General – Page 21 – The Official Website of the PJSTA

Get excited… New PJSTA Apparel is Coming This Fall!!!!

We will be ordering new PJSTA apparel this fall. We have a wide array of options this year including all of this fall’s hottest fashion trends! Ok, maybe not the hottest trends, but great union made apparel none the less! Plenty of options for you to wear on Thursdays this year along with the many rallies and pickets you are sure to attend! Among the new available items are shirts specifically cut for women, dress white shirts, hooded sweatshirts, beanie hats for cold weather, and more! We are also offering more red shirted options for Wednesdays (Remember, every Wednesday “We wear red for public ed!”)!

To order your new PJSTA apparel click here. You’re sure to be the coolest kid in school this fall!

NYSUT Refuses to Oppose Cuomo But You Still Can!

It’s been a shade over four months since the new NYSUT officers took office. They were elected, largely due to the UFT Unity Caucus’ loyalty oath, after running a campaign in which they made big promises. They spoke of a “grassroots” slate of candidates, “member driven” unionism, and spoke of how our statewide union needed to change course (except Andy Pallotta’s position, of course) and set a new direction. After the beating teachers had taken the previous few years, who could argue with such statements? After defeating a slate of several incumbent officers, many of their supporters expected big changes. The first warning sign should have been the fact that within hours of their victory they shut down the website where they had listed their campaign promises and re-directed it to nysut.org. Fortunately someone was wise enough to snap a photograph of their campaign flyer. Let’s take a look…

After leading with a bullet about being “Against Common Core” Karen Magee made sure to speak up in support of the Common Core at the AFT Convention in July. Magee feared that without the Common Core all her members would just engage in a “free-for-all” where “Everyone does as they please” because that is certainly what we all must have been doing way back in 2012 before we had the Common Core. It was a curiously odd way to show that she was “against the Common Core” as her campaign literature assured us she was.

However the real hot topic of the campaign was Governor Cuomo. In fact Cuomo was so important of an issue that the officers formerly known as Revive NYSUT referenced him not once, but twice in their literature! First off they told us that they were “Against Cuomo.” Seems pretty straight forward to me. They then followed up by reminding us that, “We are not Pro-Cuomo. We have called him the Scott Walker of NY.” Again, a pretty clear statement. There was no guessing when it came to where they allegedly stood on the topic of our governor. So it would have been reasonable for the average rank and file member to assume that their VOTE COPE funds would be used “Against Cuomo” this fall. That’s why it is rather disconcerting to see that NYSUT chose not to endorse anyone running against Cuomo at their endorsement conference this week.

Let’s be clear, Cuomo’s Republican challenger is not a better choice. Given his love for charter schools (“We need more charter schools in New York, not fewer.”) and his desire to re-write the Triborough Amendment, Astorino would have been a disastrous choice to endorse. However we are fortunate enough to have other choices this year which would have made opposing Cuomo a no brainer and an easy campaign promise to keep.

On September 9th, Cuomo will be opposed in the Democratic primary by Zephyr Teachout. Her running mate for lieutenant governor is Tim Wu. There’s a lot to like about Teachout’s stance on public education. Some of the ideas Teachout is running on:

a. Full and Equal Funding for Public Education

New York spends $8,700 less per pupil in poor districts than we do in rich ones. That makes New York the sixth most unequal state in all America when it comes to school funding. This also means that New York is in violation of its own Constitution, which requires the government to provide a “sound, basic education” to every student, no matter his zip-code. I believe this constitutional obligation should be our floor, not our ceiling. New Yorkers have a right to demand the best public schools in the nation, with small class sizes, arts, and physical education for every child.

I would work to make funding more fair and equitable. Despite a promise to the contrary, Governor Cuomo has actually widened the funding gap between poor and wealthy districts.

b. End High-Stakes Testing

Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, we’ve seen a culture of test-and-punish overthrow actual teaching and real learning. New York State entirely botched the implementation of Common Core, which has ushered in an unrelenting regimen of tests. Governor Cuomo’s system of basing teacher evaluations on student tests has corroded actual learning.

We should slam the brakes on the barrage of high-stakes testing. This means halting both the new Common Core tests and tests that are part of the teacher evaluation system. We need to undertake a thorough reevaluation of all high stakes tests, with full input from educators and parents.

c. Protect Against Privatization

Governor Cuomo has promoted a private takeover of public education policy, by opening state coffers up to charter schools, which serve only three percent of New York’s students. In New York City, meanwhile, he has mandated that city taxpayers pay rent for privately run charter schools to the tune of $11,000 per pupil, thus fueling their massive expansion at the expense of public schools.

