Breaking: Mayoral Appointee Elzora Cleveland, Rockaway Schools Savior, Resigns from PEP

This news was just breaking on FB and has been confirmed by reliable sources.

I talked about the pressures on Elzora Cleveland to resign from the de Blasio people even before last week's PEP votes to close renewal schools in this post: Analysis: The Story Behind the PEP Rockaway Vote -. I also touched on it here: School Scope - Norm in The WAVE -- Drilling down o...

Since Cleveland voted with the 5 borough reps on some of the closing schools, leading to 7-6 votes to close, there was always the chance that if one more mayoral appointee joined her or abstained, the DOE plans for some schools would be upset. And so it happened when mayoral appointee Isaac Carmegnani did abstain on the Rockaway schools leading to a 6-6-1 vote. But there are rumors that he actually touched base with the de Blasio people, perhaps making the point that his political career might be endangered in Queens if he voted to close the schools. I urged that she force de Blasio to fire her. But maybe she has reasons of her own to leave.

de Blasio had promised not to fire PEP members if they didn't go along with him. And he hasn't had to. But I assume that people who go on the PEP have  interests that might be helped by being on the PEP.

But pressuring people to resign is not off bounds to him. PEP member Robert Powell was forced to resign after he was the only PEP member to vote NO on a corrupt $1 billion contract that was later rescinded.

It is clear that the PEP is mostly a rubber stamp - or puppet - not looking out for the public interest. Here we see examples of how their allegiance to one person hurts public education. The only solution is to end mayoral control and go to elected school boards. Not nearly a perfect solution, but more perfect than mayoral control.

West Virginia: Do-It-Yourself Class Struggle - Jacobin

One lesson from the West Virginia teachers’ strike is clear: nobody is coming to save us. We’ll have to do it ourselves.... 

....many workers in Wisconsin have argued that it was the intervention of union officials into the militant upsurge of 2011 that demobilized the occupation of the capitol building and redirected workers’ energies into an unsuccessful electoral bid to oust Governor Scott Walker. The calls for a general strike that echoed through the rotunda represent the road not taken: had workers relied on their own power rather than deferring to elected officials and union leaders, things may have turned out differently...... Kevin Prosen, Jacobin

I bet the people most frightened by the strike are our very union leaders who are probably hoping for swift retribution (which is already beginning - see Ravitch) so they can say to UFT members -- see what happens when you get too militant? We will examine the role Randi and Lily and their reps played in WV - remember the union leaders said they had a settlement and the rank and file revolted. We will delve more into that issue in upcoming posts.

But the strike has been making the mainstream press -- though mainly ignored by the so-called liberal MSNBC and CNN.

See Ed Week

Will Teachers' Strikes Happen More Often? Union supporters have claimed that strikes and labor unrest could happen more frequently if the Supreme Court rules against mandatory union fees. But experts aren't so sure. Read more.

We will delve into the impact of the WV strike -in upcoming posts --  will it increase militancy or not? Like I pointed out above - retribution of some kind is going to come and how that is dealt with is the key. I think they are going to try to fragment the public school system with a heavy choice movement -- kill public education and no state wide strikes.

Kevin Prosen, a MORE member (and cheesehead from Wisconsin) connects a few dots in this post of a few weeks ago.

There's a lot to chew on in Kevin's piece. I don't always agree with his analysis but do agree with most. But I need to spend more time educating myself and will be posting more commentary on WV. It is definitely worth a read and feel free to comment. Here are a  excerpts (in red), some in bold by me with comments by me (in black) but read it entirely at https://jacobinmag.com/2018/03/west-virginia-janus-right-to-work-unions.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court began hearing oral argument in Janus v. AFSCME, a lawsuit that seeks to gut public sector unions by denying them so called “agency fees,” or mandatory dues contributions from workers. One component of the deliberations was the question of “labor peace” — the state’s interest in stable, predictable labor-management arbitration. Justice Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and others questioned whether undoing agency fees would open the door to a more tumultuous and unpredictable labor-relations regime. The argument on the union side was an interesting one — in the words of Illinois’s solicitor general Lisa Madigan, “[w]hen unions are deprived of agency fees, they tend to become more militant, more confrontational, they go out in search of short-term gains that they can bring back to their members and say, ‘stick with us.’”

This is an important point often made by union critic Mike Antonucci - labor peace - and the role unions play as partners - often to the detriment of union members - as we've seen in NYC where the UFT often plays an arbiter rather than our advocate -- but that is a reason unions are essential to management. The point made by Kagan and Sotomayor is illustrated in West Virginia where the unions seemed to lose control for a time. Our union leadership's role is to place a brake on wildcat strikes. It didn't work in WV.

As though to prove the point, 200 miles away, across the border in West Virginia, the state’s teachers had voted to extend an ongoing illegal strike against a Republican legislature that had threatened to drastically increase the insurance premiums for workers whose pay already ranks among the lowest in the country. West Virginia is a “right to work” state, meaning workers are denied the right to collectively bargain or the stability of the “closed shop,” in which workers automatically contribute dues to the union whether they sign up or not. Such automatic collection prevents workers from “free riding” — that is, benefiting from union activity without contributing equally to the organization’s finances — while also providing a reliable stream of income to fund the activities of the union apparatus.

