The truth is, these tests were designed to create a narrative of failure, and the trends are not so different from those we saw on the old tests: we are failing our children with special needs, our English language learners, our children who live in poverty, and a disproportionate number of black and Latino pupils.
It is no surprise that the results mirror the struggles and deep flaws in our society. Of course, the goal was never to actually fix our schools — there are no profits in doing that. There are no profits in providing small class sizes, experienced educators and services like counseling, tutoring and family support — proven reforms that would benefit all students.
Instead, the focus is on unproven standards and the tests that supposedly measure our student’s competency — written by the very people who profit from their use.
Julie Cavanagh says the Common Core was designed to create a narrative of failure.
So it is extremely telling that there is a problem with the UFT and NYSUT elections when you consider the fact that a teacher and activist of Cavanagh’s caliber has, not once but twice lost elections to Michael Mulgrew. She lost an election to him for UFT President in 2013 and then lost to him this past April when she ran against him for an at-large position on NYSUT’s board of directors. You saw Cavanagh’s well stated opinion on the Common Core above. Contrast that with Mulgrew who talks about punching people in the face and then pushing their face in the dirt if they take away his Common Core. Keep in mind the UFT President is likely the most powerful teachers union position in the country. Wouldn’t we be so much better off with someone like Cavanagh representing us in that position?
Two different takes on the Common Core, two different takes on unionism. It’s a shame our leadership is on the wrong side in both cases.
Mike Mulgrew will punch you in the face and rub it in the dirt if you take away his Common Core.
We have written at length on this blog about the failure by our parent unions to adequeately represent the rank and file membership. We will be addressing this issue in depth at our conference day this year and over the coming months, along with providing a potential solution. Nowhere, however, was the disconnect between our leadership and our members more glaring than at this summer’s AFT Convention.
You will recall that in May the PJSTA Representative Council unanimously passed a resolution to oppose the Common Core State Standards. Well many teachers headed to this year’s convention with the same idea in mind. However the resolution brought to the floor of the convention was a resolution that essentially asked the AFT to continue their support of the Common Core. Below is video taken by MORE’s incomparable Norm Scott. The video shows supporters of the Common Core and opponents of it. Watch for yourself…
First of all seeing members of the New York delegation fight in favor of the Common Core is absolutely nauseating. It is exhibit A of how out of touch our leadership is with the membership. Secondly, the performance by UFT President Michael Mulgrew was reprehensible. To have a representative of teachers stand up and say they are going to “punch you in the face and push you in the dirt” if you try to take away the Common Core is beyond unthinkable. It flies in the face of everything we try to represent as educators. Finally, only mere months ago, then candidate Karen Magee ran for NYSUT President as being “Against Common Core” yet there she was on this video shamelessly supporting the resolution in support of the CCSS. If you read this blog regularly you know that I am not surprised by Magee openly lying to membership. Still, it’s important for our membership to see her flip flop on the issue.
The above video showed one very interesting thing. The three people who spoke in favor of the CCSS (Mulgrew, Leroy Barr, Magee) are all union “leaders” but spend no actual time in the classroom. The people who spoke against the CCSS (Timothy Meegan, Pia Payne-Shannon) are both people who spend their time in the classroom teaching. It’s a connection that can not be ignored. If we are going to take back the direction of our parent unions, it must come from the in the classroom, rank and file teachers.
You can read about Mulgrew’s tough guy act here (NYC Educator), here (Ed Notes), here (Perdido Street School), along with here, here, and here (all Fred Klonsky).
And finally a reminder of Magee’s campaign promises…
Countless outlets are reporting this morning that the Working Families Party is set to endorse Governor Cuomo in November’s election. If you are new to the political scene and are wondering, “Who is the Working Families Party?” we take this from their website…
Formed by a grassroots coalition of community organizations, neighborhood activists, and labor unions, we came together build a society that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected.
We fight to hold politicians accountable on the issues working- and middle-class families care about, like good jobs, fair taxes, good schools, reliable public transportation, affordable housing, and universal healthcare.
If ever there was a candidate who did NOT represent those values it would be Governor Cuomo.
What makes this news particularly egregious is that the endorsement was apparently brokered in large part by the work of the UFT leadership. We have covered the UFT leadership extensively on this site as they essentially control NYSUT as well (particularly after this spring’s coup). We also know that their NYSUT delegates always vote as their leadership tells them to vote at NYSUT conventions thanks to their Unity Caucus oath. If you find it disturbing that the controlling voice of NYSUT just brokered a deal to sell out the rank and file membership and endorse Andrew Cuomo for governor, well you would not be alone.
The New York Mills Teachers Association recently passed a resolution asking NYSUT’s Dick Iannuzzi to lead a statewide boycott of the grade 3-8 state assessments. Here is the full resolution…
RESOLUTION TO BOYCOTT NEW YORK STATE GRADES 3-8 ASSESSMENTS
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments have proven to be sub-standard, unreliable measurements of student achievement and learning; and
WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments require unreasonable amounts of testing time (700 minutes each spring), not reflective of best practice pedagogy; and
WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments interrupt valuable instruction/learning time which can never be replaced or retrieved; and
WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessment contents are not reviewable to use as a guides or supplements to instruction; and
WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments require the excessive expenditure of tax dollars without providing commensurate educational value, quality test construction, content or design;
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the New York Mills Teachers Association calls upon the President of the New York State United Teachers, Richard Iannuzzi, to lead the NYSUT membership in a statewide boycott of the Spring 2014 New York State Grades 3-8 assessments.
