UFT Elections 2010

Video of Teachers Unite- NYCORE UFT Election Candidate Forum

2010-03-21T14:37:00.007-04:00

On March 5 candidates from each of the 4 caucuses in the UFT held a candidates forum sponsored by NYCORE and Teachers Unite. Here are two 10 minutes segments out of two hours. Look for more on this blog as we parse the individual questions.

The Opening Statements

The Concluding statements

A chapter leader's endorsement of ICE-TJC

2010-03-19T06:00:00.003-04:00

[Letter from John Elfrank-Dana to Bergtraum staff. Reproduced from Ednotes.]

It’s time again – the UFT elections. You should get your ballot in the mail.

Only about one quarter of us will vote if trends continue. It’s a problem I brought up to the union leadership (including Mulgrew); this lack of participation. They were at a loss as to why or what could be done about it.

It’s one of the reasons why I joined the ICE/TJC opposition. We need strong democratic unionism to move us forward. The Unity Caucus (Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew’s political machine) may have gotten us more money from contracts, but have given so much away in terms of rights that sticking around long enough to enjoy the benefits seems impossible.

The days of accommodation, we want to be on your team, approach must end. We can’t rely on the strategy of the benevolent mayor (dictator) to save us; which has been Unity’s approach. We need to stand on the fundamentals of democratic unionism. We must organize for confrontation. However, we must be smart, patient and brave about it.

I think the ICE/TJC slate, with James Eterno for President, is our best hope. I know James personally. He’s been a valuable source of information for me. He’s an experienced chapter leader and man with principles. He gets it.

You can see James and what the ICE/TJC ticket stands for here .

Please feel free to pass this message along to any other UFT members you know.

In solidarity,

John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
www.Elfrank.com/UFT

Deconstructing "nimble" union leadership with the help of Scott, NYC Educator and Fiorillo

2010-02-20T13:48:00.006-05:00

On Norm's Notes now is the way NYC Educator and ICE candidate Michael Fiorillo countered some comments made by Peter (Probably Goodman) in a recent Gotham post called "Lost in the school closing debate."

Norm's intro goes like this:

At Gotham Schools: A worthwhile insight into the UFT/AFT thinking on the role of unions as UFT shill Peter (undoubtably Goodman/Ed in the Apple) talks about "nimble" leadership — read this as "give ground because we don't have the ability or chops to fight them" — as he apologizes for all of Weingarten policies. If anyone thinks that this ideologue and Mulgrew are on different pages you are drinking the old K-aid.

In fact, the AFT/UFT cannot fight them because they run a top-down union without rank and file participation and in fact fear such participation because an active rank and file would see them for what they are and toss them out. So, keep 'em ignorant and barefoot.

Read the full post here: "NYC Educator and Fiorillo Debate UFT Shill Peter"

Michael Fiorillo is running with ICE for a HS seat on the Exec. Board, and NYC Educator has supported ICE positions for some time.

Without articulate, experienced voices like these, union managers will continue to protect their own jobs more than they protect ours.

ICE-TJC candidate Seung Ok also speaks out on ed deform in NYC

2010-02-13T09:28:00.013-05:00

Not a day goes by, it seems, when one of ICE-TJC's candidates in the upcoming union elections is not writing an incisive and informative essay on the state of our schools in NYC.

Here's a paper on charter schools that Seung Ok, a living environment teacher at William H. Maxwell HS Brooklyn and delegate, sent to a listserv yesterday. Ok is ICE-TJC's choice for VP for Vocational HSS.

He is pointing to the same defect in the chancellor's thinking that ICE-TJC candidate Arthur Goldstein talked about this week at Gotham. Seung asks:

"Why is it, that the charter school has significant lower special ed and ELL students than it's counterpart — when they both seemingly draw from the same community?

The answer is that charter schools in NYC are not so much a solution for closing the achievement gap but a deceptive horse and pony show for another more ambitious agenda — and that is to convince us to privatize the whole public school system."

The full text below, and click the picture above to hear Ok speak at the Jan. 16th parent conference on the closing of Maxwell HS.

There are several important reasons why charter schools not only harm public school children, but are a direct threat to public education as we know it. The harm is not ideological in nature, it is direct. I just attended the expansion hearing of KIPP into PS 195 in Harlen this Monday - and it is heartbreaking to hear that PS 195 students have class in the cafeteria. The teacher must ask the other students who are having lunch to quiet down, so instruction can happen. And if this isn't unbelievable enough, KIPP is expanding from its current grades of 5-8, to K-8.

More than a few PS 195 teachers got up to demand that KIPP teachers stop threatening charter school students with the admonishment,"Do you want to be like them?" The lesson hammered into these children every single day in that partitioned environment is one of segregation. The public school students are made to feel less, and the charter school children learn that personal advantage gained by harm to others is not only an entitlement of their talent, but a necessity.

But let's assume the above injustices to public school students were not happening, and charter schools obtained their own space - there is still a troubling aspect to the charter school movement - and that is its endgame. If the ultimate goal is to help the vast majority of minority students; and we can believe the sincerity of the billionaires and politicians who are steering this movement, than I'll support charter schools full heartedly.

The actions of these NYC charters however tell a much different tale than the benevolent words they speak. They are invading spaces of A rated schools (examples, PS 15 in Redhook Brooklyn, PS 123, and PS 195 in Harlem, etc.) If the claim is to want to help the neediest children, then why are they choosing building with A rated public schools that are successfully helping their communities. And when you see the comparisons between the two co-located schools in the same building, why is it, that the charter school has significant lower special ed and ELL students than it's counterpart - when they both seemingly draw from the same community?

The answer is that charter schools in NYC are not so much a solution for closing the achievement gap but a deceptive horse and pony show for another more ambitious agenda - and that is to convince us to privatize the whole public school system. Imagine a city where the law limiting the number of charter schools was removed. All those years of pent up frustration by privileged parents spending thousands for private schools can be released with one great sigh of relief. We will start to see mostly white charter schools arise in neighborhoods like the Upper West Side. Let's not forget how expensive real estate is in NYC. A public school building is a million dollar gift.

And a unique and surprising thing will happen. All that private money funneling into black and Latino charter schools will dry up. The money that once surprisingly made its way to Harlem and Brooklyn, will support the charter schools that the millionaires' and billionaires' children attend. There is a finite amount of private money - and it's just a matter of practicality to ration it out if charter schools litter the educational landscape; the donors must prioritize their wads of money, and human nature being what it is - they will fund their own neighborhood's charter schools than not.

So, where will Black and Latino communities find themselves - a place much worse than they were before. Their successful public schools having been decimated - closed and phased out, their struggling schools left overcrowded, and their abandoned charter schools left under funded - all destroying the gains made in the past several decades of hard earned work by so many stakeholders.

Doesn't this have a familiar ring to it? Just think back to a recent phenomenon, that of subprime mortgages. In the beginning, it was sold to America by the likes of George Bush, Newt Gingrich, and Phil Gram as a civil rights issue of getting minorities into houses. Mortgage companies made billions making loans to people that could not afford them. If anyone could go back in time and demand these loans be stopped, they would be labeled a racist, and be ridiculed.

And now these same political characters mentioned above are pushing the charter school agenda: Now they declare that education is the civil rights issue of our times. Coincidence? And in President Obama's defense, his mother sent him to the best international private schools in Hawaii and abroad - no wonder that his knowledge of public schools seems as ill formed as President Bush's. So while Obama tries to convince the nation to curtail the worse aspects of a privatized health care system, he is conversely promoting the worse aspects of privatization to the delivery of education in Chicago, and now, the country.

So the fight to defend public education against charter schools, is more than about space, teacher unions, or a lottery system; it is to stop the manipulation of Black and Latino communities as chess pieces in a game to benefit the elite classes in our society. While the struggling parents in impoverished areas are positioned to fight each other for the scraps of space and funding that has been allotted by our society, the privileged lay waiting in the sidelines until all the energy is sapped out - and the doorway to unregulated access to taxpayer money opens.

More from Seung Ok on the CREDO Sanford Charter school study:

The Credo study on NYC Charter schools is an academic sham. Here is the proof: If you click the link at the end of this email and go to the bottom of page 4, under the heading: School Level Comparisons, it notes:

"The test for New York City schools was slightly different than the test employed in CREDO’s earlier national study. Because all the NYC schools are drawn from the same education market, there was no need to control for market differences across all the schools, as was the case in the earlier national analysis.Instead, it sufficed to use simple t-tests of each pair of schools; that is, that charter school performance against the performance of its associated comparison group. The student learning gains were averaged for each school and then compared for statistical differences.""

So, this test did not control for the fact that charter schools send out invitations to level 3 and level 4 students? It doesn't control for the fact that charter schools use a self selecting lottery system versus open enrollment? It doesn't factor in class size and building overcrowding? It doesn't factor in per pupil spending? It doesn't factor in how charters release students who they feel don't measure up to their "contract" standards?

So basically, in this study's perspective, all Black and Latino students are pretty much the same. Forget that there are talented students, strugglings students, students in shelters, students with two parents, students with one parent...etc. Wow, how can Stanford University put their name to such a flimsy piece of so called "scientific" study. Any high school science student can tell you that the experiment group and the control group must control for all possible variables except the one being tested.

So, there are two possibilities here. Either Credo/Stanford University are ignorant of these "marget differences" or they are biased supporters of charter schools. Either way, shame on them.

Seung Ok - GEM, Grassroots Education Movement

http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/NYC%202009%20_CREDO.pdf

Arthur Goldstein's latest post at Gotham

2010-02-12T22:01:00.012-05:00

Running on the ICE-TJC slate for a HS Exec Bd seat is Arthur Goldstein, chapter leader at Francis Lewis HS (Queens).

In his latest column at GothamSchools, "The Kids Nobody Wants," he asks the question a lot of us are wondering about these days:

Who’s speaking up for those of us who embrace our most challenging kids? Schools taking on these kids ought to be rewarded. Under Joel Klein’s stewardship, they are dumped onto the scrap heap. The same could be said for these kids, left without neighborhood schools, and without Metrocards to get them wherever Tweed sees fit to send them.

These kids deserve better. Their neighborhoods deserve better.

You can read the full post and all of his other ones in GothamSchools at this link.

Read James Eterno on the Unity political machine that controls our union

2010-02-07T13:24:00.004-05:00

James Eterno, ICE-UFT's candidate for president of the UFT, has written a new post over on the ICE blog.

Here's part of what he says, but go over to that link to read his whole statement.

Unity Caucus (Michael Mulgrew’s faction of the UFT) is the closed, invitation only group that has controlled the UFT since the sixties. They rule the UFT with a top-down corporate style system that one time AFT President David Selden said made the union function more like an insurance company rather than an organization that is part of the labor movement . . .