We should protect our public schools from privatization schemes, including the diversion of state funds to private schools through vouchers or back-door tax credits. We should repeal provisions enacted in 2014 that hijack control of decision-making about charter school co-locations out of the hands of local governments and that mandate that New York City pay for charter school rent.

d. Empower Local Communities

I would eliminate the undemocratic provisions of the cap on local school budgets— falsely sold as a tax cap even though it caps nobody’s taxes. Specifically we should hand back to local voters the right to control their own school budgets, by eliminating the requirement of a 60 percent supermajority. We should return to the principle of one person, one vote in school budget elections.

e. Suspend the Suspension Pipeline

We must end the ‘school to prison pipeline’ where excessive use of school suspensions for minor infractions deprive students of education, leaving them behind. Suspensions actually increase behavior problems and decrease school safety. In many urban communities there is a school suspension crisis—with huge racial inequalities in suspension rates. Greater suspension rates lead to higher expulsion rates and to increases in school-based arrests. This cycle starts with high suspension rates for young students, even as young as pre-k and kindergarten. We need solutions, not suspensions. We need to transform the culture in school buildings to support teachers and students, foster collaboration, teach problem-solving, engender real responsibility and accountability and keep students in school. This approach, called “restorative justice,” has proven highly effective. Due to a local community organizing effort in Buffalo, the implementation of these reforms have already led to a 30 percent reduction in suspensions. Students cannot learn if they are not in school.

Reading Teachout’s education platform makes one wonder what exactly it was that NYSUT leaders disagreed with? Maybe it’s because she opposes the Common Core (that Magee feels we desperately need, even though she promised she was against it)? There was certainly more than one local president at the endorsement conference who asked for an endorsement of Teachout in the primary. Our own Beth Dimino was one of them. That brings me to another option for NYSUT. Dimino suggested that if Teachout were to lose to Cuomo in the primary, NYSUT should support the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones for governor and lieutenant governor. We covered their education platform back in May. So NYSUT had two separate options to oppose Cuomo and they chose none. Despite pleas from their membership and presidents from locals around the state, Magee, Pallotta, and the rest of NYSUT’s board of directors decided in their private meeting yesterday that they would not oppose Cuomo. In the process they broke another major promise from their campaign.

I am not going to pretend to be surprised by this development. Any regular reader of this blog knows that we predicted things like this long ago, at the very start of the campaign. Still, it’s no less infuriating. A friend of mine who belongs to the UFT and has been shut out from having a voice in his local has told me, “I love my union but my union doesn’t love me.” Well that’s how I feel about NYSUT. I love my statewide union, but their actions clearly show that they have little regard for rank and file members like myself. I am sure it’ll personally benefit Karen Magee, Andy Pallotta, and other members of the board of directors somewhere down the road to go easy on Cuomo this fall. But it certainly doesn’t help the 600,000 of us who pay NYSUT dues and enable the hefty compensation packages of the NYSUT officers.

The silver lining in all of this is that others are becoming wise to how the NYSUT officers operate. Supporters of theirs are already starting to realize that the slate formerly known as Revive NYSUT is not who they claimed to be. This will only continue as Magee, Pallotta, and company continue to toe the company line that Mike Mulgrew dictates. All the while an opposition will have ample time to develop and grow to a size that can rival the New York State Unity Caucus by the next NYSUT elections in 2017. Social justice unionism is spreading across the country, starting in Chicago and spreading to places like Los Angeles. By the next NYSUT elections there is a very real possibility that the Stronger Together Caucus, representing social justice unionism, will topple the Goliath known as Unity Caucus and usher in real change to NYSUT leadership. At that time I truly believe we will look back on the first few months of Magee’s presidency as the time period that started her undoing.

If you want to donate to the Teachout/Wu campaign click here.

If you want to donate to the Hawkins/Jones campaign click here.

If you want to vote for Teachout over Cuomo in the Democratic primary on September 9th you must be a registered Democrat. If you are not you can change your party affiliation, but your registration must be postmarked by tomorrow, August 15th! Click here to access a registration form.

James Eterno of the ICEUFT Blog covers the NYSUT story here.

Reality Based Educator over at Perdido Street School talks about NYSUT’s decision to endorse an indicted Senate Republican here.

