I remember when I started, and I was more tired them than I am now. I think if I slept more, I wouldn't be tired and I'm going to spend this summer testing that theory.
It would be helpful if we had a teachers union that fought these trends (i.e., longer school days/longer school years, higher class sizes), but we don't. Sure the UFT pays lip service to lower class size, but that's never happened (I had 34 in each of my classes this year.) it never will happen either. But the longer school days/longer school year, that they managed to accomplish for us!
Good job, Randi and crew!
I can't wait to see what the next union concessions will be in coming contracts.
Probably three more days of work and 10 more minutes a day. Probably paying for health care (Randi's "cost containment initiatives" from the contract that goes into effect in October 2007). Probably some form of merit pay (how'd you like the story in the Daily News today about principals and AP's from schools that have been shut down receiving merit pay bonuses this year?). Probably more seniority givebacks. Probably a tenure giveback (The Green Dot "Just cause" model for all UFTers? Leo seems to love it!).
I have to say, Randi is one smart negotiator - for herself. She has managed to negotiate a lifelong position (and perhaps a position in a future Bloomberg presidential admin) while giving back the store in the form of days, time, seniority transfer rights, grievance rights, Circular 6R rights, and school financing (how soon will we see the purges of senior teachers with max or near-max salaries now that Randi agreed to allow Kleinberg to redo school financing?).
BTW, whatever happened to the 25/55 pension changes we heard so much about a few years ago when the UFT leadership was so desperately trying to sell us the Sellout Contract? The 25/55 pipedream seems to have just disappeared from the scene. I guess we'll hear about it again when Randi or whichever Unity hack succeeds her needs to sell another Sellout contract to the membership.
The 25/55 was a lie from day 1. Think: that's the carrot, we're the donkeys. The UFT has been key in either selling or just giving away the whole school system to corporate interests who would reinstitute slavery if they could. Oh, I forgot..illegal immigrants can still "legally" do the jobs that would require slave labor. Teaching is now considered just another production line, not a craft that's developed over the years (aka experience) or a career that has a spiritual component. The UFT is a pathetic excuse for a professional organization, never mind a labor union, which it definitely is not. We pay over $80 in dues so they can play with people like Steve Barr and the whole antiunion, antilabor movement. Meanwhile, principals breath down our necks wanting/making us to pass kids so they and their AP's can get their corrupt "performance" bonuses. There goes my "career". Thanks, Weingarten, Zahler, and all the other creeps who sold me out.
And for a younger teacher like me, who actually wants to do this long-term, it's discouraging to see these constant repeals of the very benefits we fought so hard to get. And the problem isn't even the administration outside of the union, but from within.
Three extra days will happen if short sighted teachers continue to go back to school early to set up their rooms. We hadn't even gotten our checks on Wednesday when I heard a teacher ask the AP what day she could come back to fix up her room for the upcoming school year! When push comes to shove, the principals can plan all the PD they want for those 2 days- but if none of the rooms are ready, THEY are the ones that will be embarassed, and they will have to give us time.
I don't know about anyone else, but what a year...endless agression followed by, well, more aggression. I don't know the answer, but yeah, the union offices are a mess and the people there are completely incompetent. We may have to go out on strike because everything is so difficult. We have until '08; by then even the biggest wimp in the UFT ought to be screaming their head off.
You don't have to have common sense to be a consultant. Those with such lofty ideas wouldn't last long in the classroom.
It's easier (and less expensive) to blame individual teachers rather than their often woeful conditions for problems in schools and district.
Are you up for some fun? I'm tagging you.
Get your iPhone yet? With that big salary I bet you are.
Steve Jobs wants you to. He also thinks us teachers are the problem with education. Excuse me, that is unionized teachers. He thinks we are so coddled that we never leave the job.
Now he has teamed up with AT&T; that co-conspirator with the NSA in their domestic spying program.
Why don't we have a Mac burning event? Oh yes, they are as toxic or more so than other computers. Guess we can't go there.