The Unity machine is one of the last huge political machines to remain potent in the US. Here is how it works. The leadership (Mulgrew, Randi Weingarten or whoever) dispenses patronage to its followers in exchange for complete loyalty. If a UFT member wants a free trip to AFT and NYSUT conventions or a UFT job, one has to join Unity Caucus or their wholly owned subsidiary since 2003, New Action. Unity makes a big pitch for newly elected chapter leaders to join them. After someone is accepted to the caucus, they have to drum up 100 signatures to get on the ballot for the UFT election to win those free trips to conventions.

A friend informed me that the leadership is asking that Unity members submit an officer petition along with their own petition. Therefore, the Unity faithful will circulate a petition for Mulgrew along with their personal one. They are able to link themselves with Mulgrew so he gets school level recognition and support. In return, he dispenses the patronage. The system works very well for Unity and it explains why so many of the Unity believers were at the DA in January. . . .

This breeds cynicism and mistrust among the rank and file in the schools as when the Unity crowd sold the awful giveback laden 2005 Contract (longer day, extra small group class, return to cafeteria and hall patrol, loss of ability to grieve letters in file, loss of seniority rights which created the ATR situation and more). Most UFT members respond by not voting in UFT elections. This is a mistake. . .

ICE stands for a democratic union with an involved membership. We will go back to union basics if elected. Our people running for office have proven track records of activating their chapters. If we had the resources of the UFT at our disposal, we know we could activate the members throughout this city. Our public relations campaign on day 1 will be much more hard hitting. No more cartoon commercials; we will show the public the protests that have been occurring at closing schools. Elected officials and PEP members will also be held accountable for what they are doing to us.

This election is too important to sit out. Please join our campaign.

Michael Fiorillo on Duncan's Katrina statement

2010-02-06T21:08:00.011-05:00

Teacher, historian, activist, and chapter leader Michael Fiorillo, who is running with ICE-TJC for one of the six HS seats on the Executive Board in the coming election, writes frequently about NYC schools and the state of our labor union.

His perspective on current school events is not only informative but essential reading.

The following paragraphs are in response to a post at GothamSchools after Sect'y of Education Arne Duncan remarked that Katrina was the "best thing" for the New Orleans school system.

This despicable statement by Duncan represents a common motif among Democrats and Republicans alike, and validates Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine thesis, namely, that ruling elites create or opportunistically use crises to implement policies that would otherwise be blocked. In the case of New Orleans, it’s the wholesale privatization of the school system, with the schools being turned over to large charter school chains. Teach For America — closely affiliated with KIPP — is the Human Resources Division and employment agency for this hostile takeover.

Right after Katrina, Republican House member Richard Baker from Baton Rouge said, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” (Huffington Post, 9/12/05) Apparently, God favors privatization and separate-and-unequal schools, which is the current model in New Orleans, NYC and every large urban school system.

Where were these people when the urban schools were suffering from decades of neglect and under-investment? They certainly weren’t teaching in them, or sending their children to them. Why are they only now proclaiming their “passion” for education, which is based solely on their lust to dominate and control them, driven by an agenda that, PR rhetoric aside, is about their will to power and profit?

The privatization of the schools is the lead-in the the privatization of Social Security, which will be forced on the American people in the name of “deficit reduction” and “fiscal responsibility.” While working and middle class Americans will see the loss and privatization of the public domain and the public interest, Finance will continue to be be allowed to capture an ever-increasing percentage of the national income, and will continue to loot the nations patrimonial wealth. They will do this by demanding and receiving ever higher “rents” from consumers and the productive economy, by means of interest, fees, royalties, actual rents, use of eminent domain for private interests, and privatization. If you research the private interests that are funding ed deform, these rentiers are who you will find.

Obama, who received most of his campaign contributions from Finance, is the Trojan Horse brought in to bring this about; it’s Nixon Goes to China in reverse, with a purported “liberal” elected to do what a Republican never could get away with. It’s his job to impose the structural adjustment policies that the IMF has used to dominate developing countries undergoing debt crises over the past thirty years: shrinking the public sector, privatization of resources and public services (note that he just announced the privatization of the space program), elimination of subsidies that support domestic production and social welfare, etc.

Disregard Obama’s faux-populist rhetoric of recent weeks: it’s little more than a shift in his overall marketing campaign, called for by internal polls, focus groups, and his team’s failure to hit their sales targets in Massachusetts. After all, he was named Marketer of the Year in 2008 by Advertising Age magazine, and is referred to by his own people as “Brand Obama.”

While the Democrats traditional political base is frozen by cynical slogans of “hope” and “change,” Wall Street is going to smash and grab what’s left of the country.

Unless we stop them, starting here and now.

UFT election back stories

2010-02-04T05:44:00.011-05:00

The following post is reproduced in its entirety from Ednotes.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

UFT Election Back Stories

Gotham Schools' Anna Philips has a report on the upcoming UFT elections (ballots go out March 7 and must be returned by April 6 - count is April 7 and is open to UFT members). I left a comment.

The reason Randi got 74% in her first election was that New Action, the main opposition at the time, was still a force and able to pull a quarter of the votes. Now they have sunk to below 10%, with many of those coming from retirees.

For a comparison of voting patterns over the lst few elections, see a spreadsheet we prepared 3 years ago.

You will note that Randi's % dropped in 2007, but her vote total really dropped from 42,000 to 35,000 between 2004 and 2007 while the number of retirees voting for Unity remained constant at over 18,000 votes. Can it be that half if Unity's votes come from retirees? It's late and my eyes are bleary. But here's the skinny on the HS vote.

Elaborating on the high school executive board seats and why they are up for contention:
First of all, our 6 great candidates.

From ICE

Arthur Goldstein, CL of Francis Lewis HS, who you all know very well from his writings on Gotham. [See his latest post here.]

Michael Fiorillo, former CL and current delegate from Newcomers HS who has also commented very astutely on many issues at Gotham.

John Lawhead, CL of Tilden, a soon to be closed school. John used to be at Bushwick HS which also was closed, so he is an expert on the politics of closing schools. He is also has been an expert on the high stakes testing issue for many years and has taught many of us in ICE the implications of the high stakes testing game.

From TJC

Kit Wainer, CL from Leon Goldstein HS, who headed the ICE-TJC slate in 2007. Kit has been a long-time activist and is one of the founders of TJC.

Marian Swerdlow, FDR HS, also a long-time activist in UFT politics and a former delegate.

Peter Lamphere, CL of Bronx HS of Science, who has been active for many years.

Some facts about this particular piece of the election

These 6 high school seats have been Unity's problem for over 20 years (the high school vote always split around 50/50), as they consistently lost them to the opposition, which used to be New Action.

But in 2003/4 New Action started making deals with Randi - they wouldn't run against her if she wouldn't run Unity candidates for these 6 seats, thus ceding them to New Action. Many New Action members also got part-time jobs at the UFT.

This dirty deal led to the formation of ICE (many from the Education Notes circle) for the 2004 elections and an alliance with TJC, which had been around for a decade but had never run in an election before 2003. Both groups had a lot to learn and had to build a new infrastructure from scratch.

With Unity not running candidates for these seats, the direct confrontation with New Action led to ICE-TJC winning those seats, which placed people like Jeff Kaufman and James Eterno (who has been on the EB as a New Action rep but left them over the Unity deal) on the EB. As someone who had been attending the EB meetings for a while, they brought a breath of fresh air to the meetings over their 3 years on the board, forcing Unity to address many issues, including the rubber room (Kaufman's short trip to the RR as an Ex Bd member made some headlines and his experience there and support for his colleagues, plus his legal background, brought many issues into the light.) Their voices were loud and strong in fighting the disastrous 2005 contract.

In order to still these voices, in 2007 Unity guaranteed New Action 3 of the HS EB seats by co-endorsing - which means a Unity vote counted for New Action- and took 3 seats for themselves. ICE-TJC got 36% of the vote and could not top the combined New Action (12%) / Unity (51%) totals, though ICE-TJC outpolled New Action in every division of the union except retirees. (Since New Action sold out their vote totals have dropped consistently amongst working teachers from the mid 20% to single digits in 2007). To make it clearer. New Action got 3 HS EB seats while getting only 521 votes while ICE-TJC received over 1500 votes and got no seats. UFT democracy inaction.

You can see a vote comparison of the 2004 and 2007 elections at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pgxRf3gM4qtyBFmTshSW1fQ&hl=en

New Action also received 5 additional EB seats for a total of 8 as a reward for keeping the independent voices of ICE-TJC off the Board.

We assume that a similar deal will be in operation in this election. If ICE-TJC can increase its vote in the HS to 50%, not an impossibility given the conditions, then the 6 people mentioned above, although an extreme minority out of 89 EB seats, would serve on the Board and give voice to a large group of disenfranchised teachers, paras, secretaries, etc.

And it would further drive a stake through the heart of New Action's bogus claims to be an opposition. If they lose, will it threaten their jobs at the UFT? Probably not, but if you detect an air of desperation on the part of New Action, you know why. Unity will probably offer a similar deal like last time and hand them additional seats in order to make phony claims of bi-partisanship. If ICE-TJC does win these seats, just watch New Action EB members line up on most votes with Unity.

Unlike ICE/GEM people, New Action has been absent from the line of fire of closing schools and charter school invasions (they supported the UFT charter school invasion of 2 public schools in East NY). Will the rank and file be aware of these differences? While the word has been out about New Action to some areas of the UFT, we theorize that a batch of New Action votes come from people who still believe they are the old New Action.

TJC reaches out to the membership

2010-01-31T18:24:00.012-05:00

ICE is fortunate to be running in this election with as articulate and committed a group of educators as those over at TJC.

Follow this link for a recent article by Megan Behrent, who's running for Assistant Secretary on the ICE-TJC slate.

"THE IMMENSE outrage and anger that has erupted at these and many other hearings around the city is poignant testimony to the potential for mobilizing a real fightback against the attacks on public education that have ravaged New York City's schools. People are tired of being the victims and scapegoats blamed for the failures of public education, while the politicians who systematically underfund and undermine our schools are let off the hook."
— from "A fight for our schools in New York"

And here are some extracts from TJC's current newletter.

BUILD A MOVEMENT TO END SCHOOL CLOSINGS

The UFT leadership's strategy is a failure again. It failed to organize us to get a timely contract, and so far it has failed to organize us to end school closings. TJC believes that the UFT must build a movement powerful enough to end all school closings, for good, and win us a just contract. The announcement on Friday Jan. 22, that the State will close or restructure thirty more NYC schools, most of them large high schools, adds urgency to this need. TJC's position is explained in our latest leaflet.

CONTINUE THE FIGHT ON MARCH 4!

March 4 has been declared a "National Day of Action to Defend Education." Unions and student groups across the country will take part. Here in New York City, Teachers for a Just Contract will join a growing coalition of grassroots organizations calling for a demonstration at Governor Paterson's Manhattan office, to end school closings and cuts in educational aid, including student Metrocards. For a pdf of TJC's leaflet advertising this action, write to JustContractUFT@aol.com, and ask for the March 4 leaflet.

RALLY AT BLOOMBERG RESIDENCE GREAT SUCCESS!

A coalition of many groups, including TJC, held a citywide rally against school closings at the Upper Eastside residence of Mayor Bloomberg, East 79th Street @ 5th Avenue in Manhattan, from 4 to 6:30 P.M.

The Unity Caucus majority at the January 20 UFT Delegate Assembly refused to even entertain a motion to endorse this rally. Despite that treachery by our union "leadership," a huge crowd of over five hundred participated, picketing and chanting. Among the picketers was James Eterno, Jamaica H.S. Chapter Leader and our ICE - TJC candidate for UFT President. This action is only the beginning of the movement against school closings we must build.

TJC's next meeting will be on Friday, Feb. 5th, at 4 pm, at the HS of Art and Design, room 313, 1075 Second Ave. (nr E. 57th St.). Take the 4, 5, 6, N, R, E or V train to get there.
"School closings and the upcoming UFT elections will be among the topics of discussion. Help change our union and save our jobs."

TJC is also on Facebook with the name Just Contract.
"Friend us and check out our great pictures of our actions and events, including some of our recent fundraiser in Upper Manhattan."

Vote ICE-TJC, and here's why

2010-01-30T11:12:00.011-05:00

This piece just up at Ednotes, which some have called the almanac of union affairs for the past five years. Actually from before, since Scott was writing on union business in hard copy years earlier.

In this important post, he lays out the relationship between "ICE the caucus" and "GEM the movement." More than that, he talks about how alert and active these groups have been in analyzing and responding to the attacks on public education.

Had Unity more of the social conscience ICE and TJC have had, written about and demonstrated for over the past decade, not to mention the will to stand up for the integrity of our profession, union management wouldn't be having to re-set its course as it's doing today.

They continue to jump on a bandwagon they can lay no claim to having built.

Vote ICE-TJC in the March elections.

Historical Perspective of ICE and GEM: Getting the Message Out

by Norm Scott

I don't write enough about how proud I am of the role the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) has played over the years in the resistance movement.

With our large-scale petition signing event going on this afternoon and the time I have spent in helping to organize it, time I often resent because I am just not super interested in dealing with UFT elections and view it as worse than a trip to the dentist, I thought it useful to out out a few thoughts.

ICE has all too often been viewed only as a UFT caucus battling over internal UFT politics, something we have not always been too effective at doing.

But ICE was founded more as a group to analyze the state of public education and has done a great job at bringing the issues to people's attention. It was only the sell-out and collaborative policies of the UFT that forced us to get into the pit with Unity Caucus and its sell-out partner, New Action.

Since this the attack on public education began in NYC 7-8 years ago we have seen a big jump in getting our word out. Note how many speakers - even the UFT - are using our analysis. ICE began in Nov. 2003 (and Ed Notes years before that) motivated by getting the word out even to our colleagues in the opposition, people who told us mayoral control and testing were not their issues. When ICE people attended all the UFT mayoral control meetings and put out a minority position even someone as astute as Angel said he was beginning to understand the big picture. Michael Fiorillo has been sharing the "big picture" with us for years. Now Leo Casey is getting up and giving Michael's speech. We were a tiny voice but that is reaching a crescendo.

ICE has attracted deep thinkers about education, some of the highest quality people I have met. What we were missing were people who were activists with experience in organizing. When Angel Gonzalez joined us over a year ago (his retirement in July 2008 made him available) he brought that edge to ICE. Angel suggested ICE form a committee to address the ATR issue. The always amazing John Lawhead added the element that ATRs came from closing schools and closing schools came from the high stakes testing regimen.

A year ago a few of us from ICE held the first committee meeting in a diner. There were 4 of us. At that point I was attending meetings of Justice, Not Just Tests, a NYCORE group focusing on fighting high stakes tests. We invited Sam Coleman to attend our meetings. Others joined in and the concept of GEM was born. Following on the work CORE in Chicago was doing, we held a conference in March, reaching out to some of the Harlem schools under attack by Eva Moskowitz and a march and demo at Tweed in May. Somewhere in this time we picked up the GEM name.

In late June/early July when PS 123 came under attack by Moskowitz, GEM came out in force and started making contacts all over the city.

GEM has been a totally different experience from the more cerebral ICE. Most of the ICE core has jumped in. That has left ICE with less time and resources to devote to the UFT election, which we committed ourselves to a year ago. But I view it all as one movement over the long run. GEM is involved with ICE, NYCORE, TJC, ISO, Teachers Unite, CAPE and goodness knows how many other organizations involved. GEM is not a UFT caucus and is working with student and parent groups.

That TJC and ICE chose James Eterno as our presidential candidate last May has turned out to be a good thing. While James cannot campaign (Mulgrew naturally can visit numerous schools every week) due to the closing of Jamaica HS where he is chapter leader, he has risen to new heights as a fighter for his school. Despite his candidacy, he has worked closely with the UFT leadership and has in no way tried to make hay of his situation vis a vis the campaign.

What has been interesting from my point of view has been the interest of a batch of younger teachers in the election. Some have signed on to run with us and this is a major change from past years. Are there enough to make a big difference in terms of the vote? Hard to say. But in terms of organizing a core of committed activists, we are very early in the game. If the people who are praising Mulgrew as being very different from Randi are correct we will see a turn of the UFT and that would establish a different relationship between ICE, GEM and the UFT/Unity caucus.

But I believe it is due to style and over time he will "evolve" into the traditional UFT leader. In the meantime, he seems to be getting a bit of a honeymoon with even severe critics of Unity in the blogging world seemingly impressed. With people like Leo Casey getting up at public meetings and making a speech that ICE's Michael Fiorillo has been delivering for years, one would think the UFT has changed. But they have always adopted and adapted ICE and now GEM positions for rhetorical purposes.

Mulgrew has made the union even less democratic than Randi did with new restrictions on the delegate assembly. Until there is a move to democratize the UFT and add diversity to the Exec Bd (Mulgrew would have to end the phony alliance with New Action that allows them to get 8 Ex Bd seats and ICE/TJC none despite their outpolling New Action) nothing will change.

Seung Ok in the Indypendent

2010-01-30T02:08:00.013-05:00

The latest issue of the Indypendent is providing what they're calling a "full-tilt coverage" of the battle over school closings. Included is an article by Seung Ok, who's running on the ICE slate for VP Vocational HSS.

Seung Ok fighting for Maxwell HS earlier this term.

FIRST PERSON: Stealing the Best and Brightest from Public Schools

By Seung Ok
From the January 29, 2010 issue | Posted in Local | Email this article

TAKING IT TO THE MAN: Opponents of Mayor Bloomberg’s school closings plan march Jan. 21 outside his mansion (back right) at 17 East 79th Street in Manhattan. PHOTO: SOPHIE FORBES

For all my anger, I do not believe that Mayor Bloomberg and his fellow billionaires are acting maliciously when they close public schools and replace them with charter schools.

These billionaires walk into charter schools and they say to themselves, “Oh my God, black and brown kids can learn?” They see black faces, and based the negative stereotypes that they viewed in their lives, the fact that minority students can excel at all seems a miracle. But, how much time did they ever spend in a neighborhood like East New York or Harlem? Probably no more than a matter of hours. They leave a charter school feeling exuberant, as if they had discovered something that the rest of society somehow overlooked.

However, it is not the new paint of charter schools, nor the potpourri they put in bathrooms, nor the new teachers whose energy and fortitude is burnt out within a few years. The secret of it all is the top-level students that they entice from our public schools — the core group of students in every grade level of every neighborhood that excels — those that become surgeons and engineers and lawyers.

The more years I spend as a teacher dealing with kids, the more I’m convinced that kids and adults are very much the same … people are followers. When you take the top students from district schools, you are in essence removing the positive role models of students who need that extra push to say, “Hey, this is what I should strive for.” You are removing from a neighborhood the student leaders, the positive middle class and professionals that offer a growing child an alternative to the gloom and doom of gangs, drugs, teenage pregnancy and high dropout rates.

The main argument for closing a public high school is that less than 50 percent of the students graduate in four years. But why do so many people assume that a high school diploma in four years is so much greater than one attained in five years? Do corporate interviewers ask a college graduate whether she or he took five or six years to get a degree? If a student in our public school system survives in shelters and foster homes and struggles to attain a high school diploma in five years — doesn’t that student deserve more credit than one who was expected to graduate and go to college in four years? Doesn’t she or he show even more character, drive and potential than a Bloomberg?

Seung Ok is a living environment teacher at William H. Maxwell High School in Brooklyn, which is scheduled to be phased out starting in September.

For more information see the following articles in this issue of The Indypendent:

“Taking the Public Out of Schools” by John Tarleton

“Inside Columbus High School” by Mary Annaïse Heglar

“The Faces of School Reform” by John Tarleton

“Bloomberg’s 12-Step Method to Close Down Public Schools” by John Tarleton

“New York City Schools by the Numbers” by John Tarleton

New flier from TJC

2010-01-26T19:19:00.016-05:00

Our running mates at Teachers for a Just Contract are just as concerned about building a movement to end school closings as we are.

Click on the snapshot below for a copy of the flier they're now circulating, which is available on their website.

It begins:

UFT President Michael Mulgrew encourages each targeted school to try to save itself, and to protest at the Jan. 26 meeting of the Public Education Panel (PEP). But the PEP is just a rubber stamp for Mayor Bloomberg. Mulgrew’s strategy accepts that some schools must be closed “as a last resort,” and accepts the PEP decisions as final. So his strategy is just too weak to protect UFT members, our students and communities, against school closings.

UFT Election Committee Meeting, Dec. 14, 2009

2010-01-02T23:46:00.002-05:00

Reported by Ellen Fox, ICE/TJC Rep on the committee:

The UFT Election Committee met on Monday, December 14. Here are the salient details of that meeting.

1. Virtually nothing significant has changed since the last election cycle. Literature from the 2007 elections was distributed as examples of the way things would proceed this time around. Most importantly, it appears that the number of divisional exec. bd. members will remain the same: they're still counting on 6 HS members, 5 MS members, etc.

2. Here is a rundown of the important dates and deadlines involved:

a. January 4, 2010 -- The Election Committee will meet again to finalize details for the election.The finalized details will be turned over to the Executive Board that same evening for approval.

b. Shortly thereafter, petitions will be available.

c. January 11 and February 4 -- Notice of the election will appear in the New York Teacher.

d. FEBRUARY 11, 2010 (THURSDAY). 5:00 pm -- DEADLINE FOR RETURNING SIGNED PETITIONS.

e. FEBRUARY 22, 2010 (MONDAY) -- DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING CAMERA-READY COPY

FOR CAUCUS ADS/STATEMENTS IN THE NEW YORK TEACHER.

f. March 4 and March 18 editions of the New York Teacher will carry the caucus ads as part of special election editions.

g. March 12, 2010 -- Ballots will be mailed to members.

h. APRIL 6, 2010 (TUESDAY), 5:00 pm -- DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF BALLOTS BY AAA.

i. April 7, 2010 -- Ballots counted by AAA.

3. Other important issues that came up:

a. Number of signatures needed for nomination:

i. All Officer positions -- 900

ii. All other in-service positions (Exec. Bd., Delegates) -- 100

iii. Retiree delegates (should we choose to run any) -- 25

b. Who can sign which positions:

i. ANY UFT MEMBER can sign for Officer positions and for Exec. Bd. at Large

ii. ONLY TEACHERS IN A PARTICULAR DIVISION can sign for candidates in that division's Exec. Bd. So only High School TEACHERS can sign for High School Exec. Bd. candidates; only Elementary School

TEACHERS can sign for Elementary Exec. Bd. candidates, etc.

iii. ONLY FUNCTIONALS (paras, secretaries, counselors, etc.) can sign petitions for candidates for the

Functional Executive Board.

iv. Only RETIREES can sign petitions for candidates as Retiree Delegates.

c. Once again, Chapter Leader lists will be made available to requesting parties for $10.

UFT Elections 2010

2009-12-19T13:01:00.003-05:00

With the final touches on ICE's 2009 platform being made this weekend, we're happy to post the Introduction to the full document this afternoon.

Over the summer, we had to take a look at our 2004 platform (available in pdf from the main ICE website) and take into account all the changes that have occurred in NYC public education under the heavy hands of Michael Bloomberg and Joel Klein. As they continue to bust the unions, marginalize parents, and do what's worst for kids, we continue to pay dues to the undemocratic machine that union has become under the full undemocratic control of Unity caucus.

Unity/UFT supports mayor control, charter schools, and teacher evaluations promulgated by corporate money, and their response is pitiful when state laws and mandates are broken (special ed, public hearings, CFE misappropriations, graduation requirements, etc.). They buy into Klein's fake school grading system and highly manipulated test score data and continue to promote "collaboration" while educators are harassed, intimidated and demoralized and parents are completely shut out. Following a decidedly passive approach to unionism, they end up trying to plug up the holes instead of fighting the ed deform campaign coming directly at us from the present chancellorship and Bloomberg's big money friends.

It is not a pretty picture, but one thing is clear — Unity/UFT has been buying us all one-way tickets to the demise of our profession.

Unwilling as they are to fight our working conditions and the integrity of what we do in NYC classrooms, Unity needs to be replaced.

Here is the Introduction to the 2010 platform. See the links in the sidebar to access Parts 2 - 9.

I. Introduction

The Independent Community of Educators (ICE) caucus was founded in October 2003 by working members and retirees to assess the state of our union and NYC schools. We cannot afford to be silent on the issues that affect our working conditions, in many cases our jobs, and the future prospects of the children we educate.

In these difficult times for unionism across the nation, and with union officials failing the members politically, contractually, and philosophically against a dictatorial mayor they continue to back under the present system of mayoral control, we have chosen once again to offer an alternative platform for the 2010 elections.

The UFT has been controlled by the Unity/UFT Caucus for almost the entire half century of its existence. For the last couple of decades, we have watched as many of our hard-won rights and protections have been given back. Unity/UFT has aligned itself with the Klein, Bloomberg, Gates, Broad, Duncan, Sharpton, Gingrich, Rhee et al. reformers (deformers) looking to blame teachers for the ills of the public school system. This failed policy of collaboration and Unity/UFT’s autocratic methods have weakened the union’s ability to protect itself from the attacks against it.

We believe that UFT members can be both strong trade unionists and strong educators. Schools are part of the larger community and everyone who works in a school together with families and the surrounding community has a role in the education of children.

We aim to provide a voice for all UFT members. Classroom teachers in particular bear the brunt of the responsibility, and the blame when things don’t go well. We believe that members need to participate in governance at the school level. Through activism at the school level, individuals become empowered in shaping institutions and the roles of the people working and learning within them.

Since its inception, ICE has been fully engaged in union activities. We have served as elected members of the UFT Executive Board and have participated on UFT committees. ICE delegates and chapter leaders have helped to lead the debate at the UFT Delegate Assembly by presenting alternative views to the official union position on the following issues: mayoral control (governance), high stakes testing, charter schools, ATRs, military recruiters in the schools, privatization of our health care plan, labor solidarity, class size, school leadership teams, opposition to the 2005 contractual giveaways, school closings, contract enforcement, and what is referred to as the “disappearing” of Black and Latino educators. We have been active in the new and old media, operating nationally read blogs, producing videos, writing letters to the editors and articles, and participating in radio talk shows. We share our knowledge and experience freely with any union members who asks us for help.

ICE members are activists who stand strongly against the many inequities in our learning communities. We have joined with others and have been instrumental in the formation of the Grasssroots Education Movement, UFTers to Stop the War, the Ad Hoc Committee to Reverse the Disappearing of Black and Latino/a Educators, and Justice Not Just Tests. We also work with Teachers for a Just Contract, the New York Collective of Radical Educators, Teacher’s Unite, Time Out From Testing, the No More Mayoral Control Coalition, the Independent Commission on Public Education, the Center for Immigrant Families, and the Coalition for Public Education.

Unfortunately, the Unity/UFT Caucus has opted to ally the union with the corporate led education reformers whose plans for privatization are sweeping the nation. UFT officers played a crucial role in the initial passage of mayoral control in 2002, and they supported renewal of the law with only minor tweaking. There is an alternative to mayoral control. Educators must play a large role in developing a new vision of governance. Parents and teachers are starting to come together on their own to defend their neighborhood schools from the charter school invasion.

We do not to bemoan the obvious or blame Unity/UFT leaders for all that ails us. We aim to promote dialogue and membership awareness and develop strategies for improving conditions for educators and the entire school community.

We offer an electoral alternative and invite all concerned members of the union, regardless of political views or caucus affiliation, to consider the views expressed here and in other platforms. While we criticize the policies and philosophy of Unity/UFT, we make no personal attacks and understand that a wide range of views exists within all caucuses. No single caucus has all the answers.

Unity/UFT has been on the wrong side of too many issues. But we believe that the UFT can still make important contributions to a revived labor movement that links unions and communities. The rank and file, regardless of caucus or political leanings, share common interests, and it is on this basis that we seek a new consensus on which to unify and move forward as a union. Together we can turn the UFT into a progressive, democratic and militant organization.

Our platform is a work in progress and modified as new voices are heard. We invite you to join us in this campaign.

Email ICEUFT@gmail.com or call 917-992-3734 for information.

ICE UPDATE Nov. 2009

2009-11-22T15:53:00.006-05:00

The latest ICE leaflet.
DOWNLOAD THE PDF FOR YOUR SCHOOL.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22925535

ICE Update Nov09

Fighting for public education

2009-11-21T11:20:00.010-05:00

"Charter schools are being used as a wedge to undermine the public school system."

That was the way Norm Scott, founding member of ICE, began his dynamite analysis of the charter school infestation at a public hearing at PS 120 on the Lower East Side last Wednesday evening.

"Charter schools are created to grow. . .

"A charter school is not a public school, I don't care what they say. If they hire a company to fix your road and give them public money, that is not a public company. It's a private company."

See the whole speech over on YouTube, and more commentary on Ednotes.

ICE's platform can be accessed through the sidebar links of this blog. Its position on charter schools is Part VII:

VII. ICE supports local neighborhood public schools and is against privatization and school closings

Diverting money to private schools through vouchers, hiring private companies to run public schools, and creating charter schools that operate on the DoE budget but free of union contracts and other restrictions that apply to public schools do great harm in polarizing our educational system and our society. Charters and schools infused with private money get preferential treatment, particularly in class size (smaller), the selection of students, and appurtenances. The DoE’s agenda to privatize the system is done through unilateral decisions and in secret. Targets for the influx of private money have been the minority areas of the city, where many large schools have been broken up into smaller ones and where public schools are being forced to absorb charters.

Unity caucus and another missed opportunity

2009-11-09T18:28:00.006-05:00

"The UFT passed up on a real chance to influence the outcome by staying out of it," says ICE candidate James Eterno in a post on the ICE blog yesterday.

"If the unions and the Democratic Party establishment rallied behind Thompson, Bloomberg could have been defeated in this very Democratic town."

Read the rest of his comments here.

Michael Fiorillo Comments at Gotham Schools

2009-11-01T21:04:00.012-05:00

ICE's Michael Fiorillo has garnered enormous respect for his thoughtful comments at Gotham Schools on many of the educational issues of the day. Michael has been very active in numerous debates at Gotham, the most recent on the UFT contract, quality teaching and other issues on a thread based on an article written by a pro ed deformer, Tom Carroll. You can follow the thread here and chip in yourself.

Here is Fiorillo's response to Stuyvesant HS teacher Matt Polazzo's piece in today's Daily News. (Fiorillo will be a candidate for the UFT Executive Board on the ICE/TJC slate in the upcoming UFT elections this spring.)

Whatever my criticisms of the UFT, I am a union member and will fight to defend it and the contract. I also think the contract protects students as well as teachers.

The only thing that limits class size in the public schools is the contract. The only thing that provides the many, but mostly unacknowledged, benefits of having teachers remain parts of their communities for years is the seniority provisions of the contract.

This deluded and self-important teacher — ooh, he teaches at Stuyvesant! — like most other critics of the union, makes that cliched, tired reference to the “165 page contract,” as if its length is by itself proof of its dark powers. Has this innocent ever considered that the contract’s length is in direct proportion to the idiocies enacted by management over the years? Provisions in the contract are there to protect teachers from the chronic over-reaching and intrusions by administrators. Whatever professional autonomy he has is because of the contract, the people who struggled to achieve it, and those who struggle everyday to see that it remains a viable thing.

I criticize the UFT all the time, but there are many hardworking and dedicated officers and staffers there and I sympathize with their professional obligation to represent management suck-ups like Mr. Polazzo.