So what we've noticed in all the hysteria over Janus is that it ain't over for unions even in right to work states -- but the thing we have warned those wanting to leave the UFT is that the long-term effects in RTW states are much lower salaries for teachers -- and WV is 48th out of 50 states in the race to the bottom.

Kevin goes on to talk about Wisconsin -- and the lesson for many was the fact that the Democratic Party - Obama, Hillary -- abandoned them. And also the blowback from the neighbors of teachers who seemed happy at what happened to them -- read

Janesville: An American Story: Amy Goldstein.

The lesson: Make sure your non-teaching neighbors have your back -- do a lot of work out of your classroom -- yes, my friends -- sort of social justicy -- if you lock yourselves in your  classroom and then go home -- well, the long-term is not good.

Kevin goes on to talk about the unique role teachers play all over the world in fact -- they are often the first targets - Chile, Turkey, etc -- because as a mass they have contact with almost every family in a nation and have the ability - if organized - to have as much influence as any group.

Teachers are poised to lead such social movements by virtue of their work as caregivers in schools, which ties them intimately to wider layers of the working class. As public employees, their demands are inherently political insofar as they must be addressed to the state. For this reason they have been repeatedly thrust to the frontlines of movements against austerity — Wisconsin in 2011, Chicago in 2013, and now in West Virginia. The right wing understands this — indeed it is part of their argument that such organizations “mandate” their members’ “political speech,” a key contention of anti-union lawsuits like Janus. By kneecapping teachers’ unions, they strike a blow against one of the last remaining bastions of working-class economic power.

What the West Virginia movement shows — with teachers packing lunches for their students so they wouldn’t go hungry while they walked the picket line; with picket signs blazoned with images of Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and Martin Luther King, Jr — is that American workers bear no resemblance to their one-dimensional, Hillbilly Elegy-type portrayals. Workers have no stake in such a debate, based as it is on a flat, stereotyped image of working-class life. These discussions imagine us as passive dupes to be pandered to, rather than as agents of our own destiny, capable of struggling in our own self-interest. West Virginia is a bracing challenge to this narrative.

 Let's remember that W. Virginia went overwhelmingly for Trump - as big a win as anywhere. Did many striking teachers vote for Trump? I bet a good chunk did. When we hear the voices of some of the strikers in commentary from the left like Jacobin are we only hearing voices from left wing activists in WV or are we also hearing from Trump supporters who struck?

We will explore more of this in future posts --
Kevin goes on to differentiate the Wisconsin and W.V struggles and places the point of the spear at our union leadership:

What explains the different trajectories of the two struggles? Many workers in West Virginia point to the state’s history of explosive strikes, and indeed these traditions, passed down through families, constitute one key factor. But Wisconsin also has a history of militant labor struggle. Ironically, it may be the very weakness of labor unions in the greater South that left the field open for workers’ own activity; unlike the stable institutional labor relations that prevailed in Midwestern states, the union apparatus in West Virginia was largely hollowed out. While workers didn’t have the benefit of an active union involved in their day-to-day working lives, they also didn’t have ingrained habits of deference to union officials. As Jay O’Neal, a strike activist at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Charleston, described to me: “Because there’s been such a surge of activism so quickly and many new, organic leaders have emerged, I think a lot of them don’t really have any relationship with the union leadership. I was in a meeting today and the head of one our state’s teachers’ unions came in and I heard someone next to me ask, ‘Who’s that?’ Leaders have emerged from below and are really doing the work.”

We'll be hearing a lot from Jay O'Neal from the left/socialist press. Jay seems connected to the activists and we will see that they probably had an impact in organizing since that is what many have experience doing.

Workers need strong unions, but they also need to organize independently in the workplace and learn to rely on their own power. Building durable rank-and-file networks and union caucuses is a crucial next step in revitalizing American labor.

I like this point. I see the work some of us in MORE-Carisma doing around the closing schools issue is along this lines, often with the UFT when it fights - but without them when they don't. And if they see us doing that work and getting results, they try to coopt.

when leaders returned to the picket line to announce a 5 percent wage increase but without a permanent fix to the public employees’ insurance system, it seemed enough for them to declare victory and send the teachers back to work. But workers understood that spiraling health care costs were the heart of the matter and that the wage hike wouldn’t be enough to cover them, so they kept the strike going. We know our interests better than our representatives do, and need to understand that the union officials work for us, not the other way around. In the words of one striker, a strike is not simply to earn more benefits from the state, but to force the state to negotiate with labor on labor’s terms.

Another great point below. And this one echos what I said above about making sure non-teachers have your backs - which we have often seen inside the UFT:

.... teachers cannot merely fight for their own, narrow interests. To earn the kind of public support necessary for such a large-scale struggle, they have to fight to improve the conditions of the working class as a whole. It is too easy to isolate workers who define their interests narrowly.

