Redesigning School Governance: Beyond Mayoral Control

From time to time the legislature passes a bill with a sunset provision, unless the law is reauthorized by a specific date the law reverts to the law it replaced, the mayoral control section of the New York City school governance law sunsets on June 30^h, 2024.

In 2022 in the waning days of the session the legislators, led by John Liu, the chair of the NYC Education Subcommittee made a number of changes to the mayoral control law (Read link below), the major change, increasing the size to an unwieldy 22 members, however the majority of the members remain appointees of the mayor (Read the law here)

There is a major misconception, the Board does not create policy, the Board “approves” policy set by the chancellor who is selected by the mayor, not the Board.

2590-h. Powers and duties of chancellor.  The office of chancellor  of the city district is hereby continued. Such chancellor shall serve at the pleasure of and be employed by the mayor of the city of New York by contract.  The composition and duties of the Board are explicitly set forth in the law. Powers and duties of the city board. The city board shall  advise the chancellor on matters of policy affecting the welfare of the city school district and its pupils.  The board shall exercise no executive power and perform no executive or administrative functions.  Nothing  herein contained shall be construed to require or authorize the  day-to-day supervision or the administration of the  operations  of  any  school  within  the  city  school  district of the city of New York

Sections (a) through (h) directs the Board to “approve” or “consider and approve” actions of the chancellor, the Board has “no executive power.”  (See section the law here)

If the legislature takes no action by the end of June the current mayoral control law sunsets to the prior law,

The governance structure would sunset to the prior law,

2590-b. Continuation of city board and establishment of community districts. 1. (a) the board of education of the city school district of the city of New York is hereby continued. Such board of education shall consist of seven members, a member to be appointed by each borough president of the city of New York and two by the mayor. Each borough president appointee shall be a resident of the borough for which the borough president appointing him was elected. Two members at large shall be appointed by the mayor of the city of New York. Each mayoral appointee shall be a resident of such city. The term of office of each ember shall be four years,

In 2019 the state legislature held hearings on the reauthorization of the mayor control law,

Diane Ravitch’s testimony.

First, the independent Board of Education that existed in the law prior to 2002 should be restored. The mayor should have appointees on that board, but so should the borough presidents, the Comptroller, and the President of the City Council. There should also be seats for independent citizens who are recommended by a screening panel made up of civic groups, civil rights groups, and groups that advocate for educational equity. The independent Board of Education, not the mayor, should appoint the Chancellor and the Chancellor should answer to the Board, not the mayor

I also testified before the committee and emphasized an elected Board would could result in untold charter school dollars dominating the electoral process. The Citizens United. Supreme Court decision; dollars in elections are “speech and protected by the First Amendment. Read here

and my testimony below

How Effective is Mayor Control in New York City? Has Mayoral Control Effectively Addressed Inequities and Overall Effectiveness?

In the hotly contested Denver School Board election the pro-charter, pro-choice “dark money” organizations are outspending the Denver Teachers Association 10 to 1

https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/21/billionaire-dark-money-denver-school-board/

Norm Fruchter, in a brilliant blog post at the NYU Metro Center encapsulates the conundrum.

The problem is not simply how to equitably frame the mayor’s ability to govern the city’s education system. In all our city’s public service bureaucracies, the interests and needs of users and stakeholders are not represented or structured into useful forms of participation. Because the schooling of the city’s students matters so intensely to students, their families, teachers and administrators, education policy issues will always be intensely contested.

What we need are new participatory structures to engage and integrate that contestation and shape more representative and equitable policy solutions

How do we define “new participatory structures”?

Next blog: Is the NYC Department of Education Too Big to Succeed?

Navigating the Albany Legislative Swamp

 In 1866, the Surrogate of New York County wrote in a decision on a legal malpractice claim against a deceased lawyer’s estate: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

At the October Delegate Meeting UFT President Mulgrew, in his monthly president’s report, summarized the national, state and local issues. The state legislature convenes in January, the governor’s state of the state message the first week, the  preliminary executive budget at the end of the month, in February the one-house budgets and in March the haggling over the final budget due April 1. An Easter and Passover break in April and the race to adornment in early June, party primaries the third week in June.

Mulgew said the two legislative priorities: improvements in Tier 6 and replacing mayoral control with another governance system.

Legislatures around the nation vary widely in days in session, size (from 40 to 474 members) and remuneration, (from $100 in New Hampshire to $120,000 in NYS). Most legislatures are part time with modest salaries, New York State is the exception, the legislators with a few exceptions are full time with staffs in Albany and a district office. About 15,000 bills are introduced, only a few hundred are signed into law. The business of the legislature is transparent. All bills and the progress of the bills are on the website.

For example my Assembly member, Harvey Epstein introduced 170 bills in the last session. Epstein introduced a bill proposing changing the state constitution to require free public education in grades pre-k through undergraduate school.

TITLE OF BILL: CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY proposing an amendment to the Constitution, in relation to education of pupils through under-graduate  

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: This amendment would require New York to provide free, quality education from prekindergarten through post secondary school.  

.The bill has not progressed past the education committee.

The full text, memos and progress of bills are all available on the Assembly website.

The governor’s preliminary budget, extremely detailed is due around the third week in January, See last year’s preliminary budget here.

The 2023 budget, unexpectedly removed the regional charter school cap, nothing to do with the budget. The governor probably “traded” charter school cap removal for $5M from Bloomberg to pay for advertisements supporting the governor’s plan to build 800,000 “affordable” housing units in the suburbs, opposed by many suburban legislators.