If Mr. Polazzo is so convinced of his specialness and untouchability, a la Ariel Sacks, he is fooling himself and endangering the rest of us. Should the UFT ever strike again, he sounds like a certain fink (aka, a union member who crosses a picket line). How surprising that Mortimer Zuckerman should give him space on the opinion page.

Fiorillo on Charter School blather

Charter apologists and propagandists are quick to respond to criticism, but it seems they can rarely be bothered to fashion a response that differs from their robotic buzz word/talking points: "Blah, blah, blah... achievement gap... blah, blah, blah, teacher quality... blah, blah, blah... civil rights movement of our time... blah, blah, blah... laboratories of innovation... blah, blah, blah ...parent choice."

Is there a chip implanted in their brains that makes them unable to respond in any way other than a recurring loop? When it comes to real debate, it seems that all that money spent on Ivy League educations has been wasted.

Also see Fiorillo guest piece at NYC Educator blog

Duncan Shoots a Brick

by special guest blogger Michael Fiorillo

ICEr CLs in Queens schools quoted in the Post

2009-11-01T09:38:00.008-05:00

Sunday, November 1, 2009
No school left behind

by Angela Montefinise

from the article:

The A-rated school was forced to add a 13th period to its schedule this year, and has 73 classes with more than the 34-student maximum set by the teachers’ contract, UFT rep and teacher Arthur Goldstein said.

“We’re busting at the seams,” he said. “We can’t sustain this. Eventually, the kids will suffer.”

The Department of Education is trying to help the school — it is not sending any No Child Left Behind transfers there for the next year and is aggressively verifying the addresses of students in the zoned program. It has also pledged to build new schools, adding 10,000 seats to Queens to curb overcrowding at many borough high schools.

But Goldstein and others believe there’s another solution that no one is talking about.
“I absolutely believe that they can make the other schools in the area better,” said Goldstein. “It’s their job to make the other schools better. Better options would spread students out, and everyone would be better off.”

A perfect example is Jamaica High School, a large school located less than three miles south of Francis Lewis. It received a C on its progress report, has attendance rates in the low 70 percentile and a grad rate of only 47%, stats show.

Francis Lewis received almost 13,000 applications — the most in the city — from students eager to go there. Jamaica received 1,580 applications, eight times fewer.

Meanwhile, with 1,416 kids, Jamaica is 700 students under capacity.

“I understand the DOE wants to give parents and students what they want,” said Goldstein. “But they should be focused on getting kids interested in Jamaica so they want to go there. That should be the goal.”

. . .

Jamaica social studies teacher and UFT rep James Eterno said his school “has the dedicated staff and programs” to be successful, but needs a helping hand to become more attractive to students.
“We have the space right now to lower class sizes,” he said. “If we could offer really low class sizes, personal attention, parents would send their kids here. That’s something Francis Lewis can’t offer.”

DOE spokesman Will Havemann said class size is not just tied to space, but also to the number of teachers at the school.

“Principals are free to hire new teachers to reduce their class sizes, but given the city’s financial circumstances, significantly reducing class sized may be prohibitively expensive,” he said.
Eterno called this “a frustrating cycle,” saying the school’s budget was cut because the number of students has declined.

“So we have less to work with to begin with,” he said.

Experts also suggested caps at schools like Francis Lewis High School, but Havemann said it is against DOE policy because, “We want to honor to the greatest extent possible students’ preferences.”

That, Goldstein said, cannot continue. “They keep saying yes, yes, yes to kids who want to come here, and no, no, no to things that could help Jamaica,” said Goldstein. “At some point, that has to change.”

James Eterno is running for UFT President and Arthur Goldstein will be running for a UFT Executive Board position on the ICE/TJC slate in the upcoming UFT elections.

Support the election effort by joining the ICE fundraiser Monday night. Make it a virtual party if you can't make it by sending a check made out to Independent Community of Educators (not ICE) and sending it to:
Box 1143
Jamaica, NY 11421

Goldstein on the Absent Teacher Reserves: almost a eulogy

2009-10-26T21:12:00.030-04:00

Monday, October 26, 2009
ATR — a Simple Twist of Fate

by Arthur Goldstein, HS Chapter Leader

A lot of people think teaching is somehow a job for life — that no teachers can be fired for any reason, no matter what they do, who they kill, or whether or not they sleep in garbage cans. It’s not true. In fact, the Department of Education tries to take away teacher jobs all the time . . .

Those of us who aren’t up on charges have other worries. For example, we can become “ATRs.” [continued at this link]

Music teachers underserved by UFT management

2009-10-25T13:29:00.009-04:00

Saturday, October 24, 2009
Parity for Music Teachers:
The Time Has Come

by Julie Woodward, UFT Delegate

Anyone who’s read our contracts for a decade or two will know that the UFT continues to throw high school music teachers under a bus.

By agreeing to 50 kids in each class, the union has tacitly accepted the notion that music teachers can achieve the same kind of results with 50 students that other city HS teachers can get with 34 and teachers in the suburbs can get with give or take 25 . . .

General music teachers do the same kinds of things all other subject teachers do.

Why, then, do we continue to get 50 kids per class? [continued at this link]

ICE plans its first fundraiser

2009-10-22T17:54:00.027-04:00

TIME TO PARTY!

Benefit to raise funds for the UFT elections

Show your support for ICE —
the Independent Community of Educators,
a caucus of the UFT

Come out and enjoy a late afternoon/evening
of conversation, food and drink.

Stay late. There're no students in
school the next day, only PD!

When: Monday, November 2, 2009,
the day before Election Day

Where: Woody McHale's, 234 West 14th St.
(between 7th & 8th Aves.)
Time: 4PM - 7PM and beyond

http://www.woodymchales.com

See your local ICEer to buy a ticket.
Advanced Reservations can be made at ICEUFT@gmail.com, or call 917-538-9815.

ICE blog ICE main site

Read the full ICE platform at UFT Elections 2010

ICE urges all readers to vote against Bloomberg!

2009-10-22T11:47:00.014-04:00

ICE Statement on the Nov. 3, 2009 Vote for Mayor

by John Lawhead

The election on November 3rd will have lasting consequences for public education and the city. It deserves the attention and involvement of all New Yorkers. The UFT has a long history of candidate endorsements made without any regular process of consultation with the membership and often contrary to members' interests. The decision to sit out the contest between Michael Bloomberg and his opponents speeds us to the brink of more disasters. If appearances are real and the UFT leadership's passive support for the mayor's reelection is a deal for a new UFT contract by deadline, our union is deeply complicit in another landmark defeat for the teaching profession.

Nearly eight years of direct control over the schools have provided Bloomberg with an unchecked opportunity to implement numerous policies premised on distrust and contempt for teachers, students and school communities. Early on with his rush to implement grade retention policy he put the blame on 8-year olds for low reading scores and further worked to make standardized testing a year-round concern. “Weekend, vacations, summer -- time off is a luxury earned, not a right,” he told a radio audience in 2002. Chancellor Klein went to work making testing an obsession for all schools by hanging their fate on it.

His administration accelerated the wholesale closing of neighborhood high schools. Together with a successful assault on teachers' contractual rights this led to the creation of an excess teacher reserve force in the thousands. The result of dozens of school phase-outs deepened the gulf between the two worlds children in New York encounter at the high school level. One consists mostly of large neighborhood or selective schools and is increasingly filled with white and Asian students An entirely different realm awaits black and Latino students consisting mostly of new small schools, stripped of both enrichment programs, IEP services and bilingual programs and plagued with teacher turnover.

The new schools have been staffed with discriminatory hiring through privately-run programs. Just as tens of millions in funding by Bill Gates went to school reorganizations, Eli Broad's millions were used to train principals to see teachers as antagonists. In recent years Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein have extended the agenda of privatized education by embracing charter schools, displaying a marked preference for the chain operators. Their favoritism towards the charters has allowed them to invade neighborhood schools and shrink them.

For educational activists the past eight years have meant not only palpable damage but also lost opportunity for positive and progressive change. The Bloomberg monopoly of power has excluded local participation in decision making, eliminating a common entry into politics by Black and Latino New Yorkers. It has also preempted meaningful discussion around educational goals and policy. What should be the goals of a public education? How can schools do more just provide an exit from the poorest communities? How could schools be part of a collective effort to improve neighborhoods and increase democracy?

Bill Thompson has played an important role as city comptroller in exposing Bloomberg-era fraud and mismanagement. His supporters are waging a spirited fight against a billionaire mayor with lopsidedly less resources. It is difficult to offer Thompson unqualified support when he has thrown support to mayoral control and supports much of the underlying corporate agenda for education. The mayoral race this year also attracted Tony Avella (who Thompson defeated) and Billy Palen who is running as the Green Party candidate. Both advocated a more grassroots response to the current mess and it's a shame Thompson didn't adopt some of their policies in his campaign against the mayor.

Despite these differences anything other than energetic rejection of the Bloomberg monopoly is the wrong choice for our union.

We urge all readers to vote against Bloomberg!

We need a union that....

2009-10-16T00:57:00.008-04:00

The latest ICE leaflet. Click to enlarge. Email us for a pdf if you wish to share with your colleagues. Here is the text.

Independent Community of Educators

JOIN ICE !

We need a union that

• FIGHTS against micromanagement, excessive testing, teaching-to-the-test, unending paperwork, criminalization of our youth, discriminatory hiring & placement practices

• DEMANDS contractual small class size, reduced caseloads & secretary workloads, teacher control of 37½ minutes, a real grievance process, restoration of all transfer rights

• DEFENDS against system-wide intimidation, ATR & Temporary Reassignment Center (Rubber Room) abuses, chapter leader persecution

• EXPOSES a government that throws money at two wars & numerous corporate bailouts. but shortchanges public school classrooms

• SUPPORTS public schools with teacher & parent voice: "SAY NO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS & MAYORAL CONTROL"

• MOBILIZES for massive new investment in school facilities & resources

Work towards a UFT that is

DEMOCRATIC and ACCOUNTABLE to the membership

A BUILDER of real alliances with families and communities

PROGRESSIVE in outlook, MILITANT in its defense and advocacy

To run on the ICE/TJC slate in the UFT elections this spring,

email us at ICEUFT@gmail.com or call (917) 992-3734

To support our work, make checks payable to Independent Community

of Educators, PO Box 1143, Jamaica, NY 11421

ICE websites: www.ICEUFTblog.blogspot.com, www.ICE-UFT.org

ICE election site: www.UFTELECTIONS2010.blogspot.com

ICE platform, Part IX

2009-10-12T19:20:00.011-04:00

IX. Our union and government priorities

While our school systems go begging, our nation spends more on our own military and on military aid than nearly all the rest of the world’s nations combined. Add to this the immense sums of money that were handed to banks and insurers in the last year, and it is clear that our country can afford the funding for small classes, well-prepared teachers, abundant guidance personnel, appropriate programs, and the whole host of resources that are needed to run successful schools.

