The NY Times published an attack on teacher tenure earlier in the week in an editorial and today the NY Post followed up with a sensationalized PERV TEACHER story that is meant to drive the "Reform Tenure" narrative and bring about political action.
The attacks on teacher tenure/due process here in NY State have begun in earnest.
What is the UFT/AFT response to these attacks?
Do they have any?
I have an idea or two as a response that I'll write about at length in coming days, but they're nothing you haven't heard before.
It's important for teachers unions and teachers groups to partner with parents and parent groups to engender good will and understanding within the state, the cities and the communities.
Attacks on teachers and due process protections are less likely to work, no matter how well funded they are, if teachers unions and teachers groups are partnered with parents and parent groups on issues in which they have mutually shared interests - like calling for lower class sizes, like fighting for more funding for education, like opposing Common Core, like the fight against Endless Testing.
Alas, our union leadership doesn't do the best job of outreach to even its own members, let alone parents and others outside the union.
On some of those issues - like CCSS and testing - they're on the other side from many parents and parent groups (and teachers, for that matter!)
So I don't see a whole helluva lot coming from the union leadership that gives me confidence that we can fight the coming attacks against tenure and due process protections here in New York.
What say you?
Any ideas how the unions should counter the coming attacks?
Any ideas how teachers can do it even when they're union leadership is either too inept, incompetent or uncaring to do it for them?
The union must have some back door deal with govt . that the teaching will always be "unionized" here in NYC. Therefore , they don't care about,protecting individual teachers as long as they are permitted to own the monopoly on union dues. It doesn't matter to them what happens, as long as they maintain this "license". Their real mission statement is to,continue to rake,in the dollars, and to maintain the retirement system. However, aiding in working conditions isn't a,priority at all.
ReplyDeleteIf organizing labor is ruled unconstitutional, we will have no more unions. All the union bureaucrats will have to get real jobs. I will back them up to the same degree they did me.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT strategy is to do the bidding of Cuomo in order to gain access and status within the neoliberal Democratic Party. As Mulgre is an aparatchnik who is out for himself, he will do whaever Cuomo wants. Obviously Cuo,o is a bait and switch politician who has is beholden to the hedge fund crowd that has larded his campaign chest and guarantees his tax dodging future without jail time for Sandra Lee and her sheriff lover!
ReplyDeleteMulgrew will do whatever his supervisor, Andrew Cuomo wants him to do. Don't expect the UFT to do anything on behalf of the rank and file. They have your dues and you can't opt out of paying them $1200 each year!
ReplyDeleteYou are right. The only way to win this war against educational deformers is to mobilize membership to work with communities, recognizing our shared interests in helping kids. Backroom deals which leave many teachers and many parents dissatisfied will only diminish our power. Retiree - driven unionism, in this day and age, will be the death of us all.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew will say alot of bullshit and do the opposite. He models himself after Andrew Cuomo and Barack Obama, the quintessential bait and switch politicians. The are the CHAMPIONS of bait and switch politics in the age of neoliberalism!
ReplyDeleteWe are great at analyzing. I can see we have done our Common Core homework. How are we going to organize nationally outside the unions?
ReplyDeleteWe must organize within our unions, but first we must make our unions appreciate that we, active members, are in it and we deserve to be heard. We share common interests with our wider communities and we must listen to its members as well.
DeleteI don't approve of common core, as a parent or as a teacher. If the union cared to listen to me instead of Bill Gates' money, they would know that many stand with me.
Delete"The union" we speak of here, is also a major player in Wall. St. They control a huge amount of capital which must be invested using Wall St. Investment products. It's inevitable that major players "collaborate" for mutual benefit.
ReplyDeleteYes, some type of Tea Party strategy adapted to our special needs. Obviously, The Dem. Party are neoliberals. ,anorexic media is also the enemy. Hey, what happened to those NYC teachers who refused to administer state tests, about 6 weeks ago? Was that story covered at all in the major media? When stories aren't covered, they didnt happen.
"and major media" NOT "anorexic" ....strange doings on my Ipad here..
ReplyDeleteThose teachers took decisive action, and what happened there?
ReplyDeleteThe AFT, NSUT, UFT are working against our interests. There are too many examples to cite. We have to stop wasting our time fighting our unions and organize ourselves outside the unions with national partners.
ReplyDeleteEducation is the latest bubble in a long list of bubbles. This has been a bubble economy for decades....only problem is...we are running out of bubbles....
ReplyDeleteGreat Post dear.............Crowdfunding
ReplyDelete