It is no secret that his Emperor, Mayor4Life Michael Bloomberg wants to eliminate senior teachers by any means possible. Be it eliminating "last in first out", impose renewable tenure, or get rid of ATRs. Of course the easiest of the three would be the ATRs by claiming that they do not have a classroom position. Therefore, look for the Emperor to go after the ATRs. However, Bloomberg has no chance of achieving his goals unless the union lets him. See, the ATRs were created by the ex-Chancellor Joel Klein who allowed Principals to hire "newbie teachers" without selecting teachers on the excessed list. Randi Weingarten foolishly agreed to let the DOE do this as long as there were no time limits imposed on the ATRs. Now that it cost over $100 million dollars annually , the hypocrite ex-Chancellor complains that they want them fired. Well you created the ATR crises and the only way to resolve it is to put the ATRs back in the classroom that they belong in in the first place. I'm sure you've noticed that Bloomberg did not demand to fire deskbound uniform service personnel. It is just his way of going after senior teachers who he seems to hate with a passion.
That brings us up to Michael Mulgrew who seems strangely quiet as the Emperor and his minions keep blasting the teachers in the media and even tried to get the new Governor, Andrew Cuomo to include it in his speech (he failed). Granted, the union is probably quietly making sure that what Bloomberg and Black want, they won't get. However, I am concerned that our union's tactic to secretly negotiate with the DOE only to come out on the short end makes me very nervous.
It is time for the union to remind the members that there will be no retreat on tenure, seniority, and the ATRs. Let's be pro-active not reactive. Randi Weingarten is gone, stop reminding us of her failed leadership when negotiating with the DOE.
13 comments:
I agree and even the NY Post got it right. Today the Post reveals or retells the fact that the DOE failed to support many of the schools Bloomberg has closed and in fact, created the failed environment by loading up registers with hard to educate students. The story fails to look into the other result of this action those schools no doubt had the highest safety incidents. Mulgrew & Co had better now firmly place the blame on Bloomberg for the ATR mess. ATR teachers are victims of the closing schools as are the communities that house these schools. Bloomberg is an evil doer....
Your living in fairly land if you do not think there are going to be drastic changes. Only a few months ago, radical changes were made to 3020-a and non of them were good for us. The problem is that Blommie has the support of the people. The union will probably put all that it has to preserve pensions (a very big money item) and tenure in some form. Beyond that, look for LIFO to be out the window with ATR's being first to go. Think about it; if your going to have to lay teachers off who should be the first to go? Teachers already excessed, teachers who could not find a job within a period of time and former 3020-a teachers who were not fired. It really is a no-brainer.
Anon 9:00
"...if your going to have to lay teachers off who should be the first to go? Teachers already excessed, teachers who could not find a job within a period of time and former 3020-a teachers who were not fired. It really is a no-brainer."
It is anything but a no-brainer. Teachers can't find jobs because principals purposely won't hire them. For budgetary reasons that the DOE cooked up, (and UFT wrongly allowed), and Leadership Principals who are intimidated by experienced teachers, there is no way the UFT leadership should let the DOE off the hook.
ATR's must be given positions.
Their lack of a job is based on fraudulent school closings.
"Bloomberg has the will of the people"....what a CROC. Number one. Bloomberg is now nearly universally despised, and squeaked out a third term election that he bought-through owning the press, and in effect, bribing most of the City Council. People despise this little dictator. He was supposed to win by landslide, yet he won by a hair. Bloomberg has "the will" of The Press, or the lack of their will thereof. And this they are beginning to sense, makes him all the more despicable. He is criminal in his powerplay.
I agree with Pogue
LIFO MUST be changed. Anyone in the right mind can't actually believe it is the best thing for our children.
Who says a 6th year teacher is automatically better than a 5th year teacher. Or a 5th year teacher is automatically better than a 4th year teacher. With the possibility 15,000 + teachers being laid off we must ensure the best teachers for our children are in place. This has nothing to do with Bloomberg, Mulgrew, the Union or even you Chaz. This is about the children and I believe in your anger to Bloomberg, Mulgrew and the Union is preventing you from seeing the big picture. We need to educate our youth to the best of our abilities.
Anon: 5:02
And who will determine teacher evaluation? The Principal of course. Maybe you are comfortable with that. Take a look at this.
http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2011/01/retaining-of-iris-blige-as-principal-at.html
Until there is a fair evaluation system LIFO is the rule.
If seniority is such a useless and terrible thing, we should start abolishing it from the very top, namely, chairmen of various congress committees, senate, police and all other civil services from federal to state and local.
Even most private companies abide by some degree of seniority rules in layoffs and promotions.
It is sickening out there.
Bloomie is our leader. He won. You might not like it, but that is life. The public very much supports getting rid of public pensions as most of the private sector does not have what we have and many junior teachers are better than the senior teachers. Of course, there needs to be a balance and the problem will be with the evaluation. The system stinks. But it is not about the teachers. It is not about the union. It is about the students.
ATR's who could not find a job after a reasonable amount of time (probably a semester, if that) are going to be the first to go. Then look for some combo of seniority and performance.
The union will have to put all its might behind saving pensions and benefits. Look for tenure to be further limited, by increasing the probationary period and further limiting 3020-a, but something will remain.
If the UFT is able to accomplish that, it would be a major victory. If your an ATR, you need to take a job-any job and quick.
If you know anything about politics, neither the Mayor or the UFT ever gets everything they want. You have to look at the proposals and find the middle ground. Usually it is easy to spot-such as nominally getting rid of some rubber rooms, a faster process and less due process protections. Yet 3020-a remains and teachers remain on the payroll during the process. I do not support this, but please just try to look at this objectively and you will see I am right.
To anon 6:38:
agree with most of your post. For teachers and UFT, a perfect solution is out of the question, there is not even decent ones. The only solution we may have is a messy one or a messier one.
Professional seniority and job experience, even if it's legally mandated, should be abolished,proleetariat civil service workers, EXCEPT in the case of billionaire oligarch mayors. For those situations, "experience" and expertise overturns democratic law,and the billionaire should be allowed to remain in office after his legislated two terms of office.
Also, will this abolishment of seniority also apply to NYPD? Does experience matter on that job? How about the NYFD? Does experience mater on THYAT job, or should workers be rotated out of their positions after 5 years for new, fresh bodies?
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