Lawsuits on the Issue of Reopening Schools Pop Up All Over the U.S.

Randi Weingarten

There will be many lawsuits filed in the near future. Many have been filed already, on what teacher unions throughout the U.S. believe are unsafe and politically motivated reopenings of schools. I see the argument on both sides as valid.

Teachers have just been declared "essential workers" by the Trump administration, thus they will be able to obtain masks when needed. Supposedly.

Parents don't know what to do. They want to get their children the education that is best for them, but of course do not want them to get ill with the coronavirus, the flu, or anything else. Their questions about safety measures are not being answered.

The problem here in New York City is that almost no one trusts the mayor, Bill de Blasio, or the Chancellor, Richard Carranza. Parents, teachers, educators, and staff all say that nothing these two men say or do is for the kids, parents, or teachers and may be untrue anyway.

Mayor Bill de Blasio demonstrates a non-contact thermal thermometer with
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza ahead of school reopening.

Recently the news is bad for any positive outcome, as both the Mayor and Chancellor seem to be oblivious to the needs and statements by anyone but their closest friends:

As layoffs loom for city workers, NYC pays $163M to corporate consultancies
Carranza expands his DOE staff despite looming teacher shortage, layoffs

New York City’s school reopening plan: Anatomy of a crime

De Blasio sat on offer to provide free COVID-19 testing for students

All of this makes no sense unless you see that both de Blasio and Carranza are creating photo opportunities to spread their fake news so that their political friends can be paid what they are promised, in political favors/contracts, goods, or services.

Will the coming lawsuits win? No one knows. But in Florida, the teachers union won. Judge Charles Dobson ruled in favor of individual school districts deciding what is best as far as reopening schools:

School reopening lawsuit: Judge rules in favor of Florida teachers

TampaBay.com

By Jeffrey S. Solochek, August 24, 2020

The Florida Department of Education quickly appealed the ruling, which called the state's actions unconstitutional.

Time will tell what will happen next.

Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

Battle over COVID-19 school openings goes to the courts

BY JOHN KRUZEL - 08/30/20 10:30 AM EDT

Teachers unions are waging court fights across the country aimed at unwinding what they say are unsafe and politically motivated timetables for reopening schools that risk exposing personnel to the coronavirus pandemic.

State officials eager to ramp up brick-and-mortar operations are facing lawsuits from Florida to Texas to Iowa over reopening plans as well as access to the COVID-19 infection data needed to monitor the rate of spread within school communities. 

At the same time, lawsuits are flying from the opposite direction: Parents in several states, including New York, Massachusetts, and Oregon, dissatisfied with web-based teaching alternatives, are suing to force state officials to reopen physical schools sooner as courts are increasingly called upon to referee the fight over education in the age of coronavirus.

“A legal storm is brewing as safety and social distancing requirements for a physical return to school begin to take shape around the country,” Maria Ferguson, executive director of the Center on Education Policy at George Washington University, wrote on the education website The 74.

As millions of students prepare for the first day of school — whether in-person, remote, or a hybrid of the two — the fight over the reopening physical school buildings is likely to intensify.

The debate over in-person K-12 instruction planning is inseparably tied to the issues of child care needs and parents’ ability to return to the workforce to help revive the struggling economy, all of which is playing out against the backdrop of a fast-approaching November election in a country that has seen nearly 6 million cases and more than 181,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Perhaps the highest-profile legal battle is taking place in the courts of Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off last month on an emergency order over school reopenings.

Under the order, most Florida school districts would be required to hold in-person classes five days a week by the end of August or risk losing funding. President Trump, who counts DeSantis as a close ally, has also threatened to cut off federal funding for schools if they do not resume in-person learning this fall.

The Florida policy prompted a lawsuit from the Florida Education Association (FEA), a statewide teachers union, and several other plaintiffs in favor of a more cautious return to in-person teaching.

“Public schools are not designed for COVID safety, and indeed, the government has recognized that they are high-contact environments,” said Kendall Coffey, the lead plaintiff’s attorney in the Florida case, who likened prematurely opened schools to “disease factories” and called the Florida policy “financial bullying.”

