Last Week True News Said UFT Organizing Op-Out Exam Movement Today the Daily News Agrees
The UFT Broke the Law With Advance and None of the Prosecutors Noticed
Why Did the UFT's PAC United for the Future Hire the Advance Group? Was It Part of A Conspiracy to Coordinate their PAC and the Campaign Consultant?
The UFT PAC Paid Advance Through the Fake Group Strategic Consultants Inc. $370,000
Her campaign also got support by two PACs controlled by the Advance Group, NYCLASS and the UFT PAC United for the Future that the UFT tried to hid Advance Groups involvement in with a fake made up company called Strategic Consultants Inc., that CrainsNY found was located in the offices of Advance. Your can bet the farm that with Mayor Bloomberg last minute appointment to the CFB Rose Gill Hearn, his former DOI Commissioner, the finances of Advance client Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo and others are in the middle of a hot hot hot investigation that the media is completely missing. * UFT under fire for apparently trying to hide identity of consulting firm(NYDN)
UFT Controlling Government By Breaking the Election Law . . . DAs Don't Notice?
Cover-Up Of Campaign Consultants Advance Group/Red Horse Involvement in UFT PAC United for the Future, Which Conspired To Break Election Law to Control Council
How Campaign Consultant Lobbyists and The PACs They Controlled Broke the Election Law and Got Away With It and Built A Shadow Government
The UFT PAC Paid Advance Through the Fake Group Strategic Consultants Inc. $370,000
Nothing Has Happen - Five Months Ago the Daily News Wrote:
UFT under fire for apparently trying to hide identity of consulting firm(NYDN)The city’s powerful teachers union is under fire from good-government groups for apparently trying to hide the identity of a consulting firm it was using to boost union-backed candidates. "The listing of the phony firm, 'Strategic Consultants, Inc.,' in campaign filings, obscured that Advance Group was being paid both to promote candidates for the United Federation of Teachers' independent political action committee, and working as the main campaign consultant for several of those same candidates."
The AG and the DAs By Not Enforcing the Election Law Has Enabled Lobbyists and Special Interests to Legalize Bribery Though PACs
PACs are A Crime on the Book Because Prosecutors Who Look the Other Way
The CFB determined under its rules that the Advance Group’s work on behalf of both Council candidates and the supposedly “independent” anti-carriage PAC really amounted to illegal coordination between the campaigns and NYCLASS. The board properly fined Cumbo and Levine. And its crackdown on the out-of-bounds campaign spending by NYCLASS has done the city a huge favor, by providing a badly needed glimpse into the big money play that successfully swung the 2013 city elections. Using funds from donors that included UNITE HERE — a union chaired by Mayor de Blasio’s cousin John Wilhelm — NYCLASS slimed mayoral rival Christine Quinn into oblivion.Now the FBI is probing the funding of the attacks on Quinn, and de Blasio’s flip-flop that led to his vow to ban the horses. The CFB needs to stay vigilant, making every effort to hold NYCLASS, the Advance Group and sponsored candidates to account for their actions in the 2013 campaign. Among the others benefiting from NYCLASS spending was Melissa Mark-Viverito, who took free services from the Advance Group in her successful bid to become City Council speaker.
UFT Sends A Message to Cuomo Floats DiNapoli as Gov Poll Numbers Drop
Two Democratic activists said state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli may run for governor in 2018 at the urging of progressives, regardless of whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo seeks a third term, the Post’s Fredric Dickerreports: * Two Democratic activists told The Post that the well-liked DiNapoli, who last week released a damning audit on Cuomo’s controversial “Start Up NY’’ ad campaign, is being urged by union activists and other “progressives’’ aligned with Mayor de Blasio to consider running for governor and even challenging Cuomo in the Democratic primary.* Paterson: Corruption Scandals Hurt Cuomo’s Approval (NYP) * Paterson Backs De Blasio On Permanent Mayoral Control (NYO) * New York Democrats meet as Cuomo's approval rating drops
THE ANTI-TESTING OPT-OUT DELUSION: A speedbump, not a roadblock, on the path to rigorous evaluations for teachers (NYDN) * The opt-out wave& its undertow: Parents boycotting New York's Common Core tests are helpingthe teachers' union advance its own agenda (NYDN) As lawmakers debated whether student test scores should count for 20% or 50% of a teacher’s evaluation, Karen Magee, president of the state union, gave away the game in an interview published in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. “We have 20% right now. We’d be happy with zero, because it’s not a true indicator of what’s going on in the schools,” said Magee. “Happy with zero” means the union would just as soon not have its members’ job security or prospects for promotion affected in any way by whether the students have actually learned reading, writing or math. And in pursuit of that goal, the union’s strategy — backed by groups including the Working Families Party — is to cripple the evaluation system by encouraging so many kids to opt out that the tests won’t represent a reliable sample.
UFT Skip the Test Politics . . . Fake Parent Group Attacks Charters as 19,700 Kids Shut Out
The New York State United Teachers is robocalling members to say they can have children skip state tests, which comes after the union protested how scores will figure into evaluations, The Wall Street Journalreports * N.Y. Teachers Union Robocalls Members About State Tests (WSJ) NYSUT reminds members that their children can opt-out of next week’s standardized exams in latest protest. * 19,700 kids’ dashed hopes (NYP Ed) The Success Academy charter network has released the results of its entrance lottery last week: 2,317 lucky kids won a seat; 19,700 children did not
For 40 years nobody has fixed the schools will not taking a test change anything?
