Tag: nysut

A Tale of Two Unionists and How Rank & File Teachers Lose

I’ve been meaning to link to this for a few days.  A great analysis of the Common Core from MORE’s Julie Cavanagh.

Via the Daily News… (emphasis is mine)

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.

Whether it is being quoted in the New York Times, appearing on MSNBC to discuss education issues, or co-hosting the movie The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman Cavanagh always does a remarkable job representing teachers.  Her track record of activism and her ability to articulately state what classroom teachers are feeling are exactly what we should expect out of our union leaders.

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.

NYSUT Refuses to Oppose Cuomo But You Still Can!

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

mageecommoncore

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

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

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

Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu.

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

a. Full and Equal Funding for Public Education

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

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

b. End High-Stakes Testing

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

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

c. Protect Against Privatization

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

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

d. Empower Local Communities

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

e. Suspend the Suspension Pipeline

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I Want From NYSUT

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

My submission…

Dear President Magee,

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

  1. I would like a union who places the needs and interests of the rank and file membership ahead of the needs and interests of the Unity Caucus.
  2. I would like a union who fights against those who seek to harm us, rather than one who compromises and collaborates with them.
  3. I would like a union leadership who works with grassroots organizations to demonstrate against Governor Cuomo and corporate education reform rather than sitting in their ivory tower in Latham, New York claiming they were never invited to those demonstrations.
  4. I’d like none of my VOTE COPE money to go towards Cuomo, John Flanagan, or any other anti-teacher, anti-labor candidates.
  5. I’d like NYSUT officers to take significant pay cuts, rather than raising our dues AGAIN.  While rank and file teachers across the state are taking 0%’s and step freezes along with paying more towards their health insurance, NYSUT officers have compensation packages that exceed $250,000.  There is no good reason for any officer to make more than $150,000.
  6. I’d like NYSUT’s leadership to return phone calls to my local president.  Ignoring our local’s needs because of a grudge the leadership holds against us is a slap in the face to all of our members.
  7. I’d like a Suffolk PAC that is run by an active teacher who has been elected by the rank and file.
  8. I’d like it if UFT Unity Caucus delegates, bound by a caucus oath, were not allowed to vote on at large delegates from Long Island or other portions of the state.  That way when Long Island delegates overwhelmingly vote for a candidate to represent them, that candidate will get to do so.
  9. I’d like a leadership who openly and publicly criticizes the fact that our largest local has a caucus oath that stifles democracy both inside their local, inside our statewide union, and inside the AFT.
  10. I’d like our union to strongly denounce the Common Core State Standards, just as my local union has.
  11. I’d like the spending restrictions that Dick Iannuzzi placed on Andy Pallotta’s use of VOTE COPE funds to be enforced by this administration as well.
  12. I’d like a statewide union who proves competent at mobilizing the rank and file.
  13. I’d like a statewide union who will not support the candidacy of Randi Weingarten at the 2014 AFT Convention.  The message needs to be loud and clear, “If you are not working for us you will be removed from office.”
  14. I’d like a statewide union who uses every tool at it’s disposal to support the candidacy of the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones for governor and lieutenant governor in this fall’s election.
  15. I’d like NYSUT photographers who are allowed to take pictures of anti-Cuomo signs.

 

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

 

In solidarity,

Brian St. Pierre

Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association

What Do You Want From Your Union?

In this week’s NYSUT Leader Briefing Karen Magee asks, “What do you want from your union?”  Here is the link for you to fill out an online form and tell Ms. Magee what you want from your union.  I am going to get started on my list now.  It will be quite lengthy and will start with having a leadership who leads rather than selling us out.

Below is Magee’s message regarding this request.  Nice to see that she has already heard from her political base… UFT retirees.

Magee

Karen Magee, Discussions, Invitations

We’ll be sure to send a formal invite and a limo for Karen Magee at the next rally.

In her mind NYSUT President Karen Magee is having discussions about some important stuff… unfortunately reality seems to suggest otherwise.  Reality-Based Educator with “They’re Discussing Having Discussions About the Coming Discussion on Teacher Evaluation Discussions”.

Magee likes to see herself as a bulldog.  Someone who won’t back down in her tireless defense of the NYSUT membership.  That would be terrific if it were true.  But it doesn’t seem to be.  Remember this is the same Magee who was a no show at three recent rallies in support of public education.  When asked why she wasn’t there she stated that she didn’t go because they were grassroots rallies and she wasn’t invited.  Remember when Magee ran for president claiming she represented a grassroots, bottom up, member driven sort of unionism?  We are less than two months into her term and she is already above going to grassroots rallies without an invite?  At least all the discussions she is having in her head seem to be going well.

NYSUT & Cuomo, UFT Contract, Cavanagh, etc.

