Buffalo Teacher Exposes Phil Rumore and NYSUT Sham Militancy

[Buffalo Teachers Fed president] Phil Rumore manned up courageously and strode into #45 with a roll of BTF stickers handing them with bravado to all the teachers and enjoining them to affix them to their raiment as a fierce show of unity, solidarity and power in the face of the evil doers....Phil thinks we should all cover ourselves in them to scare away the woman married to the Loew's hardware heir....The very people we shouldn't be taking shit from, the ones who are paid well to advocate for us and have our backs seem to be working against us more than they are for or with us. This shit needs to stop. I can only hope this post pisses off a few of them half as much as their lameass version of unionism is pissing many of us off. Member driven union on the march, my arse.....B-LoEdScene

AFT/NYSUT/UFT: Driving Members Off the Cliff

As we predicted from Day 1 of the Battle For NYSUT, the noise-makers were just making militant-sounding noises for public consumption. Now they have to deliver some show events but as revealed by Sean (and others), when pushed they go wimping away. In a few months Iannuzzi will look like he was a revolutionary compared the the current crew (I don't have the time and patience to give you the dozens of links I put up with the back story -- if you are new - look through the archives since January for NYSUT stories -- and if you have time to write a book, hop to it.)

This is so good I an cross-posting because I don't want you to miss one precious word. Remember how Rumore puffed out his chest and attacked Iannuzzi and Stronger Together for not being tough enough and then backed the MulGarten total takeover of NYSUT Regurgitate slate.

Note how WeinGrew and crew are now re-branding themselves from Solutions Driven Unionism to the MORE/CORE -social justice "member driven Unionism."
Just another phony attempt to co-opt the growing movement against them, as expressed so well by the B-Lo blog.

MulGarten's got it backwards given that what they are really doing is driving the membership off the cliff.

Some relevant posts I put up before you go on to Sean's full piece.

[And by the way - Stronger Together is meeting soon - hopefully they will include plans to put a dagger to some people's hearts. Rumore wouldn't be a bad place to start the ball rolling - and work themselves up from there.]

A Parent Exposes New NYSUT (Revive) Pro-Cuomo Lead...

Rallies Scare Cuomo into Meeting with Stronger Tog...

NYUST and BTF Are Too Chicken to Protest a Visit from Scary Meryl

Regent Bennett Appears to be Battling Flatulence Again. Madame Tisch Appears to Be Suffering from Tartive Dyskinesia while ASSemblyman Ryan is Simply a Politician and a Wanker. 

We missed a good opportunity today to give Meryl Tisch a little of the Chuck Foreman treatment B-lo is infamous for providing its unwelcome guests. Not that we still have much snow lying around but imaginative folk that we are it seems a suitable substitute projectile could have easily been produced. Rumors began flying Tuesday that Assemblyman Sean Ryan was planning to escort the Dowager Chancellor into School #45 where she could observe all of the unseemly little brown, black and yellow foreigners there trying to NCLB their way into English fluency before the 3 year cut off. I am sure Empress Tisch kept her distance, after all, these weren't her gardeners, pool boys and cleaning ladies so she couldn't be sure they had all of their shots. It struck me and several like me that this would be a great opportunity for our dues collecting union leadership to take advantage of the fact that they are not obliged to be teaching in classrooms during the visit. Ergo maybe they could do a brother a solid and go holler at Tisch, hold up a correctly spelled sign and tell her Common Core blows and so do she and John King. O.k. choose your own pithy epigrams but that one's mine. 

Well 2 of my friends emailed our fearless leadership at 271 Porter Ave and received a rousing chorus of e-crickets in response. Another colleague called Edie Lewin personally but Edie yawned and said she really had to wash her hair just then. Phil Rumore manned up courageously and strode into #45 with a roll of BTF stickers handing them with bravado to all the teachers and enjoining them to affix them to their raiment as a fierce show of unity, solidarity and power in the face of the evil doers. My own kids don't even want to play with those goddamned stickers yet Phil thinks we should all cover ourselves in them to scare away the woman married to the Loew's hardware heir. It gets better friends, just wait. 

I messaged a NYSUT employee and griped that nobody at BTF was giving a rat's ass so maybe they could shake a few branches of the NYSUT tree and dislodge a handful of souls to get on over there and give Meryl some shit for having the temerity to show her miserable beak in our schools after she and he pals in Albany have done everything they can to ruin public education and break teacher unions.
The response was priceless : Sean Ryan (ASSemblyman) is bringing her in to show that the "failing schools" bullshit isn't true. I don't think you want to protest that."
Oh? Don't I? On the contrary, Mr. Out of the Classroom NYSUT dude I sure as shit DO want to protest that fact that she thinks she can stroll into one of our schools without any show of resistance. I want to protest her saying stupid inflammatory shit on her little Tour de Core when she told everyone they needed to calm down and her little talking dummy with the goatee called pissed off parents and teachers "special interests." I want to take her to task for her ridiculous comment that kids needed to jump into the deep end (and fail) so she and her pals could all gloat about how dumb the kids are and how only common core and a steady regimen of high stakes testing will save them and get their equally dumb teachers fired.
"I guess this is why I am still in the classroom" I responded to Mr. NYSUT. Apparently I and my like minded colleagues lack the vision of our non teaching expert class. I don't step aside for a numbnuts like Sean Ryan who has his own agenda and is out to prove God knows what for what political purposes. I do know they are his own though and in no way will they benefit me or anyone in the classroom. No, I am more inclined to ask him who the hell he is that he is going to escort an ill tempered elitist biaaatch like Tisch into one of my district's schools to prove a point. Apparently Phil and Edie are tickled with the election results that threw Do Nothing Iamuzzi out of office and launched Karen Magoo's meteoric career with a big string attached to Mikey Mulgrew from UFT who essentially won her the election with all of his delegates. And as long as Phil is happy and Karen is happy "reconnecting with Commissioner King and Governor Cuomo" I think is how she put it in the NYSUT rag's ridiculous President's message, then I guess we should all be happy too and shut up until we are spoken to.
NYSUT thought it was a great idea to endure a 6 hour bus ride to Lake Placid, stand around for hours in 30 degrees getting rained on and harangued on a goddamned bullhorn of all things by that gaseous phoney troll Randi Weingarten, then climb back on the bus for another 6 hours and call it a Sunday well spent in unionism. They encouraged us to join them and do that. It was THEIR idea. Magoo is calling NYSUT "a member driven union on the march." And I am laughing my ass off at her naivety. You are on the march all right and you are marching just as Mulgrew tells you to. Some members asked you to march and none of you would get up off your dead asses because you didn't want to offend a politician and a millionheiress who hates unions. And as sure as I predicted this before they even held an election, watch and see if NYSUT doesn't find a way to endorse Andrew Cuomo for governor before November.  Our union leadership doesn't represent us. It represents itself and its own selfish interests. They want us to ride 12 hours on a goddamned bus and splash around in a 30 degree downpour but when we all have to go to work teaching and we needed them to show up and raise a little hell they told us who was boss. I am sick of paying union dues so my so called leaders can do as they damned well please, endorse one of the worst possible board members and flatly refuse to act on my behalf. I am sick of phonies pretending to be invested in the interests of workers when all they really care about is advancing their own station on the backs of people whose profession and livelihood is under siege from more directions than we seem able to count these days. The very people we shouldn't be taking shit from, the ones who are paid well to advocate for us and have our backs seem to be working against us more than they are for or with us. This shit needs to stop. I can only hope this post pisses off a few of them half as much as their lameass version of unionism is pissing many of us off. Member driven union on the march, my arse.

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Rallies Scare Cuomo into Meeting with Stronger Together

As momentum built toward’s the April 28th rally at Villa Lombardi’s to protest Governor Cuomo, one of the governor’s top aides, Joseph Percoco, reached out, through an intermediary, to the President of the Connetquot Teachers Association Tony Felicio.  Percoco offered Felicio, one of the rally’s organizers, a meeting with the governor to air his grievances in exchange for canceling the rally.  Felicio rejected the governor’s offer, telling him that the rally would go on and that if the governor wanted to meet they could do so after the rally. ...PJSTA

Here is a followup to my earlier post: A Parent Exposes New NYSUT (Revive) Pro-Cuomo Leadership Phony Militancy at Lake Placid - check it out before reading this.


