Jive article published in today's Times that clearly came right from Mulgrew's p.r. people that says the UFT is going to endorse a candidate for 2013 and that all the mayoral hopefuls, announced and unannounced, are jockeying for his favor.
Pardon me for being redundant, but what horsehockey.
The reality is, the candidates will say whatever they need to say to the municipal unions in general and to the UFT in particular BEFORE the primary in order to garner an endorsement, then do whatever the hell the DFER's and the hedge fundies want AFTER the election.
Doesn't matter if it's Quinn, Stringer, de Blasio or Thompson - the hedge fundies make all the calls on education policy and a lot of other policies in this city and you can be sure that won't stop once Bloomberg leaves office.
If anybody thinks the corporatizing of the school system and the demonizing of teachers as THE problem in education are going to end once Bloomberg leaves and is replaced by Quinn, Stringer, de Blasio or Thompson, I've got a for-profit charter school chain I'd like to sell them.
As always, hope to be wrong on this kind of thing.
But I doubt I will be.
Notice how the reporter did not ask why the UFT didn't support Bloomberg's opponent given that the vote was close and UFT support could have made a difference. Instead, they sent a message that Bloomberg would win, and as a result, many voters stayed home.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if Stringer would string along with Wall Street. Quinn already has. Bloomberg bought her off years ago and will continue to have influence. So don't be surprised if she gets the UFT endorsement.
Makes me think the NY Times wants to "help" Mulgrew with an angry membership after a string of disasters -- TDAs, pension, Bloomberg offering loan rebates to new teachers while there will be thousands of ATRs floating around, school closings, charter co-locos, educational disasters in school after school. And don't think that Bloomberg and the ed deformers don't agree with pumping up the Unity leadership, fearing a Chicago style insurrection may be brewing.
ReplyDeleteA good reason to help build a new caucus to challenge Unity on all levels.
Bill de Blasio is a phony from the get-go. His given name was Warren Wilhelm. He changed his name to reflect his Italian, rather than his German ethnic origin. Here's the bio as written in Wikipedia:
ReplyDelete"De Blasio is of German-American and Italian-American ethnic heritage. His mother was Maria De Blasio Wilhelm, a historian on the Italian Resistance in World War II. His birth name, Warren Wilhelm, was legally changed to Bill De Blasio. He and his wife Chirlane live with their two children, Chiara and Dante, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Both children attend public school. Councilman de Blasio holds a B.A. from New York University, and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs."