Randi and Gov. Spitzer
“Governor Spitzer’s proposals are a giant step toward keeping his promise to the children of New York to improve the education of all public school students across the state.
“While some details are unknown – and it would not be a surprise that parents and teachers want lowering class sizes in New York City treated equally with universal pre-k -- the differences between the governor’s approach to pay differentials, tenure, accountability and school funding and that of Chancellor Klein are revealing and refreshing. 0f course we would welcome a real lowering of class size below our contractual limits and the caps that are already in place. This is what we have aggressively fought for, and obviously the governor has heard what we have been saying.
“The governor’s approach builds a strong school community while the chancellor’s foster divisiveness. The governor recognizes the value of respecting tenure, but the chancellor would like to blame it for all the ills of the school system. Likewise, the governor understands the value of the lead teacher program and incentives to work at hard-to-staff schools. Some of the chancellor’s proposals would do nothing more than pit teachers against one another and, inevitably, lead to cronyism.
“The governor’s funding proposal will lift all schools rather than robbing Peter to pay Paul and his accountability plan will make everyone responsible – top to bottom, not just principals and teachers.
“We look forward to working with the governor’s team – including the new deputy commissioner, Manuel Rivera, who is an educator’s educator -- and the State Legislature on ways to transform the elements of this proposal into a sound, basic education for every child in New York City.”It goes without saying that we have a closed contract and that anything other than the lowering of class size would have to be negotiated.
“While some details are unknown – and it would not be a surprise that parents and teachers want lowering class sizes in New York City treated equally with universal pre-k -- the differences between the governor’s approach to pay differentials, tenure, accountability and school funding and that of Chancellor Klein are revealing and refreshing. 0f course we would welcome a real lowering of class size below our contractual limits and the caps that are already in place. This is what we have aggressively fought for, and obviously the governor has heard what we have been saying.
“The governor’s approach builds a strong school community while the chancellor’s foster divisiveness. The governor recognizes the value of respecting tenure, but the chancellor would like to blame it for all the ills of the school system. Likewise, the governor understands the value of the lead teacher program and incentives to work at hard-to-staff schools. Some of the chancellor’s proposals would do nothing more than pit teachers against one another and, inevitably, lead to cronyism.
“The governor’s funding proposal will lift all schools rather than robbing Peter to pay Paul and his accountability plan will make everyone responsible – top to bottom, not just principals and teachers.
“We look forward to working with the governor’s team – including the new deputy commissioner, Manuel Rivera, who is an educator’s educator -- and the State Legislature on ways to transform the elements of this proposal into a sound, basic education for every child in New York City.”It goes without saying that we have a closed contract and that anything other than the lowering of class size would have to be negotiated.
posted by A Strong, Proud UTP Member at 1/30/2007 07:15:00 PM
15 Comments:
I wonder if Ms. Weingarten heard the same speech I did.
I met several Rochester teachers recently and they told me how great Manuel Rivera is in the city. Not all of what Spitzer is saying and doing are that bad. besides as Randi said " anything other than the lowering of class size would have to be negotiated".
You don't have to be that negative NYCE
Yeah, try and be more positive. Put a positive spin on the tenure-fallout, whydontcha?
What "tenure fall out"? I know my tenure is still in place!
Spitzer ran on class size. I voted for him enthusiastically.
Now, he says class size is one of several menu options. You're certainly free to jump up and cheer after being lied to. I won't be joining you.
Another attack on teachers, and our union is oh so cooperative. Typical teacher attitude : as long as my tenure isn't an issue I don't care, as long as something doesn't directly affect me I don't care. Maybe if we had more people who actually stood up for something things could be so different. Spitzer, Bloomberg and Klein are working against us. Our union leadership that collaborates with them are also working against us.
What is the DOE criteria for tenure now?
Not satisfractory lessons, etc., for 3 years, but accountablity and data. Their call, solely. Were our newbies trembling and wondering where their union was and what it was doing?
Damn right.
The Daily News has an Op-Ed piece (Sun. Feb.4) by Randi Wiengarten, in which she praises Spitzer and demonizes Klein. On the next page in the editorial section it is pointed out that Klein's and Spitzer's plans are virtually identical, and questions the ulterior motives of our union and of course takes a swipe at teachers. Why does our union always manage to make us look bad, while at the same time feeding us to the lions?
I see beleive the Daily News Editiorial Board over Randi our elected president - nice choice. Read for yourself:
New York Daily News -
Pass Spitzer, fail Klein
BY RANDI WEINGARTEN
Sunday, February 4th, 2007
Gov. Spitzer's far-reaching education plan is already being spun as a victory for some and a defeat for others. While I disagree with some aspects, the truth is the governor has done something very important: He has effectively blown the whistle on the education wars. That stands in stark contrast to the confrontational approach consistently taken by New York City's schools chancellor, Joel Klein.
Spitzer's reforms provide a powerful example of the importance of listening to stakeholders, relying on proven policy and pushing for strong and fair accountability measures - backed up with the tools and funding necessary to help educators meet the high standards we all want.
First, the governor has put settling the long-running Campaign for Fiscal Equity case within sight. The $3.2 billion in state school funding he has proposed over the next four years (not including the city's share) is well above the $2 billion court-ordered minimum. And we should welcome the fact that he wants to tie that money to proven reforms - like lowering class sizes, providing for universal prekindergarten and improving teacher training.
All this is in stark contrast to the path chosen by Chancellor Klein. Spitzer uses accountability as a tool. Klein uses it as a weapon.