“There are any number of issues, in terms of hallway sizes, the flow of students in and out of classrooms, ventilation, even how many students go into the bathroom,” he told The Hill. “There are many elements that are virtually impossible to guarantee when you're dealing with children in large amounts.”

On Aug. 24, a Florida judge ruled in favor of the union and temporarily halted the statewide order. In his decision, Judge Charles Dodson struck down the order’s unconstitutional provisions and blasted DeSantis for having “essentially ignored” the state's constitutional requirement that schools be operated safely.

“The districts have no meaningful alternative,” wrote Dodson, of Leon County. “If an individual school district chooses safety, that is, delaying the start of schools until it individually determines it is safe to do so for its county, it risks losing state funding, even though every student is being taught.”

A Florida appeals court agreed to temporarily halt Judge Dodson’s order from taking effect while DeSantis appeals.

The state contends that the benefit of in-person instruction outweighs the health risks associated with reopening brick-and-mortar schools. Some Florida school officials have also declined to disclose incidents of positive COVID-19 cases to school communities, citing the need for patient privacy. 

Attorneys for Florida have also argued in hearings that courts should not substitute their judgment for that of policymakers who have balanced all the equities and decided a prompt in-person reopening is the best policy.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of the largest teachers unions in the country, said Florida has its priorities backward.

“What their arguments show is that they don’t care about human life,” Weingarten told The Hill.

According to Weingarten, internal AFT polling in June showed that about 3 in 4 teachers said they would be comfortable returning to the classroom if guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were implemented in schools.

But she predicts that attitudes among teachers have shifted dramatically in past months as the Trump administration has failed to adequately manage the virus to ensure schools can be reopened safely.

“We're polling right now,” she said. “And my hunch is that just like the public polls, it's totally flipped.”

The AFT is backing lawsuits in Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. Before schools can reopen safely — for what Weingarten calls “the biggest move indoors that the nation has done since March” — the group says local positivity rates should be below 3 percent and schools should have visibility into daily transmission rates. 

The union is also pushing for protocols that involve testing, contact tracing, and isolation and implement best practices from the CDC for things such as ventilation, cleaning, physical distancing, mask-wearing, and other safeguards.

As teachers unions make their case in court, parents in at least five states have filed lawsuits of their own to accelerate school reopenings.

A nonprofit litigation group called the Center for American Liberty, co-founded by lawyer and GOP official Harmeet Dhillon, is backing one such suit in California. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s restrictions on in-person school openings in the Golden State will affect an estimated 80 percent of K-12 students.

“The effects of this ham-handed policy are as predictable as they are tragic,” the lawsuit filed in a federal court in California states. “Hundreds of thousands of students will essentially drop out of school, whether because they lack the technological resources to engage with ‘online learning’ or because their parents cannot assist them.”

The litigation raises concerns about everything from school closures exacerbating the achievement gap and disproportionately harming special needs students and those without convenient internet access to challenges over the constitutional validity of government health orders.

Weingarten, of AFT, said it’s important to remember that despite seemingly irreconcilable differences over the policy details, all parties want to see schools reopen as soon as it’s safe to do so.

“None of us believes that remote is a substitute,” she said. “It's a supplement.”

New York City Educators Need To Protest the Opening of Schools and Re-Starting 3020-a Hearings

A sign taped to the front door of an elementary school. | Rick Bowmer/AP Photo

From Editor Betsy Combier:

NEWS for all educators who are awaiting or in 3020-a arbitration:

We at Advocatz are in cases right now which are on hold due to the coronavirus.

We just received Notice that the UFT and the DOE ("NYC Department of Education") have signed an agreement to start hearings up again on May 18, 2020.

I fail to understand how the NEA and AFT - and especially Randi Weingarten my former boss - can ignore the dark side of NYC education, and that is the false claims and lies which bring good educators to their nightmarish career-changing hearings currently at 100 Gold Street, 3rd Floor. The hearing rooms are tiny, except for one corner room reserved for special meetings or hearings where the Respondent has requested an open and public hearing (do it!).

