Hobart and Cortese Endorse Iannuzzi, Neira, Donahue, Cutler

January 31, 2014

NYSUT Leaders and Members:

We are proud to serve as the Honorary Reelection Committee and to endorse the reelection of Dick Iannuzzi for President, Maria Neira and Kathleen Donahue for Vice President and Lee Cutler for Secretary-Treasurer of NYSUT!

We have been involved in framing the NYSUT mission and vision from its inception.  Along with many great unionists from across New York, we’ve watched our union grow and evolve in ways that place NYSUT at the forefront of the teacher union movement — in fact of the entire labor movement.  Dick and his team have a vision that is inclusive of every constituency group and local regardless of region or size.  They have made leaders feel and know that they are part of a union that cares about and advocates for every member.  They understand that leadership is about making the tough choices in tough times to save our members’ jobs, and about recalibrating our budgetary priorities and restructuring our organization to better meet our members’ needs.  They know that leadership is about leading and taking responsibility for decisions, not finger-pointing or scapegoating colleagues when times are hard.

Like each of us, the STRONGER TOGETHER team understands that a union best serves its members with a long-range strategy and vision that supports real change, but not change for the sake of change.

The future of NYSUT depends on a team whose vision looks toward the future with new ideas that engage a collective voice, and not one that seeks to look backwards and fails to recognize the value of every member.  Dick, Maria, Kathleen and Lee have the vision and experience to lean into the future on your behalf, and that’s why we are proud to actively provide our support.

In solidarity,

Thomas Y. Hobart, Jr.

President Emeritus

Antonia Cortese

Former  NYSUT First Vice President

Hobart/Cortese Endorsement Letter

MORE THAN A SCORE: Talking Back to Testing Forum

This morning we ran a post featuring the MORE Caucus.  Having read that you may now have an interest in attending a forum they are holding in Manhattan this weekend titled, “More than a Score!”

You can click here to order your FREE tickets.

The details on the event are below…

Find out how you can stop the overuse of High Stakes Testing in your school, and join the citywide effort to focus on real teaching and learning.

Panel and workshops will discuss:

What are the effects of high stakes testing on students, teachers and school communities?

What are solid alternatives to standardized testing that already exist?

How can we be active in the fight for a better educational system for ALL students?

Hear and speak to educators and students from schools where standardized tests are not used to make major decisions. There’s overwhelming evidence to support that collaboration trumps competition when it comes to bringing out the best in all of our students.
Together we can stop the corporate standardization of education and create a responsive educational system that serves the needs of our young people and communities.

11:00-11:15- Welcome and Introductions!

11:15-11:45- Key Note Speakers

11:55-12:55- Workshops Round 1 (Diverse range of workshops for everyone)
* Portfolio Based Assessments (Middle/High School): Presented by educators from a Consortium High School (Non-regents based public high school)
* High Stakes Testing 101: The Truth About Testing- Presented by Change the Stakes
* Why the UFT should fight “Advance”: Presented by MORE’s Contract Committee
* High Stakes Testing and Zero Tolerance Policies- Promoting Restorative Justice
in our schools: Teacher’s Unite
* Building Student Voice and Empowerment: NYC Student Union: Building Student Unions on your own campus. Let’s build a network of collaboration for collective action to have our educational demands met.
* Portfolio Based Assessments in Elementary Schools- Presented by elementary school educators in the current progressive network

1:00-2:00- GET PLUGGED IN! Round 2 (Great place for people who are already plugged in to different community based groups and for those who are looking to learn more about how to get actively informed.)
* MORE- Movement of Rank and File Educators:
* Change the Stakes
* NYC Student Union
* Teachers

2:00-2:30- Endnote Speakers and Closing

2:30-3:00- Mingle and Meet- bake sale and connect at the water cooler

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE!
*Workshop organizers subject to change depending on demand.

