UFT Executive Board February 11, 2019--Principals Don't Like Contract, Prefer to Do Whatever They Want

Howard Schoor welcomes us. 6 PM

Speakers—Bob Mc Cue—35 year teacher—CTE celebration Friday, more than 600 people. While applauding participants mind drifted toward Walter Morris, CTE teacher. Had been in Lithographers Union. 1989 determined to get teaching license. Taught offset press work. Track coach 12 years, brought millions of dollars to school. Changed to teach law and forensic science. Became teacher of year. Even after tragic loss of son, channeled energy into serving students. Asks for moment of silence.

Patty ?—Walter bought a student a suit for interview, then bought him shoes. Loved every one of his students. We rise for moment of silence.

Yvonne Riesen—reps 10X213—BETA—dress in blue in solidarity for right of basic instructional supplies, no microscope, scales, money allocated not committed, no paper. Must dig through garbage for paper—principal verbally abusive, spreads fear, probationaries in tears, ATRs demoralized, take 4 in row or two C6 per day. Furniture falling apart, fights break out, fires, and we’re told not to use alarms. Teacher passed out and they debated who to call.

Tyrannical nature of principal. Oppressive, incompetent admin goes unchecked. We need to move forward, and we can’t under this principal.

Schoor—Send me what you wrote. We will bring it up with DOE. Debbie Poulos will look at your complaint. Basic instructional supply issues have been being resolved quickly. We will send people to your school.

Minutes—approved.

We approve resolutions for NYSUT convention.

President’s Report—Michael Mulgrew—

All trips tomorrow with yellow buses canceled tomorrow, but school is open. Along with Walter Morris, we had another major loss, Denise Costa, who helped with parent and school groups. Loved by many. Passed. Moment of silence.

Albany—little pushback—we just had 12 hour ed. hearing. APPR should get done before April. We still have work in NYC.

We need to implement new contract. Union that reps principals hates our contract. They went to PERB against Bronx plan. We know schools run better with partnership and collaboration. CSA hates it. Says they don’t mean harm, but they want it stopped. When I hear of principals who don’t give instructional supplies, there is a procedure. He has five days, or it goes to superintendent, and then to me. Union that reps admin doesn’t like our agreement. Too bad. They don’t get to interpret what’s in our contract.

Moving forward we shouldn’t have to file grievances. We should be able to work things out. Won’t group all principals together. Things going well in many places. Not about who’s in charge, but about helping one another to move forward. We will play this game and if we have to run a specific campaign, we will. They say we run school system but we don’t. Lots of people would be in other places if we did.

Any CL can put consultation notes online or file complaint. Some principals work with us because DOE doesn’t support them. We like to work with these principals. Small minded people worrying about who’s in charge will not produce results. We will stand strong and deal with this. It’s our job to make sure this contract becomes real at every school. Adcom will focus on consultation notes and work complaints.

We have a week off coming up. So far, weather’s been okay. When we get back, push will be evaluation. Starting official meetings on design. Wednesday at DA we will announce and form committee on joint training. Contract live on Valentine’s Day.

Basic tenet of unionism is contract words only good as people using them. No good if not being utilized. That’s why we want to empower people at worksites and have anti-retaliation language.

Wishes nice Valentine’s Day and vacation.

LeRoy Barr—Last Thursday Feb. 7 showed story of Eagle Academy for Black History Month. This Thursday life of Reginald Lewis, please join us. CTE awards, congratulates them, were 4-500 people. Congratulates all.  DA Wed 15th, EB 25th.

Schoor—CSA Bronx plan statement on line Google it. Raises on 14th. UFT website explains which bank gets which date.

Questions—

Jonathan Halabi—Supported contract—things I liked best mentioned by President. There are principals afraid of these things, but I’m afraid we have people who don’t belong in schools, refuse to consult, problematic work experience as speaker said. How can we separate them from us and students?

Schoor—Chancellor tends to give us lip service without fixing anything. This chancellor is different, has moved people out, and we are hopeful he will do something. We had two issues they should’ve fixed and didn’t. We are working on schools and will continue.

Halabi—What was criteria for Bronx plan schools? Surprised by few that didn’t have collaborative principals.

Schoor—Wasn’t on that committee. Will report next time.


Arthur Goldstein—I have two things today. First, I understand that AFT does national endorsements. Nonetheless, we’re the largest local in the country and we have a big voice. For my money, no democratic candidate at all is great on education, and it falls on us to educate them, at the very least. However, Cory Booker in particular is abysmal. His positions are indistinguishable from those of Betsy DeVos and I’d argue he’s Betsy DeVos with a tie. I’d like to see us ahead of the curve here. What are we going to do to make sure our endorsement doesn’t go to a  Democrat who hates us and everything we stand for, and how are we going to advocate for presidential candidates to adopt positions that are not insane?