 Governor Hochul will also eliminate the regional cap on the number of charter schools in New York City and authorize the reissuance of charters due to surrender, revocation, termination, or non-renewal. These changes will permit the issuance of additional charters in New York City and expand educational opportunities for students

The approval of the budget was delayed three weeks as the UFT battled with the governor, with the full support of the democratic leadership and eventually agreed to the reissuance of 14 expired charters, not the 150 charters the governor sought and loss of around 4,000 teaching positions in public schools in NYC.

Sometimes thwarting proposals are more important than passing bills.

Class size in New York City has been significantly higher than across the state, the provisions of the Taylor Law, “ability to pay” and “pattern bargaining,” places class size outside of the contractual bargaining process. In the waning days of the 2022 legislative session a number of education bills were tied together and with the support of the legislative leadership passed both houses (See discussion here). Mayor Adams vigorously opposed and urged the governor to veto the bill; however, in September the governor signed the bill into law (Read here).

One year the governor tries to open the door to 150 more charter schools and in another year agrees to historic class size reductions, Navigating Albany is akin to navigating Scylla and Charybdis.

An aside: this site contains constant criticism of the UFT President, certainly the right of every union member; however, opposition caucuses propose, “…prepare for a strike.” is not a viable option.

Mulgrew has been consistently adept at weaving his way through the Albany thorns.

Eleven years ago Cuomo maneuvered the creation of a new pension tier, Tier 6, moving the retirement age with full benefits to age 63; pensions are funded by school districts through property taxes; ten percent of the New York City budget, about $10 billion is set side to fund pensions.  Improving pensions at the expense of taxpayers is a heavy lift.

A few earlier blog posts:

June 22, 2009

Tiers or Tears: Will the Teacher Union (UFT) Trade Pension Benefits for Future Teachers for a New Contract? Randi Has Unfinished Business.

How to Change Teacher Pension Laws: September 8, 2023:  https://mets2006.wordpress.com/2023/08/01/correcting-tier-6-how-to-change-teacher-pension-laws/

I suspect the unions will attempt to whittle away at Tier 6 and eventually mirror the benefits in Tier 4

Mayor Control, except for Mayor Adams, has no support in the legislature or in the school community. The question: what replaces mayoral control?

See options in an earlier post:

School Governance in NYC: Mayoral Control and Alternatives

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

The Long Road: Can “Performance Tasks,” or, “Projects” Replace Standard Testing as Assessment and Accountability Metrics?

….any powers that are not specifically given to the federal government, nor withheld from the states, are reserved to those respective states, or to the people at large.[10^th Amendment]

Education is not mentioned in the Constitution, and therefore is a power “reserved” for the states and segregated schools were commonplace under laws passed across the nation.

In 1896 the Supreme Court sustained a Louisiana law requiring segregated facilities on public transportation,

We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff’s argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it… The argument also assumes that social prejudice may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured except by an enforced commingling of the two races… If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.

In the lone dissent Justice John Marshall Harlen wrote,

I am of the opinion that the statute of Louisiana is inconsistent with the personal liberties of citizens, white and black, in that State, and hostile to both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution of the United States. If laws of like character should be enacted in the several States of the Union, the effect would be in the highest degree mischievous. Slavery as an institution tolerated by law would, it is true, have disappeared from our country, but there would remain a power in the States, by sinister legislation, to interfere with the blessings of freedom; to regulate civil rights common to all citizens, upon the basis of race; and to place in a condition of legal inferiority a large body of American citizens,

For the next sixty years “separate but equal” was the constitutional standard.

In 1955, in a unanimous decision, the Court rejected the separate but equal standard writing,

Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.

Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority. Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected.

We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

A decade later President Johnson proposed a major reform of federal education policy in the aftermath of his landslide victory in the 1964 United States presidential election, and his proposal quickly led to the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The act provides federal funding to primary and secondary education, with funds authorized for professional development, instructional materials, resources to support educational programs, and parental involvement promotion. The act emphasizes equal access to education, aiming to shorten the achievement gaps between students by providing federal funding to support schools with children from impoverished families.

Among his first acts President Bush passed the bipartisan reauthorization of ESSA, retitled “No Child Left Behind, arguing the law “confronts the soft bigotry of low expectations.”  The law required testing of all children in grades 3-8, the public disagregation of test results and the requirement of states to intervene in persistently low achieving schools (Read here)

The annual testing requirements of the law became controversial with increasing conflicts, civil right organizations supporting the testing requirements, arguing the testing results highlighted inadequate funding in high poverty districts and the opponents opposing “highstakestesting,” as unnecessary, both stressful and creating a test “test prep heavy” curriculum.

In 2015, under the Obama administration, ESSA was once again reauthorized, renamed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and generally applauded for granting to states far more authority. (Read detailed summary here). The law did initially encourage alternative avenues.

• Establishes a pilot program in up to seven states (or consortia of states) that allows for the complete revamping of their assessment system, meaning that it’s possible that summative state tests as we know them will be eliminated, replaced by competency-based assessments, performance-based assessments, interim assessments, or something else entirely

Unfortunately ESSA did not provide funding for what were called Innovative Pilots and few states applied. NYS did not apply, without funding the pilot was not possible. 

Randi Weingarten, leader of the AFT, argued for sampling rather than testing all students as per NAEP and alternate year testing, Wade Henderson, the CEO of the Leadership Coalition on Civil and Human Rights, representing over 200 Civil Right organizations opposed and prevailed.

The emphasis on testing, “test and punish” attitudes infected most states, and the criticism mounted

Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) introduced the “More Teaching, Less Testing bill,

 “We need a revolution in our public schools that unlocks the brilliance of all our kids and cultivates a generation equipped to take on 21st century challenges,” said Congressman Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (NY-16). “This means valuing diverse intelligence and fostering school cultures grounded in joyful, rigorous learning across a wide range of subjects and skills. We must end the over use, abuse, and misuse of standardized testing in our schools, and trade a broken metric for a system that empowers educators and communities to excite, inspire, and challenge their students. Our already underfunded schools should not be forced to spend valuable time and resources teaching to the test. Kids deserve experiential learning opportunities, and the time and space to play, discover, and create. These pursuits cannot be bubbled in on a multiple choice scan sheet.”