Affluent parents are against Common Core: study (NYP) * The best for thebrightest: The city schools' gifted-and-talented admissions process needs anoverhaul (NYDN) Those are the elite classes and schools reserved for the very young students who score highest on an aptitude test — and they skew dramatically toward the most privileged families. In results just out for 2015, more than 36,000 students in grades K-3 took the exam — and a quarter, 9,009, scored high enough to apply for admission. In Manhattan ’s District 2, which includes the Upper East Side , 3,300 took the test, and well over a third passed. In Queens’ District 26, which includes the prosperous northeast Queens communities of Bayside and Douglaston, 2,200 took it, and about a fifth passed. Meantime, a total of 357 students in the city’s eight poorest districts hit the score, and the pass rate in those districts was less than half the city average. In four low-income districts, too few students passed to establish a class. * With more and more students opting out of state standardized tests, it remains unclear whether teacher evaluation reforms will be affected, The Buffalo News writes:
Newsday writes that teachers union leadership’s calls areurging parents to opt out of state tests are self interested and will ultimately hurt students: * Former gubernatorial candidate and Fordham Law School Prof. Zephyr Teachout urged parents in a robocall to refuse to have their kids take the controversial statewide assessment exams slated for this week.* Teachout Robocalls In Support Of Opting Out (YNN) * Opting out makes no sense from every perspective - Opinion - The Buffalo News * Parents, teachers push #OptOut, with different goals, @jessicabakeman reports (Capital) * SUNY Chancellor Urges Students To Not Opt Out (YNN) * The State Board of Regents is working with a national search firm to narrow a list of applicants for education commissioner to six or seven candidates.* Some Parents Oppose Standardized Testing on Principle, but Not in Practice (NYT) Even parents who are uncomfortable with the exams are discovering that it is hard to push the button on the nuclear option — refusing to have their own children take them.* Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the growing push by parents to keep their children from taking Common Core tests is an issue that officials in Albany will have to deal with in the future, The Buffalo News writes:
Anyone Who Thinks This is A Real Parent Group Buy My Bridge and Education Expert Sharpton
A self-described pro-parents organization called Democracy Builders rallied at New York City Hall
UFT Fails At Education
UFT-founded charter school closing for poor performance (NYP) A long-struggling K-8 charter school founded by the teachers union to prove that its work contract doesn’t impede student success will close in June, after failing to meet academic benchmarks....* Controversial UFT Charter Schoolin Brooklyn to Close Elementary and MiddleGrades (NY1) * New York City Teachers’ Union Is Closing Portion of Its Brooklyn Charter School (NYT) Low student tests scores are forcing the United Federation of Teachers to shut down the kindergarten-to-eighth-grade portion of a charter school it started in 2005.* A new wave of standardized exams, designed to assess whether students are learning in step with the Common Core standards, is sweeping the country, arriving this week in classrooms in several states and entering the cross hairs of various political movements. Almost every state – including New York – has an “opt out” movement.
The Sharpton de Blasio Mulgrew Axis Protection
Among the honored guests at Sharpton’s Staten Island march and rally were American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten and United Federation of Teachers honcho Michael Mulgrew. The AFT and UFT are long-time sponsors of the Sharpton-led National Action Network. Yet when Sharpton rails against the “school-to-prison pipeline,” I’m certain he’s well aware that that many schools in minority areas are saddled with U-rated (for “unsatisfactory”) and misbehaving teachers.
Daily News Only Reports on the Alliance of the Mayor and the UFT, But Does Not Explain Where the Union Got the Power to Control A Mayor
A lifelong progressive's case against the teacher's union
Errol Louis @errollouis
A Must Read: Wayne Barrett slams "unholy alliance" between .@BilldeBlasio and .@uft as far from progressiveDe Blasio’s embrace of the teachers union isn’t progressive; it’s political
Barrett Blasts City Progressives Movement and UFT
With de Blasio and the UFT-financed Working Families Party as allies, the union is hijacking the very language of movement politics, annexing left journalism to defend its narrowest interests and even recruiting progressives to join its war against charter schools that work for kids.Seen through a progressive lens, all that should matter in these school skirmishes is whether a charter, a contract or an employment rule benefits students. Whenever progressive Democrats instead choose teacher power over the futures of minority kids, they are putting a big bucks lobby ahead of a core but comparatively powerless constituency.
Barrett Says the WFP is Exploited exploited by the interests that bankroll it
You may, for example, have gotten the impression, when the WFP appeared poised last month to nominate charter foe Diane Ravitch to oppose Gov. Cuomo, a charter champion, in his reelection bid, that these nonprofit-run public schools are a Republican hedge-fund conspiracy. That's what the WFP, a sometimes-blunt instrument exploited by the interests that bankroll it, and 75-year-old Ravitch, the adopted guru of the UFT and de Blasio administration, would have us believe.
As quiet as it's kept, de Blasio is the only mayor of one of America's 10 largest cities, almost all Democrats, who isn't a charter booster
Democrats like Dean and others have seen through the "privatization" trashing of charters by Ravitch and the union, recognizing that there's no structural difference between the non-profits that run public school charters and the ones that operate Head Start, day care and pre-K programs. For his part, de Blasio has never explained what distinguishes maligned charter non-profits from the ones that will run 60% of his celebrated new pre-K classrooms.The only difference, in fact, is that most charters, unlike other nonprofit education providers, opt out of contracts like the UFT's 200-page straitjacket that micromanages the school day and imposes an assembly-line mentality on schools - one that charters have exposed as dysfunctional. Charter opposition is now reflexively used in New York City as a progressive barometer, regardless of the overwhelming evidence of their benefits to mostly black children, with 63% of the schools here outperforming traditional schools in math, for example.
As their political clout fades, teachers unions have been wielding another kind of power: the financial strength of the billions of dollars in their members’ pension funds.
Why the UFT Pay A Forge A Fake Group to Do Business With Advance?
Why Did the UFT's PAC United for the Future Hire the Advance Group? Was It Part of A Conspiracy to Coordinate their PAC and the Campaign Consultant?
