitchface." This goes further than an election as BF and her agents attempted to trump up incidents that would land PoL in the rubber room. The UFT refused to get involved. Our first two posts

When a Chapter Leader Stands Up to the Principal...
Unity Hack Attack on Chapter Leader

led to comments from a UFT apologist, known in these parts as Unity Hack, which criticized Pol for calling the principal Bitchface on her blog.

This comment came in defending PoL:

You know you hit a nerve when a unity hack responds in that manner. Did you notice the telltale attempt at misdirection by faux concern over the principal's bitchface label as opposed to the real and documented harassment of a chapter leader? When will UFT start defending the CLs who are actually confronting principals?

PoL won the election by 30 votes but the UFT threw it out on the most extreme technicalities (if this was a Unity Caucus chapter leader this never would have been a redo), giving Bitchface and her disciples another shot at PoL, who won the 2nd time, though not by as large a margin. The attempt to break PoL's spirit has not worked and will not work.


Some of PoL's supporters at the school have been in touch.

I admire this CL. In fact, I am a former employee of POL's school and Bitch Face is a rather kind name for her! Way to go POL!

Another colleague talks about DO NADA, the principal's chief provocateur.

I'm a teacher at this school and I must say that POL is correct in what she writes. I understand that her use of language may be questionable but that is the purpose of a blog, to yell, scream, praise, pray, curse, love all through text.

Her frustrations are valid. The principal chooses each year people she places on a "shit list" as I call it (please excuse the language). The DO NADA lady I know from personal experience does not teach. She reads a newspaper during class, arrives up to two hours late to school and leaves up to an hour early almost every other day. She is never on the absent list even though she IS INDEED ABSENT. Sucks for people like me who have to be absent for a reason and calls in.

DO NADA actually pulled a stunt years ago where she caused the disruption of a training session to yell at me, in front of the principal, and the principal tells me to let it go. NO write ups, No reports. Our school is so CORRUPT with this principal and certain teachers she has working as an informant, it is absolutely out of control. You probably ask why no one notices this.

Maybe it's because the school is kept so clean, so presentable, the teachers are amazing and actually make up for lack of leadership. We make HER look good. She has given visitors tickets to Broadway shows as gifts, catering, etc...why would anyone who visits complain? We work so hard for the children, not her. That is why this school runs well. Most children believe the assistant principal is the principal.

Our CL is strong and determined to keep our staff united but the principal has [created] an unrepairable rift that has divided this once, close-knit family. It's a shame we have to see this happen. I pray for the day someone sees the cover-ups. The kids with knives in the schools who are not reported, attacks on teachers which again are not reported, the principal who buys everyone off in the region with her connections, especially with the aide of the teachers she uses for their political connections. It's disgusting. Please forgive the errors and language at times but I'm writing as a form of expressing my frustration, not a formal paper.

Related:
What is happening with the chapter election at New Utrecht HS in Brooklyn that has caused Unity Caucus people to call Ed Notes asking for assistance? Reports to follow soon.

Another Unity Caucus member under attack by the principal also called Ed Notes for help.

Some interesting results coming in from chapter leader and delegate elections. Unity better hustle people into the caucus before the rabbits start jumping out of the hat.

Note: There has been a lot of immature name calling on the original posts that has taken away from the discussion. The irrelevant comments on both sides will be deleted.

Garth Harries Leaves DOE as Ed Notes Helps Pass Klein Lemons

What do you do when you get a call from a top official at the New Haven school system, as I did two weeks ago, asking your opinion on the NYC ed reforms?

You let it fly.

At least until he reveals they are thinking of hiring Garth Harries, whose appointment as Deputy Superintendent in New Haven was announced on June 8. Harries is one of Joel Klein's chief non-educator/business characters. The New Haven official ran across my Education Notes blog and wanted to know what we thought of Harries. Asking the editor of a digital rag his opinion? I must be living in an alternative universe.

"Hmmm," I think, "Klein always talks about he urges principals to stop passing on teacher lemons to others. Here's an opportunity to pass along a Klein lemon."

Of course, there are Klein lemons spawning all over the place: Washington, Baltimore, Delaware and who knows where else? They're like the swine flu virus.

"Nice guy I hear," I say. "Very personable. Smooth. Doesn't know all that much. Doesn't think class size is important. Often uses the lame expression, ‘Research shows that teacher quality counts more than class size, but when challenged to cite the research, says, I'll get back to you with that.'" Sure, in another life.

"What he actually knows is not important," the official says. "We have a reform movement already that focuses on the classroom and he won't get to impact much on that, but there is thinking here that if we tie into the Joel Klein reform effort by hiring one of his top people, we'll have a better chance of getting some of that stimulus money. And Yale University, who we partner with, is very interested in that aspect."

“In that case, Garth Harries is the perfect guy for you. Great for public relations," I say.

If they wanted a DOE connected guy for PR, they could have done better with PR chief David Cantor for much less money.

Harries was recently put in charge of special ed in NYC despite knowing nothing about it. Nice time to leave in the midst of reorganization.


Related:
I referred the story to a parent activist who knows more about Harries than I do who said she would also help pass the Klein lemon by praising Harries to the sky.

Ed Notes had this story for 2 weeks but sat on it out of courtesy to the caller.

The New West Side Story

When you're in debt, you're in debt all the way...
I was greedy, oh so greedy...
My IRA, my IRA, it's giving me angina...

http://www.newsday.com/media/flash/2009-04/46217527.swf

Tip from Merry.

Unity Hack Attack on Chapter Leader

Even regular critics of Randi Weingarten and her Unity Caucus, which has run the UFT since its inception, often don't understand the full depth of the betrayal of teacher interests. It takes years of day to day combat with Unity hacks to provide the full flavor.

Oh, I can tell stories. Like the ICE candidate for chapter leader in a long-time Unity stronghold who was charged with corporal punishment and sent to the rubber room a week before the election. The dean in charge who "investigated" was buddies with the long-time Unity hack who was chapter leader, who went around bragging how he got rid of his opponent. The ICE guy still got almost 40% of the votes despite being banned from the school. The Unity CL ended up with a full-time job at the UFT.

Or the ICE CL who always fought for her members in a large high school but was constantly being undermined by her district rep who actively sought out and cultivated someone to run against her despite the fact this guy was a "cooperative" ally of the principal who violated so many union rules. When the ICE candidate won the election by 1 vote, Unity used a phony disputed ballot to throw out the election, announced the re-election on a day the ICE CL was out of the building, and held the election the next morning on the last day of the school. I was very involved in that case as we met with the borough and district rep the night before the election and it was clear what their agenda was. The ICEer lost by a few votes. I guarantee the teachers at that school are not better off.

I wrote about blogger Proof of Life the other day (When a Chapter Leader Stands Up to the Principal... ) and her battle against a principal and her hand-picked candidate - both of them seem to have connections to the UFT. POL has risked her career and her health to stand up for her members and it showed when she won by 30 votes. Of course the UFT made her do it again on a technicality. Hope always springs eternal. Naturally she won again.

The interesting part here is the comments on that post from a Unity hack, who was more concerned with the fact POL referred to her principal as Bitch Face (or BF for short) and used that as an excuse to attack ICE:

Leaving a very detailed description (ie. traceable) where someone is constantly being called "Bitch Face", we're supposed to believe that the author is incapable of committing verbal abuse? Seems like ICE has found another winner to champion.
I'm once again bewildered by the choice of individuals that ICE stands behind.
It would seem that ICE flushes "A Union of Professionals" right down the toilet yet again.

These comments pretty much put it all in a nutshell as to the Unity Caucus/UFT conception of professionalism. Play nice, capitulate like a gentleperson, sell out - and we will support you all the way as the teachers get flushed down the drain. As long as you get COPE contributions and support the union line. On the other hand, fight like hell for your members, but voice criticisms of the Unity machine, and we will do what it takes to undermine you.

