The TDA Withdrawal is Exempt From State And City Taxes

This post is a reminder that once the educator reaches 55 years of age and retires, all TDA withdrawals are exempt from New York State and City taxes. Just like our regular teacher pension, the retiree only pays Federal taxes.   However, if the retiree moves out of State, the retiree would need to pay State and Local taxes for any TDA withdrawals..

For educators under the age of 72 you can leave all your money in the TDA and can keep on appreciating tax deferred, unless you choose to annuitize the TDA.  However, if you have reached the age of 72, you must withdrawal at least the percentage that the Required Minimum Distribution mandates.  Finally, some people believe there is a $20,000 limit on withdrawals that are exempt from State and City taxes.  That only applies to non-public sector pensions and not to our pension or the TDA withdrawals.

Teachers may be underpaid and not appreciated bit we have a good pension and a great TDA when they are exempt from State and City taxes..

School Arrests Are Down But Are Schools Safer?

The De Blasio administration was happy that the NYPD reported a decrease of 55% in arrest of students.  However, that does not make the schools safer since the decrease was based on school reforms.

These school reforms decriminalizes many actions such as drugs, insubordination, threats and many other actions.  Moreover, principals were no longer were ale to suspend students without the approval of the DOE at Tweed and were encouraged to handle misbehaving students "in-house", which included "warning cards" and restorative justice instead of suspension and arrest.  Finally. the NYPD reforms that reduced misbehavior by the public also apples to the students which also reduced criminal charges.

Obviously, statistics can lie when criminal student behavior is reduced to a non-criminal offense, giving the false impression o reduced criminality.  Does this makes schools safer?  Of course not and can increase school safety issues as students who made otherwise be suspended or arrested are free to cause havoc in the schools.  Just look at the disconnect between weapons found in the schools and suspensions.

The New York Daily News has an article about this Here.

The Pan American Discrimination Case Finally Ends

The DOE settled their last case that totaled $1.2 million dollars to discrimination lawsuits against Black educators who then Principal Minerva Zanca of Pan American High School in Queens discriminated against.  The last case was against a theater teacher who now teaches theater at the award winning LaGuardia high school.  You can read the Chief article Here.

If you remember Principal Mirnerva Zanca was defended by Superintendent Juan Mendez and were both sued for racial discrimination by the U.S. Attorney of New York. The DOE legal Department and leadership backed both the Principal and the Superintendent.and while Ms. Zanca was eventually removed as Principal and ended up as a guidance counselor in Brooklyn before retiring (forced?)in 2016.  Superintendent Mendez remained in his position for another few yeas.

You can read more about Munerva Zanca Here and Here.  For Superintendent Juan Mendez you can read him Here and Here.

Homeless Students Increase Nationwide

The homeless population has increased nationwide, with California leading the pack, dramatically increased by 50% over the last five years.  However, less noticeable has been the corresponding rise in homeless students.   Over the last two years homeless students nationwide increased by 15% and 50% in the last 15 years!

The question is what caused the rise in homeless students?  The answer is complex.

First, there are natural disasters, like hurricanes, wild fires, and flooding, which have become more destructive in the last few years.  Second, is the terrible rise in drug use by parents who end up homeless  Third, is the rise in housing costs that make it difficult for low income families to have stable housing.  Finally, more restrictive zoning enforcement and school residency requirement enforcement limits multi-family housing and remove non-family members from single family homes.

To a lesser degree is domestic violence and the rise in single mother households with little or no emotional or financial support from the ex-spouse.

There are 1.5 million students who are homeless nationwide in the 2017-18 school year and this has continued to increase over the years. Will this number continue to increase?  Under the Trump administration, I see little reason to look at the Federal government to help the situation.  How the States and Local goverment5s address the homelessness issue is dependent on the allocation of funds and community support, any iffy proposition at best.