NYSAPE Statement on Test Scores

Via NYSAPE, which the PHSTA is a member of…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 14, 2014
More information contact:
Eric Mihelbergel (716) 553-1123; nys.allies@gmail.com
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) http://www.nysape.org

Parents and Educators Reject the Tests, the Scores and Corporate Agenda of NYSED & Pearson

Today Commissioner John King and Chancellor Merryl Tisch released the test scores of the state exams in 3-8th grades, showing that, more than 68% of the state’s students were judged not proficient in English Language Arts (ELA) and more than 64% not proficient in Math. The overall results were largely flat with little to no change year over year with only small gains and drops for specific demographic groups.

Members of the New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), a coalition of more than 50 parent and educator advocacy groups, challenge the quality of the tests, the accuracy of the scores, and the motives of those who have manufactured these results. This past spring, NYSAPE estimated that at least 44,000 students had opted out of the state exams; today the Commissioner admitted that the number was as large as 60,000 compared to 10,000 in 2013.

As the growing problems with New York’s excessive and speculative testing reforms are exposed, parents across the state are outraged and calling for an overhaul at the state education department.

Lisa Rudley, Westchester county public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE said, “Though Commissioner John King assured us that the new Common Core state tests would be a much better reflection of the skills students will need for ‘college and career’ success with the release of 50% of the questions last week, we learned what educators were forbidden by law from telling us: these were flawed tests, riddled with vague questions, inappropriate reading passages and multiple product placements. In its new Pearson contract signed amidst a financial crisis, NYSED doubled annual spending on testing and even worse, eliminated the transparency of the previous McGraw-Hill contract. Where is the management from NYSED and the oversight from the Board of Regents?”

Dr. Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School on Long Island said, “Considering the more than $28 million taxpayer investment in curriculum modules, this paltry increase in scores is one more indication of the ineffectiveness of State Education Department’s reforms, and the inappropriateness of the Common Core tests. Parents should take heart in knowing that the ‘college readiness‘ proficiency scores have no connection with reality. My high school and many other well-resourced high schools in NY have proven records of preparing students for college success that are no way connected to the state’s newest measure of proficiency.”

Eric Mihelbergel, Erie County public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE said, “If the released questions are this bad, you have to wonder how much worse the other half were. I have no confidence in the results released today. Parents now demand new leadership for a Board of Regents and Commissioner of Education who repeatedly fail to adequately respond to their legitimate concerns.”

“Many of the multiple choice questions required up to five steps and compelled 8 year olds to flip back forth between numbered paragraphs. The question becomes more of a measure of attention, memory and test taking skills rather than their deep understanding of a text. The commissioner has stated that education should not be about test prep, but these tricky assessments all but ensure that test prep will continue — to the detriment of real learning,” said Bianca Tanis, an Ulster County public school parent and special education teacher.

Jeanette Deutermann, Nassau County public school parent and founder of Long Opt Out said, “This past spring, 55,000 to 60,000 New York State students were spared from yet another year of test scores that were designed to show a large majority of failures. The number of opt outs will steadily grow until NYSED takes the concerns of parents seriously and makes the necessary changes to our children’s excessive high stakes testing regimen. High stakes testing and the Regents Agenda have hijacked our classrooms, and every day more parents become aware of how they too must protect their children from these harmful policies.”

Jessica McNair, Oneida County public school parent and educator notes, “Until the NYSED acknowledges that these developmentally inappropriate exams take time away from instruction, cost taxpayers, and set kids up to fail — in an attempt to perpetuate the false narrative of Governor Cuomo’s ‘death penalty’ for schools — parents will continue to refuse to allow their children to participate in these state tests.”

“The test content was not sufficiently disclosed and there was no quality assurance or mechanism for parents or educators to obtain valuable feedback. The bottom line is that students are getting hurt, money is being wasted and precious time is being spent on high stakes testing at the expense of more meaningful instruction. The system surrounding the NYS testing program is dysfunctional to say the least,” said Anna Shah, Dutchess County public school parent.

Fred Smith, a test specialist formerly with the NYC Department of Education (DOE) stated, “The State Education Department took a half-step by releasing 50 percent of the English and math questions from the April 2014 exams. It was a half-step not just because it falls halfway short of full disclosure, but also because SED fails to provide data at its disposal that would enable objective evaluation of the questions, each of which is a brick in the wall of the testing program.”