Even though this is blog is run by Ed Notes and not ICE, I'm sure ICE would be proud to champion POL and indeed hope she runs with ICE in an election so Bitch Face and her Unity supporters are blasted all over the map. We're just waiting for our invitation to come speak to the staff at the school to demonstrate that there are unionists who mucho appreciate POL.

POL left her own comment: "I would laugh if it weren't prohibited!"

Related:
My favorite line in POL's post: I asked Bitch Face if it was "bring your husband to work day."

Fiorillo on the UFT and Mayoral Control, Caroline on Charters

Michael left a few comments at Gotham Schools that are worth featuring.

1. As a public school parent, UFT Chapter Leader and member of the union’s Governance Committee - who must admit that he had every expectation that Randi would pull exactly this move - I must follow up on Ellen McHugh’s statement that, not only has Randi Weingarten never opposed mayoral control, but that we would not have mayoral control if not for Randi Weingarten.

The UFT always had veto power with the legislature over this issue, and it was Randi who gave the go-ahead for mayoral dictatorship of the schools in 2002. In fact, a colleague of mine who spoke with Sheldon Silver at the time tells me that Silver had alternative legislation written that, while giving substantial power to the mayor, would have provided for some checks and balances (which I seem to recall from my US history classes, is supposed to be the American Way). Weingarten rejected this, and we now found ourselves where we are today, betrayed yet again by a so-called union leader who prefers the company and compliments of the oligarchs who are intent on privatizing the schools, de-professionalizing the job of teaching, and preparing students for the the stress, tedium, overwork and surveillance-filled electronic and service/retail sweatshop that is the 21st century workplace.

For those who work or have children in the schools, Randi’s rationale that Bloomberg has brought “stability, cohesion and responsibility” to the schools is a particular insult to our intelligence and experience. After all the intentional fragmentation, chaotic (intentionally so) re-organizations, and refusal to accept any responsibility for ongoing crises within the schools, Randi’s distortions and/or refusal to see reality rubs salt in our wounds, to say nothing of making it harder to try and make public education work for all students.

As president of the AFT, now taking her show on the road by prepping the sell out of teachers in DC and Detroit, Weingarten’s disgraceful legacy metastasizes nationally.

Someone was horrified that the union might exercise veto power in the state legislature.

2. Not to be too harsh, but I think people are being ingenues if they think that the UFT does not have a powerful voice on education issues in the legislature, particularly in the Assembly prior to the 2008 election. And that’s how it should be, since the teachers are both the most stable constituency for public education, as well as - I know this goes against the current conventional wisdom/propaganda about schools - the strongest voice for students. I’m aware this statement will not go over well among many readers of this site, but consider the following:

- It is the UFT contract, and ONLY the UFT contract that places any limits on class size. Without the class size caps in the contract, Bloomberg and Klein would put 50 students in each class. After all, they never tire of saying that class size is irrelevant and that only “teacher quality” matters. Of course, charter supporters will say that they’re classes are smaller, without the “inefficiencies” of a union contract, but the reality is that charters are private entities masquerading as public schools, siphoning off public funds and receiving substantial private subsidies. Comparing charters - with their actively or passively creamed student populations, their low or nonexistent ELL and Special Ed populations, their freedom to remove students for whom the school “is not a good fit” - with zoned public schools is an exercise in naivete or dishonesty.

- The union contract, and ONLY the union contract allows people to make teaching a career, where many teachers often spend their entire professional lives serving the children of a particular community. This is an inestimable social benefit that is often overlooked. Again, charter schools are all about work force transience and turnover (an explicit policy goal of Klein’s, and one reason he’s pushing charters so aggressively), making teaching a temporary missionary/Peace Corps gig. If this offends you, I suggest you look at the turnover rate in charter schools: it’s an unacknowledged scandal, and gives the lie to their claims that they are “all about the children.”

The issue should not be one of people being shocked, positively shocked that the union has a powerful voice in Albany (after all, Finance, Insurance and Real Estate certainly does, and had been unsuccessfully pushing for mayoral control for quite some time) but how well the union uses that power in the service of teachers and students. And by supporting mayoral control, and yes, being the gatekeeper in permitting it to occur, the UFT under Randi Weingarten has failed its members, students and parents.

Related:

San Francisco Ed Examiner Caroline Grannan commented on charter schools at Gotham Schools in a running battle with anonymous charter school defender Kitchen Sink, known to distort charter school critics' views on more than one occasion. I posted Caroline's comment on Norms Notes for easier access.

Duking it Out on Charter Schools

Before Talking to a Politician...

...Show You Can Organize a Crowd

I posted an article about the Los Angeles teacher union on Norms Notes but never got to comment on it here. Remi left a comment on "The Day My Union Died":

Danzinger is right to criticize the current UTLA Leadership for its failure to make an effective attack on the anti-public education policies that dominate our state. But he is wrong about the effectiveness of a one-day strike. Even if the proposed one-day strike had been legal it would not have "convinced" Cortines and the Board that UTLA opposes their lay-offs and negative budget; Ray already knew that. All a one-day strike would have done was cost every participating teacher 1/2 of one percent of their salary. The real problem is not in Los Angeles, it is with the ultimate school board in Sacramento. The current UTLA Leadership should have been pushing, for the past two years as economic strom clouds gathered, for a statewide strike led by the CTA and CFT, UTLA's two statewide affiliates. Current state policies are destroying not only the LAUSD, but K-12 education, and California's once great system of a low cost university education for all those who want one. California needs to modify Prop. 13, and re-establish a tax policy that will make it posssible for the state to pay for the public services our citizens demand.

Remi is responding to a post critical of the ULTA for backing down on the one day strike after the injunction. This commenter seems to be looking through the narrow lens of political action as lobbying and misses the importance of the impact of a militant union willing to take a 1/2 of one percent hit. I have these discussions all the time with people who put their eggs into addressing politicians with pleading and lobbying and private meetings. Or letters and petitions. As the Marine Park rally showed, first demonstrate the ability to bring people out in force on a consistent basis and then talk to the politicians. All too often people get bogged down in lobbying and never get to the organizing necessary to back it up.

Why Sell Out? - Updated

This is a question I get all the time about Randi. Here is one quick response:

After the brutal '68 strike Albert Shanker knew the UFT could never again win much more than salary increases for teachers, and at some point only those at the expense of selling out. Thus over the next 15 years was born the "new unionism" where the union no longer is an antagonist but a cooperative partner with management.

So Shanker's joining in with the business world in the somewhat discredited (Rothstein) "Nation at Risk" in 1983. Leading from that Shanker made alliances with Ronald Reagan and the Clintons (retesting teachers in Ark. with he was governor) and Goals 2000, the precursor of NCLB when Clinton was President.

Knowing there could be dissent at the bottom there was a need to make sure to maintain absolute control - the Unity caucus machine.

Remember, the prime directive is to remain in power.

To try to keep members happy they have to get raises even if they are not real as NYC has pointed out. And merit pay. And money for longer days which many are happy to take, in particular if they are younger.

Support for the small schools and charter schools? Breaks up potential strong large schools which might turn against Unity if an opposition springs up. The UFT has the resources to get to all the schools. So for them the more the merrier.

By supporting mayoral control they can make deals one on one without democratic vetting. Bloomberg is willing to give money for salaries in exchange for the UFT keeping the members under control, one of the main functions of the UFT. BloomKlein don't want the UFT to go away. It performs too many services for them.

