tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21436987880734851182024-03-13T16:46:53.457-04:00The Doenuts BlogSome things in Education are silly. Some are just plain nuts. This blog ain't about the silly stuff!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger231125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-49160978636705853472024-02-23T17:57:00.007-05:002024-02-24T20:31:30.935-05:00A Goodbye for James Eterno<p><i>I was out of town when James was laid to rest. I also wanted to wait a few days until after all the blog posts subsided and the service was over before I published. I fell out with him there before the end. I felt the opposition stood a great chance of winning the votes of all active teachers in the last UFT election and I urged him & others to reach out to moderate and right wing voices who we knew were ready to run with us. He & the others didn't see it the same way and eventually ran a left-only slate to oppose Unity (who summarily beat the crap out of them, winning almost every single division except high schools -again). I was mad so I took my marbles and went home. I'm still sore about it, to be honest, so I did nothing to repair the breaches that were caused before his stroke. And now that he's passed, and that opportunity will never arise, I feel responsible to at least try to leave a small record of what has been lost with the quieting of James voice. </i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>And I should start with a basic fact; that if talent or merit or love of <i>union</i> had played a wider role in the arch that was this man's union career, you would be reading a memorial about a famous high ranking or UFT or AFT official who moved the entire labor movement by building leaders within his profession and fighting like hell for it. He was that brilliant. He was that strong. He was that good. Alas, those professional qualities play a very small role in New York's teacher union. So you are reading a memorial about a great dissenter instead. But make no mistake, he was the greatest our union ever saw. And you're lucky if you ever knew him. You're lucky if you ever read him or talked with him for more than ten minutes at a time or agreed with him or argued with him with him or learned from him. Just lucky. </p><p>He had enough balls to stand up to powerful men and women (and I mean politically powerful men and women). He had enough brains to know <i>how</i> to do it. And he grew leadership from among those around him in order <i>to</i> do it. While a chapter leader at Jamaica High School. James helped start ICE. The ICE blog became a major voice against many of Bloomberg's policy of closing schools, specifically, the teacher union's complicity in allowing them. But James' voice on education wasn't the only one to ring out of from Jamaica High School during this time. A colleague of his wrote about education for the <a href="https://nypost.com/author/marc-epstein/">New York Post</a>. That colleague (who freely admitted to me in my teacher lounge that James was an inspiration for his choice to write about education) went on to be a thorn in the side of the UFT as well. In 2008, he inspired another colleague, unfairly placed in the rubber room, to start his own blog to fight back. And, although Eric Chassanoff passed away during COVID, his blog was the highest read edu blog across New York for a very long time (according to my checks of Google Analytics during that time). Eric's blistering criticism of the DOE leadership left little to the imagination and was matched only by his dearly held resentment for it. You probably read his blog once or twice, but <a href="https://chaz11.blogspot.com/">Chaz' School Daze</a> was actually essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the UFT and the NYCDOE under Bloomberg and Klein for a very long time. That blog was created by one of James' members at Jamaica.</p><p>That was James' brand of leadership and it continued all the way up to his last election. I personally knew of his efforts in fostering and supporting the growth of new candidates for chapter leader positions, new teachers to the DOE and even new radio show hosts. There are very few leaders who grow other leaders but that was James Eterno's stock and trade. He simply inspired others around him. He will never get credit for creating not one but fully <i>three</i> widely read anti Bloomberg/Kein edu blogs at the height of the education wars. You won't hear his voice on WBAI or on the modern UFT Executive Board. But it's there, alive and well in the form of new opposition leaders that he helped develop. </p><p>And James Eterno was the greatest chapter leader of his generation. Although he is best known for his fight to stop the closure of his school, Jamaica High School, James' lasting contribution to working teachers of New York was to provide a blueprint for <i>how</i> to stand up, <i>who</i> to stand up to (and who to stand with) as well as how to articulate the utter insanity that led to his school's demise (that's a long story. I feel like I have to explain)... </p><p><br /></p><p>... Under Michael R Bloomberg and Joel Klein, the City fo New York embarked on a ferocious attempt to reverse white flight and attract middle and upper class parents to move back to the city. That attempt led to the creation of small, boutique schools all over the city where white middle class parents would want to send their children. In order to accomplish this, Black and Brown students, as well as students who required extra support services, were all (all) assigned to traditional neighborhood schools which lacked the resources to properly service the hundreds and, in some cases, thousands, of higher needs students who had been assigned to attend together. The result was a highly segregated school system and a whole host of overburdened schools that fell into poor academic standing.</p><p>Rather than admit to the neo-redlining policies they had enacted, Klein and Bloomberg helped establish a fictional narrative for the entire city where 'poor teachers' and 'bad teaching' was to blame for the mess that they themselves had created. UFT president at the time, Randi Weingarten, went right along with the program in exchange for retaining a seat at the table of the state and national DNC and for more cash for the teachers who were able to hold on. </p><p>In order to validate their narrative (and to create more space for his boutique schools), Klein over flooded large schools with too many higher needs students than the schools could handle. Once the school statistics went down, the city would close it, displacing community students and open a new one, thus filling the 'new' seats with, 'new' (ie gentrified), students. This was the game plan under Bloomberg and Klein. </p><p>And James fought it tooth and nail and as much in the public eye as he could. The voices coming out of ICE during this time sounded (both individually and collectively) a stark alarm and painted an almost full, complete picture of what was happening and why it was happening from a teacher's point of view. Although it was before my time, I am told that, as a member of the Executive Board, James challenged UFT president Randi Weingarten at every turn, taking advantage of every opportunity. Back at his school, I was told that he organized parents and colleagues and community members and students alike in order to avoid the closing of Jamaica High School. I know first hand that, once the closing was announced and the DOE began phasing out students and excessing teachers that Eterno fought like hell right up until the end... </p><p>Of course this more notable fight was a loss. Ultimately, Jamaica High School did close and every teacher there (James included) were sent elsewhere as substitutes (sorry, "<i>teacher assigned" from the ATR).</i> For many, their new principals did not trust them, their new colleagues steered clear of them. But not James. He impressed at his new school and they kept him teaching a full load until he retired. In this loss, though, James showed everyone who cared <i>how</i> to fight the Bloomberg/Klein system and this has become his lasting legacy: You fight it by organizing with allies to amplify your voice. You fight it by calling attention to yourself. You fight it by drawing swords against the leaders in your own union, holding them accountable for their role in the devastating policies and by relentlessly criticising them in public, even during times when you were working with them in private </p><p>In addition to the road map he helped write, James helped to articulate what had really been happening to struggling and working class families all across New York. Activists responded, sure, but eventually families in central and south Queens responded as well. In 2013, they, as well as most of the rest of the city, voted to send the very antithesis of Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, to Gracie Mansion. School closings and the teacher wars here in NYC ended very shortly thereafter and, with the spotlight snuffed out here in New York, the ed wars soon ended across much of the country's urban centers too. Only those who understand the UFT's power and complicity in that disaster of an era know that James Eterno was one of the major forces behind the efforts to stop it. But those of us who do understand know it very well. </p><p>And I'm happy to tell that tale and I hope you mention, in your travels, how a New York City public school teacher who was prevented from rising the ranks of the union that he loved more than many of the union officials who work it was able to convince so many of of us to climb up on top Rocinante and take a shot at the windmill with him. I'm happy to count James as one of my mentors of the UFT and grateful for the wisdom I have gained from knowing him. And while I will greatly miss his presence on this stage, I'm confident that his protogees who are still in that fight have been given all the tools they need in order to continue it. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-63172308166885122182023-10-15T18:06:00.004-04:002023-10-15T19:36:26.801-04:00End the Mysoginy at the UFT HQ. Restore Amy Arundell as Queens Rep. Remove Michael Mulgrew as President<p>End the Misogyny at the UFT HQ. Restore Amy Arundell as Queens Rep. Remove Michael Mulgrew as President</p><p></p><blockquote><b>UPDATE</b>: Michael Mulgrew will have the audacity to show his face at the Queens UFT office tomorrow at 4 PM to exaplin this latest example of the pure contempt he has for professional women who rise through the ranks. He will be flanked by three other men. If he reads this, he will probably bring a token woman along with him. </blockquote><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Folks who know the UFT have long known that a culture of suspicion and fear permeates the organization. Its headquarters at 52 Broadway is a hotbed of fear and loathing. It has been described by many as a toxic place to work and has made many victims of great teachers and unionists. This culture is not entirely built upon the misogyny I am about to describe but the contempt, mistrust and suspicion of women -specifically women who dare to reveal themselves as equals to the men who actually run the union- has had a significant presence on that culture for many years. This is the reality of the UFT office staff under president Michael Mulgrew and has been since Randi left for the AFT. This, among folks who know the union, is known and never mentioned. </p><p>It's ok to be a woman if you work at UFT HQ, by the way. Just don't ask to be seen as equal to the small handful of men who make all of the decisions. It's ok if you're not a man, mind you. It's probably better if you dress nice or make the important men feel nice. Just don't you dare present yourself as equal to those men. If you do, bad things will happen. It is the most disguised and disgusting form of misogyny that we have in New York City. The women are there. They're capable. They go to every meeting, attend every event and support every initiative that is requested of them. But they are nowhere to be found in the highest levels of officership in the union and they won't be any time soon. </p><p>When Amy Arundell took over the Queens office, there was no UFT presence in those schools at all. Teachers were harassed and abused in the workplace in schools all across the borough as a matter of routine. It became common. Nearly all of the hardcore unionists, including the bloggers arose from Queens precisely because this fact. As Queens Rep, Amy Arundell began organizing chapters, supporting chapter leaders and supporting individual teachers. She held "organize your chapter' events and took to social media posts to answer teacher questions and concerns. She became widely known as the only UFT official who really cared about teachers' rights and teachers' work experience and teachers from all over the city came to knowAmy Arundell's tough, direct approach. "Amy Arundell is the Best Unity Has to Offer" is how well-known teacher Arthur Goldstein described her. By the end of the last contract negotiation, Amy was organizing teachers all across the city for professionally themed days of action and was personally responsible for the UFT's newest tool; the Contract Actions Teams (CATs). Those teams helped organize chapters of schools all across the city. She is also the only UFT official who has refused to say "don't strike" when prompted to on a zoom training that she (as opposed to anyone else) organized and offered to all teachers. </p><p>No one was paying much attention last Friday, October 13, when this dynamo uniost (the same one who organized the entire borough of Queens by supporting teachers) was quietly removed from her position as Queens Borough Rep. No one was paying attention when a white man replaced her either. That's how misogyny breeds: It grows when no one is paying attention. And no one pays attention on a Friday afternoon. That's when workplace abusers do their best work. </p><p>But the fact is that on that on a rainy Friday in October, when he knew the DA would not meet for another month and he knew the Executive Board would not meet for another 2 weeks, Michael Mulgrew had another man, Anthony Harmon, send an ALL STAFF email out to every UFT employee in Queens informing them that the person who rebuild that borough office had been reassigned. The email gave no explanation (after all, who are they to have to explain themselves?) but said that Mulgrew was coming down on Monday -with three other <i>men</i>- to speak about it to staff. </p><p>When no one is looking. When no one is paying attention. That's how this contempt for women leaders grows and sustains itself. </p><p>Teachers found out anyway. Many took to DOE Teacher Chat -a Facebook group with almost 32,000 NYC UFT members- to share the news and to express their outrage at the decision. Amy is the *only* union official who routinely helps teachers, you see, and much of her work has been done in that group. So it stands to reason that some of the posts and comments told a tale of anger and betrayal. You see, none of those UFT people give a sh*t about teachers and we know it. Amy does and we know that, too. So the anger was there on Teacher Chat all weekend. </p><p>"Why did Mulgrew remove a person who has been sop helpful to us?", wrote one teacher. </p><p>"Shame on whoever removed Amy Arundell as the Queens Borough rep. I am absolutely disgusted and embarrassed for our union hearing about this" wrote another. "I urge every Queens chapter leader in this group to mobilize their staff and pusg back against this nonsense"</p><p>One Chapter Leader from Queens started a petition in support of Amy which, after 18 hours (over a weekend; when on teachers pay attention) neared 500 signatures. (You can sign the petition <a href="https://www.change.org/p/uft-petition-in-support-of-amy-arundell?source_location=topic_page">here</a>).</p><p><br /></p><p>And the union trolls -those despicable union officials who normally patrol the DOE Teacher Chat by shaming teachers into silence there- were noticeably silent throughout the entire weekend. Hiding, I'm sure under the nearest rock they could find. </p><p>They are almost all men, by the way The trolls are mainly DRs and member reps from the Brooklyn and Manhattan offices and many of them help Michael Mulgrew sustain the culture of fear and suspicion that he has established over at the UFT. They are almost all men. </p><p>(Some of them were, no doubt, behind this misogyny (as in I have no doubt) and, as a consequence, they hid in silence -like slugs who hide from the daylight; the hid away while teachers expressed how abandoned they felt to have the one unionist they felt was ont heir side removed. The trolls posted nothing under the real names all weekend. But when things turned bad on Teacher Chat, they did try to post -anonymously- to throw shade on the woman who they had targeted. Otherwise, they shelter in the swamp they have helped nurture.)</p><p>Now misogynists will always make an excuse for their abusive acts of misogyny. This is a fact of life for successful woman. Behind those excuses, though, is a simple contempt for women who can do the job better than the cigar smoking man ever could (Amy Arundell does the job better than them). Misogyny takes the form of a silent accusation before the woman is usually swept away. This case is no different. No sooner did word about her removal begin to spread, did we all started reading sudden anonymous posters on facebook who claimed that Arundell had yelled and screamed and defended Palestinian civilians last Wednesday (Arundell is not a yeller or a screamer and many witnesses have publicly said this never happened). One of the accusers -a man- had accused her of trying to amend a resolution. That wasn't true. Another -again, a man- said that she didn't defend Israel or some such. Witnesses again say no. </p><p>Since contempt for women is on the menu, it didn't much matter than two Zionists immediately went public in their defense of her. One actually wrote that that, "<a href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/uft-exec-board-members-open-letter">Her views</a> on the government of Israel are totally in line with many of my Jewish friends and family". None of that matters at UFT HQ. The culture of fear and suspicion had all the ammunition they needed to attack another woman and they used it. </p><p>The Misogynists had their excuse to get the woman who made them feel threatened. That's Misogyny. It's just that simple. Last Friday, misogynists took false advantage of an historically horrible moment and attacked the woman who made them feel threatened. That's how the game works at the UFT. </p><p>But Michael Mulgrew will have the audacity to show his face at the Queens UFT office tomorrow anyway. He will be there at 4 PM to mansplain his latest example of the sheer contempt he has for professional women who stand on the same level and who do the job better than he. He will be flanked by three other men. If he reads this post, he will probably bring a token woman or two along with him. </p><p>Michael Mulgrew and the two other men who run the UFT are hiding behind a terrible moment in history specifically to remove a woman who they see as a threat to them and to their power. Mulgrew needs to be removed as president. This union is suffering under his poor leadership and is hurting under his overcompensating act of punishing a woman -or anyone- who can do the job better than he can. </p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-63124066680860879802023-07-04T13:59:00.015-04:002023-07-04T14:10:37.348-04:00Why You Should Vote YES On the Contract Tomorrow<div style="text-align: left;"><i>It's raining this morning. I write when it rains. 🤷♂️</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Let's be clear. This is too much damn work for a lousy 3% yearly raise. This is bullsh*t. Teachers work very hard stressing every single detail every single day. Teachers know hard work. We're no strangers to it. Yet even by teachers' standards, this raise is bullsh*t. New York City teachers work twice as hard as even their own colleagues in other urban districts and many of us have been discovering that the teacher shortage has now made its way to New York's suburbs as well. I see more and more leaving for the suburbs every year. This contract will accelerate that process and the reason that process will be accelerated is that this is too much damn work for a 3% per year raise. The realities of financial life will lead teachers and potential teachers to make their own economic decisions from this very practical position. It's too much damn work for that level of pay. We will have a brain drain soon, if not a full-on shortage. That dye has now been cast. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am glad that Power's That Be in the UFT and NYCDOE have concluded that, sure, they can probably loose x% of their teaching corps to higher paying jobs in the suburbs or the private sector over the next few years yet still operate a school system. That's nice. It must be nice to look at a whole system in that light. It fails to capture that those of us who are not going to leave for the private sector or the suburban school districts are going to suffer from a peculiar type of anger that will only seethe toward or employer but will be fully and professionally expressed in union interactions, andso I am sure it must be nice. But that's going to be the tone and tenure of this teaching force over the next several years. <i>Whatever to the DOE and screw the UFT </i>is going to be the theme over the next few years and that is because of this terrible pay increase. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If I weren't less than 10 years from one of the last livable pensions in the US, I'd bounce, too. If an Uber driver coupled with a few free-lance gigs from home, can land a person more cash than a tenured teacher's salary in New York City, then why else stay? I can explain why I would go: Because this is too much damn work for a lousy 3% raise for the next few years. There is no other way to assess this financial package. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Having said all that, if you haven't voted by today (July 4th) then I suggest you take a subway down to the AAA tomorrow 7/5 and <u>vote yes</u> for this contract. Here's why:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><div style="text-align: right;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">American Arbitration Association</div><div style="text-align: center;">120 Broadway, New York 10271 </div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. It's less work than we had in 2018. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Many of us will be paid for as many as 55 minutes each week for what many of us already do from home; call parents. Also, we will have to be in the building for at least one day less every year (more, actually). It agrees that PTC are remote. This all means less work at work and that frees up time. Some of us may get a jump on traffic so that means even less time commuting! It means less time to be away from the family and friends and more time to be near them. That's what it means. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The extension of OPW time means less time being droned at by supervisors in meetings. For me, being droned at feels like work. But spending that same time in my classroom, grading papers so I have less papers to grade when I'm at home doesn't feel like work. Maybe that's just me. For me, that's just getting some work done so that there is less for me to do at home. Don't let people fool you: Extending that OPW time means less work for us. That is now our time to catch up. This is less work. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is too much damn work for a lousy 3% yearly raise. And it is still too much work. But there will be less of it because of this contract. That's why I voted yes. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">2. New Opportunities to Make Extra Money</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This blog has always been super favorable of UFT HS VP Janella Hinds. I have called her transformative in the past and this contract is an example of the transformative leadership I was writing about. Our remote learning experience has done many things. Among those many things is advance the process of teacherless teaching. This was a real concern. This is exactly what Bloomberg meant when he said he wanted to cut the amount of NYC teachers in half (half!). At one time in high schools, classes for credit recovery had as many as 100 students in them or more, each learning from some dumb watered-down <i>not educating</i> online system or another -and one teacher being paid to watch over it. COVID's remote learning experience threatened to advance <i>that</i> process. The technology package of this contract ensures that good paying remote teaching jobs, for teachers, go -to UFT teachers. Not to some website or company sucking on the teet, but to city teachers. And not for per session, but <i>pro rata. </i>(Per session is a fixed amount per hour rate. It is worth roughly half of the hourly rate of top salary teachers. <i>Pro Rata</i> is 20% of your annual pay for each year-long section or course you teach). The UFT and the DOE have guaranteed that remote learning can continue to grow in New York City without watering down the learning process and without preventing teachers from being paid a fair wage for doing so. This whole topic was a lemon for us and had been for years and Janella Hinds and her team turned it into lemonade (that's the transformative part). This is money. This is a chance for teachers to make more money in good paying pro rata overtime jobs -forever- from our homes. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are lots of items I choose to indignantly ignore about this contract. For instance, the "signing bonus" is insulting, but I'll probably spend it. The "annual retention bonus" promises -someday- to pay just enough for a suit and pair of shoes to wear on our next job interview, but I'll probably spend that on something else. The terrible pay increase negotiated for para educators ensures that <u>no para will ever be asked to work in my presence again (</u>THANK YOU for coming in to do this with us every day). And keeping track of the time allotment among these new complicated SBO choices for the school day has officially become more difficult than the statistics unit from an AP Psychology course. But I have developed a lot of indignance over the years, so I will continue to ignore. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm angry at the pay. But the creation of new time means less work and the chance to work from home for some good overtime are the two reasons you should head over to the AAA tomorrow (before 5PM) and vote yes for it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">American Arbitration Association</div><div style="text-align: center;">120 Broadway, New York 10271 </div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p>It's just across from Zucotti Park. You can take the 4/5 to Wall Street. </p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-85635985146274315802023-05-28T14:00:00.007-04:002023-05-28T14:00:51.265-04:00Our New Annual Pay If The Pattern Holds By Year<p>As we approach the end of the school year, it's a pretty good time to remind you that the union and the city both want a new teacher contract in place by the end of the school year. As we wait, there has been a lot of published misinformation about the possible pay from this soon-to-be-agreed upon contract (and way too much commentary). </p><p>As it stands, it's probably a good bet that we won't receive any pay from this deal until just beyond September. This is because some folks would have you believe that if you don't VOTE NO on the contract, your medical insurance will run out and you won't be able to visit a doctor. But it is also because others will soon soon be running across the whole city trying to get you to believe that if you don't VOTE YES on the contract, your medical insurance will run out and you won't be able to visit a doctor). </p><p>They're both nuts. </p><p>Yes we're getting screwed. And yes, we're also getting a raise. And we need to know how much it looks like we're going to recieve. </p><p>Here at doenuts, I subscribe to an insanely old theory that teachers are highly educated and can make up their own minds for themselves. So I took a minute and calculated how our raises may look if we get the same patterned deal that DC37 received. That deal includes:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><li>A $3000 check if we vote yes.</li><li>3% for 2023</li><li>3% for 2024 </li><li>3.5% for 2025 </li></blockquote></ul><div>Here is what DC 37 received (don't forget, their first two years of raises were from the city's previous pattern. We have already received that pattern raise so I added an annotation so it makes more sense). </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbAF93n14M_zSZAKnnf2kXF9X4IiPfjOcelEsYqrSWqcz6AECqW74LFwWi0Nv2HsHNGo7Prs0mRlVQhnj45arVBadO3KAxS2tG9eXR4CjrGAJVVAjAF3g0S8Coaq5hQD99YZUb4tbz8X7W5J3Kqn2Xv1eTP4sp8gHKn1aGFYZI7VmSFhYZKxbqXLTH5A/s708/Screen%20Shot%202023-05-28%20at%201.04.02%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="708" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbAF93n14M_zSZAKnnf2kXF9X4IiPfjOcelEsYqrSWqcz6AECqW74LFwWi0Nv2HsHNGo7Prs0mRlVQhnj45arVBadO3KAxS2tG9eXR4CjrGAJVVAjAF3g0S8Coaq5hQD99YZUb4tbz8X7W5J3Kqn2Xv1eTP4sp8gHKn1aGFYZI7VmSFhYZKxbqXLTH5A/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-05-28%20at%201.04.02%20PM.png" width="320" /></a> This data comes from the DC37 website and I added the annotations after. Here's the link <a href="https://www.dc37.net/dc37contracts/economic">https://www.dc37.net/dc37contracts/economic</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So how would these raises look in our paychecks? I used this old tool (called math) to figure it all out and, want to share it with you here. You all have lives and families and we can all use at least an idea of what the new pay will be. See below. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(<b>Karen Disclaimer</b>: While there may be a mistake here and there, these numbers are fairly accurate calculations and should give you an idea of how your new check will look. But if you do catch a math error, just let me know in the comments and I'll adjust (if you're correct. If you're one of those sanctimonious folks and you're wrong, I'll just make fun of you here for as long as I care to and send you a box of day old doenuts).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><p></p><blockquote><p> </p></blockquote>
<iframe height="2200px" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRpsX_YxBEpOX-DGM3ITwpQdmwQndT5jQtgqefoY5YWogbnQKw33uF3dUkFI7ebVaSB1rDi0bKGOHSu/pubhtml?widget=true&headers=false" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-83191534879653126792023-02-04T10:38:00.010-05:002023-02-04T10:52:17.707-05:00The UFT Teach-in. Part 3: A Briliant Stroke<p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #484848;">This has been adapted from a thread I wrote on Twitter. You can read that by clicking <a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1621495142682173440?s=20&t=RF9ainGkbUMAAT3dEMfaCQ">here</a> and tapping 'show thread' </span></p><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #484848;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In order to more fully describe the flex, I should probably explain why this teach-in was such a smart move…</span></span></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="🍩" aria-label="🍩" class="an1" data-emoji="🍩" loading="lazy" src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/e/notoemoji/15.0/1f369/72.png" style="height: 1.2em; vertical-align: middle; width: 1.2em;" /><img alt="👇" aria-label="👇" class="an1" data-emoji="👇" loading="lazy" src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/e/notoemoji/15.0/1f447/72.png" style="height: 1.2em; vertical-align: middle; width: 1.2em;" /><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Part 3. A brilliant stroke </span><img alt="👇" aria-label="👇" class="an1" data-emoji="👇" loading="lazy" src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/e/notoemoji/15.0/1f447/72.png" style="height: 1.2em; vertical-align: middle; width: 1.2em;" /><img alt="🍩" aria-label="🍩" class="an1" data-emoji="🍩" loading="lazy" src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/e/notoemoji/15.0/1f369/72.png" style="height: 1.2em; vertical-align: middle; width: 1.2em;" /></span></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Of course what happened was a teach-in. But beneath the surface, what occurred wasn’t about a teach-in at all. </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The Labor Movement in America has </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">long been on a terrible decline. In New York, those who have worked toward its resurgence have been slowed by laws, decisions, contracts or cultures that have prevented unions from ever reaching step 1 (</span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I talk about the three steps <a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1620611189721165824?s=46&t=5BAML4Vews_Omb4sC_XLGQ">here</a>). </span></span></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQv_F7lEjaur1N6lsUnPYTFEEr_iMO-Fgu7hjWcA1Brr95ahdw8oX4j-G4egjozk9j_RYjU8pY4gHyIytTl0qehk2aDMDf9QCxBBHSpXGWaFsprBhVMHznDmnszO8eqhJrDRawjT8RGWx8Wqo7fb9soPMx3IEqEHAH6shA9qvEt5b_ppUQ4fp5i2SAVQ/s998/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-04%20at%2010.09.31%20AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="998" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQv_F7lEjaur1N6lsUnPYTFEEr_iMO-Fgu7hjWcA1Brr95ahdw8oX4j-G4egjozk9j_RYjU8pY4gHyIytTl0qehk2aDMDf9QCxBBHSpXGWaFsprBhVMHznDmnszO8eqhJrDRawjT8RGWx8Wqo7fb9soPMx3IEqEHAH6shA9qvEt5b_ppUQ4fp5i2SAVQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-04%20at%2010.09.31%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">One example about being slowed by skewed law is Sam Amato, a unionist <a href=" https://www.today.com/food/news/starbucks-fired-13-year-employee-union-leader-rcna42705">who was fired</a> from Starbucks. His firing was legal here in New York State. Had his colleagues not staged a walk-out in support of him, we wouldn't know his name today. </span><p></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0D_3KUWtWz64eFy-HBNEWc1DNfjzLrB1bmU4amc1FSS685BkpLCixG9qjkOQciq7iy7RLYQ6oCBYYLXz6GxNbfi-7MZNfKsuC5IOQc9arLe59vW8Ayy2FONahN9uZo-wzvk5bnwZ2oTYx9p4-rDNFCB1mRGaop5FKfJ_3ek7xf4ibc-cjWaLV2m9-qQ/s972/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-04%20at%2010.09.41%20AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="972" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0D_3KUWtWz64eFy-HBNEWc1DNfjzLrB1bmU4amc1FSS685BkpLCixG9qjkOQciq7iy7RLYQ6oCBYYLXz6GxNbfi-7MZNfKsuC5IOQc9arLe59vW8Ayy2FONahN9uZo-wzvk5bnwZ2oTYx9p4-rDNFCB1mRGaop5FKfJ_3ek7xf4ibc-cjWaLV2m9-qQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-04%20at%2010.09.41%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is an example about how culture slows hopes of a resurgent union movement; specifically how Amazon tried to discredit Chris Smalls, hoping to discourage unionism there (I would have broke. Chris Smalls is a superhero). <span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></span><div><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">NY Teachers have their own law: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Law">The Taylor Law</a>. It's better than the law they had before 1968, but it is so harsh that *any* service that would otherwise normally be performed cannot stop without it being against the law. This means that t</span><span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">he UFT can’t even call for a work action where all teachers stop grading HW at night w/out it being illegal. This frustrates any notion of resurgence. <a href="https://www.workers.org/2006/us/taylor-law-0413/#:~:text=The%20Taylor%20Law%20in%20New%20York%20State%20prohibits,pressure%20on%20employers%20to%20bargain%20fairly%20with%20employees.">Here is what the very radical Workers' Worl</a>d published about the Taylor Law's "Work to Rule" language:</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><blockquote>The Taylor Law in New York State prohibits public employee unions from conducting strikes, or even job actions like “work to rule.” Violation of the law leads to fines, sanctions against the union and even jail for union leaders. But there is no pressure on employers to bargain fairly with employees.</blockquote><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Some folks may say "screw it, let's break the law" (and, let's be clear; my heart is with some folks!). But </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">for the first time since Al Shanker ran it, the UFT found a way to hold a <u>perfectly legal</u>, powerful city-wide worksite-based job action. This happened during the workday; at the work site and in hundreds of schools across the city. They threaded all of those needles. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">To the trained eye, what I just described is next to impossible in New York. The whole system is designed to *prevent* union members from coming together at all. </span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And even if they do, over a job action? At work? During the hours covering the general work day? This is next to impossible here. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The powers that be have carefully crafted an entire apparatus that keeps teacher unions' hands tied. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">Yet UFT organizers found a way to do it anyway. </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">If we had met to discuss a strike, this work action would be illegal. If we had discussed a sickout or other work stoppage, this would have been illegal. But, with the strategy of teachers teaching teachers during work, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">the UFT organizers found a legal middle ground where they <i>could</i> stage a work-based action that *also* fulfilled its duties to the law. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">Management didn’t see that coming. </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">Most of us didn’t. </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">Some in oppo still don’t. </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">But it happened.</span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">This is a precedent. This is a brand new language of unionism. It isn't as harsh as some of us would like to act but it was legal, which means we (or any union) can do it again. No reasonable manager in any industry could stop something like this from happening. Other locals in other industries are <i>going</i> to find ways to emulate this *perfectly legal and new strategy of finding (legal) ways to perform wide scale job actions (legally). </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">But that’s only part of what actually happened on Monday … </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s said that when James Madison read the decision in </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Marbury-v-Madison" style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Marbury vs. Madison</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> in 1803, he paced up and down the president’s office growling “wrong wrong wrong, but the life of me, I can’t understand why”. Madison was a crankly, but brilliant person who wrote the constitution and most of the Federalist papers but the decision was so brilliant, even he didn't understand it at first. </span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">That's because the power of that decision lied in its consequences. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">In denying itself the power to issue a writ of Mandamus, the US Supreme Court was able to do something far more powerful: it got to be the one to tell Congress “No”. It was a brilliant stroke. </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Something somewhat similar has happened here.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In performing the innocent and harmless act of a teach-in, more than 500 principals were <i>informed</i> by their staff that it was happening —and the teachers and their union were the ones informing them. (Again, this happened across all 5 boroughs. 73% of all UFT members out in Queens were part of it. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">This is subtle but it’s a profound shift in the dynamic between the UFT and the City of New York and the DOE. Literally all of the rules and laws and customs are designed to stop exactly that from happening city-wide. But it happened anyway. It was legal, professional, ethical and honorable.</span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Yes. Last Monday, tens of thousands of New York City’s Smartest freaked out their bosses by teaching each other; as a union thing. And it was cool</span><img alt="💙" aria-label="💙" class="an1" data-emoji="💙" loading="lazy" src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/e/notoemoji/15.0/1f499/72.png" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; height: 1.2em; vertical-align: middle; width: 1.2em;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">). </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Generally, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">when you ask to do something, your will to do it is dependent on the will of another person to <i>grant</i> you permission to do it. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But if you <i>inform </i>a person you're going to do something, well your will doesn't depend on theirs so much, does it? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Just as in Marbury, The flex was in the power of being the ones to say so.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTYqTMnqmJRUlcax9Qsrb3Ox75fQhTDrKC22SaZM_vvdn07xbACDS_ltBUsT9VSiatXr4EuYFv_u8RjPIPso3aE0bJJEGRlxc-y-DV2kik6i2bDlLf0bPci4wSNVp6LkwMXum4upT-iy8mKdt1lqe1yzbcFcumObZ9Jl4fv06k08GeUX1GH_D_Mdy9w/s984/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-04%20at%2010.31.15%20AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="984" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTYqTMnqmJRUlcax9Qsrb3Ox75fQhTDrKC22SaZM_vvdn07xbACDS_ltBUsT9VSiatXr4EuYFv_u8RjPIPso3aE0bJJEGRlxc-y-DV2kik6i2bDlLf0bPci4wSNVp6LkwMXum4upT-iy8mKdt1lqe1yzbcFcumObZ9Jl4fv06k08GeUX1GH_D_Mdy9w/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-04%20at%2010.31.15%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>Navigating the legalities of getting there was smart enough. But convincing tens of thousands of teachers to say “we *are* doing this” as well? That was a brilliant stroke. </span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: medium;">And somewhere between 17,500 and 34,000 thousand teachers teaching teachers, and the union brothers and sisters who love and support them, allowed Mike Mulgrew to toughen up his language and flex through the press. This <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/youre-going-to-have-to-see-some-friction-nyc-teachers-union-steps-up-pressure-on-mayor-for-raises">headline</a> you see here isn't power. It’s strength (step 3). <br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-55116036592501026052023-02-01T20:19:00.003-05:002023-02-01T20:25:53.598-05:00The UFT Teach-in. Part 2: The Flex<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><span style="font-size: medium;">The biggest single group of public school teachers in the USA flexed just a little of it’s muscle —for the first time in decades. <br /><br />🍩👇 Part 2. The Flex 👇🍩</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">— nycdoenuts (@nycdoenuts) <a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1620611189721165824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2023</a></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This has been adapted from a thread on Twitter. You can read the second part <a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1620611189721165824">here</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To understand the flex, we should chat briefly about the strength of any union. Generally, strong unions follow a 3-step process. <b>1. They grow their numbers. </b>They do this by getting a lot of members to join together over something. That brings them power, so <b>2: They grow their power</b>. This power lies *somewhat in tens of thousands of members wanting & talking abt the same thing but it *mainly lies in management seeing this and becoming concerned. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That fear is institutional, not personal.<u> But it lies at the heart of the union’s new found power. </u>Check out step 2 in action. Take the 1.3% that I mentioned<a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-uft-teach-in-part-1-untrained-eye.html"> in my earlier post</a> as an example. This 1.3% means that, whatever happens moving forward, the union now has 1000 more *active* foot solders within its ranks than it did before this happened. In a labor movement on the wane, any management would see this as an outlier and that management would be concerned. That’s step 2. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Step 3 is simple. After having earned that power, <b>3. Become strong</b>. After a while, a union begins to exert its power by getting great deals for all of its members. For unions, these great deals come in the form of great contracts. This is when all the magic happens. Most of our rights came from a contract signed in 1965. We didn’t even strike that year 😂!! 😂😂That’s not exactly power. That's strength. That’s rule 3.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">***</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now management is part of the trained eye. Please know this! They usually do their best to foil a union at step 1. They do this by pitting teachers against teachers over a copy machine or some overtime, or by keeping friends away from each other on lunch break or by harassing, retaliating or scaring the loud teacher so much that the other teachers will watch and will become too fearful to gather for a union event (sound familiar?). </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The list of their tactics they use goes on and on and I refer to them as doenuts because, frankly, there is no other thing to say about them. But that's them stopping us at step 1. That's the typical dynamic in NYC schools. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Every so often, though, a union does reach step 1: They do find a way to grow their numbers. This doesn’t happen often these days but when it does, it means something special is afoot: It means that management’s first line of defense has been swept away by the tide of upset employees. Let's be real here; who the hell cares about getting trouble at their job if their job isn't even putting food on the damn table? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Management never realizes this until it is too late. The bosses never realize something is up until it's just too late. The DOE is no different than any other management when it comes to this. On January 26 (at 6 in the evening!) the DOE OLR sent this missive out to all principals in NYC (<a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1620618077762383873">click to enlarge from the Twitter version of this post</a>)</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEP_1woAcju2KWhaLpLM0hKETuGuTn_RWJBswZZQnpktAvvA9dozB2jMJaAPn-PZp6QORbIkrwRu-Sv2jZJLQEjf9_k9Wg28m6J5pK7DE2cdq0vO5ugIdiXPMXp_TKnSheX2NzLCrqw-agdK0tEYPbbXUZ3MShKQjPqDRH4_C4ZiHqBOHwjjflBffaQg/s1268/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-01%20at%207.55.16%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1268" data-original-width="384" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEP_1woAcju2KWhaLpLM0hKETuGuTn_RWJBswZZQnpktAvvA9dozB2jMJaAPn-PZp6QORbIkrwRu-Sv2jZJLQEjf9_k9Wg28m6J5pK7DE2cdq0vO5ugIdiXPMXp_TKnSheX2NzLCrqw-agdK0tEYPbbXUZ3MShKQjPqDRH4_C4ZiHqBOHwjjflBffaQg/w121-h400/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-01%20at%207.55.16%20PM.png" width="121" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Important to note that they sent this five days before the event took place and only *after* learning that 1000 teachers had already showed up to be trained to go back to their chapters and do this unionism thing. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That shook them enough for an after hour email to every Principal in NYC. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Each principal is assigned their own school attorney. The attorneys could have provided this advice and in fact, much of a school attorney's day is spent offering advice just like this about employee rules and laws. That this email came straight from OLR hints at the urgency with which it was sent. They didn’t have time for proper channels! So they just sent it out to everyone they could. That urgency came partly from the late arriving realization that something involving a very large number of teachers was about to happen and that they could not stop it. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And therin lies the flex: The union grew its numbers of <b>active</b> members across all 5 boroughs and the DOE was powerless to stop them. It's now documented that 1000 school based union leaders were christened last week. Those 1000 members then turned and christened between 17,5000 and 34,000 members into dignified, honorable, legal unionism this week. And management could not stop it. In fact, it all happened right in front of the DOE's eyes -and all they could muster to stop it was an urgent, after hours email. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This reaction was on school levels, too. At least one school in LIC, Queens, opted out of the teach-in because, as the chapter leader put it, “the principal got an email that there about this whole thing so , yeah, we are staying away from that”. (Quick side note: This is scary business and most of us who would have held the teach-in anyway fully understand this concern).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Getting management to react in this way helps unions grow their power. The <i>trained</i> eyes saw the doe react. The <i>trained</i> eye knows what it means when you get your opponent to react: it means you have that power. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That DOE email helped the UFT reach step 2. We grew our power. (They, literally, helped us do it. (This also happened in that school out in LIC: those teachers went home and saw colleagues from all across the city did what their chapter leader said shouldn’t be done. There is power in that, too). Because that same chapter leader sent an email out to all members <i>the very next day </i>assuring folks at that one school that they would find a way to hold the teach in sometime this week. (That Chapter Leader's email isn't <i>part of</i> the flex. It is <i>a result of</i> the flex).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, in order to more fully describe this flex, I am going to have to explain why this teach-in was such a smart move. Given the legal, political and cultural environment surrounding NY schools these days, I'm going to have to explain the brilliance behind the idea of a teach-in. Look for that explanation in a few short days. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjxGjzh-dN9GhQp14lEbDvUbTXjRYmw6LiJ8PopA5QRGPIKkUFrBSuPArHuO8nXpjpY2uD-hEPsHMHAZ6cM3dzUSoOo4l1NuCO0to_T2d4swkH5WZQsg3_7IdEKm7at8nnv-Ssn5j87RidQTVh14ROu-_e3Ntf8-u-UltDjC5VRBdYXd--_aRWDzDs7Q/s1230/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-01%20at%208.04.07%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="1230" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjxGjzh-dN9GhQp14lEbDvUbTXjRYmw6LiJ8PopA5QRGPIKkUFrBSuPArHuO8nXpjpY2uD-hEPsHMHAZ6cM3dzUSoOo4l1NuCO0to_T2d4swkH5WZQsg3_7IdEKm7at8nnv-Ssn5j87RidQTVh14ROu-_e3Ntf8-u-UltDjC5VRBdYXd--_aRWDzDs7Q/w640-h238/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-01%20at%208.04.07%20PM.