For instance, Spitzer's plan would hold everyone from chancellors and superintendents on down accountable, while the chancellor's new reorganization of the city's schools transfers all responsibility for education onto principals and teachers, yet fails to give them the resources and professional latitude necessary to meet their responsibilities.
Gov. Spitzer's plan requires schools to choose from a short list of proven reforms. Chancellor Klein's plan upends the school structure for the third time in five years - on the gamble that it will improve student outcomes. Gov. Spitzer's plan is focused on what happens in the classroom; to me, Chancellor Klein's plan looks simply like another organizational chart.
And then there is the key difference in approach when it comes to getting the most help to the neediest children. The governor proposes reworking a complicated funding formula in order to deliver additional resources to all our schoolchildren. In contrast, Chancellor Klein wants to shift to an untested funding scheme that purports to having a set amount of money follow each child, but actually will destabilize good schools that have more experienced staffs.
After the November election, Spitzer solicited input from teachers, parents, principals, administrators, researchers and others to try to find solutions that would have the best chance to help our kids succeed. Chancellor Klein has repeatedly shut parents, teachers and other stakeholders out of his consultations, opting instead for a top-down approach that puts structure ahead of instruction.
Of course, we have some concerns with the governor's plan. We believe he ought to have placed a stronger emphasis on investing in class-size reduction - giving it the same high priority as expanding prekindergarten programs to all 4-year-olds. And we don't support giving another entity - in this case Chancellor Klein - authority to approve charter schools, as Spitzer would allow. SUNY and the Board of Regents, the current chartering authorities, have strict standards; if the chancellor wants more charters, he should go through the same process as the rest of us.
But all in all, Gov. Spitzer has laid down an important marker in the education debate. Without saying so, he has effectively called for a ceasefire in the education wars, reminding us all that the best solutions for our kids aren't Democratic or Republican, they just need to be proven to work and backed up by the investment necessary to see them succeed. It's that simple.
Weingarten is president of the United Federation of Teachers.
New York Daily News -
The bus stops here, Mike
Sunday, February 4th, 2007
As school leaders who have made "accountability" their watchword, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein came up miles short in their handling of the great bus bungle. It took all week before the mayor conceded what thousands of parents knew: He coulda and shoulda done better.
What started as a well-intentioned plan to cut costs by streamlining routes and enforcing eligibility rules ended up a great big botch, with kids being put on buses before dawn, 5-year-olds being issued MetroCards for mass transit, siblings in the same schools being assigned to different buses and buses arriving at school well after classes had started.
The number of complaint calls fell through Friday, possibly indicating service had gotten smoother, but the damage was done. By ordering route changes midyear - without a dry run, without full public warning - and then by failing to quickly acknowledge that some things were going haywire, the mayor and Klein put themselves where they should never be - across a great divide from parents.
There may be a computer somewhere smart enough to redesign a system for transporting 84,000 kids on 2,040 routes to 1,400 schools so it becomes cost-efficient - while pleasing all parents. But lacking such a laptop, Bloomberg and Klein made a fundamental error in communication.
In the runup to the changes, they could have held a full-dress press conference to explain that pupil transportation costs have soared to roughly $1 billion, that the aim was to shift money into the classroom and that a small portion of the costs stemmed from driving ineligible students.
Most important, they could have issued clear warnings that the changes would result in some snafus, and they could have kept parents abreast of developments. Their failure to do so played into the hands of entrenched interests girding to fight Bloomberg and Klein's ambitious reforms.
With no persuasive arguments, opponents resort to caricaturing the mayor and chancellor as anti-parent autocrats. The great school-bus bungle played right into that stereotype.
Also appearing in today's Daily News is an article by United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who is fighting fiercely for greater school control. It belongs in the paper because, by virtue of her position, it is inherently newsworthy. It is also a stellar example of the demonization of Klein, at its core inherently unfair.
Weingarten creates the impression that Gov. Spitzer and Klein are at odds on school reform. In truth, the governor and the chancellor have parallel plans that hold teachers and principals accountable. Yet according to Weingarten, Spitzer is entirely good, while Klein is thoroughly bad. She writes that Spitzer views accountability as a "tool" while Klein uses it as a "weapon," leaving out that both men plan to track student performance and to act when schools or principals fail to deliver, and that both would require teachers to demonstrate competence before winning lifetime tenure.
In fact, the only real distinction between them is that Klein will hold Weingarten's members to account. So she paints him as a man enamored of "risky" budgeting that will "destabilize" successful schools. Hogwash. The only thing at risk under Klein's plan is teachers' ability to cluster in the least-challenging schools.
The approaching accountability will likely bring more such attacks as defenders of the status quo campaign for parental support. That's why, in the spirit of full accountability, Bloomberg and Klein must go out of their way to assure parents they learned painful lessons in the bus fiasco - and will never fail a similar test again.
Randi continually makes herself look clueless. Why she insists on praising spetzer is beyond me. He's letting the mayor do pretty muych whatever he likes.
It's odd how Ms. Weingarten neglected to mention that longer school days and school years are acceptable alternatives to lower class size for Governor Spitzer.
Maybe she forgot.
you guys are really active in the UFT election. Nothing for weeks. We would like to hear some analysis.
Teaching six classes a day, along with the heavy water experiments, leaves us a bit fatigued.
Analysis:
Randi will win; Kit will lose.
OK?
Move along now.
If Randi wins, teachers lose, and so do children. The only winners are the parasites at UFT headquarters.
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