Every once in a while the UFT does the dance like a law suit (often announced and not filed) or some raw words from Randi directed at Klein for effect. And Bloomberg or Klein attack Randi for show – Witness the UFT getting data reports for tenure outlawed but allowing enough loopholes to give them what they want. They all have a laugh with each other at the way they're fooling so many chumps.


This comment is worth featuring:
The sellout is before ’68. Shanker chose alienation rather than solidarity with community and other workers. Selling out the school system, the children, and the parents was part of the decision.

Despite the harm to teachers and students, Shanker’s policies were not mistakes, but reflected the carefully thought-out ideology of the political group SDUSA, which ran the UFT and dominated much of the labor movement. An ideology of protecting and promoting the economic and class status quo in this country and US economic and political hegemony abroad.

In the late 60s and 70s, in the midst of a growing movement of students, rank and file labor, black and Puerto Rican movements for social justice, social programs and against warfare, foreign interventions, and military spending, this group of labor bureaucrats was active politically driving wedges between working people and promoting corporate interests.

Getting a good contract was always portrayed as a battle between us (UFT) and other municipal unions. Getting higher pay was always posed against getting better working conditions. From the early 70’s on, we always heard there was no money. This went on for more than 30 years through all kinds of ups and downs in the economy. Cities and States never had enough money for schools and social services.

As the corporate and income tax rates on the wealthy plummeted and as the federal government shifted more and more financial burdens onto states and local government, Shanker, his allies in the AFL-CIO, and his anointed successors never saw fit to mobilize a labor movement to fight back. At the same time he began to lay the groundwork for a further way to divide the educational community itself—the standards movement, which promoted a rigidly hierarchical and eventually a corporate-controlled educational system, threatening students and teachers alike.

What about Randi Weingarten? Is her hard work and ambition motivated by a strong ideological underpinning? Or is it just a personal quest for power?

Does it matter?

While Weingarten’s political ideology is not as clear and consistent as Shanker’s was, she pushes the union in the same direction. Instead of openly opposing her critics she pretends to take them seriously, forming committees, sponsoring meetings and demonstrations, speaking and writing about how she feels the pain of the overly burdened teaching staff.

But as you always say, Norm, watch what she does, not what she says. Inevitably she betrays our interests and lands squarely on the side of the educrats, the high-stakes test establishment, the dictator-mayor and the well-connected vendors and contractors sucking the life-blood out of our school system. Going along with the blame game against teachers and “failing” schools, she diverts our attention from the real culprits and the policies and programs that should be put in place in order to put our school system on the right track.

She's an Angel...

Thus spoke a number of former colleagues. Hold onto your hats. I'm talking about a Leadership Academy Principal.

I was in Williamsburg Wednesday where I left my car on the way to Yankee Stadium and decided to pop into a few schools to see some friends. I started with the school where I spent most of my 35 years in the system.

Now I won't go into the full history. Only the abridged version. I'm saving the real goodies for my novel.

I arrived in 1970 (after 3 years at another school) just as a powerful traditional principal of the old school was leaving. He was replaced by a long-time AP and teacher at the school, with the assistance of an AP who also came up the traditional way.

These guys were pretty open to listening to teachers so we pretty much did as we wanted.

In 1975 someone politically connected with little teaching experience was inserted as an AP and we knew things would change. She immediately leaped over the long-time AP when in late 1978 the district pulled a coup d'etat that made her principal, dumping the long-time AP into another school and forcing the old principal to retire (they locked him in a room at the district office and didn't let him pee). Thus we got an early taste of a non-educator running a school, which she did for a quarter of a century.

She imposed a data driven, high stakes testing system and we saw the impact. The school scores rose, but the kids knew no more and their lives were impacted not at all. Thus an early lesson in achievement gap bullshit.

She was forced into retirement not long after the BloomKlein takeover when 4 districts with different cultures were made into one region. They sent a principal from district 16. Her first act upon the start of the year was to make every teacher change rooms - apparently an old D.16 tactic to show people who was boss. She left for an admin position after one year.

Then came the Leadership Academy principal from hell. Rubber rooms, attacks on teachers, irrational decisions. The school's scores rose to the top and she got A after A (her husband worked for Bloomberg). Lots of people left, including a core of excellent teachers, many of whom went to other schools in the district where tales of the Lead Acad horror story spread.

Last summer she went on to bring her light and cheer to some very lucky school in New Jersey. Call it passing the Klein lemons.

Lots of cheering for the wicked witch being gone. But---another Leadership Acad principal who looks all of 29 years old takes her place.

We've heard plenty of stories of these hot shots who come in and think they know everything and attack, attack, attack.

But reports immediately start filtering out this one is different. Nice. And open. And welcoming. A friend who had built a serious library out of nothing but left due to you know who, was invited back for the opening of a brand new library and was raving - about the library and the principal.

So I went to see for myself. As I ran into former colleagues almost all of them were smiling, as if they had been liberated from a prisoner of war camp. One said she was going to leave on the day she was eligible for retirement without telling anyone, but was now going to stay. She can do the work of 5 people if properly motivated. Sometimes a "please" or "thank you" is all it takes.

Another colleague told me that test scores were down, but they were more realistic and there was no hysteria. The school had been so divided and tense before. But now she felt people would all be pulling together.

I was escorted into the Principal's office. Maybe she was 29. I introduced myself as a 27 year school vet and said "I have been hearing nice things about you."

"Well, you can stop by anytime," she smiled as she shook my hand. (Her predecessor would not even acknowledge me when she saw me and rebuffed any effort to assist.)

We chatted for about 30 seconds and before I knew it I was volunteering to help out in some way. "Do you want to work F-status," she asked? "No, I'll just stick to volunteering," I said. I told her about FIRST LEGO League and she knew all about it.

Well, what is the moral of this tale? From the coup d'etat in 1978 until Sept. 2008 when this new principal took over, the school had never experienced complete peace. Though the gal who took over in '78 eventually calmed down a bit, it was always her way no matter how dumb and irrational her decisions were. So this may be the first time in 30 years with a somewhat humanist principal. I have no idea what she knows, but she seems to know at least how to treat people with respect.

I know things can turn, especially if the scores don't move. This school may be one of the few places where people will fight like hell to keep their principal.

When a Chapter Leader Stands Up to the Principal...

...don't expect the UFT to be on your side

Remember that ICE resolution to support chapter leaders at the last DA that Randi stole and rewrote? (Read our report here.) Just more foil dropped from the UFT PR operation to hide where the real bombs lie.

We've seen it time and again. How the UFT will support a principal flunky over a stand-up CL who doesn't suck at the Unity Caucus line. And when the PP's (principal pawns) are politically connected to Unity, it's no holds barred. Oh, and they all seem to end up with do-nothing jobs.
I been there, done that as my district was Unity controlled, with most of the principals being former Unity chapter leaders. Nothing like having the administration and the union gang up on you to train you in survival techniques. By the end of my career I could withstand Ebola virus.

I've been getting reports from chapter leader/blogger Proof of life on her reelection campaign. In the fall she was worried about winning against a principal flunky out to undermine her. I think strong, gutsy CLs often underestimate the level of support they have because people are often silently cheering them on. She won the first election by 30 votes 70% of the vote.

The principal and her gang complained on a really dumb technicality. The UFT made them do it again, despite the fact that such overhwelming victories make do-overs senseless. But when you have a dog in the race...

Not the first time the UFT has backed a principal and undermined a chapter leader (for fun, go back up and read Randi's tin foil DA reso protecting CLs.) POL won the second round, also by a wide margin, despite the principal calling people into her office telling them how to vote with over.

At times POL gets a bit down, but I want POL in the foxhole with me anytime. Drop by her blog and give her some love. Proof of life's report with some hilarious excerpts.