Change the Stakes http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/
Movement of Rank and File Educators http://morecaucusnyc.org/
Teacher’s Unite http://www.teachersunite.net/

UFT Series Post #4: Do You Want MORE From Your Union?

more icon

Our features this week (intro, James Eterno, Arthur Goldstein, Reality-Based Educator) that have shown how the leadership of the United Federation of Teachers operates may understandably leave you with a bad taste in your mouth regarding the state’s biggest local.  Today’s post is meant to highlight some of the extraordinary work being done by rank and file UFT members, in spite of the leadership of the Unity Caucus.  While a great deal of their members do the “every day hero” work that so many teachers across the country do, still others do tremendous work blogging about education (see our guest bloggers at NYC Educator and Perdido Street School).  However one group in particular jumps out for their activism.  That group is the MORE Caucus (@MOREcaucusNYC).

The MORE Caucus, standing for the Movement Of Rank And File Educators, bills itself as “The Social Justice Caucus of the UFT”.  Anybody who knows them knows that there is no finer example of grassroots unionism in New York.  Not the faux grassroots that the Pallotta/Mulgrew Revive NYSUT slate is touting, but real bottom up, member driven unionism.  So who exactly is the MORE Caucus and what do they stand for?  Via their mission statement…

1. We are members of the UFT and members of school communities and their allies.
2. We insist on receiving professional dignity and respect, and we insist on a strong, democratic union emerging from an educated and active rank and file. We oppose the lack of democracy and one-party state that has governed our union for half a century. It has conceded to our adversaries’ agendas and has collaborated with their attacks on us, leading to the terrible situation we find ourselves in.
3. We insist on a better educational environment for ourselves and for the students whose lives we touch.  Because of this resolve, we have established the MORE Caucus, which will educate, organize and mobilize the UFT membership.

In “Why We Need a New Caucus” they add…

The onslaught of high-stakes testing, privatization, weakening or elimination of job protections, school closings and charter co- locations threatens the very existence of public education as we know it. Unionized teachers in particular have been singled out for demonization. The strategy put forth by our union leadership to take on these challenges is inadequate. UFT officials rely primarily on lobbying, media blitzes and procedural lawsuits. When occasional mobilizations are called, they are organized without a long-term plan for escalating actions or increased membership involvement. The union leadership takes a concessionary stance in order to maintain its “seat at the table” with politicians and corporate forces like Bill Gates, who turn around and attack teachers and the union at every opportunity. Union leadership then sells serious concessions to the members as victories claiming – “It could have worse”.

Some of the key policy failures of the UFT leadership:

•    Supporting mayoral control even in the face of the devastating impact

•    A weak stand against closing schools

•    A compromising position on charter schools and co-locations

•    Giving up on the fight to reduce class size

•    The acceptance of rating teachers based on high-stakes tests

•    Agreeing to merit pay even though every single study shows the failure of this policy

•    Steadily deteriorating working conditions and power in the workplace

•    Erosion of job security and tenure protections

•    A one-party undemocratic system that shuts out the voices of the members

We need something different. A union that fights for the rights of students, teachers and communities.

A union that fights for racial and economic justice inside and outside our schools.

more tee

Like the PJSTA, the MORE Caucus is an official member of the New York State Allies for Public Education.  MORE was formed in 2012, modeled in many ways after the CORE Teachers who only a couple of years earlier wrested control of the Chicago Teachers Union and have since become the model for how teacher unionism should be the United States.

Last spring, for the first time, MORE participated in the UFT elections as challengers to the Unity Caucus.  They were led by their candidate for UFT President, Julie Cavanagh, who was known for her tremendous work fighting for public education, including co-narrating and co-producing The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.  While they did not win the election, MORE garnered significant support considering their status as newcomers and, more importantly, the hurdles that stand in the way of fair elections within their local.  In his guest post earlier this week MORE member James Eterno detailed some of those hurdles (emphasis mine)…

In the most recent UFT election in 2013, less than 20% of active teachers voted. Members received a booklet in the mail with over a thousand names on it.  Most people who did vote chose a slate, which means they voted for all of the candidates from one caucus (political party) with one mark.

The party that has controlled UFT politics for around half a century is the Unity Caucus, the Michael Mulgrew-Randi Weingarten faction of the UFT. Their huge base of support is among retirees, who now make up a majority of the UFT voters.

There is no way for dissidents (the Movement of Rank and File Educators in the last election) to reach those retirees who live all over the place, other than one ad in the New York Teacher newspaper every three years.  Union officers, on the other hand, have complete access to the retirees.

