Tag: aft

Jia Lee Reports on AFT Convention

The PJSTA did not send our delegates to the AFT Convention this year.  So I asked our friend Jia Lee to share her observations of the convention with us.  They will be published elsewhere as well.  Here are Jia’s take aways from the convention…

AFT July 2016- Observations of a Rank and File Member

By Jia Lee

UFT Chapter Leader of The Earth School

Every two years, the American Federation of Teachers, convenes to address proposals for resolutions and positions we take as a national union. Seven non-Unity members from New York City, headed to Minneapolis, for the AFT convention on its 100th Anniversary. Arthur Goldstein of MORE and Jonathan Halabi of New Action, two of the seven newly elected high school executive board members, joined Norm Scott to report the events from the press section. You can find the links to their blogs below. Gloria Brandman, Lisa North and Gladys Sotomayor, all veterans of NYC public schools and members of MORE were present at general sessions, leafletting and networking with members from other locals. For me, being present in this space to support the reporting out of what goes on is just as important as being in solidarity with locals who need to know that there are other voices coming out of NYC besides that of the Unity stronghold.

 

To put things into perspective, while it is important to know how issues are brought to the convention and subsequently, how decisions are made, it is even more important to understand how immensely it connects to rank and file members back at home. We are the untapped power. For those of us who know little to nothing about how it works, here’s a little overview:

Out of 2,608 delegates in the AFT, representing locals from New York to California, the UFT sends 750 delegates to this level of our union. Yes, this is very NYC heavy. With the small number of delegates from the rest of New York State, many of whom are unable to afford the trip, our representation is often viewed as insurmountable. Delegates from different locals meet in nine different committees where most resolutions are debated and voted on. In between, there are general sessions where all delegates come together to debate and vote on the top three resolutions as a body, special acknowledgements and elections for AFT officers and panel presentations. The seven of us carried visitor passes since we are not elected delegates but we are AFT members via our local.

As one can imagine, there are many orders of business and activities that we could share, but here are three stark take-aways about the purposeful lack of democracy from this convention everyone should know, as dues paying members.

1. Our UFT Constitution needs to be amended. We handed out a MORE -AFT 2016 Edition flier explaining to fellow AFT members that while our high school exec board candidates won seats, they do not carry AFT delegate status. It is written in our constitution that winner takes all. This, in fact, ignores the fact that we won nearly 30% of the votes. When we tell this to other unions, many are surprised. Delegates from other locals reported that these positions are voted on separately. Why was this written into our constitution one may ask? It clearly ensures a block vote. The implications call for a change to representational percentages amongst delegates

2. The UFT/Unity does in fact control NYSUT, and this needs to change. It seems that to dominate the national scene, it is imperative for the largest local to also control the state. We learned that Ed Representatives which represent districts across the state, are nearly all Unity. It was written into the constitution at the state level that ed representatives do not have to necessarily live in the region it purportedly represents; therefore, Unity can and has put up their own candidates when they feel like. Because of the loyalty oath and disproportionate number of delegates we represent, whoever Unity puts in, is guaranteed a win. This contributes to the unfair advantage at the state and national levels. Locals across the state find this frustratingly unfair and undemocratic.

It plays out in divisive ways by creating an imbalance in representation electorally and subsequently has consequences at the state and at the national level. At this year’s AFT convention, at the convening of the Educational Issues Committee, something disturbing occurred. Almost everyone knows that NYSUT (our state union) passed Stronger Together’s (ST caucus)  proposed resolution on opt out called I-Refuse at last year’s state-wide convention. A version of this was prepared by a committee within NYSUT for the AFT convention. It was printed in the resolutions packet on the first day of the AFT.

Just moments before raising the resolution, Karen Magee, our NYSUT president pulled out a substitute resolution that was entirely different from the original. Even the title was changed from “Support the I-Refuse Movement to Oppose High Stakes Testing” to “End the Misuse of Testing and Support Teacher and Parent Rights.” In effect, all of the strong and actionable resolves of the former resolution were removed and in its place was a much diluted version that upheld standardized tests as useful when not misused and supported the rights of parents to opt their children out of the tests and for teachers to explain these rights without fear of penalty. It did not support teachers as agents of change as the I-Refuse resolution did. Jilted, fellow NYSUT members of the ST caucus objected to the substitution which was overruled. The Unity stronghold had prepared for this, keeping the ST members in the dark. The substitute resolution passed.