I won the second election which was conducted by the UFT. The bitch face principal had her pawns lined up against me. First, they say I cheated because I didn't put the yellow Notice of Elections in every one's mailbox. The form provided by the UFT states something to the effect, "you can use this or any other form". My form was to follow all instructions to the T except to use the yellow form. My form was to announce at least a dozen times I planned to run against PAWN 1.

Anyway, I am well aware the UFT is not my friend. They have direct personal ties to Pawn 1, and I am sure they encouraged him to continue his run. I won the first election 20 votes to 50. Pretty big margin.

When principal's pawns were able to convince the UFT in letters to the Borough office that my election was not on the "up and up " things began to turn from ugly to ridiculous to the surreal to the absurd.

Crazy DO NADA teacher spent hundreds of dollars on professional huge posters. I mean professional. I only put up four homemade signs with my name. It didn't matter because each time I put one of my humble fliers up it was ripped down. DO NADA has plenty of money, seeing how she "works" per session everyday, but no one knows what she does. As a matter of fact, she must have a very special job that allows her to work from home because she is never in the building.

A few weeks before the first election, DO NADA was taken to the hospital. According to her I had "super imposed" my body on hers. She also claimed I went up to her with clenched fists and an angry face and threatened her. She was whisked away in an ambulance because I gave her an anxiety attack. In reality I did pass DO NADA in the hall and said to her, " have a good weekend" ( kill them with kindness). Thus the first attempt to get me in the rubber room.

That investigation fell through as DO NADA had no witnesses and I had two teachers who said they saw me say something to do nada and then do nada started screaming. Who is the drama queen?? The UFT did try to intercede at this point. They requested a mediation between NADA and myself. This never came to pass as Bitch Face would not allow NADA to go to the UFT office.

The next move was really a hum -dinger. DO NADA's husband was allowed in the building to tail me. Yes, to shadow me around the building. He does not work for the DOE. Why was he allowed to do this?? HARASSMENT! YES, that's right. I asked Bitch Face if it was "bring your husband to work day." I was wondering if I could bring some of my motor cycle dudes from the old days.

Skip to tactic 104, random number for random acts of stupidity. DO NADA's hubby decides to use the the DOE email to send out propaganda against me. Although he put every ones name on a list serve he was stupid enough to have his email address at the top of the campaign flier.

I was labeled a buffoon who postures. Maybe this couple from hell took the same creative writing class. Needless to say, my friends in the building gave me the email and several went to the administration to complain. No one wanted that shit in their DOE email accounts. When I approached Bitch Face with the email she said she was unaware of it. Of course she was unaware of it. Only ten people went to her with the email. In one final last ditch attempt to get some help I wrote a letter to Randi.

I explained the entire situation to her. She was quick to write me back and tell me she would come to the school asap. This email was intercepted by the Bronx office and they assured Randi that they were on it. Funny, I didn't feel like they "were on it".

I was assigned a lawyer and OSI was called. It is not legal to use the DOE accounts for personal propaganda. This is where things get fuzzy because once again all has come to a complete stand still and DO NADA has a new tactic. OSI did come and did question staff members concerning the email. The staff was eager to speak although I warned them they were allowed to have UFT representation. I could not represent them because that would be a conflict of interest. My step two grievance against Bitch Face for interfering with UFT business was also halted when BF claimed she didn't receive the documentation. I have teacher witness statements from former teachers (at the school) which state she had told them on numerous occasions to stay away from me. Nice concept. Pay union dues, but do not reap the benefits of union assistance. The hearing officer adjourned the grievance until liar liar was able to attain the documents. The documents have thus been faxed to her and yet my grievance is at a stand still. No more OSI. NO more nada.

I happened to walk past DO NADA's CTT class. I went in and greeted the students as I often do when I walk into a class room. Force of habit I guess, because I am a teacher after all. I told newbie teacher the SLT meeting was over, and to expect Do Nada back. Normally Do NADA takes the entire day when she has a SLT meeting. After all it takes hours to type up the principals agenda. We call this democracy?? Little did I know the best was yet to come.

I continued on my merry way to coverage. Newbie runs into the room to report that DO NADA has taken the children to the guidance counselor after she has coached them to say I walked into the class and verbally abused them!! I walk to BF's office and who is there? None other than DO NADA. She walks out as I enter. I ask BF is she is aware that Do Nada has taken children to counselor to interrogate them. Of course she responds, " I am unaware of this I will check into it."

I ask BF "is it not enough you have divided the staff, now you are allowing the students to be used?" I called the UFT and told them what is going on. I asked for a follow up on my grievance. Does this BF have that much political power that she can stop the ball of justice from bouncing? Or is she so "in" with the leadership of the Bronx Borough UFT that I am without a doubt fighting a battle on all sides? Time to call in.

Proof Of Life plans to have me over to speak to the staff one day. Maybe the UFT can call for a thrid election before it's too late.

Weingarten Didn't Flip on Mayoral Control

UFT positioning is akin to planes spreading tin foil to try to fool radar.


Philissa Cramer's excellent piece, Randi Weingarten under fire for mayoral control position, at Gotham Schools today exposes the fault lines between the UFT leadership, rank and file teachers and parent activists openly opposing mayoral control. While I liked the piece, I have differences in nuance when Philissa writes:

A group of parent activists and union members is expressing anger with teachers union leader Randi Weingarten, telling her that she has dropped the ball in fighting for checks to the mayor’s power over schools. The frustration began with a May 21 New York Post column, in which Weingarten indicated that she is open to allowing the mayor to continue appointing a majority of members to the citywide school board.

The frustration only began on May 21 for those who haven't been paying attention to Randi's positions on mayoral control for the past 7 years. Ed Notes has consistently predicted she would support it - we even went to UFT Exec Board meetings over these years and guaranteed they would support mayoral control with the most minor of tweaks that would have zero impact no matter how much flack they put up to confuse and obfuscate.

We opposed the very idea of a phony UFT task force dominated by Unity Caucus that would give cover to Randi's doing what she intended to do anyway over the past 7 years. (I have been a lone voice in ICE urging boycotting these farce task forces.)

Indeed, Ed Notes went from a semi-Weingarten supporter (from 1996-2001) to open opposition based on her taking that position (really in May 2001, not 2002 as she claims) and the opposition caucus ICE was founded in Oct. 2003 with a foundation of opposing Randi because we knew what the ramifications of mayoral control would be for parents, students and teachers.

I spoke to Philissa yesterday and made the point that Randi's flipping on the constitution of the PEP panel is just flack covering Randi's consistent support for mayoral control. More egregious, I told her, is her modifying the report of the UFT task force that spent a year addressing the issue that was voted upon at a delegate assembly. One of the few good things the report recommended was taking away the mayor's ability to appoint a majority of the PEP. That is where Randi has flipped. The task force was c0-headed by UFT VP Carmen Alvarez, who has been racing around the city representing the UFT on panel discussions and trying to give the impression the UFT supports checks and balances. Tsk, tsk, Carmen.

Philissa spoke to Michael Fiorillo and Lisa North, ICE reps who served on the task force who helped write the ICE minority report which Randi's Unity party refused to allow to be presented to the DA. Democracy inaction, as usual.

“I do feel betrayed,” said Michael Fiorillo, another chapter leader who sat on the union’s task force. “I just wish I could say I felt surprised.” He said Weingarten has veered away from members’ consensus on other topics in the past, and so he had early doubts that she would hold firm on the task force’s recommendations. (Fiorillo ultimately voted against the recommendations, saying they weren’t aggressive enough curbs on mayoral control.) “My guess would be the sense of betrayal would be stronger among people outside the union,” Fiorillo said, noting that union members were accustomed to watching Weingarten change her mind.

Weingarten doesn't exactly change her mind. What she does is throw up lots of tin foil like those planes trying to foil radar detection do in manipulating public perception of where the UFT stands. It is necessary to see through the flack and keep one's eye on where the real plane with the bomb is.