See details of the bill here .

In a bid to get more states to develop “innovative” assessments, the U.S. Education Department has lifted the cap on its innovative assessment pilot so any state may apply.

The announcement came at the department’s State Assessment Conference Sept. 26-27 in Arlington, Va. (See breakout session topics here)  Until now, the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) has been open to a maximum of seven states (or consortia of states), but only a handful have participated, and none have applied since 2020. To jump-start interest, USED officials lifted the cap on the number of states that may apply.

As you probably remember, the IADA allows states to use competency-based and other models in the assessments they use for federal accountability in exchange for two types of flexibility in their testing programs:

• States can run their new and previous assessment systems at the same time without requiring students to take both tests, and
• They can try out new models with a subset of districts before deciding whether to scale them statewide by the end of the program.

Scott Marion, the leader of the Center for Assessment asks the crucial question,

Most people agree that the factory model of education doesn’t work. If we don’t want students learning the same knowledge and skills at the same time, as if they’re on one big conveyor belt, why would we require all the adults in K-12 education to use essentially the same accountability (or assessment) system?

We are moving towards significant changes in the assessment and accountability process and continue to ask:  how can the process help teachers to improve their practice? We must be part of the process, including teacher unions at the table.

The Board of Regents “suggests” watching a presentation of another approach to assessment, watch here.

I’m hopeful

Are We Replaceable? The UAW and Writer Strikes and Technology: Lesson for Teacher Unions

For the last half century unions have been under attack and the numbers of non-government workers in unions has steadily declined, today only 6% of non-government workers belong to unions.

In the 1973 movie Sleeper UFT president Shanker is parodied as being responsible for a nuclear war (Watch video clip here)

Surprisingly public support for unions has increased.

Nick Kristoff in a NY Times editorial praises the roles of unions and the increasing public support,

  Labor unions are … a powerful force for equality, elevating underpaid workers who otherwise are often treated as doormats.

The central reality is that as unions declined over the past half-century, workers were stiffed. They were paid poorly, they lost health care and retirement benefits, and they lost control over their schedules. They were robbed of dignity and sometimes of wages as well. Deaths of despair from drugs, alcohol and suicide surged among blue-collar workers.

What happened?

In the 1970s the United Auto Workers (UAW) had over a million members, today, 150,000 members.

Non-unionized facilities in Southern states with anti-union sentiments, competition from foreign car companies, automation and the emergence of electric vehicles (EI) requiring fewer workers, and, the automobile companies being slow to respond to the growth in demand for EVs.

In 2008 the Great Recession exploded

… the combination of an historic recession and financial crisis pushed the American auto industry to the brink of collapse. Access to credit for car loans dried up and auto sales plunged 40 percent. Auto manufacturers and suppliers dramatically curtailed production.

 and the automobile industry was a victim, faced with catastrophic economic issues, faced with bankruptcy, the federal government bailed out the companies and the UAW in order to curtail layoffs agreed; new employees would not be eligible for pensions and receive salaries 1/3 lower than pre recession members

The resurgence of the auto industry was swift, the loans from the federal government were repaid and the “Big Three” auto companies returned to profitability.

As the post Recession years passed the number of UAW members in the new tier, no pension and 1/3 lower salaries than in the pre Recession tier continued to increase. Political divisions within the UAW widened and in the 2022 union election the incumbents were defeated, in a very close election, with a platform attractive to the post and pre Recession members.  Shawn Fain, the new UAW president immediately set the stage for a strike.

The UAW strike — which includes demands for 40% higher wages and a shift to a 32-hour workweek — is part of a more general labor revival in the U.S. A wave of major strikes is spreading across the country; the strike activity in 2023 has already reached levels that haven’t prevailed since the 1980s:

I think the strike is ultimately going to run up against even more powerful forces that severely limit its effectiveness. The auto industry is in the middle of a wrenching change like nothing it’s ever seen since its creation over a century ago — the switch from internal combustion cars to battery-powered electrics.

That change is necessary and even inevitable, but it’s going to make life a lot more difficult for unionized auto workers in the U.S. Even if the UAW wins on all their demands, the shift to electrics is going to reduce the importance of traditional heavily unionized industry clusters like Detroit, and will transform the nature of auto manufacturing itself. How flexibly U.S. institutions — the car companies, the government, and labor itself — can respond to these changes will determine whether union-friendly states can avoid a new miniature version of the Rust Belt.

Just as the movement to EV impacts the automobile industry the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) threatens employment among writer and actors,

  . the threat of AI vividly cast the writers’ plight as a human-versus-machine clash, with widespread implications for other industries facing a radically new kind of automation.

After a five month strike the writers strike has a tentative settlement, with lessons for all unions.

The tentative deal announced this week by the Writers Guild of America includes many industry-specific aspects, such as the size of writers’ rooms and improved residuals for streaming. But everyone from autoworkers to white-collar middle managers should be paying very close attention to how this deal was achieved — because it sets a monumental precedent for labor relations in a digital future.

In the past, management would often make nearly all technology-related decisions before negotiations even began. Workers and their unions were excluded from early conversations about technology

 The W.G.A. contract establishes a precedent that an employer’s use of A.I. can be a central subject of bargaining. It further establishes the precedent that workers can and should have a say in when and how they use artificial intelligence at work.

In the past, when labor has sought to simply resist or impede technological change, it’s been completely run over.