The UFT PAC Paid Advance Through the Fake Group Strategic Consultants Inc. $370,000
Her campaign also got support by two PACs controlled by the Advance Group, NYCLASS and the UFT PAC United for the Future that the UFT tried to hid Advance Groups involvement in with a fake made up company called Strategic Consultants Inc., that CrainsNY found was located in the offices of Advance. Your can bet the farm that with Mayor Bloomberg last minute appointment to the CFB Rose Gill Hearn, his former DOI Commissioner, the finances of Advance client Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo and others are in the middle of a hot hot hot investigation that the media is completely missing. * UFT under fire for apparently trying to hide identity of consulting firm(NYDN)
Give the money back, Mayor de Blasio(NYP) Maybe Mayor de Blasio’s spokesman is right: There’s “zero” connection between the sweetheart deal the teachers union won from the city and $350,000 its parent union donated to Mayor Bill’s Super PAC. Maybe it’s also just a coincidence, as Crain’s reported, that the donation from the American Federation of Teachers to the Campaign for One New York came less than a month before the mayor agreed to a nine-year-contract with its New York local whose health “savings” are vague but whose retroactive pay is all too real. StudentsFirstNY has called for an investigation. In a letter to the chairman of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, the organization says “New Yorkers deserve to know whether it is a conflict of interest for Mayor de Blasio to take large Super PAC contributions from a union with whom he is negotiating a new contract.”
Saturday Daily News Picks Up on the Friday's NYP's UFT Taping Story Sabotaging Education Reformers
School critics say teachers union deal doesn't help kids — it's 'petty politics'(NYDN) After teachers union president Michael Mulgrew gloated about the labor deal in a leaked recording, critics of the $5.3 billion deal are fighting back, saying the contract isn’t good policy. Michael Mulgrew said he’s at war with education reformers — and now they’re fighting back over his dismissive comments and the teachers contract they say condemns students to subpar schooling. Jenny Sedlis of Students FirstNY, a pro-charter, anti-union group, called Mulgrew’s victory lap “shameless.”“For anyone that thought this was about kids, we know this is the truth,” said Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor and outspoken critic of the union. Critics said a close reading of the memorandum of agreement between the city and union reveals the new process of terminating teachers in the 1,200-strong costly Absent Teacher Reserve doesn’t actually increase the likelihood they’ll be canned.*IT'S 'PETTY POLITICS': School critics slamming teachers union $5.3 billion deal and UFT boss Michael Mulgrew(NYDN) * Mulgrew’s wicked game(NYDN Ed) Mayor de Blasio just struck a major deal with a union boss who boasts about using negotiations to gut reforms he claimed to support.* Teachers lose retroactive pay in if they quit before 2020(NYP0
Finally: The Post is no longer alone in claiming the teachers union acted in bad faith. The union’s boss says so himselfUFT Campaign Power to Weaken Teacher Evalutions Again
This Election Year All Those in Albany Running for Re-Election Will Do Flyers Stating Putting Children First
Leave all kids behind(NYP Ed) Maybe one day New York will have a meaningful way to fire lousy public-school teachers. But plainly not in time for the kids now stuck in their classrooms.
Because the message out of Albany is no one there is ready to do any such thing. On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo said he was “cautiously optimistic” about a deal with lawmakers to delay or relax at least some parts of the teacher-evaluation law. UFT Over $300 Million in Fed Funding A federal education official who oversees Race to the Top implementation said if New York delays using student test scores as part of teacher evaluations it risks losing up to $292 million in funding, The Wall Street Journal writes: * The DOE plans to remove the 321 trailer classrooms across the city, but doesn't know where to put the students.* Cuomo is reportedly pushing a new, two-tiered “safety net” solution to the thorny problem of how to fix teacher evaluations in light of widespread anxiety about Common Core test scores.* Numbers of after-school programs in public middle schools to shoot up next fall (NYDN)* * Cuomo said tweaking teacher evaluations to address concerns with the new Common Core standards remains a top priority in the final days of the legislative session, State of Politics reports: * State Education Commissioner John King said dropping Common Core-aligned test scores from teacher evaluations would endanger federal funding, and suggested easing or delaying consequences of the ratings for teachers, Capital New York reports* New York state risks losing up to $292 million if it delays using student test scores to evaluate teachers this year, a federal education official said. [The Wall Street Journal] * * The Post writes that the state high school graduation rate alone doesn’t show much, but the college/job-readiness figures, which show that only 37 percent of high school graduates are ready for either, are a better indicator:* A lawsuit to upend New York tenure laws(NYP)* A student-led approach to reading and writing known as balanced literacy, is poised to make a comeback in New York City classrooms – a move seen by some as a departure from recent trends in the city and nationwide. * New York school districts are preparing to change their snack and beverage offerings to comply with new federal nutrition guidelines and are bracing for a drop in sales revenue if students reject the relatively healthy options.
Because the message out of Albany is no one there is ready to do any such thing. On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo said he was “cautiously optimistic” about a deal with lawmakers to delay or relax at least some parts of the teacher-evaluation law. UFT Over $300 Million in Fed Funding A federal education official who oversees Race to the Top implementation said if New York delays using student test scores as part of teacher evaluations it risks losing up to $292 million in funding, The Wall Street Journal writes: * The DOE plans to remove the 321 trailer classrooms across the city, but doesn't know where to put the students.* Cuomo is reportedly pushing a new, two-tiered “safety net” solution to the thorny problem of how to fix teacher evaluations in light of widespread anxiety about Common Core test scores.* Numbers of after-school programs in public middle schools to shoot up next fall (NYDN)* * Cuomo said tweaking teacher evaluations to address concerns with the new Common Core standards remains a top priority in the final days of the legislative session, State of Politics reports: * State Education Commissioner John King said dropping Common Core-aligned test scores from teacher evaluations would endanger federal funding, and suggested easing or delaying consequences of the ratings for teachers, Capital New York reports* New York state risks losing up to $292 million if it delays using student test scores to evaluate teachers this year, a federal education official said. [The Wall Street Journal] * * The Post writes that the state high school graduation rate alone doesn’t show much, but the college/job-readiness figures, which show that only 37 percent of high school graduates are ready for either, are a better indicator:* A lawsuit to upend New York tenure laws(NYP)* A student-led approach to reading and writing known as balanced literacy, is poised to make a comeback in New York City classrooms – a move seen by some as a departure from recent trends in the city and nationwide. * New York school districts are preparing to change their snack and beverage offerings to comply with new federal nutrition guidelines and are bracing for a drop in sales revenue if students reject the relatively healthy options.