It is the job of local and national union to fight for government to prioritize spending for education as well as social services. Our union must join with other unions and political allies to challenge the notion that there isn’t enough money, or that our nation’s security depends on an endless occupation of other countries and a limitless outlay of money for weapons, armies, and private mercenary forces.

ICE platform, Part VIII

2009-10-12T19:19:00.001-04:00

VIII: A distorted school system

The NYCDoE has adopted a clear policy of further balkanizing a school system already divided by ethnic, class, and income levels, instead of providing resources and programs to help struggling students and schools.

Through a process of threatening, punishing and closing down “marked” schools (starting with large neighborhood high schools) and siphoning off the better behaved and higher performing students by offering them places initially in small, boutique schools and now increasingly in charter schools, a finely tuned system of sifting students and shifting resources to the favored schools has been established.

The actions of the DOE are a naked attempt to create failures. They penalize some schools with lower test scores and high numbers of special needs students by limiting funds and manipulating student enrollment, creating either vastly underutilized buildings or dangerously overcrowded conditions. A comparison of the school system today with a decade or more ago would clearly show that the lowest achieving and needy children, mostly black and Latino students living in poverty, are still afforded fewer options and resources. There are greater numbers of dropouts, and ever-increasing numbers of students are forced to attend overcrowded and underfunded schools further and further from their homes.

Along with an increased segregation of students is a closing off of opportunities for people of color to become teachers The DoE has not only reduced the number of paraprofessionals and dismantled the career ladder program, it has given priority in hiring to Teach for America corp members, Teaching Fellows, and the New Teacher Project recruits, who more often than not come from more privileged backgrounds than the traditional teaching force.

While the Fellows program has provided many talented and committed teachers to the school system, it is necessary to put greater effort into recruiting more people from the NYC area who are tied to the black and Latino community. One way would be to focus on teacher recruitment out of the CUNY system instead of favoring short-term teaching prospects from Ivy League schools.

The DoE’s closing of targeted schools and the shrinking of neighborhood elementary and middle schools (through the creation of charter schools) has generated an army of excessed teachers, termed Absentee Teacher Reserves (ATRs). These educators, most of whom remain substitutes instead of being placed in positions to help reduce oversized classrooms, have had their careers prematurely truncated.

The ATRs who have not been able to secure new positions have been impeded by a number of factors, including the disincentives and contractual give-backs that encourage principals to hire the least experienced, lowest paid teachers. In addition, a campaign spearheaded by corporate-led programs like the Leadership Academy for principals to malign, harass and punish staff members has had a disproportionate effect on both senior teachers and teachers of color, who comprise a large number of staff in the so-called failing schools.
All children — white, black, Latin, Asian — benefit from exposure to a diverse teaching staff. Schools are in a unique position to promote understanding between various ethnic groups and reduce prejudice. Sending teachers of color almost exclusively to schools that are predominantly black is a missed opportunity. An end to segregated staffs where black teachers teach black children and white teachers teach white children is something we should strive for.

When the DoE uses organizations such as Teach for America as a principal recruiter for new teachers, it undermines the very nature of what we do. The DoE’s plan is to put “talented” college graduates into inner-city classrooms for a couple of years before they move on to other jobs. Staffing schools with so many inexperienced and insufficiently prepared teachers creates a transient, unstable work force and is certainly not the way to improve public education. Teaching, as a profession involves long-term service to children and is certainly enhanced by staff with strong ties to the communities in which we work. To this end, we call for a reinstatement of the career ladder program and other career supports for paraprofessionals and school aides who accumulate years of experience working with children on their way to becoming vital members of our teaching staffs. As unionists, teachers and parents, we are well aware of the crucial role that we can play as a united force in fighting for the kinds of schools that meet the needs of all our students.

ICE platform, Part VII

2009-10-12T19:18:00.001-04:00

VII. ICE supports local neighborhood public schools and is against privatization and school closings

Diverting money to private schools through vouchers, hiring private companies to run public schools, and creating charter schools that operate on the DoE budget but free of union contracts and other restrictions that apply to public schools do great harm in polarizing our educational system and our society. Charters and schools infused with private money get preferential treatment, particularly in class size (smaller), the selection of students, and appurtenances. The DoE’s agenda to privatize the system is done through unilateral decisions and in secret. Targets for the influx of private money have been the minority areas of the city, where many large schools have been broken up into smaller ones and where public schools are being forced to absorb charters.

ICE platform, Part VI

2009-10-12T19:17:00.001-04:00

VI. For a militant, progressive, democratic UFT: a democratic UFT is a key to a strong union

One of the major goals of a movement seeking change in the union is to take on the task of democratization — setting up structures and procedures that will give the rank and file the opportunity to have direct and constant ability to formulate union policy.

On paper the UFT is more democratic than many unions, but in practice what we see is a well-oiled political machine:
— The least number of people make the decisions.

— The rank and file are deliberately kept unaware of what is going on in regards to most issues.

— There is a conscious attempt by the president and other officers to limit rank and file participation in meetings, discussions and the decision-making process, with union structures set up to enforce this policy.

— There is a consistent effort by union officers on all levels to stifle dissent and opposition. They go so far as to modify or violate previously existing democratic practices and procedures in order to do this.

— Measures are taken at the Delegate Assembly and in citywide voting to ensure the desired results.
As soon as their monopoly of power is challenged, the union’s officers change the rules of the game. Some years ago, when members elected an opposition candidate for high school vice-president and came very close in the junior high division, the officials changed the voting procedures for divisional leaders, turning them into at-large positions. They eliminated elections for district representatives who leave mid-term and fill these positions with appointments by the presidents. District reps play key roles for the union bosses by rewarding friendly chapter chairpersons and punishing dissident chapters through the delivery or withholding of services. They intervene in chapter elections by stealthily supporting candidates against known dissident chapter chairpersons and sometimes even delegates.

If you’re looking for democracy within Unity Caucus, however, you won’t find it there either. Caucus discipline is maintained through a system of rewards and patronage: a career ladder within the union, out-of-classroom jobs in schools (in the past at district offices and the Central Board), assistance in getting good administrative jobs, and transfers to desirable schools. It’s the Success for Unity Caucus Faithful Program. Simply put, dissension within Unity Caucus is not tolerated. There has rarely been a delegate elected on the Unity Caucus slate who has voted against the Unity Caucus position at a NYSUT or AFT convention. Unity Caucus utilizes its well-disciplined base within the UFT to control the state and national unions so that it can implement its political agenda.

Our union officers know that an informed, involved membership with a greater voice would challenge their policies and would also vote them out of office. That’s why they work so hard to keep us from knowing what’s really going on and having regular access to viewpoints that differ from theirs.

Key structural changes are needed to bring greater democracy to our union so that the membership can decide what their union should stand for.

1. Divisional elections for divisional vice-presidents (i.e., high school members alone should vote for high school VP, vocational high school members for vocational high school VP, and so on).

In 1994 Unity Caucus ended the practice of people within a division voting exclusively within their division for their own vice-president because they wanted to make sure no VP would ever again be elected from an opposition group, as had happened a few years earlier. Unity changed the procedure to make the balloting for vice-presidents at large. That means that all the members of the UFT vote for divisional vice-presidents, even if they don’t work in that division. In addition, retirees, who in the last election cast 35% of all votes cast, also vote for the high school, junior high school, and elementary divisional vice-presidents, which means that non-working members have a tremendous influence over who will represent working teachers.

2. Retirees should not vote for UFT officers, who are responsible for negotiating the contract for active members.

The NYS Public Employees Relations Board has ruled that retired members of the UFT are not members of our bargaining unit. Therefore, retirees should not vote for those who represent active members in collective bargaining. There should be a special retiree VP who handles retiree issues and is elected exclusively by retired UFT members.

3. Retirees should vote for three teacher members of the Teachers’ Retirement System Board.

State law restricts TRS membership to in-service members and does not allow retirees to serve as teacher reps. Only active UFT members may vote for these positions, even though retirees have a stake in TRS issues. The UFT should be working actively to change this anomaly.

4. District representatives (a full-time UFT position to support the chapter leaders and members in a district) should be elected by all the members of a district.

In 2002, the UFT suspended District Representative elections and appointed people to these positions. The DRs must bring their members’ voices to the union officers rather than act as mouthpieces for the people at the top.

5. At-large UFT Executive Board seats should be configured proportionally; that is, the number of seats given to a caucus on the Executive Board should relate to the percentage of votes that caucus received in the election.

Divisional and functional seats should still be voted on by each division to ensure representation from each division, so that no caucus within the UFT is excluded from the Executive Board. A caucus getting 30% of the vote in an at-large election deserves 30% of the at-large Executive Board seats to present their positions and shape the policies of the union.

6. UFT Delegates to the AFT and NYSUT Conventions should be apportioned along similar lines.

Without proportional representation Unity Caucus has been able to use the UFT’s winner-take-all method to control the NYSUT statewide union and the AFT national union, thus controlling all our policies from the local to the national level.

7. All full- and part-time non-elected union jobs intended for UFT members who work for the DoE should be posted in the schools. The senior qualified candidate should be hired.

Virtually all jobs are instead doled out as patronage positions. DoE employees who work for the UFT serve at the discretion of Unity Caucus and owe their loyalty to them, rather than to the members. Union employees who do not work for the DoE (e.g., lawyers, cleaning crews) are of course excluded from this recommendation.

8. Every issue of the NY Teacher should be opened to opposing viewpoints.

A full debate in print on union issues twice a month will allow members’ opinions to be fully disseminated. A resolution was put forward at the Delegate Assembly last year proposing that every issue of the NY Teacher be opened up to articles by people who oppose the UFT policies on a particular issue. Unity voted it down saying that allowing opposition viewpoints to be published in the union’s newspaper once every three years was sufficient.

9. Meet the President meetings held during UFT Election years should be Meet the Candidates’ Forums.

Candidates of all declared slates should be able to have equal time at these forums. Otherwise, Meet the President meetings become thinly disguised campaign rallies for the incumbent president and the other officers. Free and fair elections are essential in a democratic union. Unity Caucus has a tremendous advantage by controlling the union newspaper and through the distribution of all its literature that only reflects their positions. This outreach is prohibitive for opposing caucus members, who have neither the mechanisms nor the resources to match what Unity Caucus has at its disposal from our union dues.

