Another fun meeting today. I'll report on the fun day tonight but if you are around join us after the meeting at 3 at the bar White Horse Tavern for eats and drinks. Here's our handout which will be included when the ballot goes out. Question period at ...
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"Ed Notes Online" - 5 new articles

  1. Expect The Usual Fiasco- Today 1-3 - UFT Retiree chapter meeting followed by Retiree Advocate Meetup at Local Bar
  2. UFT Bits - Backdoor (sellout) deal on mayoral control?
  3. UFT's 3 Consequential Elections: Petitions are in and the Game is On
  4. Time to End it and Adams' incompetence may be a magic bullet: Mayor attacks on NYSED Mayoral control report
  5. Teacher Retiree System (TRS) Pension Election - Why You Should Care and Vote for Ben
  6. More Recent Articles

Expect The Usual Fiasco- Today 1-3 - UFT Retiree chapter meeting followed by Retiree Advocate Meetup at Local Bar

 Another fun meeting today. I'll report on the fun day tonight but if you are around join us after the meeting at 3 at the bar White Horse Tavern for eats and drinks.

 Here's our handout which will be included when the ballot goes out  



 

 

Question period at yesterday’s
@UFT
exec bd meeting. Exec board member, Ronnie Almonte asks: Welfare fund – our investment was 200 million a few years ago, now 600 million, but benefits haven’t increased. I’ve had the same experience as the open mic speaker. Joe Usatch: I will investigate. Investigate? Translation of paid bureaucrat: You’re being SHUNNED!


 

           

UFT Bits - Backdoor (sellout) deal on mayoral control?

Always watch what the UFT does, not what it says -- Fiddling with the PEP Will NOT do it  --- The wisdom of Norm

Tuesday, April 16, 2024


Time to End it and Adams' incompetence may be a magic bullet: Mayor attacks on NYSED Mayoral control report

This recent Ed Notes headline was too optimistic. The absolute incompetence of the Adams/Banks school administration apparently will not be enough to kill mayoral control. And the UFT, a key player, will whine about how bad they are but will not do anything to make it better for its members.
 
I've always maintained that the UFT/Unity crowd will never let Mayoral control lapse no matter their rhetoric about how bad the school system has been run over the past two decades. They don't really care how bad mayors perform - they care about their own power and the ability to negotiate with one administration rather then disperse power into the hands of groups they feel they cannot control, which they perceive as a threat to their hegemony -- that includes dispersing power to rank and file teachers at the school level. UFT/Unity doesn't want to empower their own members -- they want to control the members.
 
So, in recent months we heard Mulgrew criticize mayoral control and ask for changes - which I call tweaks, rather than a distribution of power. Then Monday we hear there is a deal of sorts where Adams would keep control if he would implement the class size law he has refused to implement so far.

This reminds me of those vigilantes who hold your computers ransom until you pay.

There can only be a deal if the UFT is somehow involved and watch them declare victory.

 
From the Chalkbeat article:
For months, lawmakers have argued the future of the city’s polarizing school governance structure should be determined outside of the budget process. But during last-minute negotiations on the two-weeks-late budget, the possibility of extending mayoral control reentered discussions.
 
Leonie speaks: no backdoor deal on mayoral control!

Last week the State Education Department released an excellent report, summarizing the public testimony at the borough hearings and in writing on Mayoral control, and analyzing our NYC school governance system compared to others across the country. The report contained recommendations about how the system should be changed, by giving more voice to parents and other stakeholders, revamping the composition of the Panel for Educational Policy, and establishing a Commission to propose more fundamental changes.

Then this afternoon, there was a lot of chatter on Twitter and elsewhere that a deal was imminent to give Adams two more years of mayoral control in the budget, in exchange for some minor tweaks and concessions (?) on class size. Yet soon after, Governor Hochul held a press conference and said no deal on Mayoral control has yet been finalized.

So it's urgent: please send a message to your Legislators tonight; urge them to provide more checks and balances, transparency and parent voice in the running of our schools - because twenty years of Mayoral control has NOT worked for NYC students. If you're not convinced, check out our point by point rebuttal of DOE talking points put out over the weekend; and an explanation of how the system has failed in terms of real accountability here.

But please send an email to your legislators tonight -- before its too late.

And share this message with others who care.

thanks, Leonie

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters

 Another news report:

Mayoral control of NYC schools is back from the dead in state budget talks, key lawmaker says - Gothamist

 

State lawmakers are discussing a possible short-term extension of mayoral control of New York City's school system, though it would come with significant strings attached, according to a key lawmaker in Albany.