Also, I have an article here from New York Teacher. It suggests that UFT thinks 115 million dollar penthouses ought not to pay less in taxes than a six million dollar brownstone in Brooklyn. I couldn’t agree more. It also suggests that if we get people who can afford 115 million dollar penthouses to pay their fair share, we could fund reductions in class sizes. We now have a blue Senate so this bill is no longer DOA. Also, the NY Times surprised me quite a bit by stating Cuomo’s people have not opposed it. What are we going to do to push this forward and help a million kids and tens of thousands of working teachers?

Also, following up on question of space requests for charters but not for public schools. Have you met with chancellor?

Schoor—We have not.

Four of our members are on AFT Exec Council and carry our recommendations and thoughts. Will get you more info. That about the penthouses just came out again, and there is a move for some people to tax apartments they don’t use Will ask Paul to talk about it. No bill yet, so nothing to support.

Reports from Districts

George Altomari—April 13th social studies conference. Has been success for decades. Offers CTLE credits. Honors Maril Celenti.

Sterling Roberson—Wants to add about CTE awards—individuals we honored are those recommended by their schools. Some ranked first, second, third in automotive around globe. Teachers and students are exceptional, and we have a day to celebrate individuals who facilitate learning. Thanks all who made ceremony a success. Thanks individuals who printed materials, set tables, and did everything.


Schoor—OT/PT contract approved 52-48%. Wanted to make sure their salary increases went into effect same time as other members. Released employees for 90 minutes to vote. Had 72% turnout on one day. Mail ballot had 50% turnout. Almost half came to Queens.

Amy Arundell—1000 people came into our office. Great show of union activism.

Schoor—Saw many members we don’t usually see. We are moving forward. We are not finished with this chapter.

Tom Murphy—Retired teacher chapter has annual meetings. We speak to people in NY area and around country. Mood of retirees very good. In touch with issues and people in schools. Thinks people are not happy. Not upset about our politics. Will approach 4K members before we’re done.

Legislative Report—Paul Egan—Moment of silence for Chelsea’s career. Tremendous game for first 30 seconds, but lost 6-0. My job here is complete because everyone knows about Chelsea. Norm Scott had article in his hand from NYT.

Election by time we come back for Public Advocate. Asking everyone to sign for Lobby Day March 18.

Special order of business—endorsing Debbie Penny for retirement board.

Tom Brown—Delighted to support resolution to re-elect Debbie for TRS board member. Smart, strong, competent, fast learner, asks lots of questions, and understands role as trustee. Oversees policies and funding of retirement system. Wants benefits to remain strong. Advocate for us and defined benefit pensions. Attends multiple conferences on retirement systems. We have complete confidence in her. Look forward to working together for all members. Please support her and resolution.

Passes.

Resolution to increase New York participation in 2020 census

Paul Egan—People don’t pay much attention but has massive impact. Court case over President putting citizenship question in to frighten people. Was kicked off by district judge but will go to SCOTUS. Not to count citizens or voters, but rather all people in country. They determine a whole host of things—roads, funding, education, Medicare, 700 billion dollars to be split up by census. If our numbers are underreported, we will lose. Red states don’t worry. NY underreports. Average is 76%, NY is 61%. 38% of population in NY State is immigrant. Imperative we increase numbers. Under title 13 is felony that census share this data with anyone including ICE. Hard to convince people but they need to know.

We want everyone to participate and encourage participation. Also way seats in House are decided, gets us electoral votes.

Schoor—also affect state legislature.

passes

We are adjourned 6:54

Executive Time for Teachers

Sometimes people tell me I'm too rough on the President. It's not his fault that all that Fake Bake tanning lotion turns his skin orange. If you covered your body with that crap you'd be orange too. You can't blame him if he wears his tie as though it's 1974. Hey, if Lou Grant wore his tie like that, why can't Donald Trump?

He's the President of the United States, they tell me, and if that's the case, I should show him some respect. Then I read that he spends 60% of his day on "Executive Time." He doesn't actually go to work until 11 AM. Now if I were cynical, I'd say that's a good thing. After all, the less time he spends working, the less damage he can cause. You know, with a job like President of the United States, you can cause a lot of damage, For example, even though he got three million fewer votes than his opponent, he's appointed two Supreme Court justices. In his defense, one of them did not appear to be rapey.

Anyway, I've decided to follow in his footsteps, and I believe doing so will earn me the neverending gratitude of my students, most of whom hate Trump. This, though, might be the thing to win them over. Why not give all of our kids executive time? From all I can see, since everyone has the right to pursuit of happiness, my students ought not to be left out. If their day is ten periods, six of them ought to be executive time. Or perhaps we'll only require them to be there 40% of each class.

Despite what you read in the tabloids, teaching is a pretty goshdarn stressful job. Giving us 60% executive time will help a lot. For example, when you know your supervisor is coming around for a drive-by, you can simply take your executive time. The supervisor will be unable to give you a bad rating if you aren't there, and even if the voices in his head make him do so anyway, you can avail yourself of executive time whenever he wants to meet with you. Then it won't count anyway, since he gave you no feedback.