We have some must read links for you to peruse…

A lot was made in the lead up to the NYSUT election in April about the Revive NYSUT slate’s apparent fondness for Governor Cuomo.  This parent’s account of events at NYSUT’s “Picket in the Pines” earlier this month would seem to back that up…

At NYSUT’s rally at Lake Placid, it became painfully obvious that NYSUT was not there to challenge Cuomo — all the rhetoric was directed at DFER and the Walton Foundation. None of the rally speakers said anything about Cuomo (or even Gates!). The most obvious giveaway that NYSUT had completely sold out came when the NYSUT photographer wanted to take a picture of a child who was wearing a sign that said, I “heart” public school, but he wouldn’t take a picture of the child’s brother whose sign said, No Mo Cuomo. The photographer explicitly stated that NYSUT wouldn’t publish anything against Cuomo! 
If all this is true, union leadership is even more effed up than I thought….

Reality-Based Educator discusses the significance of Governor Cuomo’s meeting with the Stronger Together group last week.

Barbara Madeloni won an election to become the President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate.  Congrats to her.  Like Chicago’s CORE Caucus, NYSUT’s STronger Together, and the UFT’s dissident MORE Caucus, Madeloni represents a more aggressive, progressive, and militant form of unionism.

We have a few links on the UFT’s controversial contract agreement.  Our friends from MORE are urging a NO vote…

Arthur Goldstein requests a moderated discussion with the UFT leadership prior to the vote and eagerly awaits a response.

James Eterno tells of Mike Mulgrew mangling democracy.

MORE’s Mike Schirtzer is quoted here, wondering about what ineffective way “master teachers” will be identified.

Julie Cavanagh explains why the contract should be rejected.

Finally, I will leave you with this video of MORE’s Cavanagh…

 

 

Stronger Together’s Meeting with Governor Cuomo

As momentum built toward’s the April 28th rally at Villa Lombardi’s to protest Governor Cuomo, one of the governor’s top aides, Joseph Percoco, reached out, through an intermediary, to the President of the Connetquot Teachers Association Tony Felicio.  Percoco offered Felicio, one of the rally’s organizers, a meeting with the governor to air his grievances in exchange for canceling the rally.  Felicio rejected the governor’s offer, telling him that the rally would go on and that if the governor wanted to meet they could do so after the rally.

You will recall the rally did in fact go on.  Despite the fact that it was not supported by NYSUT, an estimated crowd of 2,500 gathered outside Villa Lombardi’s to protest Cuomo’s education reform agenda.  The rally clearly sent a very powerful message to the governor that the parents and teachers of New York State will “remember in November” the havoc that his policies have wreaked on the children of our communities.  Unless he displays a startling and dramatic change of course regarding his education policies in the very near future he can count on no support in November’s election from the people in New York State who value public education, whether NYSUT endorses him or not.

Following the rally, Percoco once again reached out to Felicio to request a meeting with the governor.  Cuomo’s re-election campaign clearly is rattled by the tidal wave of support for public education that stands in clear opposition to the reform agenda he has helped to force upon our community schools throughout his term in office.  Felicio agreed to the meeting and arranged to bring a few trusted friends in the fight for public education.  Yesterday five Stronger Together local presidents, including Felicio, Tim Southerton (President of the Sayville Teachers Association), Laura Spencer (President of the Smithtown Teachers Association), Kevin Coyne (Brentwood Teachers Association), and our very own Beth Dimino were joined by Brad Lindell (Vice-President of the Connetquot Teachers Association)  at a meeting with the governor.

At the meeting the team raised concerns about high stakes testing, APPR’s, the tax cap, charter schools, Pearson, and RttT, among other things.  Dimino told the governor that given his actions up to this point she could only assume that he didn’t know the truth about the harmful agenda he had been pushing.  After the group gave him the perspective of real classroom teachers they suggested potential solutions to the disastrous situation his policies have created.   Dimino then warned him that he now knew the truth and that there is no excuse for the continuation of such policies.  She stated that there would be a price to pay if swift action is not taken to undo much of what has been done up to this point.  Dimino explained to the Governor that there were two things he could do immediately to mitigate the devastating impact his agenda has had on NYS students, first decouple the testing from teacher evaluations and then decouple all of the unfunded mandates from the tax cap, either by funding those mandates or by making them exclusionary under the cap.

Cuomo, who was polite, respectful, and attentive during the meeting that lasted nearly two hours, responded with a lot of “I didn’t know” or “It’s not my fault” types of answers.  He also told them, “I thought everybody loved charter schools?!”  Additionally he warned that we may want to cancel the rally scheduled for the New York Democratic Convention on May 22nd in Melville so that we don’t upset other Democratic politicians.  Let me be very clear here: The rally will go on!  As Felicio warned on April 28th, the Lombardi’s rally was just a warm up for a bigger, louder, more intense one on May 21st.