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><u><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></u></p><p><u><br /></u></p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-90917312437140952422023-02-01T19:36:00.002-05:002023-02-01T20:25:34.277-05:00The UFT Teach-in. Part 1: The Untrained Eye<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE UFT JUST FLEXED AND THE NYCDOE FELT IT<br /><br />🍩👇Pt 1. The Untrained Eye👇🍩</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">— nycdoenuts (@nycdoenuts) <a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1620611160440700928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2023</a></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This has been adapted from a thread on Twitter. You can <a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1620611160440700928">read the original</a> thread here. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To the untrained eye, it sure looked like the NYC teacher union held a teach-in on Monday. While the final tally isn’t in yet, sources inside the UFT say that teachers in more than 500 schools participated in the event. 500! For proof that this is remarkable, consider this: <span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sources in the DOE have long mentioned that the average school in NYC serves app 800 students. Rough estimate:a school that size is served by been 70-100 staffers who are also UFT members. If only 1/2 of each staff participated, then 17,500 people were part of this teach-in. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, system-ui, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;">For more proof that the event was remarkable, consider that a city-wide event such as this hasn’t occurred since the days Albert Shanker ran the union (that’s 3 UFT presidents, 4 decades 8 US presidents ago. It’s been that long). This was remarkable.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That untrained eye may have noticed news stories covering the event. Here’s one:</span></p><p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><span style="font-size: medium;">The UFT teach-in. The union wanted us to see the real power in numbers that we have. What a flex. What an amazing flex. More on this … <a href="https://t.co/hV1NDY8zLp">pic.twitter.com/hV1NDY8zLp</a></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">— nycdoenuts (@nycdoenuts) <a href="https://twitter.com/nycdoenuts/status/1620414745101615104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2023</a></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">And <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/education/2023/01/30/teachers-union-holds-contract--teach-in-">here is another</a>. It is noteworthy that teachers having lunch together made the news. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is also important to remember. Lunch … <b>will</b> make the news, <i>if</i> you can get enough teachers there.</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;">That the event has garnered enough attention to be covered by the news is one thing. But the depictions coming from the news outlets bare mentioning as well. There is something about teachers coming together that captures the imagination. </span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/01/i-want-be-motion-too-uft-brings-contract-negotiations-public/382376/">Here is one example of this that City and State chose to publish:</a></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;">“People at this moment are paying attention to the world around them and we see a lot of workers in motion,” said Amy Arundell, UFT borough representative for Queens and an organizer for Monday’s teach-ins. “People are saying I want to be in motion too, I want to participate in my own survival as a worker and as an educator and make things better for myself and for my students.” </span></blockquote><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In the weeks leading up to the event, more than 1,000 teachers had volunteered their own time to be trained on how to conduct a teach-in back at their schools. This should be mentioned here too. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">That is 1.3% of the entire NYC teaching force. They were so fed up about teacher pay that they stood up to be leaders (not participants, but leaders) back at their schools and lead their colleagues in the all too familiar struggle for a fair wage. </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The untrained eye might have missed that fact, but it doesn’t really matter. When between 17,500 & 34,000 UFT members or more (including 73% of all members out in Queens) participate in a teach in for a contract for teachers, folks notice. They notice perfectly well. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">What the untrained eye saw is perfectly accurate. But there are trained eyes in NYC politics too. Those trained eye saw something very different on Monday. And only those trained eyes know full well what actually occurred. I'll talk about that in Part 2.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgCG0_tDTgoJWiLvC6owTMmyAaOb02Vluzik9HxYlO8tJuuxF34Fa2kIx4JlZakRiY1bnO1--MsuA7y_74Tx9OrQudYXmKmGQuLxa-gMPER15rM6qfvdVXZMxfUUEQfu5UwHYONecCLhPCnsuiwQbsUMDpQDnhD6kuODAPz2Qr0fzf_U7IZWfa2iFtQ/s1212/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-01%20at%207.31.09%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="1212" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgCG0_tDTgoJWiLvC6owTMmyAaOb02Vluzik9HxYlO8tJuuxF34Fa2kIx4JlZakRiY1bnO1--MsuA7y_74Tx9OrQudYXmKmGQuLxa-gMPER15rM6qfvdVXZMxfUUEQfu5UwHYONecCLhPCnsuiwQbsUMDpQDnhD6kuODAPz2Qr0fzf_U7IZWfa2iFtQ/w430-h201/Screen%20Shot%202023-02-01%20at%207.31.09%20PM.png" width="430" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Click here for the blog version of Part 2. The Flex</span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><br /></p></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-6542421054056874902023-01-17T08:34:00.001-05:002023-01-17T08:34:16.007-05:00It was the Best of Musk. It was the Worst of Musk. (Pt. 2)<p> <span style="font-family: inherit;">I just wrote. a quick</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2023/01/it-was-best-of-musk-it-was-worst-of.html" style="font-family: inherit;">post about Elon you can read if you want. </a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Here's a recap:</span></p><p></p><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">He's a major funder of OpenAi's <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-doe-blocked-chatgbt-it-was-wrong.html">ChatGPT</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">He has been at the center of many of America's economic shifts since the late 90s</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">The innovations he has taken a part in creating have changed all of our lives one way or another</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">They have also reshaped how our future will look</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Those innovations are <i>the best of Musk</i> </span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Glad you're all caught up. Let's start talking about the worst of Musk.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I left off pointing out that<i> </i>he is a<i> devout </i>capitalist<i> </i>and how that fact has implications on how the rest of us will access his innovations. Let me explain what I mean by <i>devout</i>. I mean he's here to get rich(er). </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is nothing wrong with that. I'm not sure he leans more toward the libertarian side or the socialist side. Whatever side it leans toward, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The point is that he is committed to pursuing profit. In fact, he wouldn't be successful if he hadn't followed all of the rules of capitalism and found a way to make a profit for his ventures. In the game of corporate profits, Elon Musk is the absolute winner. In the entire world. You don't get to the top of <i>that</i> hill without having a committed approach to profit. See Max Weber's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism">'...Capitalist Spirit'</a> if you want to read more about the commitment that is required in order to be successful in capitalism. Elon's devout. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Not all of us are <i>devout </i>capitalists. Sure, we all benefit from profit and many of us believe in it. I like to go to a for-profit Italian style bakery near my house every Sunday for bread. I like my iPhone. I like my video game collection. But I also like government services like garbage collection, police and fire protection and a good solid school I can send my kid to every day. I am in this capitalist system as a public school teacher, so I like that too. Sure ,there may be some who believe that my Italian bakery should be government owned, so that Sunday bread can be evenly distributed to everyone in my community. I respect that point of view. Others may feel that the ladies who own the bakery shouldn't be forced to follow any safety regulations at all and that they should not be asked to treat their workers in a humane manner. I respect that point of view as well (although I would also stop buying my bread from there if any of those were the case). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In my travels, I have learned that most of us aren't devout about <i>anything</i>. The rest of us are sort of mixed in our opinions. And that's what most of us aim for. We aim for a <i>mixed</i> economic system where folks are protected while also having a shot at making their cheddar cheese by way of good old fashioned profit. Socialism alone would be a failure. But capitalism alone would be a failure as well. Both have flaws. Most of us like to pick a little bit from each buffet tray.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In its practical functions, capitalism requires huge sums of money (called capital) to be swept <i>away</i> from some so that it can be redirected <i>toward</i> others. This isn't a slight against free market systems or anything. It's just how this particular one works. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Where did you think your TDA investment into the <a href="https://www.trsnyc.org/memberportal/WebContent/publications/financialReports/fundProfilesWeb">Sustainable Equity Fund</a> went after it was deducted from all of our checks last week? That money lands in an investment fund that benchmarks (aims to follow) the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_1000_Index">Russell 1000 Growth Index</a>. That's an investment fund of 1000 of the biggest, fattest most well-known corporations you can think of. Each of them are accepting your money -twice every month- by simply extending their hand (i.e selling shares). That's right. The money you make as a teacher goes to defense contractors like Booz Allen Hamilton and to 1%er banks like the Bank of Carnegie Melon and Blackrock. These institutions are the very pillars of modern day capitalism. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course there is a promise that you will get your money back for whatever their paper is worth at that time. That's the deal you make when you choose to invest. But that choice means that you have allowed your money to be swept </span><u style="font-family: verdana;">away</u><span style="font-family: verdana;"> from you this month and have it redirected </span><u style="font-family: verdana;">toward</u><span style="font-family: verdana;"> the devout capitalists who operate those corporations. Again, this is not a slight against the system. I am simply describing to you how it works. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Many of us are not entirely comfortable with how <i>much</i> money gets swept away from the 'many' and toward the 'some'. We have a homeless problem in our nation, but local organizations including governments have no money to address it. We have an <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html#:~:text=The%20drug%20overdose%20epidemic%20continues,of%20overdose%20deaths%20involve%20opioids.">opioid crisis t</a>oo, but there seems to be no money to assuage it. 13.9% of all New Yorkers <a href="https://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/new-yorkers-need-look-poverty-trends-new-york-state-last-decade#:~:text=Under%20the%20Official%20Poverty%20Measure,12.8%20percent%20of%20all%20Americans.">live below the poverty level </a>(that data seems low to me) and they can divert no money to help because it has all been swept away to go elsewhere. That's capitalism too. Through many paths and means, all of that capital lands in a bank accounts of a large US corporation, where it is invested. <i>That's</i> capitalism. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Elon Musk is a devout <i>that.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">On any given day, the Sustainability Fund may also be invested in Tesla. I am sorry to break the news to you, but Elon has your retirement money. He's probably buying coffee with it right now. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Unlike the rest of us <i>regular </i>capitalists out here running through our daily lives placing reasonable expectations on our local governments for things like garbage collection, schools and policing, <i>devout</i> capitalists are here to get paid. <i>Those</i> capitalists have <i>your</i> money so they can profit off of it by making great things that you can buy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hopefully. Whatever you're buying, there is someone else who can't afford it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because this is how the whole system works, everything Elon does requires a profit in order for him to survive. And that profit comes from people spending money on the things that he sells. That may be hard for folks to see at first. But go ahead and try join the EV revolution: The starting price for that is around $50,000. Why don't you buy some of that Starlink? The cost for that is $1300 per year with a $700 deposit. Want to go to Mars? Sure! That'll be $500,000, please. Welcome to the revolution. The experts say that, soon, ChatGPT and tools like it will <b>not </b>be free either<b>. </b>That seems to make sense when you think about capitalism . But that locks people (namely the ones I work with) out of all of these possibilities. <i>That's</i> capitalism.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Do you get it yet? This is the man who helped common folks sell things online. This is the man who changed the automobile industry. This is the man who bought a space capsule home using rockets to land. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And last week, his efforts with ChatGPT led the New York City Department of Education to divorce AI from its professional educators and students. That is the fruit of a tree that Elon has helped to plant. This historic innovation, which brings with it a profound statement of boundless exploration and hope for political, cultural and economic advancement, is now off limits for the seventy-four percent (74%) of city students who lived in poverty in 2018 (<a href="https://nypost.com/2018/10/29/poverty-rate-soars-among-nyc-schoolkids/">here</a>). The DOE has run away from this as fast as they possibly can. (🍩). He's <i>that</i> guy too. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And now he has brought that devout spirit of capitalism to Twitter. When he bought the company, he fired half of the employees. Many wound up being more loyal to the DNC than they were to Twitter (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_Files">here</a>). Shortly thereafter, he sold the blue dot for $8 per month. And just recently, he introduced a new product where, for a couple of hundred dollars (or less) users can easily boost views on their tweets and links.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">That last innovation brings that spirit of capitalism within eyesight of a core American value: Elon has capitalized free speech. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And that's why I'm writing this series. This devout capitalist who has become the richest most impactful person in the country is selling something new: Your ability to be heard. That's a small but profound shift and part three will focus on that; on a possible reality where people cannot be heard because they cannot afford to. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before I write the lats part, though, I'm going to drop a few dollars to boost the reach of this blog post. I would like see just how much free speech money can buy me in this harsh economic environment. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'll leave off with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqyXvMrQDk8">a link to a song about Musk</a> that my teenage kid listens to. The lyrics fully capture the complexities that Musks' many (many) shifts have wrought by addressing where those contributions are already falling short. </span></p><p><span jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">🎵When I said take me to the moon</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">I never meant take me alone</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">I thought if mankind toured the sky</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">It meant all of us could go</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">But I don't want to see the stars if they're just</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">One more piece of land for you to colonize</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">For us to turn to sand</span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">So f** your tunnels fuck your cars</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">F** your rockets fuck your cars again</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">You promised you'd be Tesla</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">But you're just another Edison</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">Because Tesla broke a patent</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">All you ever broke were hearts</span></span> </blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">I can't believe you tore humanity apart</span><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">With the very same machines that could've been our brand new start</span></span></blockquote><p><br /></p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-27071841870509565892023-01-15T13:23:00.011-05:002023-01-16T20:21:16.443-05:00It was the Best of Musk. It was the Worst of Musk. (Pt. 1)<p>The other day, <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-doe-blocked-chatgbt-it-was-wrong.html">I wrote</a> about how ChatCPT was blocked by the NYC DOE and how banning it was a step in the wrong direction. </p><p>OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT is one of Elon Musk's companies! It was founded back in 2015 as a non-profit company. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl7Hr8PfsyeU-kvZN6ItYnrx4EpaMYbtCOJQ88G60Z_NFLmE20Aan2OdWSGueFe9wR6SLFJFL8_XO7_xpF663z1Ohc-aEBtead4jSwBZI_bT3EkHL_8wgHHFpG-PrhFsWHnsf7X6rygwkgWMUOK6f5YalNkl94Z-YC4qCN_-5vn45AQH4jxY8nf1jGAQ/s1458/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-09%20at%207.01.16%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1458" data-original-width="1450" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl7Hr8PfsyeU-kvZN6ItYnrx4EpaMYbtCOJQ88G60Z_NFLmE20Aan2OdWSGueFe9wR6SLFJFL8_XO7_xpF663z1Ohc-aEBtead4jSwBZI_bT3EkHL_8wgHHFpG-PrhFsWHnsf7X6rygwkgWMUOK6f5YalNkl94Z-YC4qCN_-5vn45AQH4jxY8nf1jGAQ/w199-h200/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-09%20at%207.01.16%20PM.png" width="199" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">AI created this profile picture</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Elon Musk has been at the center of nearly every shift in consumerism since he founded PayPal back in 1998. That service created a shift in the way people moved money and eventually allowed regular Americans to access major websites like E-Bay and Etsy to make money by selling their stuff. His ownership and leadership of Tesla is famous for creating another economic shift -in the automobile industry. GM and Ford, two automakers who had resisted producing electric vehicles for decades, are now<i> </i>producing EVs because of the competition that Tesla brings to their market. That's all because of Elon Musk. <p></p><p>Think of Elon (in a symbolic way), as a real-life Tony Stark. We live in an age of EVs, privately owned spaceships and artificial intelligence. All of it is available to the masses (if in a technical sense) because of what he has been involved with creating. The world hasn't seen anyone like this since Edison, Tesla and Ford were alive. So when I first learned that Elon Musk was supporting OpenAI, I knew that another shift (the age of AI) was going to creep up on us as well. And here it is. <br /></p><p>This is the best of Musk! We have choices and opportunities today that we could only see on TV when we were kids. But here's the thing: Elon is a devout capitalist. That has implications on how the rest of us access his innovations and <i>that</i> will have implications on all of us. </p><p><i>The best of Musk</i> is reflected in something like ChatGPT (please give it a whirl! And think about how it can expand your reach into the people that your students will become). But that is the short story. You can't have the short without the long. Long and short sort of define each other when you think about it. </p><p>So I am going to write a few posts about Elon and try to tell the longer story about how the societal changes may look. He has a true gift for finding profound shifts in human progress through profitable innovations and that gift is beginning to have profound implications for the rest of us. As I hinted in the title, not all of those implications are great for us so please check back here. Part 2 will be about Capitalism and part 3 will be about Free Speech. But this series is all Elon! As it says in the song ... </p><p><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;">🎵I can't believe you tore humanity apart</span></div><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" jsname="YS01Ge" style="color: #202124;">With the very same machines that could've been our brand new start</span>🎵</div></span></blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;"></span><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-24895748310374589482023-01-06T20:17:00.020-05:002023-01-07T12:54:15.938-05:00The DOE Blocked ChatGPT. It Was the Wrong Move. Here's Why<p>If you haven't heard of ChatGPT, let me briefly introduce you. </p><p>It's a chat bot. </p><p>You access the chat bot (ChatGPT) by <a href="https://openai.com/">creating an account</a> with the company who hosts it. (That company is partially supported by Elon Musk). The chat bot is called ChatGPT. But you chat with it. That's all you do. It understands and answers you as though it is a well informed human being. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTJ_XDitIQ6QTBi0Cncu-uXDREsjoSE2fb7AE69_7QJelNinmOESQ9_p3ebutK4AZdhZn_KWlNTYMRlvGpRyC_5xcYrdtqTMdQybc9e1zi597KrBYXHr34ILHUdlk7SvTX47ChKs-FEFF-ageDkkvhWwrqMDQqE9LUtkeidDXlSRiwv-9XzuGyodyag/s1326/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%206.41.31%20PM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="1326" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTJ_XDitIQ6QTBi0Cncu-uXDREsjoSE2fb7AE69_7QJelNinmOESQ9_p3ebutK4AZdhZn_KWlNTYMRlvGpRyC_5xcYrdtqTMdQybc9e1zi597KrBYXHr34ILHUdlk7SvTX47ChKs-FEFF-ageDkkvhWwrqMDQqE9LUtkeidDXlSRiwv-9XzuGyodyag/w400-h139/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%206.41.31%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>It isn't a human being, mind you. It's an artificial intelligence chatbot. But it knows a lot about a lot andso it will answer you. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And what folks say about it is true! It can, indeed write you a complete essay, in the form and structure of your choosing, and in whichever writer's style you prefer -and it will do this in less than one minute. This is the essay killer. <br /></p><p>Here's what it wrote when I asked it to write for me. (Here is what I asked it):</p><p></p><blockquote><i>Hi! I am a school teacher who is frustrated with the decisions my school district makes. I write a blog called nycdoenuts. Can you write me two paragraphs of satire about my school district in the style of Charles Bukowski?Thanks!</i></blockquote><p></p><p>It delivered this to me in less than 45 seconds:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>"The school district is a place of endless bureaucracy and red tape, a labyrinth of paperwork and meetings that seem to accomplish nothing. The administrators sit in their plush offices, issuing edicts and decrees from on high, while the teachers and students toil away in the trenches, struggling to make sense of it all. And yet, despite all the nonsense and frustration, there is a strange sort of beauty in the chaos, a poetry of sorts in the absurdity of it all. So we keep trudging on, day after day, hoping against hope that someday, somehow, things will get better. But we're not holding our breath.</p><p>The school board is a collection of self-important blowhards, each one more pompous and out-of-touch than the last. They talk a big game about "student achievement" and "closing the achievement gap," but all they really care about is the bottom line. They'll cut corners and make deals with the highest bidder, all in the name of "efficiency." And the teachers and students? They're just pawns in the board's grand scheme, expendable assets to be shuffled around and used as leverage. It's enough to make you want to pull your hair out. But what can you do? It's a dirty game, and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches."</p></blockquote><p></p><p><br /></p><p>This is fairly close to accurate, if you know what I mean!! It does have one fatal limitation but that's something I will talk more about a little later. </p><p><br /></p><p>*****</p><p><br /></p><p>With all of this "Self-writing" involved, it naturally stands to reason that NYCDOE would have a knee-jerk reaction of <a href="https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/3/23537987/nyc-schools-ban-chatgpt-writing-artificial-intelligence">completely banning ChatGPT from any and all city schools and city devices</a>. On the surface, banning this seems very (very) pragmatic. After all, we can't have all these kids having the internet write their essays for them, can we? And, yes, steps should be taken for security purposes. </p><p>But if we dig beneath that surface, you may realize that the city DOE did (again) exactly the opposite of what students in the 21st Century actually need. We are no longer locked in the 20th century mindset of answering questions to demonstrate how prepared we are. We're in a whole new world. I mean, if the last twenty years of education and American History hasn't showed you that our students are more than just a performance score on a standardized test, then I don't know how many more years you will need before you realize that this method of teaching and learning is approaching its end. </p><p><br /></p><p>And there are skills that students do need for the 21st Century! A few years back, some conservative-leaning policy makers teamed with with a former president of Tanzania and created a list of 12 skills that they felt every student on Earth will need for the 21st Century. They sound new when you read them but the 21 Century Skills are, truly, old-school ideas that come straight from the days where you and I were in school and were asked to problem-solve. They are as old school education as you can think of. Here's how one <a href="https://www.panoramaed.com/blog/comprehensive-guide-21st-century-skills">website</a> defines them</p><p><b></b></p><blockquote><b>21st century skills</b> refer to the knowledge, life skills, career skills, habits, and traits that are critically important to student success in today’s world, particularly as students move on to college, the workforce, and adult life. </blockquote><p></p><p><a href="https://www.aeseducation.com/blog/what-are-21st-century-skills">There are 12 of these skills in all </a>spread across three categories of Learning Skills, Literacy and Life Skills. These are international skills, not just the US. And any student who possesses them will be, as the research goes, be successful in the 21st Century. Take a look at the chart below and think about what's there! Then think about what may be missing:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIos2wi1Y4f2ADYNmbslCTgtg5Z8T0YJTc0Xggxh8B4qig1jtoKJbDQjCW0BTUuQ-Q6pwrDcTHCc8Ot6732VNcR2Cbnu9K0M28SIkiUt7deE6Lrmf-fAMP4DWQYMIuWbZZeU5akl7809HfiOADFqvU1_s_0bJWyYIuc1NdEOiV2YcREzGODE-DJ_KKw/s1366/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%206.55.12%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="1228" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIos2wi1Y4f2ADYNmbslCTgtg5Z8T0YJTc0Xggxh8B4qig1jtoKJbDQjCW0BTUuQ-Q6pwrDcTHCc8Ot6732VNcR2Cbnu9K0M28SIkiUt7deE6Lrmf-fAMP4DWQYMIuWbZZeU5akl7809HfiOADFqvU1_s_0bJWyYIuc1NdEOiV2YcREzGODE-DJ_KKw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%206.55.12%20PM.png" width="288" /></a></div><br />. <p></p><p><br /></p><p> Did you notice how essay writing isn't listed as one of the 21st Century skills?</p><p><br /></p><p>Wait, stop. <b>Of course</b> students will need to write essays. I am not trying to make that point. Please read on ... </p><p>******</p><p>I want to go back to my point about ChatGPT's "fatal limitation": It does have one and that limitation is super fatal. It is greatly limited by <i>what questions the user is able to generate. </i>And being able to understand facts and basic details from a high level text and then phrasing those facts into a question are high order thinking skills. In the world of Bloom's Taxonomy, we call these "synthesis" skills. </p><p><br /></p><p>Take my example from above. In order to get the chat bot to write what to me in the style of Charles Bukowski, I would have needed to be able to perform these tasks:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>1) phrase a question in writing (after reading and understanding a difficult text)</li><li>2) Know enough to specify the critique my school district and </li><li>3) understand and internalize the writing style of one Charles Bukowski (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski">here he is!</a>). </li><li><br /></li></ul><p></p><p>Do you see the massive shift there? This changes everything. Students in the 21st Century will be required to <i>ask</i>, not answer, the right questions in order to be prepared for the world. </p><p>Please let that sink in. Everything is changing -soon. This is a massive massive shift. This is the era that ChatGPT has ushered in and the skills required to generate even these simple two paragraphs are some very high order thinking skills indeed. </p><p>****</p><p>I was going to play with this in the classroom during the month of January. I was going to ask students to use ChatGPT to "describe" how a picture of Mansa Musa might look using specific details from some primary source documents I have. I was then going to have them use another popular AI tool, called Dall-E 2 to generate a picture based on their description.(Yes. That happened as well last year. DallE 2 will take your description and generate a brand new original image based on that description).</p><p>The results would have varied by each student's knowledge of the my academic articles they read and how well they were able to phrase the questions they ask the software. It would all have come down to how well they read the document I assigned to them. Good annotations? You would have a great picture. Bad annotations? You would have generated poop. It would have been a fun little "end of semester" activity. </p><p>Only it won't happen, because the DOE has blocked it all. </p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, I tested this activity out for myself. Wan to see?<br /><br /></p><p>When I tested my lesson activity, ChatGPT was asked this question (the specifics were based off of the reading I was going to give to my students about Mansa Musa):</p><p></p><blockquote>Can you describe how a picture of how Mans Musa's would look? I read somewhere that he dressed in wide trousers, which were made from about twenty pieces of a kind of cloth that only he was allowed to wear, that his weapons were all made of gold and were kept near his throne at all times. I also learned that he dressed a page would always stand on his left holding a silk umbrella and that the surmounted by a dome and a gold falcon. How would a picture of this? I would like to ask Dalle to make me one.</blockquote><p>ChatGPT then returned this full description (pic below):</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggO9h9ipANPoOn3b4HTuMKjthEoHGas0JDCr7j4q_JsvFZejMP8wPRKsfdcU9xAYAz8Cx7eHKSPeRh41TYHPSkU8sA7fPYqrE7lwqb5S10F0Ce6-Z1qIr6H9tMwcIVHK2oHCWhpsfVbSf5JBAl_13H6X2Sy-yD3xvd5TMpABariMSVZ6VzH290W_T36w/s1278/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%207.46.58%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1278" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggO9h9ipANPoOn3b4HTuMKjthEoHGas0JDCr7j4q_JsvFZejMP8wPRKsfdcU9xAYAz8Cx7eHKSPeRh41TYHPSkU8sA7fPYqrE7lwqb5S10F0Ce6-Z1qIr6H9tMwcIVHK2oHCWhpsfVbSf5JBAl_13H6X2Sy-yD3xvd5TMpABariMSVZ6VzH290W_T36w/w400-h234/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%207.46.58%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But then I read and paraphrased that description and asked that other AI tool I mentioned (DALL E 2) to generate an original picture based on my paraphrase. Here's how I paraphrased the answer from ChatGPT:</div></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>"A picture of Mansa Musa depicted as a regal and imposing figure, dressed in luxurious clothing and surrounded by symbols of his wealth and power including wide trousers made from sumptuous cloth, and a page standing beside him holding his silk umbrella, and a depiction of his throne, which was surmounted by a golden falcon. " </blockquote><p></p><div><br /></div>The pictures you see below were generated by the other AI took; DALL E 2. But the description came from my interaction with ChatGPT. There are no other pictures like these anywhere on Earth. They are completely unique and based on my recollection of the reading I had ready for my class. <p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBdBaWoGy6acDdzuVmrac5TgS9cG4yIStYk0hU26AV9uZPnrTMr6La82PSwwMLrbLpkQpNggZesljseQdTOonEVGQwYzNDiCn1cAfY-mQcPdP-0Xu7Cm3cSVrg87SErb30xZLmP7SuOSBYBand04gZSTsfULgE4G7sOvQqeWjlj5cPx0apVLvrbAB2dg/s2114/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%207.42.38%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="2114" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBdBaWoGy6acDdzuVmrac5TgS9cG4yIStYk0hU26AV9uZPnrTMr6La82PSwwMLrbLpkQpNggZesljseQdTOonEVGQwYzNDiCn1cAfY-mQcPdP-0Xu7Cm3cSVrg87SErb30xZLmP7SuOSBYBand04gZSTsfULgE4G7sOvQqeWjlj5cPx0apVLvrbAB2dg/w640-h306/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-06%20at%207.42.38%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></p><p>(Ok. Yes they are probably <i>based on </i>familiar paintings, and pictures, but each of these includes specifics from the article that I was going to have my students read. This is the skill of phrasing a high order question and then paraphrasing the answer to that question).</p><p><br /></p><p>I think they are great images and they would have looked good in my classroom. But, as I mentioned, the tool has been blocked. you see, from all DOE devices and all DOE networks. So now I can't. </p><p>****</p><p>And maybe that's not so bad! It may well be pragmatic for the DOE to block all use of this for now. After all, <b>my</b> students <b>will</b> have to answer a bunch of questions and write an essay next year in order to pass their high school regents exam, won't they? This isn't the future. It's high school. </p><p>But this is how the future will look. This is what's coming. And, believe it or not, it is going to open up great possibilities for our students and completely disrupt the way future teachers do their job. Blocking it for now is a pretty good move. But preparing for the inevitable arrival of AI in our classrooms and lessons should also happen -now. If I know the DOE, there are probably more appetite for donuts than to begin addressing this. But this would have been the correct move. </p><p>Look, the first personal computer went on sale in 1971. The first laptop? 1981. Social media wasn't invented until the 2000s, and the iPhone, or greatest invention, was born in 2007. We now muc add 2022 to this list of special years because AI is here. Now. </p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-64019927480537712892022-08-13T17:12:00.021-04:002022-08-14T10:24:13.247-04:00The Post Office & the DOE: Comparing Manufactured Crises<p>In my <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/08/a-manufacture-crisis.html">last post</a>, I talked about manufacturing a budgetary crisis. I said I would post a quick description of the crisis in the Post Office. In short, it was manufactured by centrists and conservatives in the Senate. Once it was manufactured, though, it did its job and all but destroyed the US Postal Service. </p><p>NOw you may think of the USPS as a broken government agency and you may conclude that it needs a good solid dose of competition or some such in order to get its act together. However, that is exactly what the narrative wants you to think. So, unfortunately, you would be wrong. This is because the general public doesn't know that conservatives and moderates (of both parties) have been placing an undue financial burden on the US Postal Service for almost twenty years now. This is from the progressive think tank<a href="https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/"> US Institute for Policy Studies</a> ... </p><p></p><blockquote><i>In 2006, Congress passed a law that imposed extraordinary costs on the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. This burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation.</i></blockquote><p></p><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">If the costs of this retiree health care mandate were removed from the USPS financial statements, the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years. This extraordinary mandate created a financial “crisis” that has been used to justify harmful service cuts and even calls for postal privatization. Additional cuts in service and privatization would be devastating for millions of postal workers and customers.</blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Each and every year, the US Post Office must make a $4.6 Billion payment to its pension system <i>before </i>it pays any of its other bills. That means the USPS must earn $4.6 billion from parcel deliveries <i>and then </i>it can begin the enormous obligation of paying salaries and filling the trucks with gas and repairing the planes and the rest of their overhead. Any organization will suffer under those circumstances. </p><p>And, as you can see, we have an undue burden placed on our school budgets (my position is that it is undue because they have money from the federal government to pay for these budgets they are cutting. They simply refuse to spend that money). This new undue burden has the exact same effect as the budget cut does here in NYC. The bottom line is that they both have less money in their budget. That's all that matters to them. In both cases, they create a crisis in their budget whereas none had existed. For the post office, that led to draconian cuts to services for folks like you and me due to smaller and smaller budgets happening year after year. It led to less and less satisfaction. And it led more people to opt for the UPS store, instead of their local post office, when sending a package to Auntie or Grandma. </p><p>They make the whole experience suck. And people make their choices accordingly. </p><p>Again, once manufactured, the manufactured crisis does its job. It takes on a life of its own. Before long there are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2020/08/17/7-reasons-privatizing-postal-system-usps/?sh=5be161195303">articles on business sites </a>and whole websites dedicated to <a href="https://www.savethepostoffice.com/">"saving" the Post Office</a>. What they really want to do is privatize it. There even a <a href="https://www.savethepostoffice.com/how-to-privatize-the-post-office-piece-by-piece-step-by-step/">step by step guide</a> for doing just that. </p><p>And what does the public think? It is not widely known that the post office had been handed a $72 billion financial burden. I mean folks don't know that, right? That's not what folks talk about, is it. They only talk about how long they had to wait in line at the post office last Saturday and how much the experience sucks eggs. It's confusing when things are fine and then suddenly they are not fine. As a member of the public, you or I might conclude that someone made bad decisions in order to make the post office that bad. You never think that maybe things had been made to be <i>not</i> fine. A reasonable person would never think that great thought and care went into the actions that made the Post Office bad. A new financial burden did exactly that. Back in 2006, most of the country was concerned with the war of terror and the civil war that we had started in Iraq. Here in New York, you we couldn't board a subway without being concerned about a terror attack. Within <i>that</i> context, while no one was paying attention, they slipped this legislation in -and that new burden made the post office much much less than fine. </p><p>The NY Post and the City Comptroller <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/ny-court-pauses-judges-order-throwing-out-31-billion-schools-budget/">seem to feel</a> the actual cuts to schools this year will <i>really</i> be eight percent, or average $402,456 per school.</p><p></p><blockquote><i>The reductions amount to about $402,456 in cuts per individual school budget, or 8% of what principals get to spend on staff and programs, according to City Comptroller analysis.</i></blockquote><p></p><p>This will have the same effect as the post office did for the post office. Joe Public ain't coming to this blog six months from now to get "the real" story and realize that his child's school budget was unnecessarily cut back in June and Joe Public isn't going to understand that the after school clubs at said school were cut because some politician wanted to shock the system. Joe Public won't ever think or believe that. But Joe Public will be mad as hell <i>-at his child's school-</i> for not offering after school clubs. And there will be plenty of writers for newspapers who will 'help' Joe understand this. Joe will check Google, maybe read a few articles to find out what's going on. But Joe is busy and he will quickly conclude that the schools in general suck and that maybe he would be better off signing his child up for a charter somewhere or moving to Long Island. </p><p>And the end result will be a more privatized space. Competition has always existed in the parcel and package delivery space. But, since the post office crisis, we have seen one of the world's largest corporations, Amazon, enter the market and build an enormous fleet of planes and trucks for delivering packages<i>. </i>They will be <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/29/amazon-on-track-to-be-largest-us-delivery-service-by-2022-exec-says.html">larger than UPS or Fedex, its two privatized competitors</a>, by the end of this year. That market space was created by the crisis from the Post Office. That's how privatization looked in the postal space. </p><p>They would like to make something similar in the education space. (Obviously. It's been that way for along time). We see lots of marketing go into charter schools, don't we? And we see a general malaise and neglect in the neighborhood school, as well, don't we? New Yorkers, do you remember "The School of No" stories from six years ago? The NYPost discovered and then followed the stories from a neglected primary school in Queens. <a href="https://nypost.com/tag/school-of-no/">Here is the story archive. </a> As they castigated the school principal and shared detailed stories from staff and from families, they contributed, generally, a narrative about how 'public schools' were failing due to neglect. That's all those stories really are. They're part fo a greater narrative. When parents see enough of these stories, when they see enough of this narrative, they run for the nearest charter school waiting list and hope for the best. As would I. As would you. As would anyone who loves their child and has been enveloped by a whole entire narrative that is shared in the press and reinforced by an obvious lack of services. </p><p>Just like with the Post Office, what we are seeing is public relations campaign. They aim to hurt the schools and then turn to you and I with juicy little stories of individual neglected schools that have been hurt (by them). This will lead more busy parents to want charters. The politicians will then just go to Albany and say "look at all these parents! We need more charters!". Only at this point in the game, more charters literally means fewer public school schools. We use to have 1850 public schools in NYC. We now have between 1400 and 1600 (depending on which press outlet you read). </p><p>And, like the Post Office, education is one of the essential pieces of the country. Education in and for every community is a principle that actually predates the republic. <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/northwest-ordinance">The Northwest Ordinance </a>(and the Land Ordinance passed one year later) required that a school be built in every single community in the country and that that school belonged to the whole community. That law was made before the constitution. That's how vital schools are to Americans. Once the constitution was ratified, the Postmaster General was a cabinet-level official. That's how important the Washington Administration felt the post office was. The General of the post office was answerable only to the President of the United States himself. -and it remained <a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postmaster_General#:~:text=In%201971%2C%20the%20United%20States,in%20line%20to%20be%20President.">that way until 1971</a>. That's how vital the mail is in the US. These two institutions are very similar and are following a very similar paths. </p><p>If we experience a crisis in schools in September, it will be a crisis that was created by thoughtful, experienced political and school officials here in the NYC. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-8890742457010757202022-08-12T15:36:00.010-04:002022-08-12T18:38:21.427-04:00A Manufactured Crisis<p><i>Still working on poor <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/08/dolores-dreams-ii-monster.html">Dolores' story</a>. I'll drop Part 2 soon.</i> </p><p><br /></p><p>Pay careful attention. This is how a manufactured crisis is developed. This <i>isn't</i> how you manufacture a crisis <i>per se (t</i>hat's<i> </i>because the folks who are trying to manufacture this particular crisis are clumsy and clueless. They underestimated the strength of community and parent and teacher groups and, frankly, they didn't do their fiscal or demographic homework before they tried to run this play from the ol' Edreform playbook). But you and I are getting a very good look behind the curtain in real time about how to create one. This is the work of edreformers. They are running the same (boring) play as they did back in 2007-2013. It may be hard to see because the play is still in its infancy but this is how they do it. This is how they get their new charters and no bid contracts for their favorite private sector buddies and cuts to protections for educators of all backgrounds. This is how it begins. They manufacture a crisis <i>inside</i> of the schools. Only "private sector" ingenuity and "workforce efficiency" will be able to save us. In the meantime, parents <i>see</i> the results from all the manufactured and determine to move their children to private or charter schools. </p><p>The first major step in manufacturing a crisis is to create chaos. That's really what this struggle over budget cuts are all about; they're about creating chaos inside of 1600 NYC schools next month. And that chaos <i>will </i>be created. The important thing for them to do now is to confuse everybody as much as possible until the chaos is felt next Fall. </p><p>Last week, parents and teacher won a huge victory from the NYCDOE by convincing a court to force the City of New York to restore those cuts. That immediately led me to conclude that the case would be appealed. In fact my exact <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-cuts-get-cut-for-now.html">thought</a> was that <i>'The case is sure to be appealed and may well be overturned so this isn't over. In fact, it's not even a little over.' </i>And by "this", I mean the basic "can we pay for some teachers?". That challenge is not even a little "over".</p><p></p><p>The other night, the appeal to that case <i>was</i> accepted and, by law, the decision <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/nyregion/school-budget-cuts-new-york-city-appeal.html">was automatically stayed.</a> until the full case can be considered. A stayed decision means that the cuts go back into effect until both sides can go to court. That won't happen until eight days before school starts. The Open Market transfer system will be closed by that time and the schools won't be able to fund the staff. The Times described the effects from this it best:</p><p></p><blockquote><i>The fighting has set the stage for a chaotic start to a school year ... The 2022-2023 school year was supposed to be focused on recouping [student learning] losses after the pace of learning slowed during the pandemic ... Instead, principals say the cuts are forcing them to slash teaching positions and enrichment programs they need to help students recover.</i></blockquote><p>Chaos. That's really what this is all about. It's about creating chaos.</p><p>Imagine a school that has to cut two teacher and two counselor positions. Now imagine that the lawsuit <i>is</i> won on or after August 29. Sure, the money may be returned, but those teachers and counselors who had to be excessed will already be gone. And that school will have some folks who don't understand it or its children in those positions instead. See? Chaos. Now imagine that the lawsuit <i>is not</i> won. With no money returned for staff, a large amount of schools are forced schools excess their staff, the district's reserve (ATR) pool swells to significant proportions, Tweed places those same educators as one-year ATRs in "schools where they are needed". The whole thing becomes a fancy way of creating forced transfers -with no rhyme, no rhythm and no leadership involved. All parents will see is something like "sub" listed on their child's schedule -and they will see that "sub" for three or four whole weeks until a teacher's name finally appears. When that name comes and they call to ask the school about it, the school will have little information to share (because they didn't pick that teacher either). The parent looks around for a different school. </p><p>At this point in the process, it doesn't matter whether the cuts are restored or not. Chaos will visit many many schools next Fall regardless of the outcome. That was the whole goal in the first place. </p><p>The public at large won't be aware of all of this flim flam during the summer months. As the public watches their school cancel clubs or those amazing after school events that attracted so many people, they will conclude that the system, like so many other systems in this city, must be broken. They will see no money going to their child and the Edreformers will use sophisticated contrivances to communicate to them that it is all because they have to spend that money on the ATR pool of teachers. That's all they will say. </p><p>Adams is banking on the political winds turning more in his favor next Fall. He is not too far off from the truth. If this city continues to be depicted as burning for the next four months, he will have all the support he needs. The Taliban spent more than a decade making Afghanistan unsafe and, when <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/15/1080771248/afghans-say-they-feel-safer-but-less-hopeful-under-taliban-rule">they came to power, they made the streets safe.