Mulgrew Says Thank You

I had this in my inbox this morning:

Dear Colleagues,

Doing whatever it takes to help the children we serve is what we do every day as educators. And this morning that meant getting up earlier, digging out and negotiating the latest gift from Mother Nature, and I just want to express my appreciation to all of you who took that in stride and did what you needed to do to serve our children.

It’s just one more thing that makes me proud to serve you.

Sincerely,

Michael Mulgrew

Yeah, I know he's making a political point by sending these out and yeah, I know he's also trying to maintain support among the UFT masses, but I have only one reaction to this email (or any from Mulgrew, for that matter.)

Don't thank me - protect me.

Protect me from an education reform movement that has decided to use high stakes testing and the flawed value-added measurement of teachers to destroy the public school system, bust unionized teachers out of a job, close schools, fire veteran educators and privatize public education for their hedge fund cronies.

That, Mr. Mulgrew, would be thanks enough for me.

Let me know when you start at that, okay?

Because so far - from the schools that are being closed despite a judge finding they shouldn't be closed to another judge finding hat the NYCDOE has the right to release unreliable data about teachers to the press - I haven't seen much protection of teachers or schools by the UFT leadership.

Not effective protection, at any rate.