 Kevin ends with comments about the role in all this on the part of the American left:

lessons for America’s burgeoning young left as well. Long isolated from the working class, socialists now have the greatest opportunity in a generation to close this historic rift. With the stabilizing institutions of the union movement being dismantled, we are likely headed for a period of renewed volatility in the labor movement; in fact, one has arguably already begun. A socialist movement previously confined to student milieus or eccentric corners of the internet can no longer be satisfied with passively studying labor history or showing up to support strikes organized by others. There is a world of difference between being merely interested in the labor movement and being implanted in it.

Kevin is correct about the separation of the left from workers. But then again so much of the left does not come from the working class itself like it did in the 20's and 30s.

From what I've seen in MORE where I mingle a lot with the socialist left, there is a long way to go to close the historic rift. Some people have told me that they don't know anyone not on the left. Check the backgrounds of most people on the left in the UFT. It is not working class. (Just for the record, both my parents were ILGWU garment workers with barely an education.)

At a recent MORE meeting I heard how much people wanted to reach out to those in the UFT who are left-leaning and inside the bubble. The idea of even talking to a Trump voter seemed to make people shudder -- they ought to come to our Passover seder in a few weeks where we expect matzo food fights.

That is why I wonder about the WV striking teachers who voted for Trump. Is the left talking to them too or only leftists?

When we see the leftist press actually talking to those people and connecting to them there is a chance the rift will be breached.

Here is where I agree with Kevin wholeheartedly:

In the post-Janus world, the Left will have to seize the initiative rather than ceding the field to liberal labor leaders. We will have to learn the key lesson of West Virginia: nobody is coming to save us, and great leaps in organization and consciousness don’t appear like acts of nature. We have to create them ourselves.

There are so many interesting lessons to the story, the next few days will be heavy on WV. So if you are not interested take a vacation from ed notes.

Jacobin events

Solidarity with West Virginia Strikers!
Saturday, March 10 • 6:30-9pm • More information
We've been riveted to the labor insurgency in West Virginia, a glimpse at what workers can achieve when organized and united in solidarity.

Join us for a discussion featuring West Virginia striking teachers, Emily Comer and Jay O’Neal. You won't want to miss on the ground reports from the strike, how they earned wide support, and what lessons can be learned going forward.
This event will be livestreamed at facebook.com/jacobinmag, beginning at 6:50pm.

---

Don't miss Jacobin's coverage of the West Virgnia teachers's strike
At Jacobin we've been racing to keep pace with events in West Virgina. We've featured over a dozen pieces on the latest developments, providing political or historical context, and interviewing key participants. Here are some highlights of Jacobin's coverage:

What the Teachers Won
West Virginia shows that we can fight back and win. We talk to two teachers to assess the tentative settlement and what comes next.

“There Is No Illegal Strike, Just an Unsuccessful One”
The West Virginia teacher strike represents a return to public worker unionism's radical roots.

The Strike Is On
"We’re not going back to work until there’s solid proof our demands are going to be met," a striking teacher unionist tells Jacobin.

Do-It-Yourself Class Struggle
One lesson from the West Virginia teachers’ strike is clear: nobody is coming to save us. We’ll have to do it ourselves.

PS — Teachers, we're offering below-cost copies of our Class Action booklet, produced in conjunction with the Chicago Teachers Union's CORE caucus.

Video: Johanna Garcia's powerful case for Opt Out!!!

Deny them the data:
I wonder what would happen if schools threatened with being closed had a strong opt out movement. I imagine this will not happen because parents in schools in that position would have a tough time organizing opt-out and principals and those above would freak out. And teachers would be intimidated. Just a dream.

I'm a bit late to this party, since the film was released March 4 - I was still celebrating my birthday - Still am.

https://vimeo.com/258365861/c7220c6999

Our old pal, film maker Michael Elliot has been doing a series of short videos on various education issues with Kemala Karmen, all standing up to ed deform concepts. Share this with those you know on fb and twitter. (See below for instructions on best way to do it.)

IT’S TESTING SEASON !!!!!

We know there’s a lot of noise out there but the testing waits for no one.  Opt Out remains one of the areas where we get the greatest traction and the most attention paid to the struggles facing public education.  Johanna Garcia has a powerful opt out message and it needs to be shared. (see below for directions on getting the most bang for the buck.)

We're hoping YOU will commit to sharing one or both of Johanna's videos (we have an English version AND a Spanish version) with your friends and networks.

How do you heal the inequities that plague our schools? Hint: Not with high-stakes tests. Parent Johanna Garcia speaks movingly about the the damage that ensues when you “make it about the tests.” #OptOut2018 (También en Español https://www.facebook.com/groups/nycoptout/permalink/1974697522792869)

Johanna Garcia, mother and New York City parent leader, makes a heartfelt and powerful case against high-stakes standardized testing, especially as it affects urban and immigrant communities.