3. AFT Leadership controls the membership. This must change. We are a top down driven union. The international relations and domestic positions of the Democratic Party, and specifically Hillary Clinton (who was present and gave a very disappointing speech about supporting public charter schools) shaped the convention. It was tightly controlled.

For instance, during the debate over the resolution to support the teachers of Oaxaca who have risen in massive numbers to strike against the privatization of their public schools, a teacher from California rose to distinguish, for members, the difference between supporting the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE) and the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE). The national union El SNTE has been in collusion with the government in its attack on teachers in Oaxaca, resulting in the violence that has led to the killings of teachers. She went on to state that the blood of those teachers would be on the AFT if it supported the SNTE.

Mary Cathryn Ricker,  AFT Vice President, rose to speak against this. She said that it was not true, “The SNTE is not responsible…” This red herring argument derailed what the teacher was stating. Though the SNTE may not be responsible, they have been in collusion. For those who are not as informed, this was enough to downplay this very real problem.

In the “Fighting for Safe Communities and Racial Justice for Our Citizens and our First Responders” I was very intrigued to find that the resolution included lines that members found problematic. For instance, “Whereas, the AFT supports all police officers who perform the duty of serving us daily in the name of public safety;” and “Resolved, that the AFT will collaborate with unions representing police and public safety officers in the law enforcement community to advocate for fair policing through greater transparency and accountability, which will lead to safer communities;” was heavily debated on the floor. In a following analysis, I will share some ideas on how this debate detracts from the discussion needed to understand the fundamental changes needed to shift a culture of implicit racial bias and machismo (or patriarchy) that create conditions for disproportionate targeting and brutality of Black community members. One member pointed out that just as there is a police union, union members are victims of brutality. There is so much more to this issue than what lies on the surface, but it will not be discussed at an AFT convention.

However, at the AFT, the chair took liberties that clearly did not follow Robert’s Rules of Order, and at times, it seemed fair and at other times, it was clearly strategically unfair. In the end, the resolutions passed as intended, without the fortitude to muster true alliances and actions to enact real change to our daily lives as teachers. I should add that watching Randi Weingarten, the AFT president, chair all general sessions, was exhausting. She must control the pulpit, and this is, not so oddly, familiar. The Clinton endorsement shaped the landscape and, as usual, the leadership subdued the membership. The work of maintaining control at the NYC level contributes to maintaining the whims of a very ambitious and relentless AFT president.

In reflective conversations with folks from other unions at the UCORE event, it was said on multiple occasions that at the end of the day, resolutions are a piece of paper. Instead, we discussed the need for a different vision of unionism as we build our base, member by member, school by school. This requires that we continue to do the kind of self education and teach ins on the issues that slipped so easily through at the AFT. Envisioning a different way to enact democracy within our union is a must, or we are in danger of replicating the undemocratic ways of our present and past. What this means involves a real analysis of how race relations have played out through the positions of union leaders, as well as, developing structures different from the ones we know.

Catch Norm’s Reporting

And Arthur’s observations:

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/from-aft-2016-resistance-is-futile.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/uft-folk-do-darndest-things.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/clinton-at-aft-lets-learn-from-public.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/in-which-uft-unity-member-lectures-me.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/social-justice-is-for-everyone.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/mulgrew-demands-apology-for-my-little.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/happy-days-redux.html

Jonathan: https://jd2718.org/

 

Contribute to Defeat Mulgrew

I have written in great detail about the harm that Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus inflict not only upon their local union, the United Federation of Teachers, but upon unionized teachers across New York State and beyond.  Fortunately this is an election year for the UFT and Mulgrew has a very formidable challenger in noted public education activist Jia Lee.

Lee needs no introduction to most advocates of public education.  She has been on the front lines of the fight against high stakes testing, junk science teacher evaluations, and the struggle for more democratic unions at all levels.  In 2015 she travelled on her own dime to Washington DC and she quite eloquently represented public school teachers in the United States Senate.  PJSTA members will remember her as our keynote speaker at the PJSTA Conference Day last year.  She was one of the first conscientious objectors in New York State when she began refusing to administer the rigged New York State assessments in 2014 and she is one of the authors of the Teachers of Conscience Position Paper.  As someone who is fortunate enough to call Jia a friend, I can share that she is the real deal when it comes to public education advocacy.  She breathes activism.  In addition to the tireless efforts she has put into the opt-out campaigns and working for union democracy, Jia is a dynamic teacher at New York City’s Earth School and she has been a tremendous professional resource to me, sharing countless things from her classroom that my students have then been able to benefit from.  If such a thing as an education superhero exists that person is Jia Lee.  You can click here to access one of Jia’s flyers to share widely with your public ed allies.

