Memo to Working Teachers: Ignore Your Union Leaders

As the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) sideshow convention sputters to a finish in Los Angeles, one thing should be clear to working teachers around the country: our leaders are escorting us into the mouth of privatization while admiring its teeth. Look no further for examples of this than the two most controversial resolutions passed overwhelmingly by delegates on Sunday which address the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Though the CCSS have grown more toxic than Chernobyl on a windy day, the adopted AFT resolution describes the "potential and promise" of standards that are threatened by, among other things, a "political agenda to privatize education." The union acknowledges the existence of an insidious agenda to privatize public education, an agenda which paradoxically must be stopped before we can fix the CCSS. That's like saying we need to breakup monopolies before we can turn Walmart back into a mom and pop store. They are one and the same. Whether teachers love them or hate them, the Common Core brand has so polluted the air of meaningful progress in education that an exorcism may be necessary before AFT members can start distributing those "resource kits" meant to strengthen the standards and their twisted tests.

Yes, standards must be embraced, improved and utilized, but only at the most local of levels with experienced administrators and teachers monitoring their fruition throughout daily activities with students. And no, we don't need another brand name that polls better than the Common Core; standards should always begin with a lower case "s" and be incorporated into the curriculum based on how the professionals see fit. The AFT and others must stop propping up corporate brands like the Common Core; even Arne Duncan doesn't refer to them by their proper name anymore.

Duncan has said a lot in recent weeks, however, dismissing the National Education Association's (NEA) resolution that he resign as "local union politics" which he and most teachers stay out of.  Sadly, he may be right, as how many working teachers realize that their union's "resolutions" carry about as much weight these days as this blog post? Moreover, how many working teachers even know what happens at a union convention?  

What didn't happen over the weekend was the AFT echoing the NEA’s insistence that Duncan free up more time in his hoops schedule.  Delegates bizarrely called on President Obama to implement a "Secretary Improvement Plan" (SIP), stating that Duncan should resign if he does not improve.  After all, his "due process rights” will have been “upheld." Ignoring the obvious false equivalence and the imaginary timetable for Obama’s imaginary plan, what has Duncan, as Secretary of Education, done to earn tenure in the eyes of the AFT? According to the resolution, for the past five years (two years longer than the new teacher probationary period in New York, by the way) Duncan has:

...aligned with those who have undermined public education, with those who have attacked educators who dedicate their lives to working with children, and with those who have worked to divide parents and teachers. He has failed to bring parents, students, teachers and community members together to improve the quality of public education for all children, and he has promoted misguided and ineffective policies on deprofessionalization, privatization, and test obsession:

What reads like a warrant for Duncan's arrest is merely another lame attempt to keep the AFT's seat at the kiddies table in the White House, at once seeking to placate and punish Obama. The only way Duncan's first five years could have been more disastrous is if he had also taught a class or two along the way. Unions should call for nothing less than the immediate resignation of this "promoter of privatization" and organize daily rallies outside his office until he leaves with his bag of basketballs bouncing on his back. If the AFT wants the president and politicians of all parties to take them seriously, they must unequivocally hold political leaders accountable by standing in solidarity with the NEA instead of passing toothless resolutions that at most will make the president's press secretary chuckle at the reporters who remember to even ask about education.

Messages to leaders can and should assume many mediums, but as the AFT emphasizes in writing, there is an overt and covert attempt to undermine teachers unions in the United States today, and big money has a comfortable seat at the table. Duncan, Obama, Cuomo, Walker, and Christie are just some of the leaders who've pushed in its chair. Unions must shout louder than big money if they expect to be heard. Tongue-in-cheek jabs at Duncan's due process only muddy the issues even more. The AFT holds its convention every two years anyway, so if and when Duncan's SIP is up for review, he'll already be weighing job offers from charter schools with the scales tipping further in favor of privatization.

As Duncan observed, unions have their own politics. Just like Obama, union presidents have voters to answer to. However, part of the problem is that not enough members are engaged in political action both outside and within their unions, with many teachers ignoring politics at all costs under the assumption that someone else will fight for them. These teachers may continue ignoring politics, however, as long as they proceed as follows:

-Ignore NYSUT President Karen Magee's fear of the New York press; you are the best and loudest messengers for students. (And feel free to scream your hatred of the Common Core, since a looming loss of due process rights could soon make this impossible anyway.)

-Ignore UFT President Michael Mulgrew when he threatens to beat people up over the CCSS and mocks members who question the involvement of Eli Broad and Bill Gates.  Our devils cannot get the better of us. Mulgrew's Revive slate is hoping we'll also ignore their platform leaflet from the NYSUT election just over three months ago:



-Ignore AFT President Randi Weingarten when she stands with the likes of Duncan and Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy; you don't need a seat at their table to be heard.

