.@BillThompsonNYC listens to a teacher who tears up talking about problems with school officials. pic.twitter.com/chXlwjNZy7
— Azi Paybarah (@Azi) September 5, 2013
Quite frankly, I know teachers who get just as frustrated when the union functionaries come around to explain the wonders of APPR or why nothing can be done about all those "unsatisfactory ratings" in the building or why dissenting voices at the Delegates Assembly have to be immediately shut down.
No point crying to Bill Thompson about the problems dealing with NYCDOE or NYSED officials anyway.
The co-chair of his campaign is Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch.
You can bet Thompson isn't going to fix any of the problems teachers have dealing with school officials, not with Tisch as his campaign co-chair.
Forget the UFT endorsement stuff.
If Thompson is elected, who do you think he's going to listen to - Mulgrew and the UFT or Tisch and her moneyed backers?
In case you're unfamiliar with Bill Thompson's penchant for doing whatever the person with the most money wants, let me leave you two links here and here on Thompson and one on Tisch for good measure.
Some advice to teachers in NYC:
Don't cry to Thompson or the UFT leadership.
Send them both packing - Thompson in five days time, the UFT leadership in the next UFT election.
I wouldn't frame your question this way: If Thompson is elected, who do you think he's going to listen to - Mulgrew and the UFT or Tisch and her moneyed backers?
ReplyDeleteNot an "or" since he will listen to them both since Mulgrew and Tisch are on the same side -- and that ain't ours.
Framed the question badly, you're right. I was trying to make the point above that that the UFT doesn't care about teachers, but alas, didn't make the point so well in that part of the post.
DeleteThompson is suspect for his close connection with Tisch.
ReplyDeleteBut the public at large should ask, should we call him "Pay-to-Play Bill"?
He has huge conflict of interest issues: campaign backers that have been in industries he has regulated.
Thompson received campaign donations from interests that stood to benefit from his actions while chairing a state land authority. The owner of Milstein Properties, which owns over 500 Battery Park condos gave Thompson the $4,900 legal contribution limit on January 11, 2012. His wife and son gave donations totaling $14,850 on the same day. This was while Thompson was the chair of the Battery Park Authority, the landlord for the land upon which the condo buildings sit. Appointed in 2010 by then governor David Paterson, Thompson only resigned as chair on the week of May 6, 2012, but not after several lucrative authority actions went the way of Thompson benefactors.
Additionally, Nathaniel Herz in Crain's Insider, "Thompson’s $300 million Battery Park City bill, Mayoral candidate approved big breaks for donors", May 16, 2012 reported that he helped Brookfield Properties:
. . .
Thompson’s stewardship will cost the city much more, thanks to two deals that he and his board of directors approved on behalf of the mayoral candidate’s campaign contributors.
Last year, the board unanimously agreed to roll back a scheduled increase in fees paid by Battery Park City condominium owners by nearly $280 million.
. . .
Also taking a bite out of future Battery Park City funding to the city are millions of dollars in rent reductions that Thompson and the board unanimously approved in March to help Brookfield Properties pay for a glitzy overhaul of its retail space at the World Financial Center.
And Thompson has been paid handsomely by Brookfield: the vote by Thompson and the rest of the Battery Park authority board came after Thompson received over $15,000 from lobbyists and others with ties to Brookfield Properties. The authority board gave a $22.3 million tax break a few months after donations to the Thompson campaign.
Thompson has a pattern of helping the people that help him. How could you imagine that he will help Tisch or current campaign supporter Alphonse D'Amato?