To The New Chancellor. Let's Do What's Best For Our Students.

There is little doubt that under the imperious regime of Mayor Bloomberg that the New York City public school system has changed.  The problem was the change was not for the better and was based upon phoney education reform principals and had no appreciable effect on real student academic achievement.  Instead it resulted in closed schools, demonizing the teaching profession, gypsy teachers without a classroom, an influx of inexperienced and untested teachers, and the lowest teacher morale in memory.  Therefore, the new Mayor and Chancellor should bring back long-studied principals in education that benefits the students and not the wishes of those non-educators at Tweed that hopefully be terminated by the new De Blasio Administration.

First,  impose a "hiring freeze" and require principals to hire the many "quality teachers" currently languishing in the ATR pool (2,000+) and not the "cheapest teachers" as is currently being done.  To encourage principals in doing the "right thing for their students", give the school an incentive, similar to the November 2008 ATR agreement   No Principal would be allowed to hire new teachers if there are teachers in the subject area currently in excess in their District.  "No exceptions should be permitted".  The result would be more "quality teachers" in the classroom and the principals wouldn't have to "roll the dice"  and use the students as "guinea pigs" on whether the "newbie teachers" could actually teach.

Second, reduce class size to a more manageable size.  Under the Bloomberg years, class size has actually risen since he came into control of the schools.  In fact, at a speech in MIT two years ago he said that if it was up to him he would have class sizes of 70 students with half the teachers. The biggest increases occurred in the lower grades where study after study showed that class size is an important factor in student learning. The placing of the ATRs into the classroom, where they rightfully belong, will go a long way in achieving the class size reduction goals.

Third, give adequate resources to the schools.  Since 2007 the average school has seen a reduction of 14% in resources and a 32% decrease in school support services from Tweed.  Under Bloomberg it has been an "education on the cheap" policy as the schools are starved for resources, forced to hire the "cheapest teachers", scrimp on classroom supplies, and are required to put the school's stringent budget over the education of their students.  To reverse this, the DOE should, once again, make teachers a unit and eliminate the "fair student funding formula" that doesn't work.  Having the Central Office control the teacher budget line would relieve the pressure on principals to hire untested and inexperienced teachers, instead the principals could interview for the "best teachers" for their schools.

Fourth, Eliminate the nearly useless and money sucking "Children First Networks" (CFN) that have destroyed neighborhood and parent involvement in the schools. Give more authority to the District Superintendent's Office as they are more in touch with community concerns and remediation as well as for a parent to go to with complaints or other issues.  In addition, bring back the neighborhood schools.  It's unfair that some students are forced to travel over two hours to a school because the schools in their neighborhood didn't select them. This is especially true of the Bloomberg small schools where an unofficial screening process is used to keep out the "high needs" students.

Fifth, overhaul the teacher evaluation system and make it more flexible and classroom friendly.  Furthermore, the "common core" requirements need to be loosened until it becomes easier to incorporate into the curriculum.   In other words  let teachers teach in a way that best for their students ability to learn.  One of our colleagues Arthur Goldstein found this video of Charlotte Danielson saying that student tests should not be used in a teacher's evaluation.  Too bad, the State doesn't listen.

Finally, improve the existing "rock bottom" morale in the schools by showing school staff the proper respect for their profession.  The first step is to negotiate a "fair contract" with the UFT, eliminate the "gotcha mentality" that permeates the higher levels at the DOE, and encourage true collaboration between school administrators and staff, not the "us against them" mentality that is encouraged by Tweed. A happy staff makes for improved classroom environment and better student learning.  Now that's "children first, always".

Mayor Bloomberg Can Minimize Layoffs Of City Workers By Placing ATRs In All Existing Vacancies

The Mayor experienced a major setback when a judge ruled that the City's plan to sell taxi medallions for fare pickups in the outer boroughs and north of 96th street in Manhattan was unconstitutional since it did not get the City Council's approval. (Damn, if he really was the Emperor, no lousy judge could ever stop his decrees).  The halting of the "green cab" program has blasted a $625 million dollar hole in the budget and a possible $1.4 billion dollars for the next three years.  What is the Mayor's response?  He has proposed layoffs of City workers and more efficiencies in the government.  Of course don't look for reductions in high-priced consultants or technology projects, instead there will be less resources available and of course, a continuation of a salary freeze.  While I do not have the knowledge of how to close the entire budget gap, I do know how he can put a significant dent into it and that is placing ATRs into the many vacancies that are available,

Starting the 2012-13 school year, there will be approximately 2,000 ATRS, despite the DOE's claim of less.  That means that even if some of them get hired provisionally, you can still expect over 1,000 ATRs floating around for the year.  That means that $165 million dollars, not including fringe benefits,  will be wasted by the City in paying those ATRs when vacancies are being covered by long and short term substitute teachers. Therefore, if the Mayor is truly serious about saving money and close the budget gap, he should start by ordering the DOE to start placing ATRs in the vacancies.