Why the UFT Pay A Forge A Fake Group to Do Business With Advance?
Why Did the UFT's PAC United for the Future Hire the Advance Group? Was It Part of A Conspiracy to Coordinate their PAC and the Campaign Consultant?
The UFT PAC Paid Advance Through the Fake Group Strategic Consultants Inc. $370,000Her campaign also got support by two PACs controlled by the Advance Group, NYCLASS and the UFT PAC United for the Future that the UFT tried to hid Advance Groups involvement in with a fake made up company called Strategic Consultants Inc., that CrainsNY found was located in the offices of Advance. Your can bet the farm that with Mayor Bloomberg last minute appointment to the CFB Rose Gill Hearn, his former DOI Commissioner, the finances of Advance client Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo and others are in the middle of a hot hot hot investigation that the media is completely missing. * UFT under fire for apparently trying to hide identity of consulting firm(NYDN)
NYP is Demanding the Mayor's PAC One NY Give Back the UFT $$$
Saturday Daily News Picks Up on the Friday's NYP's UFT Taping Story Sabotaging Education Reformers
School critics say teachers union deal doesn't help kids — it's 'petty politics'(NYDN) After teachers union president Michael Mulgrew gloated about the labor deal in a leaked recording, critics of the $5.3 billion deal are fighting back, saying the contract isn’t good policy. Michael Mulgrew said he’s at war with education reformers — and now they’re fighting back over his dismissive comments and the teachers contract they say condemns students to subpar schooling. Jenny Sedlis of Students FirstNY, a pro-charter, anti-union group, called Mulgrew’s victory lap “shameless.”“For anyone that thought this was about kids, we know this is the truth,” said Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor and outspoken critic of the union. Critics said a close reading of the memorandum of agreement between the city and union reveals the new process of terminating teachers in the 1,200-strong costly Absent Teacher Reserve doesn’t actually increase the likelihood they’ll be canned.*IT'S 'PETTY POLITICS': School critics slamming teachers union $5.3 billion deal and UFT boss Michael Mulgrew(NYDN) * Mulgrew’s wicked game(NYDN Ed) Mayor de Blasio just struck a major deal with a union boss who boasts about using negotiations to gut reforms he claimed to support.* Teachers lose retroactive pay in if they quit before 2020(NYP0
Mulgrew "Gum up the works"
Parents, staff & pols won’t support union head’s reform ‘war’(NYP) * A union boss confesses(NYP Ed) United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew has admitted he and his union are “at war with the reformers.” He said they sought “to one more time wink at Bloomberg” — the union had clashed bitterly with the former mayor — “and say ‘gotcha.’ ” Mulgrew confessed his real aim was to “gum up the works” to thwart any teacher ratings: “We had a goal that this year would be the first and only year” teachers were subjected to the new system. In the end, Mulgrew’s secret war paid off. He waited for a sympathetic mayor, Bill de Blasio, to give him what he wanted. And as StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis noted on these pages Friday, the city’s kids got little in return.
Campaign 2013: UFT Gumming Up the City Council's Checks and Balances Role With Campaign Contributions
The UFT PAC Contributed to 31 of the 51 Council Members
Mulgrew "Gum up the works"
When we think "outside spending," it's usually corporations who come to mind, but with the education system becoming further and further embroiled in controversy over efficiency and charter schools, it makes sense that this would be a key race for educators' unions such as UFT. The United Federation of Teachers, through its political spending body, "United for the Future," has spent the most money of any group in the race, $3.3 million on 37 elections. United for the Future contributed to the following 31 of the 51 council members.
Thomas Jefferson Fought Centralized Power, UFT's Mulgrew Worked With the Advance Group to Centralized With Money NYC's News Progressive Tammany Hall
* Brooklyn state Senate candidate Rubain Dorancy’s retweet of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s statement on a California court decision could cost him the United Federation of Teachers’ backing, City & State writes: http://goo.gl/GSdibd
POTLIGHT: LABOR
* Non-unionized state workers with management-confidential status will receive a long-sought 2 percent pay bump, according to a memorandum made public by the Division of Budget, State of Politics reports: http://goo.gl/zsM4lo
* Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office will move to convene a minimum-wage board to study what raise should be given to tipped food-service workers, Crain’s reports: http://goo.gl/0dRI8v
* The Port Authority is set to announce that 12,000 contract workers making $9 an hour or less at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports will see long-awaited $1 raises next month, the Daily News reports: http://goo.gl/uMhN40
* A tree-trimming firm paid more than $90 million from Long Island governments for its Sandy cleanup work admitted in court Friday that it underpaid workers in violation of state prevailing wage laws, Newsday reports: http://goo.gl/yYbrZK
Where the Check On de Blasio Budget?
Mulgrew "Gum up the works"
‘Great place’: De Blasio’s budget leaves a (mostly) contented Council(Capital)* As he presented his $73.9 billion budget at City Hall Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was giving up on his campaign promise to get rid of the City Council's discretionary funding, saying he and the Council have "agreed to disagree" on the topic.* Friction by press release only.
* A closer look at the UFT contract with New York City reveals that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg may hold some blame for promising teachers a 4 percent raise for 2008-2010 that will now be paid out retroactively under the new deal, E.J. McMahon writes in amNewYork: http://goo.gl/y3gxmk
SPOTLIGHT: LABOR
* State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office found that the state Department of Labor fails to complete many of its wage theft investigations in a timely manner, allowing thousands of cases to remain unresolved for a year or more: http://goo.gl/dB2fqI
* Gothamist asked five employees of the Resorts World Casino what their lives are like after the union for the casino’s employees struck a deal that effectively doubled the salaries for 1,400 of the roughly 1,700 employees: http://goo.gl/SDH7mv
* As the session winds down, City & State looks at the status of faltering legislation pertaining to the reform of the Scaffold Law and Industrial Development Agencies, as well as farmworkers rights: http://goo.gl/S47sIJ
* Cuomo announced an Unemployment Strikeforce to target counties with large jobless numbers including the Bronx and Brooklyn and Jefferson and Lewis counties upstate, the Central New York Business Journal reports: http://goo.gl/i9mPTa
After New Contract, Will Bad Teachers Be Fired? . . .
* NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says he trusts principals to judge whether to keep teachers assigned from a pool of rotating substitutes or send them back. His comments followed critics’ claims that the tentative city teachers’ contract wouldn’t ensure that the pool’s poor performers would be kept out of classrooms.
Anti Reform Tricks Hidden in the Teachers Contract . . .
The Opportunity School Reform Tease
Some education reformers say the provision in the deal between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the United Federation of Teachers to create 200 “opportunity” schools is not realistic because of the 65 percent vote required, the New York Post writes:
Now We Have Secret UFT Tapes That Take Credit for Sabotaging Education Reformers
More Money for DOI to Fight Corruption . . .
De Blasio boosts manpower to crack down on city corruption(NYP) de Blasio boosted the Department of Investigation’s budget by 20 percent — to $27.6 million from $21.9 million — DOI Commissioner Mark Peters said Friday, adding he’d hire 63 new staffers to work under the NYPD inspector general and analyze databases of contracts to find government waste and abuse. Peters said that his office has been involved in an investigation that led to Councilman Ruben Wills’ indictment this week on charges of stealing $30,500 in government funds.
More On The UFT Sabotage Plan
He
lobbied to have teachers rated in 22 different categories, presumably
to make it easier for teachers to contest bad ratings. The new labor
contract reduces the number of rating categories to eight. “That’s
things I don’t get to say in public when I’m doing them, because
we knew they had a plan to use the new evaluation system to go after
people.”School-reform leaders were outraged by Mulgrew’s remarks.
“Mulgrew saw the teachers contract as an opportunity to settle scores
rather than as a tool to improve schools for kids,” said Jenny Sedlis
of StudentsFirstNY.* Cynthia Nixon honored for aiding NYC pre-k program(NYP) * The new contract for New York City’s teachers is a sweetheart deal for the United Federation of Teachers and it’s disappointing that a mayor who talked so much about
fighting inequality would agree to a contract that delivers so little
for children, StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis writes in
the Post* The satanic details(NYP Ed)
The mayor got his press conference, the union chief got his revenge —
and the city’s schoolchildren got nothing. Bonuses for serving at
failing, “hard-to-staff” schools will go to
teachers who are not effective. The contract language clearly states
that teachers who are rated as “developing” — that is, who are getting
help in hopes they become effective — will qualify for the bonuses.* The
Mulgrew story landed on the front page of the New York Post,
which reported on the subsequent outrage among school-reform
advocates. “Mulgrew saw the teachers contract as an opportunity to
settle scores,” said Jenny Sedlis of StudentsFirstNY. “It is so cynical and proves that this is someone who does not care about kids,” said activist Campbell Brown.* Well, we'd sure see how much NYers like a strike by 6-figure teachers who pay nothing for healthcare * The mayor will borrow a good $2½ billion to pay for operating expenses..."
Daily
News Only Reports on the Alliance of the Mayor and the UFT, But Does Not
Explain Where the Union Got the Power to Control A Mayor
A lifelong progressive's case against the teacher's union
Errol Louis @errollouis
A Must Read: Wayne Barrett slams "unholy alliance"
between .@BilldeBlasio and .@uft as far from progressiveDe Blasio’s embrace of
the teachers union isn’t progressive; it’s political
Barrett Blasts City Progressives Movement and UFT
With de Blasio and the UFT-financed Working Families Party
as allies, the union is hijacking the very language of movement politics,
annexing left journalism to defend its narrowest interests and even recruiting
progressives to join its war against charter schools that work for kids.Seen through
a progressive lens, all that should matter in these school skirmishes is
whether a charter, a contract or an employment rule benefits students. Whenever
progressive Democrats instead choose teacher power over the futures of minority
kids, they are putting a big bucks lobby ahead of a core but comparatively
powerless constituency.
Barrett Says the WFP is Exploited exploited by the interests
that bankroll it
You may, for example, have gotten the impression, when the
WFP appeared poised last month to nominate charter foe Diane Ravitch to oppose
Gov. Cuomo, a charter champion, in his reelection bid, that these nonprofit-run
public schools are a Republican hedge-fund conspiracy. That's what the WFP, a
sometimes-blunt instrument exploited by the interests that bankroll it, and
75-year-old Ravitch, the adopted guru of the UFT and de Blasio administration,
would have us believe.
As quiet as it's kept, de Blasio is the only mayor of one of
America's 10 largest cities, almost all Democrats, who isn't a charter booster
Democrats like Dean and others have seen through the
"privatization" trashing of charters by Ravitch and the union,
recognizing that there's no structural difference between the non-profits that
run public school charters and the ones that operate Head Start, day care and
pre-K programs. For his part, de Blasio has never explained what distinguishes
maligned charter non-profits from the ones that will run 60% of his celebrated
new pre-K classrooms.The only difference, in fact, is that most charters,
unlike other nonprofit education providers, opt out of contracts like the UFT's
200-page straitjacket that micromanages the school day and imposes an assembly-line
mentality on schools - one that charters have exposed as dysfunctional. Charter
opposition is now reflexively used in New York City as a progressive barometer,
regardless of the overwhelming evidence of their benefits to mostly black
children, with 63% of the schools here outperforming traditional schools in
math, for example.
The UFT is Not the Democratic Bastion It Claims to Be
In
fact, until the union jumped on de Blasio's bandwagon in the sure-win
race last November, it had not endorsed a Democratic mayoral candidate
since 1989 - with the exception of 2001, when it picked three losers,
one in the primary (Alan Hevesi), one in the runoff (Ferrer) and one in
the general (Mark Green).How can any of this be progressive? It's
special interest protectionism and patronage at its worst. The question
is not whether these insurmountable layers of teacher
insulation are "valuable" to the system. The question is whether they
help kids. Isn't that the only truly progressive measure? * The Naked Self-Interest of the Government-Worker Class
TWU members overwhelmingly voted in favor a tentative contract deal that would provide retroactive pay and boosts in benefits.