Part of the series "8 Powerful Voices in Defense of Public Education"

USING FACEBOOK TO PROMOTE THE VIDEOS

1. Go to the S4E FB page (for English) and/or NYC Opt Out FB page (for Spanish) and locate the pinned post.
2. Watch the ENTIRE video (THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH/LA INCÓMODA VERDAD…) in the pinned post. (By watching the whole video, you encourage the FB algorithm to send the video to more FB feeds.)  Don’t worry; it’s less than 2.5 minutes!
3. Like/react (with the FB emojis) and comment on the video on the S4E or NYCOO page (for the same reason as above).
4. Use the Share button to share to your Timeline. Choose the option Write Post.
5. Add a headline/caption to entice your friends to watch the video. Do not use words like “share” or “go viral.” Recent changes to the FB algorithm makes FB downgrade those sorts of posts. Instead, consider writing something that makes a personal connection: “This really spoke to me.” “I couldn’t agree more.” Pull out a quote that resonated with you. 
6. We have a change in the tagging strategy!!!!  Tag people in the headline you create.  This is the silver bullet of social media power! Try to tag a minimum of 5 people. You can tag as many as you want. Try to tag people who aren’t already members of the education activist community!  We are trying to break out of the bubble of activism and into the general public.
7. Whenever you see the video--shared on a friend’s page, a group page, etc—“Like” it and leave a comment. This step is crucial to keep momentum going.

---

 USING TWITTER TO PROMOTE THE VIDEOS

●      The English version of the video is pinned to @Shoot4Education on Twitter; the Spanish version is pinned to @NYCOptOut on Twitter.

●      Aim to tweet out the video twice a day for 5 days (which brings you to Thursday) 

●      Every time you see the video in your twitter feed from someone else’s tweet, LIKE IT and RETWEET IT!

1. Locate the video and hit the retweet button. Then “Quote” the tweet if you’re on your phone or tablet, or just comment if you’re on your computer. 
2. If you would like, you can aim your reTweet by adding these twitter handles at the beginning of your quote or retweet.  By doing so, these people will become aware of Johanna’s message and so will people who follow their handles.

---

 USING EMAIL TO PROMOTE THE VIDEO

 Social media is efficient, but a personal email to friends also delivers! So if you don’t use either of the platforms above, email your friends and include one or both of these links:

http://bit.ly/UncomfortableTruthGarcia

http://bit.ly/GarciaLaIncomodaVerdad

__________________

Shoot4Education.com

For latest releases: S4E on Facebook

School Scope - Norm in The WAVE -- Drilling down on Rockaway Schools Being Saved by the Bell

I wrote this in a little over an hour on Tuesday morning on a tight deadline since I had to leave for a press event at the Museum of Natural History. I was going to recycle my post from Ed Notes - Analysis: The Story Behind the PEP  - but it was too long and unwieldy -- I don't know how anyone got through it without falling asleep. I have a word limit in print so doing this forced me to focus on efficiency. (Maybe I should put a word count on all my blog posts.) I think this is more clean-cut and clearer than the blog post.

This should be in this Friday's WAVE - March 9, 2018 -- jeez, it's almost spring - as I watch the snow and sleet coming down.

School Scope: PS/MS 42, MS 53 Saved By the Bell in a 6-6-1 PEP Vote at 2:15 AM

The Story Behind the PEP Rockaway Vote - It Came Down to One Guy Abstaining – Did de Blasio play a role?

By Norm Scott

The expected final chapter for two historic Rockaway schools was not written at a grueling 8 hour Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting that began on Feb. 28 and ended in the middle of the night on March 1. Last week’s WAVE’s excellent front page story by Ralph Mancini blasted the news under the headline “Stayin’ Alive.” I had left before 2 AM, assuming both Rockaway schools were dead after a procedural vote to withdraw them from the closing list made by Queens rep Deborah Dellingham went down to defeat – twice. The 13-member PEP consists of appointees by the 5 borough presidents and 8 appointed by the mayor, thus giving him control of the PEP and the entire school system (sad). With about a dozen schools on the closing list, each borough rep had made a proposal to have their schools withdrawn (to shouts of “WITHDRAW from the overflowing crowd of about a thousand people, almost all there to oppose the closings). The 5 boroughs stuck together and one mayoral appointee, Elzora Cleveland, voted with the borough people a number of times while the other 7 mayoral appointees, who could be “fired” from the panel for going against de Blasio’s wishes, voted down all the withdrawal proposals. The repeated 7-6 votes against were frustrating.

In my 2 minute speech (vimeo.com/258283678) I pointed this out. That the fates of hundreds of teachers and thousands of students and parents depended on just one of two mayoral appointees doing the right thing. I also pointed out that if closing down these schools was Carmen Farina’s last act as Chancellor, this was a sad end to her career. The experience reinforced my feeling that handing total control of the school system to one person – the mayor – is a mistake.

Los Angeles Teacher Union Doesn't Hide Bargaining Under Dome of Silence

What a great idea ---keeping the membership and the public fully informed on the status of bargaining.

This UTLA site is interesting, considering the logic put out by our own leadership that you don't share your bargaining positions in public and therefore must but the committee of 300 under a dome of silence.

It's pretty interesting reading, a month by month of detailed chronicling. Check it out. I'm including the March 1 update. A strategy of openess can build support among union members and the public and also hold the DOE accountable.

So why doesn't the UFT do the same? Well, to hide what they are really doing from the members and then sell whatever they manage to do minimally to the members as take it or leave it.

Our old pal and teacher union critic Mike Antonucci has an interesting piece on the UTLA and Alex Caputo-Pearl where Mike seems to think they are very hungry for a strike, which you can't whisper here in NYC -- shhhhh about West Virginia and Oklahoma.

It Will Be a Busy Spring at UTLA

Posted: 07 Mar 2018 07:02 AM PST

United Teachers Los Angeles spent the early months of 2018 promoting and then celebrating the ratification of their healthcare agreement with the Los Angeles Unified School District. But if school board members think this bought them some time and good will when it comes to contract negotiations, they should think again. Read the rest of the story at LA School Report.

I'm guessing our leadership, which will cheer publicly, are gnashing their teeth that militant unionism can seem to win something and I bet they are just hoping for these teachers to be taught a lesson so we can have Unity slugs can tell us "we told you so." The latest Ravitch post ought to cheer our union leaders up:

West Virginia: Republicans Pull a Fast One, Introduce Bill to Lower Standards for Teachers, Eliminate State Education Department by dianeravitch

Bargaining Updates

Bargaining Alerts

https://www.utla.net/members/bargaining

×Beginning Feb. 1, 2018, the district and UTLA will be in full contract bargaining every other week until further notice.

 March 1, 2018 - UTLA was back at the bargaining table again with proposals in Special Education, Hours, Duties & Workday, Shared Decision-Making and Professional Development. The district countered with proposals to create an Ethnic Studies Task Force. or Early Education, LAUSD refused to guarantee an early shift for chapter chairs, diminishing their ability to be effectively represented at UTLA meetings, and refused proposals to put Early Education on the T salary schedule and give them an equitable workday, with a lunch break. LAUSD presented some proposals that made progress in enhancing workplace rights and working conditions for substitute educators but fell well short of UTLA demands.

**See all proposals and counterproposals by clicking on the date or scrolling below.

PS 50M Hearing CPE1 Parents Read Letter From PS 50 Teacher

"Renewal dollars were not spent on what we needed and suggested like reading and math specialists to support our students." ... PS 50M hearing, Feb. 12, 2018

But why listen to actual teachers on the ground? Just spend renewal dollars on more PD.

Three amazing parents from CPE1 showed up at the PS 50 hearing to share the reading of a letter written by a teacher chronicling the intentional destruction of the renewal school. "Support" meant outsiders including highly  paid consultants walking around and giving next steps.... Support meant being sent to an abundance of PDs without being given time to absorb..." etc, etc etc. PS 50 was closed down at last week's PEP.

No support to reduce class size, of course. Farina doesn't believe in that -- PD = the problem are the teachers.

Like if I was in one of those schools with a masters in reading and say 15 years in the system I needed more PD instead of real assistance by allowing me more time with individual kids.

I spoke to a PS 50 teacher at the PEP last week and he said he couldn't speak for fear of retaliation. That many do not think the district UFT has their backs does not help.

By the way -- who did Farina put in charge of renewal schools? The awful former Brooklyn HS Supt Amy Horowitz who lied and misled people. The UFT people knew how awful she was but sat silently while she misdirected support for renewal schools I would bet to some of her pals who made a few bucks. Now she is going to run some other program at the DOE into the ground.



https://vimeo.com/258661827

PS/MS 42: Letter to Parents Distorts Reality While Issuing Threat for Next Year - Answer them by opting out

What a crock. You know they didn't listen to the community at the PEP - they rarely do.  Certainly 6 of the 8 mayoral appointees didn't listen -- see my piece about the 6-6-1 vote to keep the school open --- Analysis: The Story Behind the PEP Rockaway Vote - It Came Down to One Guy Abstaining.
                                        
Yes, one guy abstaining and forcing a tie vote while the other 6 mayoral appointee slugs went along with the closing.

So we start off with mistrust -- and a lie -- that they actually listened to the discussion at the PEP. But then they pointed the loaded gun right at their heads -- the outcomes of the testing in May will decide their fate -- and think of this -- the outright distraction since December for everyone in the school. And the enormous pressure over the next two months to get those scores up.

Imagine if all the parents opted out and there were no scores to hammer them with.

But given the pressures and fear and threats, I imagine people won't easily go for an opt out strategy --- it would be a pretty scary thing to do ----- and will hope beyond hope the numbers are improved enough to save them next time. 

But boy wouldn't a massive opt out in a renewal school be something to watch.

Their struggle has made them known around the city and continuing their struggle to battle will continue to gain support. Part of their struggle should be against the test itself and by linking to the opt out movement there will be even wider support.

Fiorillo to Ravitch on Russiagate

Diane Ravitch, along with MSBNC, the liberal press and the Democratic Party are obsessed with the Russia interference story while never mentioning the enormous historical interference of our country in every other country that makes the Russia story pale. Michael Fiorillo has pointed out the contradictions, as has Matt Tiabbi of Rolling Stone. There was a debate of sorts on the Ravitch blog (I don't have the link now) and here is Michael's comment.

Diane, you are insisting that Dienne prove a negative, which you must know is a fallacy.

Meanwhile, you now say, “Let’s wait for the results of the Mueller investigation,” after well over a year of perpetual claims and insinuations about significant Russian involvement in the election, if not literal control of Trump.

However, the burden of proof is on the believers of Russiagate to prove that Trump colluded with the Russians (and that allegation is on life support, barely hanging on, as of now) and/or that Russia affected the election. It is not my, or Dienne’s, or anyone else's job to prove it didn’t happen; the people making the accusations must prove it did.

The Top Labor Battles in West Virginia History

I've been so busy with the closing schools issues I haven't written much about the enormous teacher strike in West Virginia. (James has done a bunch of stuff on the ICE blog.)


Note how the so-called union leaders from the AF and NEA "settled" but rank and file were outraged and haven't gone back yet.
Mike Antonucci had an interesting piece on the different unions in West Virginia -- I can't find the link but will update later when I try to unravel some of the internal union yin-yang between leadership and rank and file.

Michael Fiorillo has been posting a batch of articles which I will post a few at a time.

Here is one today with Michael's comment about Maddow and the MSNBC neo-liberal crowd which ignores unions while focusing on Russia.

Fiorillo:

Some more info you won’t see on Rachel Maddow, and from the business press…
Well, at least Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have come out strongly for the West Virginia teachers

Oh, wait...

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/west-virginia-labor-history-teachers-strike

 The Top Labor Battles in West Virginia History

By

Branko Marcetic

West Virginia has been the site of mass labor militancy many times before. Here are some of the highlights.

West Virginia has been rocked over the past nine days by a massive teachers’ strike that has closed all 680 public schools in the state’s fifty-five counties. And it’s been contagious: energized by the West Virginian example, Oklahoma teachers are now planning a statewide strike of their own.

The ongoing strike is neither the first time the state has been a site of mass labor militancy, nor the first time a labor battle has spilled from the state’s borders and spread across the country. West Virginia’s history is littered with pitched labor battles, from unionization efforts put down by violence to agitation for better work conditions. The following are just a few of the most significant examples.

[Putting this one ahead of the others--]

The 1990 Teachers’ Strike

Almost exactly twenty-eight years before the current strike, thousands of West Virginia teachers and librarians began their first statewide strike, involving teachers from forty-seven of its fifty-five counties. Frustrated with the second-lowest teacher salaries in the country (only Mississippi was worse) — and rejecting the state’s offer of a 5 percent raise — teachers flouted the state law against collective bargaining for twelve days before reaching a settlement with the government. 

Teachers got a pay increase, as well as training and support programs and the establishment of faculty senates. But by 2016, the average salary for a West Virginia teacher was still the forty-eighth lowest in the country.

1

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Breaking: De Blasio Taps Jared Kushner to be Next Chancellor

My friend Joel Hamberger, who has deep roots at the DOE,  has informed me, from San Diego of  all places, that a reliable source told him that Kushner, while still working to solve the problems in the Middle East, has decided to tackle a problem considered even more intractable, running the NYC school system. Facing possible bankruptcy, the lure of 350K and a place to live has proven too tempting to turn down the offer.

Analysis: The Story Behind the PEP Rockaway Vote - It Came Down to One Guy Abstaining

In stunning rebuke, oversight board rejects two of de Blasio’s school closure plans... Chalkbeat

I don't agree with the hysteria of the Chalkbeat headline. The two Rockaway schools, PS/MS 42 and MS 53 slated for closing got a last minute reprieve at 2:30 AM Thursday morning when mayoral appointee and Queens resident Isaac Carmignani, who voted to close the other schools on the list*, abstained on the two Rockaway schools.

Why?

Let me try to make some sense of what occurred.

MORE was in the house with the CASCADE Crew

My guess, fueled by my sources, is that Carmignani is ambitious and rumored to be planning to run for office in Queens and didn't want to alienate Melinda Katz and the Rockaway politicians. As to the UFT, he would need them for a run, but given his vote to close other schools, how will the UFT view him?  Otherwise, his voting pattern to close all the other schools makes no sense. And don't forget, he didn't actually vote to keep the school open, but abstained. (I think of the Vince Lombardi comment that a tie is like kissing your sister.)

The Queens UFT was strong for the Rockaway schools and may have impacted, but my sense is that Borough Pres Katz was the key and the PS 42 rally outside her office a few weeks ago had an impact. When all 30 of us piled into a meeting upstairs it was impressive and we got to touch base with PEP member Deborah Dillingham, who led the charge at the PEP meeting.