</a> (NPR). Once those winds have turned, Adams (and Banks) will make the case that the DOE is hopeless and needs "help". </p><p>They will, of course, have a solution. You may laugh now here in August, but the sad truth is that solution will be more drastic cuts and fewer available services for children (some to be replaced by private entities) -oh, and a vilification of seniority for teachers (because of this blasted fairness thing with the ATR pool). That solution will include putting more pressure on the classroom teacher and forcing some teachers out. They are working to achieve a bonafide crisis. We will suddenly hear about how great the bulletin boards are over at Success Academy or how they all keep detailed reading logs over at New Visions and that we should all do what they do over at New Visions and Success Academy. Fewer work and seniority protections in the contract, you see. </p><p>They want fewer work and seniority protections in the contract because they don't want the UFT to have that kind of influence. </p><p>In addition to that, they want more money to dole out to their private contractor friends with no bid contracts. Do you remember ARIS? It cost $81 million. It failed. In fact, it never worked. It was built by a private contractor. Are you old enough to remember HSST? That system was purchased from a vendor. We now use something called STARS for student data, report cards, scheduling and data gathering. They were for free because they were done by the next administration in-house. They didn't cost close to one hundred million dollars. </p><p>They also want more charter schools. The chaos they are creating will turn so many parents off that demand for charter schools to go through the roof! And that will force the politicians over in Albany to raise the cap and create more charters (which will further destabilize the system (which is exactly what their strategic goal is). </p><p>Both of these are examples of the movement toward privatization which they love so much. Like the USPS, they want schools to be more private. </p><p>The response regarding the Stay from Class Size Matters is important to note here:</p><p></p><blockquote><i>This will further delay the “chaos” that the City repeatedly cited in its brief, and prevent principals, teachers, and parents from knowing what their school budgets will look like until the appeal is heard on August 29, 2022. In the meantime, we urge the City Council and the Mayor to negotiate and implement a budget modification to immediately restore these damaging cuts because our public school children deserve a safe and productive return to school in the fall, which our Mayor appears bent on denying.</i></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p>Chaos. Many seem to agree we are walking into chaos next year. It won't be felt until just after school starts. This is because the final basic budgetary allocation won't be known to schools until well after Labor Day. But chaos is what we are in store for. And that's all part of the plan.</p><p>Tomorrow, I want to compare this with the manufactured crisis in the US Post Office and point out some similarities. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><br /></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-60812037604401072972022-08-08T11:52:00.022-04:002022-08-15T15:29:09.083-04:00Dolores' Dreams II -The Monster<p>We'll tell this story in four parts. This is part 1. </p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Monster</li><li>Workplace Abuse</li><li>New Principal</li><li>Form III</li></ol><p></p><p><i><span style="color: #800180;">It was obvious. From distance, anyone who watched her could see that she was dreaming. Her eyes were closed. Her bag was zipped shut and propped on the chair next to her. Her legs and feet, both stretched out in front of her torso, weren't moving and her arms were folded in tight over her chest. Most noticeably, Dolores' eyes were strenuously bouncing around inside of their lids without hesitation. It was obvious to anyone who paid attention that she was in the rapid eye movement phase of sleep Sleep. Dolores had fallen asleep and was dreaming. From a distance, anyone could see.</span></i></p><p><span style="color: #800180;"><i>But that's not how it felt to her! To Dolores, the most vivid dream anyone could imagine, looked, felt, sounded and smelled as though it were actually happening to her. </i></span><i><span style="color: #800180;">One minute can feel like an hour or more when a person was asleep the way Dolores was asleep, and any observer could tell that every minute of her nap felt much more like an hour to her. </span></i><i style="color: #800180;">As far as Dolores was concerned, she was in real time experiencing real life. To the outside world, Ms. Dolores Polonius was just a math teacher catching a quick nap on her lunch break before heading back to teach her last two classes for the day. But Dolores was in a completely different reality than the outside world. </i></p><p>Within her dream, she found herself caught in a moment from her past. It, this same moment, had been replaying itself over and over again since the moment she closed her eyes. It was the moment she said yes. She never should have said yes. </p><p><br /></p><p>This man was six foot two inches tall and weighed two-hundred and forty pounds. He yelled and screamed at classroom teachers (in a school) as though he were on a street corner in Brooklyn in the 70's getting ready for a fist fight. He always made it a point to tower over his victims as he was yelling at them just to make sure they were physically intimidated and trembling as he did. <b>Know this, reader: </b>If any other part of Dolores' Dream were fiction, this man and his deeds were pure fact. Dolores knew it. Even she, in her midday haze, was lucid enough to be aware of these as she dreamed: </p><p>That he got away with committing breathtaking abuses inside of a New York City public school; that he did this with the full support of the entire NYCDOE apparatus, and did so for well over two decades. This man had suspended a para (paraeducator) for twenty long days without pay on an accusation which he knew to be (and bragged, in trusted quarters, that it was) completely false. This man intimidated five gym teachers into <i>not</i> applying to be the school football coach -just so that he (for ten thousand dollars per year) could be the school football coach. This man would stand at a victim's' classroom doorway and smile at his victims as they were teaching and, if a victim tried pretending the monster wasn't there, would bellow their name so that the whole lesson would stop and every face in the room were looking over at him -but he would just continue to stare at his victim and smile for an extended period of time until that familiar crestfallen pall of fear would cover his victim's face, and confirm, for him that he had gotten his prey. </p><p>He would perform his abuses on infirmed older male teachers and on little old lady teachers alike. He would perform them on insecure newer teachers and on school aides who had little job protections. Anyone with a small height and small frame were particular targets for him, but he would attack and abuse anyone, really, <u>as long as they were weak</u>. As long as they were someone with whom he felt strong; and as long as he could drum up at least a few people who would agree and laugh with him as he performed his abuses (because that too made him feel strong. Monsters seek only to feel strong). This man would inflict his hurt and emotional pain and public humiliations on subordinate teachers because <i>it pleased him</i> and he would do it whenever he was given an excuse to do so. That is who he was. </p><p>But for seven years, Assistant Principal José Abuelo -<u>the most vulgar, cruel and brutal example of an school official that New York City had ever produced</u>- did not abuse Dolores Polonius. No sir. </p><p>Dolores noticed that he only picked on weak looking people, so she took an approach whereby she would give a strong "hello" every day and then avoid him as best as she possibly could. She knew he was an abuser. So she made it a point to <i>not</i> look weak anywhere near him. It was a simply plan but it worked well for Dolores for seven years -and it seemed as though it was going to go on working. </p><p> </p><p>Toward the end of his career, however, Mr. Abuelo found himself infatuated with a newer, younger female teacher and he was trying his best (as best as his best could be at least) to do his part to advance her career. It was during this time [] that he tried to get her the job of school Activities Director. </p><p>The general topic of the young female teacher, however, had become problematic. There developed a whole flock of younger educators who eventually took to following her everywhere she went. They came to listen and adhere to almost anything she had to say and, eventually, began <i>doing</i> everything she wanted them to do. </p><p>Unbeknownst to Mr. Abuelo, she came to use her power base of young teachers to engage in rumors and damaging whisper campaigns about many of her colleagues and supervisors (including about Mr. Abuelo himself). She liked to call investigations on teachers. She would send her flock out for any tid bit of information about any teacher or student (which they would provide without ever realizing they were getting somebody into trouble) and would then arrange for the investigators to come. Sometimes this was done with The Monster's help. Sometimes it was not. </p><p>She landed one teacher in a 3020-A hearing, saw to it that he was humiliated in the newspapers, and charged a $10,000 fine from a hearing officer. And why? Because he did not understand the new rules around his midterm exam. They taught the same courses, you see. And he had a nicer looking program than he did. She landed another one in investigation on his second day of ever being a teacher (a student had kicked in a computer screen while this young teacher was trying to get his bearings in the first lesson of his career. She found another student in his class, convinced the student to say he hadn't felt safe during that moment and called the investigators with the assertion that "students feel unsafe". That actually happened too.) There were more examples but this is how this young female teacher rolled. Something was out of balance with her and everyone saw it</p><p>Everyone, that is, except Mr. Abuelo. </p><p>The principal saw her for what she was and saw her as a threat to his staff. But, like the rest of the school, the principal too sought to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with Mr. Abuelo too. Mr. Abuelo had just so happened to take down one or two principals during his career and the current principal would not be placed in that position. So, as an alternative course, the principal quietly stepped in and asked Dolores to apply for the position instead. "You will get it. I don't want to give it to her.". </p><p><br /></p><p>Ms. Dolores Polonius was <b>not</b> happy about the circumstances of her being asked. Her presence had been requested because the principal had wanted to keep the peace, <b>not</b> because he felt she possessed any particular skill that he wanted to employ at his school. That was a major disappointment for her. Adding to this was the flat fact that, at her age, she wasn't particularly interested in being an Activities Director. That was a job for young teachers who needed to earn their stripes, had no life outside of work and possessed boundless energy to get stuff done. She wasn't young. She had her masters and 30 above and, since she had earned her stripes years ago. She thought her days of organizing the Spring Dance and watching over school clubs were far far behind her. But she knew that peace of mind came at a price at her school and, though she felt this price to be a bit steep, she was willing to pay She owed almost everything to her principal -and had so for several years now. This is why she just loved the guy. There were also a few experimental programs that she felt may benefit the kids at her school. She'd have to make sure Mr. Abuelo didn't see her as weak, and she would be dodging a terrible young teacher who would have every reason to target her, but she figured she could do it. <i>How bad could it be</i>? So she agreed. </p><p>She had no idea. </p><p>But that was it. That was the moment she was reliving in her dream as she napped on her last little respite of the work day. The moment she agreed. The moment she said yes. The moment that she and that monster, José Abuelo, set their courses for collision. </p><p>She should never have said yes. </p><p><br /></p><p><i><span style="color: #800180;">And then she heard something. She couldn't identify it at first, because it was so muffled. But, as the sound came slowly into focus, she recognized it as the voices of two giggling students sneaking out of their favorite teacher's classroom next door to her. "Such great kids", she murmured to herself. "I teach them soon". This was all followed, of course, by the sound of a teacher calling 'please don't leave until the bell rings. Come away from the door, please'. And then, finally, the sound. The bell. </span></i></p><p><i><span style="color: #800180;">The bell. </span></i></p><p><i><span style="color: #800180;">Dolores Polonius woke up in a flash. Before her eyes had fully opened, she had grabbed her bag, her coffee and checked for her classroom keys. And, as it slowly dawned on her that the lunch break had ended, she frowned at the thought of allowing herself to ever come into contact with The Monster. Dolores Polonius, however, always gets her Monster and she decided then and there to relive the entire ordeal during her next available lunch break nap. Not just her mistakes. </span></i></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-32562623719525066532022-08-04T21:18:00.001-04:002022-08-04T21:21:05.084-04:00The Cuts Get Cut -For Now<p>For perhaps the first time in New York City history, a judge overturned just <i>part </i>of a City Council approved law that pertained to <a href="https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2022/8/4/23292218/nyc-schools-lawsuit-budget-cuts">the Education Department's budge</a>t. </p><p>That's how much pushback team "Get Stuff Done" is going to have to deal with on matters involving education.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><blockquote><p><i>While an official court order is not expected to be issued until Friday, Judge Lyle Frank indicated that he will side with the two teachers and two parents who filed a lawsuit last month, which sought to invalidate the education department budget and force the City Council to take another vote. </i></p><p><i>The lawsuit claimed the city did not follow the proper protocols before the council voted on the final budget, which included hundreds of millions in cuts to city schools </i></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>The judge sad he's was going to write all this nonsense up and publish it tomorrow; that, by in large, the city had to spend the same amount that it had spent last year (in other words, with no cuts). The case is sure to be appealed and may well be overturned so this isn't over. In fact, it's not even a little over. </p><p>A few takeaways:</p><p>1. <b>City Hall made a rookie mistake. They won't make it again</b>. Part of the city's defense was that it was allowed to use 'emergency authorization' to bypass PEP approval and make the cuts. City lawyers detailed how 'emergency authorization' had been used for the past several years to pass budgets. It is this City Hall's first time ushering a budget through approval and, as it turns out, they forgot to cite a valid reason when they submitted for emergency authorization. Let's be honest. That's a rookie mistake. They won't make the same kind of mistake next time. Our side got lucky. </p><p>2. <b>City Hall Can (still) Use Emergency Authorization Anytime It Wants? </b>What was the point of reforming the mayoral control law last Spring? I thought we all supported it because we wanted to ensure a more independent voice inside the PEP (including a voice from parents and community organizers and students and educators like). The law was changed to <b>lessen</b> the mayor's voice and power. <u>What I didn't know until today's hearing</u> was that all of those efforts used to reform the mayoral control law can be simply negated if someone submits a damn form that says "Emergency Authorization" on it. </p><p>🍩 It's like a Thanos Snap. They submit that form and "SNAP" all that voice and passion from the communities and activist groups represented on the PEP is gone. 🍩</p><p>Shouldn't this be priority for any community based or parent or educator activist in this city. This tool -Emergency Authorization- takes away our voice. It is a legal tool that was used to negate the voices of people who aren't part of City Hall and who aren't part of Tweed. If, like the mayor says, we have to 'get back to normal', then we need to start with taking away the Emergency Authorization tool. </p><p>3. <b>No one know the total enrollment</b> The DOE sites one number. The IBO cites another. The New York Post relied on IBO's number. Exactly nobody has relied on or used the DOE's number. Today, Chalkbeat New York cited a third number, and that citation was supported by a tweet from a person (a tweet!! A tweet was used as evidence to support a claim of how many students are enrolled in NYC public schools). This is a mess. It's the whole cause for budget cuts that are bound to last for years and it is impossible for a person to find an accurate, reliable number. I am not sure if the lower student enrolment is a real crisis or not, but the chaos surrounding an accurate number of enrolled students indicates that folks sure are acting like it's a crisis. </p><p><br /></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-10216910097466862142022-08-03T11:42:00.003-04:002022-08-03T11:42:50.662-04:00"Let Them Eat Cake!" The DOE 'Restores' Just $62,500 To Schools<p>The NYCDOE is under a lot of pressure over budget cuts this week! Facing that pressure, they have "released" some funds that they are required to do under Federal Law. This is (no doubt) because they want to look like they are playing nice and "working" with their 'partners' in schools. </p><p>Don't forget, they are awaiting a final court decision regarding the budget cuts they intend to inflict on schools. That decision will be rendered on Thursday, August 4th. As that is happening, the DOE is also locked in closed door negotiations with the City Council over whether (and how much) of the school budgets will be restored. Those negotiations are ongoing but I have heard nothing about them. </p><p>And, through all of that, they are facing an unexpectedly motivated pushback from community members and stakeholders, many of whom who are organizing a rally on Thursday in front of the courthouse in hopes of restoring their cuts to students.</p><p>That is a lot of pressure! So it would make sense that the DOE would at least make it look like they are giving ground on some issues. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, last night, the NYCDOE's 1st Deputy Chancellor sent an email out to principals claiming to have "released" crucial funds to help schools. He identified the amount funds being released as $100 Million. </p><p>Does that sound like a lot? I think the 1st Deputy would like you to believe it is. Use some basic math, however, and you may see that it isn't. </p><p>With 1600 schools across New York City, $100m is an average of just $62,500 per school. That's the ground they gave. They gave $62.500 per school (average). </p><p>$62,500 will pay <b>only </b>the salary portion of one first year teacher. Principals are responsible to pay closer to $83,000 for that same first year teacher because of added "fringe" expenses). </p><p>$62,500 will pay for exactly one experienced paraprofessional. </p><p>$62,500 will pay for exactly 1.7 substitute teachers. These are teachers who are paid $199.27 per day. </p><p>$62,500 will pay for a few school aides. </p><p>And that is on average. These funds aren't being distributed to all schools. Only certain schools, with a certain population of student, will receive a portion of these funds. </p><p>They took four teachers and one guidance counselor from my school. It looks like they are giving back a few subs and some school aides. </p><p>Nice. </p><p>Cake. Let them eat cake. </p><p><br /></p><p>The DC's email from last night is below ...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihgvhWd-0sIagbobfz9eYY3Ah4_mb4umx3DGD2tIhmFSvOdTab891Uz22TsWZ38Fun8Y8jzsFSWrQUHfAt_BuFWf-cGDE3Q85DIye7zl5R3LC0DPba_BDjlHE2a7QazB0Z9xjO-IegrZuXHnU-x8C0McPxhzDr___brtpyDjjU5wUuNquObvmRA3L-Iw/s1378/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-03%20at%2011.17.38%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1278" data-original-width="1378" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihgvhWd-0sIagbobfz9eYY3Ah4_mb4umx3DGD2tIhmFSvOdTab891Uz22TsWZ38Fun8Y8jzsFSWrQUHfAt_BuFWf-cGDE3Q85DIye7zl5R3LC0DPba_BDjlHE2a7QazB0Z9xjO-IegrZuXHnU-x8C0McPxhzDr___brtpyDjjU5wUuNquObvmRA3L-Iw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-03%20at%2011.17.38%20AM.png" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihgvhWd-0sIagbobfz9eYY3Ah4_mb4umx3DGD2tIhmFSvOdTab891Uz22TsWZ38Fun8Y8jzsFSWrQUHfAt_BuFWf-cGDE3Q85DIye7zl5R3LC0DPba_BDjlHE2a7QazB0Z9xjO-IegrZuXHnU-x8C0McPxhzDr___brtpyDjjU5wUuNquObvmRA3L-Iw/s1378/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-03%20at%2011.17.38%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihgvhWd-0sIagbobfz9eYY3Ah4_mb4umx3DGD2tIhmFSvOdTab891Uz22TsWZ38Fun8Y8jzsFSWrQUHfAt_BuFWf-cGDE3Q85DIye7zl5R3LC0DPba_BDjlHE2a7QazB0Z9xjO-IegrZuXHnU-x8C0McPxhzDr___brtpyDjjU5wUuNquObvmRA3L-Iw/s1378/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-03%20at%2011.17.38%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A follow up email sent to schools from another official is here ... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">"Good morning All</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Yesterday at 7:27 pm you received an email from the first Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg about the 2022-2023 budget updates.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What does this mean:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Academic Recovery money( Sam 31) you received in June can now be used on teacher positions."</span></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>(yes. It takes two Tweed officials to send an email. No bloat there, right!?)</p><p><br /></p><p>And a follow up "School Allocation Memo" was shared with principals as well. I am sharing only that portion that provides details as to where the money will be going:</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Allocation Methodology</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;">W<span style="font-family: georgia;">ith a goal to maximize equity, the methodology is designed to target schools that serve high proportions of students in foster care, students in shelter, students in temporary housing (STH), students who are English Language Learners (ELL), newcomer and long-term ELLs, students with interrupted/inconsistent formal education (SIFE), students with disabilities (SWD), and students with economic need (ENI).</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Schools receive a weight for students in the above categories at variable weights. Schools serving K-5 students also receive additional funding specifically for K-5 students with economic need, also at a variable weight. These weights are different at each school and are based on the concentrations of needs found at each school. For example, a school with 55% students with economic need and 36% English Language Learners will receive a weight of 1.55 for each student with economic need, and 1.36 for each English Language Learner.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Due to the different types of programs in District 79, and their distinct structures and needs, the Superintendent modified the allocation methodology for their programs to account for the characteristics of their students, such as incarcerated youth and programs with large numbers of over-age under-credited pupils. These changes will also enable funding to be distributed in a way that helps address breakage due their programs being multi-sited.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The $125M is then allocated evenly per weighted capita; however, schools will receive a minimum of $25,000 and no school will receive more than $200,000. The allocation methodology only applies to K-12 students and is the same for all schools. Twenty percent of the funding ($25M) is allocated for arts and enrichment programming as described below.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;">Funding for District 79 Alternative Schools and Programs is indicated on the allocation tables.