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Beth Dimino, Jia Lee, Brian St. Pierre. Lee is running against Michael Mulgrew for UFT President.

This election is about more than just Jia, however.  Jia is simply running at the top of a slate of candidates being put forth by two UFT Caucuses.  Those two caucuses (MORE and New Action) are tired of seeing their union compromise and collaborate with reformers bent on destroying us.  They are ready to transform the UFT into a member driven union that represents the teachers in the classroom rather than the union “leaders” with personal agendas.  While that sort of transformation would certainly benefit New York City’s classroom teachers, it’s benefits would stretch far beyond that as well.  It would significantly alter the direction of our statewide union, NYSUT, and our national union, the AFT.  As the local that is by far the largest in the country (several times larger than the second biggest), the UFT’s leadership wields extraordinary power within the teacher union landscape.  They impact virtually every unionized teacher in the United States.  The leadership of the UFT is the largest reason why unions have supported the Common Core and test based teacher evaluations.  They were the ones urging state legislators to vote in favor of the Education Transformation Act last year!  As a matter of fact, much of Unity Caucus’ (the caucus representing the UFT leadership) campaign in this year’s election has even centered upon their support for the evaluation plan in which 50% is made up of test scores.

Clearly anyone who supports public education has a stake in this year’s UFT election.  Nobody can ignore it and think that it only impacts teachers in the five boroughs.  This election will impact every teacher, student, and parent across the state.  With that in mind I will ask that all of you head on over right now to make a donation to the MORE Caucus and their election fund.  Unseating the biggest bully on the public education landscape can’t be done by simply “liking” something on Facebook or retweeting a link on Twitter.  It will take money too.  So give what you can, even if it is only a small amount.  Finally, be sure to ask your friends who support public education to do the same.

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Let’s End Top Down Unionism

I have to thank my friend Norm Scott over at Ed Notes Online for the piece he recently wrote on the demise of the UFT’s blog Edwize.  I’ll admit that I had never even heard of Edwize.  But then again I don’t typically spend time reading Unity Caucus propaganda, so maybe that explains it.

Anyways, tucked into Norm’s piece was a real gem that he had from Mike Antonucci’s Intercepts blog…

Back in 2002, three NEA staffers wrote an article for the Journal of Labor Research on the union’s experiments in cyberspace. They concluded, “With modern cyber software, in short, content creation can be decentralized and democratized. Members can be empowered. But first, of course, members need to be trusted. A top-down union, comfortable with command-and-control internal information-sharing processes, might be unnerved by this prospect. A top-down union, uncomfortable with anything but command-and-control, will likely never succeed in cyberspace.”

At the time, I felt this was an encouraging view, but didn’t go far enough.

Sigh. All NEA can think about is how cyberspace will help it get members to do something. Completely unexamined (perhaps even unimagined) is what if cyberspace helps members to get NEA to do something? What if members share internal information not previously filtered through the communications staff? What if they decide to support or reject legislation not included in the union’s legislative program? What if they become unhappy meeting once a year in a group of 9,000 and would prefer a different arrangement? A membership truly engaged in NEA’s workings might make it a stronger union, but it would be a fundamentally different union from the one that exists now, and in ways utterly unpredictable to those who hope to harness that power.

Even 13 years later we haven’t reached that point, but we’re closer to it than we have ever been.

That passage gets to the heart of what I think is the biggest problem with our unions and that is the top down nature of them in which our leaders insist on.  “Command-and-control” as Antonucci calls it.  For as long as I have been a teacher (14 years) I have seen the leadership of NYSUT/AFT/NEA decide on what we are supporting, what positions to take, what needs to be done and then simply command the membership to pledge support to those positions.  To some extent this also happens in individual locals, though I think that is less the case in smaller locals.  Like most people in power, union leaders often act with their own best interests in mind, with the goal being to retain power over all else.