A major union leader told me that when they visit schools during campaign season, they don’t campaign officially but everyone knows that they are there to run for office. How is it that UFT officials manage to visit Florida retirees during the election season? Challengers, who have to teach here in New York City, do not have any access to the masses of voters.

The opposition MORE slate and quasi opposition New Action slate combined won a majority of high school votes in the last UFT election.  That netted the two groups zero representation in NYSUT’s RA.

For a more detailed analysis of the election turnout visit Kit Wainer’s piece here.

Unfortunately the power hungry Unity Caucus has set up a system that shuts out opposition voice within their local.  As a result, NYSUT members do not get to enjoy the benefit of having members from the MORE Caucus participate in higher levels of our statewide union.  There will be no MORE members with a vote in April’s NYSUT election.   Outside of Andy Pallotta, Mike Mulgrew, and the Revive NYSUT slate of candidates I can’t think that this makes any teacher in New York State happy.

The contested election in this year’s NYSUT elections have, at the very least, brought a number of important issues to the forefront.  Hopefully that results in meaningful changes within the next three years so that together we can build a stronger, member driven union. Unfortunately, as currently constituted, this is NOT what democracy looks like!

I’ll leave you with this video of MORE’s Brian Jones speaking about teacher unions…

Thursday Morning Link Around

Some links and reads to tide you over…

NYC Eye on Iannuzzi v. Mulgrew

Via NYC Eye… (emphasis is mine)

Teachers in New York City and New York State must recognize that there are profound flaws in Michael Mulgrew that are vociferous defenses for the indefensible policies of John King. Perdido Street did some extremely important compilations of old posts that quintessentially capture the nightmarish betrayals that Mulgrew committed against the teachers of New York City. NYS teachers and their representatives would do well to study those missteps with the most exacting attention. See “Oldie But Goodie: Mulgrew “Frightened” By Opposition To Common Core,”“Another Oldie But Goodie: Michael Mulgrew On Why John King Was A Great Figure To Impose A NYC Teacher Evaluation System,”“And Yet Three More Oldies But Goodies: Michael Mulgrew Defends John King’s APPR Teacher Evaluation System.”

Why should NYS teachers and representatives care about what Michael Mulgrew or his proxy Andy Pallotta say or think? Pay close attention to what Mulgrew said for months last year: apologies for some of the worst policies that are destroying teachers’ working conditions and their spirits. Reading Mulgrew’s words, aren’t you unsettled by what Mulgrew did in New York City? Would you for a minute risk his disastrous policies’ being shoved over to the rest of New York State? 

…

And which teachers union leader clearly has been the figure that has been committed great damage to the teaching profession in New York State? Hmm. Make no mistake, Saturday’s NYSUT board vote was not just a repudiation of Comm. King but also a repudiation of Mulgrew who has not stood up to John King in his worsening of teacher working conditions.
Never forget: Mulgrew supports Cuomo. This is a major political point of political dispute between Mulgrew and Iannuzzi.

Don’t forget who the King-supporting, Cuomo-loving, democracy-squashing, debate-avoiding Michael Mulgrew is backing in the NYSUT elections…

“We support the Revive NYSUT Unity slate. We have heard the voices from locals across the state and agree with their call for change.”

Michael Mulgrew

Andy Pallotta and Reformy John Flanagan

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that we have touched on John Flanagan quite a bit.  Flanagan, a New York State Senator who represents portions of the Comsewogue School District, is also the chairman of the New York State Senate’s Education Committee.  You may remember that in November we rallied outside Senator Flanagan’s office while he cowardly hid inside.  You’ll recall that an editorial in The Smithtown News referring to New York’s education reform agenda said…

Call it the King/Flanagan agenda, and it stinks.”  They added, “Ever since NYSUT refused to endorse him for re-election in 2010, Mr. Flanagan has been out to get public school teachers and he is hell-bent on taking the public school system down with them.  He has jumped to the center of the charter school bandwagon, which drains money from public schools, he has fostered implementation of an inherently unfair and flawed APPR system, he has ushered in the misguided and premature implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards and he has allowed the implementation of the abusive testing of students.