-And to teachers in New York, ignore all of the above leaders as they push a Cuomo endorsement in this year’s gubernatorial election; you should vote for Zephyr Teachout or Howie Hawkins anyway.

Ignore your union leaders and follow what you believe is the best course for the profession. After all, your leaders are doing a splendid job ignoring you.

  

So Goes the UFT, So Goes the NYSUT Election?

Amid an outcry from members over the sale of public education to plutocrats, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has stopped accepting donations to its Innovation Fund from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Missed among its squirming within the tentacles of privatization was the AFT's slight gesture of solidarity, since a proposed raise in member dues promises to recoup half of the money the organization received each year from Gates. With organized labor drinking cold coffee these days, $500,000 from 1.5 million teachers suddenly buys a lot more democracy than $1 million from a guy who couldn’t teach his way out of a wet paper bag. The AFT should lead similar efforts to stem the stream of plutocratic money into itself and public education before our schools are overrun by robots.      

Meanwhile, as Governor Andrew Cuomo rams nonsensical and undemocratic education reforms down New Yorkers’ throats, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) will hold an election at its Representative Assembly (RA) on April 5 to decide who will lead one of the AFT’s largest affiliates for the next 3 years. Though democracy should be baked into the marrow of unions, NYSUT’s election reeks of disparity.       

As NYSUT’s largest local, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) will be represented by 800 delegates at the RA—roughly one-third of the votes. Each one of these delegates belongs to an invite-only group within the UFT called the Unity Caucus, run by UFT President Michael Mulgrew. In order to be “eligible” for membership in the Unity Caucus and vote in NYSUT elections, UFT members must “abide by its rules”, which include:

· To express criticism of caucus policies within the Caucus;
· To support the decisions of Caucus/Union leadership in public or Union forums;
· To support in Union elections only those individuals who are endorsed by the Caucus, and to actively campaign for his/her election;
· To run for Union office only with the support of the caucus;

· To serve, if elected to Union office, in a manner consistent with Union/Caucus policies and to give full and faithful service in that office;

These draconian rules—in addition to shamelessly soliciting the votes of retirees across the country—have kept the Unity Caucus in control of the UFT for nearly 50 years.  With no room for dissent in Unity, there’s no room for dissent in the UFT. Consequently, with no room for dissent in its largest local, there’s less room for dissent in NYSUT.  Before any votes are cast at the RA, the “individuals who are endorsed by the Caucus”—in this year’s case the entire Revive NYSUT slate of candidates—have an 800 delegate lead. Should 800 devotees to undemocratic caucus exert this much influence in an organization of 600,000 members?

Mulgrew, whose achievements as UFT president so far include zero contracts and a state-imposed teacher evaluation plan (APPR), has a lot riding on a Revive victory, including a suitcase full of back pay if he can parlay it into an AFL-CIO endorsement for Cuomo. Revive’s room temperature stance on Cuomo has done little to allay fears they won’t try to win over the Lobbyist for the Students and push an endorsement, or at least force NYSUT to remain neutral. For example, at a recent NYSUT candidates forum in Long Island, Andy Pallotta, running for re-election on the insurgent slate, meekly admitted he wouldn’t “personally” endorse Cuomo after being pressed by a skeptical audience. The UFT-bred Pallotta’s sincerity strains credulity in light of his $10,000 expenditure of voluntary union money (VOTE-COPE) at Cuomo’s birthday party and his designs to donate $250,000 more to the New York Democratic Party, an election-year goody bag for the governor.

Unity delegates represent a myriad of members and interests throughout the nation’s largest school system. Shouldn’t they at least be allowed to vote for the individual candidates of their choice? If anything, a group representing so many members in NYSUT’s first-ever contested election should consider carefully which candidates it chooses to endorse, unlike this year, when Mulgrew endorsed Revive before many of his members even knew there was an election. Though most teachers in New York have made up their minds about Cuomo, few even know who Karen Magee is.      

Cuomo will continue to reward his highest bidder, however. Even if Mulgrew does get his back pay, he’ll still have to deal with Cuomo’s APPR and the metastasis of charter schools throughout the city. Mulgrew would be best served by rallying his members against Cuomo’s duplicity, such as his proposal to use the state’s budget to “protect” charter schools while at the same time calling for the “death penalty” for public schools.     

