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More so than crime, the booming city economy, and the West Side stadium, the sleeping dragon in this year's mayoral race is education. The Mayor's ambitious plan to overhaul the Department of Education (including attempts to reduce class size by breaking up schools and implementing the third- and fifth-grade wide tests) have been met with extremely mixed results. The teachers' union, the UFT, has recently had a field day by calling attention the mayor's and school chancellor's record, by giving them report cards, with 8 F's and 2 D's in the 10 categories. UFT President Randi Weingarten said, "Frankly, there was one category that I expected them to get at least a B or a C in, about raising awareness or public education, and even that category they flunked." City teachers recently had a rally, to mark their two years with a contract. They even (rightly, one would say) used the test scores gains as proof that they have remained committed to students, while the city has turned its back on the teachers' needs. When it's primary or general election time, pay close attention to what candidates are saying about education. Gothamist believes the Bloomberg administration could be doing more, but changing the biggest school system in the country, without the resources it deserves, does take time; we're going to keep our ears and eyes peeled.
Last week, the Observer had a profile about CIty Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, who is the head of the education committee, and the Times had a story about how students' discipline issues cause many city teachers to quit.
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I am a NYC public school teacher and I read this site just about every day.
Thanks for bringing this issue to light. City teachers have been without a contract for over two years.
Whether you are for or against public education, this is an issue that needs more widespread public debate.
City teachers need to oust Weingarten. She's out of control and has turned the UFT into a cult of personality. How many more cheery commercials and print ad spreads featuring Weingarten before the rank and file gets fed up her. My sense is that Moskowitz is taking a tough stand and probably deserves a vote. We'll see how the UFT tries to kneecap her.
Bob Denver, stumbling cluelessly through issue after issue with all the rhetorical grace and analytical insight of a barnacle on the hull of The Minnow. Thanks for the comic relief, snapperhead.
This administration is getting notorious for saying that they support something, just not willing to negotiate for it.
Do the Police have a contract yet? Do the Fire dept have one?
Thanks, T.A., for your penetrating analysis. Were you too lazy to explain why you disagree with bob or too stupid? Both?
All public employees in NYC are getting sweet deals already and if they don't like it they should quit and take a job in the private sector. Bloomberg isn't denying anyone a contract, he just doesn't want to roll over for some greedy union. Good for him.
A sweet deal? Maybe. How much time have you spent in the city's worst public schools?
You're right. We should leave and work elsewhere. I could be getting 15K more and paid maternity leave if I worked in nearby Long Island. So, all of us complainers will leave and let the basically 'unemployable' teach NYC's kids. Who benefits? Students?
Those of us who believe in public education don't want to leave for the private sector. We want to make the system work better. Public education is no small thing. The quality of our school system affects the economy, the crime rate...basically all aspects of society either directly or indirectly.
The point is that a better contract and better working conditions mean better people drawn to the profession. Better teachers, better students, better city. People need to look at the long term consequences rather than the current bottom line.
It's always helpful to read the LM-2.
http://www.ice-uft.org/LM2_may04.pdf
Anyone can read the current teachers' contract at:
http://www.uft.org/member/rights/contracts/current_teachers_contract/
We all know teachers who work hard, and who even work beyond the scope of this mind-numbing contract. Scores have improved this year, and the teachers should be commended; NYC schools are not easy places to work.
However, for every hard-working teacher in NYC, there are teachers who crave seniority over performance and wave the contract in their principals' faces. And what happens to the worst offenders--those who have affairs with their students and end up on the cover of the Post? Well, they can't be fired, not according to this contract. They end up in the rubber rooms around the city with full salary and benefits, not working at all until arbitration, when the union opens up it's stalls of lawyers to defend even the worst kind of people who are often teachers.
So there are great teachers and there are terrible people who end up as teachers. But why should teachers' actions in the workplace be governed and limited by a document that is 200 pages long? New teachers who are creative, energetic, and motivated often end up discouraged by the comfortable, mediocre, veteran teachers who don't want things to change.
Why not work to create a contract that puts the interests of students first? It's not only the mayor's fault that the contract hasn't been finalized. Weingarten is doing her damndest to limit the changes to the existing contract and protect all teachers. And that's the problem. The great teachers should be crying out against their union, because in the end, it's hurting their students as much as it protects teachers' interests.
The teachers deserve a fair contract, but it damn well better be fair for those most impacted--the students.