The Board of Education, a US Senate Seat and Racial Politics: Mike Bloomberg’s Dilemma
July 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment
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FLASH!!! Coup D’Etat: Boro Prez Seize Control of the NYC Education System
July 1, 2009 · 2 Comments
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The Calculus and Rituals of Labor Contract Negotiations: Will Randi and Mike Agree to a Modest Contract, or, Spar Over Core Union Issues?
June 29, 2009 · 2 Comments
If the parties are unable to reach an agreement PERB assigns a mediator, and if the negotiations are at impasse PERB moves the process to fact finding. The parties submit evidence and examine expert witnesses, write briefs, and, a panel of arbitrators renders a non-binding public report. The law establishes standards and criteria that guides the decision of the panel.
a. comparison of the wages, hours and conditions of employment of the employees involved in the arbitration proceeding with the wages, hours, and conditions of employment of other employees performing similar services or requiring similar skills under similar working conditions and with other employees generally in public and private employment in comparable communities;
Comparability, aka, pattern bargaining, is also at play. The Union argued in 2002 that the “pattern” should be the pay scales in the surrounding suburban districts and the City argued that comparability meant with other large cities. The arbitrators agreed with the Union, however, chose Mount Vernon and Yonkers rather than Scarsdale and Great Neck. Suburban districts with inner city issues.The arbitrators considered the “interests and welfare of the public,” and came down on the side of a longer school day and a longer school year, for additional compensation.
Seven years later the Union faces another crossroads.
Will their support of mayoral control and pension savings for the City lead a path to a new contract? Will the City use the fiscal crisis and the Obama educational initiatives to push for substantial changes in the agreement?
Will the hiring freeze shrink the 1700 teacher ATR pool?
The District 79 Reorganization Agreement has resulted in about 100 ATRs who have not found jobs, they were interviewed by panels of five, two of whom were UFT assigned teachers, and found “not qualified,” will arbitrators support this process for all ATRs? Will the City position that ATRs who cannot find jobs in eighteen months be placed on layoff find resonance with an arbitration panel?
The 2002 panel rejected the City support of merit pay, but, now that the Union has agreed to an iteration of merit pay, will arbitrators feel differently?
Will the Union make an endorsement in the November mayoral election? or, stay on the sidelines?
Will Randi want to use changes in the UFT contract as a starting point to introduce changes in bargaining nation-wide?
These are extremely weighty issues, especially with a new leader at the helm of the UFT. For the Union will a “quick” contract with a modest salary increase satisfy the members? Will pushing for other changes, i.e., elimination of the ATR pool, the “Rubber Room,” etc., endanger core values in the contract if the process moves to fact finding?
The Union is surveying all members re bargaining demands and a many hundreds strong negotiations committee is in formation … the rituals begin.
In the backrooms of Tweed and Gracie Mansion the Mayor is running the numbers, looking at polling data, the calculus of determining the next steps in the public and private process.
Randi Weingarten has been a nimble Union president and Mike Bloomberg a strong willed Mayor.
Will they dance?
A public employee union that violates Civil Service Law Section 210 is liable to forfeit its right to have the public employer deduct membership dues and agency shop fees from the compensation of employees in the bargaining unit that union represents. PERB makes the strike determination and imposes any strike penalty in regard to unions.
b. the interests and welfare of the public and the financial ability of the public employer to pay;
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The Changing of the Guard at the UFT: Randi Passes the Orb and Scepter to Mike.
June 25, 2009 · 1 Comment
Al Shanker would say something on one day that would delight liberals and infuriate conservatives. The next day, he would make the conservatives ecstatic and the liberals would be infuriated. He really — even though he came out of the, if you will, the left wing of our society in the sense that he was a passionate union leader, when he thought about the future, he never thought about what wing he was seeking; he thought about how he could seek the truth and synthesize the facts and move us all forward. And that too is a great gift that we will sorely miss…
And again, I say, he let no one off the hook — no one — not politicians, not administrators, not the public, not the students, and certainly not the teachers…
Al Shanker’s cause was education. And through his lifelong devotion to it, he lifted up our children, our schools, our teachers and others who work in our schools, our nation and our world. He was truly our master teacher…
Today, education is the number one priority of the American people. Al Shanker helped to make it so. His life was full of tumult and controversy, of growth and triumph. But what I think he would want to know is, does it count? You bet it does. It counts, Al; and we thank you, we love you, and we bid you Godspeed. Thank you. (Applause.)
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Tiers or Tears: Will the Teacher Union (UFT) Trade Pension Benefits for Future Teachers for a New Contract? Randi Has Unfinished Business.
June 22, 2009 · 3 Comments
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Endgame: Winners and Losers as the Mayoral Control Bill Approaches Passage.
June 17, 2009 · 1 Comment
On Sunday night, June 14th, the long awaited mayoral control bill popped up on the Assembly website. The 38-page bill contained no surprises.
* Mayor continues to appointed a majority of the Panel for Education Policy, fma, Central Board, without fixed terms. The Chancellor is not the chair, he serves as an ex-officio member. The proceedings of the PEP will be transparent.
* The Comptroller and the Independent Budget Office (IBO) will have the responsibility to audit both dollars and academic achievement.The IBO testified before the Ciy Council on June 4th and raised a number of significant questions in regard to their own budget, accessibility of DOE financial and achievement data. Whether the IBO is the appropriate monitoring organization and whether it has the budget and expertise are complex and controversial issues.
