It's National Teacher Appreciation Day but Not At The DOE - As For The ATR's Job Security Be Afraid, Very Afraid.

Today is national teacher appreciation day but you wouldn't know it at the DOE. Tweed is too busy removing teachers from the classroom on frivolous, minor, or false accusations. While practicing age discrimination on the ATR's who cannot find a classroom position. Maybe the DOE can call today "teacher disrespect day" since their idea of a good teacher is young, inexperienced, clueless about their rights and cheap! Any teacher that questions DOE directives is a troublemaker and needs to be disciplined while automatically believing accusations against teachers, no matter how ridiculous. I guess I am used to DOE's disrespect for the classroom teacher. Because what bothers me the most is our union even entertaining the idea of reopening our contract to limit the pay status of the ATR's. Yes, I know that Randi Weingarten has stated to the ATR's that she will not agree to an ATR time limit. The problem is, based on her past performance in dealing with the DOE, can we totally trust her not to reopen the contract? On the Ice blog, James Eterno's analysis of the no layoff issue needs to be looked at before you make this decision.

I was particularly disturbed that in the April 29Th New York Sun article that the UFT did negotiate with the DOE on the ATR issue and apparently on the table was an ATR time limit. Thankfully, the negotiations were stalemated and hopefully no further discussions on the ATR time limit will occur. Why did the UFT even consider reopening the contract that would allow Kleinberg a second bite at the apple? That really bothers me and makes me suspicious of the motives of our union leaders. I said this previously and I will say it again. The UFT needs to draw a line in the sand and make sure the DOE cannot step across it without severe consequences. Give Tweed and inch and they take a mile. When will Randi and her acolytes realize that dealing with Kleinberg is like dealing with the devil and your members can only get burned by the results.