With executive time, working people around the country can finally get the break they need. All those folks working at Walmart can take a few hours to see the world outside the superstore. Maybe parents who work 200 hours a week could spend 120 of them with their kids. In fact, by being a role model, maybe fewer people will hate Donald Trump. Instead of simply lying to everyone about infrastructure, about the wall, about how his tax cut would help people other than his uber-wealthy BFFs, he could say, "Hey, how about that executive time? Did Obama give you executive time? Did Hillary?"

I, for one, am glad that the Commander in Chief finally had a good idea. Take a break, America. The President says it's okay.

Everything but the Voice

This year I'm teaching a supposedly advanced class of ELLs. I say "supposedly" because a whole lot of them have either tested advanced on the NYSESLAT, which supposedly measures language level (but doesn't), or tested out of ESL altogether. It doesn't necessarily mean they know anything.

Many of these kids are lovely in one way, another, or many. There are 34 of them in my class. Many of them passed the English Regents exam this year. To my mind, though, exactly one of them knows how to write.

My young writer went through something very difficult and learned something. It doesn't matter what it was. It only matters that it's a compelling story, she related it, and she came to a very sharp conclusion. My writing prompt was to tell about something that was a turning point. She was the only one of my 34 who really grabbed the topic and went with it.

Several  of my other students have been handing me personal statements for college. I will read them and make suggestions if asked. I have to say, though, that I've read half a dozen of them from this class, and one is more abysmal than the next. You'd think that these students, all of whom came from other countries, had never experienced anything whatsoever. To me, uprooting yourself and facing a new culture is a remarkable thing. I've never done it, nor have most people I know. One kid said she was told not to write about that, as it's an overplayed topic.

I disagree completely. Your trip to the United States is not my trip. Your family is not my family. Your experiences are not my experiences. Most importantly, your voice is not my voice.

We all have a voice. Sometimes I think that's all we have. Certainly it's what keeps me writing this blog. But when I teach writing, voice plays little part. You see, there's this thing called the English Regents exam, and my kids can't graduate high school unless they pass it. I'll help them pass it, but for years I've thought that showing them how to sputter out a tightly scripted essay using canned terms taught them is, well, how to sputter out a tightly scripted essay using canned terms.

That's okay as far as it goes, but it isn't really writing. David Coleman, Common Core architect/ troglodyte, famously said no one gives a crap what you think or feel. (Imagine a teacher with that attitude.) Coleman set us on the course of spitting out tidbits of crap in a certain order, and branding it an argumentative essay. I'll grant you there's a skill set to read four articles, pick out which crap supports your point of view, pick out which crap is the opposing argument, and then piece together 300 words to compose whatever crap the Regents exams asks of you.

Still, it's not anything I want to read. I mean, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes an argument that Americans need health care, that we need to get paid a living wage, or that we ought to stop destroying the earth I perk up and listen, because she's speaking from the heart and because these are important issues. She cares, and other people see that. Then they care too. When some kid reads eight pages of crap on a test and regurgitates a bunch of arguments, well, if I get sent to some high school and am forced to rate it, I will.

That's not what argument is, though. Argument worth considering comes from the heart and is supported by the brain. If it hasn't touched the heart somehow, there's likely nothing worth reading. And if there isn't anything worth reading, there wasn't anything worth writing either.

I have a student I will call Sara. Sara is from China. She is lovely. She is good-natured, eager to do well in class, and gets excellent grades. If she were your daughter you'd want to wear a sandwich sign, beat a big bass drum, and walk up and down the street telling the world about it. Despite this, her personal statement was an ungodly mess, bereft of purpose, almost impossible to follow, and if you like her the way I do, heartbreaking to read.

I'm not usually at a loss for words, but I can't tell kids their work is crap. I told her to think of an interesting or funny experience she had, and she looked at me as though I'd just fallen from the sky. She never brought a revision.

When I was in college I did well on papers. I would usually try to make them amusing somehow, or put some kind of interesting slant to them. I tried to make them things I might want to read. I suspect professors, after reading piles of crap, were mostly amused. One English professor insisted I'd plagiarized when I hadn't. I suppose I should've taken that as a compliment.

Here's the thing--sometimes I love to read. Some authors keep me spellbound. I can read Catch 22 over and over again. It's the voice there, the one that sees the humor and absurdity in absolutely everything. To me, it's perfect.

We bring our kids through over a decade of school and we give no attention whatsoever to their voices. We aren't turning out thinkers or writers. We're basically just showing them how to make a sandwich out of words, rather than cold cuts.

Now don't get me wrong. I like sandwiches. I can devour a good book. But the crap we make kids write makes me feel like I'm eating a ream of looseleaf paper, with no seasoning or dressing. It's just not the kind of thing we ought to be forcing our children to do.

Sprituality and the Speaker of Bad Words

Last year for a while I was reading about Buddhism. I had a couple of short books on it loaded into my phone and I read them on the subway. There was a lot about it that I found appealing. I've never been particularly religious, and Buddhism did not seem to make the kind of demands, other religions did. You remember the Laura Nyro line?

I swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell.

I've never been comfortable with the notion that everyone from my religion was bound for paradise, while everyone from yours was bound for fire and brimstone. (And no, I'm not comfortable with you going to heaven and me getting the fire either.) Buddhism didn't seem to make that threat. One point for Buddhism.