Why does the UFT leadership love mayoral control? Because it allows them to negotiate in back rooms with one person instead of opening up the process to democratic scrutiny. Totalitarians behave that way. When Obama was talking in Cairo today about bringing the light of democracy to places of darkness he might has well been talking about mayoral control and the UFT.

Graphic by David

"You Mean He Would Tape a Meeting?" A Termination Hearing Experience

You hear an awful lot about how hard it is to terminate a tenured teacher and how much it costs. You only get the horror stories from the perspective of the anti-tenure crowd. What is often neglected is the issue of why a school system would choose to take a route to terminate in spite of the costs. The David Pakter case is a prime exhibit. I dropped in on David's 3020a hearing yesterday. You could write a book.

There were the lawyers - NYSUT for David and someone from the DOE. The arbitrator down from upstate. And the principal who had to be pulled from the school for two days. At least. Maybe more. And at least 12 days of trial. All to fire a teacher who has been in the system for 40 years. And not one word has ever been uttered negatively about his teaching.

What was yesterday all about? David had given watches from his watch company to students as an incentive for getting 90 averages on their report cards. Five watches. And one to a school aide for assisting him. That makes six.

David certainly knows how to get noticed. He started at the school on Oct. 18, 2006 upon release from slavery in the rubber room for years and was sent back on Nov. 25. Mostly over the watches. (There were more charges for which he was exonerated by the investigators.) That they are going forth with 3020a hearing sat extraordinary expenses to terminate him is bizarre, bizarre, bizarre.

When I left they hadn't even gotten to the large potted plants he brought as a donation to the school and placed in front of the auditorium. They deemed them a fire hazard and had them removed. Twenty lashes. The school puts on lots of shows. I bet they could have found some use for them. But I'll get more info later on this caper.

There was lots of discussion on the visit UFT's NY Teacher reporter Jim Calahan made to the school when he was writing an article on David. And David's offer of a $10,000 donation to the school. David is a well-known artist and owns watch companies and he is not doing any of this for the money.

The key questioning in a superb cross examination of the principal by the NYSUT attorney was about a meeting held on Nov. 3 to discuss the issue. The principal's memory was sketchy. But on direct examination she indicated that David was trying to market his watches in the classes he taught by giving out catalogues and his web site. On cross it came out that he was giving the kids a place to go to choose the watches they wanted. The arbitrator, one of the most respected I hear, perked up. Not marketing, but offering choices of watches. An ah-ha moment.

There was a lot of detail that I'd love to go into in the future as the process is very enlightening as to the thought process administrators go through. There came a point when after repeated questionning about the details of the things that were said at the Nov. 3 meeting were raised - things that David said there that would go a long way towards exonerating him– the principal said, "This seems like you are reading from a transcript."

The NYSUT attorney smiled and nodded. The principal issued a gasp. "He taped the meeting," she said incredulously? "Why would he tape an innocuous meeting called to discuss the issue," she asked in shock?

The NYSUT attorney smiled and said, "Well, we are at a 3020 hearing looking to terminate him."

The DOE attorney quickly asked for a few minutes to discuss the issue outside.

THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATION: TEACHERS MISSING AT THE TOP

At City Limits

The New York City public school system has always been led by teachers. Until the chancellorship of Joel I. Klein.

A few subheadings:

• Product over process- check
• Teaching and learning downgraded- check
• 'Contempt for the profession'- check
• But businesses have gone bust- double check

An excellent article despite the numerous quotes from the ultimate hypocrite and intellectually dishonest UFT VP Leo Casey, who just might check out his boss' comments praising Bloomberg and mayoral control and giving them credit for the rise in test scores.

That former DOE cabinet member who is afraid of personal and professional retribution? I'll bet my union COPE contributions it is Carmen Farina, also one of the most hypocritical people on earth for remaining silent. A supposedly true educator (her silence weakens that argument), she was told by the Kleinites she didn't have the skill set for the job of Deputy Chancellor (they are on their 6th one).

Fear and Loathing in the NYC School System
The article ends with this Editor's Note:

In preparing this article, City Limits spoke with former and current DOE staffers and cabinet members, former and current school principals, academics, and critics on the left and right of the political spectrum, nearly all of whom requested anonymity out of concern for possible detrimental consequences for speaking candidly on the record on a sensitive issue. “The incredible concentration of political and financial power leaves no room f or dissent or difference,” said one person.

Many expressed worry that their schools might suffer or their programs might be jeopardized, given the depth and reach of Bloomberg-funded civic and philanthropic projects citywide. The mayor’s broad and deep connections across political, financial, social and philanthropic networks limit comments to those kept off the record – and, critics say, strongly influence largely favorable coverage in the mainstream media.

The DOE, despite prior verbal agreement to review and consider questions related to this article, declined comment, and would not address the near-universal desire for anonymity.

Come to a meeting of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) today, June 2!

After a successful rally against school closings and mayoral control and a successful forum on charter schools, take part in a discussion of what to do next to oppose privatization and mayoral control of our schools.

When: Tuesday, June 2 at 5 p.m.
Where: CUNY Grad Center Room 5414 (34th Street and 5th Avenue) Bring ID


* The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) to Defend Public Education is a newly formed coalition of NYC groups (Independent Community of Educators – ASC-ICE/UFT, New York Collective of Radical Educators - NYCoRE, TAGNYC, Teachers for a Just Contract - TJC/UFT, Teachers Unite) and independent individuals. We seek to educate, mobilize and organize educators, parents, students and our communities against the corporate and government policies which serve to underfund, undermine and privatize our public school system. GEM advocates, both within and outside the UFT, around issues dealing with the equality & quality of public educational services as well as the rights of school workers.

The Teachers Voice

Andrés Castro has been attending the Teachers Unite Saturday workshops on activist teachers with me and about a dozen others. Here is a message from him.

Below is a very new section on our site that I would like to promote. I am especially looking for original or links to well written and researched articles (pro or con). Of course, I'm always looking for strong and high quality creative writing for our upcoming issues.

http://www.the-teachers-voice.org/waronpubliceducation.html

Peace,
Andrés Castro
Managing Ed.
The Teacher's Voice
P.O. Box 150384
Kew Gardens, NY 11415
http://www.the-teachers-voice.org/
editor@the-teachers-voice.org

Not Worth the Paper . . .

Jamaica HS teacher Mark Epstein tackles credit recovery and the drive by diploma mills.

New York’s public schools have replaced social promotion with universal promotion.

At the City Journal.

Ramifications of The IS 278 Victory

There are a lot of angles to study in the recent rare victory of the IS 278 community in fighting off the insertion of a charter school into their building in the Marine Park area of Brooklyn. Contrasts to other protests like the one in Co-op City in the Bronx are stark in terms of the numbers, if not the spirit. School closing rallies can be spirited, as they were at PS 72 in East NY, Brandeis HS or at PS 150 in Brownsville.

There were certainly some unique circumstances:

• The ability to pull out a thousand people.
• The politicians jumping on board, including Anthony Weiner and Bill Thompson.
• The community is mostly white (and Irish Catholic.)

It is rare that charter schools are inserted into schools in white communities. Many speakers pointed to the fact that the charter school law calls for them to be placed in areas where there are "failing" schools and that in that context the Hebrew Language Academy charter school makes no sense. I mean, don't expect HLA to go to Bed-Stuy, despite the fact that there are thousands of parents who want their kids to learn Hebrew.

But you know something, if they did place it there people would line up for the two teachers in the room, the low class sizes and the other goodies. But we know that will never happen because the true purpose of HLA was to serve the Russian Jewish population in southern Brooklyn and the so-called diversity their speakers bragged about was not in evidence other than some token speakers and they have been unwilling to provide exact figures.