The New York Times has a nice article on the causes of the student homelessness issue...  Here

Bloomberg's Stop And Frisk Policy Caused A Negative Educational Effect on Black Males

Chalkbeat has an article on a study that showed that "Stop and Frisk" under Mayor Michael Bloomberg resulted in a rise in Black  male dropout rates.  The study was for the years 2008 to 2012, when Michael Bloomberg was Mayor and concentrated on middle school students.

The study showed that Black male middle school absences increased by 1..4% in communities where police pushed "stop and frisk" policies.  Moreover, Black high school graduation rates were 1,8% lower in communities where "stop and frisk" were pushed.

One good result was that communities that had a "stop and frisk"  policy had lower disciplinary problems in school.  However, the policy made Black male students feel less safe going and leaving school for their homes.  Moreover, "stop and frisk" seemed to have no effect on felony crime. Read the article Here.

Read my post on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's legacy when it comes to New York City schools.



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Another Example Of Academic Fraud

It seems every month there is an article in the newspapers dealing with academic fraud and this month there is an article by Susan Edelman of the New York Post about school administrators at Parkside Preparatory Academy, a middle school in Brooklyn as the latest example of cheating in the New York City public schools.

If you read the article there appears little doubt that academic fraud is occurring at the school but despite the evidence the DOE's OSI found no evidence.  Unbelievable!

Until the DOE seriously addresses the academic fraud issue, stories like this will continue to be written about and makes real academic achievement impossible. Read the New York Post's editorial page on the city's lack of effort to curb bullying and academic fraud.

School iscipline Policy Continues To Be A Joke

One of the sore points in the NYC school system is the school safety issue.   Under Mayor Bill de Blasio's school safety has deteriorated dramatically and continues to do so.  Just look at MS 158 in Queens.  Of course the statistics don't show it since many incidents go unreported or are quietly handled in house by school administrators who don't want to have the DOE penalize them as a dangerous school/

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio you have less student suspensions, not because there are less incidents but because principals are told not to suspend students for things like student misbehavior, insubordination, and drug use.  Instead, school safety officers and Deans are told to give out "warning cards" or refer the student to restorative justice  sessions that the students find as a joke.

Another issue is the use of cellphones in school.  In some schools the cellphone use was so bad that Principals have decided on their own to collect cellphones at the door, despite parent and student complaints.

Take a look at my four part series on school safety Here

Good News! TRS Will Soon Add A ROTH Option

Over the years I have praised the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) for it's low administrative fees and their unbeatable Fixed Income Fund that gives an annual dividend of 7% for UFT members and 8.25% for other educators, with no fees!  However, the one weakness TRS has is their lack of a ROTH option.

Unlike TRS funds which are tax deferred where appreciation is not federally taxed until the educator withdraws funds, usually after retirement. The Roth option allows the educator to pay taxes upfront and any appreciation accumulates tax free and is not subject to the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) at age 72.

For educators near retirement the ROTH option is not as attractive since the educator would have to pay taxes upfront for any funds that are converted to a ROTH option.  On the other hand newer and younger educators who have a long time to retirement, the ROTH option is very attractive since they make less money and the existing tax rates are historically low and can only go higher in the future.

Use this calculator to decide which is best for you once TRS offers a ROTH option.  You can also see a comparison table between our tax deferred TDA and a ROTH option.

Amy Klobuchar For President

I watched the New Hampshire Democratic debate and was very impressed with only one candidate on the stage.  Amy Klobuchar, Senator from Minnesota.  She is a moderate and has shown throughout her political carrer that she can get rural farmers, suburbanites, and urban voters to support her. 

Moreover, the minority urban core of Minneapolis overwhelmingly supported Amy Klobuchar   She is the only candidate that has widespread appeal and I believe she is also the only one of the Democratic candidates, except for Michael Bloomberg (ugh) who can get independents to vote for her.

 Finally, she is not a millionaire or is supported by millionaires like the rest of the Democratic candidates.  All three major New Hampshire newspapers support her as well as the New York Times.