But A.I. is coming for workers in every sector, no matter their academic pedigree or sartorial choices

The W.G.A.’s success will also reverberate in more traditional ways.

Negotiators for the United Auto Workers are currently focused on the transition from gas-powered to electric vehicles, a shift that requires reskilling the work force and potentially shifting production from unionized manufacturers — GM, Ford and Stellantis — to smaller, nonunion suppliers. The union is not looking to curtail a shift to electric vehicles, but it does want to secure a share of the profits generated by the transition, in the form of wage increases, investments in reskilling and worker relocation. The W.G.A. agreement points a way toward that resolution. Union and management negotiators can now look to screenwriters for a little precedent and a lot of inspiration

Teaching is not immune from the generational changes, the impact of technology.  Enrollment in teacher preparation programs continue to decline, teacher shortages are endemic: will technology begin to replace teachers?   Read my blog: The Teacher Shortages: Can Chatbots Be Unionized? Here

The Teacher Shortage: Can Chatbots Be Unionized?

The new UFT contract contains a lengthy section attempting to define virtual teaching with a long list of caveats, what management can and cannot do, with considerable uncertainty. Read here  p 14 ff

The importance of the section of the agreement is the use of new technologies is negotiable.

ChatGPT is less than a year old and already is being used in classrooms: how long before a ChatBot for every student, a virtual teacher/personal assistant replacing brick and mortar schools and flesh and blood teachers?

Teaching Migrant Children

Twenty thousand migrant children entered the NYC school system in the 22-23 school year and children continue to arrive.

While numbers far exceed previous years the city has welcomed migrant children for decades. Listen to three educators who have devoted their careers to teaching migrant children

You are invited to participate in a Zoom conference.

Education Alumni Affiliate Group of The Alumni Association of CCNY Virtual Conference: Teaching Migrant Children Wednesday, September 27 | 6pm EST Virtual Event (Zoom) Free   Three experts: Tatyana Kleyn, Principal Investigator, CUNY – Initiative on Immigration and Education (CUNY-IIE) and Professor, CCNY Programs in Bilingual Education & TESOL; Lara Evangelista, Executive Director, Internationals Network for Public Schools, and Katherine Kurjakovic, Coordinator of ESL/Bilingual Programs at the UFT Teacher Center will address strategies regarding how teachers and schools can address instruction of migrant children. Audience participation (Q&A) will be encouraged.   To register, CLICK HERE.

How Should City Unions Fight Mayoral Proposed Budget Cuts?

The Writers Guild has been on strike for 143 days, Actors are on strike as well as the United Auto Workers.

Any time you have a labor dispute; it’s not just between the workers and the management. The public’s involved, too, because the public feels the impact of the strike. If the public feels it’s the union’s fault, then they can be mad at the union. If they feel its management’s fault, they’re going to be mad at the management. So both sides are very eager to change public perceptions to make sure that they get the public on their side. (Peter Coy, NY Times, 9/21/23)

 According to polling public support of unions is the highest since 50’s; however management is taking tough stances

Workers at Starbucks across the nation and Amazon on Staten Island have formed unions; management has refused to enter negotiations.

The UAW strike could be the beginning of a “wave of organizing; however, there are pitfalls.

A contract with substantial wage increases and other concessions from the three automakers could announce organized labor as an economic force to be reckoned with and accelerate a recent wave of organizing.

But there are also real pitfalls. A prolonged strike could undermine the three established U.S. automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Jeep and Ram — and send the politically crucial Midwest into recession. If the union is seen as overreaching, or if it settles for a weak deal after a costly stoppage, public support could sour.

Steven Ratner in the NY Times is in support of the union, and also warns,

Unions have an important role to play in redressing imbalances between owners and workers, and the autoworkers are certainly deserving of a substantial pay raise. That said, we need to be careful about killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Among the UAW’s demands is the reopening of the defined benefit plans at all three automakers in addition to the re-establishment of retiree healthcare and cost-of-living adjustments plus 40% salary increases and a reduction to a 4-day/32 hour work week

Heather Cox Richardson, in her daily blog, Letter from an American, writes,

Shawn Fain, the new leader of the UAW’s position is not just about autoworkers; it is about all U.S. workers. “Our fight is not just for ourselves but for every worker who is being undervalued, for every retiree who’s given their all and feels forgotten, and for every future worker who deserves a fair chance at a prosperous life,” Fain said. “[W]e are all fed up of living in a world that values profits over people. We’re all fed up with seeing the rich get richer while the rest of us continue to just scrape by. We’re all fed up with corporate greed. And together, we’re going to fight to change it.”

Auto plants can be moved to non-union states or other nations, accelerating what the companies have been doing for decades; there is a thin line between aggressive bargaining and overreaching.

Public employees work for a governmental authority, strikes in most states are illegal and salaries and other benefits are funded through taxpayer dollars.

Management is elected members of a school board or city councils or state legislatures who negotiate with public employee unions and are also responsible to voters who pay for the raises in the tax dollars.

In New York City taxes are determined by the state legislature and the governor, not the city and, by constitution, budgets must be balanced.

New York City is a strong mayor system, the mayor appoints about 300 commissioners, deputy and associate commissioners, and the city council plays no role. The city charter gives the council oversight responsibilities, meaning hold public hearings and approves the budget, due each year by July 1.

Public employee unions are actually negotiating with management, and the public. If the public is hostile to the police or teachers it is unlikely the governmental authority will negotiate a contract opposed by the voters.

Public employee contract negotiations in New York State are governed by the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). Under PERB rules all contracts remain in full force and effect until the successor contract is ratified and PERB, if both parties accept, provide mediation, fact-finding and non-binding arbitration.