NYSUT's Past is Precedent

Those still not buying Mulgrew's misguided motivations need look no further than NYSUT’s recent past for a precedent. In the 2002 gubernatorial election, the Union was sidelined after the UFT endorsed Republican George Pataki in his race against Democratic challenger H. Carl McCall.   NYSUT was forced out of that race while a younger and well-financed Cuomo poked McCall throughout the primary.  Pataki easily took care of a wounded McCall in November, with many NYSUT members appalled by their Union’s lack of support for McCall and the UFT’s bow to Pataki.  The words of a rank and file teacher from a 2002 New York Times article echo what could soon reverberate again throughout the state:

''I am embarrassed by this endorsement,'' said Barbara Glassman, a Queens special education teacher and supporter of Mr. McCall. ''We have a tradition of backing our friends, and Carl McCall has consistently been a unionist and friend of education.''

It didn’t hurt that Pataki included $200 million in the state budget that year for the UFT’s raises, which immediately followed then UFT President Randi Weingarten awarding Pataki the UFT’s John Dewey Humanitarian Award. Weingarten "grew up in politics" with Andrew Cuomo and groomed Mulgrew as her replacement. Similar to her protege, Weingarten was also in search of a contract in 2002 and had run out of strings to pull, repeatedly backing the wrong mayoral candidates to face Michael Bloomberg, an enemy of the labor movement. As McCall himself observed at the time:

“You know, they [the UFT] need a contract,” McCall said. “They need more money. And, you know, he’s holding them up. ‘You want more money? Then do something for me.’ ”

McCall may as well have been talking about the UFT and Revive's current flirtation with Cuomo. Following the UFT’s endorsement of Pataki later that year, McCall spoke into the future and Mulgrew: 

“Anybody who would support the Governor on the basis of his education program and his education policies would be betraying the schoolchildren of New York State.”

McCall was likely unaware of his power for prophecy at the time.

An Opportunity for MORE Voices

With major NYSUT positions and policies at stake this year, New York City teachers unfortunately need a written invitation to be heard by a local that suppresses some of its strongest voices.  Facing an intransigent Unity, where can these voices go to be heard?

Ironically, back to their state union.

Running as independents in the NYSUT election are seven members of the UFT, led by Queens teacher Arthur Goldstein, who’s challenging Pallotta for executive vice president. These candidates encompass passionate, rank and file voices within the UFT, some who've even been heard on the national stage. Goldstein, a longtime UFT chapter leader and “NYC’s best teacher-blogger" (according to Diane Ravitch), is seeking to “wake up the sleeping giant that is our membership .” A staunch defender of public education, Goldstein has relentlessly censured city, state, and national leaders alike for their attacks on the profession. NYSUT will be well-served with him as its legislative leader, a strong voice for a position in desperate need of revival. 

UFT candidates for at-large directors include Julie Cavanagh (who unsuccessfully ran against Mulgrew for president last year), James Eterno, Lauren Cohen, Jia Lee, Mike Schirtzer, and Francesco Portelos, a whistle-blowing teacher from Staten Island who's been exiled from his school and recently jailed for excessive satire.  Portelos's strife taught him the value of unionism and can lend valuable experience in a climate in which many teachers have bullseyes on their backs.      

Should these UFT dissidents win prominent positions in NYSUT, they would suddenly have a bully pulpit to channel an activistic UFT demographic, broadcasting the multitudinous needs of their members around the state and nation.  No longer pinned down by the Unity Caucus, NYSUT's largest local would unfurl a tapestry of voices above the dictates of the few.  Never before has such an opportunity presented itself to the UFT's rank and file members.   

A Stronger Union

On April 5, Union delegates from around the state will gather in New York City beneath a wrinkled banner of democracy. Hopes remain high, however, that this banner will re-emerge smoother than before, with more members pressing its principles.  Elections are only as healthy as the number of people who vote, after all.  Though Mulgrew, Pallotta, and Revive may have locked up the votes of 800 delegates, they cannot guarantee a majority. This year's RA should attract more members than ever, fighting for a stronger NYSUT.

And much to Arthur Goldstein's satisfaction, the sleeping giant may have already been awakened...

                        

  

Why the NYSUT Election Should Matter to Members

The ax against asinine education reforms is starting to swing in New York. Politicians are writing laws to unravel Common Core, and more and more local leaders are speaking out against the gap elimination adjustment and a crushing property tax cap. Changing laws is not easy, however, and those rallying against nonsensical reforms in New York and around the country have a task akin to an exorcism.

