Sunday, January 24, 2016

NYSUT And The UFT, Allied Again With Cuomo, Spend Millions On Propaganda To Fool Their Members And The Public

Had some fun on Twitter yesterday with a couple of union hacks, one the PR guy from NYSUT, that went something like this:


My response:




There was no response from Carl Korn, but another union hack jumped in with this bit of genius:



My response to that:



Lace To The Top jumped in with this very relevant fact:


Which got this response from said union hack:


To which I responded:



Here's the truth of things - Cuomo is sucking up to the union these days, what with his poll numbers in the toilet overall (39% job approval in the last Siena poll) and especially negative on education issues (68% of New Yorkers disapprove of the job he is doing handling education.)

The hacks running the union could care less about whether their members are harmed by APPR or not, they care only for their own power, prestige and perks.

They're happy to have the governor back on board, sounding almost like Mike Mulgrew when he talks about community schooling, well, that is progress indeed!

Unless you're a teacher affected by Cuomo's odious 2015 education law that requires 50% of a teacher's evaluation come from test scores - a law which Cuomo says does not need to be amended or repealed, a law which neither the UFT nor NYSUT plan to work to repeal.

So now, with Cuomo friendly with the union leadership again, the union heads have allied with the governor against their own members, spending millions of member dues on ads that are full of lies and propaganda (here's the UFT ad, here's the NYSUT ad.)

Even the governor himself has contradicted what the union ads are telling the public, saying back in December that test scores are indeed STILL part of APPR evaluations:

“There are teacher evaluations that are in the report and they are connected to tests, either state tests or locally approved tests,” Cuomo said on Sunday in Syracuse.

In case you're not willing to believe me or the governor, here's NYSED, via James Eterno at ICEUFTblog:

Footnote 10 in the SED Q & A states:
Teachers with SLOs that are based on Regents assessments will not be impacted and must continue to use SLOs with such assessments.

This is footnote 3 from the Q & A from SED:

Please note that teachers and principals whose APPRs do not include the grades 3-8 ELA and math State assessments or State-provided growth scores on Regents examinations are not impacted by the transition regulations and their evaluations shall be calculated pursuant to their district’s/BOCES’ approved APPR Plan without any changes. For example, a building principal of a CTE program whose APPR utilizes CTE assessments as part of the student performance component of their APPR will not be impacted by the transition regulations.

Yet the union ads - and the union hacks on Twitter - tell us differently, that the number of test scores in APPR evals this year is "zilch, nada, bupkis..."

I dunno about you, but I have had enough of the lies and propaganda out of NYSUT and the UFT, the harm they are doing to teaching, teachers and schools with the games they play with their ed deformer allies (see here for more of the games Mulgrew has played with Cuomo over the years.)

And if you think this is all hyperbole, that there's no way the union heads are playing a pro-wrestling "Good Guy/Bad Guy/Good Guy Game" with Cuomo - check out who's Number 4 on the all-time Cuomo meeting list and who enjoys late lunches with the governor to, you know, talk things over.

That would be one Michael Mulgrew of the UFT, the largest local in the state that can literally whack NYSUT leaders when they don't like what they're doing.

As I said above, I've had it with the games the union leaders play, the lies and deception they send out with every ad, every social media piece.

NYSAPE sent out this very informative tweet about where things stand today regarding state tests, the opt out movement and APPR teacher evaluations - you should send this tweet wide and far to cut through the self-serving jive and propaganda emanating out of NYSUT and the UFT, all of it using YOUR money to pay for it.


22 comments:

  1. Vote MORE in the upcoming UFT elections and elect 7 high school exec board members who will counter the propaganda.

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  2. I'm in a receivership school so tests scores are basically all that counts! I guess NYSUT forgot about us.

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  3. "As I said above, I've had it with the games the union leaders play, the lies and deception they send out with every ad, every social media piece."

    You and I both, RBE. Thank you for your diligence in calling BS on the UFT and NYSUT.

    Sadly, some colleagues in my building in the Bronx actually believe the ads; as you might imagine, they are somewhat shocked when I direct them to your blog, and others like you, who are getting the real message out.

    Keep up the good work. The word will get out, hopefully before it is too late.

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  4. Union leadership needs over hall - big time... VOTE MORE

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  5. As much as I fear not having a union, I fear the corruption and malfeasance of the UFT leadership even more. I will not pay UFT dues post Friedrichs decision unless the UfT leadership is replaced.

