Newark Union Election: NEW Vision Opposed by Randi/Unity SAC Slate

NEW Vision exposes the SAC (of you know what) slate which is similar to Unity here and the Chicago crew that opposed CORE which was also attacked by the ed deform press just as NEW Visions is attacked by Star Ledger. SAC (of you know what) followed the team of Randi Weingarten and Klein disciple and now Newark Supe Cami Anderson, a TFA ed deformer supremo. (You know the old saying -- lie down in a SAC of you know what and get fleas -- not to insult fleas.)

We wrote about the bad deal Randi sold to the teachers back in October (Newark Contract: Weingarten is a Serial Pusher of ...) and in April where we channeled blogger Jersey Jazzman (Randi Sellout Tour Coming to Fruition in Newark).

This summer MORE and NEW Caucus may be doing some joint events.

Here is the missive from NEW Caucus:

1)  By now, many of you have probably received the first of the negative (and expensive!) SAC Slate mailers that will go out this week as ballots go out.  SAC Slate is the current NTU leadership, and they are doing whatever is necessary to take our eyes off the serious

problems that the NTU faces, and to discredit the NEW Caucus and the NEW Vision Slate. 

Below, see NEW Vision Slate's response to that mailer.  

2)  More important, BALLOTS GO OUT TUESDAY!  You should be receiving your ballot by mail by Thursday or Friday at the latest!  If you do not receive a ballot by Friday, you should call the NTU offices immediately at 973-643-8430.

Vote ONLY NEW Vision by checking the box above the NEW Vision column on the right-side of the ballot.  DO NOT VOTE FOR ANYONE ELSE!

Here is the response the the SAC mailer (which we don't have).

By now some of you have received a mailer from the Solidarity Again Caucus (current NTU leadership) for the upcoming election.  NEW Vision is concerned that negative mailers like this further divide and weaken our union.  We would like to address a few points about this mailer:

1.     NEW Caucus is still alive and fighting.  NEW Vision was created to unite other members of the NTU that may not necessarily be in the NEW Caucus.  In fact, check out the April edition of NEW Views (click here).

2.     The Star Ledger article referring to NEW Caucus as liars was prepared by the same "Editorial Board" that has consistently supported Cami Anderson's attacks. They've also criticized the Chicago Teachers for their brave action against the attacks on Chicago teachers and schools.  In other words, it is a good thing to be attacked by them, since they have attacked our friends and supported our enemies.

3.     It is almost comical to suggest that NEW Vision simply aims to gain control of the NTU dues. In reality, as current NTU contributors, we do not receive information about the NTU budget or how it is spent.  Other than a list of expenditures at the January meeting, we never see what the NTU is spending its money on.  We do want to change that and make sure you know how every dollar is spent.  We will also encourage members to be part of the decision making process over how dues are spent.

4.     When this contract was first revealed NEW Caucus was adamant that it undervalues education workers and students. The contract justified Anderson's aggressive school closings. Additionally, we are currently seeing the effects of the "Election to Work" agreements, and we aim to challenge the ability of administrators to pressure workers into opting out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. As said in November - the current contract has the potential to destroy our union as it splits members into two different pay scales.

Whether as NEW Caucus or NEW Vision, we have said that we will reenergize and motivate the union membership to stand up and fight back.  It won't be easy, but it will be done.  As is evidenced by this negative and desperate mailer, the current leadership lacks vision.

NEW Vision calls on all education workers, especially those in the Solidarity Again Caucus, to publicly condemn this mailer and stand with NEW Vision for a stronger, united union.

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The Next Phase in Refuting the Status Quo of Ed Deform: Offering Alternative Assessments

With the turn against ed deform the resistance needs to begin to offer alternatives to the status quo. And how nice to turn the old SQ tables on the deformers who have been seeing things going their way since c. 1994 in Chicago. I even heard that Arne Duncan was forced to defend his disastrous turn as Supe of Chicago schools for 7 years by claiming he reduced testing. We must keep focusing on the testing battle since it is the force that unites teachers, parents, students, academics and all rational and sensible people.

Monte Neill sent this from Fair Test as a follow up to what we posted yesterday (The assessment reform movement continues to gather steam).