The UFT didn't fight very hard for the other schools - other than possibly PS 92x (according to a UFT official I spoke to but not confirmed -- I didn't see any Bronx politicians standing up. As for PS 50, the Manhattan UFT did nothing with Dist Rep Servia Sliva, the Supt's buddy, making a tepid speech at their hearing. Man Borough Pres Gale Brewer made a speech and Manhattan pols spoke up for Health and Sciences.

[I'm including a reference to the voting put out by Leonie in case you get lost in this commentary: Leonie posts PEP Votes on Closures and Co-locations.

[*HS of Health and Sciences was given a postponement by unanimous vote after an appeal from one of the mayoral appointees.]

In my speech at the Feb. 28 (or early morning March 1) PEP, I pointed out that all it would take to change the lives of thousands of teachers, students and parents was for just 2 mayoral PEP people to stand up for what is right. There were much better speeches than mine and I will be putting some of them up, but as the videographer and editor, I'm taking some privilege.



https://vimeo.com/258283678

And  Isaac and Elzora Cleveland actually did it.

Leonie posts PEP Votes on Closures and Co-locations

Leonie has some good info.

My Notes:
I'm about to post an analysis but wanted to post this for reference before I do that. I'm trying to figure out why certain closures were unanimous and others had the support of all borough people (5 votes) and mayoral appointee Cleveland. There is a story behind each school. PS 92 was out there in force but got shut out.

 Felisa Rincon de Gautier - Harris Lirtzman taught at and the place is a disaster and he argues it should be closed. If the DOE puts in rotten admin after rotten admin, it is like the foundation of a building is removed and it just can't stand. So note the 13-0 vote to close. Same with  Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation - the school where one kid killed another. Same with Academy for Social Action, KAPPA IV, P.S. 50 Vito Marcantonio, School for Social Change, 

P.S. 25K Eubie Blake School was 8-5 for closure.

P.S. 92- 7-6

Urban Science Academy 7-6
 
From Leonie:

I’m  hearing questions and some confusion about the votes on closures etc. at Wed. Nights PEP meeting 

So I thought I’d share.

BP means borough president appointee, EC is Elzora 

Cleveland and IC is Isaac Carmignani both mayoral appointees

MK is Manhattan appointee Michael Kraft and MZA is mayoral appointee Miguelina Zorrilla-Aristy.

List of PEP members here http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/leadership/PEP/members/default.htm

Including link to their Emails.

Rockaway Schools PS/MS 42 and MS 53: Stayin’ Alive! - The WAVE

More great work by Ralph Mancini who shlepped out from Rockaway to cover the story once again. He asked me to text him the outcome of the vote when he left about 11:30. I left just before 2 AM and had assumed both Rockaway schools were dead when a procedural vote to withdraw the schools made by Queens rep Deborah Dellingham appointed by Boro Pres Melinda Katz, went down by a vote of 7-5, with all mayoral appointees voting against and all borough reps for.

So I left. About 2:15 AM while I'm on the 4 train headed for Atlantic Ave my phone rings. I figure it's my wife to yell at me again (she had called at midnight). But instead it was Jaime from PS 42 telling me about the 6-6-1 vote. She had offered me a seat home on their bus but my car was in Brooklyn. I was so bummed I wasn't on that bus ride at 3 AM -- I bet the wheels never hit the road.

I still need to talk to Jaime, who is a hero in this epic struggle in the eyes of many, before writing my analysis of what may have happened. She is a force of nature.

The guy in the photo, Jack Angelou, is one fantastic guy, someone I would be proud to march with and go into battle anywhere. I want Jack in my foxhole, along with Jaime and John (Kattinger, CL - a Unity guy who I developed enormous respect for) and Sarah and Kevin - a most amazing parent (PS 42 Parents Speak Up for Teachers and Their Children).

Stayin’ Alive!

PEP vote deadlock keeps Rockaway schools open

Ralph Mancini | on March 01, 2018 
https://www.rockawave.com/articles/stayin-alive/

PS/MS 42 educator Jack Angelou lets the stats speak for themselves in making a case for the survival of his school. 

Photo By Ralph Mancini

Carvalho Turns Down Chancellor Job After Watching Feed of Last Night's Raucus, Packed PEP Meeting

Satire alert. But who knows? During the meeting we heard he was taking the job. After the meeting, which ended at 2:30 AM, he wasn't. I think the audience booing Farina after someone congratulated her on her career may have been the final straw. Why ruin a good reputation and enter this den?

In a tweet I compared him to Bill Belichik. Jet fans know what I mean.

School Scope: On Closing Schools, Janus, and West Virginia

For the March 2 edition www.rockawave.com which I submitted yesterday morning. I am working on a PEP posting - the meeting went till 2:30 AM - I ran out of batteries at 1:30 and left before 2. Rockaway schools saved for now. That will take some analysis.

School Scope: On Closing Schools, Janus, and West Virginia

Feb. 28, 9 AM

Tonight hundreds of people will be at the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting at Murry Bergtraum HS in Manhattan protesting the closing of thirteen schools, including Rockaway’s MS 53 and PS/MS 42. There will be a rally and press conference by the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) and MORE-CASCADE (the group I work with politically) at 5:30.