The decentralizing and democratizing of unions that those NEA staffers saw as a possibility in 2002 has started to take place in many unions across the country, only it hasn’t been with the consent of the union leadership, but more as a thorn in the leadership’s side.  Rank and file members are found utilizing social media to organize everyday in support of causes that their unions haven’t supported.  Opt-out campaigns are the perfect example of this.  Classroom teachers were organizing around that long before NYSUT did.  It’s why every day classroom teachers like Beth Dimino, Jia Lee, Kevin Glynn, and dozens of others are viewed as the real teacher leaders while the likes of Andy Pallotta, Mike Mulgrew, and Randi Weingarten are looked upon with disdain.

In 2014, when NYSUT refused to oppose Governor Cuomo, the PJSTA harnessed the power of social media to endorse and support his primary challenger Zephyr Teachout.  Teachout was a guest at the PJSTA Conference Day and held a press conference at Comsewogue High School with hundreds of our members at her backs.  We recorded her speech and spread it via YouTube so that teachers across the state could hear her pro-public education stance, giving her a chance to illustrate just how different she was than the incumbent Cuomo.  While falling short, Teachout reached nearly 35% of the primary voters and left us wondering what would have happened if our parent unions had worked for her in the ways that we had.

In other places around the country caucuses favoring a more democratic brand of unionism have either won control of their unions (Chicago, LA) or are mounting serious challenges (Philadelphia).  Of course right here in New York, the MORE Caucus is mounting a growing threat to Unity Caucus at the UFT level and STCaucus is becoming a force to be reckoned with inside of NYSUT.

One thing that I have often claimed and believe deeply is that union leadership of UFT/NYSUT/AFT value power above all else and will stop at nothing to retain that power.  This is even more noticeable with the Friedrichs threat looming.  At a time when unions should be doing more than ever to empower their members and allow the voice of the rank and file to drive their agendas, our leadership’s strategy has been to ask for more VOTE-COPE money all while attacking classroom teachers, issuing and early endorsement for former WalMart board member Hillary Clinton, cavort with our enemies in support of #TeachStrong, and  celebrate “momentous” victories that aren’t actual victories.

There is a member driven movement for a more democratic union that is coming.  How much it transforms our union remains to be seen, but the more rank and file teachers get informed, become engaged, and take back their unions the better off our profession, our students, and our communities will be.

If you haven’t already registered for the “Restoring Power to the Teacher” conference hosted by STCaucus do so right now!  Be sure to bring a friend you work with or one from another district.  this is your opportunity to have your voice heard and move your union in the direction you want it to go!

Receivership, #TeachStrong, and STCaucus

Some interesting news stories involving education and, by extension, teacher unions have broken recently.  After a lot of contemplation a few things regarding our unions have really come to the forefront of my thoughts.  Let’s get to the issues at hand first.

First, we recently learned that NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia was using Governor Cuomo’s new receivership law, enacted by the legislature last spring, to essentially toss aside the collective bargaining agreement between the Buffalo School District and the Buffalo Teachers Federation.  Changes to the working conditions of the teachers in the receivership schools can be drastically altered simply in the name of “improving our schools” even if there is no real evidence that such changes would improve the school.  Ultimately the receivership process can lead to a receiver being appointed by the state.  As described by Jessica Bakeman in Politico New York this past spring, such receiver could…

“replace teachers and administrators’ and ‘abolish the positions of all members of the teaching and administrative and supervisory staff assigned to the failing or persistently failing school and terminate the employment of any building principal assigned to such a school, and require such staff members to reapply for their positions in the school if they so choose.”

Naturally schools that fall into receivership are evaluated by rigged standardized test scores.  This action proves how farcical Cuomo’s Common Core Task Force is as the state is pushing forward with the destruction of public education all while pretending to listen to the concerns of citizens.

Shortly after hearing about the Buffalo receivership debacle, I began reading about #TeachStrong.  As described by Peter Greene on his Curmudgucation blog…

The Program 

Sigh. Well, let’s start with the assumption that teaching is in trouble. Teachers, apparently, need to “modernized and elevated.” And we are also fans of having an excellent teacher in each classroom. And we have nine-step program for getting it done.