Unions standing tall for NYC’s cops(NYP)
Ballots in the mail for the UFT contract to be voted on by members; some still feel they are being kept in dark: http://nydn.us/1j4OnSINot only is the back-raise plan in Mayor de Blasio’s new teachers contract unpopular with financial watchdogs — city educators hate it, too. The $8.9 billion deal de Blasio made with union President Michael Mulgrew will put off giving teachers their full raises until 2020. That includes a 4% bump for both 2009 and 2010 — years teachers went without a contract and other city unions got raises. About $725 million in raises for 2009 and 2010 will be paid in five annual installments starting next year.
* Most of the 6,100 nonunionized workers at New York City’s three major airports signed cards to join or are already members of 32BJ SEIU, which is taking steps toward a formal vote to organize, the Journal writes: http://goo.gl/ElZE07
Teachers entitled to back pay must stay in the system until 2020 to collect the full amount owed. http://bit.ly/1lp6tir
Wednesday
Top teachers union officials approved New York City’s new teachers’ union contract, which will be voted on again today by the United Federation of Teachers’ Delegate Assembly and is expected to be ratified by the full membership of the union, the Daily News writes: * Charter School Leaders Skip Out on Council Hearing(NY1)
* With the state ordering teachers and principals not to disclose any contents of last month’s standardized English tests, 37 New York City principals have spoken bluntly about the design and quality of the tests, the Times’ Jim Dwyer writes: * amNewYork writes that what’s currently on the table about New York City’s deal with the United Federation of Teachers are hard numbers for pay raises but also troublingly murky statements about how they’ll be covered: * Dig into the deal (NYDN ED) We're learning more about the teachers' contract* Moody’s: Jury’s Out On UFT Contract Deal(YNN)
Media Spin Doctors Often Control What the Public Reads in the News and Understands
Gadfly
George Spitz created the Five Borough NYC Marathon, now the most
successful sports event in the city and gets no credit for
his invention. The credit is often given to the Rudin family which funds
the even Yesterday
the media led by the mayor's spin doctors gave the man who was not in
the battle, but marched into town to declare victory for creating the
Innovated Schools Plan. In Las Vegas there is not even a single plaque
naming the man who invented the town mobster Bugsy Siegel. The Mayor of
the City of New York should be big enough to name the Tweed Court House
the Bloomberg Building. The building naming ceremony could be a good
chance for them to catch up and compare notes. De Blasio Counters Charters With His Own ‘Innovation’ Schools(NYO) New York City’s new teacher’s union
contract includes a plan to create up to 200 “innovation” schools that
can bypass usual Department of Education rules, similar to charter
schools. Teachers Question Pay-for-Performance Element in Proposed Contract (NYT) Some say a new agreement that would pay extra to New York teachers who
take on more work is too good to be true, while others welcome the
raises.* I think we got a fair deal, but the devil is in the details:' Teachers cautiously optimistic on new city contract(NYDN) * Mulgrew: Education contract is a good deal, especially for kids(NYDN) * Teachers' unions are planning an onslaught of online advertising to protest the pro-charter 
Easy to Open New Charters New state law changes makes opening charter schools in New York City easier than any other in nation (NYDN) * Schools Chancellor, City's First Lady Participate in Citywide Parent Conference(NY1) * Unions plan pop-up ads for pro-charter conference(Capital)
de Blasio Wins Single Buyer Health Care Saving From the Unions
Still Work Ahead for Other Contract Agreements
* New York City municipal union members could receive a bonus equivalent to 1 percent of their salaries if the city saves more than $3.4 billion in healthcare costs over the next four years, the Journal reports:
Labor leaders back de Blasio health-care overhaul(NYP)The Municipal Labor Council’s steering committee approved the measure, 20 to 2, with only the heads of the detectives and firefighters unions dissenting. The health-care changes — which include centralizing purchases of prescription drugs and medical tests — is expected to save the city $1.3 billion in the new city contract with the teachers union. But opponents say they were rushed into the deal. *Labor Union Council Approves de Blasio's Health Care Savings Deal (DNAINFO) * Labor Leaders Say Mayor Still Has Work Ahead With Settling Contracts(NY1) *NYPD Union Blasts de Blasio Offer of No Retroactive Raises Despite UFT Deal(DNAINFO)Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch blasted the city's offer of no raises.* Two no votes for de Blasio’s health care deal(Capital) * Gonzalez: City union leaders to fund raises with $1 billion transfer from health account(NYDN)
* De Blasio gives away the store in teachers contract(Goodwin, NYP) You don’t have to be a cynic to worry that the bonhomie between the union and the union-backed mayor was sealed with hugs, as de Blasio and Fariña each shared an embrace with Michael Mulgrew, boss of the United Federation of Teachers. But while raises are certain, concessions are elusive. More than $1 billion in savings to the city are claimed through vague changes to health-care programs, but teachers won’t pay anything more toward their premiums, a foolish giveaway on de Blasio’s part that will hobble the budget forever. hat gets to the big problem. Nothing in the contract, and nothing the mayor and Fariña say about it, gives any reason to hope that student performance will improve. That’s no incidental omission. At the same time, they say schools are in a state of “crisis” because so few of the 65 percent of students who get a diploma are prepared for college or a career. To take them at their rhetoric, they are committed to solving that crisis.This contract does not keep faith with that commitment. It doesn’t even try.* Michelle Rhee says the reforms in the deal struck by de Blasio with the UFT aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Speaking of Mr. de Blasio’s numbers, his deal with the teachers’ union may be more than meets the eye, Capital New York reports: “Despite assurances from leaders of the city teachers’ union that members ‘should not’ have to pay more toward their health insurance as a result of their agreement with the de Blasio administration, that remains a possibility.”
The Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella group of New York City unions, voted in support of a proposal championed by de Blasio that the mayor says will generate $3.4 billion in health-care savings.
Question Remain About How the UFT Contract Will Be Paid For
Is the Apple for Trying? Daily News Unsure About the Contract Historic Reforms
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE UFT CONTRACT: The contract agreement between the de Blasio administration and the United Federation of Teachers was hailed as a historic marker of reform, but key questions remain, City & State’s Nick Powell writes: * The Daily News writes that the agreement between New York City and the United Federation of Teachers achieves a big win in protecting the city’s finances from what could have been a ruinous hit from billions in overhang from retroactive raises: * The Daily News writes that the agreement includes measures that may improve the education system or may chip away at crucial autonomy and authority of managers to run their schools: Schools can opt to work around Department of Education and union rules, if they choose -- making them similar to charter schools, minus the co-locations and private funding. There’s extra pay for skilled teachers who help newer ones. And somewhere, maybe, there are details about how the city will pay for the raises teachers are getting. New York magazine’s Chris Smith called this part of the contract “alarmingly vague.”But the teachers union president told Capital the contract does not include teachers paying more for their health care, because “we feel very strongly there will be no need for that at all.” The head of the Municipal Labor Council echoed that sentiment in a conversation with Capital’s Gloria Pazmino. If de Blasio can deliver enough savings to pay for retroactive and prospective raises for teachers, without raising taxes or forcing them to pay more for their health care, then this deal could be, as de Blasio said repeatedly, historic. -- Sally Goldenberg has the details, and notes the ones that are missing, here: http://capi.tl/1n8ulXW * Doulis: Teachers’ agreement resolves uncertainty around city’s financial plan(NYDN) * An NYC teacher's contract take: "The money is not nearly as good as it sounds (or the UFT is spinning it)" & more* New York magazine writes that Mr. de Blasio’s teachers’ union contract deal yesterday had an “abundance of irony” and was “alarmingly vague” on key details: “If he pulls it off the gains—to use one of de Blasio’s favorite words—could be ‘historic.’ Yet the particulars of just how the city will be paying for the raises—or even the total cost of the raises—are alarmingly vague.” While the New York Post editorial board had some praise for the deal: “Perhaps most important is the $1 billion in savings the mayor says he and the UFT will seek in health care. We have few specifics, though the mayor mentioned sensible possibilities such as auditing benefits to remove those not entitled. If the mayor makes good on the promised savings, it would be a huge step forward.” And here is Mr. de Blasio’s full question-and-answer session at yesterday’s press conference, via NYTrue.com: * De Blasio, teachers union strike deal offering charter reforms(NYP) * Bill’s big deal(NYP Ed) * Gonzalez: A little respect brought de Blasio, teachers’ union to agreement(NYDN) * De Blasio's historic U.F.T. deal, with gaps: Where is the money coming from?(Capital)
de Blasio on Radio: BdB says the purpose of providing a menu of options is that folks will work cooperatively to achieve goal. * BdB says skyrocketing healthcare costs endangered NYC's fiscal health. UFT deal vaguely contains more than a billion in health savings. * De Blasio says reforms in teachers contract will deepen relations between families and schools * .
Failing Black Students Face A 9 Year Contract With Wake Promises in this 9 Year Contract That Teaching Will Improve
Laboratory schools, Firing perv teachers,
Teacher evaluation, A career ladder,
Quality teachers in low-income schools,
Parental involvement ***NYC failing black students(NYP ED) According to the Regents exams, only 11 percent of black males who leave a New York City high school with a diploma are ready for college. In the lower grades — third through eighth — only 15 percent of African-American students are proficient in math and reading. They learn at elite private schools, which have expanded their outreach. They learn at Catholic schools, from the all-scholarship Regis High to the neighborhood parochial school. The Archdiocese of New York — which puts its black high school population at 14 percent — reports that 99 percent of its students graduate and 98 percent go on to a two- or four-year college.Black children also learn in charters. Though city charters range in quality, African-American students at the most successful compete with the best in the state. Even overall, when African-American students in charters are measured against their peers in district schools, the charter kids do better — which explains a wait list 50,000 long.
Transit Union to UFT We Did Better
Transport union official pans teachers' deal with de Blasio(Capital)"Details of the agreement between the UFT (the Teachers' union) and NYC are still coming out, but a few things are already clear. The raises TWU negotiated with the MTA are superior to those UFT members will be getting. Not only that, we did better in other important aspects of the contract, as well," Steve Downs of the TWU wrote in an email to his members.
* Analysts are expecting organized labor to make out particularly well this legislative session, what with a budget surplus and it being an election year for the governor and all Senate and Assembly members, City & State’s Nick Powell reports: http://goo.gl/E4iiRv
* State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced that Fortune 500 retailers Dollar Tree and Dillards have agreed to new reporting standards meant to better uphold labor safety standards in their suppliers’ factories: http://goo.gl/6sQ1rx
Labor Deal Benchmark
The Daily News writes that the labor deal brokered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the MTA and the Transport Workers Union sets a benchmark that de Blasio must meet in his negotiations with city workers:
NYCLASS PAC Helped Both de Blasio/Thompson Campaigns UFT Backing Thompson/Advance Secret Relationship
4. The Advance Group also faces a CFB probe
into an outside-spending campaign the firm ran on behalf of the United
Federation of Teachers under the name "Strategic Consultants, Inc.," and
separately, NYCLASS gave donations to the anti-Quinn efforts far above state-imposed limits.United Federation of Teachers' super PAC had paid more than
$370,000 to a fictitious political consulting firm "Strategic
Consultants Inc.," which was actually the well-known Manhattan
consulting firm the Advance Group. Advance Group puts logo on phony firm's invoice(
CrainsNY)* The
advance group got paid $28,000 by gay city council candidate Yetta
Kurland at the same time the firm work for the City Action Coalition
PAC, which on
its website touts itself as supporting candidates who oppose gay
marriage and abortion rights.Advance was on both side of the Kurland
race. The firm also secretly worked to have been promot Johnson’s
candidacy through
an IE paid for by the UFT via a company called Strategic
Consultants—apparently a dummy shell corporation set up to obscure the
Advance Group’s double-dealing. "Questions Raised Over U.F.T. Campaign Filing" [Beth Fertig]* * UFT under fire for apparently trying to hide identity of consulting firm(NYDN) Advance Groups Gamed Public Fiance
Advance Groups Logo on Phony Group Makes Millions in Matching Funds, Main Stream Media Ignores
Several payments that a UFT super PAC sent to a fictitious political consulting firm “Strategic Consultants” have the Advance Group logo on their invoices
Advance Group puts logo on phony firm's invoice( CrainsNY) Last week, The Insider broke the news
that the United Federation of Teachers' super PAC had paid more than
$370,000 to a fictitious political consulting firm "Strategic
Consultants Inc.," which was actually the well-known Manhattan
consulting firm the Advance Group. An open records request that
came back on Tuesday from the City Campaign Finance Board (and is
embedded below) offers fresh and somewhat amusing evidence of the
connection between the two: Many of the invoices the agency received
from Strategic Consultants have the Advance Group logo on them.