Assessment that Supports Education

Recently, Boston area students and teachers organized an excellent conference, “Creating the Schools We Deserve.” It focused on what schools should be like and how we can win them. The conversations made clear that most people have never had the privilege of experiencing the kind of life-affirming, engaging, supportive, and multicultural schooling we can see at Boston’s Mission Hill School. http://www.ayearatmissionhill.com/

Understanding schools like Mission Hill can help students, parents, teachers and members of the community grasp just what wonderful schooling looks and feels like. So watch the video series, A Year at Mission Hill, if you have not yet done so. In 10 short segments, this beautifully shot, intimate and emotionally moving film portrays a truly remarkable school. 

The question, “How do we know what and how well students are learning?” frames the most recent segment (9), “Seeing the Learning.” It reminds us that “assessment” comes from the Latin, “to sit beside.” It illustrates how “direct contact and conversation are the most accurate way to judge if a child has mastered a skill or concept.” http://www.ayearatmissionhill.com/index.php/chapter9

 

This episode introduces viewers to the Mission Hill portfolio system, collections of student work that complement the observations and interactions. As one teacher explains, “I really believe in looking at a student’s work as the best indicator.” The portfolios guide feedback to and evaluation of students. They also help teachers reflect on their teaching, individually and collectively. 

Grade 8 graduation portfolios and exhibitions in multiple subjects are the culmination of students’ work, demonstrating their readiness for high school. They include a defense before a committee that includes an outside expert who brings new eyes from the adult worlds of work, college and civic engagement. If a student’s portfolio is not yet good enough, s/he has time to revise and complete it. (In much of this, Mission Hill resembles the New York Performance Standards Consortium. http://www.performanceassessment.org ) 

Though it’s not shown in the video, the graduation portfolios include on-demand tasks that students complete independently. Because students get detailed feedback from teachers and peers along the way, the school wants to ensure that students really can do quality work on their own.

The segment shows how the school uses authentic assessment in the context of its mission and daily practice. As a school focused on student-centered, project-based learning and led by strong educators who work collaboratively, Mission Hill prioritizes authentic assessment that values complex learning and teaching. But as a regular public school in Massachusetts, Mission Hill students must take state tests in grades 3-8 in math (that count for NCLB “accountability”) as well as some science tests. The school also has to avoid wasting its valuable instructional time on standardized “interim” tests offered by BPS central office. 

Mission Hill should not have to jump through these hoops. As the school shows, better ways to evaluate students, schools and teachers exist. Winning such changes will require building political power – something that has clearly begun with this spring’s protests against standardized tests in cities around the nation. http://www.fairtest.org/fact-sheet-better-way-evaluate-schools-pdf and http://www.fairtest.org/test-opposition-surges-across-nation

The video series and this segment provide great evidence that our nation can develop educationally beneficial assessment. Most important, the film shows us why students and teachers – and we the public – deserve far better than test-based accountability.

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Arthur Goldstein, Gary Rubinstein to be Honored at Skinny Awards Dinner, June 18

Wow! What a twosome in the blogging world and beyond. Has anyone accomplished more in the battle over ed deform than Leonie Haimson over the past decade?

I just bought my ticket. If light and sound are decent I might tape it.

I might as well use Diane Ravitch's posting.

Please Attend the Skinny Awards in NYC by dianerav

If you are within driving distance of New York City, please come to the Skinny Awards.

I will be there, along with many other friends of public education.

The Skinny Awards are the opposite of the Broad Awards, which are given to urban districts and charter schools that raise test scores. The Skinny Awards recognize character, courage, valor, and integrity in support of sound education ideas.

Leonie Haimson is the genius behind the Skinny Awards.

Benefits go to Class Size Matters, which advocates for reduced class size, opposes invasion of student privacy, and supports teachers and public schools. Leonie runs Class Size Matters on something less than a shoestring.

Here is the announcement:

Please attend our Fifth annual “Skinny Awards” Class Size Matters fundraiser

And enjoy a four-course dinner with wine

When: Tuesday June 18 at 6 PM

Where: FAGIOLINI ON 40TH, 120 E. 40th St. (betw. Lexington and 3rd Ave.)

Purchase your tickets here.

Each year we give an award to the individuals who provide the real "Skinny" on NYC schools. Past recipients of the award include Diane Ravitch and Juan Gonzalez. This year, our “Skinny” award will go to two brilliant teacher/bloggers:

Arthur Goldstein,  an ESL teacher at Francis Lewis High School in Queens

Gary Rubinstein, who blogs at Teach for Us and is a math teacher at Stuyvesant HS in lower Manhattan

This dinner is always a highlight of the year, with delicious food, good wine, and great company.

This year, it is especially important to attend and/or contribute to our work. As always, Class Size Matters relies on your donations to keep our organization going. We have continued to advocate for smaller classes and an end to school overcrowding, as class sizes swell throughout the country. We also have become leaders in the fight against high-stakes testing, privatization, and the violation of student privacy.