(1) Recruit more diverse candidates for (2) more strenuous preparation. (3) Make it harder to get a license, but (4) pay more and (5) provide support in residency programs. (6) Keep tenure, but make it a meaningful signal of professional accomplishment (i.e. harder to get). (7) Give teachers more time and tools (so, what? a twenty-five hour day and an extra hand?) (8) Better PD (please, now you’re just making shit up). (9) Career pathways.

So, mostly the same old stuff. Make life harder for teachers in concrete ways (licensure, tenure) but try to offset it in vague ways (more time, and tools, and PD). And as always– absolutely nothing about giving teachers a strong voice in the direction of their profession.

No, the promise here is that we will ask more of you and do more to you.

And yet there are some odd features here. For instance, much of this is not exactly in tune with the TFA five-weeks, no-real-license plan. But in her WaPo piece, Lyndsey Layton reports that TFA basically has no intention of changing what they do, they just thought this seemed like a cool initiative to join. Really? Why would they sign on to this if they didn’t support the stated goals? Hmmm…

The Purpose 

So what’s really going on here? I have a thought, and I’ll go ahead and type it out now. If I’m wrong, we can all make fun of me later.

Let’s look at the clues.

The initiative is led by CAP, a thinky tank that has also served as a holding pen for Clinton staffers since Bill stepped out of the White House. Carmel Martin, who has so far been the point person on this for CAP,  has served in both Clinton and Obama administrations.

The list has many reformster groups– but not all. Who’s missing? Well, Campbell Brown, the Fordham Foundation, Jeb Bush’s FEE folks. You know– the conservative/GOP wing.

What does the group say it’s up  to? Per Layton:

Martin, of the Center for American Progress, said the campaign will include events in early presidential primary states and important swing states, as well as Twitter town halls, online events and social media outreach. The think tank expects to spend $1 million, she said.

 #TeachStrong says it wants to influence policy discussions through the primary and election season. I hereby predict that one candidate is going to be heavily influenced by this initiative and is going to stand up for this important teacher-supporting thing. I hereby predict that #TeachStrong is an organization created to help guard and support Hillary Clinton’s education flank in the run-up to 2016.

I think we’re looking at the eventual education plank of HRC’s platform.

Unsurprisingly, two of the forty organizations involved with this destruction of our profession are our national unions, the AFT and the NEA.  That’s correct, I am no longer surprised when they stick the knife in the back of their dues paying members by partnering with the reformy groups who have sought to create the narrative of a public education crisis that they can sell you the answer to.  They have a long track record of this.

So we have two major issues here, seemingly not connected, yet still rooted in a common problem, the lack of real union organizing from our parent unions.  Let’s look at the issue in Buffalo first.  A strong collective bargaining agreement,  featuring victories won by generations of members over decades of work, is the document that provides a living for professional educators, along with the working conditions members value that also enhance student learning.  To have the commissioner trample all over that agreement to instill whatever the reformists want is a blow the heart of the union and one that calls for an immediate and forceful response.  That’s certainly the type of thing unions should be good at, right?  However the Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore simply responded that the BTF might sue.  NYSUT President Karen Magee’s response was that they’d look at different options.  Tepid responses at best.

The problem with the situation in Buffalo, regarding the lack of decisive union action, is the same problem that leads to our national unions supporting #TeachStrong in partnership with those who seek to destroy us.  That problem is that the difficult and time consuming work of organizing that needs to have been done over a long period of time in order to effectively carry out such actions that will lead to victory has not been done.  It certainly hasn’t been done by NYSUT and if Rumore’s only idea is to sue, it likely hasn’t been done there either.  It has become common place in recent years for me to see teachers on social media calling for a statewide strike over the ed reform issues that have been foisted upon us.  While I appreciate the sentiment and would go along with such militant action if possible, it really isn’t feasible.  There simply has not been any organizing at the rank and file level to pull of any sort of statewide teacher movements.  It’s not just the Revive NYSUT officers who currently inhabit the statewide officer positions either.  As long as I have been a NYSUT member (14 years), through three presidents, there has been no organizing done by the statewide union.  Certainly not to the level of being able to pull off mass labor actions across the state.  Any organizing that has been done has taken place at the local union level or by parents.  The real organizing I am mentioning is tough work.  It involves lots of real back and forth conversation with members and with community members.  It involves reflective practice in how we operate as unionists, and it calls for a true democratic governance within our unions that allows the members of an informed and engaged rank and file to truly drive the agenda of the union’s leadership.  That work is never done by our parent unions.