“Like many other parents, I see how flawed the tests are as a measure of learning, and fear for all those millions of students who are told, unjustly, and at an early age, they aren’t ‘college and career ready’. These tests which ask our children to prove the existence of Big Foot and expose them to numerous and inappropriate product placements are the furthest from rigor one could imagine. I question the motives of the bureaucrats and the testing companies who are forcing these inappropriate exams onto our children – to try to prove to the public that our schools and children are failing, so they can better pursue their privatization agenda and the outsourcing of education into corporate hands,” said Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters.

R.I.P. Robin Williams

I am not the type who is really into too many celebrities, whether they be actors, musicians, etc. But I always liked Robin Williams. He came across to me as funny, intelligent, genuine. For somebody who has lived 63 years, with some of the experiences he has had, to decide to take their own life is downright tragic. It’s hard to fathom the pain he must have been in to make such a decision and it highlights the importance of mental health.

There are a couple of movies that I, as a teacher, always found inspiring. Both starred Williams in the role of a teacher. In that sense he was my favorite movie teacher.

Seize the day. Life is short.

Mike Mulgrew plays tough guy in defense of Common Core

We have written at length on this blog about the failure by our parent unions to adequeately represent the rank and file membership. We will be addressing this issue in depth at our conference day this year and over the coming months, along with providing a potential solution. Nowhere, however, was the disconnect between our leadership and our members more glaring than at this summer’s AFT Convention.

You will recall that in May the PJSTA Representative Council unanimously passed a resolution to oppose the Common Core State Standards. Well many teachers headed to this year’s convention with the same idea in mind. However the resolution brought to the floor of the convention was a resolution that essentially asked the AFT to continue their support of the Common Core. Below is video taken by MORE’s incomparable Norm Scott. The video shows supporters of the Common Core and opponents of it. Watch for yourself…

First of all seeing members of the New York delegation fight in favor of the Common Core is absolutely nauseating. It is exhibit A of how out of touch our leadership is with the membership. Secondly, the performance by UFT President Michael Mulgrew was reprehensible. To have a representative of teachers stand up and say they are going to “punch you in the face and push you in the dirt” if you try to take away the Common Core is beyond unthinkable. It flies in the face of everything we try to represent as educators. Finally, only mere months ago, then candidate Karen Magee ran for NYSUT President as being “Against Common Core” yet there she was on this video shamelessly supporting the resolution in support of the CCSS. If you read this blog regularly you know that I am not surprised by Magee openly lying to membership. Still, it’s important for our membership to see her flip flop on the issue.

The above video showed one very interesting thing. The three people who spoke in favor of the CCSS (Mulgrew, Leroy Barr, Magee) are all union “leaders” but spend no actual time in the classroom. The people who spoke against the CCSS (Timothy Meegan, Pia Payne-Shannon) are both people who spend their time in the classroom teaching. It’s a connection that can not be ignored. If we are going to take back the direction of our parent unions, it must come from the in the classroom, rank and file teachers.

The ICEUFT Blog and NYC Educator blog both wrote about Magee’s flip flop back in July.

You can read about Mulgrew’s tough guy act here (NYC Educator), here (Ed Notes), here (Perdido Street School), along with here, here, and here (all Fred Klonsky).

And finally a reminder of Magee’s campaign promises…

And We’re Back!

There is always some sort of shift in my head once we hit August. My brain goes from vacation mode back into school mode. Like many teachers I start to plan for the coming school year, excited about the idea of a clean slate to start September with, yet not too thrilled with knowing the frantic pace that will come with going back to work.

Anyway, we are back from a bit of a summer hiatus, ready to report out on all things impacting education and labor. Quite a bit has transpired this summer and we will be bringing you updates on that. Additionally we face another year in which our profession will be under attacks and the very existence of public education will ride on the level of activism that our members are willing to take.

Just a reminder that the first day of school will be September 2nd. We will be meeting for our PJSTA General Membership Meeting at Majestic Gardens in Rocky Point from 8:30-11:30 AM. Following that will be the district’s portion of the day.

As I shared with exec board and rep council in June, we are seeking writers who are interested in publishing occasional pieces here at thepjsta.org. If you are interested please contact me via email at thepjsta@gmail.com or by getting in touch with me at Terryville.

I will leave you for today with a video of this speech by the Chicago Teachers Union’s Michelle Gunderson. She plead for delegates to reject a resolution that pledged that the AFT will continue to support the promise of the Common Core standards. On the backs of NYSUT and UFT leadership the resolution passed, despite passionate pleas from rank and file members.