We’ll keep an eye out to see if there is a clear response from Iannuzzi. Additionally we should be looking in a direction other than just Dick Iannuzzi. Given the way NYSUT elections are run, there stands a very good chance that NYSUT delegates will have elected a new president by the time the state assessments in math are administered. Given that fact I would think it’s important to know how NYSUT Presidential candidate Karen Magee feels about leading a boycott of state tests. Should grade 3-8 teachers be preparing to boycott the math assessments if Magee is elected president? This is a significant question that needs to be answered as NYSUT delegates wade through the rhetoric to make their decisions before voting on April 5th. Unfortunately it is tough to know pretty much anything that Karen Magee thinks. She has seemingly entered the Witness Protection Program since declaring her candidacy in mid-January. It’s an odd tactic for a “grassroots” challenger to take. Of course when you have the reformy Mike Mulgrew’s curiously immediate endorsement and it’s accompanying 800 delegate votes maybe your best bet is to lay low and allow yourself to be propped up as though this were a scene from Weekend at Bernie’s.
Yesterday, Andy Cuomo, the self-proclaimed “Lobbyist for Students” announced his Common Core Implementation Panel. In a move that surprised absolutely nobody, the panel is stacked with people who have already professed their love for the common core publicly. It would seem as though the reason it took our esteemed governor such a long time to put this panel together was because he needed to go to the far reaches of the universe to find a superintendent and teacher who liked the Common Core to put on the panel. But he did that.
John Flanagan, head of the Senate Education Committee, was endorsing Common Core as late as last August, though he has recently stepped back a bit from that as the political pressure has mounted and has called for a delay in their use for high stakes.
Jackson-Jolley said she has an open mind about the Common Core, in particular how it has been introduced in New York. But she said that she wants her two daughters, 10 and 7, who attend North Salem schools, to receive a more challenging public-school education than what she received.“I hope they get an education that is rigorous, challenges them, and inspires them, so they never feel they are skating through,” she said. “When they get to college and beyond, I want them to feel prepared and competitive.”
Don’t want to say she sounds definitively like a CCSS supporter, but she’s throwing around the kind of CCSS buzzwords (“rigorous” and “competitive”) you hear from pro-CCSS supporters.
Dan Weisberg is an education reformer who runs an education reform outfit that is pro-CCSS and just recently wrote this:
Back in the fall, we noted that teachers unions in New York appeared to be resorting to Tea Party tactics in an attempt to bully Governor Andrew Cuomo and Education Commissioner John King into backtracking on two of their signature achievements: Implementing a state law that requires better teacher evaluation systems, and adopting the Common Core State Standards, a set of more ambitious and coherent learning standards for students.
What has happened in the months since? Despite all the maneuvering, Cuomo and King haven’t backed down. In fact, Cuomo reiterated his focus on these achievements in his State of the State address last week, pointing to the evaluation law as a success story and proposing to use the results from evaluations to award bonuses of up to $20,000 to the state’s highest-rated teachers.
…
What’s happening in New York is an important lesson for leaders across the country: If you’re serious about education reform, be prepared to fend off a steady stream of political attacks from both sides of the aisle, even after your policies have been adopted.
Fortunately, Governor Cuomo and Commissioner King don’t scare easily, and they finish what they start. They’re setting a commendable example by sticking to their principles in the face of all these attacks. Here’s hoping they keep it up, for the sake of the millions of students in New York who will benefit from higher standards.
Mulgrew praises formation of Governor’s Common Core panel
FEBRUARY 7, 2014
UFT President Michael Mulgrew on Feb. 7 applauded Governor Cuomo’s appointment of an 11-member group — including education expert Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, State Senator John Flanagan, and Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan — to recommend changes to the flawed rollout of the Common Core Learning Standards.
In response, UFT President Michael Mulgrew said:
“I want to thank the Governor for listening to parents, children, principals and teachers across the state who have made it clear that the rush to implement the Common Core standards in New York State has not worked. We look forward to the panel’s recommendations.”
Happy with Gates. Happy with Cuomo. Happy with Common Core. Happy with King. Happy with Tisch. Happy with Bloomberg. (2009 election) Happy with Danielson. Happy with 40% MOSL’s.
Is there a teacher/student-abusing person or policy the UFT Leadership is unhappy with?
New York State United Teachers President Richard C. Iannuzzi today called on school districts to abandon educationally unsound and unconscionable policies that force students whose parents have decided to opt them out of state testing to “sit and stare” instead of providing them with a constructive alternative.
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“NYSUT strongly condemns the policy of ‘sit and stare’,” Iannuzzi said. “This policy aimed at students whose parents elect to ‘opt out’ their children from state standardized testing is unconscionable. It would be spiteful and counter-productive for any school district to require an administrator or teacher to direct a child to ‘sit and stare’ at a blank desk while other students are taking exams because of a choice made by a parent.”
Iannuzzi added, “This is cruel to those students not taking the exam and a distraction and disservice to those who are attempting to complete it. Punishing or embarrassing children because their parents exercised their right to choose not to have their children participate in tests they consider inappropriate is, frankly, abusive.”
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Iannuzzi said the union would provide guidance and support to parents – or parent groups – unfairly singled out or harassed for advocating the right to opt out and added, “We will vigorously defend any NYSUT members who are subject to any negative employment considerations for choosing to opt out their own child or who advocate, to the extent permitted by law, for others who opt out of state standardized tests.”
This is very strong language from Iannuzzi in support of students, teachers, and parents. It also continues his trend of taking more aggressive stands against damaging reforms from SED. Ironically some locals are opposing his re-election bid, and supporting the slate that wants to play nice with Cuomo, because Iannuzzi wasn’t previously aggressive enough.
Today’s comments seem to be further proof that an Iannuzzi no longer beholden to Michael Mulgrew is an Iannuzzi who will take NYSUT in the direction that most NYSUT members want.
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.
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.
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…
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?
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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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
The Official Website of the PJSTA 