Politics is at the core of public employee negotiations and public employee unions commonly reach out to community and advocacy organizations

“Politics” has become a dirty word, it conjures corruption; however, politics is the process by which representatives are elected and laws passed, and public employee collective bargaining agreements, are negotiated.

A week ago I met Justin Brennan, the chair of the City Council Finance Committee; Mayor Adams is proposing widespread PEG cuts, $20 million at Community Colleges and Brennan is facing a tough opponent in the November election. I set up a meeting between Brennan and CUNY Rising a coalition of twenty organizations fighting for adequate CUNY funding.

All of us should become citizen lobbyists, joining local political organizations, visit electeds in their local offices, face to face meetings, speaking at hearings, get up from the couch and move beyond Facebook and computer screens.

Strikes are a last resort, the writers and actors strikes are for the survival of their jobs and the UAW strike also over jobs as the industry shrinks. And, of course, if you choose to strike, everybody must join you.

Public employees unions work closely with electeds and community organizations, Public schools have lost nearly 100,000 pupils, or about 10% of enrollment since the 2019-2020 school year yet no teachers have been laid off or schools closed. Quietly, Mulgrew, the teacher union president, Adrienne Adams, the speaker of the City Council and the Mayor agreed, stability in the school system was essential. Quiet diplomacy was far more effective then saber rattling.

Remember the process by which the UFT endorsed a mayoral candidate in 2021?  The UFT live streamed two rounds of candidate interviews, 12,000 members watched the interviews and voted; the union endorsed Scott Stringer, a close ally of the union as a member of the Assembly and two terms as Comptroller, a #metoo scandal exploded during the campaign and Stringer’s support disappeared.

Hovering somewhere out there are virtual schools and the specter of Artificial Intelligence, a personal chatbot for every kid, not generations down the road, years down the road. (Read “The Teacher Shortage: Can Chatbots Be Unionized?” here)

Rather than “preparing for a strike,” as one union caucus urges, the union has to remain nimble, work with communities and advocacy organizations and especially with the elected community. We will occasionally “agree to disagree” with mayors and chancellors, we will fight in the legislative bodies with or against mayors and chancellors, we will collaborate when possible, ultimately we represent the members, all the members, the members in all the caucuses or in none of the caucuses.

Teachers are not going on strike for 143 days; we need union leadership representative of the membership who can successfully navigate the Scylla and Charybdis  of today.

Solidarity Forever: Why a United Union Makes Us Strong

George Altomare, a founder of the union passed and by founder we mean it was George who after years of bickering negotiated the merger of factions, the Teacher Guild and the High School Teacher Association, to create the United Federation of Teachers. (Read here)

George served as High School Vice President for many years and for decades every convention ended with George and his guitar playing Solidarity Forever as the audience joined in.

They say our day is over; they say our time is through,

They say you need no union if your collar isn’t blue,

Well that is just another lie the boss is telling you,

For the Union makes us strong!

(Chorus)

They divide us by our color; they divide us by our tongue,

They divide us men and women; they divide us old and young,

But they’ll tremble at our voices, when they hear these verses sung,

For the Union makes us strong!

The UFT has always had contending caucuses within the union. In the early days over Vietnam, should the union take a position and if so support or oppose the war?  After raucous meetings and demonstrations the union held a referendum: the membership voted not to take a position, if the referendum passed the membership the position was against the war,

The Ocean hill-Brownsville strike lingered for forty days, the city was riven and the union was condemned as racist.

A year later as Governor Rockefeller was considering running for president the union quietly negotiated Tier 1 of the pension system, a dramatic improvement.

In 1975 the city precipitously laid off 15,000 teachers, after a few days on strike the union quickly negotiated a settlement, the city was planning to declare bankruptcy and place all contracts with a federal bankruptcy judge. The union actually loaned the city money to pay off bonds and avert bankruptcy. Read the story here

Unpopular at the time, the loan to the city saved collective bargaining and pension gains.

The leadership of the union, over the years, has made decisions, at times controversial, at times sharply criticized and decisions that benefited the membership.

Today, in the world of social media the criticism, in my humble opinion, strengthens the enemies of teacher unionism

Some have argued raises should be tied to the rate of inflation, seven percent in the fall, currently three percent and dropping.

Others aver the union shouldn’t have settled the contract in June and should have begun to “prepare for a strike.”

Mayor Adams didn’t want to negotiate the next contract until after the next election, and, the union feared the next city budget cycle, facing billions in cuts due to the end of COVID relief dollars and the flow of migrant immigrants; the mayor might have pulled out of all contract negotiations.

Adams just announced devastating cuts across the board, Politico, lays out the politics and the steps forward, Read here

“Preparing to strike” is a two-way street, the city perhaps seeking an AI package for remote learning and the union: facing Taylor Law penalties: are members “ready to strike?”

Back in my union rep days I always encouraged chapter leaders never to “complain” without offering a viable solution.

The Taylor Law penalties are onerous and contracts in NYS never end, all contracts remain “in full force and effect until the successor contract is ratified,” After the expiration date all salary steps, differentials, all clauses of the contract remain in place, a benefit lacking elsewhere. In addition both sides can ask for state mediation, fact-finding and arbitration.  There are thousands of public employee union across New York State and no strikes.

The system works for management and labor, yes, at times contract negotiations linger, occasionally for extended period of times, The UFT decided not to negotiate with Bloomberg, who wanted to end tenure and layoff excessed teachers. The Police Union (PBA) waited six years; they didn’t want to negotiate with de Blasio.

California and Illinois allow public employee strikes; however, the Chicago Teacher Union contract layoffs are determined by performance.

          Performance is the preponderant criterion.