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    Replies
    1. I agree. If Unity wins this year and continues this war against teachers and students, I'm opting out of dues.

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    2. I'm not paying either and at my school of 120 teachers, I already have 30 definites who will stop paying. Screw the UFT, they sold out tens-of-thousands in the last contract and all of us by being silent as we are abused in our schools. NO ONE DIME FORM ME!

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  6. Friedrichs is looking like a great opportunity these days.

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  7. RBE -

    The teachers have HAD it. SO many are waking up. This APPR has made them wake up. Many, many teachers talking about pulling dues. More than I've ever heard.

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  8. At the MORE Feb. 6 meeting at CUNY there will be a discussion on Friedrichs and how it relates to the UFT. Within MORE there seems to be differing opinons on how people opposing Unity should deal with Friedrichs - from those who say we must pay dues and support the union even if a rotten leadership to those who want to insist on conditions - based on the willingness to make changes in the union. I don't hear much about leaving the union and having no voice at all. Post Friedrichs UFT elections will leave Unity in more control of even a smaller union.

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    Replies
    1. What in the world is MORE?

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    2. Opting out as well. The union is a huge farce. They are caking up while w rare being slaughtered.

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    3. MORE is a group that is all bark no bite. They are too weak for my liking. Solidarity is a much fiercer choice!

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    4. Solidarity is a group that is just about barking and hasn't bitten anyone yet. Fiercer more towards other people opposing Unity than Unity itself.

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  9. Part of the landscape I see outside of NYC in the districts is that membership is DEEPLY unaware of basically everything, and especially Friedrichs. Teachers are by and large fully unaware. I've had to educate alot of folks about it, and even then they walk away with a puzzled look....one can only assume that this puzzlement is from not having any schemata or information architecture to attach the Friedrichs information to....so many folks are only dimly aware of the reformer/privatizer/political threats we face, so hearing the Friedrichs thing is out of the blue for them. Besides, most working teachers live under the ridiculous canard of "the pendulum" by which they think that "things will straighten out."

    So, because of this I have no faith that teachers are "waking up" and will begin to insist on change or whatever. They wont. The awful leadership of the UFT and NYSUT will continue, even as those organizations shrink post-Friedrichs.

    Its shocking to note how few teachers grasp the threats that are facing us. So few are informed. In the annals of labor history, the losses we are experiencing and facing will pale only in comparison to the fact that a generation of teachers were blissfully unaware of their circumstance in spite of having ample information. When we are fully finished as organized teachers, it will be one of the last blocks in the long story of American labor history to crumble, and it will have done so not with a fight, not with a gallant last stand, but simply with apathy, ignorance, and foolishness.

    Whats coming is going to be rough and opt-out wont fix it.

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  10. http://nypost.com/2016/01/24/probe-finds-dirty-dozen-used-doe-credit-cards-for-personal-expenses/

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  11. Anon 551 you're absolutely correct. Most teachers in NYC have no idea that this is all about to smack them In the face. I don't think there is any stopping of this destruction at this point. Too many big players involved and playing stupid. We are toast!

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  12. While in theory a Friedrich's loss could open up the field for opposition to the catastrophic mis-leadership of the Weingrew machine, I have trouble seeing how an uninformed, apathetic membership which has been well-trained in learned helplessness for years, most of whom have no idea what a union is or does, let alone any US labor history, will magically transform itself into an organized, mobilized force to counter so-called reform.

    I hate to be so negative, but I just don't see it, not in my biological, let alone professional, lifetime.
    When are teachers going to wake up to the contempt elected officials and their own union mis-leadership consistently show toward them? When are they going to wake up to what's being done to them and their students? If they have not yet done so, why should we expect a change, post-Friedrichs?

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    Replies
    1. So I am of the theory and practice that if there were active people in the schools working to agitate and wake them up enough might do so as to make an impact. I can only sight the work some of us did in the 70s and the higher consciousness our schools seemed to have due to the work we did. My current theory is that most so-called activists are so concerned about the big picture they don't feel it worth it to work their local territory - their school - meeting resistance they don't bother. My sense is if they are part of a bigger movement that engages in dialogue on a regular basis over the issues of the day and can bring those ideas to their colleagues some will respond over time. I think I saw that in my school. But that does take patience and a potent organization to pull off in multiple schools to a point where a critical mass is reached. I think I see some schools have a serious core of people.

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  13. It can proved to be a difficult thing to put reliance upon those of the evident thoughts but hopefully there will be lot more things to be done later on.

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