In an interview with the New York Times, de Blasio reflected on his rocky 2015, taking responsibility for his mistakes and saying, "I want to do better." "It's pretty obvious that some things worked as we hoped, and other things didn't," the mayor continued. "I'm sober about the fact that, you know, you try a lot of things in leadership and you don’t expect every single one of them to work. You just got to keep learning."
Asked if he regrets publicly feuding with Cuomo, de Blasio said, "I'm satisfied it was the right approach," adding, "There's certainly been some good work we've done together with the governor and with Albany in recent months." Cuomo spokesperson Dani Lever responded, "We wish the mayor a Merry Christmas. Here's to learning from mistakes and a better 2016."
Apparently there's not one day where Cuomo or the flying attack monkeys who do his evil bidding aren't looking to stick in the proverbial knife.
In any case, here's wishing everybody an early Preetmas in 2016.
Love that headline.
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I had to clean it up. It read ever so slightly different for the first draft...
DeleteGovernor Creep is an angry man. His flying attack monkeys are among the absolute nastiness in the business. They also aren't as smart as they think they are.
ReplyDeleteCuomo and Senator John Flanagan have done more damage to public education than any other two politicians. All of us know these two have made a mess of our profession. Their obsession with testing and using the scores to punish teachers has caused misery for kids, parents and teachers.
Carl Heastie is a weakling with no real commitment to our profession. Just look at how he let the Assembly sell us out last spring.
Opt out is our natural ally. It is doing what our unions have been powerless to accomplish. We should all be praying there are 500,000 opt outs next spring. It is the only way this madness will ever be stopped, especially in an election year for these bums in Albany.
we need to blanket every light post with opt out posters since our union won't advocate for us. 800000 NYC teachers should get a relative or a friend to put a couple of posters at every crosswalk near their school or in their neighborhood, at their supermarket, in their place of worship -whereever. The word has to be spread by us since the media, the union and the NYS Ed department is not going to do it.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew has been telling his minions that he had his foot up Cuomo's ass and that's why Cuomo backed off.
DeleteCuomo is a Jackass!
ReplyDeletePunchy Mike Mulgrew said what?
ReplyDeleteDid you here the joke about punchy Mike Mulgrew?
DeleteThe punch line is Friedrichs vs California
No joke. That's what he's telling everyone.
DeleteI hope the US Supreme Court rules 9-0 in favor of Friedrichs. I detest my unions. They have done nothing but pay lip service to the living hell these politicians have put all of us through as well as what has been done to the kids. NYSUT/UFT is totally worthless. Both organizations have squandered tens of millions of dollars with nothing to show for it.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT has already been ruined by Randi and punchy Mulgrew. Drive by observations, outside evaluators, endless testing, reduced TDA benefits, longer hours , ATR humiliation,
ReplyDeleteExecutive Principals from hell, VAM from Regents scores, Now VAM from local scores. Retroactive pay delayed for years and years, endless defeats sold as great victories, war is peace , testing is learning and hate is love....
Is this what every teacher is paying $1,200 each year for?
ReplyDeleteIf you don't bother to vote during UFT elections then why should you bother to pay dues?
ReplyDeleteNow If you do vote, but your vote is rendered meaningless thenwhy do you bother to vote? And why do you bother to pay dues?
I was incredulous when I was told by my chapter leader that it was the pressure exacted by the UFT that forced Cuomo to drop Common Core. I guess Mr. Mulgrew coming out publicly FOR Common Core and threatening to punch opponents to Common Core is the pressure that made Cuomo fold. It's an incredible insult to the parents who basically had to fight the battle alone WITHOUT the UFT.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew will be voted right back into office because most teachers, chapter leaders, delegates, believe everything he says and do everything he tells them. People in general are sheep and teachers are the dumbest sheep in the herd. Weingarten and Mulgrew bet on it and win every time.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right on all counts. The union leadership counts on its members to be total idiots. This way they can manipulate them and count on them to do nothing even in the face of incompetence and total sellouts.