Karen Lewis on the Vergara Ruling

Yes, the Vergara Verdict Can Happen in NY Too

Shortly after a verdict in the Vergara v. California case was handed down, stripping the state’s teachers of their tenure protections, I received a flurry of text messages from colleagues asking me whether or not this could happen in New York State as well. My answer to them was YES. Yes, New York’s teachers can lose their tenure rights as well. In fact not only can it happen here, but it is likely to happen, barring a massive and militant mobilization of teachers across the Empire State.

The reason that it can happen here is because groups that are financially backed by billionaires typically get whatever they want in the United States when there is little or no resistance. While the movement in our state against the Common Core and high stakes testing has been impressive, it didn’t really gain any traction until parents got behind it. If New York teachers are going to beat back the coming attacks on tenure rights that not only protect our jobs, but allow us to advocate for our students, we are going to have to be willing to become activists. I don’t mean upping your VOTE-COPE contributions by a dollar or two per pay check or sending out a fax or a letter a handful of times per year to a representative. I mean a militant mobilization of our state’s teachers. A movement in which teachers unite, get informed, take to the streets and fight tooth and nail for the job protections that we have and for the schools that our students and communities deserve. We can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines while our profession is ransacked by billionaire fat cats who seek to make a dollar on the backs of our students and make the profession of teaching synonymous with that of a Wal-Mart associate.

The PJSTA membership was more active than ever this past year. We thank you for that. But it’s not enough. Every member will need to increase their involvement next year. We will need to raise our voice to a collective roar. The last stand of teaching as we know it may very well be coming. As Chicago Teacher Union attorney Matt Farmer said in their battle against ed deformers, “We will see you in the streets. You will hear our voice in your sleep!” That should be the credo for New York’s teachers moving forward. Don’t sit back and wait for NYSUT, the AFT, or the NEA to save you. The time has come to take back your profession.

A great place to start your journey as an activist is with a little summer reading. You can pick up a copy of Labor Notes’ How to Jump-Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers. It details the transformation of the Chicago Teachers Union and how their rank-and-file was mobilized and given a voice in the fight against corporate reformers in Chicago. Next fall the PJSTA will be hosting a book party based on this book. Details will follow in the coming months.

Diane Ravitch has the winners (hedge fund managers) and losers (students and teachers) of the Vergara case here.

Arthur Goldstein does not want a seat at the reformer table.

Reality-Based Educator says it’s only a matter of time before corporate backed reformers go after tenure laws in New York.

Governor Cuomo Even Makes Lame Bets

Something fun for a Saturday morning…

Seeing Cuomo cheering for the Rangers makes me happy to be an Islanders fan. On that note, hockey blogger Greg Wyshynski writes about the “lamest governors’ bet ever.”

Via Puck Daddy…

Stanley Cup Final produces the lamest governors’ bet ever

By Greg WyshynskiJune 4, 2014 11:16 AMPuck Daddy

Political wagering is a longstanding tradition in championship series, as two elected officials ante up clichéd items that represent their respective cities or states. Which is usually great news for whoever plays Boston, because who doesn’t like lobster? Less so for opponents of New Jersey, because who likes landfills?

With the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York and Governor Jerry Brown of California announced their wager before Wednesday’s Game 1 and it’s amazingly … lame. From the Great State of New York, Andrew Cuomo wagers:

A hockey puck that he had imprinted last year to mark the “hat trick” of three on-time state budgets.

Yes, seriously, this is a thing that he wagered.

It’s possible he ran out of “CUOMO 2010” bumper stickers.

Spiedie marinade, which is used to create the spiedie sandwich, which is a thing eaten in upstate New York.

We know what you’re thinking: Pastrami on rye would be the quintessential New York sandwich. Ah, but you forget: This bet is atrocious.

This is what happens when you marry Sandra Lee instead of the Barefoot Contessa.

“Chicken wing sauce from Buffalo.”

You, know, Buffalo.

Home of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.

A team THAT’S NOT [EXPLETIVE] PLAYING IN THE STANLEY CUP FINAL BUT OH WAIT THEIR RIVALS FROM MANHATTAN ARE.

I mean, he’s only the governor, why would he be hip to such nuance …

Finally, “a bottle of wine from the Finger Lakes,” which we’re sure Jerry Brown will use to wash his glass with after consuming something from Napa or Sonoma.

The Cuomo “Taste of New York” basket also includes Gianelli Hot Italian Sausage; Sammy and Annie Food’s Chicken Riggie Pasta Sauce Starter; Parker’s Pure New York Maple Syrup; America’s First Kettle Chip, Saratoga Chips, Saratoga County; Apples from Fishkill Farms; Red velvet cupcakes from Make My Cake; and oysters harvested off of Long Island’s shore.

