We Are The 87%

There's plenty of stuff on the blogs and the news about the new evaluation deal, so I won't add my $.02 to the discussion just yet. I will say that I can spot only one clear winner here--UFT chapter leaders.

According to the agreement, the union can intervene on behalf of 13% of teachers who are rated ineffective if they believe the rating is due to principal harassment. That means whenever a CL, a delegate, or someone vocal in the union gets a poor rating, the UFT will almost certainly claim principal harassment and get that person cleared.

But what about the rest of us--the 87% that won't get such protection?

Well, you're just out of luck. We are the 87%.

To my mind, anyone who gets a rating of ineffective unfairly is, by definition, a victim of principal harassment. When an admin targets a senior teacher because of salary concerns, or a younger teacher because he or she didn't spit shine the principal's car to enough of a mirror finish, that is harassment. But we won't be protected. That honor will be saved for your union rep. Unless, of course, said rep is not a member of the Unity caucus run by the current UFT leadership.

We should never have agreed to a deal unless ALL teachers are protected from principal harassment. Instead, we've guaranteed that CLs are safe. Personally, I want my CL to feel the same pressure as I do so he'll fight for me just like he would for himself. Now that his job is secure due to this agreement, I'm not sure that will happen.

So if you want to make teaching a career, you'd better run for Chapter Leader, and make sure you run on the Unity slate. Otherwise, you're just a sitting duck like the rest of us.

Saturday Rants

OK...A few quickie rants. Here we go:

Mayor4Life said that teachers, firemen, and policemen should all be "out there defending the bankers" because they pay our salaries. Funny, but the last pay stub I looked at it seemed that I also pay for those things, and not one banker has defended me. But rather than appear an ingrate, I'll make the gesture. I'd like to thank the bankers for almost wrecking the economy so that they could get a huge government bailout with my tax dollars so they could continue to get 9 digit bonuses, the taxes on which help pay my salary. I'm more than happy to sacrifice my 4% raise so that I can rest easy in the knowedge that no bankers are going to bed hungry tonight. I'd also like to thank them for starting all those nice charter schools and for apparently trying to buy off politicians to get support for even more nice charter schools. "No Banker Left Behind" and "Race to the Public Trough" are alive and well in NYC.

Chapter leaders should act like defense lawyers. Your job is to defend the people in your chapter--period. Whether YOU think they are guilty or not doesn't matter. Murderers and child molesters are entitled to a decent defense--that is what keeps democracy running. Shouldn't teachers get the same benefit of the doubt? So to the CL who basicially sided with the admins the other day and claimed that the teachers in question were at fault, shame on you. Do your goddamned job.

There was a huge upswing in year-end U ratings in my school. I mean well above the 10% range, which must make Jack Welch smile, assuming he has any emotions besides greed. I'm wondering if this is part of a larger pattern citywide. It seems to me that if a principal wants to get someone on incompetence charges, they may feel rushed to do so now because the new evaluation system will require teachers to have two consecutive years in which they are rated "ineffective" before they can be terminated. It may be that principals are in a rush to terminate now because they don't know how the new system will shake out. If you have any info about the total number of U ratings in your school, please post that info in the comments section.

Is there anyway to stop the runaway train of the ed deformers? I want to get Obama out of the Oval Office, but what are the alternatives? Voting republican? Should we support Sarah Palin, whose only experience with education is that she went to more schools than the swine flu? How about Rand Paul, who'd likely repeal that pesky Civil Rights Act and remove all funding from education?

Or maybe we could vote for Bloomberg, who would doubtless make sure that the bankers had MUCH more money so that the little people like us could be even more grateful?