Sunday, July 08, 2012

The Mayor And The DOE Put Their Collective Foot In Their Mouth According To The Arbitrator In His Ruling Against THe Sham Turnaround Policy.



The Mayor demanded what the rationale was for the Arbitrator to rule against the City i9n its sham "turnaround policy" of the 24 schools. Well, late on Friday the Arbitrator published his decision and he ruled against the City and the DOE based upon their own words. Talking about putting your "foot in your mouth". Gotham Schools reported the Arbitrator's decision and the actual document and it can be found here. The Arbitrator's reasoning was that the DOE's circular reasoning to close and reopen the schools was based not what was best for the students but what was best for the Bloomberg Administration's goal in getting rid of unwanted teachers (usually senior and expensive) from the schools.

The Arbitrator stated that the City can still pursue the "turnaround option" if they so choose, except they cannot use it as a method to remove teachers since the biases for the City to use the "turnaround option" was to remove teachers not to close the schools. Furthermore, despite the conditional approval the City received from the NYSED Commissioner, John King, the Arbitrator stated that in any definition "newmeans a school that does not exist" not just a name change. Finally, the Arbitrator used the Mayor's and DOE's own words against them as they both made statements that the "turnaround method" was based upon the removal of teachers and not what was best for the students. In fact here are some of the statements made by Mayor Bloomberg and the DOE that the Arbitrator used against them.

Mayor Bloomberg: ”Under this process, the best teachers stay; the least effective go.”

Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg also suggested that the school closings were inauthentic, the arbitrator concludes, when he wrote in a memorandum to principals shortly after Bloomberg’s speech explaining that their schools would be closed “as a technical matter”.

The Arbitrator also brought in the Mayor's dislike of the "last in, first out" (LIFO) laws and how he tried to get rid of it the previous year, He also criticized the Chancellor for wasting time and energy on removing teachers rather than obtaining funds for the students. Based upon what was said by the Mayor, the Chancellor, and the DOE he ruled that the closing of the 24 schools was a method to eliminate teachers and not to help the students or actually change the schools.

The Emperor and his royal Administrators lose yet again when they demand it's their way or the highway.only to get run over by a truck called the legal system.


2 comments:

TeachmyclassMrMayor said...

It is still not going to stop them. And while they will not be successful, until the UFT stops playing nice, and starts dealing with Tweed, the way CTU is dealing with their bully mayor, it will all take longer than it needs to.

Chaz said...

I agree with you and I already see signs that the DOE will not abandon their version of "turnaround" and will not allow the teachers not selected yo return to their appointments without a UFT lawsuit to force them to abide by the rukes.