State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the New York City education committee of the State Senate, confirmed on Monday that mayoral control is back on the table in ongoing discussions on New York's next budget. Mayoral control is currently due to expire at the end of June, despite Mayor Eric Adams' opposition to it lapsing.

Gov. Kathy Hochul recently raised the issue again in budget talks, two weeks after legislative leaders all but declared it dead as part of the state's spending plan, Liu told Gothamist. But he suggested that, if lawmakers agree to extend mayoral control of the city's schools, it would come with a mechanism to ensure the Adams administration complies with looming class-size restrictions, which state lawmakers approved the last time they extended mayoral control in 2022.

“The mayor wants accountability, and so we’re looking for ways to make him accountable,” Liu said. “The governor has brought up mayoral control in the negotiations, and we're looking at the issue.”

Adams and his schools chancellor David Banks have strongly advocated for an extension, arguing they should remain in charge of the city's schools because it’s the best way for them to be held accountable and impose order on the nation’s largest school system. But many educators and parents have called for change, saying the mayor is too far removed from the day-to-day reality of schools.

Hochul included a four-year extension of mayoral control in her $233 billion state budget proposal in January. But legislative leaders signaled by early April that it hadn’t been a serious part of budget negotiations.

Adams’ administration still kept pushing the issue, with Banks traveling to the state Capitol earlier this month to urge lawmakers to consider putting it in the spending plan. “We think we’ve done a great job in rebuilding trust with our families and our communities, and we’ve been delivering real results,” Banks said in Albany on April 2.

Asked a day later whether mayoral control would be in a final budget agreement, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Yonkers, flatly said “no.”

Now, Liu says any possible extension would include "substantial guarantees" for the city to follow through on the mandates of the state class-size law, a major goal of the United Federation of Teachers union and many New York City parents. Democratic lawmakers are expected to discuss the issue behind closed doors on Monday afternoon.

The law requires a significant reduction of class sizes in the city’s public schools over time. Adams argues the city cannot make those changes without more funding from the state.

When the law is fully implemented, kindergarten through third-grade classes will be capped at 20 students, fourth- through eighth-grade classes will be capped at 23 students, and high-school classes will be capped at 25 students. The city’s Independent Budget Office has estimated that almost 18,000 teachers would need to be hired to meet the mandate, at a cost of up to $1.9 billion per year.

New York City would also have to identify more space for the smaller classrooms. Reducing class sizes is generally popular with parents, but some say they worry about increased competition for certain schools and programs.

The latest talks on another extension of mayoral control come days after the state Education Department released a lengthy review recommending possible reforms. Legislators required the review as part of the 2022 extension of mayoral control, which was for two years.

The nearly 300-page report called for more opportunities for input from families and educators and stronger checks and balances around mayoral control. It noted that New York City currently gives the mayor more power over education than any other school district in the country.

Under that system, the mayor selects the schools chancellor and appoints a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy, an oversight board that votes on school-related contracts and other matters. The non-mayoral members are elected by parent councils or appointed by borough presidents, and some of them have said they feel powerless because the mayor appoints most of the panel.

The state Education Department's report did not ultimately offer clear recommendations on the fate of mayoral control. Instead, it called for a commission to further study the issue.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Albany continue to negotiate the finer points of the broader state budget, which is expected to total $235 billion once approved. It was due before the start of the state’s fiscal year on April 1, but the Gov. Hochul has struggled to reach consensus with lawmakers on a final deal. Lawmakers have approved four short-term budget extenders to keep the state’s payroll running.

As of Friday, the governor and legislative leaders were closing in on an agreement on the hotly contested issue of housing policy. If a housing deal is reached, that could clear the major remaining hurdle to a final budget. But tenant and landlord advocates aren’t pleased with the emerging deal.

The state Senate and Assembly’s Democratic majorities are expected to hold closed-door conferences on the final remaining issues on Monday afternoon and evening.

 

           

UFT's 3 Consequential Elections: Petitions are in and the Game is On

Saturday, April 13, 2024

The UFT holds spring chapter elections every 3 years and 2024 may turn out to be one of the more consequential elections in its over 6 decade history. 

I've always maintained that chapter elections every 3 years are more important than the officer/exec bd elections which also take place every three years, a year later than the chapter elections (spring 2025). Chapter elections can be precursors of possible weaknesses in the Unity machine. I always have hope that we will see some changes, hope that is often unfulfilled. But there are always glimmers. 

