Well it can now be said that the Mayor's transparent strategy to remove as many senior teachers as he could in one swift action has backfired dramatically and his sham "turnaround schools" ploy has cost the City not only significant money (58 million dollars) but what little credibility the Bloomberg Administration had in the first place. Now that the IINDEPENDENT ARBITRATOR has ruled against the City on the "turnaround schools" and put the 24 schools in utter choas , the Mayor came out and whined how the Arbitrator's logic was faulty and he hurt the children. In fact here was his quote after the City lost the arbitration.
“I can just tell you, there are 24 schools, [and] almost all students
there are minorities, single-digit-proficiency levels,” Bloomberg said.
“These kids, if they’re there for one more year, will never recover in
their entire lives.”
The Mayor whining about how it hurts the children is a result of the Mayor's temper tantrum when he didn't get what he wanted in the teacher evaluation struggle and made a poorly considered and rash decision to punish the union by imposing the "turnaround model" on 33 schools. The Mayor took a gamble and lost and instead of starting over by using an approved method to change the 24 schools he know claims that the his decision was not subject to arbitration after all and that the City should not have to abide by it. In fact all the teachers who were rejected in the 18D process are listed in the Open Market System as being in excess. Despite the UFT win, the DOE acts as if the Arbitrator's decision never happened.
The City has appealed the Arbitrator's decision and have little chance of the courts to reverse the Arbitrator's decision since it was the courts that sent it back to the Arbitrator for a decision and the City agreed only to claim, after the decision, that it should not have been subject to arbitration in the first place.
For the Mayor, when you play a high risk game by rolling the dice you can lose and now you cry about it?
And why are almost all the students at these schools "minorities, single-digit-proficiency levels"? Is it because all the "better" students were moved to the Emperor's small new schools, leaving the staff at the Chosen 24 to try to bring forth water from the hardest of rocks?
ReplyDeleteOne more point, Mr. Emperor: a human being is not a "minority, single-proficiency level." A human being sweats, bleeds, emotes, excretes, just like you, even though you are fain to admit it. And every blessed one of them is a member of a minority---the sacred minority of ONE unique soul. Some of them do score low on certain measures of proficiency, just as you, Mr. Emperor, score low on measures of humility and empathy.
I do not even know what to say about this any more. Other than absolute power corrupts absolutely. At some point people will look back at this administration and shake their heads, saying how did we get so stupid as to allow this?
ReplyDeleteThe city agreed to the arbitrator, the arbitration was expedited and binding and you correctly note that the state Supreme Court referred the case to arbitration. Even if the mayor could bribe someone to over turn the decision, the unions would take it to the highest court in the state the Appelate, where the arbitrators decision would be upheld. How well will the 24 schools run this fall with many new principals placed in the school by Tweed? Check out the report by Eric Nadelstern as he breaks ranks with the Bloomberg administration and exposes themyth of the Bloomberg education miracle.
ReplyDeleteMr. Bloomberg, Bloomberg LLC is all yours, not a public company. The city of New York is not your property. Get over it.
ReplyDeleteGo back to The Federalist. We have divided government to prevent the kind of self-centered aggrandizement that you are illustrating. In a generation, honest social studies teachers and professors a will cite as a textbook example of executive power run amok.
I have not heard from anyone, one concrete suggestion on how to change the poor minority districts. It has been this way since the white flight of the 1960's. Is there a real solution.? You can realisticaly fix the problems of poverty. Poor districts almost always fail.
ReplyDeleteI simply went in and tried to do my best to teach those inner city kids. I brought my engineering degree and stayed to create engaging lessons. You know what the DOE did? They sent me to the rubber room because I asked about the budget. This is not about the kids. Children are last.
DeleteFuck Uncle Mike!
ReplyDeletePardon my language.