When Bill de Blasio replaced Michael Bloomberg as Mayor and selected Carmen Farina as Chancellor, the UFT President. Michael Mulgrew, proclaimed "there's a new tone at the DOE". However, Chancellor Carmen Farina, who had been a Deputy Chancellor under Joel Klein and only retired when the Chancellor made Eric Nadelstern his second in command over her, was really part of the problem and not the solution when it came to real change at the DOE. Chancellor Carmen Farina retained 80% of the Bloomberg policymakers and told new teachers not to listen to those complaining veteran teachers in the teachers room. For the teachers in the trenches things remain unchanged. More about the history of Carmen Farina can be found in a previous post.
In just about every school I have traveled to or speak to other teachers, they tell me how the administration and the Office of Legal Services at the DOE are going after senior teachers. The latest anecdotal evidence shows that the majority of teachers under 3020-a charges are senior teachers as are those teachers in the ATR pool. It seems that if you are a senior teacher that the DOE has painted a target on your back and the principals and ATR supervisors are their willing executioners. True, some school administrations value their senior teachers as role models and mentors but when you consider that 25% of the principals come from the infamous "Leadership Academy" and the Superintendents have told principals under their control to target their "weakest teachers", the temptation is for these principals to target senior teachers due to their salary and seniority status.
The union leadership had hoped that things would change with a new administration but the reality is "the more things change the more they remained the same".
6 comments:
The DOE knows all this. At the ATR meeting in the Bronx, a guy next to me asked one of big UFT honchos there what he thought the average age was in the room. He said I know where this going and its untrue the ATRs are not senior teachers or older; the younger ones are home taking care of their families. The UFT deserves Trump, they have betrayed us all and will lie to your face. Don't look for help from them for anything, you're on your own. They'll take your money, though.
When Ted Cruz becomes Trump's pick for Supreme Court, Friedrich's case will pass through. Goodbye UFT. Can't wait to see Jamila Hinds in a classroom teaching day after day after day under the Danielson framework bi hope that all UFT fake positions are siphoned back to classrooms. I have personally heard UFT personnel saying that they hope they never have to step foot back in a classroom. Disgusting. How do these people sleep? They don't even like kids.
Of course UFT workers do not want to be in the classroom. It is a great gig. Too bad you have to toe the Unity line to get a job there.
The DOE promotes age discrimination.
Best blog for NYC teachers is this one. It is good to see that Chaz is writing about things that really matter like the DOE/UFT when all that everyone else is writing about is Trump. The DOE is a much bigger threat to us than Trump will ever be. Teachers in NYC better open up their eyes to this fact.
The DOE is corrupt and protects corrupt principals.
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