Over the past few days, petitions were turned in for 3 consequential elections taking place in the UFT: TRS, Retirees and Paras, each one with some level of future consequences for the union. But together they represent a serious challenge to the 6 decade Unity Caucus hegemony. 

TRS Election

I've been covering the unexpected election in the Teacher Retirement System, the first in 40 years, with the challenge mounted by Ben Morgenroth to the Unity candidate.  I receive the mailed petitions and they came in from schools and people I've never heard of, evidence of surprising grass roots support. The campaign committee met the other day to review the petitions before handing them in and in a short campaign there were over 1600. We needed a thousand.

There are lots of reasons to support Ben's campaign - which I elucidated the other day: Teacher Retiree System (TRS) Pension Election - Why You Should Care and Vote for Ben.

What I didn't mention was the energy and enthusiasm coming from Ben himself and how he has galvanized an election that 6 weeks ago he wasn't aware existed. I've known Ben for a few years and he has made his bones on his fantastic analysis of the horrors of Tier 6 and has placed it front and center and has spurred the leadership out of its lethargy to try to make a few modest changes to undercut the threat to them given that 55% of the members are in Tier 6. Unity will try to take credit - despite the fact they put up no opposition when Cuomo instituted Tier 6 in 2012 with Bloomberg's support. I'm guessing in their thinking they were trading off the pensions of future members in exchange for a hoped contract. 

Read James Eterno comments from 2012: 

See the Tier 6 slides prepared by Ben.

Let's face reality. The incompetent DOE is running the elections in the schools and there is no institutional memory of how to even run an election and Unity has loads of chapter leaders in the schools. But the outcome will offer an insight to how strong that Unity machine is. Leadership is very much perturbed that they even have to bother campaigning. Since we rotate the 3 pension reps every 3 years, there is an election held every year. I hope there is someone running to challenge the Unity reps every time. Make them defend their turf on every field.

Remember, retirees don't vote in this election. Someone left a comment on Ed Notes asking how functional chapters will vote in this election on May 8 and here was the response to Ben:

We have not finalized the election process yet – we are likely going through qualified members directly rather than principals to avoid the issues that you’ve mentioned below. We do not have an obligation to have the final process in place until early May – when it is finalized, we will share.
Oy! This will go well.

A tale of the two largest functional chapter elections totaling almost 100,000 UFT members

Retiree Chapter election: A win for RA over Unity would be bigger than last week's earthquake - 7.0 on union political Richter Scale
 
RA turned in a full slate of 300 candidates, the first time we were able to do this. Ballots go out on May 10 and we have a leaflet included, which I will share in a few days. We are handing it out at the chapter meeting this Tuesday. And party at the White Horse Tavern after.


Three years ago Retiree Advocate ran against Unity in the Unity dominated retired teacher chapter, which with its 60-70 thousand members, helps decide the general UFT election. The health care changes, which leadership tried to keep undercover before the election, had just been exposed, but too late for us to campaign on that issue. Still, we received 30% of the vote, doubling from the year before. In the general election two years ago, 27,000 retirees voted out of 52,000 votes -- that is enormous and the UFC slate received the same 30% a year after the Medicare Advantage scandal broke, a disappointment.

Can we make up the difference this time? Unity seems worried that we have a chance to win this time, which would cause cataclysmic changes in the UFT and offer an opportunity to actually topple Unity and Mulgrew in the 2025 general election - if the opposition manages to get itself together - a big IF. 
 
Can we close the 70-30% gap? There seems to be a bit of apprehension in the halls of Unity, and even rumors Tom Murphy may be dumped as CL. I speculated about Carmen Alvarez replacing him last month when she gave a long presentation at the March RTC meeting. (Unity has not announced its candidates as of this date, but the betting is on Murphy because Mulgrew values fealty over competence). Carmen spoke mostly about paras, which is interesting. There were rumors lasts summer that Unity was so worried about the RTC election it considered removing paras from the RTC into its own retiree chapter but that clearly hasn't happened - yet. Instead they are moving to turn the 7000 retired paras into a force for themselves by gathering their contact info and all of a sudden taking an interest in them and pushing to organize working paras in the chapter election to counter the impact of a loss in the retiree election. (See para election story below). Arthur has a great report on the March meeting:
Can we win and do we have to?
 