Nationally, we spearheaded the battle against the sharing of confidential student data with a corporation called inBloom Inc. inBloom Inc. plans to put children’s personal information on a vulnerable data cloud, and share it with private vendors without parental notification or consent.

For the last few months, the tabloids and corporate reform blogs have featured attacks against me personally, evidence of the prominent role that Class Size Matters plays in the debate over education policy. One of the best ways to show your support for our work is to contribute whatever you can to keep our organization alive.

If you believe that class size matters, and that it is important to keep our public schools and children’s personal information out of the hands of private corporations, please make tax-deductible contribution now to Class Size Matters and/or purchase a seat at our fundraiser dinner June 18 by clicking here or here: http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=6292 .

Please forward to others who care and hope to see you there, Leonie

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320

leonie@classsizematters.org
http://www.classsizematters.org

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson

Follow me on twitter @leoniehaimson

Make a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters now!

Subscribe to Class Size Matters news by emailing classsizematters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe to NYC education news by emailing nyceducationnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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Assaulting the Walls of Ed Deform, NYSUT June 8 "One Voice" Critiqued

"One voice" is more about drowning out  the people's voice with a droll compliant whimper in true Weingartian style.... This is not a social justice rally.  This is a 'let's make believe we care' rally. It's play acting by the AFT/NYSUT/UFT gang.  We can play along, relieved that at least they are doing something, but their "something" is really business as usual.  --- Sean Ahern (see below for full text).

NYSUT Press release: Rally in Albany June 8.

Members of the more than one dozen organizations will join other parents, teachers and educators in speaking out against the state’s over-emphasis on standardized testing and misuse of test data to improperly label students and teachers. Rally-goers will call for a moratorium on the use of standardized tests in high-stakes decisions for students and teachers until the State Education Department and Regents properly implement the state’s new Common Core learning standards.

Well we know all about NYSUT/AFT/UFT and their role as enablers. When the water is at the top of the wall they decide to stick their finger in the dyke.

I know many people opposed to the testing regime who are going. And people in MORE are working on organizing. The UFT has buses available.

I am on the fence -- for a number of reasons from inconvenience to doubts about jumping on a NYSUT/UFT managed event -- the very people who enabled and even helped nurture the testing movement in the first place under the "we teachers have to show our willingness to be held accountable". Which reminds me of an old joke.
 
Lone Ranger: Tonto, we are surrounded by Indians.
Tonto: What to you mean "we," white man.

Yeah. The AFT/UFT leaders are certainly willing to have teachers be accountable while they are accountable for nothing.

Sean Crowley in Buffalo who does the B-LoEdScene blog also has some doubts about the rally. He sent some of his tweets:

NYSUT takes half a mill and AFT takes 4.4 mill from Bill Gates. Is anyone still wondering why reachers are getting bent over? (https://twitter.com/rastamick/status/333712627345797121)

Thinking a big sign at the NYSUT rally: GIVE BILL GATES HIS MONEY BACK! (https://twitter.com/rastamick/status/334041383037960192)

Here's one to show on the busride to Albany for the June 8th rally. Ianuzzi has to go. youtube.com/watch?v=FwA04N…  (https://twitter.com/rastamick/status/336221653098983427)

There has been some great back and forth on the listserves. Our own Sean - Ahern - does a hard-hitting piece, followed with a comment from Change the Stakes parent activist Jane Maisel.

Sean Ahern

"One voice" is more about drowning out  the people's voice with a droll compliant whimper in true Weingartian style.

NYSUT/UFT says the tax cap issue is about the democratic principle of majority rule. What about democracy and majority rule for NYC parents and educators?  Funny how mayoral dictatorship in NYC, the polar opposite of democracy, is not even mentioned by this "one voice."  

What a pathetic farce for Weingarten to  demand that we should be better prepared to enforce this new sorting system.  The common core is more aptly  described by Susan Ohanian as the "common bore."  It fits Emerson's description:  "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.  With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do...Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today."  But in 21st century America the common core is far worse than a "foolish consistency." "One voice" and  common core have a totalitarian stench.    

As PSC President Barbara Bowen put it plainly, "Capitalism gets the education system it wants."  Education does not reduce inequality, it reproduces it and the common bore promise to do so with greater efficiency and oversight.  The problems with "common core" go far deeper than the lack of teacher preparedness.  This is all standard Weingarten triangulation crap.  

