Tag: Flanagan

John Flanagan Signs Letter in Support of DeVos

A note from PJSTA President Beth Dimino…

NYSUT Members…

Here’s a reminder that I believe is pertinent at this time. Last August there was a NYSUT President’s endorsement conference to decide who NYSUT would endorse in the November elections. Well, even though I knew it was a farce, I went to that meeting to represent my members. The Long Island Presidents were tasked with deciding whether or not Flanagan and Marcellino should get a NYSUT endorsement. Not only did we as a group demand that these men not get the endorsement, we had other candidates that NYSUT could have endorsed. Our recommendations went to the NYSUT Board of Directors. Andy Pallotta brought John Flanagan to that Board of Directors meeting to try and convince the Board of Directors to overturn what the LI Presidents decided. 

NYSUT leadership has their own agenda completely devoid of the needs or wants of rank and file.

As the Executive Vice President of NYSUT, Pallotta, has gotten us Tier 5/6, 50% of our APPR determined by student’s scores on the NYS Assessments, and Flanagan and Marcellino. Pallotta has unfettered access to ALL Vote Cope Funds. 

NYSUT should be spending Cope dollars on a meaningful campaign educating membership on why and how they can effectively fight against Devos and Flanagan. But, they’re not. 

Donating any money at all to Vote Cope is counter productive and is in direct opposition to your own best interests. 

I am asking you all to consider doing the following tomorrow:

Call your business office and reduce your Cope contribution to $0 until NYSUT Leadership changes… tell everyone you know to do the same!

flanagan king
John Flanagan laughing it up with John King
In a clear sign of where he stands on issues of public education, New York State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, who represents portions of the Comsewogue School District, has signed a letter to Lamar Alexander in support of Betsy DeVos.  The letter, signed by “state-level elected leaders” from all 50 states, applauds Donal Trump for the nomination of DeVos and calls her “an advocate and ally for all children”.  Flanagan, who once complained to Comsewogue that beth Dimino should speak to him in a more deferential tone, was the only New York State legislator to sign the letter.   You can click here to read the entire letter.

Unity’s Attack on Dimino & Reducing VOTE-COPE

A few days ago, New York State’s Unity Caucus, the controlling caucus of NYSUT and the statewide extension of the UFT’s Unity Caucus, published a piece on their blog attacking PJSTA President Beth Dimino.  In the post Dimino is accused of  working for her own political gain while attempting to “squelch the voice of educators, SRPs, those working in higher education and health care professionals.”  The post goes on to label her “anti-union” and accuses her of siding with the Koch brothers and “other right winged-politicians” with the goal of killing the union.

The comically misguided post is clearly an attempt to discredit a respected labor leader with a well earned track record of being outspoken in her defense of public education and unionized teachers.  From trying to paint her as being on the side of the Koch brothers to the use of the word histrionics, whose use is rooted in misogyny, the Unity henchman was clearly trying to paint Dimino as a voice who should be ignored.  The reason surely being that Ms. Dimino’s ability to speak truthfully about the leadership of our parent unions, NYSUT, the AFT, and the NEA, has caused an increasingly large number of members to reduce their contributions to NYSUT’s political action fund, VOTE-COPE.

Ms. Dimino’s track record as an advocate is fairly well known.  She has been a vocal and visible proponent of the opt-out movement.  She is a conscientious objector, refusing to administer New York State tests.  This video of her lambasting former NYSED Commissioner John King has made her fairly well known in public education circles.  She has spoken all over the state as an advocate for teachers, students, parents, and communities.  I am sure Long Island Opt-Out founder Jeanette Deutermann or our friends at NYSAPE would vouch for Ms. Dimino as somebody who works tirelessly for teachers, students, and public education in general.  If you don’t believe me you are welcome to ask them.  None of these things tend to be characteristic of the circles that the Koch brothers travel in.  None of them are synonymous with anti-union activity.