For the full rant: http://laborslessons.blogspot.com
The UFT had thought that 25/55 would be Bloomklein's way of getting rid of senior staff withmemories of how the job was supposed to be done. What they never understood was their excessing giveback made 25/55 unnecessary to Tweed. Combined with the new finance plan, the ongoing subdivisions of large schools into small, and the coming application of this plan to JHSs and MSs Tweed will be able to move us out or into ATR positions so far from the mainstream that we will have no influence on the main body of staff.
You'd think UNITY would be aghast, but with their support of Green Dot they now want us around with the same enthusiasm Tweed has.
Way to go John, though I'm still going to use Macs. I'm sure our small school guru Bill Gates and Jobs are in perfect accord in their attitudes. Linux anyone?
Don't blame you Norm. It's like when I switch to FIOS with Verizon (another co-conspirator with NSA), I will have to commit some money to the ACLU to off-set the damage. Yes, Gates is no better. It's hard to decide where to go.
Let's just continue to see them for what they are.
John,
What's the problem with FIOS because I was thinking about getting it?
As for this post...
I think Klein knows he will always be able to fill jobs even if he has to go out of town, like last year, and pay part of the rent. How are those teachers doing? We never hear about them. He just wants a warm body to show up each day.
When I see charters on TV, the working conditions are beautiful, and there are so many resources. I don't know what these teachers make, but if you take on students and parents who are "into" education, these kids will learn.
What gets me is that there is a move to destroy public education rather than improve the working conditions.
There is no reason why this mayor can't raise the funds to build new schools or repair old ones. And, he has the personal resouces to supply schools with all the modern equipment.
"What gets me is that there is a move to destroy public education rather than improve the working conditions."
Great point. Randi's deal with Green Dot (funded by Eli Broad) and her taking money for the UFT charter schools from Broad puts her right in the camp of the move to destroy public education. Some people say she is just being bamboozled or is not smart.
The opposite. She knows exactly what she is doing. Her actions are a sign that union leaders have given up on making gains in anything but money and even this comes along with a longer day and year. If rich philanthropists have money, they are willing to take it instead of engaging in a real battle to make full funding of urban education equal to the suburbs. Charters become the answer. It is using poor, at risk students the same way Klein uses them - to make political capital.
Does the union get destroyed in the process? Not at the top - they are stronger than ever. The union is a head without a body. The BloomKleins need Randi & Unity crew to step on any militancy that might arise - like cancelling the May 9th rally.
The union in the schools gets destroyed - many of the peace corp/missionary teachers flooding the system in a form of national service for a few years see union rules as an obstruction to serving the kids as they put in 12 hour days 'till they burn out or have families of their own and have to start commuting to work and find they can no longer put in the time - and watch how they get treated then. They also are not concerned with pension issues or even top salary steps. So the divisive conflict at the school level between the newer and older teachers makes any chance of building s strong union at the school level almost impossible.
Add that to the closing of the large high schools which had strong chapters (one of the key reasons they are being closed no matter what the DOE says) and the replacement with small schools with weak chapters and you have the formula that works for both the Broads/Kleins and Weingarten who still gets the same union dues no matter what happens in the schools.
While I am not in favor, I hear some people I would never have expected this from say a move should be started to decertify the union and bring in another organization like the Teamsters. If someone ever organized this, the union is so irrelevant in the schools, you would see a real anti-Unity vote come out if just to save on the dues.
No matter how bad things are or get, this would be an even bigger catastrophe, if that is possible to imagine because starting from scratch to organize a union today would be impossible.
The last two contracts actually have had two distinct "carrots" dangled in front of us; 25/55 was the first. Part of the sales pitch for the coming contract was an "ATR" buyout, (very attractive to those of us in ATR hell). However the "corporation," (as I heard Joel Klein refer to the DOE on NY1), and Bloomberg have a much more cost-effective ways of getting teachers to leave. Demeaning and demoralizing us are very powerful tools. I would be thrilled with any sort of incentive to retire, but I am certainly not counting on it and am fairly certain that I'll be leaving with a penalty. I can't forget to give "props" to Randi for allowing all of this to happen for what can only be personal gain.