Mandatory grade retention, school closings, charter push-ins, the disappearing of Black and Latino educators,  the exclusion of parent and educator voice, the push out of youth on to the streets and on to prison, no raises for public sector workers, the use of high stakes tests to sort by race and class, reducing the teaching staff step by step to at will employees,  all of this and more would have had push back from community controlled school boards in NYC.  Yet mayoral control,  which eliminated whatever was left of democracy in NYC schools, was enacted with the support of NYSUT/UFT, the 'one voicers." 

On these matters The "One Voice" of AFT/NYSUT/UFT is silent. For UFT members facing their fifth year without a contractual raise we cannot build a working class movement in NYC to fight for decent contracts by skirting the deeply white supremacist character of the corporate education reform.  Silence doesn't build solidarity.

This is not a social justice rally.  This is a 'let's make believe we care' rally. It's play acting by the AFT/NYSUT/UFT gang.  We can play along, relieved that at least they are doing something, but their "something" is really business as usual.  

In my opinion "One voice" means no voice.

Peace,

Sean Ahern  

Jane Maisel

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your excellent response to the call for the NYSUT rally in Albany. I would only want to go if we could surprise NYSUT by  doing a counter demonstration--a sea of red MORE t-shirts. We could take UFT's buses up there, though we might need to take an ambulance going home. This is not coalition building, this is reducing the discussion to meaningless Randi slogans, which I do not wish to support. 

Jane was urged by others on the listserve to go to Albany and march under banners saying what needs to be said. I'm waiting to see if something from MORE and other groups get something going. Otherwise I'm staying home.

NYSUT Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 8 education rally wins growing list of sponsors

 

ALBANY, N.Y. May 23, 2013 — A growing list of community, education and religious organizations have signed on as co-sponsors for the One Voice United rally, which will bring thousands of New Yorkers to Albany on June 8 to enlist in the fight for the future of public education.
 
Joining the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers in co-sponsoring the rally are the New York State AFL-CIO and a host of allied organizations, including: Class Size Matters; New York State NAACP; Alliance for Quality Education; Citizen Action; New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness; New York State Labor-Religion Coalition; Strong Economy for All; Students Rising; Occupy Albany; New York Immigration Coalition; First Israel AME Church; BALCONY; Educate NY Now; SUNY Student Assembly and Save Our SUNY.
 
The rally begins at noon at the Empire State Plaza in Albany.
 
“Thousands of New Yorkers will be speaking with one voice, sending a clear message to our elected leaders, the Board of Regents and state education commissioner that education is about learning, not testing, and that New York should be investing more in the future of its students,” said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi.
 
Members of the more than one dozen organizations will join other parents, teachers and educators in speaking out against the state’s over-emphasis on standardized testing and misuse of test data to improperly label students and teachers. Rally-goers will call for a moratorium on the use of standardized tests in high-stakes decisions for students and teachers until the State Education Department and Regents properly implement the state’s new Common Core learning standards.
The rally’s focus, however, will extend far beyond the explosive growth of standardized testing. Supporters will also demand fair and equitable funding of schools, as well as greater local control of schools by fixing the tax cap, including restoring the democratic principle of majority rule. Supporters will also demand a greater investment in public higher education, enactment of the DREAM Act and legislation to help ensure a safe, secure learning environment for every student.
 
NYSUT, the state’s largest union, represents more than 600,000 teachers, school-related professionals, academic and professional faculty in higher education, professionals in education and health care and retirees. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

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The assessment reform movement continues to gather steam

Attack, attack, attack ed deform and the deformers. We are on the offensive. High stakes testing is the wedge of ed deform so every little bit to undermine and discredit HST wears away the cover. The list below show signs that media coverage is growing.

From Monte Neill at Fair Test:

This week's stories highlight high-stakes testing protests -- and victories -- in more than a dozen states with additional resistance activities planned for the end of the 2012-2013 school year.
Remember that previous editions of these updates are available at: http://fairtest.org/news

South Carolina Exit Exam Could be History
    http://www.thestate.com/2013/05/15/2773149/sc-high-school-graduation-exit.html

Florida Test-Based Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit May Impact Other States
    http://www.governing.com/blogs/view/Florida-Teacher-Lawsuit-Could-Spread-to-Other-States.html

Seattle Teachers, Students Celebrate Historic Victory Against Standardized Tests
    http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/20/seattle_teachers_students_win_historic_victory
School Testing Fails the Test
    http://www.yakimaherald.com/opinion/saturdaysoapbox/1136335-14/saturday-soapbox-school-testing-fails-test