Now, I don't agree with the argument that charters should go into only certain areas of the city. I and another GEM speaker were the only ones who opposed the concept of charters as undermining the public schools and challenged Steinhardt's daughter Sara Berman and her supporters to fight for low class sizes and two teachers in a room for every child in the city.

Where was the UFT?
One thing was very clear in the IS 278 situation: The UFT played no role. How could they oppose the placing of a charter in a middle school when they did exactly that at George Gershwin MS in East NY - IS 166 - (my Alma Mata)? And they also have one in an elementary school. Ed Notes and ICE have opposed the UFT charter schools.


Commenters touched on issues race and power.

Ira Goldfine
The scary part of this is that it may be a victory for IS 278 but its going to be a defeat for some other school when they try to dump this charter elsewhere. I hope the people in the long neglected poorer part of Distict 22 are watching out for their schools because I wonder if those same politicians will defend them the same way they defended IS 278.

Anonymous
The politics of this is very uncomfortable. Although this is a great victory for IS 278. Why haven't other schools been able to win this kind of battle? Why all know the answer to this question & it is very disturbing.

LQuinlan replied

First off, HLA will now be leasing their space, most likely from the Diocese of Brooklyn, so no other public school will have to fight. This is what they should have been doing from the beginning but they no doubt preferred the free ride they were getting from the DOE.


Secondly, I don't know what anonymous was implying about why this campaign was so successful. I tend to think it was the outpouring of the community: Nearly 1000 people attended the hearing, thousands of calls were received by 311 and over 6000 signatures were collected on petitions from the community. Show me another school that put forth that kind of effort and maybe then you can compare the outcome. I think we succeeded because it was a well thought out, well-executed plan and believe me when I tell you, more was planned for the future. Don't turn it into something it's not.

HLA was wise to make the decision that they did. I wish them luck even though I do not believe in their mission. I hope Klein and the DOE will recognize that this community deserves a voice in the future of 278 and that we'll never have to deal with that smug, condescending John White ever again.

There's a load of implications in this interchange. Do politicians favor white communities or do they respond to the numbers? LQuinlan points to a remarkable organizing effort. I was told 200 press releases were sent out. Only Ed Notes and Channel 5 responded and you saw almost no press coverage of the event. And there still seems to be news blackout of what I think was one of the most remarkable outpourings of opposition to the arrogance and power of BloomKlein.


HLA may have been the trigger - there are some whispers that if it was not a Hebrew charter the opposition would not have been as great - but I do not get the impression that anti-semitism was at play and there would have been vigorous opposition to any charter.


Calls of "This is America"
There were other issues. When a translator got up to announce in Spanish that translation was available, there were shouts of "Speak English" and "This is America." You could just imagine what was going through the minds of the HLA supporters and the DOE officials. And the progressive ed reformers who came out in support. This certainly didn't come from a majority of people, but that was not a pretty sight. Someone with guts (not me) should have asked for a Hebrew translation.

Certainly this was a volatile crowd and when the HLA people got up to speak it was raucous at times. The DOE people got a taste of what teachers face running an auditorium program. It was the organizers who kept the crowd under control. They not only knew what they were doing in organizing this event but their political instincts are right on.

Would they support other schools in other neighborhoods or even schools in Marine Park that are forced to take a charter? GEM tried to make the connection when we spoke. When people came over to thank us for speaking, we did raise the issue that people in Harlem are in the same position and we hoped they would be there for them.

I do think some of the organizers are part of the bigger battles on mayoral control now that they have seen the power exercised and fought off "successfully."

Did the DOE lose?
I put "successfully" in quotes for a reason. When people asked at the meeting if it was a done deal, the response was that Klein would hear what people said and make a decision. Sure. I told the DOE guy I would bet him it was a done deal and no matter what happened that night, BloomKlein wouldn't back down.

Raymond commented:

Happy to hear that HLA is withdrawing its request for a charter school at IS 278 This is Great news the middle class Marine Park neighborhood finally wins one for the community and the kids. Cheers for all that showed up at the meetings and showed their support. Great Job everyone. PS I was wrong the decision was not made. Glad to be wrong on this one.

I'm sorry to bust the balloon.

The decision was made. Klein would have ruled in their favor. The DOE did not back off. HLA withdrew. You just had to watch the look on their faces (I did take video of their reactions but the weather has been too nice for me to get to it) to see that they realized that if they went into the school in September, these kinds of protests would never end and it would all end in a fiasco of unimaginable proportions. Give them credit for understanding that much.

The DOE still holds the cards

Remember, John White from the DOE was suddenly offering IS 278 the high school they were fighting for for the past few years in exchange for accepting the charter school. Will that deal be pulled off the table? Will there be other ways to retaliate against the IS 278 community so the fever doesn't spread? (In some other schools that resisted the DOE, the principal came under attack later on. Remember,in DOE-ville, the school leader is supposed to put a stop to these things.) The standard tactic of totalitarian mentalities is to punish as a lesson for others.

There were enough speakers who went beyond the charter school issue to attack the mayor's control of the school system in a community that he counted on for votes and support. That is a warning sign to BloomKlein that even after they get mayoral control renewed, there will be another sunset provision and the battle will continue.

People are inspired

Triple3 said

This is amazing. I am so happy for this community and applaud the huge efforts that were made. My name is Elva Croston and I am a concerned parent with a child who attends PS 160 in Co-op City in the Bronx. The DOE has already approved a middle school/high school charter to be housed in this "tiny" elementary school. Although, some parents are divided on this issue, the majority of parents are saying "NO". We had a march today to oppose this which can be seen on Bronx news 12. Another hearing is set for June due to a technicality on the charters original application. Apparently, the charter was already approved and set to open in District 12 but then the DOE decided to place them in District 11 without notifying the community first. The biggest mistake we made as a community is listening to those who think this move would be a good idea. The DOE is standing their ground to open the charter in September. But guess what.... so will the parents!

LQuinlan said...

Elva, I wish you and your community the best of luck. It's time to wrest the power away from the mayor and get it back where it belongs- the educators and the parents.

See excellent videos and comments at http://www.gerritsenbeach.net/

The Nation Exposes Obama's Cynical Education Gambit

Jim Horn at School Matters is so right on in this piece that I couldn't pick and choose some excerpts. So here it is intact. [Give Jim a spin on a regular basis.] Note the mention of former Daily News ed reporter Joe Williams, who has found a way to profit on the backs of poor children and may now officially join Eva Moskowitz as an official poverty pimp.

The Nation Exposes Obama's Cynical Education Gambit

Broad Inauguration Party in Washington D.C., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (Photo/Stuart Ramson)
While many of us were out busting our humps to gather up a few dollars and votes for the change we thought we could believe in, the Harvard boys were cutting backroom deals with the multi-billionaire oligarchs to fully engage their plan to corporatize American public education, beginning with the urban schools.

There is no wonder that Spellings and Paige were running around breathless and wild-eyed, even as it became clear that McCain was going down. The insiders knew the Bush charter plan would not only go forward under Obama, but it would be slammed into overdrive by the clan of vulture capitalists and tax credit leeches who paid plenty to play the high stakes game for control of American schooling.

From The Nation's Dana Goldstein, where the story picks up on Obama's decision to invite the three stooges to the White House recently to proclaim the new post-partisan victory for philanthro-capitalism, disguised neatly under the banner of civil rights--with one particularly well-paid civil rights advocate getting a half-million for his time:

. . . the single-mindedness--some would say obsessiveness--of the reformers' focus on these specific policy levers ["free market competition"] puts off more traditional Democratic education experts and unionists. As they see it, with the vast majority of poor children educated in traditional public schools, education reform must focus on improving the management of the public system and the quality of its services--not just on supporting charter schools. What's more, social science has long been clear on the fact that poverty and segregation influence students' academic outcomes at least as much as do teachers and schools.