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-50369118285561851502022-08-02T11:04:00.005-04:002022-08-02T11:15:02.174-04:00Dodging the DOEnuts ... <p>Last week was fairly consequential for the NYCDOE. They seemed to have gotten caught lying about student enrollment. They then lost the first round of a lawsuit. The NYPost simpy stopped using their enrollment data in publishing their own articles and then they got caught cheating when they froze all schools out of the Galaxy system. That's a rough week. </p><p>This week is proving to be just as consequential. On Thursday, a court will decide whether the DOE and NYC ignored legislative rules when they cut school budgets. A small group of protesters are planning an anti-NYCDOE rally outside the courthouse on the same day in support of ending the budget cuts. On Monday, the Comptroller of NYC released a report indicating that the city has (and is refusing to spend) $4.4 Billion and that was covered in the press on Tuesday. And throughout this whole week, negotiations to restore the cuts continue with the City Council. This is a rough week for them as well. </p><p>At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts to schools with virtually none cut from the central bureaucracy down at the Tweed Courthouse and their several dozen "Satellite" locations.</p><p>The leaders of our school district want to cut money for schools (the NYCDOE is considered one school district in New York State) in the face of all common sense. In their zeal to get what they want, team "Get Stuff Done" has looked clumsy, ill-informed on the most basic of issues and ill prepared to proceed should they lose. They showed their true colors last week. It ain't very pretty and they have another week to get through. </p><p>Below are just a few of the doenuts that spilled out last week and a few for this week as well. </p><p>🍩 #1 </p><p>The first one came after a parent discovered that the DOE was fudging their student enrollment numbers for next year. City Hall and Tweed are trying to convince the public that the city has lost 240,000 students. This is big. If you want to take money from schools in NYC, you will have to convince the public that tons and tons of students have left. This parent discovered (through data analysis) that they haven't left. The DOE simply ignored four major groups of students when they calculated. The parent discovered the students from D75, D79, as well as all pre-K students (including 3K and 4K) were simply not counted in data that was released to the public. The parent used data to conclude otherwise and shared that in a series of tweets. I wrote it up into a blog post so you can read about it in its correct context. <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/07/city-hall-lied-enrollment-is-not.html">You can catch up on that story here. </a></p><p>🍩 #2 </p><p>The New York Post then published a piece that didn't even bother to use enrollment numbers shared by the DOE, opting instead to side with IBO data. That data shows only 73,000 students have left city-run schools. I had to stop what I was doing to write about that one as well. <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/07/new-lost-student-number-cited-by-nypost.html">You can read it here. </a>Register is down by 6.7% this year. In admin school, the professors teach the students all about budgeting. There is a whole course about it. One thing that is taught is that student enrollment goes through ebbs and flows. In any one given year, a school district can lose or gain 3%-8% of their enrollment register. It's part of the game. 6.7% register loss is nothing to sneeze at. But it is nothing to cause panic over either. </p><p>I shouldn't divert from the main point, though: The New York Post did not feel comfortable enough to publish basic enrollment data provided by an agency of the New York City government. Let that sink in, please. It is an indication of exactly how little the press has come to trust the city hall and the NYCDOE.</p><p>That would have been enough for one week during the summer. But the doenuts just kept on coming! </p><p>🍩 #3 is going to take a minute to explain...</p><p>A parent group had sued the DOE for enacting budget cuts that were not passed by the DOE's governing committee -the PEP. The lawsuit led to a temporary restraining order (TRO) instructing the DOE to restore funding levels until a full decision could be rendered. </p><p>The department responded to the TRO by (read carefully now) freezing the software that principals use to pay their bills! That was their response. They froze the Galaxy software and stopped all of that machinery from operating. They just stopped it all. This happened during summer school and on the day that secretaries were to enter per session (which is how summer school teachers are paid). </p><p>In their explanation to principals as to why Galaxy had been frozen, they cited advice from DOE lawyers. This prompted the lawyers who were on the other side of the lawsuit to quickly to respond with a press release, saying "There is no crisis except what has been manufactured by the City's lawyers". The statement goes on to and, in fact, ends with a very harsh accusation:</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i>"The TRO explicitly states that the DOE is enjoined from making any further cuts and spending at levels other than at the prior year's levels ... What they are doing by freezing galaxy budgetentirelyurely aimed at creating havoc for principals where non should exist." </i></blockquote><p>That is one heck of an accusation to make but it is where that discussion stands. It is a very weird juxtaposition all around. </p><p>Now I can't say that I disagree with the broad strokes of the new mayor and chancellor are trying to do: The Department of Education has become a $36 Billion beast that is beyond any one person or group's control. This city agency, aptly located in New York's <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/tweed_courthouse.html">very symbol of graft and corruption</a>, is just too darn big. Nothing this size, save for the US military, can be managed well. There is only one thing to do with a beast this big: You have to starve it. You have to slash. You have to cut. You have to take money away and then make the beast beg for its money back. You have to starve that beast at every turn. </p><p>Clumsily, however, they attempted to starve <i>schools -</i>and <i>schools</i> are <b>not</b> the beast. </p><p>And when faced with a TRO, they sought to punish school budgets, not the beast. Clumsy.</p><p>Adding to their clumsiness, someone down there at Tweed was caught lying about enrollment numbers. Maybe they figured that the public wouldn't pay much attention during the summer months? I just don't know. But someone down there probably figured they could get away with under counting students (by 240,000). Whether they are able to get over on the inaccuracy remains to be seen. But it too was someone's very clumsy move. </p><p>Also unraveled is the amount of cuts schools are facing! The city insists it is cutting only $215. One repoidentifiedied $312 million. The mayor's own executive budget identified $306 million as the number. Then they were seen attempting to cut closer to $375 million. Brad Landers' report identified closer to $469 million being cut (see <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/01/nyc-schools-still-have-4-4-billion-in-covid-aid-to-spend-by-2025/">here</a>). These type of inconsistencies aren't the result of any evil tactic. These are just clumsy moves. </p><p>And between now and Thursday, City Hall is still in negotiations with the City Council to have this budget issue resolved through legislative means. That's right. It may not even come down to the court decision in Thursday. This whole thing could be settled, between the mayor and the city council, before then. An agreement such as this may render any court decision useless. </p><p>Look for a resolution that splits the difference. </p><p>Whether it comes from a court decision or an agreement between the mayor and city council, the name of the game is going to be compromise. He's the mayor. He's the chancellor. This is what they want. That will count for something. But, given that they have understated their student enrollment (by about a quarter million) and have overstated the amount of money they are looking to cut (but about another quarter million), look for the final agreement to be tilted toward the mayor and chancellor. </p><p>So where are? Taken as a whole, City Hall / Tweed were less than honest with how much they wanted to cut (They announced $215 million vs the almost $500 million that has now been published!). They were less than honest with <i>why</i> they wanted to cut the budget (They claimed 760,000 lost students when the number seems closer to 73,000). The press is steering clear from their data out of mistrust and they have eroded the trust that was given them by school based officials (they were supposed to end the chaos. Not add to it). Whatever the budgets are for next year, it will be the result of Tweed/City Hall being <b>told</b> what to do (either from a court or from an agreement). They don't have a good track record of doing things that they are told to do so I expect any agreement that is reached this week to be ignored just as soon as they are politically able to do so. None of this disqualifies them from being educators of the year but they aren't disqualified from earning a doenut of the year either). </p><p>This coming year is already going to be a mess. To be clear, schools will suffer from whatever staff shortages or issues that have manifested over this summer for the entity of next year. So to a large extent, much of the damage has already been done -and that seems to be exactly what they want. </p><p>But why? I can't avoid offering some commentary over my next two posts. In one, I'll have to talk about how the DOE has weaponized budget and staff in the past. And, in another, I'll have to talk about an odd sort of Lemon Dance that the NYCDOE has played with ineffective administrators for decades. The lemons are dancing as we speak. They are dancing from Borough Support Centers straight to a school near you and I think it's a good time to talk about that. It has <b><u>everything</u></b> to do with the budget cuts that schools are facing. So stay tuned.</p><p><br /></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-82941686597910032952022-07-29T13:00:00.006-04:002022-07-29T13:06:10.967-04:00New "Lost Student" Number Cited by NYPost: Only 73,000<p>Yesterday, <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/07/city-hall-lied-enrollment-is-not.html">I wrote about</a> a New York City parent who discovered that City Hall and the DOE greatly overstated the actual drop in enrolled students in city schools. In short, City Hall and the DOE wanted to cut school budgets so much next year that they pretended the city had lost 760,000 children when, in fact, they had not. </p><p>Almost everyone in the press allowed them to share this mistruth with little or no fact checking. </p><p>Almost.</p><p>Today, The NY Post published an article about how the DOE is now fighting for the budget cuts they want so much (the ones that will hurt children and school staff next year) by appealling a court order blocking the cuts. </p><p>As part of the story, Post reporter Cayla Bamberger cited just 73,000 as the accurate number of students the city <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/07/28/nyc-appeals-judges-order-temporarily-barring-school-budget-cuts/">has lost since the start of the pandemic</a>. </p><p></p><blockquote><i>The budget cuts come as the public schools — including 3K and preK, as well as charter schools — have lost 73,000 students since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the city’s Independent Budget Office.</i></blockquote><p></p><p>That's right. A journalist didn't even bother using NYCDOE's data. <a href="https://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/how-has-public-school-enrollment-changed-two-years-into-the-covid-19-pandemic-nycbtn-july2022.html">She used IBO data instead</a>. The numbers the IBO published are more than ten times lower than the number the mayor and the chancellor say. </p><p>To be clear, a loss of 73,000 students is significant. This represents an approximate 6.7% loss in student enrollment in New York City (from 1.1 million). But in his Executive Budget last February, the mayor proposed cuts closer to 10% and the #312 million mentioned today is higher number than that -and all of it is scheduled to come from school budgets. All of it. </p><p>Don't forget, the mayor and chancellor are cutting the DOE budget by just 1% overall but all of those cuts, (totalling $312-$375 million) are coming only from school budgets. No cuts to Tweed. No cuts to supes. No cuts to central. Only cuts to schools. </p><p>And they have such a problem with the truth that the New York Post won't even use the numbers they are claiming. Let that sink in.</p><p>That the papers will no longer publish data provided by the NYCDOE should be evidence enough that the DOE in New York is broken and can no longer be trusted. But you tell me if the cuts n your school seem reflective of a 6% loss in student enrollment. And then fell free to tell me whether you think your school budget was the place to cut. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-23819379344347771642022-07-27T15:33:00.010-04:002022-07-29T13:02:28.832-04:00Data Review: City Hall Lied. Enrollment Is Not Declining. <p>Edit 1: Thanks to the commenter who pointed out that the parent I mention here doesn't have 30k followers. I've edited </p><p>Edit 2: I published a follow up to this <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/07/new-lost-student-number-cited-by-nypost.html">here</a>. Seems the New York Post stopped believing the DOE. </p><p>A New York City school parent <strike>with 30,000 Twitter followers</strike> has discovered the truth about the "declining enrollment" in New York City schools: It's not really declining. </p><p>Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks have been bragging about how we serve less children than we once did. This "fact" has been the cornerstone of their efforts to cut hundreds of millions of dollars straight from NYC classrooms next year. </p><p> Enrollment. however,<a href="https://twitter.com/PositiveSubway/status/1551300093743071237?s=20&t=FsGLyT_3tPcGAotIwMgoRA"> has not declined</a> to 760,000 students in New York City as they have claimed:</p><p></p><blockquote><i>At the end of the 2021–2022 school year, there were 1,058,888 students in those schools/grades, not 760,000 1/5</i></blockquote><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p>The discovery was made by anonymous Twitter user Tim Positive (@PositiveSubway). The series of tweets came with something that no one has been interested in these days: Actual data. Sharing that data led a DailyNews journalist to respond and change (though ever so slightly) her original claim. It has led to nothing else. </p><p>And what those data show is telling. Enrollment numbers that were shared by the Adams administration failed to include 3k student and Pre-K students, although they have always been included in the past. The data also show that the Chancellor and Mayor decided NOT to include some of our most vulnerable students from D75 and Alternative Schools (D79). They simply ignored those students and the press, of course, has let them get away with it. </p><p>The city reached their non-factual number of 760,000 only after ignoring nearly one-quarter of a million children in core groups that have always been counted in the past. </p><p><br /></p><p>Thaty' right, baby. Tweed and City Hall juked the numbers. And they are getting away with it. </p><p> </p><p>Peeling away the lies and mistruths coming from these leaders has been a challenge since the administration began. The city once claimed they were cutting only $215 million from schools. The press reported. When the city was caught trying to cut an actual $375 million from schools, The press barely mentioned. <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/omb/downloads/pdf/ss4-21.pdf">The mayor's own executive budget</a> from the winter describes $306 Million in cuts to "pedagogical personnel" (those are cuts made directly to the classroom). This was never reported by the press either (because, obviously, reading takes too much time away from education reporters these days). </p><p>And, as if discovering the correct amount of cuts was not enough dishonesty, they have now been caught (by a parent) lying about the justification for those cuts; <i>The claim that we serve less students</i>. That too, as it turns out, has been a lie. This revelation proves that they are hiding large numbers of students from their register in order to justify to the public the cuts they have made to classrooms. Here is a quick look, as well as brief summary, of the students City Hall and Tweed no longer count as their own.</p><p>District 75 (D75) serves our most vulnerable special education students. It is (by far) the best functioning district in the entire NYCDOE and has sent tens of thousands of children into functioning, rewarding lives as adults. According to data this parent has shared, these students were not counted as enrolled in the NYCDOE. They told the public we lost those students. </p><p>District 79 (D79) are our alternative school students. These students were not able to fit into a cookie cutter mold of NYC high schools. For decades, D79 has provided an alternative path for them. I have personally taught D79 students who have gone on to jobs in finance with Blackrock and jobs in software with Facebook. The parent of at least one celebrity had sent their child to my D79 classroom. She was very satisfied. These students, too, are now excluded from being counted by the mayor and chancellor in their enrollment numbers, according to data provided by the parent. </p><p>D79 and D75 schools have not been closed, mind you. The students simply no longer count. (As a reminder, in a surprise move, the chancellor fired the superintendent to D79 just last month in favor of someone who was closer to the chancellor. Perhaps, moving the older more experienced supe out of the way was related to this oversight). </p><p>As if pretending our D75 and alternative students in D79 don't exist weren't enough, the mayor and chancellor have also decided not to count 3k and pre-k students in their enrollment -a departure from policy of previous years. These students have been included in the total register since Pre-k and then 3K were created. That they are not now is the result of a decision that has been made by a change in politics, not facts. </p><p><br /></p><p>The tweets are supported by data in the form of screen shots and links. I have examined them and, by in large, the data passes muster. The city is lying. There are almost 250,000 students who are being left off of the official count. That is one quarter of a million students. . </p><p>This isn't declining enrollment. It's a shell game; played by two or more dishonest men who's goals include hurting children and school staff. Review the data for yourself. Feel free to check my facts by dropping a comment. I will update if needed. </p><p><br /></p><p>The first tweet of the thread is embedded below. Links to the whole thread <a href="https://twitter.com/PositiveSubway/status/1551300093743071237?s=20&t=7MkRTbfiBOoGy0pV71WCTg">can be found here.</a> But the bottom line can be found in the original tweet: "1,058,888 students in those schools/grades, not 760,000". </p><p>From 1.1 million to 1.05 million. That's closer to the truth. </p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Just a massive error in the very first graf, <a href="https://twitter.com/anya1anya?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@anya1anya</a> <br /><br />The 1.1 million (1,131,868 to be exact) includes charter and 3K/PreK students<br /><br />At the end of the 2021–2022 school year, there were 1,058,888 students in those schools/grades, not 760,000 1/5 <a href="https://t.co/PBJXWNDOuH">https://t.co/PBJXWNDOuH</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZytGCYfr56">pic.twitter.com/ZytGCYfr56</a></p>— Tim Positive 🚇 Subway Tweets Smith (@PositiveSubway) <a href="https://twitter.com/PositiveSubway/status/1551300093743071237?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-11325584905234725292022-05-19T19:44:00.005-04:002022-05-19T19:44:34.198-04:00The UFT Official Election Results.<p> The official results from the union election are in. You can download <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/10m6cJ_3_JKPVRajnOUNWhmftOSFqdjcp/view?usp=sharing">them here.</a> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2To9-YjQyFWF2frHWcLjJJXRQ-fHEErRbolRs_iGM9iGSrcfUi_PCIsS_gD5ffZc5diQLJ8BVgNBrWAbNAXD3ey1v1SMFtPAP6H7byFCWaYihBTBTSsWOnZT9iHUpgoE4wJ4Ue8FFJoGT1AM9NJIUGMvNmzIOop8nNtmFP2j3zbNaXmCJMd23OJS9A/s1290/Screen%20Shot%202022-05-19%20at%207.25.37%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1290" data-original-width="1194" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2To9-YjQyFWF2frHWcLjJJXRQ-fHEErRbolRs_iGM9iGSrcfUi_PCIsS_gD5ffZc5diQLJ8BVgNBrWAbNAXD3ey1v1SMFtPAP6H7byFCWaYihBTBTSsWOnZT9iHUpgoE4wJ4Ue8FFJoGT1AM9NJIUGMvNmzIOop8nNtmFP2j3zbNaXmCJMd23OJS9A/w592-h640/Screen%20Shot%202022-05-19%20at%207.25.37%20PM.png" width="592" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlQSdECZHVkixNCqnJY-zXUNjWJJB2YNL4TGY2VZhb_ruxYjFUzjR1XflTSW7AuWmYaTrwY32DqqEZ5rfHAqCG27EBsf_0SwaAwEoch_KnPTdZE_RCAF_xE5LRk2_SvybhFOlGQ4b2A6rhJlQEBGLdx6nTp6_5B0yFUEhQI62uVeResPjELc86VAoxLg/s898/Screen%20Shot%202022-05-19%20at%207.25.52%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="212" data-original-width="898" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlQSdECZHVkixNCqnJY-zXUNjWJJB2YNL4TGY2VZhb_ruxYjFUzjR1XflTSW7AuWmYaTrwY32DqqEZ5rfHAqCG27EBsf_0SwaAwEoch_KnPTdZE_RCAF_xE5LRk2_SvybhFOlGQ4b2A6rhJlQEBGLdx6nTp6_5B0yFUEhQI62uVeResPjELc86VAoxLg/w640-h152/Screen%20Shot%202022-05-19%20at%207.25.52%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm proud of Camille Eterno. She really understands how collective action can be used to influence policy and workplace rules and how to keep public education public. I hope we hear more from her in the future. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Also happy the Schirtzer got reelected and excited to see how Lydia will add to that mix. I trust she will know when to stay with the UFC and action and policy and when to stand out on her own. Her and Schirtzer may well make an effective combination. Much to feel sad about some great union names not being elected. That's always a bummer. But I was also excited to see so many new leftists from the MORE caucus show a good solid voting base. I hope their voices continue to come more front of that caucus. </div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-56778513897987825482022-05-17T06:56:00.010-04:002022-05-17T07:10:03.952-04:00This Is Not A Bomb Track<p>When I first started teaching, the Global History Regents would test students about Japan's economy.</p><p>But then Japan lost a whole decade of economic progress --and they stopped testing students about it. </p><p>Shortly thereafter, they started testing students about Aung San Suu Kyi; the politician-turned-activist-turned-politician from Myanmar who stood up to the military dictatorship there and bravely negotiated a democratic government with them.</p><p>But then Aung San Suu Kyi supported the military as they committed genocide against the Rohingya minority (one which included 43,000 deaths and at at least 700,000 displaced persons) --and they stopped testing students about her. </p><p>The Global History Regents has been testing students about Globalization for some time now. Globalization is obvious to you and I. It produces the products we buy. It provides the services we use. It keeps prices cheap and it allows up to go on relatively inexpensive vacations. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.lynalden.com/wp-content/uploads/newsletter-2021-8-globalization.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="608" height="262" src="https://www.lynalden.com/wp-content/uploads/newsletter-2021-8-globalization.png" width="320" /></a></div>Like many things, Globalization follows its ebbs and flows. We go through long periods of history where the world becomes <i>more </i>economically<i> </i>interdependent. Right now, we are going through a period where that dependency has shrunk, at least a bit. The many pauses in manufacturing in China (<a href="https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ports-logistics/number-containerships-waiting-chinese-ports-doubles">here</a>) and the the international container ship backup (<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/25/economists-expect-shipping-problems-to-linger-well-into-2022.html">here</a>) as well as the war in Ukraine (<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61461093">here</a>) and the ongoing effects of COVID (<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/14/business/india-wheat-export-banned/index.html#:~:text=Mumbai%20India%20banned%20wheat%20exports,prices%20hit%20a%20record%20high.">this is but one example</a>) have revealed, for corporations, a major weakness of interdependence during these new times: You just can't make a profit if you have nothing to sell because it's stuck on a boat. You can't get rich if the factories in China aren't open. And you can't make shareholders happy in the middle of a wide-spread international wheat shortage (which has the potential to effect many countries (many of which produce our 'stuff'!)). The data in the chart, showing that Globalization is in a bit of a 'retreat' only validates what makes perfect sense to everyone who pays attention; we are <i>too </i>interconnected given the present challenges we face. It only makes sense that the corporations and governments untwine, a bit, and become less interdependent; at least a little. <br /><p></p><p>And that sense is backed up by some blaring evidence. The signs that we are becoming <i>less </i>interdependent are everywhere. Wolfspeed, a semi-conductor producer, recently announced a new manufacturing plant to be opened <i>here </i>in New York (<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/U.S.