Let’s now contrast Ms. Dimino’s record with that of the Unity Caucus.  Unity Caucus, for nearly the entire existence of NYSUT, has benefited from being the only party in a one party-system.  The caucus has always chosen the presidents and each of the other officers.  When they decided you were out, then you were out, as they have always been able to use the 800 UFT-Unity delegates as a voting block to elect who ever they have wanted to or to enact any changes within NYSUT that they have decided to.  You may be wondering why 800 people always have to vote the same way?  Well that would be because the 800 Unity-UFT delegates have signed an oath pledging to vote as they are told to.  Currently, every NYSUT officer and every member of the UFT’s executive board are members of the Unity Caucus.  Let’s take a look at some of their greatest hits from just the past few years…

  • Most recently, Unity Caucus has been using their twitter account to advocate for #TeachStrong, the newly formed group of ed deformers that our national unions have inexplicably partnered with, including Teach for America and Educators4Excellence.  These are the same groups that have helped to finance legislative changes that have done tremendous harm to teachers over the past several years.  Unity Caucus members will make the argument that “the tide has turned” and that these groups now want to work with us.  They should try telling that to the teachers in Buffalo in receivership schools who just had their contracts thrown in the trash in the name of “reform.”  If you are wondering what that sharp feeling is in your back, it’s the knife that the Unity slugs are pushing into it.  Here is Marla Kilfoyle of the BadAss Teachers take on #TeachStrong.  Here is Peter Greene’s take on the Curmudgucation blog.  Here was the renowned Michelle Gunderson, a leader in the Chicago Teachers Union, with her reaction…
  • John Flanagan, the senate majority leader in the New York State Senate, and the former education chairperson in the senate has been another friend of Unity Caucus.  Yes, the same John Flanagan who has declared opt-out parents a problem, claimed that charter school parents are the best parents there are, and whose highest campaign contributor is an ed deform group.  While NYSUT did not vote to endorse Flanagan when he last ran in 2014, that didn’t stop Unity Caucus’ Andy Pallotta from giving Flanagan money anyway.  Flanagan, who has received over $40,000 in VOTE COPE dollars over the years, received $7,750 in 2014.
  • Just this past spring Unity Caucus used their might to defeat a measure at the NYSUT RA that would have allowed all NYSUT locals to participate in NYSUT elections, as opposed to the 30% who did in the last one.  Unity Caucus doesn’t want any of that pesky stuff called democracy interfering in their ability to guide the union in the direction they want to guide it in.
  • In 2014, at the AFT Convention, the Unity Caucus’ Michael Mulgrew gave his passionate defense of the Common Core when he stated “I’m gonna punch you in the face and push you in the dirt,” if you took away the Common Core.  At the same convention fellow Unity Caucus members Karen Magee and Leroy Barr also stood up at the microphone in defense of the Common Core.  You can watch it here…

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  • Later in 2014 the Unity Caucus’ Michael Mulgrew marched in the New York City Labor Day Parade with Andrew Cuomo amongst “Labor for Cuomo” signs.

I could go on, but I am not really sure that’s necessary.  There is a clear divide between the top down, business unionism model that is represented by Unity Caucus and the grassroots, member driven unionism espoused by Ms. Dimino and the Stronger Together Caucus of which she is the chairperson.  Still the blog post on the Unity website was written because of the fact that Ms. Dimino has openly advocated for the idea of NYSUT members reducing their VOTE-COPE contributions.  The blog post implies that every PJSTA member did that simply because they were told to.  I am here to tell you that is not the case.

I have been a PJSTA member in good standing for 14 years.  I tend to think of myself as being fairly independent minded.  I don’t do things because my president tells me to.  I generally do things because I believe them to be the right things to do.  Members of our executive board can vouch for the fact that there are many times I disagree with Ms. Dimino and I am not shy about it.  Like Ms. Dimino, I am not a right winger and anyone who knows me would assure you that I am not anti-union.  Throughout the first 12 years of my career I gave faithfully to VOTE-COPE.  As much as $10 a paycheck for a few years.  Last fall, fresh off NYSUT’s decision not to endorse Zephyr Teachout, a clear advocate for public education, in the Democratic Primary I decided to reduce my VOTE-COPE contribution to $0.  I did so because I no longer had any trust that a Unity Caucus controlled union would represent me or the interests of my fellow classroom teachers very well.  In addition to giving money to candidates who hurt us and falling on the wrong side of so many of the important issues facing public school teachers, I got sick of seeing NYSUT’s legislative action wing be so woefully ineffective.  Whether it be the creation of Tier 6, the creation of test based teacher evaluations, the inability to get allies of public education elected, or the inability to prevent such a disastrous and harmful state budget from passing last year, I simply have no confidence in a legislative wing controlled by Unity Caucus’ Andy Pallotta.  Instead I donated my money to Zephyr Teachout, purchased NYSAPE Opt-Out signs, and used some money in ways that directly benefited students.  I was in control of the money and was, therefore, confident it was going to causes that I believed in.