Media Advisory: Hundreds of parents, teachers, students and community members rally before the PEP Hearing, Asking that Panel votes NO on RENEWAL School Closures

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Media Advisory

Community of RENEWAL Schools                            
For Immediate Release

Contact: Angelica Otero                           February 28, 2018

Hundreds of parents, teachers, students and community members rally before the PEP Hearing, Asking that Panel votes NO on RENEWAL School Closures

Angry and frustrated with the Department of Education´s lack of response and support for RENEWAL Schools parents, teachers, students and community members across NYC turn to the Panel for Educational Policy to hold the DOE accountable and vote NO on the closure of RENEWAL schools. “Who is held accountable for school closures?  Why do our school communities have to pay for the poor leadership and lack of support form the department of education?” says Kaliris Salas Ramirez, a community resident in Harlem. 

The Department of Education has invested millions of dollars in the Community School model to transform RENEWAL schools.  But this model takes time and requires a real partnership with the community.  Neither of which the DOE is willing to invest in. “As a parent leader and father to 2 children, I can see first hand that our school is doing well and that we can continue to improve.  But improvement cannot continue if the school is closed, the way to improve is continued hard work addressing the areas where we are not meeting standard,” states Rosendo Mejia a parent at HS for Health Career and Sciences.

In addition turning a failing school around requires resources which the DOE is not providing say parents.  Many of the RENEWAL schools have a high number of English Language Learners, students that require Special Education, students that live in transitional housing and other needs.  “We have 103 ELL students at MS 325 and only 2 ENL teachers, how can we turn the school around if we are not provided the resources we need,” comments, Nancy PA President of MS 325.

Rather than an investment in the RENEWAL schools program, the community is witnessing how these schools are being closed to make room for charters schools in their buildings.  Now the community is turning to the Panel who has the power to hold the DOE accountable and ensure the welfare of city schools and its students to vote NO on the proposed closures and ensure justice for NYC public school students. 

WHAT:           Rally and Press Conference calling the Panel for Educational Policy to vote NO on RENEWAL School´s Closures

WHEN:           Wednesday, February 28^th at 5:30PM

WHERE:         In front of the Murray Bergtraum High School

                        411 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10038

WHO:             Parents, youth and community members from MS 325, PS 50, PS322, PS42, CS 92 & MS 53 and HS for Health and Sciences

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Come to the PEP - Closing Schools/Privatization A Bigger Threat Than Janus

If any Ed Notes readers are free tonight -- come to the PEP - join the pre-PEP rally at 5:30. A chance to thumb your nose at Farina's final PEP.

I will keep shouting this from the rooftops endlessly: That the closing of schools is politically, not educationally motivated. And further, it dovetails with the privatization movement, which is more dangerous to unionism than the Janus case -- note that there are no schools open in West Virginia, which is a right to work state. Yet they just won a 5% pay increase, more than double what they were offered.

(I imagine the response ultimately will be fast and furious -- load the state up with non-union charters and remove collective bargaining rights of teachers in whatever public schools are left standing.)

At the PEP meeting you will see some of the UFT leadership but not a massive outpouring of outrage with hundreds of UFT members, other than those being organized by MORE and AQE, which are holding a pre-PEP rally and press conference. You will see some schools filing law suits but not with the help of the UFT. The leadership either doesn't get it or is willfully turning away. They are fighting some selective battles based on where schools resist instead of taking a stand against ANY closing schools -- and ignoring the fact that they are being emptied for charter occupation in some cases or for gentrification -- while teachers are a major target.

What is ironic is how much more attention the UFT - and many of my colleagues in MORE - pay to Janus than to closing schools and the general privatization movement which is a bigger threat to unions.

Eva Moskowitz' 46 schools (and counting) plus other charters have taken away as many union jobs as the amount of dues that will be lost to Janus.

And just think of those teachers in the 13 schools about to be ATRd -- I wonder how many will be staying in the union?

MORE put this out

Come to the PEP Meeting Wed. Feb. 28

by morecaucusnyc

Murry Bertraum HS at 411 Pearl St, New York, NY

in Lower Manhattan, adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall

This Wed., Feb. 28, the Panel of Educational Policy (PEP ) will vote on the proposals to close 13 community schools. It is very important for as many folks as possible to attend this meeting to show support for the school communities that would be adversely affected by these actions.

There will be a press conference and rally against school closings before the PEP  at 5:30 and you can sign up to speak at the PEP at that time as well.

MORE/CASCADE (Coalition Against School Closings and Displacement Everywhere) is fighting against the current round of school closings in NYC. We are against labeling any schools as "failing," against Renewal and Receivership School programs that don't help, against targeting these schools for Charter Co-locations, and against closures. We see the connection between school closures and the privatization of our education system as well as the anti-displacement movement.

The next meeting of CASCADE,  Campaign Against School Closures and Against Displacement Everywhere. Is on March 10, at 2:30 at the CUNY Graduate Center.  All are welcome to come and strategize about how to stop school closings.