Layoff criteria, in order, are: all teachers rated Unsatisfactory; substitutes or temporary teachers; probationary teachers by performance; tenured teachers rated Emerging and Developing; all other tenured teachers. Layoffs within each tier are by seniority.

The right to strike doesn’t translate in the ability to change a contract.

Should the union call a press conference and attack Adams over the proposed budget cuts?

Or, work with other unions, advocacy organizations, the City Council, the Governor and Senator Schumer?  

After the contentious Ocean-hill Brownsville strikes the union leaders saw an opening and totally changed the pension system.

As the city tumbled towards bankruptcy and union actually saved the city.

In the morass of city politics it’s not how loud you scream, it’s about how well you navigate the eddies of politics.

UFT elections will take place in the spring, and I don’t believe “preparing to strike” is an effective strategy.

 Weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the various caucuses and candidates is the essence of union democracy,

For the Union makes us strong!

        

A Magic Bullet: The Key to Teaching Children How to Read

On the Tuesday after Labor Day teachers in New York City return to school. For some, a few weeks vacation after teaching summer school, others, taking college courses required for certification or working in a camp, or getting reacquainted with their own family. If you’re an elementary school teacher you may have spent a few weeks learning how to teach a required new phonics-based reading program.

Why Johnny Can’t Read (1955) was on the bestseller list for 37 weeks and the so-called Reading Wars have lobbed grenades for decades. Read an account of the battle here.

The selection of a reading program was traditionally left to schools; it wasn’t until the fall of 2019 that the chancellor and the teacher and principal unions agreed to survey schools, halted by the COVID plague, the Lucy Calkins Teachers College Reading and Writing Project was the predominate program.

In February Chancellor Banks announced, with substantial fanfare, New York City schools, all schools, will switch to one of three phonics-based curriculums, chosen by the superintendent; half of school this year, the remainder next year with extensive training opportunities offered this summer.

Forbes takes a deep dive into the three choices with many detailed criticisms. Read here.

The Science of Reading crowd may not have won war; they certainly have won the battle.

Controversial reading expert @LucyCalkins announced yesterday 8/31 that she is leaving @TCRWP (Teachers College Reading and Writing Project) and starting a new org “Mossflower Reading and Writing Project.” https://mossflower.com She remains a professor @TeachersCollege (1/2)

My reading expert friends tell me the teaching of reading is dependent on the teacher, the ability to use the correct “tool” to address the needs of the individual student.

Early literacy is the foundation of learning and learning to read is essential, remediation is not recovery; children fall further and further behind.

Maybe three or four years from now we’ll be able to say the evidence proves the switch to phonics-based instructional programs dramatically improved student outcomes, or not.

Magic bullet? I don’t think so, in a few years we may have a new mayor, a new chancellor and maybe every student will have a personal chatbot.

There is a magic bullet: improving daily attendance.

The US Department of Education issued a sobering report (Read here)

Chronic absenteeism is widespread. Research show the reasons for chronic absenteeism are as varied as the challenges our students and families face. – including poor health and a lack of safety, which can be particularly acute in disadvantaged communities and areas of poverty.

Whatever its causes, chronic absenteeism can be devastating,

• Chronic absenteeism may prevent children from reaching early learning milestones.

Children who are chronically absent in preschool, kindergarten and first grade are much less likely to read at grade level by the end of the third grade. Students who cannot read at grade level by the end of the third grade are four times more likely than proficient readers to drop out of high school.

• Irregular attendance can be a better predictor of whether students will drop out before graduation than test scores.

A study of public school students found that an incidence of chronic absenteeism in even a single year between 8^th and 12^th grade is associated with a seven-fold increase in the likelihood of dropping out.

• Frequent absences from school can shape adulthood

High school dropout, which chronically absent students are more likely to experience, has been linked to poor outcomes later in life, from poverty and diminished health to involvement in the criminal justice system.

Yes, getting kids to attend school on a regular basis improves school and life outcomes and the attempts to address chronic absenteeism have stumbled.

The evidence is overwhelming.

A decade ago the Center for NYC Affairs at the New School University released a superb report, A Better Picture of Poverty (Read here)

Chronic absenteeism correlates with deep poverty–high rates of homelessness, child abuse reports, male unemployment, and low levels of parental education. In fact, the report states, chronic absenteeism is a much better index of poverty than the traditional measure of the number of children eligible for free lunch. Moreover, it’s very hard for schools to escape the pull of poverty: only a handful of schools with above-average rates of chronic absenteeism had above-average pass rates on their standardized tests for math and reading–and most scored far below,

The report points to poverty as a factor and goes on to define poverty.

The report identifies 18 “risk factors” that are associated with chronic absenteeism, both in the school building and in the surrounding neighborhood. Schools with a very high “risk load” are likely to suffer from poor attendance. Some of the school factors are: students in temporary housing; student suspensions; the perception of safety; and principal, teachers and student turnover. The neighborhood factors include: male unemployment, presence of public housing or a homeless shelter in a school’s attendance zone, adult levels of education, and involvement with the Administration for Children’s Services.

The good news is that focused attention on improved attendance can make a big difference … an inter-agency task force to improve attendance … was successful–some schools were able to improve attendance quite a lot–but rates of chronic absenteeism remain high. The rate of chronic absenteeism in elementary schools declined from 23 percent in 2009 to 19 percent 2013.

Sadly rates of chronic absenteeism have increased and during the pandemic skyrocketed as too many school districts ignore the facts.

Ed Trust, a highly regarded advocacy organization points to a number of strategies for reducing chronic absenteeism. (Read full report here)

5 Things for Advocates to Know About Chronic Absenteeism

1. Chronic absence is often hidden
2. Chronic absence is a reflection of the school and community environment
3. Punitive responses are not effective
4. Improving attendance requires prevention and early intervention
5. Reducing chronic absence requires authentic partnerships with student’s families and communities.

