Friday, November 23, 2018

The Golden Turkey Award - 2018





























Michael Mulgrew:

 Once again I nominate UFT President Michael Mulgrew for the Golden Turkey award.  His poor negotiating skills resulted in inadequate raises, no reduction in class size caps, and the continuation of Danielson that is a weapon for vindictive administrators .  Moreover, he failed to end the ATR pool or even make significant progress to improve the ATR environment. In addition, he refuses to target vindictive and/or incompetent principals.  Finally, his failure to get the DOE to eliminate Fair Student Funding that discriminates against veteran teachers is a crime.

Republican State Senate:

Goodbye and good riddance as the Republicans lost control of the NYS Senate.  The Republicans would hold up many bills to improve public education by demanding the creation of more charter schools.  With Democrats in control of the legislature,  more money should be funneled to the public schools and the charter school cap should be frozen. Of course there's still Governor Cuomo to deal with.

Independent Democrats:

Most were defeated and while in control of the State Senate,  they supported charter schools as they cooperated with the Republicans.who limited resources to the public schools in urban areas.  Of course, there's still the Governor.

MORE:

The Union Of Rank And File Educators (MORE) UFT caucus has essentially self destructed by expelling or encouraging the more moderate members of the caucus to leave as they have veered sharply to the left.  MORE support social justice while ignoring teacher justice issues and has alienated the moderates who feel unrepresented in the Socialist/Communist dominated MORE   This breakup for ideological reasons will probably cost the MORE organization the high school executive board seats in next year's UFT election.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe that MORE is running in the next UFT election. Who else is running? Solidarity?

ATR 25/55 said...

How about the new Chancellor, El Mariachi? College readiness is declining, a lack of discipline is disrupting learning, and what are the first things he does? 1, complain that there are not enough colorful students in the elite high schools, and 2, add yet another costly layer of useless bureaucrats.

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew resents the common turkey - if you want to give him an award it should be the Golden Quail.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what a union rep in a school is making? I know the UFT district reps are making 50k plus DOE salary. 150k What a joke!!

Prehistoric pedagogue said...

Do you really think that UFT chapter leaders get a salary from the union? You are either uninformed or just plain stupid. They are the one actor in this whole stupid drama actually motivated by good intentions and not selfishness

Anonymous said...

Doesn't the school union rep just make their doe salary?

Anonymous said...

The discriminatory polocies and the targeting of veteran teachers will continue. This is age discrimination.

Anonymous said...

3:11 - Chapter Leaders get a "stipend" check, based on the amount of members they represent in their school.

Anonymous said...

How about an honorable mention for Mayor DeBlasio (democrat) who has done nothing for education!

Thought democrats were supposed to be better for public education!

Where? What? When? How?

Still waiting!!!!

Anonymous said...

Fair student funding is responsible for age discrimination , including but not limited to : negative observation ratings, being told harassing lies during your post-ob , being over-scrutinized on a daily basis as administrators look for anything they can call a problem even when it isn’t a problem, being treated differently than younger teachers and told you didn’t do enough of something during the lesson, false accusations, principals having derogatory conversations about you with parents in an effort to gang up against you, closing schools and dismissing only older teachers who have to go on interviews that they will never win, being unfairly targeted for termination charges, being ATRed and therefore sent like a bag lady or man from school to school. And the list goes on. And this is ALL the result of Fair Student Funding. Many Leadership Principals are using the observation system to push older teachers out.

Anonymous said...

Just salary...with time to handle issues. Often per session for meetings with admin. Mikey and his friends get all the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and there's nothing left for the people in the field. They get incentives like conference dues paid if they pledge to follow Mikey.

Prehistoric pedagogue said...

I have never seen a chapter leader get per session
For doing union biz. The stipend barely covers donuts for meetings and doesn’t come close to paying for parking or transportation while attending monthly delegate meetings at UFT head quarters

Anonymous said...

Chapter leader stipend maxes out at $1250 a year. It's like five bucks a member. If you think it's worth taking the job for that, go ahead.

Anonymous said...

