95 Dollars or Paid Parental Leave?

 Which is more important to you? Does that sound hypothetical? Does it sound ridiculous? It's all in the ear of the beholder, I suppose.

I've posted several times in defense of the paid parental leave program for UFT, first here, and then here. The last criticism I've seen determines that we each pay 95 bucks more than necessary for this benefit, based on an estimated savings for the city. Evidently the calculations for this agreement were based on our last contract or raise, rather than DC37's new one, which did not exist at the time. How short-sighted of leadership to fail to consult a crystal ball before making this deal.

I want to know who it is who would not sacrifice 95 bucks for this benefit. There is, in fact, a good reason we shouldn't pay the 95 bucks, or anything whatsoever, though I didn't catch it in the critical column I saw.

That reason is that all Americans should be eligible for paid family leave. The reason we haven't got it is our politicians suck, from Trump's orange head on down. The remedy is to fire all the politicians who don't support We, the People. That's a tall order. But I will support it, and I will be happy to donate to politicians that do. Thus far this year, I've donated to Zephyr Teachout and Cynthia Nixon. I'm absolutely confident they'd both support paid parental leave for Americans. I'm open to others, though.

Another issue I've read about is that DC37 got family leave and that it's revenue-neutral. In other words, DC37 members are not paying the 95 bucks. I would also like to have family leave, and I would also like to keep my 95 bucks, all things being equal. Alas, all things are not equal. The Daily News reported on the DC37 accord:

As part of the deal, DC 37 members will also get partially paid family leave starting next year. The union is opting in to the state’s family leave program, and members will be allowed to take 10 weeks off to care for a family member while getting paid up to 55% of their salary.

The city teachers union last week announced a deal giving members six weeks of parental leave at full pay. Because DC 37’s workforce is older, they preferred the option that would allow them to take time off to care for other family members and not just a new baby, Garrido said. A payroll deduction of about 0.13% will pay for the benefit.

So it's not, in fact, revenue-neutral. 0.13% of $50,000 is 65 dollars. A whole lot of DC37 employees are paid hourly, and make well less than 50K. (Personally, I'd rather make more and pay more, but that's just me.) While they likely pay less than 95 bucks, based on salary they may pay a higher percentage.

There is no doubt that family leave is better than parental leave. There is also no doubt that ten weeks are better than six. On the other hand, there is no doubt that full pay is better than 55% pay. "Up to 55%" can certainly be less than 55%. Whichever way you view this, UFT aimed for and achieved parental leave. Make no mistake, had we taken the deal DC37 did, you'd see broad laments about the 0.13% payroll deduction and the partial benefit.

There are good and bad things about both programs. There is no Commandment etched in stone that says we cannot renegotiate in the future for improvements. Of course we should do that, and of course we can do that. I'm pretty sure we won't be able to do it only a month or two after having negotiating what we negotiated. That's unfortunate, but ultimately precludes nothing.

Perhaps we should focus on larger issues. The largest, as far as I can determine, is that our national government is run by business interests rather than human interests. This is nowhere more obvious than in the Orange President, but Democrats are also at fault. Certainly Obama failed to fulfill his promise to find those comfortable shoes and stand with labor. I can attest that there is no comfortable shoe shortage, as I regularly locate and purchase them. (They aren't even expensive.)

In case it isn't painfully obvious, it was an egregious error to run another corporate Democrat, particularly one with decades of baggage who lacked the charisma of Barack Obama. If that happens again, we're in for More of the Same, and probably worse from an emboldened would-be dictator.

Closer to home, UFT members are better off than we were before this agreement. And though I will never use this benefit, I count myself as better off. I'm happy to give a little to help my brothers and sisters who are starting out. I'm happy to make it just a little bit easier for people to stay in this vital profession.

This notwithstanding, I'd be just as happy to work toward other benefits, and family leave is certainly among them. We don't necessarily get everything we want right away. That's too bad, but neither is it reason to attack and belittle significant achievements. Make no mistake, paid parental leave is a very significant achievement. I'm very proud to have played even a small part in having made it happen.

Update: clarification in paragraphs two and three

End-Year Reflections, Especially on Paid Parental Leave

On this, the last day of the school year, I want to wish you all a very happy and healthy summer. I hope you have something you love to do, and that you do it. If not, I hope you find that thing you love doing.

This year was revelatory for me in a number of ways. I find myself able to quietly negotiate with a group of people from Unity Caucus, and a little more optimistic that we can push them toward addressing teacher issues. There are a few issues I'm really focused on. (I also found myself very much at odds with people I'd previously thought of as allies. I can only conclude I'm not at the vanguard of the socialist revolution, whatever that is and whenever it's coming.) Here are a few things I'd like to see addressed.