On the front lines of this battle are Dick Iannuzzi, president of New York’s largest teachers union (NYSUT), and his executive vice president, Andy Pallotta.  Paradoxically, both are fighting the powers that be while fighting each other, as Pallotta has helped form another group within NYSUT to challenge Iannuzzi’s presidency that calls itself “Revive NYSUT.” Running for president on the Revive ticket is not Pallotta but Karen Magee, president of the Harrison Association of Teachers. Magee has remained silent since accepting the nomination while Pallotta wines and dines politicians on VOTE-COPE money, the union’s voluntary political action fund. 

On the surface, Pallotta is only doing his job; NYSUT’s executive vice president is expected to push legislation on behalf of the members. As the campaign unfolds, however, many local leaders are starting to question just how effective Andy Pallotta has been as NYSUT’s chief legislative advocate. After all, if Pallotta is expected to push favorable laws, why have New York’s teachers been saddled with the tax cap, reduced pension tiers, Common Core, and InBloom? Pallotta’s inaction against this legislation sings louder than Billy Joel at Governor Cuomo’s birthday party.

Pallotta, the only NYSUT incumbent running unopposed, cut his teeth in the UFT, NYSUT’s largest yet smallest local. For example, only 14% percent of working teachers voted in the UFT’s last presidential election. This minority of active members and retirees who reelected Michael Mulgrew also essentially controls over a third of the votes for NYSUT president, and Mulgrew and the UFT have already endorsed the Revive slate. Should Revive come to power, Mulgrew’s UFT will be first in line for handouts from Cuomo as long as Cuomo’s signature reforms of the tax cap and APPR remained unmarred by Pallotta. An endorsement of Cuomo by NYSUT (spurring a subsequent AFL-CIO endorsement) wouldn’t hurt, either.  

Though rank and file teachers were among the first to see through the pseudo-democrat Cuomo, Pallotta, Mulgrew, and the rest of Revive have not sounded the alarm against him, opposing him in lukewarm spirit only. Many have questioned where Revive’s loyalty lies, as the group seems more interested in ousting Iannuzzi than Cuomo. Though elections are healthy for any organization—this contest has already engaged more members in unionism—NYSUT cannot afford to be more outspoken against itself than Cuomo. Ideally, Revive should be strong enough to oppose Iannuzzi and help NYSUT find a viable candidate to run against Cuomo.  This would undermine Revive’s tenuous platform, however, and require Pallotta to finally step off the political cocktail circuit and into the offices of legislators.

Last June, nearly 20,000 members of NYSUT converged in Albany to demand action against laws passed under Pallotta’s watch. The One Voice United rally was President Iannuzzi’s own attempt to awaken our leaders in the capital. Though Mulgrew failed to awaken his own members for the rally (most of the UFT did not attend), One Voice United aroused Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, whose money and dark-rimmed glasses determine much of New York’s education policies. Concerned that NYSUT was co-opting the reform narrative, Tisch and Education Commissioner John King soon embarked on a series of community forums around the state to clear up “misconceptions” about Common Core. 

By anyone’s standards, the Common Core forums were a disaster for the Regents, with passionate parents bringing everything but the torches and tomatoes.  Tisch and King’s detached, myopic views alienated people at each stop on the tour, and calls for King’s resignation before the forums suddenly seemed premature.  NYSUT’s “Speak Truth to Power” campaign had reached the grassroots, with Albany leaders on the run. Meanwhile, with no Pallotta-pushed repeal in sight, NYSUT’s legal department filed a lawsuit against the undemocratic tax cap. NYSUT also recently withdrew its support for the Common Core, and moved to vote “no confidence” in Commissioner King, who has screwed his feet even tighter to his stubborn positions since the disastrous forums.  Iannuzzi began picking up where Palllotta never left off, joined by people and politicians of all political persuasions.  As Iannuzzi’s long game played out, the Revive candidates huddled behind the scenes, biding their time until their certain victory in April.

Revive should not become too complacent, however, as local presidents will have something to say about Magee and the rest of Revive at this year’s Representative Assembly (RA).  Iannuzzi, along with other incumbents Maria Neira (Vice President), Kathleen Donahue (Vice President), and Lee Cutler (Secretary Treasurer), have formed Stronger Together and are urging leaders from all locals to attend this year’s RA, regardless of their size.  If NYSUT is truly a democractic organization, multitudinous voices from all corners of the state will drown the din of Magee and the UFT this April in New York City.    

New York’s teachers are calling for help all over, demanding action from their union. Though slow to unfold, Dick Iannuzzi’s actions are now beginning to come into view. Common Core has garnered unanimous disdain, and the public is finally starting to side with teachers again. NYSUT must keep this momentum moving, and solidarity needs affirmation now more than ever before. This election should matter to NYSUT members, as their union is the only thing standing between them and the twisted visions of plutocrats.