Buffalo Teachers Federation Join PJSTA in Endorsing Howie Hawkins for Governor

Earlier this month the PJSTA became the first teachers union to endorse the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins in his bid for governor in this fall’s election. On Thursday night we were joined by one of the state’s largest locals, the Buffalo Teachers Federation, who voted unanimously last night to endorse Hawkins and his running mate Brian Jones.

Via State of Politics…

Also last night, the Buffalo Teachers Federation voted unanimously to endorse Hawkins, according to his campaign, becoming the third teachers union to back his minor party gubernatorial bid.

In the same article we find this interesting bit about Andrew Cuomo’s Democratic primary opponent, Zephyr Teachout…

As for Teachout herself, she is still on a statewide tour promoting her new book, “Corruption in America”, and simultaneously trying to help the Senate Democrats’ in their quest to re-take the majority.

Teachout has not yet issued an endorsement in the governor’s race.

Hawkins said earlier this month that he spoke to Teachout about backing him, and she’s “open” to the idea. It’s highly unlikely she’ll support her erstwhile primary opponent, Cuomo, before the Nov. 4 election.

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

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

Via Perdido Street School…

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

The UFT/AFT/NYSUT leaders:

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

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

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

4) who made robocalls for the campaign.

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

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

Cuomo Wins Primary But Has Lost the Faith of NY Dems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Randi Weingarten Sell Out Tour Comes to New York State

We have known for quite a while that the UFT/NYSUT/AFT leadership has been selling out the membership for quite some time now. But today’s deplorable news about AFT President Randi Weingarten making robo calls for Kathy Hochul goes even further than I ever thought they could go. The New York Post describes why it is important for Cuomo to get a Hochul win over Wu in the Democratic Primary tomorrow…

a Wu victory would result in a Cuomo/Wu ticket on the Democratic line in the November election but potentially disastrous Cuomo/Hochul tickets on the Working Families, Independence, and Women’s Equality lines, where no primaries are slated.

Under the state Election Law, votes for a Cuomo/Hochul ticket in November would not be added to the tally for the Cuomo/Wu ticket, potentially costing Cuomo hundreds of thousands of votes.

The UFT/NYSUT/AFT leadership can’t let their pal Cuomo get hurt so Randi is out stumping for the bank lobbyist, Hochul today.

Tomorrow morning I will cast my ballot for Tim Wu as I had always planned to. The robo calls from Cuomo shill Randi Weingarten only cements that. This move also further reinforces my decision to reduce my VOTE COPE contribution to $0.00 this year. If only I could reduce my AFT dues to the same.

How You Can Help Defeat Andrew Cuomo

Nearly four years ago Andrew Cuomo was elected governor of our state. Our profession has never been the same. He came in promising to be the lobbyist for students. Since then he has underfunded public education while providing tax cuts for corporations and New York’s wealthiest citizens. He has pushed waves upon waves of high stakes testing onto our students and teachers. He has presided over the implementation of the tax cap that has decimated school districts across the state. He has pushed for an increase in the number of charter schools, robbing even more money from public schools. He pushed for a teacher evaluation plan based upon junk science, and he even called for the “death penalty” for schools with failing scores on his high stakes tests.

To be clear, there has been no greater enemy of public education in New York State the last four years than Andrew Cuomo. In the years since Cuomo has taken office I have watched colleagues laid off. I have seen others retire and not be replaced. I have watched valuable programs and resources be slashed from our district while the number of hours dedicated to useless high stakes testing has soared. In my last year teaching before Governor Cuomo took office I had a class of 17 (!!!!) fifth graders. This year I have 27 fifth graders. While not all problems in our industry can be traced back to Cuomo, nobody has played a bigger role in the decimation of public education than he has.

We’ve known for a while that he was a crooked politician. Based on yesterday’s classless and cowardly act we know he isn’t a much better person either. So it is high time that we boot Cuomo out of the highest position in state government. Tonight I call on every public educator in New York State, every parent whose children have been exposed to the abusive education reform agenda of the last four years, and every person who attended the #NoMoCuomo rallies this past spring to dedicate the next two days to ousting Cuomo from power. A few ways you can help…

If you are a registered Democrat, VOTE ON TUESDAY for Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu. You can find your polling place here.
I will be hosting a Teachout/Wu phone bank party at my house tomorrow night in Rocky Point. Feel free to join us.
If you live too far away (or perhaps you just don’t like me, lol) you can have your own phone bank elsewhere. Click here for details.
Contact every possible registered Democrat that you know and urge them to get to the polls on Tuesday to vote for Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu! If you only know Republicans or Independents, urge them to contact the registered Democrats that they know!

Cuomo has beaten us up for four years. It’s time to give him his Eric Cantor moment!

Tim Wu and Zephyr Teachout are ready for the upset of the century!

Cuomo/Hochul/de Blasio/Mulgrew Snub Teachout at Yesterday’s Labor Day Parade

At yesterday’s Labor Day parade in New York City, Zephyr Teachout approached Andrew Cuomo. The same Andrew Cuomo who has refused to debate her, while outrageously claiming that debates do a disservice to democracy. Not only did Cuomo not debate her yesterday, but he didn’t shake her hand either. As a matter of fact he refused to even acknowledge her presence.

According to the Daily News Cuomo’s running mate, Kathy Hochul, also refused to acknowledge Teachout who even went as far as tapping Hochul on the shoulder.

Via The Daily News…

Teachout said “hi” to Cuomo, the governor ignored her like she was the invisible woman and repeatedly asked, “Where’s Mayor Bill de Blasio?” Hizzoner waded through the crowd and gave Cuomo a kiss on the cheek.