I have no information about what other legal teams are doing, but we are not proceeding under the current circumstances.

Betsy Combier, betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials 

Teachers union: 'Scream bloody murder' if schools reopen against medical advice

Schools in most states have been ordered to stay closed the rest of the year or strongly urged to do so.

By NICOLE GAUDIANO, politico

04/28/2020 12:44 PM EDT

The nation's two biggest teachers unions say they would consider strikes or major protests if schools reopen without the proper safety measures in place or against the advice of medical experts — raising the possibility of yet more school disruptions.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, previewing a reopening plan first with POLITICO, said funding is needed for a host of public health measures for schools, including personal protective equipment. Collective bargaining, strong enforcement of safety standards and protections from retaliation will be important for teachers and staff so they feel safe to speak up as schools try new approaches, she said.

If schools are reopened without proper safety measures, “you scream bloody murder,” Weingarten said. “And you do everything you can to ... use your public megaphones.”

Teachers are united after more than two years of strikes for more state funding and they have “tremendous power” as advocates for children's safety, said Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association. She didn’t rule out strikes if state leaders move prematurely on a reopening of schools, and she said she believes parents would protest too.

“You put all things on the table when it comes to student safety,” Eskelsen García said. "And ... I don't think we'll be alone."

Teachers are preparing for the possibility of staggered class times, temperature taking, physical distancing and other measures that will create an unrecognizable K-12 classroom experience for students when schools eventually reopen.

Governors in some states have already lifted some restrictions on small businesses like hair salons and elective surgeries. But the eventual reopening of schools will represent a major step, driving a return to normal life — or at least a new normal — perhaps unlike anything else. President Donald Trump said Monday that governors are preparing to reopen shuttered school systems, without citing specific states.

No large scale reopening is on the immediate horizon. Schools in most states have been ordered to stay closed the rest of the year or strongly urged to do so. Trump’s three-phased plan for reopening the economy calls for reopening schools, at governors’ discretion, after about a month of declines in cases along with other criteria. “You're seeing a lot of governors get out and they want to open it up,” the president said when asked for his advice to state leaders who are weighing an economic restart.

“Many are thinking about their school system. Not a long way to go in the school system right now for this season, for this year. But I think you'll see a lot of schools open up, even if it’s for a very short period of time,” Trump said.

Absent a vaccine, Weingarten said it’s important to proceed in a safe and coordinated way “so that people feel that they’re all in.” AFT’s plan is informed by countries that have cautiously reopened classrooms, including Denmark, Norway and Germany, she said.

The union in its reopening plan will encourage its affiliates to lobby districts for five conditions before opening schools: a decline in cases over 14 days; adequate testing, tracing and isolation; public health measures like temperature taking, cleaning protocols, personal protective equipment and physical distancing measures such as staggered school times; transparency and fidelity to safety measures and enforcement; and increased funding to implement the host of changes.

Already, AFT’s affiliate in New York City, United Federation of Teachers, laid down a marker, launching a petition calling for widespread testing, temperature checks, rigorous cleaning and protective gear in every school and exhaustive tracing procedures as conditions for reopening schools.

“In places where there's a strong commitment to worker voice, we're going to get that and in places where there isn't, we're going to have to use all sorts of other vehicles, or what's going to happen is the virus will reemerge,” Weingarten said.

Eskelsen García said NEA is connecting thousands of members so they can share ideas.

Some are raising questions about what it will take to reopen, such as how you social distance in overcrowded classrooms, she said. Do they use the gym or lunch room to spread out? Nearby buildings? Do they have or need protective gear?

Some say reopening will require a lot more time from teachers and support staff, but that can’t come free.

“There will probably be some instances where we will have to look at renegotiating contracts for teachers who may be asked to do some pretty heroic things to get those schools open,” she said.