10. All caucuses who have met requirements to run in an election should be able to mail at least one piece of literature to all the members at union expense during election time.

An advertisement in the NY Teacher is not sufficient to be able to get a political message across to the members, given the advantages Unity Caucus already has.

11. There should be an open microphone at all Union meetings.

Presently the chair has discretion to call on whomever he/she wants, and in this way he/she manipulates the discussion. At each Delegate Assembly, for example, we see the same people constantly recognized while others rarely or never get the floor. Anyone who wants to speak should have the right to do so.

12. UFT committees (special education, high school, middle school, etc…) should vote on proposals presented at their meetings, with the understanding that such proposals shall be forwarded to both the Executive Board and the DA.

Top-down UFT meetings where officers merely disseminate information prohibit other positions from being discussed, voted upon and officially recommended by the bodies.

13. When elected positions such as officers, District Reps, and functional chapter leaders become available in the middle of a term, there should be a special election.

Typically Unity Caucus replaces its officials by having them retire or move to a different position in the middle of a term. This gives the Unity dominated Executive Board the opportunity to choose the replacement long before there is an actual election. For example, Sandra Feldman resigned as UFT president to become AFT president in 1998, and the Executive Board picked Weingarten to replace her as UFT president; Weingarten didn’t have to face the voters until 1999. The NY Teacher then printed a series of publicity pieces about Weingarten, giving her a lot of name recognition and good press. When she ran as an incumbent in the election, she was at a huge advantage over potential opponents. The same sequence is now occurring with Michael Mulgrew, who the Executive Board has installed as interim president until the March 2010 elections.

14. Make the Delegate Assembly a legislative body where officers and Executive Board members have limits on how long they can speak. Often the regular business of the agenda is not taken up until way past 5:00 p.m., which leaves very little time for delegates to discuss the motions. The president’s and other reports must be limited so that the Delegate Assembly can truly be a legislative body.

15. There should be a majority rather than a 2/3 vote required to put motions on the current and next month’s Delegate Assembly agenda.

16. Limit the total percentage of retiree delegates at the Delegate Assembly. There are now 300 retired DA delegates, who comprise 11% of the total and who have a disproportionate say on working conditions.

ICE platform, Part V

2009-10-12T19:16:00.004-04:00

V. Working conditions, professional autonomy, seniority, salary and benefits
“Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.”

The union contract, and only the union contract, allows people to make teaching a career. Many educators often spend their entire professional lives serving the children of a particular community. This is an inestimable social benefit that is often overlooked.

The union must be willing to:

Fight against the de-skilling of educators, marginalization, intimidation, and unionbusting.

“School reform” is premised on top-down management of instruction. Decisions made prescriptively through packaged programs place enormous restrictions on a teacher’s ability to service the needs of individual students. Union officials choose to take a weak stand again violations to Articles 8 and 24 of the contract, which call in different ways for an enormous amount of teacher input and participation and offer ways to resolve differences.

New and less experienced teachers are prevented from becoming good teachers when they are denied opportunities to try strategies and take risks. Ill-prepared and poorly trained administrators (many with little classroom experience) and regional personnel (some still politically connected), have reduced professional support to a checklist. In many cases they instill fear, and in fact, programs like PIP+ have been specifically designed to remove teachers from the system rather than improve instruction. The UFT has allowed these methods to distort teacher training and leave teachers open to attack.

Teachers with long service in their schools can be a valuable resource in reaching out to the community and formulating models for success. Neither the DoE nor our present union officials appreciate how spending years or even decades working in the same neighborhood might yield valuable knowledge for enhancing learning.

There are times, however, when teachers wish to change schools, and the seniority transfer system the union gave up in the last contract, based on non-discriminatory criteria, afforded them somewhat of a chance to do so. In its place, we now have the "open market," which permits a greater ability to transfer for some teachers, the newer ones in particular, but allows much discrimination against senior and disliked teachers, chapter leaders, or anyone else. In the face of school closings and reorganizations and principals finding it easy to hide vacancies and hire at will, a disproportionate number of senior teachers are unable to find new positions through the open market. They become “teachers without positions,” or ATRs (Absent Teacher Reserves), sometimes for the rest of their careers. Changes in the way salaries are funded have also made newer teachers more attractive prospects than the higher paid vets.

Apart from obvious salary discrimination (and possibly age and race discrimination as well), members are being removed from positions on improper 3020a procedures and false or perfunctory charges. In many instances these people are whistle-blowers, union activists, and educators who stand up to principals, and they face serious fines or losing their licenses. Union officials have shown a disappointing acceptance of the DoE’s maneuvers and rationale, almost to the point of collaboration. They also ignore the early retirement of so many teachers who have been frustrated with the current working conditions or who have been treated unfairly.

One of the most troublesome aspects of the 2007 contract was the gutting of the grievance procedure. Having negotiated a new set of procedures that puts no check on principals who misuse their authority, and having afforded principals access to teams of lawyers, the DoE has been able to deny all Step I and II grievances across the board. Since the union can only take a limited number of cases to Step III arbitration, educators are left feeling intimidated and maligned, with no contractual means to address the widespread abuse. It is not only the teachers who suffer in this kind of environment, but the students as well.

The ever-increasing demands on the time of educators seriously impairs their ability to work with children. For teachers, the extra 37 minutes for small-group work has morphed into a range of activities that include teaching an extra period per day. New calls for more paperwork and computer entry have also cut into what teachers can accomplish during their time at school, especially in the single prep period they are allowed each day, which should by contract be self-directed. Social workers, guidance counselors and school psychologists struggle with case overloads, and secretaries seem to be increasingly overburdened.

ICE believes that:
— A teacher’s ability is highly dependent on training, experience, talent, and style. Teachers must accordingly have a say in how instruction should be delivered in their classrooms, and planning for instruction and curriculum must be collaborative and respectful. Violations to Articles 8 and 24 cannot be tolerated.

— The union must oppose one-size-fits-all methodologies at all levels (regional to school-based directives), as these do not take into account the talents and skills of individual teachers or their students.

— The teacher’s right to design the structure of his or her lessons and the written plans that accompany them must be protected, as long as such lessons adhere to the characteristics of good teaching outlined in Teaching for the 21st Century

— The union must defend against the DoE’s notion that teachers are replaceable parts.

— New language needs to added to the contract that separates salary levels from hiring decisions.

— An iron-clad no-layoff clause (as in Article 17F of the last contract) must be restored.

— There can be no new hiring until ATRs seeking positions have secured them.

— The union must renegotiate a grievance procedure with teeth.

— Principals who make frivolous charges or exhibit a pattern of acting with malice against members of their staff must be censured, fined, and/or prohibited from receiving bonuses.

— The Teacher Reassignment Centers must be closed. Members should not be spending days, months or years in holding pens. They should be reassigned to another school, not punished, while waiting for their cases to be heard.

—The caseloads of guidance counselors, social workers and school psychologists must be reduced, and reasonable limits be placed on what secretaries are required to achieve in a normal work day. These issues should be enforceable through arbitration.

Demand fairness in the licensing and evaluation of educators.

Whereas the UFT has temporarily fended off the use of tests to evaluate teachers, it has allowed contractual language that opens the door for such practices. It must lobby for the end of any exams that do not give a fair measurement of who is or can become a good teacher. Thousands of teachers who had earned satisfactory evaluations for many years were dismissed several years ago because of their failure to pass specific exams. The misuse of testing can be as unjust and harmful for teachers as it is for students.

ICE believes that:
— Certification measures should be simplified and based on meaningful written and oral tests as well as performance in the classroom.

— The UFT should seek the establishment of an apprenticeship system for new teachers.

— Learning communities are diverse, and student tests do not generally reflect the skills of individual teachers. These tests must not be allowed to influence the granting of tenure or annual ratings.

Maintain competitive salaries and job security

The median salary for a NYC teacher in 2009 is essentially unchanged from what it was fifty years ago when adjusted for inflation and the longer working day and year. Senior teachers today are less secure in their jobs. New teachers today pay a far higher percentage of their incomes for student loans and housing. The turnover rate is higher and the rate of retention is lower than it was fifty years ago.

ICE platform, Part IV

2009-10-12T19:14:00.002-04:00

IV. Learning conditions
“Students’ learning conditions are teachers’ working conditions”

Well-run schools with well-trained staffs, good programs, supportive services and small classes can bring about improvements for all children. To think that communities with vast economic and social differences can succeed with identical monetary resources is a mistaken notion and a popular political ploy. Union officials must be ready to expose such lies and not allow failures in our society to fall squarely on the backs of educators.

They must be willing to put their muscle behind the struggle to:

Lower class size.

Small classes are the underpinning of an effective classroom, and are especially crucial where children have low performance levels and special needs. Union managers went along with the Board of Ed in the mid-1970s when it shut down schools and gave the buildings away, paving the way for the current overcrowding. They continue to undermine the fight for lower class sizes by: not successfully tying class size to learning conditions; preferring a referendum on lowering class size to contractual stipulation, which would be subject to grievable limits; supporting out-of-classroom positions (mentors, staff developers, coaches, etc.) that only divert money for pedagogical personnel away from the classroom; supporting and/or tolerating mandated programs and methodologies (e.g., multiple grouping, balanced literacy) that are impossible to implement in classes of more than 19-20 students; and allowing registers of 50 students in music and phys ed in some levels.

It is the UFT contract, and only the UFT contract that places any limits on class size. Without the class size caps in the contract, Bloomberg and Klein would put 50 students in each class. After all, they never tire of saying that class size is irrelevant and that only “teacher quality” matters.

Our union’s position on class size should be:
— Class size limits must be comparable with other districts in the state and capped by contract. They should be reduced to the levels called for in the CFE decision: 20 for grades K-3 and 23 for grades 4-12.

— No half-class size loopholes, and no excuses in overcrowded buildings.

— Identical caps on all academic subjects within a specific level (ES, MS, HS).

End mandated programs and school organization.

Mandated teaching blocks have minimized or eliminated music, art, foreign language and specialized classes. UFT officials have responded weakly to the DoE’s mockery of New York State requirements and the reduction of programs meaningful to so many youngsters. When principals were given autonomy over the budget, the decision-making power of the School Leadership Teams was drastically reduced. Principals now have the final say over which programs will be retained and installed. Furthermore, whereas some aspects of mandated programs may be valid, inadequate resources, rigidity in implementation and poor training reduce their value (e.g., the NCEE literacy program in HSS, which is not practicable).

It is our belief that:
— Music, art, foreign language, phys ed, health, library, technology and vocational learning are basic to education and should be restored to the curriculum.

— The union, which is bound by its own Constitution “to promote education as a social agency for developing the capacities of the young,” must demand that state requirements for advancement and graduation be honored in full. It must also demand that the state’s education goals be meaningful, relevant and long-term.