The problem is Verizon, not FiOS. They gave over your telephone records to the NSA without a court order. They are not friends of democracy. QWest Telecom told the NSA to come back with a warrant. It's what AT&T and Verizon should have done.
I've been trying to understand Randi's acceptance of outfits like GreenDot, as well as her acquiescence to Klein and Bloomberg on seniority etc.
I think she looked at the shakers and movers on these anti union initiatives and saw that they were not the right wingers of every unionists nightmare, but the very heart and soul ( and $$$ is the heart and soul) of the modern Democratic Party. Gates, Soros, Jobs, Buffet, Gerstetner, Rohathyn. It's not easy to label these people as anti union without attacking the objects of their dontions, Hillary, Obama, John Edwards et al. ( I may omit Edwards as he seems to be a New Deal throwback, but he is also a multi millionaire).
I'm beginning to think someone has sat Randi down and told her the facts of new Democratic political life. Education is an important issue and people, especially in urban centers are disatisfied with their public schools. The Left is never going to allow public $$ to be used in already existing institutions like parochial schools, so liberal rich philathropists will start their own. Only problem is they will insist on running things like a business. It's what they know. Here the Dems can coopt the right by creating choice on a business model and limit the role of unions. By the time any real results are in the two election cycles will have passed and the nation will have moved on to other concerns. Randi was caught at a bad time in a bad place. Her interest is as Norm said here, and i said on another thread, is the institution of the UFT, not the people of the UFT. She's going with the flow.
The 78% of active teachers who didn't vote in the UFT election are just as responsible for this as Randi.
X:
Your analysis is on the button about the Democrats who are also amongst those leading the charge. Remember Klein comes from the Clintons. I differ when you say, "I'm beginning to think someone has sat Randi down and told her the facts of new Democratic political life" as if she is not one of them all along. Randi's connection to Hillary - even using the same consultants - puts her squarely in their camp and I believe ties her to Klein/Broad/Alvarado, etc. Her role is not to represent us, but to represent them to us by justifying union capitulation to their demands. It's almost like she was sent in as an agent to control the union so it doesn't get too militant. This is the left perspective which I don't always agree with. But if you're trying to understand her acceptance of Green Dot in the context of all her other actions, it makes as good a sense as any.
X:
Randi also lied about the '05 contract when she visited schools.
The pension part of that contract said absolutely nothing.
While others may have sat her down to discuss her future in Washington, and the 78% of members who did not vote put her in power.
However we, the members are voters, and if teachers around this nation stuck together, pols would put money into the public school system.
Unfortunately Norm is right, Klein is destroying the senior teachers (with Randi's help) because we still believe in our contractual rights.
Younger teachers, on the other hand, are either afraid, and many of them are more into partying than issues (school, current events, local or national politics). Their conversations at school are on pop culture.
SG
I think there are a small minority of younger staff who see the classroom as a career. The young women I work with seem to want to do this until they are married and have a family. Some see it as a stopover to a "real job" some see it as a step to AP. The guys seem to have had some type of job they did with dissatisfaction, but they seem intent on going into supervision.
None of these career visions translates into a membership interested in perpetuating our rights.
Doing what the Prin or AP wants, no matter the contract, seems a better bet to their goal than going to the Chap Ch.
This is in line with the Jack Welch model, as modified by Gates, et.al.The regrettable thing is that with welch when you did well at GE you got bonuses and stock options. Here you get a recommendation to the leadership academy. These new teachers do sell themselves cheaply.
Maybe that's why Klein is creating so many uneeded new "small schools". He wants to have as many positions so he can reward the toadies and sychophants. Maybe we can have a small school created for each grade level in a building. That would create 12,000 new principal positions.
I wonder if the use of Chacellor's Regs 420 and 421 (Corp. Punishiment and Verbal Abuse) is to facilitate principals increasing their number of U ratings. It seems like it's understood that it's expected of principals that they get their number of U ratings up. With an A420/421 charge a U is practically automatic if upheld.
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