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Why New Action opposes the recommendations to modify mayoral control

Published March 19, 2013 New Action , UFT 1 Comment
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At Monday’s Executive Board the Committee on School Governance presented a set of School Governance Recommendations.

The committee worked hard on its recommendations. The individual proposals are positive.  But they are framed as modifications, as checks and balances on Mayoral Control.

One of the positive proposals deserves special mention. The UFT now stands for no waiver for the Chancellor. New Action’s David Kaufman made just such a proposal, well-reasoned, last time we had a governance report. And it was roundly, and wrongly, rejected. We wish that Dave were here today to see the union belatedly adopting his proposal.

New Action has opposed Mayoral Control. It has been a disaster for our schools, our students, our members. Last year we circulated petitions calling for an end of Mayoral Control. And we remain opposed to Mayoral Control. This year we declined to serve on the Governance Committee – the correct conclusion – ending Mayoral Control – was obvious.

Thus, at Monday’s Exec Board, we felt compelled to vote against otherwise positive recommendations, for not being part of an overall stance of ending Mayoral Control.

Our union, the UFT, should take the committee’s recommendations, and embed them in a proposal to end Mayoral Control. Then  New Action/UFT would proudly endorse them.

 

An Unfortunate Decade of Mayoral Mistakes

Published March 6, 2013 New Action , UFT , United Federation of Teachers Closed
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(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the February 2013 UFT Delegate Assembly).
For a printable version click: NA/UFT 02/2013 leaflet

Year

New Action Recommends

Did we listen?

Result
2002 No to Mayoral Control No. First Mayoral Control bill gives Bloomberg unfettered control Countless Disruptive Reorganizations – managers (not educators)  dominate the DoE bureaucracy
2009 No Extension of Term Limits No, even though we could have stopped Bloomberg by swinging a handful of City Council votes The worst of Bloomberg’s terms
2009 Let Mayoral Control Sunset No. We put in “checks and balances” …. … but those “checks and balances“ did not limit the mayoral dictatorship
2009 No Waiver for Chancellors No Cathie Black
2009 Endorse Bill Thompson against Bloomberg No, we sit out the election Bloomberg squeaks by for four more years of school closings, abusive administrators,  and mountains of paperwork
2013 Remove Christine Quinn from consideration for our endorsement

???

???

Teacher Evaluation and Binding Arbitration – No Way to Go!

Published March 5, 2013 New York CIty Department of Education , Teacher Evaluation , tenure , test scores Closed

(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the February 2013 UFT Delegate Assembly).
For a printable version click: NA/UFT 02/2013 leaflet

“Cuomo told Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew that if they can’t hammer out an agreement for an evaluation system by Feb. 22, he’d submit an amendment to his new budget plan giving the state Education Department authority to impose its own evaluation system on New York City educators.” (New York Post 2/4/13) The article further states that, “Last week, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a strong teachers-union ally, and the leaders of the Senate made clear that they’re ready to back Cuomo in imposing a settlement on the city.”

UFT President Michael Mulgrew welcomed Governor Cuomo’s involvement. According to the New York Times (1/30/13) President Mulgrew is quoted as saying, “…while we would prefer a negotiated settlement, it’s good to know that should talks fail again, people who actually understand education will be part of the decision making process. ” “Parents need to know that, thanks to the governor and the legislative leaders, there will be no further  risk of the loss of state money for our schools.”

This is disastrous on a number of accounts. Firstly, binding arbitration on the teacher evaluation system is a disgrace. Our union should never agree to have the state intercede and impose a settlement on our working conditions. Secondly, if the UFT leadership believed it was impossible to negotiate with Bloomberg (and that is all too evident) they should never have agreed to push for Race to the Top. We might as well have asked for the State to impose an evaluation system. Thirdly, the Race to the Top monies (750 million) will be used to implement a teacher evaluation system (ie. money for consultants, validators, test design, and coming up with systems to evaluate teachers, etc.) WHAT A SCAM! And to tell the public education is losing hundreds of millions!

New Action opposes binding arbitration. PERIOD! We oppose any new evaluation system that uses test scores (up to 40%) to rate teachers. Perhaps it’s too late to avoid this trap but members should know when they’re being sold a bill of goods.

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