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| All pals now. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office) |
So now that NYC Chancellor Richard Carranza, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, and UFT President Michael Mulgrew are all warm and fluffy with each other, all is right/not right (pick one)....right?
They all agreed on the new UFT contract, or MOA 2018
This new contract (not voted on yet) is cause for alarm especially since Mike Mulgrew seems to have swung away from the arguments made by any education activists who argue against Mayoral control of the NYC public school system, like us at Parentadvocates and Advocatz.com. We have, since the start of mayoral control in 2002, fought to fire/let go all the appointed members of the Panel For Educational Policy (NYC School Board) who randomly deny rights to the general public and stakeholders. The members of the PEP are appointed, and owe allegiance to the person/officer who appointed him/her. Stakeholders are not listened to, unless the political officers say so.
The PEP members routinely have violated the rights of parents, students, teachers, vendors and friends of NYC stakeholders by closing schools on the whim of the Chancellor, by ignoring the vote on probable cause under Education Law 3020-a for tenured teachers, and procuring services and products that don't do the job for which they are funded, with public money.
In retaliation for our egregious departure from the so-called "required" political mantras in NYC, we have been vilified by education activists as well as parent groups who think that anyone is fooled by going-along-to-get-along. We don't play by those rules. We know who plays politics in this town, and we will stay with our opinions intact, thanks very much. We have been reporting on and investigating the NYC school system for 21 years, and we are not giving up. Too many lives are being destroyed.
The coalition pictured at the top is very dangerous for anyone who has a problem with the school system. A sign of danger is, in addition to their support for continuance of mayoral control, ATR mess, etc., (see Chaz' blog too) the glee shown by all three men (the new "three men in a room"?) in light of their support for a "stress test" for new teachers. We agree that this in principle may be a good idea, but the implementation may lead to discrimination, racial profiling, age discrimination, and fraud, all of which we have seen in education grievances, lawsuits and appeals.
Thus we agree with the Opinion of the NYC Daily News Editors that caution is required on this new test. We add vigilance.
A law, rule, and regulation is only as good as it's implementation.
Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, Advocatz.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
A SOLID CONTRACT:
What to make of the city's new deal with the United Federation of Teachers
The fact that Mayor de Blasio and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew are shoulder-slapping simpatico, and that Chancellor Richard Carranza calls Mulgrew his “brother from another mother,” didn’t deliver 80,000 city teachers a windfall in the just-announced labor deal.
They’ll get average annual raises of about 2.5%, which is roughly the rate of inflation.
Give credit to chief city labor negotiator Bob Linn for showing sufficient respect for pattern bargaining, and for taxpayers who are footing the cost of an ever-larger municipal government, to keep the topline number in check.
And for squeezing modest, though still insufficient, health-care savings out of the city’s single largest public-sector workforce.
Simultaneously, it’s good news that this agreement, for the first time ever, lets schools pay a subset of educators more than their peers. At up to 180 schools that have struggled to retain teachers, educators in hard-to-staff subject areas — math and science tend to be the most common — will be eligible to earn $5,000 to $8,000 more a year.
That’s not performance-based pay, and it’s not happening citywide, but we’ll take the differentials as a significant break from the mindless lockstep pay schedule to which most teacher paychecks conform. On this front, damn-the-torpedoes, tie-teacher-pay-to-test-scores reformer Mike Bloomberg made a smaller dent.
The massive agreement has one big misstep: Rather than giving management more tools to remove from payroll teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve, where tenured educators who can’t find permanent work are parked, it preserves and even strengthens the hand of the educrats at Tweed to force them on schools.
That’s bad for kids, unfair to principals and disrespectful to existing staff.
Then there’s one big question mark: plans for a new screening test to determine whether prospective teachers are good fits for the profession, intended to cut down on early burnout and the headaches that come with high turnover.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to ensure that applicants are poised for long-term success. L.A. vets would-be teachers with a tool that includes college GPAs, sample lessons, and other application materials; research suggests it’s working.
But if poorly executed, the suitability test could wrap an already complex hiring process in ever more red tape — or even exclude talented people who might do great work for a few years, then switch gears to another profession.
Proceed with caution.
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| Panel of City officials announcing the new contract (photo Reema Amin, Chalkbeat) |
United Federation of Teachers, New York Cityofficials agree to a new 2019-2022 contract
New York City’s educators have a new contract that provides extra pay to teachers who work in hard-to-staff schools, tweaks teacher evaluations, and calls for the creation of a new screening tool to be used in hiring, city and union officials announced Thursday afternoon at City Hall.The contract was hammered out months ahead of schedule and includes a number of unexpected details. It creates a new “Bronx Plan” that targets the city’s neediest schools, providing up to $8,000 to teachers who fill hard-to-staff positions and calls for educators to play a role in developing school improvement plans.
“It really is about a different way of approaching school improvement,” said schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
An estimated 180 schools will be included in the plan, which calls on the city to identify 120 new “Collaborative Schools” where teachers and community members will have a “substantial voice” in driving school decisions. Those Collaborative Schools will receive $25,000 in additional funding.
Teacher evaluations were also revamped. Starting next school year, the evaluations will be tied to teachers’ experience and effectiveness. Those rated “developing” or “ineffective” will be observed more frequently than those who have already earned an effective or highly effective rating. And tenured teachers will be subject to less oversight than those still on probation.
Also new: a yet-to-be-developed screen to be used in hiring decisions. Officials likened it to the kinds of psychological profiles, workshops, and stress tests that police departments use to filter recruits.
Salaries will get a boost, beginning with a 2 percent raise in February, another 2.5 percent increase in May 2020, and a 3 percent increase in the agreement’s final year.
This contract is high stakes since it’s the first to be negotiated in the wake of Janus, a Supreme Court decision that could dramatically drain union membership. So far, UFT leaders say members are sticking with them, and the new contract could show teachers the advantages of staying in the union.
Even before the new deal was reached, the UFT this summer secured a huge victory for its members: six weeks of paid parental leave for birth, foster, adoptive, and surrogate parents. To cover the cost of the new benefit, the union’s contract was extended into February — an additional two-and-a-half months.
But City Hall and the country’s largest local union were able to come to an agreement well before the deadline. The speedy negotiations are a marked break from the past, when the union clashed with previous Mayor Michael Bloomberg as the financial crisis squeezed city budgets. The de Blasio administration, in contrast, is rarely at odds with the UFT, and a torrent of property taxes is once again flowing into city coffers.
At Thursday’s press conference, Carranza called the UFT president his “brother from another mother.”
“Yes, I feel like I have another brother in my life,” president Michael Mulgrew said. “The UFT truly has a partner at this time.”
It was the first contract to be negotiated under Carranza, who has made teacher training a priority for the education department.
“If we expect our students to achieve excellence, then we must support our teachers and leaders, and all our staff members to that end,” he said in a recent speech to the Association for a Better New York.
The agreement, which still needs to be ratified by UFT members, is scheduled to take effect in February and run through 2022. It would cover the union’s 129,000 members, who include about 79,000 classroom teachers. The city says it will cost $2.1 billion, but expects much of that cost to be offset by health care savings for a net cost of $572 million.
Clarifications: This story has been updated to clarify how many schools will be eligible for additional money as part of the Collaborative Schools plan. It has also been updated to reflect the union’s membership beyond classroom teachers.