So if you are on the side of Randi Weingarten (who came up through the Unity ranks), Mike Mulgrew, Andy Pallotta, #TeachStrong, Common Core, and test based teacher evaluations, then support Unity Caucus (you can’t join, it is invite only) and keep funneling your hard earned money into VOTE-COPE.  But if you are like me and you are tired of your profession being trampled while your union “leaders” compromise and collaborate with coroporate  privatizers who seek to destroy public education, then go ahead and reduce your VOTE-COPE and join STCaucus (open to any NYSUT members).  It literally is about the only say you have in your parent unions.

Senator Flanagan in Hot Water

Lots of news involving Republican New York State Senator John Flanagan, who represents the residents of the Comsewogue School District.  First, Flanagan stated that if too many people opt-out we will lose federal funding…

 

That is an outright lie.  You can read here and here about how we will NOT lose funding do to opt-outs.  Senator Flanagan, who is the chairman of the senate’s K-12 ed committee is either misinformed or lying.  I’m not sure which is worse.

The Senator Flanagan news isn’t finished though.  Today’s Daily News features an article claiming that Flanagan voted on bills that benefitted clients of the law firm that he makes in excess of $100,000 working at.

Via the NY Daily News…

ALBANY — A veteran Long Island state senator voted on a host of bills that benefited clients of a law firm for which he works, the Daily News has learned.

In addition to being a longtime state lawmaker who chairs the Senate Education Committee, John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) is “of counsel” at Forchelli, Curto, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo & Terrana in Uniondale, where he reported making between $100,000 and $150,000 in 2013.

A number of the clients listed on the law firm’s website have business before the state, including Cablevision, Chase Bank, and Citibank.

The firm also lists as clients different colleges, governments and other groups with matters before the state.

The crossroad between the outside income of lawmakers and their public duties has been a hot-button issue in recent months in scandal-scarred Albany. Gov. Cuomo and other critics complain that many lawmakers who are also lawyers are making big money at firms without having to disclose exactly what they do to earn it.

Government reform advocates say there is at the very least an appearance of a conflict of interest that should have led Flanagan to either recuse himself from votes impacting clients of his law firm or publicly disclose the ties.

“There should be a desire to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and undue influence,” said Susan Lerner, of Common Cause/New York.

In a number of cases, Flanagan voted in favor of bills on which public records show clients of his law firm had lobbied.

Cablevision, for instance, reported as having lobbied on at least six bills since 2011 that Flanagan voted for, records show. One sought to exempt electronic news sources and periodicals from sales and compensating taxes, while others had to to do with ticket scalping.

Another half-dozen bills that Flanagan supported were sought by Chase Bank.

In a statement released by his Senate office, Flanagan said he did not represent any company with business before the state.

“These are clients of the firm and I have no involvement with them,” the senator said.

But one critic argued that when lawmakers don’t disclose their specific clients, “it actually means they are responsible for all the clients in the firm.”

A law firm spokeswoman had no comment.

Flanagan’s biography on the law firm’s website highlights no legal accomplishments, focusing almost exclusively on his legislative background. It lists his legal practice areas as municipal and real estate.

Blair Horner, of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said Flanagan should have vetted any potential conflicts with the Legislative Ethics Commission and received an opinion on how to deal with them.

A Flanagan spokesman would not say whether that was done.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has been aggressively investigating the issue of lawmakers’ outside income and the nexus between their public offices and private employment. And Cuomo is pushing legislation to require full disclosure of outside income and clients.

Bharara recently charged now former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver with using his public office to help pad his pockets through two law firms.