By now you know the story of Flanagan calling Comsewogue District Office to complain that one of their teachers, Beth Dimino, did not speak to him in a deferential tone.  You know that Flanagan has known ties to ALEC and that his top campaign contributor was Michelle Rhee’s organization Student’s First.  Suffice it to say John Flanagan is certainly an enemy of public education.

So imagine my surprise last night when the tweet below scrolled across my Twitter feed…

Ah yes, Revive NYSUT’s Andy Pallotta, cozying up to the reformy John Flanagan.  Pontificating about how “we” will support all children.  You may remember that Flanagan wasn’t endorsed by NYSUT in his bid for re-election in 2012.  However that did not stop Andy Pallotta from sending him $3,000 of VOTE COPE funds anyway.  That seems to be Pallotta’s way of doing things.  Don’t worry about who NYSUT has voted to endorse or what is best for the rank and file, make sure you fill the coffers of your reformy pals.  We already know he has contributed $10,000 to “Cuomo 2014”.  It makes you wonder how much money he will give Cuomo, even if NYSUT votes not to endorse Cuomo in his re-election bid.

Despite the fact that NYSUT elections are rigged because of the Unity Caucus stranglehold on the UFT leadership, we must find a way to oust Andy Pallotta from his office of Executive Vice-President.  Rank and file members around the state should be contacting their NYSUT delegates and telling them “Vote NO to the Revive NYSUT slate!”

Pallotta's feelings of Flanagan.
Pallotta’s feelings of Flanagan.
The PJSTA's thoughts on Flanagan.
The PJSTA’s thoughts on Flanagan.

UFT Guest Post #3: Reality-Based Educator

Today we will continue our series designed to give you a look inside the leadership of the United Federation of Teachers .  On Sunday we began with James Eterno of the ICEUFT blog and yesterday we continued with Arthur Goldstein of the NYC Educator blog.  Today we will be featuring a post by a man who goes by the moniker Reality-Based Educator (RBE) on his blog Perdido Street School.  Regular readers of this blog will recognize Perdido Street School as a blog that we refer to quite a bit as Mr. RBE does an extraordinary job blogging about education and politics in New York City, New York State, and beyond.  If you are on Twitter you certainly will wanna give him a follow, @perdidostschool.

Today’s post will take a somewhat different format.  Due to a previous commitment today’s guest blogger is unable to write a full fledged post for us today.  However he shared that, “You are welcome to use anything off Perdido Street School you think would be appropriate” and later added, “You’re doing a great job educating people around the state, so I think this is a great idea to use PJSTA blog as a resource and reference for people looking to get info about the cancer that is Unity.  Thanks for asking me to be a part of it!”  So today’s post will feature parts of different blog posts RBE has written over the last several months, sharing his insights and opinions on the leadership of the local union of which he is a member of the rank and file, the UFT.

Back on August 22, 2013 RBE wrote about Mulgrew Frightened by Opposition to Common Core…

From Gotham Schools:

The opposition has alarmed many who say they continue to support the idea behind the standards, which is to teach students to think more deeply and critically, even as they have criticized the state’s implementation.

“This debate about whether Common Core is good or bad … is what frightens me,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, another panelist, said this morning.

Why should a debate over Common Core frighten you, Mike?

Oh, right – I remember now.

You head the UFT, an organization which eschews debate, shuts down opposition within the ranks and otherwise works to quell anything and anybody that isn’t AFT- and UFT-leadership approved.

Well, get ready for a frightful year, Mikey.

Because as teachers start to deal with Common Core lessons on top of the Danielson framework on top of 4-6 observations a year on top of evals tied to state test scores on top of evals tied to city tests and/or other locally-selected measures of teacher effectiveness, there’s going to be a lot of debate within the UFT rank-and-file over the Common Core, the new Common Core tests, Danielson, APPR and all the other reforms you and your boss, Randi Weingarten, helped bring about for NYC teachers.

On April 5, 2013, when discussing MORE’s case against Mulgrew, RBE shared…

Can you imagine a UFT leadership that actually cared about its members, that actually came from the membership to rise to the union leadership positions not so they could get out of the classroom and live off the perks and double pensions but so they could protect teachers in a time of historic attacks on public education and provide a positive alternative to restore dignity to teaching and compassion to students?

If you can imagine such a leadership, you should vote for MORE.