Her one real weakness is her education policy which I graded her as a "C-" but she strongly supports teacher pay and improving our traditional public schools.  However, she also supports publicly funded charter schools if they don't take funding from traditional public schools and that's a no, no in my book.

To me only Amy Klobuchar, with her soft touch and sharp focus on the issues has a chance to beat Donald Trump.

The Different Tiers For UFT Members

One of the questions I was asked was how many UFT members are in the various tiers.  Below is a table that shows the various Tiers and the percentages of in-service UFT members which includes teachers, paras, guidance counselors, and Social Workers.  The total amount of UFT represented in-service members is approximately 127,500.


Tier.......Number.......Percentage

I..............195..............1.5%
II..............81...............0.6%
III..........1,200.............0.9%
IV.........78,000..........61.2%
VI.........48,000..........37.7%,

Tier III members almost always end up in Tier IV since Tier III requires a Social Security offset of $1 for every $2 dollars of pension ncome.

Tier IV has different iterations, depending when the educator joined the NYC school system Here.

There is no Tier V for UFT members.

To play the Tier VI game read my post Here.

Biden Or Bloomberg For President? Neither One

It increasingly looks like the Democratic center will be between Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg and if the moderate wing of the Democratic party wins out from the progressives, the question is who would I vote for, assuming that moderates  Buttgieg or Klobuchar do not get the Democratic nomination?

Despite some people (Randi Wiengarten) who believe Joe Biden has mended his ways and is pro public schools I don't believe him.  He was instrumental in supporting Barack Obama's pro charter school agenda that also blamed teachers for student growth using "junk Science"as his vice President.  Moreover, he still supports public charter schools.  Finally, he was a strong advocate of all charter schools back as a U.S. Senator Here. While some naive people believe that Joe Biden has changed his ways, I don't and he will not get my vote for President.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and education deformer darling is unapologetic for his past and present support of charter schools.  He has shown contempt for teachers, parents, and schools by under funding public schools and  using existing school buildings for new charter schools.  He is a disaster for public education in New York City and was responsible for closing 156 schools, despite community opposition..  I'd rather vote for Donald Trump, who's education agenda has been ineffective as long as the Democrats still hold the House of Representatives than Michael Bloomberg,

If either Joe Biden or Michael Bloomberg become the Presidential candidate, neither one will get my vote.

Integrating The Schools - A Tale Of Two Districts

Chalkbeat correctly pointed out why integrating Brooklyn's District 15 middle schools had different roots than District 28 in Queens.  According to Chalkbeat, District 15's integration program was parent led and resisted pushback from other parents.  Moreover, the parent advocacy in District 15 is quite liberal and supports the Mayor and Chancellor when it comes to eliminating the standardized test for the specialized high schools.  Finally, the middle schools had a districtwide middle school screening program that saw many students leave their neighborhood to other middle schools in the district.

By contrast, the proposed District 28 integration plan was spearheaded by the now departed Superintendent who didn't bother to ask her parents what they thought.  The DOE actually promoted her for her incompetence  Moreover District 28 parents in the Forest Hills and Rego Park communities are strongly opposed to any integration plan that require their children to be bused out of their neighborhoods.  Finally, these parents also support standardized testing for the specialized high schools.

The District 28 working group was selected in secrecy, without parent input.  Moreover, the large Jewish community was not represented in the integration working group when, under pressure, the working group was named.

In summary, what might work for District 15 is a potential disaster for District 28 when it comes to integrating the middle schools.

Note:  The DOE has delayed (cancelled?) the District 28 middle school integration plan due to intense parent backlash.

Maspeth High School In The News Again

Maspeth high school which has been identified for a massive cheating scandal, finds itself in the New York Post as a Dean and Math teacher was quietly removed from the school in December.  The teacher was identified by the New York Post as Danny Sepulveda.  According to the DOE, Mr. Sepulveda was removed for reasons unrelated to the academic fraud at the school.