How interesting that Stronger Together, the losing slate in the recent NYSUT election, gets a meeting with Cuomo on THEIR terms. They refused the meeting and held the rally and are doing another rally, which Cuomo "suggested" they cancel. They won't. NYSUT's new leaders didn't attend the first rally for fear of offending Mr. Charter.

Funny when you consider that Revive which won the election attacked ST for not being willing to talk to Cuomo. What they really meant - they, unlike Revive, would only talk to Cuomo standing up and looking him in the eyes, not on their knees.

Stronger Together is not going away - we'll have details on what is going on in a few weeks.

First a report from PJSTA President Beth Dimino that she sent to her members followed by the PJSTA report.

Yesterday, Tony Felicio, President Connetquot TA, Kevin Coyne, President Brentwood TA, Laura Spencer, President Smithtown TA, Tim Southerton, President Sayville TA and I met with Governor Cuomo in his office in NYC. I believe that the one and a half hour meeting was productive. I explained to the Governor that the reason I agreed to
attend the meeting was because I did not believe he fully understands the impact of his agenda on working classroom teachers and students. Each President had a topic to present. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to any of you that I spoke about the testing. I told the Governor that he needed to decouple the testing from the APPR. I clearly articulated what I believe are the problems with Pearson's unfettered stranglehold on NY State's children and I encouraged the Governor to decouple unfunded mandates from the tax cap by either fully funding those mandates or by making those mandates exclusionary under the cap. Both Kevin and Tim fully fleshed out the negative impacts of the cap on LI districts.  Laura spoke eloquently about the APPR and Tony clearly explained that the Governor's anti-teacher rhetoric was not helpful to anyone. Cuomo shared his points of view and the meeting was truly an exchange of ideas. We all spoke and everyone listened and now we wait to see what happens.
Cuomo said he wants to meet with eight teachers from around the State to discuss yesterday's meeting points further. Both Tony and I volunteered to be part of that cadre of teachers and we recommended that Cuomo contact NYSUT President Magee to make the decision about the teachers who would participate. Cuomo said there are twenty more session days for the legislature and he will work with members of both parties to make changes to CCSS and APPR. And now we wait to see what happens.
But while we wait, we must recognize that the reason that we were allowed an audience with the Governor is because we had more than 2,000 voters attend a rally at CHS in August, we helped organize and joined more than 1,000 voters in the fall at a rally in front of Flanagan's office, and we helped organize and joined more than 2,000 other LIers in front of Momma Lombardis on April 28th. I told the
Governor that we are helping to organize and will be at The Save Our Schools Rally in NYC on May 17th and we will help organize and will be at the rally in front of the Melville Hilton on May 21st.
The Governor and ALL of the LI elected officials that are up for election this November are paying attention Folks! We must capitalize on this momentum and keep this movement going!
We do that by showing up for rallies and most importantly by VOTING! School Board elections are May 20th. It's imperative that you vote in your home districts and that you vote yes to the budget and for the candidates that each local is endorsing. That will send a clear message to every politician that we mean business and that we will
VOTE TO SUPPORT PUBLIC EDUCATION!
The PJSTA asks that every Comsewogue tax payer vote yes for the budget and vote for Gordon, Sanchez and Rennard for the open BOE seats.

This report from our pals at Port Jeff Station TA has the delicious details --

Stronger Together’s Meeting with Governor Cuomo

Posted on May 9, 2014 by thepjsta

 

As momentum built toward’s the April 28th rally at Villa Lombardi’s to protest Governor Cuomo, one of the governor’s top aides, Joseph Percoco, reached out, through an intermediary, to the President of the Connetquot Teachers Association Tony Felicio.  Percoco offered Felicio, one of the rally’s organizers, a meeting with the governor to air his grievances in exchange for canceling the rally.  Felicio rejected the governor’s offer, telling him that the rally would go on and that if the governor wanted to meet they could do so after the rally.

You will recall the rally did in fact go on.  Despite the fact that it was not supported by NYSUT, an estimated crowd of 2,500 gathered outside Villa Lombardi’s to protest Cuomo’s education reform agenda.  The rally clearly sent a very powerful message to the governor that the parents and teachers of New York State will “remember in November” the havoc that his policies have wreaked on the children of our communities.  Unless he displays a startling and dramatic change of course regarding his education policies in the very near future he can count on no support in November’s election from the people in New York State who value public education, whether NYSUT endorses him or not.

Following the rally, Percoco once again reached out to Felicio to request a meeting with the governor.  Cuomo’s re-election campaign clearly is rattled by the tidal wave of support for public education that stands in clear opposition to the reform agenda he has helped to force upon our community schools throughout his term in office.  Felicio agreed to the meeting and arranged to bring a few trusted friends in the fight for public education.  Yesterday five Stronger Together local presidents, including Felicio, Tim Southerton (President of the Sayville Teachers Association), Laura Spencer (President of the Smithtown Teachers Association), Kevin Coyne (Brentwood Teachers Association), and our very own Beth Dimino were joined by Brad Lindell (Vice-President of the Connetquot Teachers Association)  at a meeting with the governor.

At the meeting the team raised concerns about high stakes testing, APPR’s, the tax cap, charter schools, Pearson, and RttT, among other things.  Dimino told the governor that given his actions up to this point she could only assume that he didn’t know the truth about the harmful agenda he had been pushing.  After the group gave him the perspective of real classroom teachers they suggested potential solutions to the disastrous situation his policies have created.   Dimino then warned him that he now knew the truth and that there is no excuse for the continuation of such policies.  She stated that there would be a price to pay if swift action is not taken to undo much of what has been done up to this point.  Dimino explained to the Governor that there were two things he could do immediately to mitigate the devastating impact his agenda has had on NYS students, first decouple the testing from teacher evaluations and then decouple all of the unfunded mandates from the tax cap, either by funding those mandates or by making them exclusionary under the cap.

Cuomo, who was polite, respectful, and attentive during the meeting that lasted nearly two hours, responded with a lot of “I didn’t know” or “It’s not my fault” types of answers.  He also told them, “I thought everybody loved charter schools?!”  Additionally he warned that we may want to cancel the rally scheduled for the New York Democratic Convention on May 22nd in Melville so that we don’t upset other Democratic politicians.  Let me be very clear here: The rally will go on!  As Felicio warned on April 28th, the Lombardi’s rally was just a warm up for a bigger, louder, more intense one on May 22nd.

Finally Cuomo pledged to create a task force of classroom teachers to more deeply investigate the issues discussed.  He said he would be in touch with NYSUT President Karen Magee to create that task force.  Unfortunately Magee is no fan of the PJSTA, so don’t expect Dimino or many other NYSUT members critical of the Mulgrew/Pallotta/Revive NYSUT coup to make the cut for the task force.  Of course we have been down the task force road with Cuomo before.  Typically what happens is that any voices of truth who speak for teachers and students are ignored so that Cuomo can stock his war chest with big money from Wall Street, Pearson, and Eva Moskowitz.  In the end the losers are usually public schools and the communities they serve.  Color me skeptical when it comes to any meaningful changes being made.  Still, for a change, it was nice to know that our message was sent to the governor yesterday, loud and clear.

Dimino at the April 28th rally.