Obama's decision to invite representatives of only one side of this divide to the Oval Office confirmed what many suspected: the new administration--despite internal sympathy for the "broader, bolder approach"--is eager to affiliate itself with the bipartisan flash and pizazz around the new education reformers. The risk is that in doing so the administration will alienate supporters with a more nuanced view of education policy. What's more, critics contend that free-market education reform is a top-down movement that is struggling to build relationships with parents and community activists, the folks who typically support local schools and mobilize neighbors on their behalf.

So keenly aware of this deficit are education reformers that a number of influential players were involved in the payment of $500,000 to Sharpton's nearly broke nonprofit, the National Action Network, in order to procure Sharpton as a national spokesman for the EEP. And Sharpton's presence has unquestionably benefited the EEP coalition, ensuring media attention and grassroots African-American crowds at events like the one held during Obama's inauguration festivities, at Cardozo High School in Washington.

"Sharpton was a pretty big draw," says Washington schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, recalling the boisterous crowd at Cardozo. Rhee is known for shutting down schools and aggressively pursuing a private sector-financed merit pay program. Some of the locals who came out to hear Sharpton booed Rhee's speech at the same event, despite the fact that her policies embody the movement for which Sharpton speaks.

The $500,000 donation to Sharpton's organization was revealed by New York Daily News columnist Juan González on April 1, as the EEP and National Action Network were co-hosting a two-day summit in Harlem, attended by luminaries including Chicago schools CEO Arne Duncan. The money originated in the coffers of Plainfield Asset Management, a Connecticut-based hedge fund whose managing director is former New York City schools chancellor Harold Levy, an ally of the current chancellor, Joel Klein. Plainfield has invested in Playboy, horse racetracks and biofuels. But the company did not donate the money directly to Sharpton. Rather, in what appears to have been an attempt to cover tracks, the $500,000 was given to a nonprofit entity called Education Reform Now, which has no employees. (According to IRS filings, Education Reform Now had never before accepted a donation of more than $92,500.) That group, in turn, funneled the $500,000 to Sharpton's nonprofit.

If one person is at the center of this close-knit nexus of Wall Street and education reform interests, it is Joe Williams, who serves as president and treasurer of the EEP's board and is also the executive director of Education Reform Now. But it is through his day job that Williams, a former education reporter for the Daily News, exerts the most influence. He is executive director of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a four-year-old PAC that has gained considerable influence, raising $2 million in 2008 and demonstrating remarkable public relations savvy.

The group's six-person team works out of an East Forty-fifth Street office donated--rent-free--by the hedge fund Khronos LLC. In recent months, DFER has had a number of high-profile successes, chief among them a highly coordinated media campaign to call into question the work of Obama education adviser Linda Darling-Hammond, once considered a top contender for the job of education secretary. During the same week in early December, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe published editorials or op-eds based on DFER's anti-Darling-Hammond talking points, which focused on the Stanford professor's criticisms of Teach for America and other alternative-certification programs for teachers. Less than two weeks later, Obama appointed DFER's choice to the Education Department post, Chicago schools CEO Duncan.

During campaign season, DFER donated to House majority whip James Clyburn, Senator Mark Warner and Virginia swing district winner Representative Tom Periello, among others. The organization regularly hosts events introducing education reformers like Rhee and Fenty to New York City "edupreneurs," finance industry players for whom education reform is a sideline. DFER is focused on opening a second office, in Colorado, a state viewed as being in the forefront of standards- and testing-based education reform. The group successfully promoted Denver schools superintendent Michael Bennett to fill the Senate seat vacated when Obama named Ken Salazar as interior secretary. Bennett led the school system with the highest-profile merit pay system in the nation.

During the Democratic Party's national convention in Denver this past August, DFER hosted a well-attended event at the Denver Museum of Art, during which Fenty, Booker, Klein, Sharpton and other well-known Democrats openly denigrated teachers unions, whose members accounted for 10 percent of DNCC delegates. With Clyburn and other veteran members of Congress in attendance, many longtime observers of Democratic politics believed the event represented a sea change in the party's education platform, the arrival of a new generation. While progressive groups such as Education Sector, Education Trust and the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights have long attempted to push free-market education reforms to the Democratic Party, it is only with the arrival of DFER that the movement has had a lobbying arm with an explicit focus on influencing the political process through fundraising and media outreach.

"For a lot of groups that are dependent upon both private money and government money, there's a tendency not to want to get involved in the nitty-gritty of politics," Williams said in a March 31 phone interview from Denver, where he was meeting with Colorado politicians, setting the stage for DFER's expansion there. "Our group--what we do is politics. We make it clear: we're not an education reform group. We're a political reform group that focuses on education reform. That distinction matters because all of our partners are the actual education reform groups. We're trying to give them a climate where it's easier for them to do their work."

The education reformers who came to prominence in the 1990s, including the founders of Teach for America and the Knowledge Is Power Program, the national charter school network that fought unionization in one of its Brooklyn schools, often went to great lengths to portray themselves as explicitly apolitical. Nevertheless, "a lot of those people are, politically, Democrats," says Sara Mead, a DFER board member and director of early childhood programs at the Washington-based New America Foundation. "One of those things that DFER does that's really important is to help give those people a way to assert their identity as Democrats. It's important for those groups' long-term success, but also for Democrats, to the extent that some of these organizations are doing really good things for the kids whose parents are Democratic constituents. It's important that those organizations are identified with us rather than being co-opted by Republicans, as they were in the past." . . . .

So let's see, if I am working for a an outfit like KIPP or TFA, and I don't want to proclaim my political allegiance, I can funnel money through DFER to pay off the politicians who will make the decisions that favor the benefactors and oligarchs who are funding my programs. Is this what you might call non-identity politics??

I think this must signal the end of the two party system, since it no longer matters which party you belong to--in the end, the oligarchs will buy either.

Has Howard Dean announced for 2012 yet?? As an Independent?? He's a shoo-in.

PS 160 Protest vs. Charter School - Co-op City, Bronx - May 29- Video

May 29, 2009 - AFG Press

PS 160 of Co-op City, The Bronx, NY protested the dictatorial imposition of a charter school by Mayor Bloomberg & Chancellor Klein. Over 100 students, parents, residents, & teachers protested the inappropriate placement of a middle school "Equality" Charter in their elementary school. As customary with mayoral control, again the community was not consulted. This Equality Charter will encroach on the already limited space needed for their special needs students, to reduce class size and for its specialized classes. The parents are organizing against this outrage and have filed a grievance against the City.

Rather than promote "Equality" [a misnomer for any charter], these privatized charters in public schools only serve to divide and generate tensions. Charters provide disparate, unequal and preferential treatment with reduced class sizes, more resources and monies. These monies should be targetted for the benefit of all public schools. Julie Woodward of ICE/UFT said, "It is government that causes public schools ‘to do poorly’ by failing to provide the necessary resources, monies, and supports! Charters and school closings are not the answer."

Not surprisingly, UFT officials were absent from this important protest. The UFT can not represent its members against these charter intrusions and union-busting maneuvers of the City because the UFT has shamefully supported charters and the disastrous mayoral control of schools. GEM seeks to reverse such negative policies of the UFT/AFT which allow the private-corporate sectors to appropriate our public school dollars for their profiteering and to discredit teachers for "poorly" functioning schools. Privatization via charters only serves to undermine, underfund and union-bust our public schools. The complicity of OUR UFT must be stopped.

Unite with our communities and GEM in our Citywide fight-back!