UFT Fights Back Hires New Progressive Machine for $2.5 Million
The United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers unions gave a collective $2.5 million to education groups that have attacked Cuomo’s support for charter schools and opposition to tax hikes, the Post writes: The rebranded ACORN — New York Communities for Change — received a total of $1.3 million from the United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers from 2010 to 2013. The unions also pumped $1.2 million into a group called Alliance for Quality Education. Both issued statements accusing the governor of “pay-to-play politics” for backing charter schools because of campaign contributions he received from charter-supporting “Wall Street billionaires.” They also supported tax hikes on the rich opposed by Cuomo. Cuomo blamed the attacks on “a big bureaucracy with a system that is entrenched.”* DN Education Tax Credits * The Daily News writes that the education tax credit being proposed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan—among others—is a promising way to boost charitable giving to public and private schools: * Leaders rush on Common Core adjustments, not teacher evaluations(Capital)
The UFT Advance Connection * UFT under fire for apparently trying to hide identity of consulting firm(NYDN)The city’s powerful teachers union is under fire from good-government groups for apparently trying to hide the identity of a consulting firm it was using to boost union-backed candidates. "The listing of the phony firm, 'Strategic Consultants, Inc.,' in campaign filings, obscured that Advance Group was being paid both to promote candidates for the United Federation of Teachers' independent political action committee, and working as the main campaign consultant for several of those same candidates."Teachers union paid $370K to fake consultant
More on the WFP, Acorn 2.0 and the New Progressive Machine
More on the Advance Group
No Public Trust: Clue 2
Unions Have Their Own NY Citizens United To Control City and State Elections
New Yorker
Look for the union label(NYP) Even as New York legislators decry the corrupting influence of money in politics, they’re busy protecting their union pals from the annoying glare of having to disclose how much they spend to promote their candidates during political campaigns. Exhibit A is the recently passed state budget. This budget requires more disclosure of spending on issues and advocacy. Except for one thing: It exempts spending by labor unions on campaign messages that target their members and retirees. The exemption also applies to spending corporations direct at their members and retirees. But because union spending on such messages dwarfs that of corporations in New York politics, this special carve-out has a disproportionately favorable impact for unions. If this all sounds familiar, it should. Last spring, the City Council voted to give unions the same exemption in city races. Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed it, but the council overrode his veto. Now Albany has basically adopted the same provision at the state level. New Yorkers are going to know less about the real moneybags behind our campaigns. The example Crain’s noted was the massive campaign on behalf of Bill de Blasio by 1199 SEIU. It was exempt from reporting on the grounds that officially the health-care workers union was only targeting its members. * Cap NY: "A vote by a state teachers' [union] to overhaul its leadership may be a sign of trouble for [Cuomo]."
How Do You Give the UFT A 9 Year Contract?
When the Mayor Says Parents Want to Shake Unacceptable Status Quo of Our Public Schools?
"The notion that children are "lucky enough to escape" district schools "speaks volumes," BdB says"
Hotel Union Test How Much Power They Have Under de Blasio and New Council
Hotel Development Union Check Proposed
The Hotel Trades Council is pushing for stricter public review of new hotel development—which could help it gain members—setting up a test pitting de Blasio’s promises to developers against his relationship with labor, the Journal writes: * Bill would force hotel developers to submit plans to community(NYP)
Is the Council Giving Departing UPK Manager and Union ManagerA Gift?
UPKNYC Campaign Manager Returning to Union Gig(NYO) Josh Gold, who’d taken a leave of absence from the powerful Hotel Trades
Council to manage the campaign, is in the process of transitioning back
to his former job. Josh Gold, a de Blasio campaign aide
who ran the mayor’s efforts to get universal prekindergarten, is
returning to his old role at the Hotel Trades Council, a sign the
lobbying push is over
* The Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage Increase accused Cuomo of stalling on setting up a board to mandate a wage increase for food servers, the Daily News reports: http://goo.gl/hSM9R1
* De Blasio on Thursday reiterated his promise to hire local workers for the city’s troubled Build it Back program, at the release a report detailing his new plan to rebuild homes destroyed by Sandy, Gotham Gazette reports: http://goo.gl/IoWOv3
* Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino in a video blasted Cuomo over a state Department of Labor report showing a 0.1 percent increase in unemployment, State of Politics reports: http://goo.gl/pgsEZG
* The Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage Increase accused Cuomo of stalling on setting up a board to mandate a wage increase for food servers, the Daily News reports: http://goo.gl/hSM9R1
* De Blasio on Thursday reiterated his promise to hire local workers for the city’s troubled Build it Back program, at the release a report detailing his new plan to rebuild homes destroyed by Sandy, Gotham Gazette reports: http://goo.gl/IoWOv3
* Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino in a video blasted Cuomo over a state Department of Labor report showing a 0.1 percent increase in unemployment, State of Politics reports: http://goo.gl/pgsEZG
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