In a growing rift between the city and the teachers union, the president of the United Federation of Teachers yanked his participation in a national conference set for next week in Denver featuring the country's education chief, Arne Duncan.
In order to attend the conference, both a district's superintendent or chancellor and the head of the local teachers union had to sign a pledge to work "collaboratively" and to, among other things, hold "each other accountable for results" and find ways to advance the "hiring, retention, compensation, development and evaluation of a highly effective workforce."
Cathleen Black, the schools chancellor signed the agreement, as did Michael Mulgrew, the president of the UFT.
But then Ms. Black and her boss, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, began talking about the current system of seniority-based teacher layoffs.
At the Christian Cultural Center, a Brooklyn megachurch, two weeks ago the mayor warned that a state law that requires the city to lay off teachers based on seniority rather than effectiveness would hurt minority communities the most.
That, and comments by Ms. Black suggesting the same thing, didn't sit well with Mr. Mulgrew, and he withdrew his agreement. That means Ms. Black can't attend either.
Mr. Mulgrew said: "If we sign a pledge and before we even get to Denver they've broken their pledge, why am I going? Makes no sense." He added that his relationship with Mr. Bloomberg is at its lowest point since he became UFT president 18 months ago. "When the mayor and the chancellor decided to pit communities against each other by saying some would be hurt more than others, that's not working together for the interest of children, which is what we pledged to do," he added.
The mayor is a liar, a cheat, and a thief.
Why would the UFT sign the agreement in the first place?
Dunno, but there is no working collaboratively with Bloomberg, or indeed, any ed deformer.
The ed deform movement believes collaboration means you do EXACTLY what they want and smile while they do it to you.
By not attending Duncan's jive ass conference, the UFT shows what a dog and pony show ANYTHING Duncan leads is.
They also keep Chancellor Black from attending, which given her disgraceful performances in NYC so far, probably just helps her.
The UFT has to combat negative press with press releases, press conferences, articles and purchased advertisements in major media outlets. Not some namby pamby "oh look what we're doing for the kids" crap, but a real labor union with principles. This has been, so far, since mayoral control began, a Vichy union.
ReplyDeleteJust a note, an addendum to my last comment....they're not treating children very nicely either, for the most part. They punish good ones in public high schools for being good by pushing them around and making them arrive period 1 and not eat lunch until period 8, for instance. And these are the good ones, the middle class ones. Imagine being in a public high school that is being "phased out". The experiences I've read about or viewed from the children in these schools is absolutely heart wrenching.
ReplyDeleteI watched Lynch and Cassidy of the police and fire department unions on "Inside City Hall" last night. It was really refreshing to hear these straightshooting guys do a number on BloomBucks--especially when they called him a liar. I felt myself wishing that Mulgrew would do something similar--I think he has it in him.
ReplyDeleteLynch and Cassidy need to stand with Mulgrew - only recently have they begun to murmur about Bloomberg's attacks on "teachers, firefighters, and cops." I suppose they were apprehensive about being lumped in with the teachers' union and hoping that if they stayed out of the fray their own union members would somehow be exempt from the vitriol. But the markers have been there for months - as soon as that idiot Bing started talking about repealing seniority rights, every municipal union should have been on alert. Even teachers were complacent about it, especially after Bing's proposal was shot down. At the time, teachers buzzed about how it meant that seniority was untouchable, and there was talk that Bing would be voted out of office. Well, look, Bing's still around, Bloomberg's still arund, Oprah's throwing her considerable weight (pun intended) to support liars and incompetents like Rhee, Duncan, and Black, Obama is clueless as to how his policies are affecting (read: destroying) public schools, and, by extension, the teachers who work there and the children they serve). We are living in a world where the rich believe it's acceptable to cut back on the middle class and the middle class buys into believing that they must be right. We are living in a world where you just have to pray that you live in a neighorhood where you still have a firehouse, a precinct, and a public school - the only people worth protecting, apparently, are the ones who make so much money they don't have to pay the very taxes that support the services they are trying to take away from the rest of us.
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