* Re-establishes the primacy of the role and function of superintendents. Currently School Support Organizations (SSO), that are not mentioned in the 2002 law, function as de facto superintendencies. How will the Department meld these two organizational structures?
* Six months notice before school restructuring and a detailed “educational impact report.”
* A section that encourages a policy to “enhance diversity and equity in recruitment and retention” of the workforce.
* Aligns the roles of School Leadership Teams, superintendents and District Education Councils (fka CEC) in regard to school budgets and state mandated Comprehensive Education Plans (CEP).
On Monday, June 15, an Albany press conference hosted by the United Federation of Teachers, the Campaign for Better Schools and the Parent Commission on School Governance called for additions to the Silver/Nolan proposal,
The focus of today’s press conference was on specific improvements that could be added to the Assembly proposal before it comes to a vote this week. Participants in the press conference called for:
- · fixed terms for members of the PEP in order to ensure independence;
- · strengthening parent and community engagement through an independent and publicly funded parent and student outreach and training initiative;
- · guarantees that district superintendents will have the authority to do their jobs in their assigned districts;
- · further protections for parents and community to have a role in decision making around school sitings, closings and insertions, and that these decisions are based upon an impact study that includes impact on English language learners, special education students, and the closing of the achievement gap; and
- · the Department of Education to be required to comply with all relevant State and City laws.
- · A two-year sunset to see if the governance changes have worked to increase and improve parent input into decision-making.
Some of the organizations opposing mayoral control have been critical of the UFT for reversing their position and endorsing a mayoral majority on the PEP, however they stood side by side asking for additions to the proposed law.
Is it a “done deal,” or will there be an opportunity for last minute “tweaks?”
In the real world of Albany politics after a bill has been discussed in the conference (caucus) and introduced by the Speaker it would be rare indeed for any last minute changes. None of the power brokers are calling for thousands of faxes opposing the Silver bill and hundreds of buses are not on the way to Albany.
The gridlock on the Senate side is unresolved, although it is possible that they will call a temporary truce of god to pass crucial legislation that both sides of the aisle support.
Winners and Losers:
* Mayor Bloomberg: Retains his majority on the PEP without fixed terms, he will claim victory, however, the other changes substantially change the law, unless Klein figures out ways to avoid implementing. The voters will have an opportunity in November to comment at the polls.
* Joel Klein: The loss of total control of the PEP and the new, enhanced role of the superintendents are real changes … the School Support Organization/Integrated Service Center/Children First Network model is not mentioned in the law, superintendents, currently meaningless appendages, apparently have their prior role restored. Will Klein reorganize to recognize the requirements of the law or try and finesse? If he tries to finesse will this impact the November election?
* Randi Weingarten: By the next union election, spring of 2010 she will probably have moved on and the heir apparent, Michael Mulgrew will be leading the UFT, union members will have their chance to express their support/opposition to the new law, and whatever behind the scene deals were made, if any, at the union polls.
* Cathy Nolan: As Chair of the Assembly Ed Committee she sponsored Committee meetings in all five boroughs. Nolan, the Committee members and the vast majority of speakers opposed the law, especially the Bloomberg majority on the PEP. The Silver/Nolan bill ignores the voices of the communities, will parents in Nolan’s district make her pay a price? We’ll find out in the September, 2010 primary …
* the bill Co-Sponsors: Will hopping on the band wagon as co-sponsors gain the support of Silver and Bloomberg or alienate grassroots voters? If the bill is a disaster the co-sponsors may face the wraith of parent and teacher voters in their districts? Micah Kellner and Jonathan Bing are co-sponsors in districts that have been sharply critical of Bloomberg/Klein policies re: lack of seats, gifted programs and zoning.
* Alan Maisel: An Assembly member, a retired teacher/supervisor and former School Board and CEC member has been supporting legislation for a year calling for six months notice before school restructuring … it ended up in the law. Persistence counts.
The 2009-10 school year will be the most difficult in many years, drastic cuts in personnel and services and substantial changes in the law. Will the Department will able to begin to implement these changes or seek ways to continue “business as usual.”
An interesting summer at Tweed.
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The Data Revolution: “Informing” Classroom Instruction, or, Using Faux Science to Manipulate Scores and Attack Teacher Union Contracts?
June 15, 2009 · 3 Comments
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Et Tu Pedro: the Albany Coup and Mayoral Control: Power, Money and Politics as Usual.
June 11, 2009 · 1 Comment
Didn’t I watch this on the HBO presentation of Rome? Claudius Maximus Espada seizing power, with the lights out on the ornate floor of the New York State Senate.
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Sausages, Laws and Conspiracy Theorists: Did Randi Trade Off Mayoral Control for …..? Is a Mayoral Control “Deal” Afoot?
June 9, 2009 · 1 Comment
Otto von Bismarck.
It’s in those waning hours as the crisis is immanent that great leaders negotiate that key item.
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Malo Periculosam Libertatem Quam Quietam Servitutem (”I Prefer Perilous Liberty to Quiet Servitude”): Is Mayoral Control and the Role of Parents and Communities Irreconcilable?
June 5, 2009 · 1 Comment
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