Because the current leadership is just going to continue taking us down the path of destruction via APPR, Danielson, VAM, SLO’s, and growth models.

After all, this is leadership that has decided education corporatists John King and Andrew Cuomo can be the independent arbitrators between the union and the city on the evaluation negotiations and impose whatever system they want upon us.

That, dear reader, is a failed leadership.

On March 28, 2013, RBE wondered Why is Mulgrew Afraid to Debate?…

Via ICEUFT blog, we learn that even the NY Post is wondering why UFT President Michael Mulgrew won’t debate opponent Julie Cavanagh:

Brash-talking teachers-union boss Michael Mulgrew is a chicken and a hypocrite, union critics charge.Mulgrew is ducking a debate with his United Federation of Teachers rival before next month’s union elections, The Post has learned.

Special-education teacher Julie Cavanagh is challenging Mulgrew’s re-election bid and has personally asked him to participate in a “town hall” debate.

“To this point you have ignored outreach regarding your participation in a debate or question-and-answer town hall with me,” Cavanagh said in a March 14 letter to Mulgrew.

And a top aide to Mulgrew confirmed that the incumbent would not debate Cavanagh. Instead, Mulgrew’s political handlers offered to have one of the subordinates from his Unity Caucus debate her.

The contempt with which Mulgrew and his leadership are treating Cavanagh and the MORE caucus is not new to how they treat people within the union who do not swallow the party line 100%.

What is different is that the news of that is showing up in the newspapers.

Why won’t Mulgrew debate Cavanagh?

Understand that a 90 second spot for Cavanagh at the DA does not count as a debate.

I mean a real, honest 90 minute “Here Is How I See The Future Of Public Education, Teaching And Unionism” debate between Mulgrew and Cavanagh moderated by an independent third party.

That would be a great opportunity for both candidates to explain to UFT rank and file just how they plan to handle a very dicey future for teachers, schools and the UFT.

What is Mulgrew afraid of that he won’t have that debate?

Finally, here is RBE on June 20, 2013, talking about Democracy UFT Style in Regards to the Thompson endorsement…

I called this Thompson endorsement by the UFT leadership a long time ago.It wasn’t difficult to see that this was the candidate they would eventually endorse.John Liu is tarred by scandal, so he wasn’t going to get the nod.

Bill de Blasio was seen as too lefty (as noted by one of the Unity slugs in a comment at Gotham Charter Schools a few weeks back), so he was out.

Quinn, had she still been polling strong, might have been their pick because the most important objective the UFT leadership wanted from this endorsement was to pick a winner.

But Quinn has fallen in every poll taken since February and is no longer the presumptive frontrunner in this race, so the UFT leadership could take a chance and go with somebody other than Quinn.

That somebody was Al D’amato’s, Merryl Tisch’s and Randi Weingarten’s favorite candidate, Bill Thompson.

The sham of all of this is that the decision was made weeks ago, but the UFT made believe like they were going through some “democratic process” to come to the endorsement decision.

But as with every other decision the UFT makes, from the sellout on the Common Core to the sellout on APPR, the fix was in and the decision was made by the union elites and handed down to the rank and file.

That’s why they had Thompson ready to go yesterday right after the endorsement announcement, that’s why they had the posters already printed up.

The good news in all of this is, as I noted yesterday, winning the UFT endorsement doesn’t give Bill Thompson much juice other than a day of headlines and some extra cash for the campaign.

Mulgrew can preen in the papers about the vaunted UFT GOTV machine, but the truth is, this is a paper tiger union with most of its power base residing on the golf courses in Florida.

Most members I spoke with yesterday, both in my school and at Regents grading after school, said if Mikey Mulgrew wanted them to vote for Bill Thompson, then there must be something wrong with Bill Thompson.

I think that’s EXACTLY right.

Any candidate who enjoys the support of Al D’amato, the hedge fund/charter school contingent, Merry Tisch, Randi Weingarten and the UFT is a candidate who should not be trusted.

Just like the “democracy” the UFT engaged in to anoint Bill Thompson their candidate.

By now, if you have been reading our posts this week about UFT leadership, you should have serious questions about whether or not you can support the Revive NYSUT slate of candidates.  After all, remember what they proudly display on their site…

“We support the Revive NYSUT Unity slate. We have heard the voices from locals across the state and agree with their call for change.”