Honestly, I don't remember much of what I was reading or why I was interested. But one of my colleagues, who is Buddhist, told me I was on the wrong track.

"You use too much bad language," she told me.

I was pretty surprised at that. It was true I'd used bad language, and it was true I used it while speaking with her. She'd never complained. If she had, I would have stopped. I don't use language like that in the classroom, and I don't use it with people who object to it. Nonetheless, I find it kind of expressive, and it's my go to when I think it works.

I read somewhere that people who use bad language are more honest than people who don't. Now people like me, who use this language, are inclined to immediately believe stories like that. Is it true? I'm not sure. But I don't have what you call a poker face. I'm probably not the best person for intricate negotiation, because if you come up with a notion I deem ridiculous, I'm likely to just answer with one word, and it won't be a nice one.

I have a lot more patience for kids. It's kind of my job to let them know better, and show them how to be better. I speak to them a lot more carefully than I do to adults, in general. That's not always a good thing. But my Buddhist friend had never even given me an inkling. In fact, I'm still not completely sure that she personally objected to my disgusting language. We got along very well before having that conversation, and we still do now, at least as far as I can tell.

"What about Ms. X?" I asked her.

"What about her?" my friend replied.

"She uses language at least as bad as I do, and she's a Buddhist."

"That's different," my friend said, with a tone suggesting that was the end of our conversation.

I haven't pursued it further. I wonder if you get a pass for being born Buddhist. I'm pretty sure nothing in any of the books I read said you had to refrain from using bad language to be a Buddhist. I wonder what Siddhartha said when Kamala was bitten by the snake. I'll bet it wasn't, "Oh popcorn balls." or "Oopzie." I know what I'd have said. Of course we have 911, and ambulances, and hospitals, so things are different.

I'm not sure whether or not I'll pursue this much further. But one of these days I'm gonna get a second opinion on this language issue.

The ELL Graduation Rate

There are so many things wrong with this metric that I don't know where to begin. The logical spot, as far as I'm concerned, is these kids don't speak English. I'm not sure exactly how many people consider that before coming to conclusions, but you don't just wave a frigging magic wand and render people fluent in a new language.

I mean, could you go to China, with no knowledge whatsoever of the culture or language, pass all the tests, and graduate high school in four years? Could you do it in six? If you couldn't, would it conclusively establish your teachers suck? Would it establish that you suck?

What does it really mean? I'd argue it means a whole lot less than what people say or think it does. Even if it's a valid metric, which I'm not assuming, it's a misleading one. Here's why--if we take the number of ELLs who've failed to graduate over four years, and make them a percentage of our overall student body, it doesn't include the ELLs who've tested out and are no longer ELLs.

Let's say, for example, we have 100 9th graders who entered high school as ELLs. Let's say 50 of them test out before graduation. We then have a pool of only half of what we began with. So if only 20 of the 50 graduate on time, or in six years, or whenever, it looks like we've failed 60% of our ELLs. If we take this metric as valid, which again, I do not, that percentage is inflated twofold. It's therefore misleading and invalid, even by the ridiculous standard set forth by the city and state.

Of course any standard fails to account for the backgrounds of our students. I get students who halted formal education at grade four. They walk into high school with severely limited skills in their first languages, and I am expected to magically teach them how to pass the NY State English Regents Examination. Never mind that they are unable to write clearly in their first languages. They may represent ten percent of the students I serve, and not all are identified as such by DOE.

Then there are the students who don't want to be here, which I'd also roughly estimate to be around ten percent of the students I serve. It doesn't matter how good their native language abilities are. If you have been dragged here against your will by your parents, if everything and almost everyone you love is across an ocean somewhere, it can be really hard to assimilate or acclimate yourself to American culture.

Sometimes students find a comfort zone. They make friends with only students who speak their first language. They speak only their first language at home, and engage on laptops and cell phones in only that language. They find as many classes as they can that utilize as little English as possible. Then they meet me, some idiot who insists they communicate in English. What's up with this guy? Doesn't he know I'm turning around and going back to wherever at the very first opportunity? Doesn't he know English is a waste of time, that I hate it, I hate the food, I hate the music, and I hate him too?

And then the state looks at me and says look, only this many kids passed the Regents exam, and only this many kids did well on the NYSESLAT, so you suck. By that standard, I may suck indeed. Now I will prepare my students for the English Regents exam as best I can, because if they don't pass it they won't graduate. As someone who supports them and wants them to move ahead, I will do that.

It's not really what I want to do, though. I don't really sit up at night and worry that they don't know literary terms I'll never come across in the New York Times Book Review. I don't have existential angst because they can't write a canned essay formula in order to answer a question they may or may not see again in ther lives.

I really worry because they have needs that are quite distinct than those set forth as vital by the geniuses in Albany, who are so smart they need to know nothing whatsoever about language acquisition. I will try to serve my students despite the standards, not because of them. I know only too well that those who graduate, those who pass the test, may or may not be competent enough to handle English at a college level. Unlike NY State, I know there is no substitute for time. Unlike NY State, I know that academic English is a portion of our lives, not the central reason for all existence.