While a failure to organize rank and file members should be a huge red flag that your union is failing you, the reason why it is likely happening within NYSUT, the AFT, and the NEA is even more galling.  In my opinion the lack of organizing is by design.  The simple fact of the matter is that an organized, informed, and engaged rank and file is a threat to our leadership. As long as membership is oblivious to the fact that leadership is collaborating with those seeking to harm us, such as the AFT and NEA’s decision to support #TeachStrong, they will never do the work that needs to be done to replace leadership.  Without a revolt from the rank and file our “leaders” can sit safely inside their offices, far removed from the trenches that is the inside of a classroom, and collect their half a million dollar compensation packages and accrue their double pensions.

In many ways the large unions are like virtually any other organizational structure where those in power simply want to keep the power to themselves. An informed electorate is always a threat to them. It’s why the UFT leadership never concerns themselves with the fact that less than 20% of it’s members vote in union elections. It’s why Unity Caucus, at the state level, shut down a constitutional amendment at last spring’s NYSUT RA that would have allowed regional voting so that more than 30% of locals could actually cast their votes in NYSUT elections.

To those in power, whether they be in our parent unions, our government, or elsewhere, democracy is nothing but a buzzword.  It sounds good to talk about, but in actual practice they risk too much power to want it employed among those they hold power over.  The leaders of the AFT, the NEA, and NYSUT simply don’t care about classroom teachers. They want the cozy gigs they have now, the big salaries that come with it, and the continued ability to be able to rub elbows with “important people” like Andrew Cuomo and Hillary Clinton. That’s why we, when we are in desperate need of mass labor action, are stuck being encouraged to make Nae Nae videos instead.

Having said all that, the structure for change does in fact exist.  The blueprint for such change can be seen in Chicago and Seattle where rank and file movements have pushed leadership into drastic labor actions that have given them hard won victories.  The Chicago Teachers Union recently held a mock strike vote in preparation for what may prove to be a lengthy strike this winter.  95% of their membership participated in that vote and 97% of those voting voted that they would authorize a strike.  A similarly high turnout approved the Seattle Educators Association’s strike in September.  You simply don’t get all members on the same page with votes to authorize a strike unless you have undertaken lengthy, in depth organizing campaigns that have both informed membership and then brought their voice to the forefront.  Those are simply astounding numbers.  The key to the organizing within both locals has been the presence of a rank and file lead, social justice unionism caucus.  In Chicago that would be CORE (Caucus of Rank and file Educators) and in Seattle that would be the SEE Caucus (Social Equality Educators).  Both caucuses were in existence for several years, lead by rank and file membership and hyper focused on organizing before they went about the task of organizing a drastic action such as a strike.

While the MORE Caucus brings a similar brand of unionism within the UFT, such an organization has not really ever existed within NYSUT.  The one hope for change lies with the Stronger Together Caucus which, at the very least, provides an existing structure to work within.  STCaucus, which formed last year, certainly is willing to oppose NYSUT leadership in an effort to represent what they believe is the voice of the classroom teacher, as they have shown throughout the past few months.  While that is encouraging in and of itself, the caucus has yet to do much organizing of the general membership.  There likely are a variety of factors behind that.  What remains to be seen is whether or not they intend to do the organizing necessary to facilitate a rank and file driven movement and whether or not they are receptive to the being steered by the voice of the membership.

There are scheduled to be some membership meetings and conferences of the caucus in the next few months.  I highly recommend teachers across New York State reach out to the caucus to see when those will be held and then make sure you are in attendance.  The direction the caucus leadership takes from there should be pretty telling.  Hopefully they are up to the task because the clock is ticking and our profession is approaching the edge of the cliff.

On the NEA Clinton Endorsement

Over at Mike Antonucci’s EIA blog, he has the break down of the NEA voting regarding the early Clinton endorsement.  Pretty interesting to look at.

Via eiaonline.com…

NEA PAC Council Vote by State – Abstentions Critical

WRITTEN BY: MIKE ANTONUCCI – OCT• 04•15

The vote on Thursday by the NEA PAC Council to endorse Hillary Clinton required a simple majority, and was reported to be 82% in favor. But now we have the roll call vote by state and caucus, and things aren’t so simple.

