i think the uft needs to mount a major protest of this.
wait, no...that would disrupt randi's schedule of not being of service to members and to children.
I don't understand what they're doing to those public school kids up there. This just seems ridiculous to me.
While this is typical Bloomberg pandering to the rich, there was, in the past, a flip side to this.
For many years Xavier High School rented Downing Stadium on Randall's Island as its home football field. In the late 70s a complaint was made that city facilities should not be rented to religious schools. Xavier was forced to hunt for a new home field, along with several other Catholic schools who had lost their fields.
About that time the PSAL was looking for a proper venue for its Basketball playoffs. It was barred from MSG because of a riot after a game in the late 60s. The PSAL approached Fordham and St. Johns, as having the two best facilities in NYC. They were rebuffed. The courts were in use for both schools and for the CHSAA playoffs. The PSAL and the BoE bitched and moaned to the papers, conveniently ignoring the eviction of schools like Xavier from city fields, and seeing nothing wrong with public schools using religious facilities.Fordham and SJU did not relent, but a few years ago MSG did allow the PSAL to return, and has held the championship game since then.
I am known to hold a grudge, ask Richie Miller how I feel about the UFT endorsing Serphin Maltese, but this one has stayed with me longer than most. The failure of those in power to see their own hypocrisy bothers me, as did the fact of a Manhattan school having to traipse far into Brooklyn to find a field for its FB team. It still rankles.
Sorry for the rant, but the topice did to me what "Niagra Falls" did to Abbot and Costello.
Happy New Year.
I used to live in Middle Village, and work near there as well. Some of my colleagues were ex-Catholic school teachers from, if I recall correctly, Christ the King. I remember them telling me that Mr. Maltese was instrumental in breaking their union, and I remember being extremely surprised the UFT endorsed him.
Personally, I was not very involved in union politics then, and did not really become involved till the contract of 05, which I couldn't believe they had the audacity to even present us, let alone get 60% of teachers to vote for.
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