According to the article by Susan Edelman, Mr. Sepulveda was identified as one of the teachers that supplied students with answers to the Regents.  He was alleged to have sent a text message to another teacher and wrote the following:


 “Having someone fail and not graduate HS because of a state exam that colleges never look at is more of a failure than anything else. I look at state tests as the anti-christ,” Sepulveda wrote.

In the Maspeth cheating scandal no administrators have been punished so far and no teachers who were identified as part of the cheating scandal were removed.  One would think the DOE has basically closed their collective eyes to the academic fraud at Maspeth high school and the many other schools in New York City  In fact, the FBI has started an investigation on the widespread academic fraud of the NYC school system as OSI and SCI has failed to seriously investigate the academic fraud issue

You can read my articles on Maspeth high school Here and Here.

Governor Cuomo's Steath Charter Cap Expansion

 
Governor Andrew Cuomo has buried in his proposed budget an expansion of the charter cap in New York City. This shows that the Governor is still beholden to the Chharter industry and their education reform supporters despite his claims that he supports public education in the State..

Buried in budget documents released late Tuesday was a proposal to make room for more charter schools in New York City. In 2015, the state set a limit on how many charter schools could open in New York City in the years ahead: 50. Authorizers hit that cap last year. But the total number of charters available has actually been slightly higher, since a 2017 deal allowed authorizers to reissue 22 charters originally issued to charter schools that closed before July 2015.

This week, Cuomo proposed expanding that number, offering a new pathway to open charters as state lawmakers show no signs of wanting to increase the charter cap. His plan would allow authorizers to re-issue as many abandoned or leftover charters as they have available, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many that amounted to.  Is it 10, 25, 50?

In addition, the Governor's budget once again short-changes the schools by only increasing funding less than what the State Board of of Regents proposed.  His proposed spending increase is less than half of what the state’s education policymakers and advocacy groups have called for. It also fell $175 million short of the year-over-year increase the governor suggested last year. 

Chalkbeat has an article about the Governor's proposed budget Here.

Mayor De Blasio And Chancellor Carranza's Student Discipline Policy Is A Disaster

One of the worst policies of the Bill de Blasio administration is his student discipline policy.  Principals are no longer are allowed to suspend violent and misbehaving students without approval by Tweed and since the Mayor and Chancellor frowns on suspensions, far too many students are sent back to class to continue the reign of terror,  Instead the violent or misbehaving student is required to attend the useless restorative justice session which they find as a joke.

To hide the unsafe climate at schools, the Mayor and Chancellor have made it clear that school administrators are not to report incidents and to quietly handle it at the school.  The result is that fewer incidents are reported and the Mayor and Chancellor can claim that the schools are safer.  Of course, if you ask students and teachers you would hear a different story. They would tell you that there is widespread bullying and intimidation as well as threats to students and staff.

The latest incident that school administrators tried to cover up was a middle school girl fight in the cafeteria at MS 158 in Bayside Queens.  The school administration never reported the fight and it was only after a parent of the girl who was beaten up and reported the attack to the police who then arrested the other girl, did the school administration report the incident.  You can see the fight Here.  In another incident, last year,at the same school a girl was sexually harassed numerous times and groped by a boy who exposed himself to her and the school administration did not take any action.  The boy decided he could sexually harass the girl whenever he wanted and finally the girl told her parents who called the police and he boy was arrested.  The school also failed to suspend a male student who sexually molested another male student.

At the District 26 meeting, a teacher cited the new discipline code for lowering morale and leaving teachers unable “to effectively manage classrooms,” adding that staff are “no longer respected and supported.”  Even the head of the usually dead-quiet principals’ union, Mark Cannizzaro, recently sounded the alarm, writing Carranza: “In many schools, misconduct is on the rise, leading some students to believe there are little or no consequences for disruptive, openly defiant and even violent behavior.” Principals and staff feel “unsupported” by system higher-ups, he complained.

Chancellor Carranza went to the District 26 Town Hall at MS 74 and when parents confronted him about the lax student discipline policy he refused to respond and quickly left the meeting without addressing the parent concerns.  The Chancellor's cowardly action shows that it may be time to find a new Chancellor who puts school safety first.  Read the New York Post opinion article on the Chancellor's cowardly action at the MS 74 Town Hall.