Chapter leaders get a period off a day - the sole reason 50% of the CLs I’ve met as an ATR take the position. If the CL actually does the job, which 50% indeed do, there is a high probability the principal will bring him or her up on charges and the UFT will do absolutely nothing - having an unwritten agreement not to bother any CSA members with trivial matters like ruining a teachers life. If the CL retires he/she will be rewarded with a part time job with the UFT. The least thing the UFT should be doing is protecting CLs. Not doing this weakens teachers, CLs and the UFT. They are the first line of defense for teachers.

Jonathan Halabi said...

Only Chapter Leaders in schools with 75 or more members get the period off - those of us in small schools get the responsibilities, but with no time.

Of course, for the chapter leader at a large school, one period a day is not even close to enough, and they have much more work (if they do it) than we do.

Jonathan

Chaz said...

The stipend to Chapter Leaders is a pittance

They do God's work and people like James Eterno and Arthur Goldstein should be praised for the thankless job that they do and did toi represent the members.

Prehistoric pedagogue said...

10:43. Chapter leaders in middle schools do not get any extra time off. They teach a full program. I believe elementary schools get one extra prep all week.

Chaz, I assume you mean pittance

Anonymous said...

In middle schools, the CL gets 5 UFT preps in lieu of an administrative assignment.

Anonymous said...

We had a good chapter leader, and she stood up to the principal, so what happened, she excessed her!

Then we had a bad chapter leader. He was a personal friend of the principal. Why was he 'elected?' Because no one wanted the job because of the target it comes with. What happened to him? He retired when he wanted and had no problems, though we shivered in fear in the staff room.

Anonymous said...

Prehistoric pedagogue 3:11...maybe its time to clean your dentures. No reason for a stupid comment... a simple question was asked. There is no way a district rep should be making 150k when most could barely work at McDonald's. They are all in bed together Supers and District Reps. CL's should be getting something for their time if DR are getting paid 50k plus DOE salaryand they don't teach. By the way you can see all the salaries of the UFT reps all public info. You probably voted for the contract and celebrated a 2-3 % raise LOL... if you want a economics lesson let me know. Look up Cola for Soc Sec payments and report back. Retired people collecting soc sec are getting bigger raises.

Anonymous said...

Teachers need more help and support from outside their schools. The job of CL can be a full time job especially in schools that have incompetent administrators which seems to be on the rise.

The last 3 CL at my school have had very little teaching experience and were not familiar with the contract. Two of which were friends with the administrators and freely shared confidential teacher concerns with the principal. My current CL is a nice lady but she does not want any trouble. She only has the CL position because nobody else wants it.

We need a rebirth of the union in our schools.

Are there any contract workshops to help teachers and CL understand the contract?

Any audience-style question and answer sessions held by the UFT so we could get some answers (and not ask for my name and my school)?

Any chance of getting retired teachers or UFT folks to come to the schools to inform and energize teachers? If I had to guess, 90% of the staff at my school does not know what is in the contract and they are not going to read it, either.

I do believe that we would be doing the students, the tax payers and the teaching profession a great service if the UFT cleaned house and educated its members. This is not going to happen from within the schools in which the CL are in name only and the administrators are corrupt, immoral and incompetent.



Anonymous said...

9:42
More and more teachers are wondering why we teachers do not have an annual COLA on our pensions while so many other NY civil servants do. UFT/NYSUT should focus on that issue.

Jonathan Halabi said...

Anonymous 6:32 is correct. Members need help learning what their rights are.

But members also need help asserting those rights.

The union should be in problem schools, helping to fix things.

Instead, they complain, the teachers in those schools are not letting us know. Or there is just one or two voices. Or they haven't taken the correct first steps.

It's as if Unity is constantly on the lookout for reasons not to help. This has to be changed.

Jonathan

retired teacher said...

to 6:32 - The UFT can supply speakers on a variety of subjects. The problem is arranging for time and space in your particular school. Technically, teachers can only be available during their lunch period. In any case it is your chapter leader's job to get all the details about having a speaker.