And unlike those who criticize the ELL graduation rate, I know it's a meaningless metric, tossed about simply to determine exactly who sucks. While it's me who supposedly sucks as much as anyone, I'm 100% certain I know what ELLs need better than any overpaid Albany functionary. And I will keep fighting to get them what they really need, with little support and against tremendous odds. If the critics wish to join me, they are more than welcome.

The Circular Firing Squad

That's an interesting expression. I first saw it in the ashes of Hillary Clinton's spectacular defeat at the tiny hands of Donald Trump. We ought not to be so critical, people said. How could it be Hillary's fault that too few people got out of their rocking chairs to vote for her? I disagreed. While I found Donald Trump so odious that I voted for Hillary in the general, she failed to inspire me.

On one level, I thought it was great that we were, evidently, in line to have a woman as President, I was less happy with her policies. Hillary said we were never, ever going to get universal health care. She said it was a mistake to offer free college because that would mean Trump's kids would take advantage. She seemed to think America was not yet ready for a living wage. Like most Americans, I support all the aforementioned. I was also taken aback when Hillary said, right in front of my face in Minnesota, that we could, "learn from public charter schools," whatever the hell they may be. Hillary failed to mobilize as many people as Obama did, and as a result we have President Donald Trump.

Now a lot of former Hillary supporters are up in arms whenever anyone criticizes Democratic primary hopefuls. I myself wrote a little bit about Cory Booker, who I firmly believe is the worst of the worst. (Bloomberg is also abysmal, but I don't consider him a Democrat. I consider him a morally bankrupt whore who will join any political party whose nomination he feels he can buy outright.)

Of course there is a whole lot of talk about other candidates. Here's an article about Booker, Harris, and Patrick. Here's what the article has on Kamala Harris:

Most notoriously, she refused to prosecute Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's old company OneWest for numerous instances of almost certain illegal foreclosure, against the advice of her own Consumer Law Section, and has so far refused to say why. (She was also the only Senate Democratic candidate to get a donation from Mnuchin himself in 2016.)

In fact, the article fails to note that Harris threatened to put parents of truant children in jail back in 2010. That's some tough love right there. I'd like to hear more about that now, rather than, for example, when her opponent is Donald Trump and he makes himself out to be a good guy even though he puts children in cages.

Patrick actually works for Mitt Romney's predatory Bain Capital. That's not the best calling card for me, and if I recall correctly, it didn't work all that well for Mitt Romney with American voters either. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the Democrats will like it even less than the GOP did.

Interestingly enough, the article about Booker, Harris and Patrick says this about Booker:

Booker is mistrusted because of his ties to Wall Street. Most notoriously, when President Obama attacked Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign for his long career as a bloodsucking financial parasite, buying up companies only to strip their assets and drive them into bankruptcy, Booker defended Bain Capital on Meet the Press. Why? Because New Jersey is just across the river from Manhattan and both parties are drowning in Wall Street cash.

It does not even mention that Booker waved the flag and solicited donations for DFER. It says nothing about his being joined to the hip with Chris Christie on all things education. The writer of the piece may or may not even know that he supports vouchers and has worked hand in claw with Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

It's kind of remarkable that an article on the left's issues with several Democratic candidates doesn't even mention the callousness with which Booker has treated teachers and unions. I think that's on us, and that it's time for us to get the word out. Working people benefit from union. I suppose that's considered leftist, but that's ridiculous. All Americans ought to have decent working conditions, and for most of us, union is how we attain them.

The talk of circular firing squad amounts to no more than the mindset of the monkeys pictured above. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It's bad politics, and woefully short-sighted. Everything about every candidate is going to come out. It's much better to have these discussions before the general. It's true that no one's perfect, but we need to come up with someone who's at least on our side.

Hillary failed to inspire people to come out. I was furious with all the people who'd insulted Bernie Sanders, who insulted those of us who supported him, and who made what we've now confirmed to be idiotic warnings about repeating 1972. Actually, I'm quite concerned about repeating 2016. Let's eliminate everyone who won't stand for what Hillary wouldn't stand for. No health care? No affordable college? No living wage? We already have Trump if we want to move backwards.

Americans love public schools. Let's choose a candidate who supports them, and those of us who work in them, not Booker,and not Bloomberg. Americans want health insurance for all. Let's find a candidate who shares this desire. Americans want affordable college and a living wage, and someone who will stand for Main Street as opposed to Wall Street. Let's find someone who doesn't work for frigging Bain Capital.

Those people who are terrified someone may say something bad about a Democratic primary hopeful have got things exactly wrong. Let's get it all out now, because it's certainly coming out anyway. Let's not select another phony baloney candidate who stands for little or nothing Americans want. Let's pick someone who will get people off their asses and into the voting booth this year.

It's not enough to say this person is Not Donald Trump. That didn't work in 2016 and it won't work in 2020 either. Honestly, I can't believe that the approach of so many people who wish to defeat this abomination is to suggest we sit down, shut up, and take whatever the DNC dumps in our laps. If we have to sit down, a whole lot of us will still be sitting when Election Day rolls around.