NYC Graduation Rate Continues To Show A Racial Gap

The New York City high school graduation rate inched up to 77.3% and of course Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza hailed it.  However, they were silent on the racial achievement gap.  Black (74%) and Hispanic (72%) were lower than Whites (85%) while Asians(88%) had a 3% higher graduation rate than Whites.

Of all kids who began their freshman year in 2015, 88.2 percent of Asian students were handed a diploma last year, followed by whites at 85 percent, blacks at 73.7 percent, and Hispanics at 72 percent, according to the figures.  More discouraging was the graduation rate for Special Education students and English Language Learners who only had a graduation rate of 52.5% and 40.9% respectively.

While City Hall and the Department of Education cast these annual hikes as evidence of skillful stewardship, continually shifting standards and graduation requirements give critics pause.   Moreover, students have been given new routes to graduation in recent years. Changes include the option of taking assessments in languages other than English and swapping out a required social studies exam for a test in another subject, including art and math.  Finally the State made it easier to appeal low Regents grades.

 Statewide, while the State achieved an 83.4% graduation rate,  only 12% of black students and 17% of Hispanic students earned advanced designation, compared with more than 47% of white students.  I suspect that these numbers are lower for New York City.. Charter schools in the State only had a 80.8% graduation rate,which is  2.6% less than traditional public schools in the State.

Chancellor Carranza has vowed to have a graduation rate of 84% by 2025 which will only increase the already abundant academic fraud.in New York City high schools.

Will Eliminaing The Gifted and Talented Programs Cause Middle Class Flight?

Chancellor Richard Carranza's goal of integrating the New York City Public Schools has run into fierce resistance from middle class parents, especially Asian parents.  Except for a couple of District middle schools, the Chancellor has been unable to convince parents to agree to his proposals.

One exception is a Brooklyn elementary school. PS 9 which will eliminate their "Gifted and Talented" program to help foster a truly integrated classroom.  While the school's goal is a worthy cause, the reality is that it will ultimately fail as middle class families will send their children to schools that have a "Gifted and Talented" program or move to another school district.  The question is will the elimination of the "Gifted and Talented" program lead to middle class flight?  I believe it will if the school really goes through wit their ill-conceived program of integrating the classroom.

The bottom line is the school may win the battle but lose the war on integration.

Charter Schools Lose Again On Teacher Certification

The New York State Appellate Division, Third Department upheld  a lower court ruling that the SUNY alternate teacher certification scheme for charter schools was not allowed under State education law.  The Appellate Court unanimously rejected SUNY's argument that they had the authority to have an alternative teacher certification for charter schools.

It's no secret that charter schools are having trouble in recruiting and retaining certified teachers and by State law are only allowed to have no more than 15% uncertified teachers on their staff.  My guess is if the State scrutinize the charter schools they would find that most violate that limitation.  Take Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy High School in Manhattan that saw an astonishing 70% teacher turnover in one year.

  I know of a Science teacher that was unfairly terminated by the DOE but every year charter schools compete with each other to hire the teacher since most of them lack a certified Science teacher.  The Science teacher tells me that every charter school she teaches in, the next year most  teachers are either not invited back due to money, incompetent administration, lack of certification, or because many teachers quit during or after the school year.

The State and local teacher unions as well as the NAACP, the Board of Regents, and The NYSED oppose the alternate teacher certification scheme and the unions called the SUNY teacher certification scheme as "Fake certification".  The alternate certification scheme only consists of 160 hours of classroom instruction and 40 hours of practice teaching and allows the charter school to self-certify to get around the 15% uncertified teacher limitation.

Will SUNY appeal to the NYS Court of Appeals?  Probably since they are supported by deep pockets charter school supporters but with a unanimous decision at the Appellate Court, it does not look promising for the charter schools.

