Unity's Spin Zone Strikes Once Again. With Lies And Fabrications.

Reading the various opposition blogs, I was surprised that the Unity caucus actually criticized MORE/NAC and Solidarity for their support of the "opt out" movement and falsely claimed that caused the State to remove some schools from the rewards program of up to $75,000 (most got far less and most schools received nothing).  At the Delegate Assembly the Unity caucus distributed a flyer criticizing the opposition for supporting the "opt out" movement and costing reward money to some public schools (8 in all last year).  I would like to remind our disconnected union leadership it was last year's "opt out" by parents and students that caused Governor Andrew Cuomo to see his poll numbers plunge and to change course on his punitive teacher evaluation system.  Not union pressure. Moreover, combined with another year of large "opt out" numbers, the State Education Department and Regents have promised to radically change the teacher evaluation system, especially the secretive testing items.  Finally, with the NYSED loss of the Lederman lawsuit, look for a the Value Added Method to become more realistic, I hope.

Back to the misleading Unity caucus flyer.  An uninformed teacher might actually believe the spin that the Unity leadership was behind the scene in getting Governor Cuomo to change his position and that the "opt out" movement hurts the students and schools, both lies and fabrications. The "opt out" movement was the reason for the four year moratorium on the high stakes State testing for 3-8 grades, not the union pressure.  Remember, Michael Mulgrew threatened to punch you in the face for opposing his Common Core tests, does that sound like someone fighting for our rights or parroting the education deormer policy?  You pick.

For more information on the Unity caucus flyer, read Ed Notes online, NYC Educator, and the ICEUFT blogs for what the Unity spin machine actually states..