Texas Senate Passes Bill Reducing Testing in Lower Grades
    http://www.texastribune.org/2013/05/21/lege-clears-bill-reducing-testing-lower-grades/

Why I Opted Out of Standardized Tests -- by FairTest Board member Nikhil Goyal
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/nikhilgoyal/2013/05/22/opting-out-of-teacher-evaluation-tests/

Am I Part of the Problem or the Solution, featuring FairTest Board member Deborah Meier
    http://dianeravitch.net/2013/05/18/deborah-meier-am-i-part-of-the-problem-or-the-solution/

Chicago Parents Say "No" to Excessive Standardized Testing
    http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=221572

GAO Finds 40 States Probed Cheating Allegations
    http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/05/40_states_probed_alleged_cheating_on_tests_federal_report_finds.html
see FairTest Survey on Confirmed Cases of Cheating
    http://www.fairtest.org/2013-Cheating-Report-PressRelease

Providence Student Union Challenges Ed. Commission to Debate Grad Test Requirement
    http://www.providencestudentunion.org/2013/05/20/students-invite-commissioner-to-debate-necap-graduation-requirement/

New Jersey Activists to Protest Tax Breaks for Pearson Testing Company
    http://njeducationnews.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/may-23-pearson-protest/
Take the Pearson Test to See Whether You Also Qualify for Millions in Tax Breaks
    http://njeducationnews.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/take-the-pearson-test-see-if-you-qualify-for-millions-in-tax-breaks-too/

Upcoming New York State Rally Against High-Stakes Tests and For Better Educational Practices
   http://shar.es/Zs6H2

Parents Take Stand Against Standardized Test
    http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/parents-take-stand-against-standardized-tests

Schools Add to Test Load Just to Assess Questions
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/education/to-sharpen-student-testing-another-round-of-tests.html
Teachers Union Opposes Over-Testing Students
     http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/testing-students-again-the-teachers-union-view.html?_r=0

Principals Launch Campaign Against High-Stakes, Common Core Tests
    http://andreagabor.com/2013/05/15/round-two-new-york-city-principals-mount-a-campaign-against-unfair-testing/
Principals Pledge Not to Use Test Scores to Screen Students
    http://www.alternet.org/education/new-york-city-principals-we-wont-use-test-scores-screen-students

Why Our New Educator Evaluation System is Unethical
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/20/principal-why-our-new-educator-evaluation-system-is-unethical/

Testing Companies Are Clear Winners in High-Stakes Exams Debate
     http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2013/05/clear_winners_in_school_testin.html

Columbia Teachers Graduates Protest Award to Leading Promoter of High-Stakes Exams
     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/21/quiet-protest-staged-at-teachers-college-graduation/

How to Avoid Nevada's Testing Train Wreck
    http://www.rgj.com/article/20130519/OPED04/305190071/How-avoid-state-s-testing-train-wreck

Forum Takes on Standardized Testing
    http://thenotebook.org/blog/135987/forum-takes-standardized-testing

Testing Policies Becomes Local School Board Election Issue
    http://www.lohud.com/article/20130516/NEWS/305160076/Ossining-school-board-candidates-disagree-over-testing-system

Fallout from Computer Testing Glitch Continues
    http://newsok.com/fallout-of-oklahoma-school-testing-glitch-continues/article/3826097

Oklahoma Investigates Field Test Opt-Out Campaign
    http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Jenks_schools_scrutinized_by_state_education_department/20130519_11_a1_theokl857604?subj=1

A Family Decides to Opt Out
    http://bluehatmovement.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/opting-out-updated/

Campaign for Artful Resistance -- a creative initiative from Save Our Schools
    http://saveourschoolsmarch.org/get-involved/the-campaign-for-artful-resistance-2/

Authentic Assessments Must Be Included in Teachers' Tool Box -- by Oregon's chief state education officer
   http://pamplinmedia.com/pt/10-opinion/152550-new-way-needed-to-gauge-student-progress

Spinning Around Again on Education Testing Carousel
    http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20130519-OPINION-305190331

Student Test Scores Are Faulty Measure of Teacher Effectiveness
    http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2013/05/student_test_scores_are_faulty.html

What if Finland's Great Teachers Taught in the U.S.?
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/15/what-if-finlands-great-teachers-taught-in-u-s-schools-not-what-you-think/

How Michelle Rhee Misled Education Reform
    http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113096/how-michelle-rhee-misled-education-reform#

Education Reform in the New Jim Crow Era
    http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/16406-education-reform-in-the-new-jim-crow-era

Teachers Call Social and Emotional Learning "The Missing Piece" in Schools
    http://casel.org/themissingpiece/

Change the Purpose of Education
    http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/05/15/change-purpose-education

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UPDATE: Weiner Agrees as Quinn Drops Out of GPS Debate

Quinn is sinking so fast she better not move those deck chairs.