State and local leaders have already butted heads with unions during the shift to remote learning. In California, disagreements cropped up over issues like grading and student access to computers. The Chicago Teachers Union clashed with Chicago Public Schools over its decision to send home third quarter report cards. In South Bend, Ind., the local NEA affiliate filed a complaint with the state accusing the South Bend Community School Corp. of unfair labor practices, the South Bend Tribune reported.

“The safety of students, teachers and staff is chiefs' top concern when deciding when and how to reopen school buildings. New precautions will be required to do so safely, and teachers will be an important partner in making those decisions," said Carolyn Phenicie, spokesperson for the Council of Chief State School Officers.

AFT President Randi Weingarten Marries Rabbi Sharon Anne Kleinbaum

Congratulations Randi and Sharon!

Betsy Combier

Randi Weingarten and Rabbi Sharon Anne Kleinbaum

Randi Weingarten and Rabbi Sharon Anne Kleinbaum are to be married March 25 at La Marina, a restaurant in New York. Judge Michelle Schreiber of the New York City Housing Court, is to officiate, with Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, the president of Hebrew College, leading the religious ceremony, which will include the signing of the ketubah.

Ms. Weingarten (left), 60, is the president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has headquarters in Washington. She graduated from Cornell and received a law degree from Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

She is the daughter of Gabriel Weingarten of Suffern, N.Y., and the late Edith Appelbaum Weingarten.

Rabbi Kleinbaum, 58, is the senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Simhat Torah in New York, a synagogue with a significant number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender congregants. She graduated from Barnard College and from Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncott, Pa.

She is the daughter of Josephine Leve Kleinbaum of Teaneck, N.J., and the late Max M. Kleinbaum.

In the mid-1990s, Rabbi Kleinbaum and Ms. Weingarten knew each other peripherally.

“We were two lesbians in New York fighting for different things,” Ms. Weingarten said. “We liked each other. We had good banter. It wasn’t as if there were a lot of high-profile gay women who were active in leadership roles. I thought she was fun, witty and smart.”

It continued that way until 2006. Both were at the Empire State Pride Agenda dinner, when Rabbi Kleinbaum asked Ms. Weingarten to speak at the Gay Pride Shabbat service.

“I’d just turned 50, I’d never publicly come out and said, ‘I’m a lesbian,’” Ms. Weingarten said. “Sharon allowed me to see myself as who I was. It shifted my thinking that it wasn’t simply about having a gay pride speaker. It was about shifting me. I was very moved by it.”

Rabbi Kleinbaum recalls the “ask” a little differently.

“She’s one of the most significant labor leaders in America,” Rabbi Kleinbaum said. “I didn’t get how dramatic it would be for her. I just thought it would be an amazing coup if she said yes.”

Years went by. They continued to see into each other sporadically until 2012. While Ms. Weingarten was working in Washington and dating, Rabbi Kleinbaum was in New York getting divorced after an 18-year relationship.

“I’d heard Sharon was single, so I emailed her asking if she wanted to have lunch,” Ms. Weingarten said.

Rabbi Kleinbaum wrote back the following day. But it was not an easy time in her life.

“My whole world was falling apart,” she said. “It was such a difficult time for me. I was carrying the load of a full-time position. I had two daughters. I wasn’t thinking about anyone in that way.”

Eight or nine email exchanges later, lunch got parlayed into dinner and a friendly request grew into an actual date.

“Flirt entered into the emails,” Ms. Weingarten said. “I was really excited about it. But I almost screwed the whole thing up. I got invited to the state dinner by President Obama for David Cameron.”

It was a plus-one invitation. “I asked Sharon if she would be willing to have our date at the White House rather than in New York,” Ms. Weingarten said.

Rabbi Kleinbaum immediately declined.

“I would never go to the state dinner as a first date,” Rabbi Kleinbaum said. “I’m interested in intimacy. Everyone would think we were on a date. I started wondering if I was ready for that. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be in a relationship again. I wanted to take things slow.”

So they did. Ms. Weingarten attended the dinner with a colleague. The next day she and Rabbi Kleinbaum went for Indian food in the West Village. They talked all night.

