Saturday, January 25, 2014

Will NYSUT Re-Announce Support For John King & Common Core After Mike Mulgrew And The UFT Oust Iannuzzi?

The NYSUT board of directors announced a vote of no confidence has been issued against SED Commissioner King and support for the Common Core State Standards has been withdrawn until a set of demands around the implementation, testing and budgeting of the CCSS are met by the state.

This sounds all well and good, but there is a civil war going on within the NYSUT between the Dick Iannuzzi wing of the state union and the wing run by the UFT and as Brian from the PJSTA noted in a comment here at Perdido Street School, with the Mulgrew faction expected to win an April vote and wrest control of the NYSUT from Iannuzzi and his faction, official NYSUT policy will change back to pro-John King/pro-CCSS:

Many believe Mulgrew to be behind the insurgency slate challenging Iannuzzi for NYSUT presidency. That slate, dubbed "Revive NYSUT" and being billed as "grassroots" (even though an incumbent exec vp is on the slate) just received an endorsement from Mulgrew this week (shocking!). Because of the split with Mulgrew and the UFT/Unity crew, many believe Iannuzzi is now moving further away from what had been the party line of support for CCSS. The belief is that without being beholden to Mulgrew and UFT leadership, a new term for Iannuzzi would look drastically different. Of course we likely won't find out, as UFT/Unity holds 40% of the NYSUT delegates and the other 60% is largely unorganized. So Mulgrew's slate of Andy Pallotta, Martin Messner, Paul Pecorale, and Catalina Fortino will likely win. That is the crew who seems to want to endorse Cuomo. It's a very nuanced situation for those unfamiliar with NYSUT inner-politics. Norm Scott has done a great job at Ed Notes Online keeping track of the story.

The State of Politics blog covered this story yesterday, so you can go there or to Ed Notes Online for more background.

But as Brian wrote, the NYSUT vote of no confidence and withdrawal of support for CCSS is meaningless if and when Mulgrew and Company - supporters of CCSS, APPR, Cuomo and all things reformy, including NYSED Commissioner John King - take over complete control of the NYSUT in the spring and change the NYSUT party line back to the pro-reform, pro-CCSS, pro-APPR one they pursue here in NYC.
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4 comments:

  1. ed notes onlineJanuary 25, 2014 at 9:43 PM

    Note that Catalina Fortino is on UFT adcom as a VP in charge of education and teacher centers -- a patronage mill for Unity -- and funded mostly by the State. Thus they are beholden to Cuomo for that funding to be continued. Not the most important issue out there but a factor,

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    1. reality-based educatorJanuary 26, 2014 at 9:12 AM

      I'm sure political and economic expediency for themselves is a large measure of their Sheriff Andy support.

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  2. MartyJanuary 26, 2014 at 8:15 AM

    You're just grasping at straws here -- both the vote of "no confidence" and the vote to sop implementation of the Common Core were unanimous. Every member of the Board voted in favor of both resolutions -- which, as you no doubt no means that Magee, Pallotta, Messner, Pecorale, Mulgrew and all other directors from UFT voted with every other Board member and officer on the resolutions.

    Given that, why do you say they are pro-King? It jut doesn't add up.

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    1. reality-based educatorJanuary 26, 2014 at 9:11 AM

      Mulgrew and UFT hailed the Cuomo deal that gave NYSED Commissioner John King the power to "arbitrate" the APPR negotiations between the UFT and DOE, Mulgrew and the UFT hailed the obscene evaluation system that King imposed on NYC teachers and continued to defend it as late as in the fall, Mulgrew remains such a heavy supporter of the CCSS that he said he was "frightened" by the opposition to it, and Mulgrew and the UFT have remained largely silent as King, Tisch and Cuomo have ridden roughshod over teachers, schools and districts the state over (links below.)

      The cynic in me - and 13 years as a UFT member have taught me cynicism is the only rational response to dealing with the UFT leadership - says when Mulgrew and his contingent takes over NYSUT, they will bring the collaborationist policies they have pursued here in NYC state-wide - including support for the CCSS and John King.

      Frankly, I'm no Iannuzzi fan either, but I like the more forceful moves NYSUT has made lately against SED, the CCSS and APPR.

      I have grave doubts that a Mulgrew/UFT-controlled NYSUT will continue that same tack - not if their good buddy, Andy Cuomo, doesn't want it that way.

      http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/08/mulgrew-frightened-by-opposition-to.html

      http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/09/mulgrew-again-defends-advance-appr.html

      http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/09/michael-mulgrew-hails-new-appr-advance.html

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