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A Parent Exposes New NYSUT (Revive) Pro-Cuomo Leadership Phony Militancy at Lake Placid

The most obvious giveaway that NYSUT had completely sold out came when the NYSUT photographer wanted to take a picture of a child who was wearing a sign that said, I "heart" public school, but he wouldn't take a picture of the child's brother whose sign said, No Mo Cuomo. The photographer explicitly stated that NYSUT wouldn't publish anything against Cuomo!.. NYC Parent, Change the Stakes

We all knew this was happening but to have actual proof. Here is her full email to CTS and my response:

Norm and other savvy union members, please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that:

• UFT and NYSUT will endorse Cuomo
• In return, they'll get some temporary reprieve from APPR (a moratorium) or some fix in the formula

As has already been reported, the UFT-backed NYSUT slate got a boost from Cuomo in exchange for their silence on the charter deal.


At NYSUT's rally at Lake Placid, it became painfully obvious that NYSUT was not there to challenge Cuomo -- all the rhetoric was directed at DFER and the Walton Foundation. None of the rally speakers said anything about Cuomo (or even Gates!). The most obvious giveaway that NYSUT had completely sold out came when the NYSUT photographer wanted to take a picture of a child who was wearing a sign that said, I "heart" public school, but he wouldn't take a picture of the child's brother whose sign said, No Mo Cuomo. The photographer explicitly stated that NYSUT wouldn't publish anything against Cuomo!
If all this is true, union leadership is even more effed up than I thought....

My response:

I am still in the minority on this but I view the union leadership at city, state and national levels as functioning basically as agents for the other side. This goes back to the early history 50 years ago when union resources were used with the CIA to undermine left leaning teacher unions abroad.
Shanker supported ed deform when Nation at risk came out in 1983. Randi and Mulgrew continue. When you hear militancy it is rhetoric to mislead. Always watch what they do not what they say. Your story nails what they are all about.
Will they endorse Cuomo? They will check the internal political wind to see if they can get away with it. If not they will sit it out. Cuomo will understand. Unless his numbers are falling and he needs them. Then they will paint the Republican as a monster.
Norm

And Lisa says:

I am not up on the inter workings of NYSUT, but it would be in line for the UFT/NYSUT to endorse Cuomo. Remember they endorsed Pataki when he came up with a small amount of money (perhaps $100,000) for the teachers contract, but at the same time would not give a penny for settling the CFE lawsuit. The lawsuit would have given NYC BILLIONS of dollars! 

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NYSUT in Sea of Red Ink

On paper, the union reported a $30 million deficit on its most recent 990 IRS form. Union officials say that cash shortfall was really less than $8 million. Either way, it’s a flow of red ink that union officials acknowledge continues today.... Capitol Confidential

In Chicago when CORE took over - after running on a promise to reduce salaries of union officials - they found the union $4 million in debt. After one year (Karen Lewis took an big cut in pay) - the debt was basically wiped out.

We may have tilted towards Stronger Together over the victorious Revive, but both are responsible for this mess. It is not just the super high salaries over 300 thousand but note the familiar UFT names taking their share -14-20 grand each for many of the Unity Caucus leadership. Many of them also get a cut from the AFT budget too. So we are paying some of them 3 times. You'll see some very familiar names.

Don't look to them to do what CORE did in Chicago. 

A major threat to teachers here in NYC is how NYSUT legal which provides NYC teachers with free legal, will be affected. Some insiders think that with the UFT firmly in charge at NYSUT, and not having shown the highest interest in teacher defense, NYSUT legal will be the first to get hit by cuts.

Here is the article from Capitol Confidential, followed by the 2010 report (what numbers will the 2013 report show?) which points to a 35,000 drop in members since 2008 -- with the new charter laws hitting us look for a bigger acceleration of that loss.

[By the way -- the UFT is also facing massive debt - which they are covering up -- but don't look to any salary reductions there either].

NYSUT has been squeezed along with the school districts that employ its members, said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. He said NYSUT has a direct financial interest in lifting the cap.
“The union exists to deliver benefits to its members, including pay increases,” he said. “Their focus all the time is getting more and the tax cap limits the more.”

On paper, the union reported a $30 million deficit on its most recent 990 IRS form. Union officials say that cash shortfall was really less than $8 million. Either way, it’s a flow of red ink that union officials acknowledge continues today.

NYSUT has 600,000 members. It estimates 35,000 educators have lost jobs since 2008 as school districts across the state laid off staff, a process expected to accelerate under tax cap restrictions.

NYSUT had 507 employees as of August 2012, including 26 who worked part time. The forms show the total amount the union spent on salaries, benefits and other compensation rose to $110 million from $96 million in a year, according to its most recent 990 IRS form, which is dated September 2010 to August 2011.

About 300 employees earned gross salaries of more than $100,000, according to NYSUT’s latest federal LM-2 disclosure forms, dated September 2011 to August 2012. Of that number, about 15 employees earned more than $200,000.

NYSUT990 by Scott Waldman

http://www.scribd.com/doc/128385015/NYSUT990

NYSUT990

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Video - NYSUT Update: MORE's Lauren Cohen and Mike Schirtzer Rock the House

The video you have been waiting for. I'm so proud of our MORE next-generation union activists. Lauren and Mike are the new rock-stars. Lots of comments over at NYC Educator as to the level of Lauren's petiteness (UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent) ....

I have never viewed Lauren as petite because from the day I met her I viewed her as a giant. When she was so desperate to get away from a beast of a principal she was ready to quit and go teach in Korea - but on her resume she put down she was an activist and test resister - "I don't want to work for a principal who wouldn't want someone like me." And she found such a principal in Liz Philips. To me that makes Lauren a giant.

As for Mike -- my adopted son will get a separate post.

Here is a summary MORE posted on you tube:

The NY United Teachers union is comprised of more than 1,200 local unions across NY State. This year the Movement of Rank-and-file Educators (MORE) ran six candidates for the Board of Directors. NYSUT Elections have been uncontested since 1979. The six candidates pooled their speaking time and were represented by Lauren Cohen and Mike Schirtzer. Behind them were James Eterno, Julie Cavanaugh, Francesco Portelos, Jia Lee from MORE and our union sister from Port Jefferson Teachers Association Beth Dimino.

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MOREcaucusNYC

Join our and subscribe to our news at http://www.morecaucusnyc.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbkqXmDz62Y&feature=youtu.be

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NYSUT Election Update: Message to Revive: Now that you broke it, you own it

Well, Revive certainly broke NYSUT with the claim that the Stronger Together leadership wasn't militant enough -- one very big joke. So now they own it.

And Revive will come under the very same attacks they used on Stronger Together starting ---- yesterday. Even with 100% of the Unity block voting for him, Revive's Martin Messner won with 53.7% of the weighted vote while Stronger Together incumbent Lee Cutler came in with 46.3%.

In fact the Julie Cavanagh vs Mulgrew numbers (Julie Cavanagh Defeats Mulgrew Outside NYC With 52.3% of Vote) show just how soft the support for Revive is -- let's split the baby -- say half of Julie's votes were due to people knowing her and the other half anti-Mulgrew. So even the big cities had some clear drift toward the Stronger Together candidates.

James Eterno at the ICE blog (REVIVE WINS; MORE DOES VERY WELL OUTSIDE NYC) shows how Stronger Together incumbent Lee Cutler beat Martin Messer (whose tweets put him in slug territory) with 70% of the vote outside NYC. James explains:

A detailed look at the numbers for the election, which we have said was run on as tilted a playing field as a UFT election, shows it was much closer than most people expected.  Outside of New York City, Revive candidates either lost or only won by a small margin.  The difference in this election was the New York City UFT Unity Caucus bloc of votes. 
These Delegates are bound by their caucus obligations to support the decisions of their caucus in public and union forums (the so called Unity loyalty oath) so we knew 34% of the vote (the percentage the UFT has in this election according to what we looked at) was going to Revive from the start. That is a healthy head start.
For Secretary-Treasurer, Revive's Martin Messner won with 53.7% of the weighted vote while Stronger Together incumbent Lee Cutler came in with 46.3%. We got to know Lee Cutler during the last month and found him to be a decent guy who did a pretty good job as an officer. We are not surprised that he won a huge percentage of the vote outside of New York City. Let's look at some of the details.
There were 328,014 weighted votes that were cast in the election for president.  It was less for other offices which is not unusual in any election. Since 34% of the votes were from the UFT and this was a non secret ballot, we can safely assume that all of the UFT votes were for Revive's Martin Messner.
Outside of NYC we can conclude there were 216,489 weighted votes by simply subtracting 111,525 (34% of the total weighted votes cast) from 328,014 (number of weighted votes cast for president).  Now subtract from Messner's totals the same NYC 111,525 weighted votes from his 175,790 total and he is left with 64,275 votes while Cutler keeps all of his non NYC weighted votes which add up to 151,526.  Outside of NYC, where the election is not a top down mandate from Michael Mulgrew, Cutler won easily with 70% of the vote to Messner's 30%.
The same holds true if we take out the NYC votes from the other officers. Stronger Together's Maria Neira, Kathleen Donahue, and of course Dick Iannuzzi won easily outside of NYC. It was also very competitive outside of the city for Arthur Goldstein against Andrew Pallotta for Executive Vice President.