Teachout also tapped Cuomo’s running mate, former Congresswoman Kathy Hochul, on her shoulder. Hochul was also frosty. She never turned around to face Teachout, giving her a steady view of her back.

“I just wanted to say hello as a courtesy,” Teachout said after Cuomo’s snub. “We’ve been running against each other, and it seems pretty clear by now he’s not going to debate.”

Cuomo has refused to debate the Fordham law professor.

“Someone get her out of here!” someone screamed.

…

“I know she was the parade, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her,” he (Cuomo) said.

Ah yes, Cuomo didn’t get a chance to talk to her. He makes it seem as though he frantically searched for her yet their paths never crossed. Meanwhile she stood two feet away saying “hi” to him.

Andrew Cuomo is the worst kind of politician. He is corrupt and has consistently put the needs of his Wall Street cronies ahead of the people of New York. The video below of the encounter with Teachout showed that he is not just a bad politician, but he is a classless coward as well. The same can be said for Kathy Hochul and Bill de Blasio.

The video is nauseating, compounded only by the appearance of the UFT President (and member of the NYSUT Board of Directors) Michael Mulgrew joining the Cuomo crew for the parade (see the :26 second mark of the video… the guy in the blue UFT hat is Mulgrew).

More on how you can help Teachout in the final days of her campaign before Tuesday’s primary in a little bit.

Labor Day Parade 9-6-14 ZT from John Kenny on Vimeo.

Tomorrow We Rally to End Cuomo’s Reign of Terror

The man who once dubbed himself “the lobbyist for students,” before taking a wrecking ball to New York State’s public education system, now claims that he is refusing to debate his opponent in the Democratic primary, Zephyr Teachout, because he thinks that debates do a disservice to democracy.

Via the New York Times…

“I’ve been in many debates that I think were a disservice to democracy,” he added. “So anyone who says debates are always a service to democracy hasn’t watched all the debates that I’ve been in.”

Huh?

So Cuomo thinks mayoral control of schools, which take school control away from local communities and give it to the mayors of those cities, is just swell. He supports the reform agenda pushed by John King and Merryl Tisch and loathed by virtually every parent and educator in the state. Yet debating an opponent is where Cuomo draws the line on things that do a disservice to democracy?

Regardless of what he is saying, Cuomo is scared. He can feel the surging momentum of Teachout and knows that giving her a platform to make him defend his abysmal record, which has benefitted only big banks and billionaires, could put him in really dangerous territory when it comes to the primary next week.

With Cuomo running scared it makes me harken back to what our friend Reality-Based Educator wrote about him last year, when Cuomo wasn’t in hiding but was instead attacking public schools…

If Governor Cuomo thinks it is time some schools be given the “death penalty” for struggles that are often beyond their means to fix, then it is time for teachers of all political ideologies to get together and help pull the plug on the 2014 Cuomo re-election plan and the Cuomo 2016 presidential plan.

Andrew Cuomo is a thug and a bully and a crook, that we’ve known for a while.

Now, after the “death penalty for schools” statement, he is also a war criminal against public schools.

It is time to put an end to his Reign of Terror.

We finally have a chance to pull the plug on Cuomo. As early as the Democratic primary next Tuesday. Join us tomorrow in Hauppauge as we rally in support of Zephyr Teachout. As we rally in support of public schools. As we rally to end Andrew Cuomo’s Reign of Terror.

Video: Zephyr Teachout Talks Public Ed at PJSTA Conference Day

Phone Bank Info & Pictures from Today’s PJSTA Conference Day

Phone Bank from home!

The Teachout-Wu Campaign Team would like everyone to go sign up on the Amicus site and make 20 calls (at least). It is very easy – you can “phone-bank” from the privacy of your own home and computer.

PJSTA members give Zephyr Teachout a standing ovation!

photo 3 (1) — Zephyr Teachout addresses the PJSTA membership.

Zephyr Teachout mingling with PJSTA members before the morning press conference.

photo 5 (1) — We Support Public Education and We Vote!

Beth Dimino introduces Zephyr Teachout at press conference.

Links on Teachout & NYSUT

I’ve been out of commission for a few days as I had some laptop issues resolved. However I am back in action and have a few links to pass on that we should all be reading.

First to Zephyr Teachout, the PJSTA endorsed gubernatorial candidate…

There will be a a rally in support of Teachout on Thursday, September 4th at 4:30. All PJSTA members should be there. Teachout, Beth Dimino, Carol Burris, Kevin Glynn, and Jeanette Deutermann will be among the attendees and speakers. More information at the bottom of this post.

The Long Island Press quotes Teachout as saying her first order of business would be working to eliminate the Common Core in New York State and dismissing commissioner John King. Via the Long Island Press…

Teachout has been equally outspoken against Common Core, the education reform created by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of State School Officers and implemented to what many are calling disastrous results under the leadership of Cuomo and his appointed Commissioner of Education John King.

Teachout said the first order of business if she was to beat Cuomo would be the elimination of Common Core, and King as commissioner.

“John King has failed to listen to parents and teachers who have spoken up forcefully about the problems with high stakes testing and privatization of public schools, and is the wrong person for the job,” she said.

“Listening” is a key component of being governor, she stressed amid the market. “He’s not a good listener.”

The more you hear her speak the more you wonder what NYSUT possibly could have been thinking when they chose not to endorse her.

Speaking of NYSUT, we have a few good links on the double pension scandal that broke last week…

Over at the Perdido Street School blog, Reality-Based Educator says the Cuomo/NYSUT double pension deal needs to be investigated.

Sean Crownley from the B-LoEdScene blog says that NYSUT leadership needs to explain themselves or resign.

Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator talks about the poor defense arguments that NYSUT leadership’s mouthpieces are offering up.

Here is the information on Thursday’s Teachout rally…