-opens-first-major-silicon-carbide-chip-plant-in-New-York">here</a>). Intel is opening a manufacturing facility back here in the US as well (<a href="https://time.com/6140476/intel-building-factory-ohio/">here</a>). These decisions are not confined to just one industry. Ford has announced it is moving some of its car production back the US from Mexico. Tesla is actually hiring at the factory that produces Model Y cars in Texas (<a href="https://www.tesla.com/giga-texas">here</a>). We are beginning a transition. Some work is coming home. </p><p>Will they stop testing students on the basics of Globalization, now that the fundamental structures of it are changing? </p><p>All of the above information about the Ford and Tesla and Intel and Wolfspeed is knowledge that, if taught, might lead an inquisitive student to go look the possibility of getting hired. If the Global Regents were to test it, administrators all across the city would freak out and teachers in every classroom from Red Hook to Arthur Avenue and in between would teach it. But, like testing students on Aung San Suu Kyi or on Japan's economy, I expect the Global history regents to eventually just stop testing students about Globalization altogether. That's what they tend to do when the topics become a little too sticky. Besides, teaching any information that could lead to a job opportunity isn't exactly what the Global History people in NYS do. It's outside of their professional scope and, therefore, outside of my professional scope. </p><p><br /></p><p>***</p><p>One time, the Global History Regents asked students to consider the impacts of the road upon which Globalization travels; <i>free trade</i>. Specifically, they tested students on the <i>point of view </i>of one group that has been affected by Globalization; <i>women union activists from a manufacturing plant in northern Mexico.</i></p><p><i></i>Chew on this doenut for a second, okay? Fifteen year old students in New York had to read a part of a speech to determine what topic a woman union activist from another country was talking about when she gave as speech about how terrible working conditions were (she was talking about workers rights and health in northern Mexico under NAFTA). In order to, someday, graduate high school, my students first had to answer this question. They have not been asked to understand their perspective in their world of the greater NYC Metropolitan area. </p><p>The standards (upon which all of my curriculum is built) do not require me to teach my fifteen year old students how Globalization may have affected them in a negative way. I am not required to teach them that the once easy-to-get factory jobs in New York (and around the US) went away a long time ago and that they have to engage in even more job training after they graduate (either in college or a career training program) if they don't want to live a life of first-world poverty. Exactly no one is required to teach them that, here in the US, there really was a time when a seventeen year old <i>could</i> land one of those jobs and have enough money to pay the rent and enjoy their youth without living in their parents' house. I don't think I am suppose to tell them that it is technically easier for a poor high school student in China to break into the middle class than it is for a poor high school student in the US to break into the middle class, either. </p><p>That's a very narrow statement, of course. My students have tons more opportunities in front of them, if they are able to make it in our first-world success game. But, in order to consider 17 year olds' perspective, I think it is a statement that's worth making. (It's true, by the way. China produces more cars than our entire nation consumes and almost all of them are small, EVs intended to be purchased with a factory level wage. The most popular is around $8,000 USD. This is because tons more people can afford them because they are now in the middle class. But that's just an aside). </p><p>And, as I reflect, it occurs to me that I was never required to teach them the protests against Globalization in Seattle in the 1990s (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Seattle_WTO_protests">here</a>) and I was never tasked to attend a PD to understand exactly why blue-collar, non highly-educated service workers over in the UK were furious that Globalization wasn't working for them and absolutely wanted out of the EU just as soon as possible. (Heck, I'm not even sure if I should be teaching them Brexit. Should I be teaching Brexit?). </p><p>I <i>want to</i> be teaching my students how to open a bank account or do their taxes. But the law does not permit a legitimate fifteen year old high school student, who is engaged in legitimate study, to have a bank account. And the law does not require them, even in nominal form, to pay any taxes. They would like to know how to write a check. I would like to teach them that no one writes checks anymore but here's how to use debit card or bank card in an great way to pay your bills. I <i>used to </i>(decades ago) teach them how to do stay within a household budget. But then they all stopped moving out, because the last of the jobs that had been there had finally gone. I'd like to teach them how to invest now (while they are still young and have time to grow a real portfolio); but they are not allowed. </p><p>And I am not allowed, either. Before my students can do any of these things, they first must demonstrate to the world that they can be an educated citizen or resident by working and being over eighteen. They are told that, in order to have a job, they would be better off with a high school diploma. And, in order to obtain that, they must pass this test. (That's where I come in. I spend a whole year of their life teaching them about Japan's miraculous economy, about Aung San Suu Kyi, ('just incase she pops up on a regents again') and about how Globalization is visible in NAFTA and the EU and the WTO and IMF and World Bank. I am required to teach them about NAFTA and the World Bank and about Aung San Suu Kyi, but I can't teach them how to open up a bank account or how to find a job at Tesla. I do this for salary, you see (for a good salary, by the way). So I do it. And, if they pass this test, then they can do those and other things which we have not at all trained them for either. </p><p>And I'm not sure how many of them will ever work with NAFTA or the World Bank or will ever become an international activist who will allow their military to crack down on a Muslim minority by killing 43,000 and displacing 700,000. I am not sure how many will open up a business or ever visit Japan. I suspect less than 1% will follow a career path that requires them to engage in these topics. And they won't be prepared to pay rent on a store front or open an Amazon FBA account, or how to apply for a business loan or to go to have a general understanding of the amazing background of the peoples who are living right there in their neighborhood or on their block. I'm on a train that, somewhere along the line, went right off the rails. But, dammit, those kids are going to learn about Aung and Japan and NAFTA and the EU and the WTO and IMF and the World Bank. </p><p>This, of course, isn't new. 1992 was thirty years ago. And that's when Rage dropped these lyrics; '<i>The teacher stands in front of the class, But the lesson plan he can't recall, The student's eyes don't perceive the lies, Bouncing off every fucking wall, His composure is well kept, I guess he fears playing the fool, The complacent students sit and listen to some of that, [Bull__] that he learned in school, What about that, the system?'</i> </p><p>I love that group, by the way! I came into teaching to rage against the same machine! I think the Global History Regents people did, too although I cannot often tell. But we do now all just shut up, pay our mortgages and buy nice things with the salaries we earn and then go home. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-1129642164966133232022-05-12T20:41:00.032-04:002022-05-13T12:58:18.971-04:00Dolores' Dreams -I<p>It was obvious. From distance, anyone who watched her could see that she was dreaming. Her eyes were closed. Her bag was zipped up shut and propped on the chair next to her. Her legs and feet, both stretched out in front of her torso, weren't moving and her arms were folded in tight over her chest. Most noticeably, Dolores' eyes were strenuously bouncing around inside of their lids without hesitation. It was obvious to anyone who paid attention that she was in the <i>rapid eye movement</i> phase of sleep. Sleep. She had fallen asleep. From a distance, anyone could see.</p><p>But that's now how it felt to her. To Dolores, the most vivid dream anyone could imagine, looked, felt, sounded and smelled as though it were actually happening to her. It felt real and, as far as Dolores was concerned, she was really living it. To the outside world, Dolores Polonius was just catching a quick nap on her lunch break before heading back to teach her last two classes for the day. But Dolores was in a completely different reality than the outside world. </p><p><br /></p><p>She was on the subway heading to work. She was concerned about her safety during her morning (or was that afternoon?) commute. It was ,fuzzy, you know? Like a dream. But she left so early each day and returned so late that whole months went by where her entire commute ended in the dark. And riding the subway in the dark had long since become a concern for Dolores Polonius. She just didn't feel safe. And none of the other teachers at work did, either. So she forgave herself for being confused. </p><p>And then, in a flash, she was in the hallway just outside of her classroom. There was a kerfuffle of some sort and she had to address it. Her high school students (though typically polite and respectful), had taken to laughing at the mere suggestion of facing any consequences for poor actions at school. This all boiled over when they laughed at Ms Polonius when she asked them to please move along or to keep it down because she was teaching. Ms. Polonius wasn't the type to be laughed at. She was the nice teacher. But when they laughed, she pointed her index finger straight up toward their chests and gave them the biggest, boldest "Hey!!" that a five-foot-one-inch woman could possibly give. </p><p>"Hey!!", she pursed, as her eyes bobbed around inside of their lids. There was a brief moment of silence in the hallway just outside of Dolores' classroom. And then the group of students burst out into laughter and told her to get back into her room. </p><p>And then, in a flash, she was all alone. It was just her, in a dark room. Sitting. Thinking. Reflecting. And it occurred to her that, for the first time in her career, there were students who refused to work in her class. There were students who refused to respond to the counselors or deans and who declined to attempt any effort at all to exceed or to even pass. She wasn't a judgemental teacher. She had just never seen any student simply decline to do work for her, let alone whole groups of students. This was new. They no longer cared about the zeros that they would get for not completing class assignments. Just last week she had been greeted with a jovial student who jokingly refused to do any work."What's the point, miss? They're just going to make you pass me anyway!". </p><p>To Dolores Polonius, this was all spectacularly peculiar. From a distance, one could see her murmur "powerful dream" under her breath, as though reassuring herself that this wasn't really happening. </p><p>It was widely understood by the students that teachers would be harrassed, bullied, terrorized, observed by multiple administrators or worse if they issued a failing grade for students who refused to do any work in class. All of this was intentionally done, according to the widely held understanding, <i>in front of the students</i> so that the <i>students could see </i>what happens to a teacher who issues more than just a few failing grades. It was an issue over which some students felt sympathy and other students felt a sense of buyer's remorse so severe that they cared not to think about it. But it was widely understood and quite widely held by students all across the city. And that was the reality within which Dolores had to teach. </p><p>I mean, who would think you could go to a school, not do much for four years, watch your teachers get intimidated if they failed you and then walk out with a NYC diploma? Clearly! Dolores was dreaming! 🍩 But, within that dream, was the reality that she alone had to navigate. </p><p>And yet it felt so real! It almost felt as though a high school aged student could face no consequence for anything at all, unless one became violent toward another person (and even then, it was only a standard ("principal") or extra strength ("superintendent") suspension). For Dolores Polonius, it just felt so real. </p><p><br /></p><p>And then she heard something. She couldn't identify it at first, because it was so muffled. But, as the sound came slowly into focus, she recognized it as the voices of two giggling students sneaking out of their favorite teacher's classroom next door to her. "Such great kids", she murmured to herself. "I teach them soon". This was all followed, of course, by the sound of a teacher calling 'please don't leave until the bell rings. Come away from the door, please'. And then, finally, <i>the</i> sound. The bell. </p><p>The bell. </p><p>Dolores Polonius woke up in a flash. Before her eyes had fully opened, she had grabbed her bag, her coffee and checked for her classroom keys. And, as it slowly dawned on her that the lunch break had ended, she smiled at the thought of having just two of her favorite classes to teach before being able to launch out into the warm Spring afternoon. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-60815187707631555072022-05-11T07:49:00.003-04:002022-05-11T07:49:40.723-04:00Behind The Scenes: Commentary On Both Campaigns<p>This is just a quick commentary on both campaigns as I observed them throughout the election. </p><p><br /></p><p>It's been a campaign of declining horizons for the UFC. What started as an idea to unite <i><u>all</u></i> of the teachers in the city who weren't too happy with Unity, quickly moved into a working group that would consider uniting <i><u>all of the left teachers</u></i> in the city who weren't too happy with Unity. That, somehow grew into a campaign tailored to <i><u>all of the already activated teachers on the left who weren't too happy with Unity</u></i> <i><u>but were, at least, paying attention</u></i>. At the end of the day, people from all of the groups who ran oppo for years wound up running this campaign. The new blood that had come into the process had come only through those same old faces and had been along for the ride through the same old tricks. The only difference from years past is that, for 2022, they were all on the same page. That is still not too shabby and it was more than enough to shake Unity out of its slumber for this election. </p><p>In the Fall, the UFC truly had a chance to win a majority of working teachers. That would have put the leaders of the UFC in a very strong position over the next three years. A majority of working teachers would have allowed them to heavily influence union policy until the next election cycle. That would have been historic. Given the many missteps (some, stemming from mean spirited <i>internal</i> moves made over the course of the campaign, and others which wound up playing right into Unity's "We Do the Work" strategy), that outcome will not happen. But, like any Confederate solider who was at Gettysburg the moment <i>before</i> the battle began, there was once was a moment where all that and more was possible. </p><p>Unity, on the other hand, used this election to organize its caucus like it has never done before. Before this election, the Unity caucus was a big, sprawling group of people who seemed more concerned with their small 'team' (or piece of turf) than they seemed to be with the union as a whole. Many of these people didn't know one another. Many more seemed almost preoccupied about brandishing their own career reputation, or settling internal caucus disputes, then they were with the union as a whole. </p><p>They all know one another now! So far as I see, each person inside the Unity Caucus sees the purpose of their work in a whole new light. As a group, they seem more organized in thought and in word than I have ever seen before. And they have been forced to be more reflective of who they are when they speak about these issues. They don't attack regular members anymore on social media. They sound like professionals when they add a comment. They avoid that demeaning tone that Unity had become known for. They're better. Their "all-in" approach has made them better and this election has been a blessing in disguise for them (and, by extension, the rest of us). </p><p>And, as they are in better shape, so too is the UFC. The United Federation of Teachers is not a union of teachers of the left and the UFC is a group made up of teachers and teacher supporters of the left. Despite this, they are a <i>united</i> left. That's important for the rest of us. They have a long history and knowledge base of taking to the streets that they all employed this year. The new found cooperation led them to learn from each other, share each others' ideas and approaches and benefit from a sort of cultural diffusion from which the left does not typically benefit. They now know how to launch a media campaign now and they (caucuses who made up the slate) are all in a position to organize and bring more to their respective causes. If they were smart (and they are at least smart enough to read this blog), they would start organizing forums and other gatherings around their issues now -before the campaign becomes too forgotten and while so many are still paying attention to them. </p><p>I doubt whether that will happen, though. They are, after all, of the left and the left is notorious for not staying together for very long. I have already <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-endorsements-part1-ufc.html">written</a> that they will probably get 'about as far as the next few stops on the subway'. That could give them up to one good solid year of being on the same page and helping one another. If they could 1) Stick to their points of unity, they will see 2) a growth in their numbers, then they'll 3) become more powerful. </p><p>Alas, the old way of doing things, which are rooted in suspicion, had prevailed in the final construct of their organization. They yelled for more voices, yet they organized their group around a small council of older ("wiser"?) members some representing their caucus and some representing just themselves. That part didn't feel very new. Though brimming with energy and brilliance and motivation, the younger voices inside MORE have still not come to understand that the caucus is controlled by four or five of the same people (and some of those people have blown up joint slates in the past). But this group almost didn't happen and it did and that greatly matters. </p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>(Side note: Someone needs to do a history of the UFT oppo groups. Only oppo is too scared to do it, because then they'd have to admit to some of the things they do.)</b></span></p><p>Looking out in the distance, the UFC's future is very questionable. If the younger <i>real</i> organizers can't figure out a way to work around the older voices who cause damage, then the entire UFC may well be a memory by the time the next election rolls around. And, while there are other members (like the entire group over at ICE UFT) who hold all of the institutional memory and who understand how to be <i>helpful</i> to newer activists instead of competing <u>against</u> them, the truth is there are about 4 or 6 people from the UFC slate who could help the cause by stepping aside starting now and allow the younger voices to take it from here. Sadly, if those key members don't decide that it is time to hang it up, then the UFC will not have a fighting chance to make any difference at all in three years time, because the UFC will no longer exist. </p><p>But Unity has never been in better shape than they are right now. And that fact, along with a newly formed oppo group challenging them at every legitimate turn, will be good for working teachers. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-22809027605358075712022-05-09T13:13:00.004-04:002022-05-09T14:13:26.437-04:00My Picks For The UFT Election<p>What a campaign. Now that it's over (polls closed today) it's time to write about it. Despite the toxic ugliness that marked the opening rounds of the event, the election it was a bonafide wasterhsed event for both oppo and the ruling Unity caucus. </p><p>It won't wind up having a direct effect on regular classroom teachers across across this the city, but the way the UFT represents members, as well as the way opposition caucus reach out to work with members is going to be guided, in part, by the experiences and the lessons of this 2022 election. Unity will continue to improve and the oppo groups may well be able to work together (more on that in another post). </p><p>So here is how I think the vote count will go:</p><p><b>Majority of members </b>This is a no brainer. Unity will win the election as a whole. This will mean that all of their VPs and "at-large" candidates will win. This margin will narrow from 2019 but will still send a clear message as to who the winner is. Oppo will cry that "margin of victory matters!". It doesn't. And it won't. Unity will continue to reach out to work with oppo anyway. And oppo will continue to work with Unity for almost every opportunity it has. </p><p><b>Retirees </b>Unity. They lost a few votes because of the Medicare issue but not as many as folks think. Unity will win. These folks have whole careers behind them and fresh memories of events like the 1975 strike. They stuck with their union through layoffs, 0-0 raises under Giuliani and the Bloomberg attacks on teachers and on teaching. One little mis explanation of their medical benefits will not cost a majority of them to switch their vote. Unity wins retirees. Again, oppo will claim that margin of victory matters here. But those same groups won't do a thing to build relationships with groups of retirees. There will be strategy for organizing retirees because that's not the way oppo does things. So this vote will, literally, just be an indicator for how many retirees are pissed at Unity. Again, short term embarrassment for Unity but the oppo groups are not in any position to pose a long term threat to Unity's solid retiree base. </p><p><b>Majority of working teachers </b>This was briefly up for grabs at the beginning of the campaign. It is, of course, a fairly distant improbability for the UFC now. Unity will win a majority of working teachers. Most will come from elementary and middle schools. But a larger margin than most folks think will come from the high school division. </p><p><b>Majority of non-teacher members </b>Unity. That's all there is to it. This has always been a stronghold for Unity and will continue to be so .