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NYSUT Election Update: Julie Cavanagh Defeats Mulgrew Outside NYC With 52.3% of Vote

Michael Mulgrew and Julie Cavanagh replayed the 2013 UFT Election here at NYSUT for an at large Board of Directors seat.  Mulgrew garnered 197,081 weighted votes while Cavanagh received 93,830. 

Now take out the 111,525 NYC Unity votes (I think we can safely assume that no NYC Unity voter would vote against Mulgrew in an open ballot) and Mulgrew is left with 85,556. Cavanagh keeps her 93,830 . The percentages work out to 52.3% for Cavanagh and 47.7% for Mulgrew.
Outside of NYC, Julie Cavanagh defeated Michael Mulgrew!.... James Eterno, ICE blog

James' full report where he does some of the math at:

NYSUT ELECTION RESULTS: REVIVE WINS; MORE DOES VERY WELL OUTSIDE NYC

Of course James is doing some extrapolation here. But the results were remarkable for MORE, which was not on the Stronger Together slate - even with the big cities stacked for Revive, when it came to individual battles there's lots to mull over.

From what I hear, based on her appearance Saturday at the NYSUT RA (she didn't speak, ceding her time to Lauren Cohen and Mike Schirtzer) Julie is still a rock star -- MORE was originally approached by people in the state partly because of Julie's status -- but she has been very busy with Jack, who will officially hit the terrible Twos in July. (No one is waiting for summer more eagerly than Julie.)

Her name carried some serious weight and according to James' analysis got more votes than Mulgrew outside of the NYC Unity Caucus block.

For those who think the NYSUT rift will be healed soon, they are blowing smoke. Stronger Together did not disband and will be holding a meeting soon. What used to be a solid NY State Unity Caucus block at the AFT convention (July 11) will now be split into 2 camps - roughly a 60-40 split. Since the minority caucus pins much of this on Randi Weingarten/Mulgrew, if there is any serious opposition to Randi on national policy and even a serious candidate against her in the election, watch some fur fly.

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NYSUT Update: MORE's Lauren Cohen Stands Up to Bully Tests and Bully Unity Slugs

Yesterday morning I watched from the audience as Lauren Cohen, a petite young woman from the UFT MORE caucus, got up and addressed the NYSUT Representative Assembly as a candidate. When Lauren mentioned the UFT-Unity Loyalty oath, my 800 brothers and sisters from UFT-Unity tried to drown her voice with loud boos. The moderator had to get up and explain that it was not in the best traditions of public forums to prevent people from speaking. Lauren stood calmly, and continued undeterred after waiting a moment for the noise to subside. She demonstrated grace and thoughtfulness, neither of which was evident in the audience that saw fit to shout her down in the full view of UFT President Michael Mulgrew. ... NYC Educator, UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent

The MORE presence and the Unity response exposed goon tactics to the entire state... even some Unity people were embarrassed and came over to Lauren to apologize. I believe Peter Goodman, one of the 800 Unity delegates, is urging unity after they split the state. Consequences, consequences, consequences -- you reap what you sow....Ed Notes

You mean THIS Lauren Cohen -- not that long ago, seemingly a bit shy -- gets booed, waits calmly and then rocks the house. Thus the power of being in a group like MORE - watching the growth of wonderful new leaders like Lauren.

Only Unity Caucus would boo someone who loves puppies.

There was much irony in the massive booing on the part of Unity Caucus goons and slugs as MORE NYSUT candidate Lauren Cohen began her speech Saturday at the NYSUT RA. I wasn't there but I heard she mentioned the Unity Caucus loyalty oath, prompting boos and shout of "No MORE".

Lauren was a victim of Unity Caucus perfidy way before Saturday, suffering, until she escaped, for years under an abusive, bully principal who has driven a number of staff, parents and children out of the school, all while the UFT/Unity leadership twiddled (and continues t twiddle) its thumbs. Thus Lauren has suffered a double dose of abuse from the union leadership, which by the way, made bogus claims it defends chapter leaders at the March Delegate Assembly. While Lauren was not CL, the previous gaggle of CLs at the school came under the evil eye of the principal -- again the UFT did nothing.

Both Lauren and her pal Jia Lee, also a MORE NYSUT candidate and a fugitive from the same school, came to MORE as a result of the abuse they suffered at that school and to Change the Stakes due to their stand against testing policy.

Below is Lauren in a shot from TV on Friday outside her new school, PS 321, making a very public stand against testing at the rally. She was also interviewed on TV. Less than 24 hours later, she was standing in front of her Unity Caucus fellow UFT members being booed.

This is the way of the goon mentality we face in battling against the evil empire (video will be up soon.) Booing one of the teachers with the guts to stand up to all bullies - the kind of person who would never be tolerated in the caucus. MORE continues to attract people like Lauren. I will highlight some of the others this week.

A photo of the MORE crew at the NYSUT RA with friends-- and many more were made over the weekend as the MORE presence and the Unity response exposed their tactics to the entire state.

Arthur Goldstein, next to Julie Cavanagh, the indomitable Beth Dimino, far right, Mike Schirtzer and Francesco Portelos, back-center next to James Eterno, to the right of Sean Ahern. Jia Lee, center (blue) next to the always awesome Megan Moskop. Others - Joan Heymont, Don Doyle, Sal Notera, Rob Pearl (VP Port Jeff Stn TA)

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NYSUT Update: EIA Analyzes NYSUT Delegate Vote

My unscientific extrapolation estimates Revive NYSUT holds about 56 percent of the delegates, Stronger Together 24 percent, and 20 percent are unknown or undecided... EIA

Mike Antonucci crunches the numbers based on endorsement of big local presidents for the Mulgrew/Weingarten Revive Slate.

Is he missing something by assuming the rest of the delegates from the big locals will vote the way their leaders want them to like the Unity clones? What if that 56% doesn't vote as a block? Other than the roughly Unity controlled NYC 32% the other 24% will not hold firm because those local presidents don't have the control over their people like Unity does.

Other than a few Unity people defecting because they want to leave Unity anyway and maybe some PSC (Prof. Staff Congress - CUNY) defections, we are hearing that there may be a lot more defections from UUP (SUNY), Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and maybe even Yonkers.

I at no point believed Stronger Together will win, but have believed that anything from 70-30 to 60-40 is a defeat for Randi with some talk of leaving NYSUT and joining the NEA by some locals. Anything above 40% approaching half the vote is massive.

In case you are not aware, Arthur Goldstein running for Exec VP gets to address the convention Saturday morning -- some of these delegates are bound to be impressed. In addition, MORE, not running on Stronger Together, will send 2 speakers to the podium to explain how the Unity machine operates, amongst other issues  -- Mike Schirtzer and Lauren Cohen -- the new faces of the opposition here in NYC. MORE's other candidates (Julie Cavanagh, Jia Lee, James Eterno and Francesco Portelos have yielded their time). Expect at least some withering away from the big locals. Maybe not enough to win but ....

