Friday, May 9, 2014

NY Post Calls UFT Contract "Satanic"

I know, I know - you think I'm engaging in hyperbole.

But I'm not.

A piece by Jenny Sedlis of StudentsFirstNY, written in reaction to some bravado remarks Mulgrew made Wednesday at the Delegates Assembly, is entitled: "The Satanic Details".

The remarks Sedlis is "outraged" about were these:

Union boss Mike Mulgrew went to his delegates on Wednesday and ’fessed up to his goal: revenge.
  • He admitted his intention to “gum up the works” and undermine teacher evaluation so that it would be harder to identify and reward great teachers and improve low performing ones.
  • He wanted a pilot program for innovative schools, but only as a way to undermine the good work that charter schools are doing. “We are at war with the reformers,” he warned his members.
  • And he wanted to slap ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “By working with this mayor,” the UFT chief said, “we have come up with a creative way to one more time wink at Bloomberg and say, ‘Gotcha.’”

Let's deal with two layers of phoniness here.

First, Mulgrew is full of shit over the "we are at war with reformers" jive - few locals around the country have done more to work with reformers to undermine the way teaching used to work than the UFT.

From the Teacher Data Reports based upon test scores Randi Weingarten agreed to with Chris Cerf to signing off on mayoral control twice to signing off on Race to the Top to actively promoting Common Core (and Mulgrew himself demonizing CCSS critics) to dropping the lawsuit against the Regents/SED over teacher evaluations to agreeing to APPR in the first place to helping Governor Cuomo get a deal in place in February 2012 that ensured APPR would be in effect everywhere in the state to hailing SED Commissioner John King's imposition of an odious evaluation system in NYC, the UFT leadership has given tremendous aid to the reformers' work.

The latest contract also contains goodies the reformers wanted - adding merit pay and ways to circumvent the contract at 200 NYC schools while changing the way the ATR pool is run.

Mulgrew engaged in bravado at the DA the other night, spouting off the tough words because he needs to fool as many members as possible into thinking he's actually fighting for their interests when you can see quite clearly he's working hard to undermine them.

The second layer of phoniness here is Sedlis' "outrage" - and the Post's.

They know how much they've gotten out of the UFT leadership in the last 12 years, how radically different the system is now compared to a decade ago, but they want to make believe like nothing's changed, that Mulgrew's intransigence is keeping things the way they have always been and, in the end, it's just "satanic."

Two layers of phoniness going on here, a whole bunch of people - Sedlis, Mulgrew, the Posties - who are simply full of shit.

In the end, what's really "satanic" is how phony the whole "war" between unions and reformers is.

That war ended a long time ago when union leaders like Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew began "collaborating" with reformers to implement their reform agenda.

15 comments:

  1. hey jenny sedlis ha ha heee hee hee $$ big money either take the curtain or the money on lets make a deal....we took the $$$
    how is the charter movement

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    1. yeah, 58000 lump sum...now i can call the hedge fund manager and tell them i have some money to invest...thanks jenny

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  2. Jenny Sedlis?? Who the F#%K is the Bitch to say anything????? Fake ass job in a Fake ass group?? Get the F#%K outta here!!!!! Another winner trying to get some publicity so she can extract some donations from Gates. He'll prob give this chicken head 1 million just for causing a wave. Really Jenny?? Get a REAL JOB!!!!!!!!!!!! Get a REAL FREAKIN JOB!!!!

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    1. who ever you are you are my idol for today,, nice post we need more posts like yours batting this bummble head parrots on their heads so they can shut up and get a real job

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  3. Wow, talk about psychological projection!

    Here is the former PR flack of Evil Moskowitz's empire describing our proposed contract as "satanic," while her former patroness schemes to evict autistic children from a Harlem public school.

    On the other hand, Weingrew will use this quote to sell the contract to the membership, as if to say, "See? If StudentsFirst is against the contract, it must be good!"

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  4. Who wants to bet that Jenny and Randi wrote the article together?

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  5. Can anyone imagine a phone conversation between bumble head jenny and moswitch.....lol,,,it would sound something like this:
    hello eva i mean evil...how is the orange uniforms looking today. Did you see the UFT contract!! It is satanic eva i mean evil.. Eva , I mean evil says yeah the reformer movement has come to a grinding halt...we need more money...time to call hedge fund harry hope he still has some money left....Jenny says...love that good and plenty,,,jenny says love that good and plenty......hang up beeeeeeeep

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  6. You know what else he "fessed" up? He "fessed" up that the all that talk by him and the reps about the 22 domains being great and all were really all BS. I know I'm getting a bit off topic in respect your post, but that irritated me greatly today. Especially after trying to convince a couple of students to take their MOSL seriously. Anyway, you say the 22 are great, trumpet it across the system to the rank and file and then close to a year later say, "Nay, we hated it all along, it was all a trap for the admins in schools." RIght now from a soldier's (classroom teacher) mouth -both the system I work for and the leadership that I pay dues to - F! em both!

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    1. I see it differently. When it came up at the DA last year I believe Mulgrew said that the DOE wanted to pick and chose from the 22 components (focusing on the more difficult ones which would be easier to rate teachers ineffective). If I recall correctly Mulgrew said then that the UFT objected and said "Oh no.. We want all 22" knowing it would make it more difficult on the administrators but not giving into the DOE's handpicking just some of them. Mulgrew's explanation Wednesday made sense to me. These 8 were now decided on between the UFT and DOE not handpicked by the DOE. I don't see how that's evil, that was just about trying to negotiate a better deal from a rotten deal.
      Mary

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  7. Do they mean "the devils is in the details" or are they just saying they like the contract, after all Rupert Murdoch is a satanist who is unfit to run a major corporation.

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  8. Rubert Murdoch lurks in the devil's domain, the moral low ground.

    Dial M for Murdoch!

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  9. Teachers need to stand up for themselves and make a statement. Vote No to this lousy contract!!!

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  10. Is this contract great, no! Good? Matter of one's opinion! However everyone who keeps saying no, offer very few to no Pratical solutions! I was at the DA on Wednesday being that I am a delegate at my school. My observations from Wednesday DA...

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  11. Mike Mulgrew needs to understand and adhere to Robert's Rules at DA mtgs..The exchange btwn Mulgrew/James Eterno got ugly! I didnt like it! Not taking anyone's side, Mulgrew spoke for over an hr of how good this contract is. Then leaves very little time to question or debate the merits of the contract. Whoever disagrees with Mulgrew is either booed, hissed, or heckled! Is that what the UFT has become, A Union of Sheep! We are all dues payers, entitled to an opinion. Delegates represent the members and their opinions. Mulgrew and his officers arent in the trenches. They cant and dont speak for all members. Mulgrew also made reference to "the Blogs". Says he doesnt read them, howvever he quotes Jose V (dont know how to spell last name), a well known local education blogger at the DA. Mulgrew needs to read the blogs. Get opinions from them and listen to whats really going on in the trenches!

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    1. I was laughing during the DA because even though Mulgrew said he didn't read the blogs he referred to what was being said on them many times.

      I believe Mulgrew attended Jose Vilson's book launch and thus the quote, which was beautiful, btw.

      As for your first point, I completely agree. I also would like to see a more democratic DA with clear rules that are fair. It upsets me when dissenting opinion is shut down the way it is. I have two books, Robert's Rules and Robert's Rules for Dummies, which I'm going to read. Maybe I'll lend them to Mulgrew when I'm finished!

      Mary

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