Lest you believe Cuomo wagered the lamest stuff in this bet, we give you the Jerry Brown side of the wager:

“California: A History” by Kevin Starr. A book, in a hockey bet. There’s no chance Jerry Brown isn’t that house on Halloween that gives out carrot sticks and coloring books about the dangers of paganism.

“Lundberg Organic Brown Rice Cakes, Lightly Salted.”

Rice. Cakes.

Do you even have to pay postage on rice cakes?

If nothing else, we applaud Jerry Brown for choosing an item that’s the antithesis of many California stereotypes: Tasteless and of little substance. Oh, wait …

Said Cuomo in a press release:

“While 2014 is already a banner year for New York State hockey teams with Union College and Clarkson University as national college champions, the true icing on the cake would be a triumphant return of the Stanley Cup to the Empire State. Both the Rangers and the Kings have put forward spectacular championship runs and hockey enthusiasts from the East Coast to the West Coast can surely look forward to a hard fought series.

“However, given the tough, New York-resilient spirit with which the Rangers have advanced through the playoffs so far, I am wagering big on the Broadway Blueshirts with a Taste NY Basket of some of New York’s finest products. Together with one of New York’s biggest Rangers fans, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, we look forward to receiving the proceeds of Governor Brown’s wager.”

Jerry Brown did not provide a canned quote for the release, which is about as much effort as to be expected from someone who wagers rice cakes and a book in a sports bet.

What I Want From NYSUT

Earlier today we posted about NYSUT’s Karen Magee asking to hear from the membership about what we want from our union. It was a nice gesture. Below is the letter I submitted to her. I am sure most of my requests will be met. I encourage all NYSUT members to submit your own ideas to Karen as well. Feel free to share them with us as we’d love to see what your thoughts are as well.

My submission…

Dear President Magee,

Thank you for taking the time to ask what NYSUT members, such as myself, want from our union. Below is a list of the things that I would like from my union.

I would like a union who places the needs and interests of the rank and file membership ahead of the needs and interests of the Unity Caucus.

I would like a union who fights against those who seek to harm us, rather than one who compromises and collaborates with them.

I would like a union leadership who works with grassroots organizations to demonstrate against Governor Cuomo and corporate education reform rather than sitting in their ivory tower in Latham, New York claiming they were never invited to those demonstrations.

I’d like none of my VOTE COPE money to go towards Cuomo, John Flanagan, or any other anti-teacher, anti-labor candidates.

I’d like NYSUT officers to take significant pay cuts, rather than raising our dues AGAIN. While rank and file teachers across the state are taking 0%’s and step freezes along with paying more towards their health insurance, NYSUT officers have compensation packages that exceed $250,000. There is no good reason for any officer to make more than $150,000.

I’d like NYSUT’s leadership to return phone calls to my local president. Ignoring our local’s needs because of a grudge the leadership holds against us is a slap in the face to all of our members.

I’d like a Suffolk PAC that is run by an active teacher who has been elected by the rank and file.

I’d like it if UFT Unity Caucus delegates, bound by a caucus oath, were not allowed to vote on at large delegates from Long Island or other portions of the state. That way when Long Island delegates overwhelmingly vote for a candidate to represent them, that candidate will get to do so.

I’d like a leadership who openly and publicly criticizes the fact that our largest local has a caucus oath that stifles democracy both inside their local, inside our statewide union, and inside the AFT.

I’d like our union to strongly denounce the Common Core State Standards, just as my local union has.

I’d like the spending restrictions that Dick Iannuzzi placed on Andy Pallotta’s use of VOTE COPE funds to be enforced by this administration as well.

I’d like a statewide union who proves competent at mobilizing the rank and file.

I’d like a statewide union who will not support the candidacy of Randi Weingarten at the 2014 AFT Convention. The message needs to be loud and clear, “If you are not working for us you will be removed from office.”

I’d like a statewide union who uses every tool at it’s disposal to support the candidacy of the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones for governor and lieutenant governor in this fall’s election.

I’d like NYSUT photographers who are allowed to take pictures of anti-Cuomo signs.

I have several more suggestions as well, but this list is a good starting point. Thank you so much for taking the time to hear what we want from our union. I eagerly await the needed changes to NYSUT.

In solidarity,

Brian St. Pierre

Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association