In an exclusive Capital Tonight interview, NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi revealed he will soon ask his Board of Directors to bring an apparently unprecedented vote of no confidence on state Education Commissioner John King in response to what the union feels is a failure to respond to the growing concerns over the Common Core curriculum.
“The frustration level is overwhelming,” Iannuzzi said of his membership. “…The time has come. We have to address this now, and what we see is a state Ed Department that’s saying: Let’s see how much time we can buy, maybe this will go away.”Iannuzzi could not recall such a vote being taken before.
He said the NYSUT Board of Directors will meet within the next two weeks, and he feels confident they will approve his request. The resolution will then go before the union’s full representative assembly in April – assuming, Iannuzzi said, that if by that time its call for a three-year moratorium on using Common Core exam results for so-called “high-stakes decisions” on teacher evaluations has not been heeded.
King has so far rejected the union’s quest for a moratorium, saying it’s a “distraction” from the goal of using the Common Core to improve student performance.
SED spokesman Dennis Tompkins had the following response:
“The moratorium NYSUT wants would require a change in state law. But talk of a moratorium is a distraction. The focus should be on our students.”
“Every year, 140,000 high school students leave high school without the skills they need to succeed in college or a career. The evaluation system and the Common Core together will help our students succeed. NYSUT’s leadership should honor the commitments they’ve repeatedly made to both.”
Shelly Silver said this week if the Regents do not fix the problems with their education reform agenda, the Legislature will do it for them.
It remains to be seen how far any of these "fixes" will go.
Frankly I agree with Tompkins that the call for a three year moratorium on high stakes attached to the tests is a distraction.
NYSUT ought to be looking to derail the whole reform agenda, starting with Common Core and moving on to APPR and the testing and the inBloom data project.
The three year moratorium does not go far enough in any way, shape or form.
The NYSUT agreed to Race to the Top. NYSUT agreed to allow changes to the evaluation law. Now they are saying they are against Common Core. Is it not all the same sh*t sandwich that they agreed to all along? I am missing something?
ReplyDeleteAFT and UFT too - so far, Mulgrew been silent on all this. Randi says VAM is SHAM, Iannuzzi calls for no confidence vote on King, Mulgrew is out at the woodshed...
DeleteWe know what he's doing out there.
DeleteIf Ianuzzi is calling for a no confidence vote then don't expect Mulgrew to chime in any time soon.
DeleteMikey is awful quiet these days, other than backing BdB on pre-K.
DeleteHearing he's got a few other coals on the fire...
DeleteOf course, Mr. Iannuzzi (as well WeinGrewBloomKleinCott and others), are responsible for we having to deal with this in the first place. Funny how he fails to mention this.
ReplyDeleteYup - no acknowledgement he stood on stage w/ King, Tisch and Cuomo back in Feb 2012 and hailed APPR.
Delete...my, my...how the worm has turned...
ReplyDeleteCompared to the last few years, we're seeing extraordinary movement away from the reform movement. But we've got a LONG way to go yet.
DeleteThe thing is a three year moratorium is starting to look possible, given the talk coming from both sides of the aisle in the Assembly. Problem is I am not sure that slimeball senators Flanagan and Skelos will ever allow such a bill to come to the floor in the senate.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, however, a three year moratorium would be the worst thing to happen. It buys ed deformers three years time to make people forget about this boondoggle. And then they can repackage the same crap in three years and hope the public has forgotten and doesn't realize what is happening.
From the beginning I have said that the only acceptable outcome is a complete withdrawal from RTTT. That's the drum that we must continue to beat.
I totally agree - the moratorium is harmful in the long run. More important to let the ed deform train go completely off the tracks and explode into a million pieces. Withdrawal from RttT and inBloom, end to APPR, and re-evaluation of the standards.
DeleteNot to express confidence or trust in NYSUT or the UFT, but one potential positive of a moratorium is that it would be seen by the players as a way to save face and allow these so-called reforms to die quietly on the vine.
ReplyDeleteWe all want to see these so-called reforms explicitly and publicly repudiated, but I could live with them quietly expiring while sanity gradually returns to the schools.
You raise a good point, Michael. I just wonder if the money to be made off the reforms won't trump all in the end, as you mentioned in another comment.
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ReplyDelete