Each state’s votes are weighted by the amount they contribute to the PAC, plus each major NEA caucus gets a single vote, as well as the Executive Committee members and two members of the Board of Directors. There are 4,028 votes in total. You may have to zoom in to see the tally, but there are a few curious results.

First, one executive committee member, Kevin Gilbert of Mississippi, abstained. That’s already unusual, since the Executive Committee generally votes in lockstep on important issues.

The caucuses that voted no were the Retired Caucus, the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus and the GLBT Caucus.

The states voting no were Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The big mystery is why five states abstained, including the two largest, California and New Jersey (the others were Delaware, Louisiana and Nevada). New Jersey was especially vocal about not supporting an early Hillary endorsement.

If all the abstentions had been “no” votes, the simple majority would still have been reached, but the margin would have been reduced to 58.17%.

You saw the uproar that occurred on Friday and Saturday. Imagine the pressure on the board of directors – which required a 58% majority to endorse – if NEA’s Sanders supporters felt they were that close to defeating it.

It was close even if you just look at state affiliates plus the Federal Education Association – 34 in favor, 17 against or abstained. That’s still close enough to prompt internal lobbying and at worst reduce Clinton’s margin of victory to the low 60s, which would have greatly diminished the triumphant tones we heard yesterday.

What’s next? NEA conducted its orchestra with skill and got what it wanted: the authorization to spend dues and PAC money promoting Hillary’s candidacy. Whether that will turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory is entirely up to what the dissidents do next. An NBI ain’t gonna cut it.

A few things to note…

  • All of the NYSUT reps (all of whom are Unity Caucus members) votes in favor of the Clinton endorsement.
  • As Antonucci mentioned, the big issue with this endorsement is not so much the endorsement as it is the dues money and PAC money that comes attached to it.  This endorsement was top down unionism at it’s most basic level, with only the NEA PAC council having a say in the endorsement and the direction that our dues money flows.  Just as with the AFT’s endorsement of Clinton, there is no input from rank and file members and there are likely few actual classroom teachers among those who voted.    Yet it is their money that is being spent.  For me, the issue has less to do with who was endorsed (though I am not going to vote for her) and more to do with the top down endorsement process that shuts out the voice of the rank and file teacher and leaves them feeling as though they are not represented.  This, of course, is not solely an NEA problem.  It’s equally bad within the AFT and NYSUT and it is ultimately the largest reason that the Friedrichs case is such a threat to them.

Reactions to the New NYSED Commissioner

As you have surely heard by now, the Board of Regents unanimously elected MaryEllen Elia as the new state education commissioner.  Elia, who supports the Common Core, high stakes testing, test based teacher evaluation schemes, voucher programs, and charter schools, was a predictably disastrous hiring.  She recently was fired as a superintendent in Florida where she was accused of trying to cover up the district’s complicity in the death of a 7 year old and was also accused of racial discrimination regarding her disciplinary policies.  That’s only the tip of the iceberg too.  Basically, the regents decided that Florida’s trash was New York’s treasure.

The hiring of Elia (or “EVILia” as she was dubbed in Florida) is nothing short of a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands who opted-out of state tests and to public school teachers.  To be clear, a teacher with the track record of Elia would never be hired again.  Yet Elia essentially got a promotion.  This coming from the people who like to preach about accountability.  The regents decided that they’d ignore the parental and teacher outcry against the reform agenda and double down on it instead.

Over at the Perdido Street School blog, Reality-Based Educator ran a great series on Elia.  You can check out his posts…

“Reign Of Chaos” For Ten Years At A Hillsborough Middle School Under MaryEllen Elia’s District

LeadershipAllegations Of Racial Discrimination In Hillsborough Schools Under MaryEllen Elia’s Leadership

Parents Wanted MaryEllen Elia Out After Deaths Of Two Special Needs Students

New NYSED Commissioner: We’ll “Repaint” The Common Core Narrative So People Like It

Reactions from union “leaders” were typically awful…

STCaucus had a decidedly different take.  In a statement released yesterday they said…

Members of the ST Caucus Executive Committee were present at the May 18, 2015 Board of Regents’ meeting and had meaningful discourse with various Regents about APPR and high stakes testing. Ms. Elia’s track record does not align itself with the ST Caucus’ stance on these issues. In light of these discussions, the ST Caucus was surprised with the appointment of Ms. Elia to the position of Commissioner.

