NYSUT Officers Need Our Help

Alarm bells are ringing.  Cuomo and his hedge fund backers are out to destroy public education and the union of teachers that protect it.  NYSUT Officers need our help to fight.  Perhaps that’s because for the last year, we were the only ones fighting.

The current leadership started off in the right direction.  They opposed Common Core, APPR, high-stakes tests, Cuomo, and King.

Soon after they were elected, Cuomo signed Karen, Andy P., and friends’ double pensions.  It has been downhill ever since.

During the summer of 2014, the very officers that were elected to oppose Common Core took the stage and declared their love of the standards.  The UFT’s Mulgrew even threatened to punch those in the face that opposed “his” standards.  Not exactly what we were expecting.

Later that summer, a NYSUT spokesperson made the bizarre claim that state tests seemed fair and developmentally appropriate.  We have been screaming for years that these test are designed for students to fail.  How did they not relay our message?

Things appeared to be better in the fall.  We applauded the officers non-endorsement of Cuomo, but they dropped the ball by failing to back a candidate of our own.  They also dismissed Cuomo’s threats against teachers as election rhetoric.  Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come when Randi Weingarten put out a robocall supporting Cuomo’s Lt. Gov Hochul and by default- Cuomo.

Cuomo won the election and declared war on public school teachers and their union.  He even went so far as to say the union was protecting teachers convicted of sexually abusing students.  NYSUT officers made few attempts to correct this potentially damaging lie.  No NY teacher who has ever been convicted of such a heinous crime has been allowed to keep their job.

We have been inundated with questionable magazine covers.  AFT’s latest cover is offering to restore the promise of charters at a time when charters are looking to rob public schools of funding and credibility.  NYSUT’s United Magazine cover declared Cuomo has no respect for “You and Your Profession”, leaving some to question why not a more united “Us and Our Profession”?

To date, the only resistance offered by these officers has been a $1 million dollar ad dedicated to funding, a twitter campaign #inviteCuomo, a video (that did a good job identifing problems, but failed to suggest dynamic solutions) and two sparsely attended rallies-one on New Year’s Eve and another in the middle of a school day.  We applauded their 2nd opt out fact sheet.  It was only sent out after an all out assault on their first lackluster attempt.

It is clear that the NYSUT officers need our help.  They have put our union in a difficult position.  They held the door open an allowed an all out assault by testing companies, corrupt politicians, and others seeking to destroy OUR profession.

It is time for local unions to shut the door and remove the cretins from public education before they are allowed to do any more damage to our children!

If these NYSUT officers are willing to help OUR cause, we are more than willing to meet them with open arms.

Advertisement

It’s time our state and national union leaders made it their mission to end high-stakes testing and the Common Core horse they rode in on.

When 70% of NY students failed the Common Core tests, our state & national union leaders said we needed more time and more resources.

When 67% of the students failed for the second time, they celebrated growth and asked once again for more time and more resources.

Now, the Governor has declared war on teachers for failing to produce results on these flawed tests.

We’ve had enough time & exhausted enough resources. It’s time our state and national union leaders made it their mission to end high-stakes testing and the Common Core horse they rode in on.

Should Your Child Take High-Stakes Tests?

Your children should take high-stakes tests if you agree with:

Using state tests for 50% of evaluations

The benefits of rigorous test prepping for months

Subjecting children to tests that are 10+ hours long

Not being able to see the tests or even discuss them

Adjusting test passing rates to match political agendas

Defining students, teachers, & communities by 2 tests

Giving Pearson $28 million for tests that contain advertisements & multiple errors

Removing local control

Putting you child’s education in the hand$ of hedge fund traders

Corrupt politicians

If you don’t agree, opt out.

What if Parents, Teachers, & Students Weren’t Afraid Anymore?

Students and teachers are about to head back into the schoolhouses and will be met with the reality that the witch-hunt in public education is well underway. The Governor and Chancellor have released their plans to fire 10% of teachers in NY. Their strategy is to undermine local control to manipulate the teacher evaluation system and carry out the demands of billionaire hedge fund traders. These same fund traders financed Cuomo’s run for Governor with 4 million dollars. In return, they want to take over our schools.

So what are parents, teachers, and students to do? Do we feed into this system of fear and allow it to dominate our classrooms, faculty rooms, playgrounds and dining rooms? Do we allow our children to be reduced to data points on the machine set to destroy their education? Do we put our faith in the hands of the same corporations that bankrupted our entire nation and set us spinning into a recession that we still have not recovered from? Do we remain passive hoping for someone else to save public education?

Instead of cowering in fear and isolation we must stand united and empower each other. Classrooms must not be ruled by fear, but be guided by compassion. Where the corporate reforms and their Governor see failure, we must see an unwavering belief in the promise of our students, teachers, and parents. While the threats the reformers make are very much real, they are promoting a blind faith education policy that is crumbling by the second. It is time we knock it down. Do not be passive. Voice your thoughts and concerns, because the concerns are real and the impact of firing 10% of our teachers is too monstrous and punitive to ignore.

We did not put green laces in our shoes, green looms on our wrists, and green lanyards around our necks because we hoped we would win. We put them on as a bold and impossible to ignore reminder of why we will win. We will win for our children, our schools, our teachers, and our communities. As one…

Lace to the Top