UPDATE: Anthony Weiner has agreed to participate, making this his first appearance at a mayoral debate, and Christine Quinn has dropped out of the debate, after agreeing to participate

New Yorkers for Great Public Schools to Host:

First Actual Mayoral Debate on Education

*Update: Christine Quinn Drops Out; Her Campaign Says it Does Not Want to do a Debate on Education*

NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South

Tuesday, May 28 3:30 to 5:00 PM

Mayoral Candidates will arrive at 3:45 PM;

Debate will start at 4 PM and end at 5 PM 

WHO: Democratic Mayoral candidates Bill de Blasio, Bill Thompson, John Liu, and Sal Albanese. 

Please note: We are still in active discussions with Anthony Weiner about his participation, and Christine Quinn has dropped out of the debate, after agreeing to participate. Her campaign said it does not want to do a debate.

WHAT: New Yorkers for Great Public Schools (NY-GPS), a citywide coalition representing thousands of parents, students, teachers, and community leaders, will host the first major education debate among Democratic mayoral candidates. Parent leader Zakiyah Ansari will moderate the debate, and a panel of parents and students will ask the questions.

The debate format will be as follows: an opening crossfire round, a lightning round, a final round of questions, including an instant rebuttal where mayoral candidates can rebut the statement of an opponent, and brief closing statements. Throughout, mayoral candidates will engage each other on hot-button education issues and stake out clear positions that will shape the Democratic primary. In Speaker Quinn's absence, other candidates will still be afforded the opportunity to rebut her public positions on key questions. This is a major news event not to be missed.

WHERE: NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, NYC

WHEN: Tuesday, May 28 3:30 to 5:00 PM

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Dear Mr. Condon: On May 18, 2013, Dennis M. Walcott crossed the line

Hi Norm,
My mother (a NYC resident) will be going to the post office this week to mail her letter (pasted below). Although she will include her name and address on the letter I redacted both in this email.
.......Elementary school teacher in the Bronx

It's great to see entire families involved in battling the ed deformers:

Mr. Richard J. Condon

Special Commissioner of Investigation

80 Maiden Lane - 20th floor

New York, NY 10038


Dear Mr. Condon:

On May 18, 2013, Dennis M. Walcott crossed the line. He used the authority of his office as the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education to provide a venue on public property paid for with public funds to express his personal political opinion to a captive audience of school principals attending an education conference in Brooklyn. He used an educational forum to push a political agenda. Mr. Walcott’s opinion was no mere slip of the tongue and clearly violated the very rules he is obligated to obey. Rules, I might add, that were established by his office (Chancellor’s Regulation D-130).

I am not sure how your office works. Is my letter considered an official complaint or is there some form that requires my completion? Therefore, if my letter is sufficient to file a complaint, then please consider it as such. If not, please provide me with any further instructions needed to make my complaint official.

My concern in this matter is really quite simple. Chancellor Walcott abused his power and violated a Department of Education Regulation that states, “Any officer or employee who violates the provisions of this regulation is subject to disciplinary action.” In keeping with your authority to investigate such misconduct I must ask, what is your office doing about it?

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of our New York City School District. I expect to hear from you within a reasonable period of time.

Yours sincerely,

 Here is the D-130 reg copied from a previous post on ed notes by A.P. Salamander, my favorite amphibian:

Department of Education’s Chancellor’s Regulation D-130,
(http://docs.nycenet.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-86/D-130__1-15-04.pdf) which clearly states, “ School buildings are not public forums for purposes of community or political expression.”
And: “ Any officer or employee who violates the provisions of this regulation is subject to disciplinary action.” 

“ No rallies, forums, programs, etc. on behalf of, or for the benefit of any elected official, particular candidate, candidates, slate of candidates, or political organization/ committee may be held in a school building.”
And: “The use of any Department of Education school after school/business hours by any person, group, organization, committee, etc, on behalf of any elected official, candidate, candidates, slates of candidates or political /committee is prohibited.” 

Read my original post from last week which also appeared as my column in The Wave: Whining Walcott in Blatant Misuse of Position

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