We have to do something to adjust the awful evaluation system, the one that's jackhammering teacher morale to the center of the earth. I thought the Assembly bill to make testing optional was a step in the right direction, and something within our immediate reach. Of course I was wrong. There are other things, like Danielson, removing junk science altogether, and reducing the mandated number of observations. I think we have to be careful that two observations be an option only if they rate the member effective or higher. That not only gives members a chance to do better, but also gives Boy Wonder supervisors an incentive not to indulge their vindictive moronic tendencies. Boy Wonder supervisors tend not to favor extra work for themselves.

Then there's the Class Size Conundrum, the one that's well past its golden anniversary. I'm not expert on negotiations, but it boggles my mind that we have a state law reducing class size that the whole state is ignoring. How is it that we are supposed to negotiate that into our contract? Why on earth would we offer to give back anything whatsoever to get something that's already mandated? And how can self-proclaimed student lobbyist Andy Cuomo sleep at night when he blatantly disregards the C4E ruling?

We also have the Absent Teacher Reserve. Last I heard it was around 800, but that almost certainly doesn't include provisionally placed teachers, many of whom will be returning right back into the ATR in September. I know I'd feel like an ATR if I weren't assured of a position come the fall, whether or not anyone called me that. The glaringly obvious solution is to just place them, whether principals like it or not. If they suck as badly as stereotypes in the press would have us believe, let principals prove it.

There's CR Part 154, which pulls instructional time from my ELLs and replaces it with, well, less than nothing.They have fewer periods of direct English instruction. Not only is it not replaced, but they're supposed to magically acquire English in core subject areas, though they're not given a single extra minute to do that. Instead, the teachers are supposed to figure it out. Good luck with that.

Some of my friends don't agree, but we have an enormous victory in paid parental leave. I find most of the arguments against it to be nonsensical, and addressed the bulk of them here. There are just a few more I'm going to answer.

1. If you take the leave, you're stuck working for another year.

OK, that's true. But if you don't want to keep working for another year, why are you taking the leave? Why don't you just quit right now? Then you'll have all the time in the world to do anything you like. This is not very different from sabbatical requirements. I took half a year off for restoration of health when I had cancer. I suppose if I'd dropped dead I'd have been responsible to pay back my salary. (I'm not expert on the afterlife, but I'd hope to have no need for salary there.) In any case, I was delighted to be back at work. I generally like my job, but even if I didn't, take my word, it would be a whole lot better than where I was for that half year.

2. The six weeks are not pensionable.

What? You mean I'll have to work an entire six weeks to get back to where I was before having taken off six weeks with full pay? First of all, if that's your worst problem, you lead a charmed existence. I doubt that, though, if that's how desperate you are for an argument. But hey, if you're the sort of person who would rather leave your newborn with someone else for the first six weeks of her life, you can always turn down the paid leave and retire on time. It's all about your personal choices.

3. Fathers can't take the CAR time.

That's true, but it was true before this agreement as well. I adopted a child from Colombia and let me tell you. if everyone had to go through what I did, there'd be a lot fewer kids around. Let me add that I find this argument incredibly ironic given the fact that you've just spent a whole column telling me how awful this deal is. Why are you so worried that fathers can't get the deal if it sucks so much? The fact is fathers are eligible for the new part of the agreement, the one the union negotiated that gets six weeks of paid leave, as opposed to nothing.

4. If you have your baby in the summer, you miss out.

If you have your baby in the summer, you aren't required to be at work. Also, you therefore don't miss out on those six pensionable weeks previously deemed as being of pivotal importance. So it's a WIN-WIN!

5. Kids who are seven need as much attention as kids who are six.

That's true, but without this agreement you don't help seven-year-old kids. You simply hurt kids of six, five, four, three, two, one, right up to newborns.

6. We haven't seen the Memorandum of Agreement.

This is the only argument I've seen that bears discussion at all. I'd hope they made a broad agreement and are basing the MOA on said agreement, but I'm not privy to negotiations. I can't really deal with what I don't know. I take positions based on what I see.

For example, when I saw details about the 2014 Contract, I didn't like them. The notion of waiting eleven years to get interest-free back pay did not much appeal to me. The notion of taking a seven year 10% pattern, let alone giving it to my brother and sister unionists, didn't much appeal to me either. A big thing I didn't like about that contract was the vague promise to achieve health care savings. In fact our co-pays exploded as a result of that agreement. Details of that agreement were likely as not made after the MOA came out. I didn't need any further evidence about that deal anyway.

Unless leadership is making outrageous fabrications about this agreement up front, most arguments against it are nonsense. I used to be very upset, years ago, when Unity would say we just tore down everything for no reason. The 2005 Contract was an abomination, and merited every word said and written against it. They were wrong in that case. In this case, unless an enormous shoe is about to drop, they seem to be right.

Paid parental leave is a huge gain, I don't mind giving up a few hundred bucks to support it, and I'm not willing to take a stand against it simply because it's not perfect. Few things are. I mean, there's my dog, there's a song called Morning Has Broken that Cat Stevens sings, and there's that first cup of coffee in the morning.

