ATTENTION NYC TEACHERS: YOU HAVE BEEN HAD BY YOUR UNION

[HiPointDem]

I hope all New York City teachers remembered what was happening around this time last year. New York State United Teachers, in conjunction with our own United Federation of Teachers, agreed to a new teacher evaluation system with the state of New York. I hope all NYC teachers remember that the UFT leadership...tried to explain to us why the system to which they agreed was a good one. Here is Leo Casey last year “setting the record straight” on why we the teachers of NYC should support the new evaluations:

And it was essential that the bulk of the evaluations be established locally through collective bargaining, with the law only providing a general framework.

Translation: don’t worry, because your local union will have a say in what the evaluation regime will look like in your district.

Fast forward almost one year later to today. The UFT and the city have not been able to come to an agreement. As it turned out collective bargaining, the thing that Leo Casey said was essential, yielded no agreement. That is where things should have ended.

But Governor Cuomo said today that he might just push an evaluation system through the legislature and impose it on NYC by fiat. In other words, Cuomo said he is willing to override the agreement we came to via collective bargaining, which was no agreement. This is in direct contradiction to the framework to which he and the union agreed last year. The UFT should be up in arms about this...Instead, here is the response of Unity’s own Michael Mulgrew:

Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that he “would prefer a negotiated settlement,” but supported state intervention if talks fail again.

In other words, Mulgrew supports an evaluation system imposed by fiat. Collective bargaining went from being the essential part of the deal to being no part of the deal whatsoever.

http://theassailedteacher.com/2013/01/30/attention-nyc-teachers-you-have-been-had-by-your-union/

[Recursion]

1. Jesus. With friends like this... (nt)

[joelbny]

2. taxpayer-funded schools exist for students, not life sinecure for teachers

Sorry, but taxpayer-funded schools exist for the students' not for the already-powerful teacher unions.

But even from a teachers' perspective, what is wrong with teacher evaluation or firing bad teachers? If you are a good teacher, why wouldn't you want to have competent colleagues and recognition/ reward for your abilities and effort? No a teacher in Brownsville will not have the same students as a teacher in Park Slope, but surely their is a way to control for student differences in the evaluations.

According to the Daily News, "the city already lost more than $400 million in state and federal funds when it couldn’t reach a deal with the United Federation of Teachers on how teacher performance should be measured ahead of Cuomo’s Jan. 17 deadline." How much more will the teachers unions' obstinance cost the taxpayers and students of New York?

In this economy most private sector employees would be more than happy to receive what New York teachers get- lifetime 70% pensions after what 20 or 25 years on the job, lifetime Cadillac Health coverage, virtually-guaranteed job security, months of vacation, etc. Do we really need to throw in zero performance evaluation or risk of being fired no matter how incompetent or ineffective the teacher becomes?

[duffyduff]

3. Please take the talking points elsewhere

There are so many misstatements in your post, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. I am not even going to bother with refuting it.

Teachers are easily fired, and their "bosses," meaning principals, have no accountability for their actions. That in a nutshell is why these reform schemes don't work. It is not like private sector work.