Here is Antonucci's post with a great graph -- if NYSUT was run like the US Senate where each state gets the same vote it would be a landslide for Stronger Together. Not that I am advocating that. But imagine if our election here in NYC elected delegates by our local school districts rather than winner take all? A reform that might be worth fighting for.

Why Iannuzzi Is Toast by EIA

Posted: 03 Apr 2014 07:34 AM PDT

More than two months ago I posted my thoughts on the New York State United Teachers election headlined “Iannuzzi Is Toast.” My conclusion had nothing to do with the policies of the incumbent NYSUT president or his slate, nor did it take into account the policies of his challengers, Revive NYSUT. I simply took a look at the number of delegates and the locals pledged to the challengers, particularly the largest teachers’ union local in the nation, the United Federation of Teachers.
In recent weeks Iannuzzi’s slate, named Stronger Together, has trumpeted its growing list of endorsements by NYSUT local presidents and boards. We started to see graphs like this one.


That’s an impressive show of strength and it would be decisive if the NYSUT Representative Assembly assigned a single vote to each local. But the votes are weighted according to the size of the local, and that’s where Stronger Together gets a lot Smaller Together.

I don’t have a list of delegates and I have no special insight into how individuals might vote on the open floor (no secret ballot in NYSUT). But the two slates are using local endorsements as a proxy for voting power and I will, too. I know how many teachers are in each district they represent and can usually add pretty well.

I took a look at the list of 300 or so local presidents on the Stronger Together web site and discovered: a) there was some double-counting of locals; and b) the total number of teachers those locals represented came to about 60,000.
UFT by itself has 64,000 active full-time K-12 teachers.
So if UFT stood alone, Stronger Together would have a fighting chance to pick up votes from the rest of the delegation. But the Revive slate also boasts the endorsement of virtually all of the largest locals in NYSUT: the Professional Staff Congress, the United University Professions, and the K-12 unions in Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers and Syracuse. Stronger’s largest declared local is the Brentwood Teachers Association, representing about 1,100 teachers.

My unscientific extrapolation estimates Revive NYSUT holds about 56 percent of the delegates, Stronger Together 24 percent, and 20 percent are unknown or undecided. Iannuzzi’s slate would have to capture all of the undecideds and peel off about 11 percent of Revive’s delegates while holding on to all of its own.

My prediction: Revive NYSUT picks up at least 60 percent of the vote. If it climbs to 70 percent, I would not be surprised.

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NYSUT UPDATE: UFT Sells Out on Charter Law in Exchange for Cuomo Tossing a Bone on Evals to Cut Iannuzzi

It will be even more interesting to see how the election results affect the delegates and the union. Will they all close ranks behind the next regime? Or will the divisions opened up during the campaign linger on?.. Mike Antonucci, EIA

Insiders are telling me that Cuomo throwing Mulgrew an olive branch on teacher evals yesterday was a way to slap Iannuzzi and help Mulgrew in NYSUT election - a sign it is closer than we thought. Mike Antonucci seems to think so too.

In exchange, UFT was quiet as a mouse in disastrous charter deal that will end up costing the UFT thousands of working members over the next few years as charters grow into a much as 10% of the school system. Actually, I'm predicting that this new charter enhancement bill will have a tsunami effect -- think accelerating greenhouse effect and global warming -- ice pack melts, etc.

This is the charter equivalent -- watch charters grow to 30% in a decade as the state legislature keeps expanding the charter cap -- see millions in commercials spent on that coming soon. UFT will barely organize any of them and end up losing 15,000 members.

If Dick wins, no NYSUT endorsement for Cuomo.

If Mulgrew wins and NYSUT endorses Cuomo there will be a revolt - esp w Cuomo support for charters.

Mike Antonucci who gave Revise a slam dunk not long ago now sees a closer election.

Mike is right on that but wrong on a few things in not bringing up the Cuomo issue. He is also wrong that national AFT has little impact on local stuff. National AFT and local UFT are one and the same -- under the control of the same people on all levels.

Mike doesn't see that the key is Randi's ties to Dem party. Randi still controls Mulgrew and UFT. This is her deal as much as anyone's -- she wants to be a player in Dem party and Iannuzzi revolt threatened that.

Summing up:

• UFT/Randi have sacrificed long-term interests of union for short-term stool at the Cuomo table.
• No matter what they have fomented a permanent split in NYSUT that cannot be healed -- though watch them attack the people they just finished going after for being "divisive."
• This will carry over to the national AFT as alliances are built between the NYSUT anti-Unity crew and others around the nation wanting to challenge Randi's leadership.
• Ed Notes will be there to cover everything as I continue to not have a life.

 From Antonucci EIA:

NYSUT Election Will Be Held Saturday Evening

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 10:53 AM PDT

The incumbent has the support of more than 300 locals, and the challenger has the support of all the largest ones. Barring something utterly extraordinary, Karen Magee will become the new president of New York State United Teachers, but by a less-than-impressive margin.
Almost all of the union’s business will be conducted prior to the election on Saturday evening, and it will be interesting to see how much the battle between the two caucuses affects other areas.
Former NYSUT president Tom Hobart will be receiving an award. He has endorsed incumbent president Richard Iannuzzi. AFT president Randi Weingarten will address the delegates. Her local, the United Federation of Teachers, is the driving force behind the challenger. John Stocks, the executive director of NEA, will also speak. The national union has little influence on NYSUT, and its staunch support of Common Core has hit swirling rapids in New York.
It will be even more interesting to see how the election results affect the delegates and the union. Will they all close ranks behind the next regime? Or will the divisions opened up during the campaign linger on?

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As the NYSUT World Turns: Some NYC Unity Caucus Delegates May Bolt and Vote Stronger Together

Leroy Barr Offer to Unity RA Delegates

Reports are surfacing that a small faction of Unity may just vote their conscience and damn the consequences at the April 5 NYSUT Representative Assembly.

Unity Caucus held a meeting at 52 Broadway (UFT HQ) after last Wednesday's (March 19) Delegate Assembly - with dinner served (were they using our dues money - did they pay rent? Can MORE hold caucus meetings there too?).

Leroy Barr strongly reminded the 800 Unityites who were elected as delegates to state and national conventions in the March 2013 elections that they were expected to vote as a block for the Mulgrew/Weingarten instigated Revive slate in the April 5 NYSUT election and they would be watched due to the open ballot.

There are early signs that Barr's message did not go over very well with at least a few of the Unity faithful, soon to be classified as traitors and drummed out of the Caucus if they should dare cast their vote for Stronger Together on April 5.

Barr also admonished them that they should not miss sessions to traipse around the city, as usual, using their meal money to eat at local restaurants. "Bring your own food and snacks into the convention hall" - paraphrasing Barr's comment from someone who was present. I'll bring them a bag of peanuts when I stop by late Saturday afternoon on April 5th after I work the FIRST LEGO League robotics tournament at the Javits Center.

Too bad I'll miss Arthur Goldstein's early morning speech that day. Arthur us running a piece this morning (On Timeliness and Learning) chronicling  his travels around the state speaking and making new friends as he goes head to head for NYSUT VP against former UFT District Rep Andy Pallotta, who by the way makes around $350,000 a year. I gotta hit Arthur for a loan when he wins - and by the way, if he does I bet we see Arthur make a move to reduce those crazy salaries of our union leaders, just as Karen Lewis did in Chicago.

Arthur has a funny piece running this morning on
The Sad Tale of UFT-Unity's Robo Voters with cartoons yet.




That Barr had to make this point so strongly as a reminder to the Unity faithful (and those soon to be not so faithful) is a sign there is some unhappiness inside Unity Caucus (in the UFT) with the way the NYSUT split was fomented.

In some of my personal contacts when the subject comes up there is a rolling of the eyes. Sometimes a shrug. Clearly, little enthusiasm for the initiative to dump the current NYSUT leadership minus Andy Pallotta, a leadership that has one of their popular former members - Maria Neira - being dumped too. Maria still has a lot of supporters in Unity. Her integrity is well-known and counts for something when she sticks with Dick Iannuzzi when she probably could have deserted him for what could have been a guaranteed win if she ran on the Revise slate.