Michael Mulgrew

UFT Guest Post #2: Arthur Goldstein

Yesterday we shared with you the details of our series that gives our readers a look into the United Federation of Teachers, how it is structured, and how it impacts locals across New York State and the country.  Our first post in the series was from James Eterno of ICEUFT.  Today’s post is from prolific blogger Arthur Goldstein.  Arthur has blogged regularly at NYC Educator since 2005.  He is an ESL teacher at Francis Lewis High School in Queens.  You certainly will want to follow him on Twitter at @TeacherArthurG.

Reviving Unionism

by Arthur Goldstein, ESL teacher/ UFT chapter leader, Francis Lewis High School

It’s funny to hear people in NYSUT complaining about democracy. I’m chapter leader of one of the largest schools in NYC, and neither I nor anyone in my school gets to vote or participate at all in NYSUT or AFT. Though I’ve been elected twice, that means nothing. The only way a city teacher gets to be part of NYSUT is to be part of Unity, an invitation-only caucus that has run the union for over 50 years. I’ve never been invited.

The reason for that, I suppose, is my public point of view. I’ve been published in the Daily News, at Huffington Post, at Gotham Schools, on Schoolbook, on multiple blogs, and in local Queens newspapers taking positions contrary to those of UFT leadership. For example, I wrote a column labeling mayoral control mayoral dictatorship. Though giving Michael Bloomberg absolute power was a bad idea, the UFT supported it. After he used it to close schools all over the city, aiding no one but privatizers, we supported it again.

I also oppose value-added ratings for teachers, since they have no basis in science, and since great teachers have lost jobs as a result.  I can’t support Common Core, no matter how many millions of dollarsBill Gates pours into it, as I don’t believe it helps the students we serve when we fail most of them and use said failure to label working teachers as defective. Brilliant education historian Diane Ravitch shares my positions, and it’s ironic to be excluded from not only UFT, but also NYSUT and AFT for the crime of sharing her opinions.

Lest you think I’m delusional, below is part of the pledge you must sign to join Unity, as the overwhelming majority of UFT chapter leaders have done.

  • To express criticism of caucus policies within the Caucus;
  • To support the decisions of Caucus / Union leadership in public or Union forums;
  • To support in Union elections only those individuals who are endorsed by the Caucus, and to actively campaign for his / her election;
  • To run for Union office only with the support of the caucus;
  • To serve, if elected to Union office, in a manner consistent with Union / Caucus policies

    and to give full and faithful service in that office;

 

Had I signed this, I’d have been unable to advocate for causes important to my members. In fact, I fail to see how we grow advocacy when our school leaders are prohibited from fighting the corporate reform that threatens to turn us all into Walmart associates. As in any group, some people in Unity are wonderful, and others not so wonderful. Some, I think, understand the need for change. But they can’t stand up, or they’ll be expelled. This is, sadly, another UFT tradition. According to David Selden, Unity members were expelled in the sixties for opposing the Vietnam War. History has proven those dissenters right, and will prove us right as well.

Our local, to many UFT members, is just a number you call when you need a pair of glasses. This worries me. I’m surprised to read NYSUT is what needs change. We are by far the largest component of NYSUT and we are in need of something well more than a revival. I’m ready and willing to help, and all UFT need do is ask.

Unfortunately, UFT finds my viewpoints too extreme, and prefers to exclude not only me, but every single teacher who shares my opinions. I don’t personally know a single teacher who supports corporate reform. But many expect little from the UFT, which has failed to procure us a contract in four years or a raise in five. In fact, only 14% of working teachers voted in our last election, and 52% of votes received were from retirees.

Revival is something we surely need. But it needs to come in the form of something inclusive, something that respects those of us who feel the need to fight corporate reform and the junk science that accompanies it. I’m encouraged that AFT President Randi Weingarten has seen the light about VAM, and that NYSUT has rejected the preposterous policies of John King. Why on earth has it taken so long?

Now it’s time to respect the viewpoints and interests of working teachers, and to utilize and encourage those of us who choose to be active. Unfortunately, any revival that willfully ignores what’s been going on in New York City for half a century is no revival at all.