Assume a Unity loyalty vote of 16-18 thousand but add some erosion we hear from some people. Assume gains for RA over the last few years from their losses but also from new voters. Still a big gap. UFT pundits believe that even if RA doesn't win, closing the gap into a 55-45 range is still a game changer because it opens up the possibility of making up the difference in the general election a year later. Smelling a possible opposition win would shed some Unity supporters who don't want to be on a losing side.

The wild card here is Marianne Pizzatola and her massive outreach to retirees. The Chief did a big story on her the other day.
 
She has the outreach to mobilize UFT retirees who had not voted before, which is crucial.
 

UFT Paras for A Fair Contract

 
Fix Para Pay Now - The Para chapter election: Say What? 
An election in the para chapter? Holy Cow. Well there was one last year with 5 candidates opposing the Unity gang and two were elected. I had a report on the election: Contentious UFT Para Chapter Election - Does Unity... and some updated info here.
 
So Unity for the first time instituted slate voting for the para chapter, pointing to the fact that this election is almost as major for Unity as the retiree election, with 27K paras in the system. If Fix Para Pay Now slate carves out a substantial vote, that can be another major threat to Unity in the 2025 general election. 
 
There's a petition - the Fix Para Pay petition - going around and signed by thousands of paras -- will they be a force in this election?

Arthur has some background: Those Wacky UFT Bosses and Their Zany Antics

Let’s go to another issue—[Unity's] abysmal treatment of paraprofessionals. For one thing, Unity thinks paraprofessionals are too stupid to select their own representatives. That’s why elected members of the Unity Patronage Cult have offices and jobs. That’s why Migda Rodriguez, an elected non-Unity member, is working full-time as a paraprofessional, with no office, no time off, no UFT job, and not even a UFT email. How stupid does UFT Unity think paraprofessionals are? Last week, they butchered a resolution at Executive Board. Paraprofessionals should demand change, but not “meaningfully.” They doubled down at the Delegate Assembly, saying paras already have it pretty good, and shouldn’t bother negotiating for a living wage. However, Unity has not totally neglected the paras. Last weekend, they gave them a fancy party. And their Unity leader has now given them a handbook. Who needs a living wage when you have a party and a handbook?
More from Arthur: Paraprofessionals Need a Raise, Not a Tip

Migda has a newsletter. Read it here.

Unity is on the attack and trying to recruit 300 paras to run on their slate. We hear they are not having an easy time of it.

To summarize:

If the outcomes don't go Unity's way -- like taking a big bite out of their majority, these 3 concurrent elections represent a threat to Unity and would encourage a united opposition in 2025. If not, it may be time for some golf.

 

AfterBurn

It's hard to judge where things are going at the 1800 or so schools where the chapter leader and at least one delegate from each school will be elected and can influence the delegate assembly, which is packed with Unity delegates and staffers and an big influx of delegates representing the functional chapters like retirees and paras. The caucuses are doing training for chapter leaders and delegates who want to run. But they have always done trainings and even brag about how many of their people are elected. But I go to the DA every month and the number of oppo people are very slim, though even these few can have an impact. 

And for a bonus:

Junket City

How Unity spends our dues from April Adcom:

 Motion:      To send 9 members to the National Association of School Nurses Conference on June 28-July 1, 2024 in Chicago, IL at a cost of $2,568 per person. (9x2568= 23,112)
 
Motion:       To send 1 member to the Early Educators Leadership Conference on October 16-19, 2024 in Washington, DC, at a cost of $3,030. (3,030)

Motion:       To send 3 members to the National Art Education Association National Convention on April 4-7, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN at a cost of $1,982 per person. (3x1,982 = 5,946)
 
                                            Carried
 
Motion:       To send 5 members to the Coalition of Labor Union Women National Executive Board and 50th Anniversary Gala on May 8-11, 2024 in Niagara Falls at a cost of $1,461 per person. (5x1,461 = 7,305)
 
                                            Carried
 
Motion:       To send 4 members to the IEL-National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference on May 29-31, 2024, in Atlanta, GA at a cost of $2,595 per person. (4x2595= 10,380)

total = $49,773

And this:

 Motion: To authorize up to 50 retirees to participate in the 2024 AFT Convention and retiree activities associated with the Convention.
                                            Carried
 Let's Estimate the cost -- plane fair, hotel, meals --- let's call it 2 grand per x 50 --- $100,000.

And Jonathan reports:

UFT Welfare Fund nest egg – bigger than most nests

Do you smell the rot?