The NYC Department of Education deserves kudos, without fanfare the Department is addressing chronic absenteeism. Each district has a Director of Attendance, every school must design an attendance plan with specific strategies and the effectiveness of the plan is closely monitored. Attendance for every student is available at the end of each school day; chronic absenteeism and “approaching” chronic absenteeism for every student is available daily. “Insight” (See here) provides a wealth of student and school specific info.

Chronic absenteeism is 18 days or more absent. The city holds weekly meetings to create new data points to improve attendance and new strategies to improve attendance along with old strategies. The notes/directives are sent to superintendents and are encouraged to be implemented in every school.

Principals have the final say and can lead to lack of uniformity and not using best practices in all schools.

Smaller schools struggle with assigning staff to oversee attendance and usually their attendance suffers even with fewer students. 

Schools are encouraged to designate a specific staff member to contact parents of absent students as soon as possible in the school day.

In too many schools attendance fell by the wayside, it simply was not a high priority; the Chancellor is attempting to spotlight successful strategies and monitor implementation.

District staff is participating in interagency meetings, trying to coordinate actions, challenging, different agencies have different goals and the migrant student crisis only exacerbates a critical situation.

Chronic absenteeism spirals starting in pre K; and worsens in every grade. If you monitor dropouts addressing chronic absenteeism should at the top of the list.

It’s not magic.

School Governance in NYC: Mayoral Control and Alternatives

I was chatting with an Adams staffer at an event and asked,

“What’s at the top of your agenda?” 

“This week, the possibility of a bus strike, and, of course mayoral control.”

Mayoral control may determine whether a second term is in the cards for the mayor; if mayoral control is not extended the vultures will begin to circle.

The mayoral control law sunsets on 6/30/24 and if no successor law is passed reverts to the previous governance system, a seven-member board, one appointed by each boro president and two by the mayor. The previous board was paid and staffed; the selectees had impressive resumes, ex., Dean of the School of Education at Brooklyn College, banking executive, etc.

In June, 2022, after hot and heavy negotiations the legislature reluctantly approved a two year extension with modest changes (See Chalkbeat description here and the key section,

THE BOARD OF  EDUCATION  SHALL  CONSIST  OF TWENTY-THREE MEMBERS: ONE MEMBER TO BE APPOINTED BY EACH BOROUGH PRESIDENT  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK;  FIVE MEMBERS, ONE FROM EACH BOROUGH OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, TO BE ELECTED BY COMMUNITY DISTRICT EDUCATION COUNCIL PRESIDENTS; AND THIRTEEN MEMBERS TOBE APPOINTED BY THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

 The Board is unwieldy, 23 members and the desultory nature of the meetings depressing, the public gets a few minutes to speak, the non-mayoral appointees speak and the 13 mayoral appointees vote en bloc, with tweaks in the number of members and the composition of the Community Education Councils the law has been in place since 2002 and while on a few occasions the legislature came close to not passing extensions in the end mayoral control continued. 

The vast majority of the 14,000 school district across the nation are governed by elected school boards.

In the 1990s Boston moved to mayoral control and other cities followed suit. The Education Mayor (2007) finds,

… although mayoral control of schools may not be appropriate for every district, it can successfully emphasize accountability across the education system, providing more leverage for each school district to strengthen its educational infrastructure and improve student performance

Chicago, after 30 years is beginning the phase-out of mayoral control,

Starting in November 2024, Chicago voters will elect their first school board members in nearly 30 years, after state lawmakers passed a law backed by the city teachers’ union that phases out the mayor’s control over the city’s public schools. By 2027, voters will have elected all 21 members of the board

The Los Angeles elected seven-member school board represents geographic areas, is paid $125,000 per year each with at least five staff members each.

Nations Five Largest School Districts: (2016)

• *New York City Public Schools (1,081,000 students), Panel for Educational Policy – No compensation (appointed by mayor)
• * L.A. Unified (575,000 students) $125,000 (annual salary per board member)
• * Chicago Public Schools (330,000 students), no compensation (appointed by mayor)
• * Miami-Dade County Public Schools (327,000 students), $47,000 (annual salary)
• * Clark County School District, Nevada (323,000 students), $750 (monthly stipend)

New York is a young city, the formation of the city, “the Great Consolidation” (1898) was the culmination of years of political bickering, the “reformers” versus “machine politics,” (Boss Tweed et al) Read an excellent, and fascinating description of the in-fighting here, not much has changed.

The reform spirit resulted in the creation of a Board of Examiners, a quasi independent body, examinations were required for all pedagogical positions as well as supervisory positions, rank order lists promulgated and candidates were appointed to schools. The supervisory lists came under attack, in the early 70s Black and Hispanic candidates failed at a higher rate than white candidates and the Court declared the exams discriminatory (Read here), fifty years later the Courts are still enmeshed in the issue.

In the 90s the legislature abolished the Board of Examiners, the New York State Department of Education now requires tests and qualified candidates seek their own jobs.

For thirty years (1970-2002) Decentralization plodded along, a few highly effective, innovative districts and the poorest districts patronage pools for local electeds.

Bloomberg’s call for mayoral control was not opposed; Decentralization was seen as a failure. Over his twelve years Mayor Bloomberg closed 150 schools and created about 400 schools, mostly small middle and high schools and totally reorganized the system a number of times.  