DeleteThey may be too lazy to vote, but they will take their money and run for the exits as soon as they can.
DeleteIf you want to change the landscape of our union (UFT/NYSUT/AFT), then people have to be more proactive instead of being so reactionary. Tell your colleagues about the MORE/New Action Caucus, disseminate that caucus's newsletter, contribute to their organization, contribute to the STCaucus (Stronger Together Caucus who is constantly challenging the utter nonsense of NYSUT's milk toast stand(faux fight) "against" Cuomo, the APPR, the Danielson), and most importantly VOTE IN THE MAY 2016 UFT ELECTION. So if you're really tired of punchy Mike Mulgrew saying "victory" when it's all in his head, and thanking the Heavy Hearts for voting in favor of Cuomo's budget that includes a 50% increase in the teacher's evaluation being from tests, then vote for MORE/NA in May 2016 and let's change the union landscape. Otherwise, no Preetmas 2016 for you!!
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of teachers want their thinking done for them and can't be bothered reading newsletters. They'll throw their ballots in the trash and the retirees will do the voting. Teachers will leave the union good or bad to save money. That's the reality all the caucuses have to deal with.
ReplyDeleteNYSUT claims 600,000 members. If the union clearly explained that our very professional lives are on the line then I think it could get most of us to Albany for a protest unlike this state has ever seen. If some of us brought along a significant other we could probably mass about 750,000 people at a Saturday protest. That would scare the living hell out of Governor Creep and the crooks that run the legislature.
ReplyDeleteInstead we allow the dopey charter school crowd to steal our headlines and attention even though we represent 95% of the education market in this state.
No such effort was ever made.
If we had not been fleeced with the delayed retropay and the delayed increases, most UFT members would have been willing to keep paying UFT dues. We have been so taken advantage of that we have been disenfranchised from the historic goals of organized labor. The ironic sad truth is that Mulgrew and Weingarten threw teachers' economic well being under the bus. They ruined trade unionism in order to ingratiate, empower and connect their personal interests with the Plutocracy led by Bloombucks, Tisch and the hedge fundies. When the Democrat convention crowns their queen nominee, Randi will bask in the media spectacle and trumpet the false narrative of Hillary as champion of education. Do you really expect teachers to drink this toxic brew of Koolaid?
ReplyDeleteYou forget 77% of the teachers voted for that deal. That atrocity was to ingratiate Mulgrew with DeBlasio, not the billionaires. Bloomberg wouldn't have gotten the 6 billion dollar surplus the UFT handed to DeBlasio. We were better off with Bloomberg and were better off with Bush than with Obama (and I'm a die hard Democrat). With Hillary's latest announcement and Weingarten's undemocratic endorsement, many teachers find Trump a very attractive candidate.
DeleteYes, I stand corrected. The contract was negotiated with DeBlasio. But most of the malfeasance of the UFT has been driven by their desire to advance personal ambitions through connections with networks of neoliberal democrat elites as well as plutocrats with benefits for them, Weingarten and Mulgrew. Gates money, Murdoch money was too distracting as it drew their attention away from from their legal and fiduciary responsibilties for teachers.
DeleteBye bye Hitlery lapper Weingarten .....and bye bye thieving Mulgrew. Don't forget that Mulgrew's sister collected 40 MILLION dollars in contracts from Bloomturd....Both of these charlatans are set for life anyway...after they get the Frederich egg off their faces, they will be just fine...we won't...
ReplyDeleteAnd our ass of a governor will sit at Christmas mass pretending he aspires to be like Jesus. If Jesus were alive today he'd be vocally protesting against Cuomo and overturning the tables where the dirty deals are made. Teachers in my school bought presents and clothes for our kids who live in shelters. An administrator bought an entire holiday meal for one poor family in particular----the true meaning of Christmas! Cuomo's just one of many phony bible holding politicians.
ReplyDelete