We absolutely, positively cannot have that in 2020.

Cory Booker Is Betsy DeVos With a Tie

I'm kind of amazed at all the crap I read in the papers. Actually it's not so much what I read as what I don't. Presidential candidate Cory Booker supports absolutely everything DeVos does. He's a big fan of privatizing education.

In fact, he's one of the founding members of so-called Democrats for Education Reform, and helped them raise even more money (as though they needed it). If you don't know who they are, they're a bunch of hedge-funders who support privatizing education. Remember them every time you're observed and judged by junk science, because they're the ones who made it cool and profitable for Democrats to oppose working teachers.

What other qualifications does Booker have? He was on a board with Betsy DeVos, called the Alliance for School Choice. We all know this choice somehow involves abandoning public schools, and indeed, this group thought taxpayers should fund not only charters, but also private and religious schools. If you don't read that as anti-union, you probably don't know a whole lot of people working in such schools. I do. It's a much different culture in charters. Few teachers expect a career, and getting fired from one just means you get a gig in another. It's an everyday thing for them, I'd argue, at the expense of institutional memory and, of course, students.

Sure, Booker voted against DeVos for confirmation. It made him look good to Democrats who didn't know better, as though he opposed her programs, and also Trump's programs. The only thing is he said no such thing in his comments. He just said she was unable to make a coherent argument, a common flaw in fanatical ideologues who believe regardless of evidence. Fortunately for Booker, it was not his day to argue in favor of precisely the same things. The best I can say about Booker is I have faith he could rationalize his flawed positions better than DeVos did.

Booker agreed with former NJ Governor Chris Christie that the system was beholden to the teacher union. There was no daylight between Booker and Christie's education positions. I'm amazed, as I read the papers, that this is not even uttered a little bit. Democrats, supposedly, support working people. For Booker to promote the stereotype that we are some sort of special interest, working against the needs of the children we serve, places him squarely as our opponent.

Again, if you're tired of being observed to death and being rated on junk science, be advised that Booker was a strong supporter of Race to the Top. Man, I am sick of racing to the top. Most days I just want to teach. If you feel the pressure to teach to the test, it's likely because you remember all the school closings that accompanied negative test scores. It's likely you remember the wave of school closings right here in fun city. Who can forget entire staffs being sent out to wander the city as ATRs?

The notion that the only variable in the classroom is the teacher is part and parcel of the reformy philosophy embraced by Booker and his ilk. Bill Gates decided poverty was too tough to deal with, spread a bunch of money around, and opportunists like Booker jumped on the gravy train. Who cares if we end up vilifying working teachers, as long as we pretend to be helping the kids those working teachers serve every day?

Booker's support of vouchers alone should disqualify him as a Democratic candidate. Private schools are largely (if not completely) non-union. They pay considerably less and offer fewer benefits than union jobs. We don't need a Democrat who supports non-union jobs. For the most part, charters follow the same playbook. The best I can say about them is they have to at least pretend to be public schools. Most Democrats, like Obama, drew the line at vouchers. Booker can't even be bothered hitting this very low bar.

There was some funny business back when Booker was Mayor of Newark:

All the while, from 2006 to 2011, Booker was still receiving annual payments, which totaled close to $700,000, from his former law firm—Trenk, DiPasquale, Webster—from which he had resigned once elected mayor to avoid “the appearance of impropriety.” Booker’s campaign spokeswoman, Silvia Alvarez, told me: “He was paid out by the firm as part of his separation agreement for work he performed before he became mayor.” OK, sure, but while Booker was profiting from the firm, they were profiting from Newark: over $2 million in work for Newark’s Housing Authority, the Watershed Conservation Development Corporation, and a wastewater agency. “That’s almost like Sharpe James-type shit,” one New Jersey Democratic operative offered.

Sound fishy to you? It does to me. And what happened to the 100 million dollar Zuckerberg contribution to Newark, besides merit pay for teachers? It's hard to say. Booker would tell you it's been misrepresented, It doesn't seem to have been a glowing success, by any account other than Booker's staff.

Hey, if you thing teacher unions are representatives of Satan, if you think every educational woe is the fault of working teachers, if you think Betsy DeVos is a fine arbiter of educational policy, if you think junk science is a good metric for teachers, and if you think Americans should keep right on grossly overpaying for pharmaceuticals, Booker's your guy.

If you're a teacher, or a person who believes working people need union, or anyone who thinks the needs of We, the People are more important than those of hedge funders, pick someone else. Cory Booker is the very worst the Democrats have to offer, bar none.

No Union for You, Says Amazon

It's kind of incredible to imagine that we're giving billions to Amazon and it won't agree to remain neutral on unionization. As always, in deals like this one, there are big promises to create big jobs for many people, and big promises of big profit for the government. It looks like Trump and Scott Walker's big giveaway to Foxconn didn't produce the jobs it promised.