Rating The Democratic Candidates Based On Their Education Policy

This post is to grade the Democratic Presidential candidates based on their education policies. Obviously,  Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and Cory Booker get a  failing grade for their support of charter schools and their cozy relationship with education reform organizations..

Bernie Sanders:

Bernie is pro public education and wants to increase teacher pay and wants to fully fund our traditional public schools while putting a freeze on new charter schools.  Moreover, he wants existing charter schools to be held accountable as traditional public schools are.  Finally, he also wants the charter schools to have the same studnt demographics and percentage of high needs students as the neighborhood schools.

GRADE A

Elizabeth Warren:

Ms. Warren has similar education policies as Bernie Sanders, except she is somewhat vague about how she would implement her education policy which gives her wiggle room if she becomes President which is somewhat concerning.

GRADE B

Peter Buttigieg

Mr. Buttigieg's education policy is influenced by his husband who is a middle school teacher in a private school and wants to raise teacher pay and ban for profit charter schools.  Unlike Sanders and Warren he is silent on publicly funded charter schools and as Mayor he supported some state voucher programs but claims he is against vouchers now.

GRADE C

Amy Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar's education policy wants to increase teacher pay but supports charter schools as long as they don't steal funding from traditional public schools.  She voted against a federal voucher system as a Senator.

GRADE  C-

Andrew Yang:

Andrew Yang's education policy is ill-defined but because of his autistic son, he is sensitive to Special Education and wants public schools to be fully funded.  He supports charter schools but has not spelled out his complete education policy.

GRADE D

Joe Biden:

Joe Biden has a long track record on education and as Obama's Vice President he supported the Obama administration on attacking teachers and supporting charter schools.  He also supported the teacher evaluation system that unfairly blamed teachers for student academic growth.that resulted in many teachers getting terminated nationwide. He gets support from education reform organizations. He is trying to distance himself from Obama on education but who can trust him?

GRADE F:

Cory Booker:

Cory Booker's education policy is ome of the worst as he is a strong charter school supporter and many of his donations comes from hedge funds and Wall Street.  He is the favorite of education reformers.  He would get my lowest grade with the exception of Michael Bloomberg.

GRADE F

Michael Bloomberg:

Michael Bloomberg's education policy resulted in over 150 schools to close in New York City,giving money to charter schools while under funding traditional public schools and despised the teacher union.  He once suggested at MIT that he supports doubling class size and reduce the teaching staff by half.  He was the darling of the education reform organizations.  Finally, he ignored parents and community leaders when it came to education issues.  See my posts Here.


GRADE F

Tom Steyer:

Tom Steyer's education policy is unknown, except he wants to give every student an equity opportunity but doesn't explain the specifics so he gets no grade.

Representative IIhan Omar Voted Anti-Semite Of The Year

I'm an independent voter and usually vote Democratic but there are some Democrats I will not vote for.  They are the "squad".  The squad consists of four house representatives that are considered far left progressives and out of touch with mainstream society.  This post focuses on only one of these far left progressives, IIlan Omar.

In a poll by a Jewish NGO  representative IIhan Omar beat out the perennial winner Louis Farrakhan and Richard Spenser who were in the top three.  What has IIhan Omar done to get the anti-semitism of the year award for 2019?

1. Accusing American Jewry of possessing dual loyalty.

2. Alleging that Jews buy their influence with money, infamously stating “It’s all about the Benjamins.”

3. Accusing Israel of having hypnotized the world.

4. Supporting the anti-semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

5. Submitting a resolution in the House of Representatives comparing boycotting Israel to boycotting the Nazis.

6. Having her anti-semitic statements endorsed by infamous neo-Nazi David Duke.

The organization also mentioned her refusal to take back or regret many of her anti-semitic comments, as well as the backing she receives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.  She also wants to sanction Democratic Israel and wants to eliminate sanctions on the dictatorship in Iran.

The NGO has a video of the anti-semitic tropes Here.

Note:  The NYC schools will be developing a school curriculum  to combat antisemitism Here.