Senate GOP Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County) is reportedly also under investigation by Bharara over his outside income.

Skelos made as much as $250,000 in 2013 serving as “of counsel” at Ruskin Moscou Faltischek.

That law firm not only has clients with business before the state, but also has a government lobbying component.

Skelos has said he does not personally represent anyone with business before the state and has no connection to the firm’s lobbying arm.

Horner argued the inherent potential conflicts of working for firms whose clients have business before the state is why lawmaker income should be capped, an issue Cuomo has raised.

“It’s the problem of serving two masters,” Horner said.

NYSUT, School Funding, and the Coming APPR Sellout

Yesterday NYSUT held a Moral Monday rally on the Million Dollar Staircase in the state Capitol.  Kudos to them for protesting funding inequities that rob our students of the education they deserve.

One thing I noticed in the coverage of yesterday’s events was that, deservedly so, there was lots of tough talk aimed at Governor Cuomo.  From Andy Pallotta to Mike Mulgrew to Randi Weingarten, Cuomo was being called to task for his record as an ed deformer.  What was unfortunate, however, is that none of this tough talk came last year when it mattered most.  When there was a viable alternative to Cuomo in the race for governor the three aforementioned “unionists” weren’t talking tough about Cuomo.  Instead Mulgrew was threatening the Working Families Party with dissolution if they didn’t endorse Cuomo and marching with the governor in the Labor Day Parade.  NYSUT was hiding under a rock and throwing their money at reformy John Flanagan and Randi Weingarten was making robo calls on behalf of Cuomo’s running mate.  So pardon me if their tough talk now rings a bit hollow to me.

Our friend Reality Based Educator had a good observation yesterday as well.  Lost in all of this talk about funding inequities has been the fact that there has been little if any talk about the Cuomo and Tisch APPR agenda.  As RBE points out on his Perdido Street School blog, it’s likely due to the fact that a big APPR sellout is on the way.

The union leadership puts together a rally with a message focused on the inequities between rich and poor districts.

Speaker Silver says education funding will be a “top priority” in this legislative session.

But there’s little-to-no pushback on the damages of test-based evaluations or redoing the evaluation system to make tests 40% of the entire rating (and really 100%, since if you come up “ineffective” on 40%, you’re ineffective overall.)

You can see how this will play out in negotiations, can’t you?

If you’ve been a teacher and have watched these kinds of fights for a while, I bet you can.

The unions and Assembly Dems will trade Cuomo’s evaluation, tenure, and 3020a “reforms” for more “education funding.”

And of course Cuomo will get his increase of the cap and funding for charter schools – that goes without saying.

…

It’s a lot of noise meant to fool the rank and file into thinking the union leaders plan on trying to protect them in upcoming negotiations.

Make no mistake – they don’t.

They plan on selling you out, giving Cuomo and the charter school entrepreneurs most (if not all) of what they want on the charter cap and charter funding, giving Cuomo and Tisch most (if not all) of what they want on the evaluation system “reforms” and 3020a changes in return for a few extra dollars in “education funding.”

We’ll hit on the coming sellout more in the coming weeks.  For now one other thing to note…

Why is NYSUT giving VOTE-COPE money to John Flanagan?  The Republican senator, who chairs the senate’s K-12 education committee, is a noted ed deformer and member of ALEC.  He is on the take from reform group StudentsFirst and has been in the news for backing changes to the APPR that would take local control away from school districts.  Flanagan has supported the idea of eroding tenure rights.  He was also the senator who complained to Comsewogue’s administration that Beth Dimino needed to speak to him in a more deferential tone.  He was not endorsed by NYSUT as there was literally no reason to endorse him.  So one certainly wonders why NYSUT contributed $7,750 to him in this past election.  That made them one of Flanagan’s top donors.  Not issuing an endorsement is sort of pointless if you are going to then fill the coffers of that candidate anyway.

Pallotta and Flanagan

Looming Battles for 2015

Happy New Year to our PJSTA members along with any other readers of our blog.  Hopefully you had an enjoyable vacation and return to school well rested.  You’ll need it.  We have a number of developing  battles on our hands.