           

Time to End it and Adams' incompetence may be a magic bullet: Mayor attacks on NYSED Mayoral control report

“Research indicates that there is no conclusive relationship between school governance structures and student achievement,” the report reads. It added that there was no substantial evidence that mayoral control reduces educational inequities.
UPDATE:
Join #TalkOutofSchool, Sun 4/14 at 7 PM on

@WBAI
99.5 FM. I chat w/
@DrKYSR
Kaliris Salas-Ramirez &
@leoniehaimson
Leonie Haimson abt the newly released NYSED report on mayoral control of
@NYCSchools
. We discuss findings, recommendations & impact.  wbai.org
 
Tuesday, April 10

Even before Bloomberg did his hostile takeover of the NYC school system in 2002, I was taking positions opposing it and the UFT support and lack of opposition to the coming disaster. I knew about mayoral control from George Schmidt in Chicago and kept warning Randi and the UFT repeatedly in Ed Notes. When we founded ICE in late 2003, opposition to mayoral control was one of the unifying points. No other opposition caucus took a position as I remember. It was about that time when I met Leonie Haimson from Class Size Matters who also took a position against MC and has continued to do so since then. Here is her recent post on her listserve.
GET STUFF DONE - POORLY

Adams and other mayors love MC because it gives them a massive field for patronage. You know in the good old days of so-called community control there was also plenty of patronage but at the local level. Often people in the community. I'd still take that over handing control of an entire school system to any one person. As for the UFT, they want some tweaking, though the Adams admin level of control has even pushed Mulgrew to take a stronger stance. Here are Leonie's comments.


Mayor attacks on NYSED Mayoral control report

News links:

https://gothamist.com/news/state-report-points-to-reforming-mayoral-control-of-nyc-schools

He attacked CUNY School of Law’s involvement in the report and hinted that he believed the school was biased against him. He referenced an episode last year when CUNY Law graduates turned their backs on him while he delivered a commencement speech. He also said the education department made a mistake by not delving more deeply into school governance models and student achievement data.

But the report did in fact compare models of school governance.

“Research indicates that there is no conclusive relationship between school governance structures and student achievement,” the report reads. It added that there was no substantial evidence that mayoral control reduces educational inequities.

https://x.com/bern_hogan/status/1777736090612289921Today,

@NYCMayor

continued on CUNY: "You know, 'let's turn our backs on Eric Adams. Let's talk about how great or how bad America is.' And the keynote speaker was from Yemen, when she would not even be on the stage and speak in the country. I'm not comfortable with that.”

He had already criticized the report last week before it had been released on the same grounds: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2024/04/03/mayoral-control-extension-in-final-state-budget-unlikely--lawmakers-say

See also:

https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/04/09/key-report-on-mayoral-control-of-nyc-public-schools-finds-parents-teachers-feel-shut-out-adams-albany/
 
 
           

Teacher Retiree System (TRS) Pension Election - Why You Should Care and Vote for Ben

Friday, April 5, 2024
 

Teacher Pension Election - Why You Should Care

by Norm Scott

There is an upcoming election for one of the three teacher trustees of our pension system (TRS) where working TRS members will have the chance to choose between the two candidates who are running (retirees can't vote). The election will be held in the schools on May 8, 2024.


Why should you care? 

Because the health and longevity of your pension relies on three teacher trustees along with two mayoral appointees, the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) president, and the NYC Comptroller overseeing all our investments. These seven officials are supposed to ensure that our pension is sound and investments are thriving far into the future.

Over the past decades, all trustees, most without a degree in finance or economics or any relevant private sector investment experience, have acted under the instructions of the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership and fundamentally continue to rubber stamp the decisions made by Wall Street investors who earn significant fees that are not always transparent. They are pressured to vote as a bloc and not to ask questions of the TRS investors. 


Now we have the chance to vote for Brooklyn Tech Advanced Placement math teacher Ben Morgenroth in the TRS election on May 8. He brings with him actual classroom experience with degrees in mathematics and economics, along with private sector financial and investment experience. He will ask informed questions to those tasked with securing our pensions and will act independently of the dictums of Michael Mulgrew — who has been at the helm as our healthcare and pension benefits have diminished. 


Morgenroth’s membership on the Board will ensure we have the professional and knowledgeable oversight we need to protect our pensions.


Note: Candidates need one thousand signatures to get on the ballot and the petitioning will be wrapping up in a week. You can still get signatures at your school by downloading the petition here. Make sure to sign off at the bottom to certify the signature.

 

 
           

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