Will Amazon keep its word? I'm pretty confident it will keep its word to discourage union. After all, Amazon is not known for its worker-friendly environment. They don't like it when people go to the bathroom. The environment is not particularly conducive to safety. It's not the kind of factory job you'd jump up and down about. This account states they treat warehouse workers as robots.

As if that's not enough, this plan precludes two LIC schools that were to be created. I don't know what you do every day, but I wake up and come to the most overcrowded school in New York City. After I teach, I sometimes begin to walk to my department office, right down the hall. However, the traffic is so bad, more often than not I turn around and go downstairs.

It's obscene that the city sees fit to find space for Amazon, but not schoolchildren. I've written about this before:

From my perspective, teaching 34 students in half a classroom, I’m not particularly concerned about where the world’s richest man parks his business, let alone his helicopter.

Can you believe we're building a helipad for the richest man in the world, and he turns around and says he opposes working people organizing for better conditions? Perish forbid that New Yorkers (if indeed it is New Yorkers hired for this enterprise) should negotiate for decent working conditions. Amazon, evidently wants to reserve the right to maintain the sub-standard environment it offers workers elsewhere in the country.

Bill de Blasio regularly gets painted as far-left, some kind of commie weirdo dirty hippie or something. Andrew Cuomo is on a crusade to persuade us that he's the second coming of Bernie Sanders. Where do they stand on this? I hear crickets, and only faintly at that. While the troglodyte from Starbucks walks around casting calls Americans have health care and billionaires pay taxes as extreme, the fact is most Americans support those policies. Most Americans also support calls for a living wage.

The fact is that union is the best way for most working people to get their voices heard. In numbers we are always stronger, and we need to get back to that, rather than continue to abandon it. The extreme right's suppression of union began with the killing of PATCO by Saint Ronald Reagan, and continues today in the form of the unelected, unrepresentative SCOTUS passing Janus. They're not finished either.

If Cuomo and de Blasio wish to continue representing themselves as the voice of the people, they'll tell Jeff Bezos to take his stinking helicopter and fly to Mississippi or some other "right to work" paradise, where they can exploit people and they'll still keep voting for Donald Trump and his ilk.

Most Americans want decent working conditions. If Amazon doesn't, it doesn't deserve our business, let alone the excessive and profligate corporate welfare being showered upon it by people claiming to represent us.

Thanks to Mike Schirtzer

Howard Schultz, New Anti-teacher Gazillionaire on the Block

You have to hand it to Tevye the milkman. Every time Michael Bloomberg, or Donald Trump, or Howard Schultz opens one of their overprivileged mouths I remember what he sang in If I Were a Rich Man:

And it won't make one bit of difference, if I answer right or wrong,
When you're rich, they think you really know.

So I'm not surprised when Schultz, with no political experience, who rarely even votes in elections, is all over the news saying he wants to run as an independent for President. He's running as an independent because he knows the Democrats won't vote for him. When you're planning to buy yourself an election, you can't fret over whether or not people want you. When Bloomberg couldn't make it locally as a Democrat, he became a Republican. Now that he can't make it nationally as a Republican, he's become a Democrat again.

You kind of hope that Schultz and Bloomberg will cancel one another out. Schultz paints himself as a centrist. He's not in favor of wacky notions like making sure all Americans have healthcare. Nor is Bloomberg. They've got theirs, so screw you and your family. Schultz is also not in favor of raising taxes on earnings over ten million. Why fritter away money no one needs on healthcare for Americans when it could sit in his enormous pockets and help no one whatsoever?

But that's not remotely what's got me writing about Schultz. Clearly he's just another clod pushing corporate crap. But the other day, he said this, while urging we negotiate drug prices:

"We have to realize what's wrong with the political system is that pharma has as many special interests as the NRA [National Rifle Association], as the teachers union. Let's get rid of that," Schultz said.

Wow. Let's look at who he's comparing us with. We know that people are going broke trying to pay for insulin because the drug companies have rampantly raised prices. We know that there have been sweetheart deals so that they could keep their prices ridiculously high, fleecing us and insurance companies. We know that, right over the Canadian border, the same drugs cost considerably less, and they lobby to keep things bad for Americans.

Then there's the NRA, which has been in the business of blocking common sense gun legislation, so that any lunatic can pick up an AR-15 and shoot up whatever or whoever he feels needs shooting up. We know they've brainwashed Americans that the price of freedom is tolerating mass murder in schools, and that they think sending thoughts and prayers is more important than, say, closing the gun show loophole that renders local law ridiculous and impotent. They represent themselves as the voice of the people when really they're just a lobbying arm of the gun industry.

And who else does Schultz include amongst these purveyors of death and ruin? Teachers. We are awful, because we lobby for a living wage, decent learning conditions for students. reasonable class sizes, and other such horrors. Schultz will put an end to all of our evildoing. Who the hell do we think we are, standing up for ourselves? How dare we devote our lives to helping children?