For those of you who may have missed it, New York State’s Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch sent a New Years Eve letter to Governor Cuomo’s aide Jim Malatras detailing what she sees as the necessary changes to the New York State APPR.  Carol Burris did a great job breaking it all down on Valerie Strauss’ blog.

Via The Washington Post (emphasis mine)…

New York Chancellor Merryl Tisch has announced her New Years resolution—revise the teacher evaluation system so that Common Core 3-8 test scores can trump all.

Yup.  Tisch’s response to the tremendous push back against the Common Core tests has been to add further weight to the test scores.

The short version of what she wants to do now is this—double down on test scores and strip away the power of local school boards to negotiate the majority of the evaluation plan. Tisch would get rid of the locally selected measures of achievement, which now comprise 20 percent of the evaluation, and double the state test score portion, to 40 percent. She also recommends that the score ranges for the observation process be taken out of the hands of local districts, and be determined by Albany instead. Dr. Lederman, start packing up. Merryl Tisch and Andrew Cuomo, whom you have never met, know your talents better than your local school board, your principal and the parents of the children you teach.

…

Although Tisch claims that this is about teacher improvement and mentoring, the letter discloses her true intent. She opines that if a teacher is ineffective in the growth score portion, as Sheri was, she should be rated ineffective overall.  In addition,if a teacher has two ineffective ratings they “should not return to the classroom.” Whether those ratings, which are based on a highly discredited model, are accurate or not is moot. They produce a bell curve.

You read that correctly.  Regardless of what 60% of your evaluation says, if the growth score says you are ineffective, your entire rating will be ineffective.  If you receive two ineffective ratings you will no longer be allowed to teach.

Meanwhile, the evidence has continued to accumulate that evaluating teachers by test scores simply does not work.

In April of 2014, the American Statistical Association, joined other research organizations, such as the American Education Research Association and the National Academy of Education, in cautioning against the use of student test scores, commonly referred to as VAM, in teacher evaluations. The ASA clearly outlined how unreliable this methodology is and noted that teachers’ impact on test scores is minimal–between 1 percent and 14 percent. Understand also that these VAM and “growth” ratings are all relative—pitting each teacher against all others. Even if every child scored in the mastery range on the test, there would still be a percentage of teachers rated Ineffective. It is a sorting mechanism based on an algorithm, which most researchers agree is flawed.

…

The Tisch plan is a power grab designed to snatch away the right of elected Boards of Education to determine what is quality teaching, by shifting it to a formula produced in Albany based on flawed tests. Ironically, these are the same tests which the Governor and legislature say, in law, should have no consequential effects on students. But there is no problem using those tests to boot Sheri Lederman and teachers like her out the door.

Be sure to read the entire article.  Burris is always a voice of reason and logic in a debate that all too often is filled with nonsensical attacks on us.

We know that Tisch’s APPR agenda is also Cuomo’s.  We know that Cuomo has the support of the Republican controlled, Wall Street funded senate.  That includes our local state senator John Flanagan, the chairman on K-12 education who is on the take from noted ed deformers Students First, his top campaign contributor.

Via Capital NY…

Senate education chair John Flanagan said lawmakers should consider limiting school districts’ control over their evaluation plans. “Maybe we should be having a discussion about a statewide protocol,” he said on “The Capitol Pressroom,” a public radio program. “Instead of having 700 disparate agreements, let’s have a menu where you have 10 or 12 options for school districts to get involved in, because all of these things have to be negotiated, and one of the things that the unions jealously guard, which I understand and respect, is the concept of local control. They want to be able to negotiate everything. And yet, I don’t really see anyone out there who is … jumping up and down and saying everything is working really well.”

Voters in the Comsewogue community should take note that their state senator, John Flanagan, supports stripping our district of local control over teacher evaluations and farming it out to Albany.

Our friend Reality Based Educator covered Flanagan on his Perdido Street School Blog on Christmas Eve.

Finally that brings us to this from Governor Cuomo…

 

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post followed up with this op-ed.  I am not sure that Cuomo has the juice to launch a pension attack, but it sure seems as though a warning shot’s been fired.