There are also a lot of people of all ages who make me smile every time I see them, too numerous to mention here. This notwithstanding, I thank each and every one of them. To them, and to all, have a fabulous summer, beginning around three o'clock today.

Ten Things About UFT Paid Parental Leave

I support this agreement, and I'll explain why. I'll also address comments and questions I've been seeing and hearing.

1. We should get something for nothing.

I'm not opposed to that argument, actually. I'd love to get something for nothing.My Macbook Air, the one I'm using now, is falling apart and I've got it put together with Scotch tape, literally. I'm gonna have to replace it and it's gonna cost me a thousand bucks, even though I'm a great guy. We have given back 73 days to achieve a permanent benefit for our members. We have left this place a little better than it was before we had this agreement.

2. This means our raise is only 1.29% a year, or something like that.

I'm not sure I recall that figure correctly, but let's say it's true. There are several assumptions that go into that, and they aren't all bad. First, we've discounted the two years at 4% we'd have gotten if Bloomberg weren't such an asshole. If we hadn't, the annual raise would be closer to 2%. For the next seven years or so, we got 10% in raises, the lowest pattern I've ever heard of. People will tell you, "Hey, that sucks," and they'll be telling you the truth. Nonetheless, that's the deal UFT ratified. I don't think it's reasonable to conflate the last contract, which is old news, into this agreement.

We gave up a new contract, one we haven't got anyway, for precisely 73 days. I don't know about you, but it felt to me like we waited 73 years for the last one, and it sucked anyway. Hopefully we've learned from that, but whether we have or we haven't, I'm certainly ready to wait 73 days so that new parents can have six weeks of paid leave.

3. Someone else got a better deal.

Maybe they did. Good for them. Someone else is not us. Maybe someone got a two percent raise plus leave. But maybe they'd have gotten a six percent raise without it. Do you know if that's true? Me neither. Others got a worse deal. We have people working crap jobs with no benefits all over the country, and as we "Make America Great Again," there will surely be more. In any case, this is not a contest. What we have now is better than what we had yesterday.

4. It's a choice to have children.

Please. It's a choice to breathe. It's a choice to not firebomb the principal's car. On the other hand, it's a choice to support young UFT members. That's my choice, and that's what we've agreed to do.

5. I already had my kids. Why should I help with yours?

We are a community. We support one another. Let me tell you something--I've been teaching for 34 years and I've never had an actual disciplinary meeting. Why should I help with yours? Why should I pay for the services of a chapter leader, or a district rep., or anyone? I'll tell you why. It's because we are a community. It's because we stand together, and it's because your problems are my problems. That's why I will go with you to your disciplinary meeting with the principal, that's why I will go with you to Step Two, and every step afterward. That's why I will use every resource I can muster to get you out of trouble. I'm proud to help you if I can.

6. Why don't we have family leave, instead of just parental leave?

Hey, that's a good question. I'd like to have family leave too. Why don't we work for it? I will

support you. Also, why don't we have wings? I don't know. But I'm still not gonna criticize the fact that we have legs. I'm pretty happy to have legs. They're very convenient when I walk my little dog Toby. (Also, why aren't I writing blogs saying the UFT sucks because adoptions are limited to humans? Aren't canines people too?)

7. The UFT sucks, so there must be some big secret in the fine print.

Show me what it is and we'll talk. Meanwhile, I happen to know something about how this came about. It had something to do with my brother Mike Schirtzer telling Emily James to come to UFT Executive Board and talk about the petition she wrote that had gone viral. This was one time that Mulgrew responded directly to comments and promised to work on it. He did, and now UFT parents will have six weeks of paid leave when they have or adopt children.

8. There's a hidden cost.

Okay, show me what it is. As far as I can tell, we wait 73 days one year, and we've obtained a permanent benefit next year and each year thereafter. It sounds like a good deal to me, and unless you have evidence otherwise, I don't understand why we're even discussing this.

9. I have to use my CAR days before I get this benefit.

The UFT Q and A was poorly written, and left a lot of people with that impression. But actually it said you may use your CAR days before you take the benefit. It didn't say you must. A lot of people read it that way, though, because again, it's poorly written. And speaking of poor writing:

10. UFT Unity has done it again.

That's one of the worst headlines I've ever seen, and it was attached to a hastily produced flyer handed out at the DA yesterday. I will leave the immediate interpretation to your imagination. However, we high school reps played a big part in this. We have been bringing all sorts of people to the Executive Board, and Emily James was one of them. This is an instance of cooperation between us and Unity, and it's unfortunate they are unable to acknowledge it. Real unity is more than a caucus name.

My members are jubilant, and it is my considered opinion that critics of this deal are scraping the bottom of the barrel for arguments. We are better off with this agreement than we were without it, and that goes in the win column. I'm very proud to have played some small part in making this happen.