Click to see GEM's video on Protest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i862TC2IIUs&feature=channel_page

GEM issues include: stopping school closings & privatization with charters, democratic control of our schools, restoring teacher seniority transfer UFT-contract rights, smaller class size, ending high stakes testing, stopping teacher harassment, and more.

We defend equal & quality fully-funded neighborhood public schools.

Please forward.

Angel Gonzalez,
for GEM

Commenting on Randi Weingarten National Sellout Tour

Our posting Randi Weingarten Continues Her National Sell-out Tour raised some comments on ICE mail:


Bill
I have heard a lot of people complain about Randi selling out the union but what's her motivation, what does she have to gain. Does it help her political career or is she just doing what every petty dictator needs to do in order to survive. Wouldn't it be easier for her to do the right thing?

Norm
She may think she is doing the right thing from her point of view. Making the union a partner rather than antagonist goes way beyond Randi and if you read the Tough Liberal book you will see Shanker laid the seeds.

After '68 the union had no stomach for going through confrontations. But for Randi there is the added element of personal glory as she tries to be viewed as a so-called progressive leader. Which translates into selling out.

Lisa
The privatizing forces and money that are against the "real" reform of public urban education are VERY strong. Randi knows this. It will take building a movement and awareness of the general public as well as teachers. Union leaders do not see themselves as movement leaders...they see themselves as "managing the members" to get the best they can for them at this point in time and also staying in power themselves.

Michael
I'd also add that Randi wants it both ways: to be seen as a "progressive unionist" and as a "collaborator" (her term) with management. But something's got to give when there's that kind of contradiction. And guess which one it is?

The members interests get short shrift, because "collaborating" gives her more credibility in the eyes of the Important People whom she seems need validation from. Additionally, it advances her career in ways that truly representing the interests of teachers and students would not.

I don't know if you've ever heard her speak of herself as a combination of John Dewey and Samuel Gompers; she's done it more than once at the DA. The totally-off self-perception is enough to make you wince but it says a lot about how she sees herself. Sadly, the reality for teachers is far different.

Angel
Thanks Bill for your question. I am sure many are grappling with that one also.

I agree with the above.

AND would add that we can characterize the UFT/AFT/NEA as:

-business unionists who sell its members a service. We pay them to manage us for the interests of the corporate sectors.

They are the professional corporate CEO unionists who will manage us and put the militancy and grassroots struggles in deep-check. The necessary strategy of mobilizing & organizing the membership will not be done because in addition to threaten the powers that be, also threaten their bureaucratic CONTROL over their members. Instead of militancy, these bureaucrats only sell us futile strategies of lobbying and backing so-called "sympathetic" candidates in elections.

• - top-down bureaucrats
• - in bed with government, management and corporate sectors
• - complicit with promoting right wing reactionary foreign policies
• - undemocratic well-paid labor aristocrats (making 6-figure salaries - close to the 1/2 million dollar range) who are out of touch with their rank and file
• - co-opters & saboteurs of grassroots democratic struggles to improve education and worker/teacher rights.
• - their income levels and comfort zones keep them more in tune with the corporate sectors
• - opportunistic dues-suckers (literal translation of chupa-cuotas term from Puerto Rico) which better translates with something like Dues-Vampires or Dues- Vultures. The AFT served to sabotage the progressive education struggles in Puerto Rico -- that is why the FMPR disaffiliated successfully in 2005.
• - pro-war & militarism (and zionism, I believe)
• - ideologically see capitalism as the answer to our societal ills. As anti-socialists, they will rebait viciously whenever it suits their needs. They are in essence class-collaborationists who sell out the working class interests.

Besides Great Salaries from our dues, seats at the corporate tables, great perks for their stooges and cronies, how else does the AFT/uft leadership benefit? The AFT/UFT helps to union bust and balkanize schools with their support for charters -- how will they benefit from these in the long term? Can our union & locals be tranformed from within? What is our strategy to transform our union to a defender of rank & file & community interests????

It would be good to have a workshop or forum on these important questions and what Bill raises. I am sure many of us have begun to or have studied these union characterizations and questions that apply to our AFL-CIO and other federated union formations. There should be analyses and critiques of that we can collectively study, publicize and disseminate especially to new recruits to our democratic progressive dissident wing.

GEM Tackles the Segregation Issue

The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) has been developing a broad program of where they stand on a number of issues. Racism and segregation has been put on the table for exploration. We've had some preliminary discussions about school segregation and whether integration could be a solution to the unequal schooling in this city for Blacks and Latinos.

One member suggested reading Jonathan Kozol's Jan. '06 Gotham Gazette article about current segregation on the NYC schools: Segregated Schools: Shame of The City

A few intriguing excerpts from the Kozol article:

"New York State is the most segregated state for black and Latino children in America: seven out of eight black and Latino kids here go to segregated schools."

"in New York City small schools are being used, intentionally or not, in ways that widen the racial divide....I predict that within ten years the entire small schools movement will collapse and be declared a failure."

"we have wasted too much time in the last 20 years fiddling around with governance arrangements. The fact is that whether the school systems I visit are governed directly by the mayor independently, or through an appointed school board or an elected one, virtually all cities face the same calamity: a devastating gulf in the quality of education offered to minority kids as opposed to white kids."

"The chancellor and the mayor ought to be advocating for cross-district integration with the 40 or 50 affluent suburban districts that immediately surround New York City. Admittedly, this step would take extraordinary political audacity."

"it is to their [BloomKlein] credit that they have used this power to get rid of the rote and drill, stimulus-response curriculum that was being used in failing schools across the city."

One GEM member, a 10-year teacher in Harlem, commented:

Nice observations. However there is little faith in Harlem that Bloomberg and Klein have any intention of strengthening anything that is public.

Their actions have undermined relationships within and between communities in Harlem where I have worked in the same public school for 10 years. Their expertise is not community building or education for that matter. They are experts in privatization.

Our public schools in Harlem are seeing their communities being siphoned off by the flood of charter schools that are openning right next door and more recently right inside public school buildings. Bloomberg and Klein have stated that their jobs are about providing parents with choice. If that was what education was about, we'd have great schools, but it's not and we don't have great schools under their leadership. They are however, becoming more segregated based upon need.

There is a developing prejudice against high needs students. It is observable in the charter vs. public school population, where public schools shoulder a much higher percentage of English language learners, special education students and title one eligible families. This is happening while the charters receive public money in addition to the millions in private money that many charters pull in.

This is a prejudice that Klein puts on public display when he removes the ELL population from his powerpoint presentation on test scores to show that the ELL students are dragging down the scores. Be does this to show that he thinks the DOE is doing a good job, that it's the ELL population that isn't.

Bloomberg and Klein are now attempting to give public school space to charters at no cost even though they have the money to pay their executives salaries that are upwards from $300,000. I thought the Mayor was given control of the public schools in order to run them, not unbalance and threaten them by introducing well financed competition right inside their buildings. Martin Luther King would be crushed by what is transpiring in Harlem.

Charter schools can be places of innovation and experimentation without undermining our public system, but not the way Bloomberg and Klein are running things. Many parents, educators and politicians are waking up to the fiasco of lies and the manipulation of numbers that has been Mayoral Control. I just hope it's not too late.

Another writes:

Very intriguing article. So I guess cross district (busing) programs to integrate schools has worked in Boston and St. Louis and Milwaukee. The only thing I disagree with is when Jonathan Kozol writes:

The Bloomberg administration's educational reforms have been centered on mayoral control of the schools. This probably gives the mayor and the chancellor better tools to approach the problems in the schools, and it is to their credit that they have used this power to get rid of the rote and drill, stimulus-response curriculum that was being used in failing schools across the city.

Other than that I agree.

Next GEM organizing meeting: Tuesday, June 2, 5 PM.