To say we didn’t see any of this coming would be wrong.  Much of this was entirely predictable, particularly the APPR stuff.  Unfortunately NYSUT leadership has not shown the willingness to fight any of this.  Nor will they in the coming weeks and months.  To be clear, the fight for public education will have to come from students, parents, and rank-and-file teachers.  We’ll have more on the role of NYSUT coming up.  In the meantime lace up your boots.  There’s a lot of work to be done in 2015.

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.

King and Tisch Finally Roll Into NYC

After nearly two months of stops across New York State, the King & Tisch “We’re Not Listening Tour” finally rolled into New York City last night.  This time the dynamic duo split up, with Tisch visiting the Bronx and her puppet John King stopping by Brooklyn.

Mark Naison of the Badass Teachers Association has the story of Queen Merryl’s trip to the Bronx.

John King’s Brooklyn visit was quite a bit different from most of his other stops.  It was a meeting that was well attended by John Flanagan’s pals from Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirstNY.  Additionally it had numerous charter school operators in attendance.  These people, of course, benefit from the harmful reforms being pushed through by SED and the regents.  So naturally it became a glowing report on how swimmingly things are going.  Interestingly enough these people truly are representatives of special interests groups.  Yet John King wasn’t complaining about the meeting being co-opted by special interests tonight, as he did when parents lambasted him at the PTA Town Hall Meeting in October.  MORE‘s Katie Lapham writes of her experience there last night.  Capital New York with the story here.

Hold Your Applause

Flanagan and King
Flanagan and King

We are entering an important period of time in the push back against the education reforms in New York State.  Fearing for their jobs next November, we are beginning to see some movement from state legislators on the school reform agenda.  This is to be expected, as they have been hearing more about this agenda than anything else.  Recently Senator Flanagan indicated that when the legislature convenes in January we should see quick action on the student privacy issue.  Make no doubt, this is excellent news and it shows that finally legislators are starting to listen.

This, however, is not nearly enough.  It became fairly predictable a couple of weeks back that there would be some movement in this direction.  Legislators are fearing for their jobs and Commissioner King has had enough vitriol directed towards him that the state is now willing to throw us a bone.  But as we have stated time and again, nothing but a full withdrawal from Race to the Top in New York State is acceptable.  That is the message our legislators should continue to hear until they have delivered it.

There is a danger that with the passage of legislation restricting the data sent to inBloom people will be appeased.  That is what John King and Merryl Tisch are hoping.  That is what Andrew Cuomo is hoping for.  That is what John Flanagan, Ken LaValle, and the rest of the legislature is hoping.  That they can offer up the privacy issue in the hopes that the public will thank them, jump into their holiday season, and forget all about the rest of the abusive reform agenda.

There have been signs that some people are ready to head down this road.  Here is No Kids Data NY:

And NYSUT’s Kyle Belokopitsky…

Again, let me be clear, limiting student data that is passed on is a win for our movement.  It is something to be thankful for and a feather in our cap.  But I am not ready to throw too many plaudits in Senator Flanagan’s direction yet.  Keep in mind, Senator Flanagan is a major reason we are in this mess to begin with.  Along with Andy Cuomo, puppet John King, and puppet master Merryl Tisch, he has been at the forefront of pushing the abusive reform agenda in New York State.  Senator Flanagan has a long way to go before I am sending him a thank you card.  A lot needs to be accomplished before I can be assured that the money that his chief campaign contributor, Michelle Rhee, gave him is not being spent to continue to harm students and teachers in New York for the benefit of private corporations.

The Smithtown News recently published a great editorial, titled “Change course on King/Flanagan agenda”, about Flanagan’s role in harming public education in New York State.  It’s behind a pay wall so I’ll only give you the highlights.  All bolded emphasis is mine.

On the organized opposition against the reform agenda…

Call it the King/Flanagan agenda, and it stinks.

The opposition has become so angry that wherever Senator Flanagan, SED Commissioner Dr. John King and Regent Chancellor Dr. Merryl Tisch go from one end of the state to the other, people start screaming at them.

On what may be part of Flanagan’s motivation (though the Rhee bucks help too)…

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.