We always know that there are some decent Unity Caucus people with a conscience, but a conscience that will be put on hold when it comes to supporting dictums from the top. (I remember on the bus to the airport in Seattle after the 2010 Bill Gates AFT convention, some Unity people approached me and said they agreed with Ed Notes on many positions and trashed Randi and the Gates appearance. That didn't stop them from booing the people who walked out on Gates.)

There are some Unity people planning on leaving the caucus on their own and this vote will be their form of resigning. If they are thrown out of the caucus before the AFT July convention in LA, do they still get to go, given they were elected? In 2010, a Unity delegate and chapter leader who had invited my pal Angel Gonzalez to her soon to be closed school was tossed from the convention trip because she hadn't paid her Unity dues on time. She sent me off to Seattle with a scathing criticism of Randi/Mulgrew and Unity and joined GEM (the pre-cursor to MORE and Change the Stakes).

How interesting if even a sliver of Unity actually joins Stronger Together, the first even minor break in Unity here in the city since the mid-to late 60s. (We saw in the 2013 elections a large rank and file desertion of Unity - votes that MORE was not able to pick up.)

There is so much going on behind the scenes that I can't talk about yet - if I did I would have to kill you. But you will read it here first.

Stay tuned to "As the NYSUT World Turns."

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NYSUT: MORE Challenges Unity, VP Candidate Arthur Goldstein to Appear at PSC Candidate Forum Tonight

Overall, Revive did not look ready for prime time.  If this is the best they can do, then we may be in even more peril than now if they take over NYSUT in April.  The four incumbents in Stronger Together and Arthur Goldstein looked very comfortable up on the stage while Pallotta and his Revived challengers appeared to be overmatched at times... James Eterno report on Long Island Candidate Forum

To fully explain what is going on in NYSUT would take some time for those not following reports on ed notes. Here is the skinny.

• Statewide Unity Caucus splits into Stronger Together (4 out of 5 incumbent leaders including President Iannuzzi) and Revive - Exec VP Andy Pallotta, supported by the UFT/Mulgrew and Weingarten.

• Stronger Together takes a rigorous anti-Cuomo position in addition to pointing to the legislative failures of Pallotta, blaming him for being ineffective in fighting Cuomo's local property tax cap which has hurt smaller locals depending on that tax.
• Revive positions:  bogus bullshit -- (we never claim to be fair.)
• MORE teams up with the crew from Port Jeff Station out on Long Island to run for certain non-officer at-large positions as independents - at this time - though some (not all) may run on the Stronger Together slate. Julie Cavanagh gets to challenge Mulgrew directly once again for one of the NYSUT election districts - though NYC teachers cannot vote for her - the 800 Unity votes will go to Mulgrew. Same with other MORE candidates: Francesco Portelos, Lauren Cohen, Mike Schirtzer, Jia Lee, and James Eterno - see their statements in the NYSUT paper and at the MORE blog.
• MORE has been in deep discussions as to the wisdom of joining the slate (if asked) and the current proposal is to allow each MORE candidate to make his or her own decision (unlike Unity Caucus which binds people). (I'll get into the angst this issue has caused within MORE at another time.
• Arthur Goldstein, of NYC Educator blog fame, runs against Pallotta for the VP position, possibly on the Stronger slate if asked - that is to be determined.
• Big city locals plus the statewide college local leaders have endorsed the Revive/Mulgrew slate but other than the NYC local Unity Caucus, have freed their delegates to vote as they wish.
• Candidate forums are being held around the state. Arthur reports on the meeting here. See Eterno's report of the one on Long Island, where Arthur kicked Pallotta's ass. IANNUZZI'S STRONGER TOGETHER & ARTHUR GOLDSTEIN ARE CROWD FAVORITES AT CANDIDATE FORUM
• PSC, a supposed liberal caucus, endorsed Revive and is holding a candidate forum tonight. Reluctantly, they were forced to invite Arthur. (More on that later). You can see Arthur's statement in the NYSUT paper and at his blog: Statement of Candidacy for NYSUT Executive Vice-President

Here is the MORE release from this morning.

MORE Challenges Unity In NYSUT Elections

March 18, 2014 — 

MORE CAUCUS OF UFT TO CHALLENGE CURRENT UFT LEADERSHIP IN STATEWIDE UNION ELECTIONS

RANK AND FILE EDUCATORS WILL BRING REAL CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE TO UNION POSITIONS

 New York – The Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), the Social Justice Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), best known for opposing UFT’s President Michael Mulgrew and his Unity caucus in the 2013 UFT elections will now offer a positive alternative for leadership in the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) officer elections. This is unprecedented- never before has the Unity caucus or a sitting UFT president been challenged in NYSUT elections.

MORE is running in this election against the Unity Caucus because, according to candidate special education elementary teacher Julie Cavanagh,

“…Rather than collaborating with those who seek to destroy us, we must harness our collective power and stand with parents and youth to end destructive education policies and fight for the economic, racial, and social justice our teachers, students, and society need and deserve.”

In a break from his union’s leadership, MORE candidate and high school teacher Mike Schirtzer calls for an immediate repeal of the Common Core State Standards,
“Teachers did not develop it, nor does it have the best interests of our students at heart.”

The standards have been supported by the current union leadership despite they way they force classroom teachers to do ever-increasing amounts of test preparation at the expense of real instruction. Students are bored with the the constant “drilling”, which deprives them of an authentic, engaging education.

MORE is challenging for statewide union office in order to initiate a change in direction, towards standards developed by pedagogical experts and field tested before implementation. MORE candidate and elementary school teacher Lauren Cohen adds,

“The Common Core is fundamentally undemocratic – not only in its implementation but in its conception. Handing teachers rigid, scripted curricula benefits corporate interests while neglecting students’ need for a developmentally-appropriate and well-rounded education.”

Public school parent, teacher, and MORE candidate Jia Lee explains that she is running for this position because,
“Our union leadership has allowed for the high-stakes use of invalid standardized tests, putting an entire generation of youth, educators, and schools at risk, and has promoted a culture of fear. It is time for democratic policies that respect the diverse needs of New York’s public schools.”

Our union leadership has done precious little to stop the over-reliance on testing, even though a plethora of research proves that measuring students only on test scores does not provide a complete picture of what a child has learned.

Mike Schirtzer reiterated,
“The Unity caucus strategy has been political lobbying; they have not mobilized the UFT membership, even as schools are closed, high stakes tests proliferate, and student data is sold to the highest bidder. “

MORE believes our union must stand up in defense of our students. Reducing class size, funding the arts, offering a wide array of after-school programs, and providing full social-emotional and medical services for families would be the type of reform that would truly move our schools forward. Addressing poverty, racism, sexism, and other issues that our children face every day is what real union leadership is about.

Unfortunately, Unity caucus is stubbornly clinging to obsolete tactics that have resulted in the nearly unopposed corporate takeover of our schools. NYSUT and UFT must fight to allow working educators, students, and their parents, to determine educational policy. Policy should no longer be determined by those who seek to profit financially from our public education.MORE is challenging Unity in order to offer a slate of candidates that truly represents classroom teachers. Any policies the MORE candidates negotiate will affect them directly, because they are in the classroom each school day. That is not the case for the small clique of high-ranking Unity grandees currently dictating UFT policy.

Each new bureaucratic diktat, from Common Core to the cookie-cutter Danielson rubric to High Stakes testing, has resulted in less time for grading, lesson planning, and collaboration with administrators, parents, and colleagues.

These failed policies have buried teachers under mounds of useless paperwork that do not positively impact our students. A new NYSUT leadership that includes the MORE slate will mobilize rank and file educators in the five boroughs and locals from around the state to take back our schools. Education policy should never be dictated in corporate boardrooms or political back rooms. It should be created with the input of the real experts- working teachers and parents.