“There was no political-speak,” Ms. Weingarten said. “We talked about our lives and things that were important to us. It was a fantastic first date. I didn’t want the night to end.”

That same year, Rabbi Kleinbaum moved into an apartment in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Ms. Weingarten commuted back and forth from Washington, spending two nights there, two nights in New York and other days traveling for work.

“My life had been turned upside down,” Rabbi Kleinbaum said. “Here I was in my 50s with my dogs, and all I had was a mattress on the floor. But Randi never seemed uncomfortable. I thought, this is an incredibly kind person. I value kindness. Slowly I got furniture.”

As her apartment grew, so did their relationship.

In 2014, they began looking for an apartment together. Three years later they found one. Their proposal and engagement almost took as long. When Obergefell v. Hodges was decided in 2015, an excited Ms. Weingarten asked if the decision meant they could get married. Rabbi Kleinbaum wanted to wait.

“We’re not spring chickens,” Rabbi Kleinbaum said. “We didn’t believe we would get this kind of love this late in our lives.”

In June 2017, they both agreed it was time.

“We have a deepening relationship,” Rabbi Kleinbaum said. “We’re both astounded we found each other and both astounded we’re making it work. If you live long enough, life is full of surprises.”

Circuit Judge Blocks Project Veritas' Muckraking Attempt to Attack the AFT

James O'Keefe

From Politico:
"Wayne County Circuit Judge Brian Sullivan issued the order Friday that blocks Project Veritas and a woman said to be working with the group, Marisa Jorge, from disclosing videos or other information gathered during an undercover operation carried out against the American Federation of Teachers office in Detroit. "

This may be precedent-setting. Let's see what happens with the First Amendment, wire and mail fraud.

Betsy Combier
betsy@advocatz.com

Editor, Advocatz

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

Teachers union gets restraining order against O'Keefe video venture
By JOSH GERSTEIN, Politico, 09/29/2017 

The Michigan chapter of a major teachers union has obtained a temporary restraining order against

an organization run by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Brian Sullivan issued the order Friday that blocks Project Veritas and a woman said to be working with the group, Marisa Jorge, from disclosing videos or other information gathered during an undercover operation carried out against the American Federation of Teachers office in Detroit.

AFT alleges that Jorge, using the name Marissa Perez, obtained an internship at AFT beginning in May of this year and that during the internship she often acted suspiciously.

Jorge “showed an interest in charter schools and in instances of educators who had supposedly engaged in ‘sexting'’ with students; there were no such instances,” the court complaint says. “Over the next three months Defendant engaged Plaintiff’s staff and regularly sought information which was beyond her assignment. … Defendant Jorge appeared at Plaintiff’s worksite wearing adornments which are capable of hiding a camera or recording device. She wore large pearls, large glasses and clothing with buttons capable of hiding a camera.”

AFT says that Jorge is actually a Liberty University graduate but that she posed as a University of Michigan student when seeking the internship. The union alleges that earlier this year Jorge tried to infiltrate DisruptJ20, a group opposed to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but that she was identified and driven out.

Several of Jorge’s social media pages appear to have been abruptly taken down in recent days.

The restraining order issued Friday is unusual. It was granted at a hearing where Project Veritas’ attorneys were not present. The judge set another hearing for Oct. 10 to decide whether the order should be continued.

A spokesman for Project Veritas, Stephen Gordon, dismissed the significance of the lawsuit.

“James O’Keefe and Project Veritas have not been served with any court action in Michigan and we do not comment on investigations, real or imagined,” Gordon said via email. “Project Veritas has focused this year on investigating the mainstream media. I expect Politico to be as anxious to report on our findings in our upcoming investigative release aimed right at the heart of the establishment media complex as they are to bashing Project Veritas based on over-hyped press releases that don’t amount to anything of consequence.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten praised the judge’s order.

“James O’Keefe and his operatives will stop at nothing to smear their ideological opponents — deception, distortion and dirty tactics — all to advance a political agenda that undermines public school students, teachers and families,” she said in a statement. “We are grateful that the Michigan court has protected — at least for now — students, teachers and families in Michigan.”