After commenting on the $1 billion in state aid that Long Island districts have lost while Flanagan has either been the ranking Republican or Chairman of the Senate Education Committee…

Never has Long Island faired so poorly in terms of state aid as it has under the educational leadership of John Flanagan, and now his failed policies are threatening to destroy the quality educational system that we have enjoyed here on Long Island for generations.

On Flanagan’s hearings around the state that are dedicated to the reform agenda…

The hearings should have been held before implementing these new policies, not after.  The intent now is only to act as political cover for Mr. Flanagan, who will try to emerge as if he resolved this difficult problem.

Remember though, he is the root cause of the terrible situation facing public school education right now.  He needs to be replaced whether the problem is ultimately solved or not.

It really was a great article that reminds us that John Flanagan is one of the primary reasons we are in this mess.  So I will hold my thank you until the entire agenda is repealed.

They are Listening, Keep the Pressure On

Still a bad man.

For years it seemed as though our frustrations and concerns were falling upon deaf ears in Albany.  State Ed would impose new and harmful reforms and our protests would disappear into a black hole somewhere.  But they aren’t anymore.  As Beth Dimino likes to say, “They have awoken the mommies” now and our voice has become a collective roar.  All around us are signs that our elected officials are beginning to pay attention.

These are no small accomplishments for those of us who support public education.  We should feel good about the seeds of change that we have sown.  But we must be careful.  We can’t falsely believe that these accomplishments are enough.  They are not.  They are movement in the right direction, sure.  But they are a far cry from where things should be.  Now is not the time to rest on our laurels, but rather to ratchet up the pressure we put on our elected officials and the intensity of our message.  I will repeat what I said earlier this week, nothing short of a full withdrawal from Race to the Top, the Common Core, and test based evaluations is acceptable.

If John Flanagan thinks that he can make a few small changes to appease parents after a sustained period of pushing an abusive reform agenda through the senate, he needs to think again.  It’s not nearly enough.  Not if he wants to be re-elected next year.  Go back and try again Senator Flanagan.  This is your baby and anything other than a complete 180 means you will continued to be attached to this boondoggle.

If Governor Cuomo, who famously declared himself the “lobbyist for students” before pushing his reform agenda onto New York’s public schools thinks that now he can distance himself from this issue he is dead wrong.  This is Cuomo’s baby.  The entire reform agenda was to be the trophy he would tote around the country as he prepared to run for president in 2016.  Now, sensing the push back, he wants to run from it and leave it all in the lap of his puppet, John King.  Cuomo badly wants to win re-election with huge numbers next November so that he can take his “man of the people” act across the country.  Sorry Andy, it’s not going to work.  The education reform agenda in New York State is your agenda.  You are the one who wanted to give schools the death penalty.  You are the one who wanted to sell off New York State’s students to the highest bidder to fund your dreams of the White House.  You are the one who pushed for test based teacher evaluations and giving the death penalty to schools so that you could open more charters and give more control to politicians.  You can’t run from this.

Teachers, parents, and students, keep the pressure on.  Ratchet it up.  Keep the phone calls, emails, and faxes to your elected officials coming.  Continue to take to the streets.  Shout your message loud and clear at every chance you get.  Tell your family, your friends, your neighbors to do the same.  Work towards a full scale refusal of the Common Core tests this spring.  These are our schools.  They belong to us, not the money hungry child abusers in office.  We will take care of them in November.  Don’t let up until every last thread of these reforms have been expunged from our schools.

Keep it up!

More Coverage of Tuesday Night

Speaking of our very own Beth Dimino, Diane Ravitch wonders, “Is this how a revolution begins?”

Norm Scott of the famed Ed Notes says “The Slugs are on the Run”.  Speaking of PJSTA President Beth Dimino, and taking a well deserved shot at our parent unions, he says, “You mean there ARE union leaders who stand up instead of seeking a little stool at the table?”

Describing Dimino’s words for Tisch, King, and Flanagan, Sean Crowley of B-LoEdScene says “Beth Dimino unloads on them with all the subtlety of Ray Lewis going unblocked on a zone blitz.”  He then says that “Port Jeff (we gather he means Port Jeff Station!) has a kick ass blog”.  Thank you very much Mr. Crowley, your blog is a kick ass blog as well…. and one every PJSTA member should be reading daily.