</p><p><b>Paras (</b>because Paras deserve their own category, in this space). Unity. As long as the union takes care of its paras, the paras will take care of the Unity Caucus. Also, please continue to take care of our paras. Fewer of them will vote to for Unity, but look for them to vote Unity. Opposition leaders who are able to build relationships with para educators do so on a basis of world-view. It's nice for leftists to connect and work with other leftists. The moderates and conservatives have kept the left separate for far too long. But that's not what a majority of paras want andso the majority of paras will stick with Unity. </p><p><b>Elementary Schools </b>There was once hope that this division could have been taken. Many elementary school teachers are conservative and moderate and, while more will vote with opposition this year, Unity will stay win a majority (although the margin will only be between 10-25 percentage points). </p><p><b>Middle Schools</b> This may well wind up being the biggest disappointment of the campaign for the UFC. There was once real hope (and a whole strategy in place) for making sure they won middle schools. The odds of an opposition group winning middle schools had never been higher and, if it would have happened, it would have made history. The ultimate composition of the UFC (which require all groups to be in consensus with every major move the UFC made) sent this goal to the back burner. They were replaced by goals that were more related to the formation of the group and it's candidates. All sides needed to know they believed in the same issues. So those issue had to be addressed and resolved. The ads, though beautifully produced, didn't help attract new eyes and the campaign in general seemed to loose site of winning Middle Schools as a campaign priority. The results will speak for themselves and Unity will win (by between 5 and 20 percentage points). There will, though, be enough in the middle school vote so that both sides and claim a bit of victory. If the UFC can continue to organize in middle schools, they may be able to make progress. </p><p><b>High Schools </b>Whenever there has been an organized opposition, the Unity caucus has lost the high school vote. This has been true for every single election I have heard. This year's election presented the classic scenario of Unity losing the high school vote again. They still may well loose it. But all of that changed when the city's biggest blogger and most famous teacher, Arthur Goldstein, decided to announce that he was running again with Unity. That changed again when Arthur put, in public, the reasons why (Unity gets stuff done. The opponents have a less than professional and less than healthy history where working with others is concerned. And more). When Unity lost in 2016, it was because Arthur's chapter, the biggest in his borough, urged members to vote for MORE. That chapter has not voted against the Unity Caucus since. I don't believe they will this time around, either. This is a person who has been this city's most vocal defender of teachers since 2005 (since many of them were, themselves, in school). The name and the blog both command too much respect for Arthur Goldstein's announcement to be dismissed. </p><p>And Arthur is not the exception. He's the rule. The Unity Caucus has been organizing in high schools all across the city over the past three years. Nobody has written about that. But it is the case. I think the UFC will win more <i>votes</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>than the last few elections. Of course. But I Unity surprise a few folks here. At the end of the day, Unity will capture more votes as well. And almost all of the new votes will be Unity. They have newer participating members in the borough of Queens and I don't think the UFC understands that just yet. That has to be factored in as well. </p><p>What also must be factored in is that this division goes with the weather. Sometimes, Unity wins more than 2500 votes (as in 2010) and sometimes, they get 1000 less (earning only in the range of 1500 in 2013). It does follow cycles but these cycles aren't very predictable. I correctly called a big Unity win last time. Were it not for Arthur, and for the organizing in Queens school in general (and in high school in particular), I would be calling. a big (big) UFC win this time. As it stands, Unity has turned high schools into a real fight -and I don't think the UFC is up to the task. </p><p>But still there is this golden rule: Whenever there has been an organized opposition, the Unity caucus has lost the high school vote. This is definitely too close for me to call. Whoever wins, high schools will be won by less than 500-750 votes. I do not know which group will win it. I guess why they count the ballots. </p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-22411214559029485872022-04-12T20:06:00.002-04:002022-04-13T02:18:07.505-04:00The Endorsements (Part 2: Unity)<p>For the Unity Caucus, this campaign has been a real watershed. Before this season, Unity was a sprawling organization filled with people who really weren't very well connected with one another -and they weren't very disciplined. Whereas some understood the subtleties involved in the internal politics of the union, there were others who did not and were so direct as to look like a bull trampling through a china shop. They could not communicate the medical coverage transition for retirees in any way that made any sense. Small groups of loyalists would devise "talking points" all on their own and attend online Zoom meetings with the specific intent of redirecting (ie controlling) the conversation. Unity members would share harsh tones with members, both online and in-person when they disagreed -and almost none of it was sanctioned by the 14th floor. There were whole swaths of Unity who were not in any meaningful contact with other whole swaths of the same caucus -and it showed. When they acted, they weren't always on the same page. When they spoke, they didn't always strike the same tone. They were a disorganized mess. They looked weak and any politically minded unionist could clearly sense that weakness and smell electoral blood in the water. This was a group that was ripe for defeat. </p><p>But, as Yogi Berra once said; 'It ain't over till it's over'. Somewhere along the line, the Unity Caucus woke up and most certainly rose to the meet the challenge they were facing. </p><p>By the time the official season got underway, they had all been tightly organized under one slogan, "We Do The Work". Suddenly, they were celebrating their members with videos and in visual banners shared all over social media. And, when they spoke via social media, they had their rank and file members -their superstars from the classroom- do most of the talking. Those superstars stole the show. When the UFC lodged a complaint that a paid Unity member was putting leaflets in mailboxes during "work time" the new Unity showed its true colors: It had been another member, an unpaid superstar teacher, who had volunteered her time to do it. The wins kept coming for Unity: A Moderator of one of NYC's largest Facebook NYC teacher groups came out <i>in favor of Unity</i>. The city's most beloved edu blogger came out <i>in favor of Unity</i>. And, to a person, every single Unity loyalist was speaking from a position of good; of defending good work and of celebrating good solid members who work with them. That's all you heard from Unity after it pulled itself together. </p><p>At the beginning of this campaign, Unity looked like the 1962 Mets. By the end, they resembled 1927 Yankees. If they lose any divisions this year, it will be because of the early hole they found themselves in. It won't be because they didn't pull themselves together. That crew pulled themselves together plenty. I have never seen the Unity Caucus more together than they are right now and if this election were in May instead of April, they would almost certainly clean the UFC's clock. As it stands, I think they'll pull out a victory (but more on that in another post). </p><p><br /></p><p>And my picks reflect that togetherness and singularity of effort and mindset. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>LeRoy Barr</b> gets my endorsement for Staff Secretary. 100%. The Staff Secretary is the person who helps run the day-to-day operations of the union. He has helped build the Unity Caucus into what it is today and he has reached out to oppo for years hoping to be able to engage in some good work with them. He has an even tone. He considers all sides in any discussion and he knows the membership. He is an excellent leader of professionals. </p><p>Speaking as a progressive rank and file teacher, LeRoy has invited me to the table just so he could hear what I had to say. This blog is not a space for attacking and is usually a space devoid of all negativity. But leadership spots are important and this is matter of being inclusive. In 2018, it was his opponent from oppo who employed false accusations about my personal integrity and purged me as well as several others from her caucus. The reasons for this were later described in an internal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Socialist_Organization">ISO</a> document: I and my colleagues were not far left enough for them. The actual phrase used in the internal document for ISO's national convention was "far right" (and they were very relieved to have gotten those 'far right' voices out of their caucus). Like I said, this is not personal. It is a simple matter of being inclusive. One leader has proven that he is and one leader has displayed the opposite. It's just that simple. I'm voting for LeRoy (and, frankly, I have only a benign fear of being purged from the UFT if he loses. Nothing a little swig of wine can't handle).</p><p><b>Janella Hinds </b>gets my endorsement for VP of academic high schools. Janella is a transformative leader. Simply transformative. She has both style and grace and leads in a kind and supportive manner. Her tone is never harsh and her staff have always been just a phone call away from offering whatever help I needed. Her opponent once attacked her (in the past) and her response was purely her: She exuded her usual positive approach and tried to engage him in discourse. She apologized for not having his support and invited him to share a better path forward for her future Zoom meetings. Pure class. Janella is pure class. And my understanding is that she still teaches (Janella teaches in a place where good teaching greatly matters on an urgent day-today level) and is still loved at all of her colleagues and students. It's Janella and her team for the win. The whole union needs to lead in the manner that her and her team lead. </p><p>Speaking as a progressive rank and file teacher, under Janella I have been asked to edit resolutions that would help teachers and have been called for quick brainstorm sessions from time to time. It is in her DNA to involve rank and file members. That's why I endorse her. Her opponent has been a member of the opposition for years. He has attacked me on Twitter, has implied that I am not a real teacher and has literally told me to shut up when I contributed to a discussion (that's <a href="https://twitter.com/Jd2718x/status/1500638763810271232">here</a>, if you're interested. I disagreed with him attacking someone else and that's what I got in return). Like I said, this blog is not a space for attacking and is usually a space devoid of all negativity. But past is usually prologue and the experiences I have had with her opponent (which are shared here with no malice and with no spite whatsoever) does shed light on the <i>type</i> of leadership we might expect with a UFC victory in that spot. Please know, I would not be the only teacher to experience this level of pedantic abuse if her opponent were to win. Word has it her opponent recently filed a formal complaint about this blog with the union because I used the UFT's logo in a few of my posts. I think that's what we would expect with a regime change in academic high schools. It's actually nothing personal. I just prefer the other path. Look, folks pick up their own unique styles along the way. Her opponent is a hard charger with a 'take no prisoners' approach. Janella is a once-in-a generation transformative leader who has a 21st Century style and skills. I'm not endorsing Janella because she has never attacked me and has worked with me whenever possible. I am endorsing her because she is the type of leader who will never attack a regular teacher and will work with regular teachers whenever possible. That's what we want from our leadership. That's what people like me want from the real teachers of this union. A win for Janella would ensure that kindness and tone matter to teachers. </p><p><b>Amy Arundell </b>is a candidate for the UFT Executive Board this year. I would have gladly petitioned for her in my school but she had more than enough support without me (of course). But that's how much I endorse her. I think we all know Amy's contributions to the union at this point. She answers questions on Facebook groups. She connects with members whenever possible. She keeps her victories and struggles quiet and tries more than anyone else to connect with as many members as possible. But this is all because she believes in building and growing chapters and teachers and because she believes in the dignity of a professional saying "thank you for your feedback. I like my bulletin board the way it is" to an abusive administrator (she has said these words in the past. But I am asserting to you that she deeply believes in every sentiment behind those words and isn't slow to work toward it). Amy Arundell is a walking, talking theory of action. In my opinion, she is the best organizer the UFT has, period. The work (of building) that she has done in Queens will, I think, add to the amount of votes that the Unity caucus will win this year (more on that later in the week when I publish my picks for who will win). But, for now, it's Amy. </p><p><b>Mindy Rosier </b>- Mindy was once an oppo person herself! She now runs with Unity and has never been more widely respected (and, frankly, loved) than she is now. To know Mindy is to love Mindy. We like that about our union leaders. We like trusting the members of our Executive Board and we like being able to depend on their kindness. But that kindness should not be mistaken for anything less than toughness. Mindy hast taken on Eva in her own school. She has taken on the governor at his own Manhattan office. She is a Bernie Sanders delegate with a gentle presence but she is every bit a fighter. Mindy is the bomb; period. Find Mindy's name on the ballot. Vote for Mindy. </p><p><b>Arthur Goldstein - </b>Has been defending teachers since 2005 -since before I was ever active. I'll have more to write about Arthur later in the week but since being a member of the Executive Board, he has connected hundreds of teachers to their union and has established a forum for thousands more to understand just what the heck is happening in their union. Arthur Goldstein on EB will be a plus for working teachers, just as his blog, his many newspaper column articles and his presence has been in the past. This is a no brainer. </p><p><b>Mike Schirtzer - </b>In a surprise to absolutely no one, the doenuts blog endorses Mikey no-shirt. I won't say more than I already have, but Mike is true teachers' teacher -and a complete ham. He has proven his expertise to me about the contract on more than one occasion and we all know how he has helped teachers in the past. People call him "Mr. UFT" because that's all he thinks and talks about. He has brought winning issues and winning people into the union and has ensured that they are part of it. When he speaks, he speaks as though unionism is cool and you feel as though <b>you</b> are the uncool one for not recognizing how cool unionism is. Mike is a force of nature and, as he continues to refine his leadership style and approach, I hope to see his name and his work find a more prominent place inside of the UFT. Find Mike's name. Vote for Mike. </p><p><b>Mike Solo -</b> I have met Mike Solo exactly once in my life -for all of five minutes- but many of us know his story. As a chapter at John Dewey High School, Mike Solo pushed back hard against an abusive principal. I won't tell the whole story here but his actions were adroit, smart, brave and, ultimately victorious. Most importantly, this is the person who ensured that you and I will never have to record, keep and track data about our DO NOWs and Exit Tickets. That, to my understanding, was his fight and that precedent (which protects us all today) stemmed from his work when he was under direct assult. I know this person only by reputation. I am <u>running</u> to find his name so I can vote for him. <a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2022/04/uft-election-2022-high-schools-up-for.html">Some</a> would try to convince you to not vote for individual people on the ballot and just close your eyes and "check the box". But the things that protect us are the product of the effort of individual people who, under attack. fought back and, in their victory, protected us all. I choose to honor Mike Solo this year and I'm going to give thanks for his work by directly voting for him and for people like him. </p><p>I have one edit from my last post: <b>Sally Bean</b> is running against Mike Sill for UFT assistant Secretary. I like Mike Sill but Sally Bean is a brilliant bundle for smart positive energy. I realize this is Unity's part, but the doenuts blog endorses Sally Bean or UFT Assistant Secretary. How great is she? She is so great I endorse her over one of the coolest people in Unity. She's that great. Find Sally's name. Vote for Sally.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143698788073485118.post-53652479404455558882022-04-08T22:24:00.035-04:002022-04-09T17:48:33.570-04:00The Endorsements (Part1: the UFC)<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigKLu28rvVWfWanlAXJ-k04ET1I2-bIRe6I6Gxdhz6z9Ku1huspaAF55fpw9mvr7ngwxus0J-EN42csn4H3h2Ex9JQ-yFNstGym_IqOEbqurQG-EPfd6S2eVECc2cH37DMTMrQDe--GemUtfGXdPceDlN6vKfJBMEF__bqFM4fwEWztoZuKrxOT9Cipw/s1600/UFT-full-Logo-horizontal-2000.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="1600" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigKLu28rvVWfWanlAXJ-k04ET1I2-bIRe6I6Gxdhz6z9Ku1huspaAF55fpw9mvr7ngwxus0J-EN42csn4H3h2Ex9JQ-yFNstGym_IqOEbqurQG-EPfd6S2eVECc2cH37DMTMrQDe--GemUtfGXdPceDlN6vKfJBMEF__bqFM4fwEWztoZuKrxOT9Cipw/w640-h168/UFT-full-Logo-horizontal-2000.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Don't even think about it, pal. I'm plenty authorized. It's my union. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>I<span style="font-size: medium;"> think this is where I'm supposed to say that anyone who runs for a UFT office is a set apart and deserves our respect, right? Not gonna happen here. I've seen both sides engage in actions that surprised me in their lowness. As Ginsberg opened, "I saw the greatest minds of my generation driven to madness" (I prefer nuts, but, hey....) Let's just say that both sides went a little bonkers this time around. This election had too much toxic. Too much bitterness and just too much damn ugly. Frankly, I think it is time for some folks to think about exiting the stage. This is true for the Unity folks but this is especially true for oppo. The new generation should take it from here. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I'd like to thank the Unity Caucus, however, for never attacking my reputation, for their professionalism and friendships -and for always listening to what I had to say. Those are all very gratefully appreciated!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I cannot say the same for members of the UFC. From them, I have experienced very public attacks, very private whisper campaigns and a very healthy dose of that toxicness that they are, by now, well-known for. Hell, I even lost a few friends along the way this season (achimony stemming from a damaging lie peddled by a person who gave them all hope and commanded their attention). I wish I could say I'm the only one who was attacked or mistreated. Alas, I am not. It's just how they rolled through whole swaths of their campaign this year (more on that after the voting ends).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And then there were the mistakes. Instead of combining all players, they opted for a left-only slate, with a center leaning Solidarity being the only non-left sign-on. Instead of crafting a vision and selling it to members, they put all of their efforts into making their opponent look bad whenever possible. Instead of reminding members that no whole-sale changes could possibly be made if they won (that this was a challenge for leadership and for the direction of the union) they opted for an attack approach (repeating the same mistakes oppo has made year after year since as far back as anyone can remember). </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And instead of uniting <i>the union</i>, they chose to embrace a message and strategy that united only themselves. This made then all resemble a power strip that has been plugged into itself. They then proceeded through their campaign as though that power strip had been giving them an electric kind of energy. It really hadn't. The energy they felt was only their own excitement over finally being united with each other -with other people who share their world view and see agency in their union. Unfortunately, if history is any guide, what they achieved will probably </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>move</span><span> them about as far as the next few stops on the subway. </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WboggjN_G-4">You know how that goes</a><span> over there. Look for them to be not speaking again in a year or two. The leaders really blew a chance to win it all this year. Like, really. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But some of the folks who had little or less to do with any of that are on the ticket this year and they are just amazing. I mean, beyond amazing. I think you should look all the way down the ballot and vote for them. I think you should find these names and vote for them before you look at the remaining parts of the ballot. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Camille Eterno. </b>I have already written about Camille <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/02/this-is-full-throated-defense-of.html">here</a> and <a href="https://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2022/03/camille-eterno-for-president.html">here</a> so I won't go over it again. But checking her name will bring a new direction to the UFT. Whatever they want to say over at the UFC about how they will burn the house down and blah blah blah is just nonsense (the truth is they wouldn't be able to find enough qualified individuals anyway without turning to Unity people). Camille's presence as the president would change the course and direction of the union, period. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Gloria Brandman</b> My understanding is that Gloria is running on the retiree slate. I have never known a more committed activist than she. She is wise, she is experienced and she is patient. And Gloria is a builder. You will find many different types of <i>people </i>in the UFT oppo, but there are very few <i> </i>in that world. Gloria is one of them and her integrity and reputation as a committed activist are both beyond impeccable. If you can see her name on the ballot, you should vote for her. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Norm Scott</b> is another name that is worth the extra time to find and to vote for. Norm has been at the center of the UFT oppo for decades. He knows every player - and he knows most of the plays. Norm is one-half brilliant strategist, one-half grinder and one-half Groucho Marx-like intellectual muse. That makes him worth more (by half) than almost any unionist out there. I think of Norm as a Groucho Marx because of Groucho's famous line ("I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member"). Norm is a perennial outside and he has turned being an outsider into an insider's game. This whole union is far far better off with him. He is just what they need to hear for the next three years in whatever capacity they are able to hear it. Find Norm. Vote for Norm. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Lydia Howrilka </b>is the voice of the Solidarity Caucus. She has played an essential role in uniting the several members of the vocal opposition and has dealt with, well, a lot in the name of uniting. If you ask anyone in oppo today, they will tell you that Lydia has really come into her own. The truth, however, is that Lydia came into her own t<i>hree years ago</i> when she finished second to Michael Mulgrew in the vote. Not only did she gain more votes, she spent three years doing her level best to keep them. It took three full years for some people in oppo to realize that Lydia had kicked their ass. The best they could muster from that realization was a 'Lydia has really come into her own' meme. That's rich, as she has been here for years. She is running for the UFT Executive Board on the high school slate this year and her presence will be a benefit to every single rank and file teacher in the City of New York. She'll be great to work with when the powers-that-be are reasonable and she'll be hell to deal with when the powers-that-be aren't. That's Lydia. Lydia is perfect for us. Find Lydia's name. Vote for Lydia. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't know too much about <b>Ibeth Mejia, </b>other than that she is a newly elected chapter leader from Queens (Aviation HS) and has been s a formidable organizer within her school. She also has James Eterno as an advisor and a friend and that is someone whom I have a great deal of respect for. She's running on the Solidarity ticket and I'll be voting for her as well. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;">Edit: </span><span style="font-size: medium;">I just learned that <b>James Eterno</b> is, in fact, on the ballot this year. I haven't the time to write a blurb about James, but if you don't know the name, then you should learn it. If he's on the ticket, I'm sure it's as a delegate or some other position where it is nigh impossible for vote just for him, but James is the best organizer in the UFT. If you can, vote for James. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I've met the candidate for VP of CTE High Schools <b>Eric Severson. </b>I know him to be a straight forward unionist who is dedicated to making teachers' lives' easier. In a non-bizarro world, that would be all that anyone would need to know. So I'll just pretend I live in a non-bizarro world and vote for him. If you want a good unionist, you should as well. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There are some other names from Solidarity that I think you should consider. I know no one from the New Action slate but I do hear great things about <b>Nick Bacon</b> (and I think he is a great writer). I am able to recommend absolutely no one from the MORE Caucus but one name, <b>Ronnie Almonte, </b>has popped up several times as a transformative leader, organizer and unionist. I'll be voting for him. Another name to look out for is <b>Matt Driscoll </b>(although i'm not sure if he is on the slate). These names pop up as possibly the future over there at "the movement" (and, man, I hope so. That outfit needs to go back to the future (in their processes) where they belong and needs to drop the dead weight -asap). Finally, I like <b>Yvonne Reason</b> for Middle School Executive Board from the eonyc banner. I don't know this person but I saw this colleague on teacher chat travel to her students' homes over one summer to welcome them to middle school because she knew many may be on remote the following year, and because she wanted them to meet their teacher. She did this during an international pandemic, before there was a vaccine. I've never met this person but anyone who does something like that will represent regular teachers beyond fine. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm ending with <b>Peter Zucker! </b>Peter has known the players and has been affecting the game for well over 15 years now. No one has been knowledgeable, more public in his defense of teachers, including individual teachers, than has Peter. I once saw Peter call around and pull out the big guns for a teacher he barely knew. Her story was horrible (just horrible) and that was all Peter needed to hear, The teacher received a more fair deal because of his defense of her and Peter, for all his his tongue-in-cheek writing, never bothered nor cared to brag. The victories are quiet that way and that's fine with Zucker. This is an essential unionst, with more experience and institutional wisdom than many many others. So it would make sense that they put him for Executive Board right? Wrong! Peter is an AFT delegate candidate. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There are new names which I do not know and can't speak to. And there are still other names (names who read this blog) who I will not speak to (hell, those names are probably calling Carl right now to complain about me using <i>my</i> banner in a blog post. But the names listed here are worth the time to carefully search for on the ballot and check the vote box.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2