Ms. Elia’s track record does not align itself with the ST Caucus’ stance on these issues as well as positions shared with us by the Regents. It is the hope of ST Caucus that Ms. Elia will reverse her past positions on CCSS, HST, charter schools, and teacher evaluations. Further, the ST Caucus calls for the inclusion of each of the stakeholder voices related to decision-making in all aspects of the public education system in the state of New York, as well as demanding the process be a transparent democratic process that is representative of the great state of New York and the people it serves.

 

De Blasio, Weingarten, Magee, Mulgrew: 4 Biggest Reasons for Cuomo Victory

I have a lot of thoughts to share on the role of our unions in yesterday’s Cuomo victory in the Democratic primary.  Within the next day or two, when I have the time to sit down and get those thoughts on paper I will share them.  In the meantime our friend Reality-Based Educator who blogs over at Perdido Street School absolutely hit the nail on the head in his piece today.

Via Perdido Street School…

The only group of people who did more work than de Blasio to help Cuomo and his bank lobbyist running mate win the primary?

The UFT/AFT/NYSUT leaders:

1) who engineered a putsch at NYSUT to make sure the old leaders who had turned on Cuomo were ousted

2) who threatened the Working Families Party with dissolution if WFP gave their ballot slot to Zephyr Teachout

3) who refused to endorse Teachout in the primary and provide much needed cash and support for the Teachout/Wu campaign (as PEF did) and

4) who made robocalls for the campaign.

De Blasio, Weingarten, Magee, Mulgrew – four reasons why Andrew Cuomo will win re-election this year handily in the general election and his bank lobbyist running mate will ride along with him into power.

Head on over and read the entire thing.  There are some good quotes from Tim Wu as well on the role that De Blasio played.

Cuomo Wins Primary But Has Lost the Faith of NY Dems

If you are into moral victories there were many to be had last night.  Zephyr Teachout, while not winning the primary, garnered nearly 35% of the vote, an astounding total for a virtually unknown candidate facing off against an incumbent governor with loads of Wall Street cash.  Cuomo had a $35 million war chest, including money from NYSUT, nearly forty times the amount of money Teachout raised.  Interestingly enough, Teachout had over 8,000 donors to her campaign while Cuomo had less than 1,000.  Teachout won 30 of New York State’s 62 counties, which is fairly stunning.  Given their discrepency in fund raising it appears as though Cuomo’s votes cost about $65 per vote while Teachout’s cost $1.50.

Teachout did not endorse Cuomo in her concession speech.  She reportedly could not call him to conceded either as he wouldn’t give her his phone number.  He is a classy guy that Andy Cuomo.

Teachout’s comments to her reporters last night pretty much say it all.  Via the Washington Times…

“What we have done here is incredible.,” Teachout told her supporters in a Manhattan bar. “I will not be your next governor but the Democrats of this state have been heard.”

 “Anything over 25 percent against an incumbent with 40 times as much money, one of the most famous names in politics, and a four year’s head start on me, I am really, really proud of what we did.”

I can appreciate the moral victories.  I can appreciate the fact that Cuomo’s small margin of victory against a largely unknown challenger virtually eliminates any opportunity for him on the national stage.  However I still find myself disappointed and angry.  The reality is that we have four more years of a governor who waged all out war on teachers, students, and local communities in his first term.  The reality is that big money Wall Street donations bought another election.  Perhaps what cuts deepest for me is the reality that with an opportunity to make this a really interesting election, the leadership of our parent unions not only failed to support Teachout, but worked to win the election for the governor’s ticket.  But with friends like that who needs enemies?  I’ll have more on that later.

Reality-Based Educator with a good write up of the primary here.

 

Friday Notes

The NEA, to whom we pay dues,  continues to sell out it’s members.

The AFT, to whom we pay dues, continues to shill for the Common Core.  Here is Randi Weingarten in tandem with John King.

President Obama, whom the NEA and AFT endorsed twice, is bringing in a new education aid to join his team.  He’s just what we need too… the leader of a philanthropic group who raises money for charter schools!

While we are on the topic, B-LoEdScene speaks of Upside Downland.

Andy Cuomo thinks John King should not step down.  After all “change is hard.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten Arrested for Fighting School Closures

According to her Twitter feed, AFT President Randi Weingarten has been arrested for fighting school closures.  More on this breaking news as it comes in…