I do wonder why our union has not brought this up publicly as a cost-saving method to close the City budget gap?  It would seem obvious to me that this proposal is a public relations win for the union and puts the Mayor on the defensive but then again our union's actions or inaction are sometimes part of the problem and not the solution.  In any case, if the Mayor is looking for "efficiency" the effective use of ATRs by placing them in the vacancies is as efficient as it gets.

How Much Does Mayor Bloomberg Hate Teachers? This Much!

To many teachers, Mayor Bloomberg has blamed the various ills of students on them. Not the dysfunctional parents, not the poverty or community, and certainly not the waste of money by the bloated Tweed Bureaucracy on high priced consultants and useless technology. His blaming the teachers was apparent when he tried to not only layoff 4,666 teachers but even tried to get the State to pass a bill that would make the layoffs permanent and those laid off could not get their jobs back even if the economy recovers. His hatred for teachers made him use all his influence to circumvent the teacher union's "collective bargaining rights" which failed of course. He even embarrassed himself by claiming experience does not count in teaching! Finally, he refused to follow the "City pattern" by unilaterally freezing teacher raises while giving the very same raises to all other unions.

All knowledgeable people know that the City's Finances are much better than the State's. However, Bloomberg's budget called for 6.3% of the teachers being laid off while the average Statewide School District only had a 3% layoff rate. Some people may claim that the New York City Schools have too many teachers. However, the reality is that New York City Schools have the largest class sizes in the State, yes the largest! Ranging from a low of 22.3 in Kindergarten to a high of 25.5 in fifth grade. The Middle School averaged 27.8 students per classroom and the High Schools averaged 27.5 students, based upon the 2010-2011 school year. With an additional 2,500 teachers leaving the classroom and not replaced, it is expected that the average class sizes will go up between 1.5 students (DOE estimate) to 3 students (UFT estimate). It will be very interesting what the "average class size" will really be for the 2011-12 school year.

Will the union negotiate with this Mayor? I certainly hope not since his only goal is to destroy the teacher union's power and make teaching in the New York City classroom as miserable as possible.

Will The Bloomberg Administration's Hiring Freeze Be A "Game Changer" For Hiring ATRs Into Existing Vacancies?

Yesterday, the Bloomberg Administration announced a total hiring freeze of new City employees as well as an across the board reduction of 2% for this fiscal year and an additional 6% cut next fiscal year. Apparently, this hiring freeze overrides the relaxation of the previous hiring freeze by the DOE over the summer. Moreover, the new citywide hiring freeze also applies to the so-called shortage areas of Physical Science, ESL, and Special education teachers, and principals can no longer request an exemption to hire an outside teacher. What is unknown is whether the hiring freeze will affect the new small schools that could recruit 40% of their teaching staff from the outside (almost all "newbie teachers") and the Chancellor's proposed middle school incentive that will replace 50% of the existing teaching force in the 50 targeted schools by using the entire "2012 recruiting class of "Teaching Fellows". The Chancellor's comments was reported in Gotham Schools, that the hiring freeze is total and no new staff can be hired from outside the DOE. Of course, let's see what happens during the summer of 2012 when the new schools hiring and the Chancellor's initiative goes into effect?

If we are to assume that the DOE will not allow any exceptions to the citywide hiring freeze (knowing the Mayor and his poodle, the Chancellor, an admittedly unlikely assumption, especially as the summer of 2012 approaches and look for a new LIFO bill from the Mayor) it may be a real "game changer" for the 2,000 ATRs. Already some "newbie teachers" are fleeing the classroom. In my friend's high school, two "Teaching Fellows" have already left the school leaving eight science classes uncovered and the Principal told my friend that he cannot find replacements for the classes. When my friend reminded him that there are ATRs who are Science teachers, the Principal frowned and said he might have no choice but hire from the ATR pool. With the hiring freeze, this scenario should be the rule with principals having little choice but to place ATRs in their vacancies.

The real question is whether the Bloomberg Administration will require the DOE to abide by the hiring freeze or will they allow the DOE to insert loopholes that make a hiring freeze meaningless. Only time will tell.

That leaves the union's role in this. The union most shake off their apathy about the ATR crises and demand, through the media, that all vacancies must be filled by ATRs to save money and ensure that a "quality teacher" is in the classroom. Furthermore, require that DOE to become fiscally responsible by cutting the Administrative bloat at Tweed and making sure that no outside consultants are hired during this time of fiscal constraints. It is up to our union to put the DOE's "feet to the fire" to ensure the dwindling resources are spent in the classroom and not on the already bloated Central Bureaucracy.