NYSUT Takes a Stand. Or Is it a Sit?

A few weeks ago, at the AFT Convention, NYSUT President Karen Magee, despite campaign promises that her leadership opposed Common Core, said the following:

If not standards, then what? A free-for-all? Everyone does what they please? No common base? No common method to look at what they're doing?

This is a black and white logical fallacy, acknowledging no other option but chaos to the program in which Bill Gates invested billions, including contributions to AFT. Judging from Magee's assertions,  we were having gunfights in the street before Bill Gates and his billions came along to save us. Though Magee went on to offer the boilerplate rationale about implementation being at fault, this is a blatant broken promise. This was followed, of course, by a refusal to endorse Zephyr Teachout or Howie Hawkins, despite a handout that compared Cuomo to Scott Walker.

Not that the English scores have risen a whopping .1%, and math scores 5%, after the cutoffs being lowered, Magee is singing the same old song:

Karen Magee, president of the New York State United Teachers union, said the union is “certainly pleased to see scores rising,” but cautioned that “students are more than a test score.”

From her mouth, this amounts to another empty platitude. Where's the Revive promise to oppose Common Core? Where's the Revive promise to oppose Cuomo, who they likened to one of the most union-unfriendly figures in living memory? Where's the Revive promise to move out of the shadow of UFT, or its face-punching President?

Where's that NYSUT that was going to be led from the bottom up, as promised after its UFT-sponsored victory? It appears that now they're in office, status quo is just fine with them. That's too bad, because outgoing Prez Richard Iannuzzi was beginning to take clear stands against Cuomo and Common Core, and likely as not, that's why he's ex-president.

UFT makes up 28% of NYSUT, but gets 34% of statewide votes. Small impoverished locals can't afford a weekend at the NY Hilton, and there's no mechanism for remote, online or absentee voting. NYSUT still accepts the dues of these disenfranchised teachers. NYSUT also accepts my dues, and those of my members, though we get no voice in the loyalty-oath bound UFT delegation. Of course, if I were to sign the loyalty oath we'd still get no voice, since I'd then be representing leadership rather than membership.

It's clear to me that the current NYSUT leadership is there to maintain status quo, including failure to oppose Cuomo, failure to oppose Common Core, and failure to stand up to total domination by the UFT political machine. The question is whether or not that will become clear to NYSUT membership.

There are those of us here who will work very hard to give city members a voice, no matter how hard Mulgrew wishes to punch us in the face. How many of our brothers and sisters statewide will stand with us?

Only time will tell.

Unity-New Action Hypocrites

For years I've been reading rationales on why it's unhealthy to disagree with the union. It makes Bloomberg happy when you disagree. You're emboldening our opposition. We need to put on a united front. These arguments become particularly strident during union elections. Yes, of course you have the right to your opinion, but for goodness sake, don't ever let anyone know what it is!

In fact, to further bolster that argument, the UFT has created a fake opposition group, specifically for the purpose of making the union appear less monolithic than it actually is. That would be New Action, the opposition group that politely endorses the Unity presidential candidate, so that Unity will cross-endorse a small group of their people. This has the added bonus of more or less hobbling any real opposition, who can be shut out altogether of all union decisions. Go screw yourselves, and for goodness sake, please do it quietly.

For the love of Pete, don't oppose mayoral control. Sure they've closed every comprehensive high school in the Bronx, and sure plenty of small schools can't even muster someone to stand for chapter leader, but at least every damn person in the building pays UFT dues. Unless it's a non-union charter. But don't oppose charters, because we've supported them. In fact, we've not only created one of our own, but also colocated it, so don't oppose colocation either. Bottom line is we support this stuff, so it behooves you to behave as though you support it too.

And keep your mouth shut about rating teachers via junk science, because we also support that. We've created a great law to enable it, and we get to negotiate how it's carried out. Wasn't that brilliant of us? Except, of course, that we didn't end up negotiating anything whatsoever--we had John King decide, so don't oppose that either. After all, we say he's impartial, and that ought to be good enough for anyone.

So have fun, ATRs, as you travel school to school, week to week. Sorry we gave up your seniority rights. Too bad if no one picks you up, and too bad if you get discontinued for no reason whatsoever. Just sit down, shut up, and don't complain. Ever.  Sorry you can't grieve that letter in your file simply because it's totally false. Smile while you patrol the halls, the lunchrooms, and the bathrooms because it's all for the best. Don't be a Gloomy Gus. Because complaining is bad.

Unless of course, we decide it's not. Now we want to torpedo the President of NYSUT, Dick Ianuzzi, and that's OK. There's no problem being opposition as long as we are the opposition. You see when we oppose leadership, it's a good thing. Our opponents are not emboldened when we oppose leadership.  They are only emboldened when you oppose leadership.

In short, do as we say, not as we do.