— School Leadership Teams must be empowered to establish a Comprehensive Education Plan for the school and make school-based budget decisions; an appeal process must set up to handle cases where consensus cannot be reached.

End the misuse of city- and statewide tests,

Such tests increasingly distort the curricula and misrepresent true academic performance. Standardized test results can be a tool for evaluating instruction and pointing out where extra resources should be focused, but the current accountability model with its simplified goals and objectives results in a numbers game for students and teachers. This model also ignores any accountability for long-term learning goals or the kinds of learning that might give educators and students cause for satisfaction.

Good teachers develop an awareness of how children actually learn. The premise that children will learn more when they are subjected to weeks of teaching-to-the-test methodologies, that they become more successful students when strict standardized levels are set for them, or that they respond positively to threats and punishment are ideologically driven beliefs and contrary to what we know as experienced educators. A consequence of high stakes testing is that children most in need become a liability to a school, and passing them off to another school becomes a more attractive option than addressing their needs.

In an effort to support the mayor’s political agenda, the chancellor has invalidated the use of such testing by changing the student populations that take them, adjusting the time of year that tests are taken, and manipulating the data culled from the results.

Certain kinds of tests (such as ECLAS) administered to every child in the early grades is not only a waste of time and resources, but disrupts learning for many days each year and rarely gives teachers any new information about their student.

It is our position that:
— Teachers, not tests, must play a primary role in student evaluation procedures at all levels.
— Students should have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

— Teaching to the test, dumbing down, and selective data analysis are all derived from political decisions and are detrimental to children’s learning.

— ECLAS testing is harmful to learning environments, and it should not be administered to all children in the early grades.

— No schools should be closed based on standardized tests or school report cards. The DoE must show that closing a school is a measure of last resort. Before a school can be closed, the DoE must provide extra to fix its problems and communicates with the staff and the community.

Adequately address the needs of troubled students.

Formulating a strategy to deal with such students involves the collaboration of teachers, other school staff, and parents. Children who come to school too troubled to maintain themselves in a general ed class need sustained and professional interventions. Not only are there fewer self-contained in the restructured system, but the lack of adequate training, vast discrepancies in the quality of programs, insufficient staff, faulty evaluations leading to inappropriate placements, and the resistance of many parents to having their children labeled are some of the factors that have weakened the special ed structures in our schools. With the dismantling of services for all but the most challenged students and the inability to accommodate many others who might fall into this category but have not been classified special ed as yet, we see thousands of teachers throughout the city having to deal with students who challenge the classroom environment on a regular basis and threaten the safety and well-being of other students and staff, as well harming themselves.

The “disciplinary responses” listed in the DoE’s Citywide Standards of Discipline and Intervention Measures (September 2008), which allow for special rooms to hold students who are disrupting a class for a period of 1-4 days, cannot for the most part be used by classroom teachers. There is simply too much behavior that is “substantially disruptive” or that “substantially interferes with a teacher’s authority over the classroom” to be handled by simple removal. In practice, underlying problems cannot easily be resolved, students do not get adequate instruction when they are placed in such rooms, and a removal is rarely a deterrent.

Administrators seem to have abandoned the notion of modeling respectful behavior towards peers and admonish teachers in the presence of students.

ICE recognizes that although most student situations are handled by classroom teachers and in some cases paras, there are school workers in other unions who attend to the learning environment in different capacities. These include the custodial staff, cafeteria workers, security guards, engineers, and police.

ICE believes that:
— Strategies for dealing with students who disrupt the classroom must include ongoing consensus-building among adults and taking actions based on this consensus. Early intervention, guidance, conflict management, and mutual respect are essential for protecting learning environments from patterns of disruption.

— The DoE must provide alternative settings for those students who do not respond to the efforts of school staff and parents to improve their behavior.

— The union must convince administrators who do not behave professionally towards members, particularly in front of students, that their behavior is not only unacceptable and reportable (to OSI), but of no benefit to children who are in the process of acquiring role models.

— All public school workers contribute to the proper running of the school and their well-being is important to our union.

Expand existing adult education programs in content and number of courses available.

Adult education must take into account the needs of parents and community members and should include their understandings and views of what will help serve their community. It can be a vehicle to strengthen the bonds between parents, educators and unionists that will help us in our united effort to get better schools for the city’s children. ICE believes that the DoE should renew its commitment to adult education.

ICE platform, Part III

2009-10-12T10:31:00.032-04:00

III. Strategy and tactics for a good contract

What we as a union can control in the negotiation of each contract are: our political outlook, stance, and alliances, our UFT-initiated legislative efforts, our strategy and tactics, and our internal organization. It is incumbent upon an opposition to present a credible analysis of the situation and positive proposals for an alternative response to the difficulties that we face.

The strategy that Unity/UFT has adopted since the 1975 NYC fiscal crisis may be fairly described as an organized retreat. The challenge this poses for them is how to win the ratification of bad contracts without drawing criticism to their own role as a crucial enabler of this great ratcheting downwards.

With each new negotiation, Unity/UFT proceeds from three basic questions:
(a) What can we trade off?
(b) Who can be sold out? and
(c) How much can the rank-and-file be induced to give back?
When the same caucus is elected to run the UFT year after year, members can expect the same results.

Weingarten has pointed to increases in salary as a tangible benefit accrued to the membership when it has gone along with mayoral control. Unity/UFT will even whisper privately when pressed, “It could have been worse” and “Imagine what the Post would do to us if we didn’t play ball.” They have generally avoided mentioning that approximately one-third of the salary increases they’ve negotiated in the past two contracts are not raises, but compensation for an extended working day and year. Most recently, they have agreed to changes in the pension for new employees that will require them to pay 4.8% into their pensions for their entire careers where previously contributions stopped after 10 years of service. Any gains in salary follow from the union’s policy of accommodation and trade-off with the Bloomberg administration.

With each new contract, how much say educators have in methodology, testing, school staffing, and other important issues diminishes as the union continues to sidestep the issue of the mayor’s failure to extend “collaboration” down to the school level.

Unity/UFT also cannot credibly proclaim to be in a collaborative mode with the mayor while the managers who do his bidding consistently sabotage the normal avenues for conflict resolution at the school and district levels. Grievances rarely bring relief: the DoE denies all Step I’s and forces an inordinate number of cases to arbitration, which in many cases the union is unwilling or unprepared to handle. Our union managers have consistently turned a blind eye to the mayor’s broad attack against senior teachers and other members brought up on charges that most certainly could be handled differently than through reassignment. The measure of collaboration is a willingness to resolve conflicts and seek consensus in the school community. So often it has been reduced instead to a photo op with the mayor.

Our profession is really threatened, and the union’s response has been anemic. In fact, the relationship between all levels of administration under this chancellorship and UFT members has been far from collaborative. Even the few remaining senior principals who know better, with retirement in sight and hefty bonuses at stake, don’t make a move without consulting legal. Collaboration with the Bloomberg administration is a one-way street. We collaborate and he promises not to inflict even greater pain.

Operating as they do in a “collaborative” mode, Unity/UFT caucus managers fail to acknowledge that in every struggle of labor and working people, solidarity is a crucial ingredient for success. It is, in fact, the foundation of unionism. Because Unity/UFT has no interest in building the kind of solidarity that makes a union strong, they can only accept crumbs at the negotiating table.

ICE platform, Part II

2009-10-10T21:07:00.009-04:00

II. What we confront in public education: the corporate agenda

The “school reform” agenda we see in New York is not an isolated campaign. The No Child Left Behind Act (2001) was the most massive single exercise of government power over education in U.S. history. Under this federal law, all schools, particularly those serving large numbers of poor and minority students, face the threat of drastic changes, in school management, teacher autonomy, parental involvement, school closings, and charterization. Following the national trend, New York City has adopted a corporate business model for school governance.

Sandra Feldman’s stewardship of the American Federation of Teachers was closely involved in the drafting of the No Child Left Behind Act, and Unity caucus, headed by Randi Weingarten through July 2009, remains a steadfast supporter of it.
The union has signed on to the national corporate agenda, which prevents those with knowledge and experience from redesigning schools. That union officials can applaud and promote a program so destructive to public education testifies to a loss of belief in what educators do for a living.

We are at a crossroads for public education in the U.S., and teachers must play a different kind of role than the one the UFT has been developing on our behalf.

The mayoral control fiasco and the UFT’s response
School governance and mayoral control of schools is not and never has been a response to the failings of the previous system or to the needs of children. It has been brought to us by the same people who brought us the financial crisis that now threatens massive layoffs and further cuts in services to children and families. It is driven by businessmen who seek to privatize and profit from the public sector.

Mayoral control of urban public school systems has resulted in dictatorships. Services and opportunities for large numbers of children, particularly for special ed students and English language learners, are reduced. Tenure, seniority, working conditions, and academic freedom are under constant threat, parent voices are shut out, and the developmental needs of children are disregarded.

During her tenure as president of the union, Weingarten, in a defense of the indefensible, laid out Unity/UFT’s support for mayoral control. Last May when she thanked the mayor for bringing “stability, accountability and cohesion” to the school system (NY Post), she spun a picture quite different from the reality of what we face.

Instead of “STABILITY” we have:
— Serial reorganizations,
— Epidemic school closings,
— Loss of seniority rights, the creation of the Absent Teacher Reserves, inappropriate placements into Teacher Reassignment Centers, and
— The breaking up of local communities and the growth of disparate treatment and funding
Instead of “ACCOUNTABILITY” there is:
— Lack of transparency,
— Lawbreaking (special ed violations, system restructuring, etc.),
— Data manipulation (school report cards, graduation rates, test score interpretations, etc.), and
— The disastrous reliance on private contracting, which resulted in the school bus rerouting fiasco, outside education consultant (e.g, the quality review from abroad), expensive computer installations, and no bid contracts.
And instead of “COHESION,” we are forced to contend with:
— Flavor of the month methodologies (e.g., Balanced Literacy, fuzzy math, the workshop model),
— Micromanagement, and
— Intimidation.
Unity/UFT policies insure the continuance of school overcrowding, testing mania, privatization, attacks on tenure and seniority, and the viability of public education in New York City. Weingarten’s disgraceful legacy metastasizes nationally now that she’s taken on a more national role as president of the AFT.

We need union officials who not only understand the relationship between teaching and learning conditions, but who also understand that the corporate agenda for public education is divisive, does not help union members, and erodes the public trust in our schools.

Welcome to "UFT Elections 2010"

2009-08-10T22:44:00.001-04:00

ICE is opening up this blog to provide information on the upcoming UFT elections.