Finally Cuomo pledged to create a task force of classroom teachers to more deeply investigate the issues discussed.  He said he would be in touch with NYSUT President Karen Magee to create that task force.  Unfortunately Magee is no fan of the PJSTA, so don’t expect Dimino or many other NYSUT members critical of the Mulgrew/Pallotta/Revive NYSUT coup to make the cut for the task force.  Of course we have been down the task force road with Cuomo before.  Typically what happens is that any voices of truth who speak for teachers and students are ignored so that Cuomo can stock his war chest with big money from Wall Street, Pearson, and Eva Moskowitz.  In the end the losers are usually public schools and the communities they serve.  Color me skeptical when it comes to any meaningful changes being made.  Still, for a change, it was nice to know that our message was sent to the governor yesterday, loud and clear.

Dimino at the April 28th rally.

NYSUT Election Roundup

The NYSUT elections are over.  Karen Magee and the Revive NYSUT slate won.  Congratulations to them.

Here are a few links on the story…

We’ll leave you with this video of MORE’s Lauren Cohen and Mike Schirtzer speaking at the RA…

Suffolk Presidents Endorse Beth Dimino for ED At-Large 21, 22, 23

NYSUT RA Delegates:

As many of you know, we are facing a contested election of the current NYSUT officers and many of the ED and At-Large positions within NYSUT’s leadership structure.  Not only is the election of the Stronger Together slate of Dick, Maria, Lee, and Kathleen critical, it is equally important to insure that the voice of Stronger Together, OUR VOICE, is heard at all future Board of Directors’ meetings moving forward.

By electing Beth Dimino to the position of At-Large Director, we have the ability to maintain the VOICE of Stronger Together Movement and Caucus.  The local presidents of Suffolk County overwhelmingly support Beth in her efforts to be elected to the position of At-Large Director of ED 21, 22, 23.

Anyone who knows Beth for even a minute recognizes her commitment to the union movement and the children we educate everyday.  Beth has been an outspoken critic of elected officials and NYSUT officers, when necessary, regarding issues such as Common Core, APPR, High-Stakes Testing and consequences, Tax Cap, GEA, Tier V, VI, and charter schools.  She is the “Voice of Mommies” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VhNor95OnI) all across New York State and is willing to take on our elected officials when it comes to the issues impacting our members and devastating our communities and schools.

Voting for Beth Dimino and the Stronger Together slate ensures that our statewide voices will be represented at every NYSUT Board of Directors’ meeting.

In solidarity,

Mike Romano, Central Islip TA

 

Gary Fernando, Islip TA

Tony Felicio, Connetquot TA

Claudia Reinhart, Three Village TA

John Troise, Sachem TA

Chris Philp, Kings Park CTA

Tony Gibson, Hauppauge TA

Laura Spencer, Smithtown TA

Nancy Sanders, Miller Place TA

John Mansfield, Lindenhurst TA, ED 20 Director

Bob Claps, Amityville TA

Mike Friscia, Rocky Point TA

Daniel McGuire, East Moriches TA

Lucille McKee, Shoreham Wading River TA

Rob Richardelli, Babylon TA

Ronald Gross, William Floyd UT

Richard Hasse, Half Hallow Hills TA

Darlene Darch, Bay Shore CTA

Kevin Coyne, Brentwood TA

Rob Pearl, 1st Vice President PJSTA

Jeff Shade, Harborfields TA

Antoinette Blanck, UT of Northport, ED 23 Director

Ernie Lewis, Western Suffolk BOCES FA

Kevin Peterman, FASCC

James Graber, Huntington TA

Thomas Barry, East Islip TA

Brian Snow, Port Jefferson TA

Dennis Callahan, South Huntington TA

Joseph Dixon, West Islip TA

Tris Stewart, Commack TA

James Kinnier, Sag Harbor TA

Mitchell Wolman, Mount Sinai TA

Some Recent Links on the NYSUT Election

Norm Scott from Ed Notes Online hears that “some Unity Caucus delegates may bolt and vote Stronger Together.”

Beth Dimino, Arthur Goldstein, and the MORE candidates penned an open letter to NYSUT President Iannuzzi and UFT President Michael Mulgrew requesting either a debate or an open forum in New York City among candidates prior to the election.  Similar events have happened around the state, including Long Island.  Iannuzzi’s response is printed below the letter, Mulgrew has not responded yet.

Arthur Goldstein, candidate opposing Andy Pallotta for Executive Vice President of NYSUT, asks, “Why is there a Revive NYSUT?“