An old Sicilian proverb
In McDowell County,West Virginia, in New Haven Connecticut, in Baltimore and school districts across the nation the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), yes, a union, is working together with governors and mayors and superintendents to provide more effective schools and classrooms.
Randi Weingarten sat at theWest Virginia’s governor’s side at his State of the State message. The AFT is part of a public-private partnership working in the poorest country in West Virginia to improve schools and the lives of West Virginia’s neediest.
In New York we’re arguing, lead by the governor and the NYC mayor, about how to fire teachers.
The governor rails against our schools, he complains that we lead the nation in per pupil expenditures and our high school graduation rate is near the bottom.
What he failed to tell us is that we’re at the top of the nation in disparity of per pupil funding across the state. Or, that Quality Counts, the Education Week assessment of states places New York State in the top three nationally.
From Albany to Gracie Mansion the whippings continue. The state commissioner decides to punish kids by freezing tens of millions of federal dollars and refusing to attempt to resolve a dispute over teacher evaluation.
The teacher union asks to take the dispute to binding arbitration under the auspices of the state agency, the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB), whose job is to resolve labor disputes.
The mayor refuses and the state commissioner and the state chancellor whine “it’s not my job.”
At the state level the dispute centers on the governor’s attempt to change the law unilaterally. The state union went to court and was sustained and the governor threatens to hold the budget hostage and punish schools by refusing to provide them with a promised increase in school aid.
The essence of the dispute in the city: the mayor insists that if a principal rates a teacher unsatisfactory the teacher has no appeal, no due process rights. The union asks that a mutually agreed upon third party, perhaps a retired principal or teacher, review the case and act as the final arbiter.
The mayor stamps his feet and threatens to close 33 schools and create a chaotic situation that will irrevocably harm thousands of students.
Where will we find highly qualified, experienced teachers and principals to replace the one’s the mayor is firing?
Ask the experts: from Peter Senge to Michael Fullan, look at the nations that shine, the core of educational excellence is the ability of the school community, from classroom teacher to principals to superintendents to union leaders to commissioners to legislators to governors to the private sector to craft and implement and monitor collaborative relationships.
The professional sports unions, the NFL and the NBA, working with management crafted win-win contracts; as Super Bowl Sunday approaches winning teams are praised for working together, yet our elected officials are deaf to the roars of the populace. Enough posturing, enough poll gazing, the fault is not in the classrooms, the fault is with leaders who are too arrogant, too prideful, leaders must put aside the facade of leadership and actually lead.
As we look at our leadership in New York City and New York State it is distressing.
I thought I’d never say this: can’t we be likeWest Virginia?
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The bottom line is that it is usually a strong positive influence in or near the home, family, friends that helps kids find their way. Yes, school and teachers are important, but the Mayor and Governor must get off this position that the kids will be fine were it not for some poor teaching, and if we just fire them all will be okay. In other words, this issue should not be “Custer’s Last Stand.” There’s a deal to be made that’s good for all. Make it. The kids are waiting for y’all to act like grown-ups.
here we are in the land of make believe. the mayor has not only fired many of the teachers in the 32 schools the dept. of ed wants to close, but he unilaterally replaces every educator in the system. they are replaced by new hires who have met whatever the mayor’s criteria are. within a year they are evaluated by the mayor’s and governor’s newly imposed evaluation system ..
oh my ,many of the new breed are rated sub par two years in a row.reviewing stats the results show the same stats as in previous years.this was done without union intervention. who is to blame? we need a new scapegoat. the teacher’s union steps up to the plate and engages the mayor and governor and says let’s look back historically before it was fashionable to attack teachers, their unions, their pensions and their right to bargain.the teachers in their classrooms caused the economy to melt down. in fact, the national teacher’s unions have stepped to the plate in recent years and surprised management and offered plans to reassess our schools and teacher’s ratings. these facts are hidden and ignored. we are not going to fault the flawed”no child left behind” or”race to the top”. lets blame the teachers. when will we support teachers who want to teach children and not teach to the test , even though we need rigorous standards, good management working in a collegial climate with teacher’s unions with support and motivation will trump slogans leaving children,
parents and teachers ahead;not left behind or racing to the top for dollars, instead of achievement. bloomberg and cuomo, some how you made it without new evaluation plans, as did many others. times have changed, but teachers still want to teach; not be scapegoats of political and social winds of the times.
The mayor also fails to mention that he himself, and his misguided education policies that have resulted in years of constant upheaval, has caused chaos far greater than the random bad apples in the teaching force.
Tweed is now hilariously stocked with the 20 and 30-something patronage hires of the well-placed from New York’s wealthy and well connected. I would doubt one of them has more than glancing familiarity with education firsthand, And yet it is they who are guiding policy in this city.
Before the mayor can point a finger, he needs to look at the mess he has created all by himself.
Government bigwigs i.e. NYCDOE suits, never worked in private industry. If they had, things would have been handled differently in the NYCDOE b/c they would have been ashamed to try the tricks this crowd comes up with.
There is due process in private industry. Usually, three memos w/ attached information regarding how the manager attempted to assist in correcting the problem/s has to be in the file before the worker can be let go.* Plus, H.R., union reps [if applicable] and higher ups are made aware of the problems before the worker is fired*. Often, they are able to help to bring the worker around to their way of thinking which means that- thankfully!- everyone gets a paycheck.
It’s not a perfect system-that’s why there is a Labor Board. That’s why there is a whistle blower law that allows the aggrieved to protest an unlawful removal*. Often there is an appeal process of sorts in the company that turns things around especially if there is a pattern of abuse.
Don’t be intimidated by these folk, no matter what side they are on. Remind them forcefully their actions are un-American.
BTW, you’re the best, dude, but how come your website is still up?
*private industry says fired, pink-slipped, let go, removed resigned, retired. NYCDOE says terminated. Which group is comprised of adults?