Has mayoral control improved outcomes for students and increased professionalism for teachers?   In his final State of the City Address (Jan/13) Bloomberg was bitter and antagonistic towards the teachers union; his grandiose plans for molding the New York education were crumbling. His run for the presidency, 100 million dollars, never got off the ground, his recent $5 million contribution to Governor Hochul, pieces of silver in exchange for her attempting to eliminate the regional charter cap,

His final reorganization, Affinity Districts, actually was a progressive step, moving decision-making to the school level. Read an excellent analysis by Norm Fruchter here, and, the Affinity District, with 150 schools survives.

Some argue the closing of “dropout mill” high schools was essential and the creation of small personalized high schools is responsible for higher graduation rates others point to distressing high absentee rates and lackluster NAEP scores and the politization of education decision-making.

Bloomberg, de Blasio and Adams: have mayors created an effective system for all children clearly the answer is a resounding NO.

Alternatives to Mayoral Control:

• Allow mayoral control to sunset and revert to the seven-member board, one appointed by each of the five boro presidents and two by the mayor. To quote Madison:

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary

• Actual elections: one board member per boro and two at-large by Rank Choice Voting plus appointees: one by the City Council, one by the Comptroller and two by the Mayor, 

• A nine member board, five of whom must be public school parents, elected at-large by Ranked Choice Voting.

A caveat: in LA charter school supporters dumped millions into the elections and elected Board members, I fear dollars would drive the elections and I favor appointment by electeds.

Will Hochul fight to maintain mayoral control? How hard will she fight?  Will the legislature battle to replace mayoral control?

The first week in January Governor Hochul will make her State of the State speech and later in January release her preliminary budget; in 2022 she included an extension of mayoral control, while it did not make it into the budget the legislature reconfigured the Board (the Panel for Educational Priorities) mayoral control was extended for two years.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows.(and visa-versa)

City and State Education Summit: Musings on the Upcoming School Year in NYC/NYS

 Every August City and State, an online news site who delivers a summary of news and politics every morning including links to more detailed articles, sponsors an Education Summit, an education leader from the city and/or the state and a number of panels to discuss the upcoming education issues with hundreds in the audience: school and district leaders, venders, activists, organizational leaders, with time to “catch up” and smooze.

 This year NYS Commissioner of Education Betty Rosa was the keynote followed by three panels including the UFT, John Liu, the chair of the NYS Education Committee of the Senate and leaders of a number of educational organizations.  You know the opening day of school cannot be far away.

 Oddly, no one from the leadership of the NYC Department of Education was present. (Maybe all at the wedding!).

 City and State, Chalkbeat and the NY Daily News reported on the event here, here and here.

Unfortunately “if it bleeds, it leads,” dominates the news cycle.

 City and State, the most accurate report entitled their article, “City & State’s Education in New York Summit brings light to resource disparities across the state,” Chalkbeat, a more controversial lede, “Betty Rosa, New York’s top education official, raises equity concerns over class size law,” and the NY Daily News, “Commissioner Betty Rosa Warns of Strain from Class Size Law.”

 In my view the essence of Commissioner Rosa’s presentation was to emphasize the necessity to work together, all the advocates, the schools/school districts, parents, unions, a plea to put aside differences and find commonalities.

The NYC Mayor appoints about 300 commissioners, deputy commissioners, advisors who run the city, with an elected 51 member City Council with oversight responsibility, meaning they can hold hearings, aside from approving the budget the Council has limited, very limited authority. The Mayor runs the city.

The Governor appoints agency heads, judges and advisors, presents and negotiates the budget with the legislature, can veto legislation and frequently uses the budgetary process to pass laws. The Governor, with the legislature, runs the state.

 The 17-member Board of Regents is elected by a joint meeting of the state legislatures, “proposes” budgetary priorities; the educational budget is determined by the legislature and the governor. The Regents is a “policy board,” the 700 school districts and 4400 schools are led by elected local school boards.

Commissioner Rosa is selected by the Regents, the superintendents across the state are hired by the elected local school boards,

Is the current sharply divided educational governance structure effective in creating and implementing educational policy?

 The Governor/Legislature determines education dollars, Regents/State Ed set policy and the local school boards determine how to implement the policies. Curriculum is determined locally, state policy is only guidance.

Senator Liu, one of the panelists explained, in vivid detail, the lengthy battle over school funding, the CFE lawsuits (Read summary here), in the courts for over twenty years, and the legislature, led by Senator Liu finally created a funding formula that is fair, not equitable, and it is unlikely the formula will ever be equitable because a major part of the funding is local property taxes.

While school districts have wide discretion the New York City class size law implementation is statuary (Read Class Size implementation FAQ here), New York City, in spite of Mayor Adam’s reluctance, must comply. Senator Liu spoke clearly, if the city does not comply the legislature will not provide dollars, he spoke forcefully, his comments should have been the lede.

The Regents pass policy and direct the Commissioner to research/explore/create a policy document, for example, the Early Childhood Blue Ribbon Commission Final Recommendations here and the Culturally Responsive Sustaining Frameworks, excellent documents; however, school boards can ignore.

Whether a school district decides to implement is in the domain of the elected school board, and if dollars are required, up to the state legislature.

One of the panels at the Summit discussed the impact of Artificial Intelligence, Remote Learning and ChatCPT on schools, the panel agreed: the changes will be incredibly swift and we should be discussing, and, the Department of Education is clueless and the engaged in Graduation Measures.

Perhaps Governor Hochul should consider creating an Education Reform Commission, as Cuomo did in 2012, (See full Report)

The problem our State faces in preparing every student for college and career is not isolated to education, it persists in our communities: it is a cross-government, cross-sector challenge, and the bottom line is that each part of the system has to work together in fundamentally different ways to overcome the predictable barriers to college and career readiness for our students, particularly those in high poverty communities.

While the Education Reform Commission recommendations drove education policy for a decade perhaps it is time for the current governor to appoint a commission to reinvigorate the factions impacting education policy.