The elections will take place April 5th, 2014 at the NYSUT representative assembly held at the New York Midtown Hilton. Local union presidents and delegates from around New York state will converge at this convention to cast their ballots and determine the statewide union’s direction. MORE is running an independent slate of six candidates for Board of Directors At-Large representing UFT members; Julie Cavanagh, James Eterno, Jia Lee, Mike Schirtzer, Lauren Cohen, and Francesco Portelos. They have also endorsed the candidacy of Arthur Goldstein for NYSUT Executive Vice President and Beth Dimino, President of the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association, for a Director At-Large for Suffolk. Only elected delegates from last year’s UFT election may vote in the NYSUT election, not rank and file members. MORE represents thousands of UFT members (including over 40% of high school teachers based on the 2013 election results). UFT’s undemocratic rules do not allow for  proportional representation, therefore all the NYC delegates at NYSUT convention are from the Unity caucus. These are at-large positions, meaning that any NYSUT delegate may vote for us, including those not from the UFT.

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Revive NYSUT (Pallota/Mulgrew) OK With Non-Union Pre-k While Rolled by Sellout Dems on Charter Support Bill

The IDC exists to allow Cuomo to regularly triangulate progressive voices out of any legislative actions. Dick Iannuzzi knows this and was actively working to undermine the IDC structure. Andy Pallotta well............

Stronger Together supporter

Dick Iannuzzi "[pre-k] teachers would be unionized workers and employees of the school district. Therefore, they would be obligated to be represented by the collective bargaining units." Where does Revive NYSUT slate stand on this? Andy said, "We'd be happy to have them as members," and Andy's staff responded, "The real issue is to ensure that you have high-quality pre-K, that it's connected to standards and curriculum, that you have highly qualified, certified teachers in those programs, not to get distracted by that issue."

I received these communication below earlier today. IDC Democrats working with State Senate Republicans just put a royal screwing with a big charter giveaway bill. Their newest member, Tony Avella, in 2009 was with us in trying to stop an Eva invasion of PS 123 in Harlem. But he was running for mayor. I guess changing your politics whenever is OK. Shame on Tony.

It looks like the IDC [Independent Dem Caucus] is working to screw us (again)...

On the MAC The Senate Majority [(Republicans + IDC)] is poised to pass a budget resolution which includes: --Giving tax credits to wealthy donors via a back-door voucher scheme -- the intent is to use public funds to finance the costs of a non-public school education;

--Increasing per-pupil funding for charter schools which comes directly out of public school coffers; and
--Providing NEW facilities funding for charters and forcing co-locations of charter schools – displacing public school students – and directly benefitting Success Academy C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz

CALL YOUR SENATOR NOW - 1-877-255-9417. Press 2 to speak with your New York State Senator.
https://mac.nysut.org/stop-plans-to-abandon-public-school-children

It is important to remember who in NYSUT Leadership was calling the IDC out back in October for failing to deliver on our agenda and who was apologizing for them? How do you spell A-N-D-Y?

We will have to continue settling for legislative defeats and inadequate compromises until Andy realizes the IDC are not our allies. The IDC exists to allow Cuomo to regularly triangulate progressive voices out of any legislative actions. Dick Iannuzzi knows this and was actively working to undermine the IDC structure. Andy Pallotta well............

If you have not yet read the article in Capital New York, read it it will be enlightening.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/10/8535024/nysut-head-says-idc-alliance-didnt-work-gets-corrected

Beth Dimino on Facebook on the pre-k issue:

I guess unionization does equate to quality for some labor leaders? This is an affront to what all unionists believe and Dick responded as such.

Collective bargaining is a right and is why we have the highest quality public education in New York State.

We are a union that believes in collective bargaining as a fundamental right to advance worker, civil and human rights -- [Andy's]  "we'd be happy to have them as members" does not reflect the reality that collective bargaining is not something nice to do for workers but something that advances our collective mission of fairness on behalf of all workers and their families.

Why would these workers want to organize w NYSUT in the future when we are unwilling to fight for their fundamental rights now?

Labor Leader, Dick Iannuzzi "teachers would be unionized workers and employees of the school district. Therefore, they would be obligated to be represented by the collective bargaining units"

Where does Revive NYSUT slate stand on this? Andy said, "We'd be happy to have them as members," and Andy's staff responded, "The real issue is to ensure that you have high-quality pre-K, that it's connected to standards and curriculum, that you have highly qualified, certified teachers in those programs, not to get distracted by that issue."

REALLY?! Read below for all the facts!

Labor leader : Pre-K first, unionized teachers second
By Jessica Bakeman
5:00 a.m. | Mar. 14, 2014
ALBANY—The statewide expansion of pre-kindergarten proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo would likely require using a mix of union and non-union teachers.

But traditional teachers' unions don't plan to fight to include all pre-K teachers in their ranks, at least initially. Whether pre-K teachers are unionized is a distraction from the more important point, which is a need for high-quality programs, a statewide union leader said.

Since the 1990s, New York has tried to implement a universal pre-K program, but the funding was never there. Today, half of the state's four-year-olds are enrolled, mostly in half-day programs. The state spends about $400 million annually on the program, which includes classes in schools as well as in community-based organizations, like Head Start centers or YMCAs.

Only about 40 percent of pre-K teachers, those who teach in schools, are eligible for the salary and benefits collectively bargained by traditional teachers' unions. The other 60 percent work in the C.B.O.s; some are covered by other unions but make far less than their public-school teacher counterparts, despite having the same qualifications, and the rest have no union protections at all.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio have put forth competing proposals for funding pre-K, and both are contingent on using C.B.O.s to expand. In Cuomo's statewide plan, there simply isn't enough money to use all unionized teachers; in de Blasio's proposal for the five boroughs, C.B.O.s would make up in space what public schools lack.

Labor leaders in New York said expanding access to pre-K is more important than ensuring collective-bargaining rights or wage parity for all teachers.

“The real issue is to ensure that you have high-quality pre-K, that it's connected to standards and curriculum, that you have highly qualified, certified teachers in those programs, not to get distracted by that issue,” said Steve Allinger, legislative director for New York State United Teachers, referring to whether pre-K teachers are unionized.

Allinger said the expansion would help union members by ensuring that students are more prepared to succeed when they enter the K-12 spectrum.

Although it doesn't appear that NYSUT is going to make unionizing pre-K teachers an issue in the potential expansion, “We'd be happy to have them as members,” said Andrew Pallotta, executive vice president.

NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi, though, seems to be out of sync with his colleagues Allinger and Pallotta, who run the union's legislative efforts. Tensions have been high at NYSUT, since Iannuzzi is facing a contested election next month, during which he will face a slate of challengers that includes Pallotta.

Iannuzzi said his interpretation of both proposals is that they are attempts to add a new grade to the “continuum of education” and would therefore utilize unionized public-school teachers.

“What we would expect to see, both in New York City and statewide, would be that a really universal pre-K program would be part of the public school program,” he said, “in which case [teachers] would be unionized workers and employees of the school district. Therefore, they would be obligated to be represented by the collective bargaining units.”

There are 5,615 pre-K teachers in New York, as part of the state's current program, according to state records. Of those, 3,221 work in New York City.

Sixty percent of pre-K teachers statewide work in C.B.O.s, and 40 percent are in public-school classrooms. The breakdown is the same in New York City.

Three-quarters of pre-K teachers statewide are certified by the state Education Department. In New York City, that figure is 61 percent, because teachers who are on a “path to certification” are allowed to teach while pursuing their education and training. In the rest of the state, 94 percent of pre-K teachers are certified.

While nearly all C.B.O. teachers in New York City are in some type of union (though not traditional teachers' unions), that's not the case in other cities. In Rochester for example, there are 105 full-time equivalent pre-K teachers, 45 in schools and 60 in C.B.O.s. Of those 60, 58 are certified, but only 21 are unionized.

Assembly edcuation committee chair Catherine Nolan, a Democrat from Queens, said there are inherent differences among pre-K programs offered in different settings, “and some of those differences are OK, because that's the history of it.”

