Mulgrew And The UFT To Blame For The Cuomo Deform Budget

A lot of teachers are waking up to the news that they have been stripped of their permanent certification and tenure protections and are subject to a odious new evaluation system that will be designed by the same incompetent bureaucrats who rolled out the mess that is Common Core and gave a liar named "Dr" Ted J. Morris Jr., MA, Ph.D, MSW a charter school.

A lot of teachers are wondering just who to blame for the shiv that got stuck into them last night.

Fingers are pointing at Cuomo, of course, because he pushed these reforms and ensured they would be in the budget.

Fingers are also pointing at Assembly Dems who, with "heavy hearts," passed this budget laden with education reforms into law, all the while claiming it was the best they could do:

@DeborahJGlick Your betrayal will not be forgotten.
— rbe (@perdidostschool) April 1, 2015

And while it's useful to let pols like Glick know that her sellout will live long in the memory of individual teachers, the truth is, she doesn't care about individual teachers any more than Cathy Nolan, Assembly Education Committee chair, or Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie care about us.

That's because Mike Mulgrew and the UFT gave Assembly Dems the okay to sell us out:

ALBANY — State lawmakers raced to finish work on New York’s budget Tuesday amid simmering resentment over Gov. Cuomo’s education reforms - which opened up an unusual rift between the city and state teachers’ unions.

...

City teacher union president Michael Mulgrew angered NYSUT President Karen Magee and her team after he put out a statement Sunday night - before the education bill was even in print- claiming victory in beating back some of Cuomo's more strident proposals, sources said.

While Magee urged lawmakers to reject the education measures, city lawmakers said they were told by Mulgrew's team that voting for the package would not be held against them.

"They just weren't on the same page," said one legislator of the two unions. "The issue between them was whether to strike the best deal they could or whether to oppose it outright."

Make no mistake, had the UFT joined with NYSUT and opposed passage of this budget because of the odious education reform provisions in it, many of the Dems who voted "yes" on the budget last night with "heavy hearts" would have had to think twice before casting an "aye" vote.

But Mulgrew told these sellout Dems not to worry about their betrayal, that the UFT understood and it was okay.

I suggest you vent your frustration at sellouts like Heastie, Nolan and Glick today by calling them at all their offices, emailing them and countering their self-serving jive on Twitter the way I did with Glick.

But you need to call the UFT and let them know that you hold Mulgrew and the UFT leadership ultimately responsible for this disaster.

It was reported that Mulgrew took the lead over Magee and NYSUT in "negotiating" the reforms that would end up in the budget.

Mulgrew declared "victory" on Sunday claiming the lack of merit pay and the hold on the charter cap were "wins" for teachers.

Alas, merit pay actually is in the budget, along with the loss of tenure, permanent certification and an insane new evaluation system developed by the hostile teacher-haters at SED, and the charter cap will be raised later in the legislative session.

Finally, Mulgrew refused to oppose the budget and the reforms in it in any meaningful way, giving Assembly Dems all the cover they needed to stick the shivs into teachers and public schools.

To be sure, this is Cuomo's "reformy" budget - but it couldn't have been done so easily had Mike Mulgrew and the UFT not helped him.

Ultimately, teachers need to blame the UFT for selling them out.