Really, though, we are just a bunch of teachers. I'm always amazed at politicians who get up in front of God and everybody and say, "I support teachers. I'm just against teacher unions." Readers of this blog may have noticed I'm not fond of a whole lot of GOP politicians. I kind of liked Bob Dole for a while, despite differing with his views, because he had a quick wit and could clearly think on his feet. Then he made a teacher/ teacher union statement like that and ruined everything.

Who the hell do these people think is in teacher unions? Unlike the NRA, we're not pretending to represent anyone but ourselves. Have we started any opioid epidemics lately? Not to my recollection. Teachers are in teacher unions, and teachers are teacher unions. When we stand for better wages and working conditions, we don't only make things better for ourselves. We make things better for our students as well. 

When we stand for union, for collective bargaining, and for collective voice, we stand to preserve a route to middle class. There are at least two people in my building who've been my ESL students. The one I know better is the first of her family to attend college, and the first of her family to reach middle class status. I will fight to keep her there, and to save that opportunity for other students of mine, and yours, and for our children.

To that end, I have no use for people who stand up and say, "I've got mine, and the rest of you can go screw yourselves." That, in a nutshell, is what Howard Schultz is selling.

Morale and Momentum

Sometimes it's hard to be optimistic, What makes it particularly difficult is the certain knowledge we're traipsing around with targets on our backs. This is nothing new. Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much, but a whole lot of them take money from the anti-teacher, anti-public-education lobby.

Michael Bloomberg, who hates us and everything we stand for, ran as a Republican to become mayor, and now wants to buy himself the Democratic nomination for President. As if that's not enough, there's that Starbucks billionaire who paints himself as a moderate because he opposes health care for the likes of us and taxes for himself. It's mind-boggling what people get away with these days.

For those of us in New York, the most visible evidence of reforminess is our evaluation system. I'm personally at a loss how we fix it. I think it was a big step that we won fewer observations. That will somewhat cut the extreme stress of working teachers, but it's not enough. I still see crazy supervisors distributing capricious and unfair ratings, and that's unacceptable. On the other hand, I still see junk science test scores helping people raise those ratings more than lower them. What do you do in the face of a situation like this? It's going to take a lot of work to turn that around, and it's sadly not going to happen overnight.

And just when you make a small bit of progress, you open Diane Ravitch's blog and see the Koch brothers have decided to remake public education. Ravitch is not pleased.

The Koch brothers are living proof that this country needs a new tax structure to disrupt their billions, which they use to destroy whatever belongs to the public.

Unfortunately, all that money will be aimed at us. Perhaps the Koch Brothers, like Rupert Murdoch, see all that education money and wonder why more of it can't be in their pockets. After all, it's important they have even more money they don't need for any conceivable reason. Maybe they want to continue teaching their twisted version of history. What we know for sure, though, is that they want their moneyed voices to further eclipse those of us who actually do the work.

In the past, most conversations about education at these twice-annual Koch confabs have quickly turned into bashing teachers unions. So it was notable when Brian Hooks, the chairman of the Koch network, went out of his way to praise teachers and acknowledge that many have been picketing recently.

Perhaps they will take a page from the Bill Gates playbook and start another fake teacher org, like E4E. Personally, I don't trust the Kochs any further than I can throw them. If you think it's a coincidence that Donald Trump is President and we have a Supreme Court that doesn't represent the will of the American people, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can give you a good deal on. They money they're dumping  into this enterprise is pretty considerable:

The announcement came Monday at the end of a three-day seminar where 634 donors who have each committed to contribute at least $100,000 annually to Koch-linked groups gathered under palm trees at a luxury resort in the Coachella Valley.

Sounds like a nice place they picked, doesn't it? Do those sound like your working conditions? Are those your students' learning conditions? Do you believe for one minute that the frigging Koch brothers are looking to invest in improving them?

The fact is they're talking about easing the tensions between charter and public schools. They're talking about having the government fund religious schools. My instant translation says they want people to stop fighting non-union schools. They want us, working teachers, to lay down our skepticism and embrace them. And what do they like about them? Well it can't be that they're are better than public schools, because they aren't.

The fact is that non-union schools pay a whole lot less than public schools. I have a sister-in-law who works for a religious school. Her salary and benefits look nothing like mine. She doesn't have tenure and has to keep signing contracts over and over. She hasn't got a pension, but rather a 401K or something. Her employer pays a whole lot less into her retirement than mine does.

These are the sorts of things the Koch brothers would like to see. They want the money you don't get paid to end up in their pockets. It's hard for me to even imagine why they need more money. It's hard for me to imagine why Americans think they merit our support. I guess, though, when you can buy media and influence enough to create something like the Tea Party, you can make that stuff happen. They made Janus happen, and that's not enough for them.

We need to be active, vigilant and outspoken. We can't afford to feel sorry for ourselves and we can't afford shyness. All over the country, teachers have had enough. While we're better off than a whole lot of our brothers and sisters, we can't afford complacence either. We need to stand strong and make Americans and New Yorkers face the truth--the very same people who attack us are attacking the middle class. People who'd build walls aren't really worried about Mexicans--they're worried about us.

It's our job to keep them that way. We can either place our heads in the sand and cry, or fight the bastards. I much prefer the latter.