“I think we're going to have a lot of models to have a successful UPK,” she said. “Do I think everyone should get as much money as possible? We always want people who are well educated to be well trained, well compensated, but there are clearly going to be differences.

“If we can move the ball forward with more UPK money, we'll cross some of those bridges later,” Nolan added.
Senate Labor Committee chair Diane Savino, who is a member of the Independent Democratic Conference and from Staten Island, said concerns about whether teachers would be unionized as part of the pre-K expansion is “putting the cart before the horse.”

She said there are often circumstances where workers in the public and private sectors earn different salaries and benefits for the same services. For example, child protective services employees working for non-profits make more than those working for city agencies, she said.
“Those agencies have often been the pipeline,” she said, adding that early-career employees might start working for the city and graduate to the non-profits when they gain more experience.

With pre-K, that pipeline is a problem, said David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center and an expert on a New Jersey program that's seen as a national model for high-quality pre-K.

He said an equitable universal pre-K program should offer uniform quality across settings. In New Jersey, the C.B.O.s struggled to keep teachers, because once they were more experienced, they would leave to work in a public school, where they could make more money.

“You're going to have to confront the issue of comparable pay and benefits in each setting in order to keep that quality,” he said. “You can't have a situation where one program has certified teachers who are making substantially less than the public school program down the street, and that's really the issue of funding.”

Elizabeth Lynam, vice president and director of state studies for the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan research organization, said historically, the state has used C.B.O.s to keep pre-K costs down.

“What we've seen in the current program is that the non-profits have not been able to implement a lot of the quality requirements because they don't pay the rates to do it,” she said. “It's hard for [C.B.O.s] to be out in the labor market with $10 to $15 dollar-an-hour wages and think they're going to get people with masters' degrees.”

G.L. Tyler, director of political action for DC 1707, a union that represents child care workers in New York City, said after three years in a C.B.O., a pre-K teacher with the same qualifications is making almost $20,000 less than one in a public school.

He said C.B.O. teachers have been organized since the 1970s and fighting for wage parity for that long.

“I've been with the union for 20 years, and there has always been a lot of our members who want to remain in the C.B.O.s, because they enjoy working with 2, 3, and 4-year-olds,” he said. “It has to be a certain dedication to do that, and they have it. But they should be paid more for it.”

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NYSUT President Iannuzzi Condemns Treatment of Students Who Opt Out of Tests

Iannuzzi, who taught fourth-grade for most of his 34-year teaching career, said "sit and stare" is not only educationally unsound, but the practice will end up being a distraction for those students who are taking standardized tests.

The biggest threat to the ed deformers is the growing parent opt-out movement. (Our amazing group here in NYC, Change the Stakes, is one of the groups leading the charge.) Iannuzzi, heading the Stronger Together slate in the upcoming NYSUT elections against the Mulgrew backed Revive slate, is taking some good stands on a number of issues.

NYSUT blasts 'irresponsible' Regents message on 'opt out'

ALBANY, N.Y. March 12, 2014 – New York State United Teachers today criticized the Regents for failing to act to protect students from educationally unsound "sit-and-stare" testing policies adopted by a number of school districts, saying the Regents' silence sends an irresponsible message and unacceptably puts children "inside the crossfire of the testing debate."

In a strongly worded letter to Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and the other Regents, NYSUT again condemned the practice of "sit and stare," in which school districts refuse to make alternative arrangements for children whose parents choose to 'opt out' of state standardized testing in grades 3-8 and, instead, force the students to sit at their desks and stare blankly at the walls for up to 10 hours over three days.

• Neira letter to Regents (PDF)

The State Education Department, in guidance to districts last week, tacitly allowed the practice, issuing a directive that, "Schools do not have any obligation to provide an alternative location or activities for individual students while tests are being administered."

NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi said the union stands firmly with parents who choose to 'opt out' their children from state tests. Iannuzzi, who taught fourth-grade for most of his 34-year teaching career, said "sit and stare" is not only educationally unsound, but the practice will end up being a distraction for those students who are taking standardized tests.

"Punishing or embarrassing children because their parents exercised their right not to have their children participate in tests they consider inappropriate is, frankly, abusive," Iannuzzi said.

NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira said school districts look to the State Education Department and Regents for sound guidance on testing issues but, again, the Regents are falling short.

"The moral responsibility to treat all students with dignity resides with school personnel and these personnel need guidance from SED on this important issue," Neira wrote, noting while SED's position may pass legal muster, "The State Education Department is sending an irresponsible message on such a deplorable policy as 'sit and stare.'"

Neira called on the Regents and SED to show leadership and instruct districts to provide alternative locations or activities for students whose parents choose to 'opt out' of state testing. "Your silence on this important educational policy issue continues to foster an atmosphere of distrust with parents and educators around the state," she wrote.
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

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UFT/NYSUT NYSUT: History of Cozying Up to Anti-union Politicians is not new

How Revive NYSUT lies:

The tax cap was a terrible mistake. NYSUT waiting almost two full years, just two days prior to the expiration date, to file a lawsuit was irresponsible at best and did great harm. We will fight to get rid of the tax cap completely.  

Who was in charge of the NYSUT legislative program? Exec VP Andy Pallotta. Sure, he will NOW fight.

Andy Pallotta, NYSUT Exec VP, cozied up to the awful John Flanagan. Why is the Port Jefferson Station NYSUT local so vehement about opposing the Mulgrew/Pallotta coup and leading the opposition? While not entirely thrilled with the Iannuzzi performance over the last few years, they see the UFT coup as a worse option. The Flanagan story is one aspect -- see links below.

PJSTA was fine when Alan Lubin ran the political operation because they say he was effective (I don't always agree with that assessment). Pallotta has been totally ineffective, doing nothing to oppose the Cuomo property tax freeze which has crippled those locals that depend on that tax to fund education (the overwhelming majority in the state).

That has fueled the enormous pressure by these locals on Iannuzzi, who comes from one of those locals, to put curbs on the ineffective and incompetent Pallotta operation. That curb by Iannuzzi is what inflamed the UFT crowd -- Mulgrew and Weingarten because they controlled the VOTE COPE money since NYSUT was formed. How important an issue is this to the UFT? Al Shanker held the Pallotta position for over a decade as did Lubin, who at one pre-Randi point was viewed as a Shanker successor.

Andy Pallotta? A Bronx District 10 rep (not the head of the UFT Bronx as posted in some press reports) going from that position to replacing the likes of Shanker and Lubin? Clearly a case of the Peter Principle, now to be dubbed the "Andy" principle.

I and my fellow MOREistas do not excuse NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi's actions over his years in office (and his years as a NYSUT VP before that). But now that he seems to have grown a set - (well maybe not a complete set) -- he is being challenged by the same crew led by the Pallotta/Mulgrew/Weingarten team that is critical because Dick is not cozying up to Cuomo. Why is he not cozying up to Cuomo? Let's start with the Property tax. Is Revive (Rebury) NYSUT putting that issue on the table?

But this is not new. We've seen the UFT supporting the most awful politicians since I became active in the early 70s. To me the epitome came when the UFT wouldn't support fellow teacher Gene Prisco when he ran against right winger Vito Fascella for Congress, who ended up leaving in disgrace.

The PJSTA version of Fascella is Flanagan.

Check how Andy Pallotta cozied up to the awful John Flanagan on the PJSTA blog in these posts sent to me by the crew over there.

• This post details the story about Flanagan complaining to NYSUT and the district about Dimino.
• This post tells about Flanagan's top campaign contributor, Rhee's Students First.
• This post is when we held a rally outside Flanagan's office and he cowardly hid inside his office (the one where the Suffolk PAC tried to undermine us).
• This post quotes a great editorial about Flanagan that was behind a paywall.  It does a good job pointing out how he is attached to the reform agenda.
• Finally, this post shows Pallotta cozying up to Flanagan and tells how he used VOTE COPE funds to contribute to Flanagan even though NYSUT voted not to endorse Flanagan.

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