The Sweetheart Endorsement Our Union Gave Mayor Bill De Blasio.

Last week Michael Mulgrew announced, without member input,  the endorsement of Mayor Bill de Blasio for reelection.  What "takebacks" did our disconnected union leadership negotiate with the Mayor to get the union's endorsement?  Nothing, nothing whatsoever.

It would have been nice if our union played hardball and demanded some "takebacks" from the Bloomberg era of massive "givebacks". Here are just some examples of the "takebacks" I would have liked to see.

Fair Student Funding:
Eliminate the school-based "fair student funding" that badly under fund schools .  Moreover, the fsf  forces principals to hire the cheapest and not the best teachers for their schools.  Finally, most schools only received 89% of the already stingy fsf

Class Size:
Where is the class size reductions promised by Bill de Blasio when he was running the first time?  Why didn't the union leadership hold the Mayor's feet to the fire?  Instead class sizes have remained largely unchanged and are the highest in New York State.

ATRs:
Despite promises to the contrary, few ATRs have landed permanent positions and there still is between 1,300 and 1,600 ATRs without permanent placements. Despite the school system averaging 4,500 vacancies annually, these experienced and veteran teachers have little chance to land a permanent position under present DOE policy that originated from the Bloomberg era.

Teacher Voice:
Teacher autonomy in the classroom has been replaced by administrative micromanaging and data mining.  Moreover, school policy is top down and teacher voice is ignored, when given, and the DOE is deaf when it comes to teacher complaints.  Be it incompetent and vindictive principals or lax student discipline.  Even complaints about academic fraud is more likely to get the teacher disciplined then the perpetrators.  Shouldn't our union leaders be pressuring the Mayor and his staff to empower teachers since empowered teachers result in better student academic outcomes.

Parking Passes:
How about giving school staff their parking passes back?  School staff was the most affected by Michael Bloomberg's limiting parking passes and made life more difficult for many teachers.

Unfortunately, our disconnected union leadership rather be the Mayor's valentine rather than demand "takebacks" for our support for his reelection.