After reading about the Fort Greene Success Academy's
"got to go" list, I decided to make up my own "
got to go" list if our teaching profession would become that respected and admired profession it once was. What follows is my
"got to go" list.
Michael Mulgrew:
As President of the UFT, Michael Mulgrew has been a huge failure He has followed in the footsteps of the
great appeaser, Randi Weingarten that has made the teaching in the New York City schools a living hell with
"giveback" laden contracts that were short on money and back-loaded, and long on promises that have failed to materialize. Michael Mulgrew supports the Common Core, the teacher evaluation system, opposed the
"opt out" movement, allowed ATRs to become second class citizens, and according to an ex-insider, allegedly fails to address e-mails sent to him by the members. Michael Mulgrew leads the
disconnected leadership that has not made the teaching profession better but worse under his and Randi's tenure.
Chancellor Carmen Farina:
Known as the disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina came in with great promise and it was hoped that she would
"clean house" and get rid of the ideological Bloomberg policymakers. However, except for replacing a few top people the
Bloomberg 300 remained in their policy-making positions and the
"gotcha" system at Tweed continues. Moreover, the infamous
"fair student funding" remains in place and the bloated DOE Bureaucracy continues to spend money on their pet projects and paying the high-priced consultants rather than funding schools. Finally, she has frozen school budgets, failed to reduce class size, maintained the ATR pool, and failed to hire
"effective teachers" for the renewal schools. She has proven to be more the problem than the solution.
Leadership Academy Principals:
Chancellor Carmen Farina claimed that 400 principals should not be running their schools, many of them from the infamous
"Leadership Academy". However, few were removed and the DOE's Bloomberg 300 protects them. Some examples are
Namita Dwarka and
Jose Cruz. Despite all the issues associated with them and their schools they still are in charge! Unfortunately, 20% of the schools have a
"Leadership Academy Principal", it would be extremely difficult to remove them all but the Chancellor could have at least started with the list in my
principals to avoid post
ATR Field Supervisors:
A waste of money and their only purpose is to harass ATRs into resigning or retiring. The money can be better spent in gi
ving schools the chance to hire ATRs by giving them an extra teaching position rather than hire these
assassins.
Educators 4 Excellence:
The so
ck puppets and stooges of education reform groups such as Democrats for Education Reform and StudentsFirst while being funded by Bill Gates. This fringe group consists mostly of "newbie" teachers and many from Teach For America. Few last beyond two years or receive tenure before leaving for greener pastures. The sooner they disappear the better.
Useless Professional Development:
I can confidently say all the Monday and Tuesday Professional Development has been a waste of time as it rotates around Common Core and rigor. None of the PD has made me a better teacher or anyone else for that matter. The time could be better served by tutoring students who want and need extra help.
Paperwork:
Despite assurances by Michael Mulgrew and Carmen Farina that unecessary paperwork would be eliminated, the opposite is true. The DOE and State have, if anything, increased the paperwork requirements in their single-minded quest for more data mining. In fact ask the District 75 schools how much paperwork they must do on their own time, just to keep up with the special education requirements imposed by the City and State on the teacher. In one school the Principal told the teachers to have their paraprofessionals run the class so that the paperwork can get done.
Governor Cuomo:
The governor's ill-advised punitive teacher evaluation system and the "opt out" movement has caused his education policy to drag down his poll numbers with only
28% supporting it. If this continues he will be going and he will no longer be on my
"got to go" list.
This is my
"got to go" list and you are invited to recommend and add to it in my comment section.