O’Keefe has carried out a series of high-profile video operations against organizations like Planned Parenthood and ACORN, as well as news outlets, including NPR and CNN.

In 2010, O’Keefe was arrested for posing as a telephone repairman in order to gain access to an office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). He eventually pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor, was fined $1,500 and was sentenced to probation.

The new suit seeks at least $50,000 in actual damages and $3 million in punitive damages.

O’Keefe and Project Veritas are already facing a $1 million lawsuit brought by liberal activists who say they were targeted by an O’Keefe-directed operation aimed at making them appear to be instigating violence at Trump presidential campaign rallies and events.

Josh Gerstein is a senior reporter for POLITICO.

Press Release

AFT Michigan Files Civil Complaint Against James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, Alleging Illegal Surveillance

AFT President Randi Weingarten: These “operatives will stop at nothing to smear their ideological opponents—deception, distortion and dirty tactics—all to advance a political agenda that undermines public school students, teachers and families.”

For Release: 

Friday, September 29, 2017

Contact:

AFT Media Affairs

202/879-4458

press@aft.org

DETROIT—A circuit court judge has signed an emergency restraining order that prevents Project Veritas, a conservative hit group that uses deception and lies to attack its political opponents, from using illegally obtained information to smear Michigan children, teachers and families.

AFT Michigan on Thursday filed a civil complaint against Project Veritasand its operative Marisa Jorge for their fraudulent, unauthorized and unlawful surveillance of AFT Michigan staff, leaders and associates, and for gathering information from them. In response to the complaint, Judge Brian Sullivan of Michigan’s Third Judicial Circuit Court issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Jorge, her agents and anyone acting in concert with her from releasing private and confidential information gathered from any unlawful surveillance.

It is believed to be the first time Project Veritas, founded by conservative activist James O’Keefe, has been subject to such an order in its near decade-long existence.

Jorge used fraud and deception under the alias "Marissa Perez" to secure an internship with AFT Michigan, ostensibly to obtain material Project Veritas could use in one of its infamously misleading hit videos, according to the complaint. Jorge falsely claimed to be a student at the University of Michigan interested in becoming a teacher when, in fact, she is a recent graduate of Liberty University and appears to be working for Project Veritas. The restraining order is against Jorge as well as “her agents, employees and those acting in concert,” which would include Project Veritas, also named in the complaint.

Project Veritas is funded by a constellation of conservative backers and has frequently targeted teachers unions. Indeed, O’Keefe recently vowed to use his puerile tactics in defense of embattled Education Secretary Betsy DeVos who, coincidentally, is from Michigan where this criminal infiltration occurred. Project Veritas has in the past received funding from the Trump Foundation.

O’Keefe has demonstrated his willingness to ignore both legal and ethical standards. Long before the Russian government propagated fake news and deceptive tactics to sway the 2016 presidential election, O’Keefe was assuming false identities and doctoring videos in his attempts to smear his ideological opponents.

AFT President Randi Weingarten says, “James O'Keefe and his operatives will stop at nothing to smear their ideological opponents—deception, distortion and dirty tactics—all to advance a political agenda that undermines public school students, teachers and families.

“When the rights of students are curtailed by our own secretary of education who has spent decades attacking, rather than supporting, public education, it is more important than ever to fight for the truth and for the promise of public education. We are grateful that the Michigan court has protected—at least for now—students, teachers and families in Michigan.”

View AFT Michigan’s complaint

View the temporary restraining order against Project Veritas and Marisa Jorge

The AFT represents 1.7 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.

In 2008, the UFT Issued a Press Release About ATRs....And Promises Unkept

2008?

Are you kidding? ATRs without a chapter are voiceless by force.

Randi Weingarten

Time for a lawsuit.

See: "CASE STUDY IN PARTISANSHIP:  Critique of the New Teacher Report
"Mutual Benefits: New York City's Shift To Mutual Consent in Teacher Hiring"

Betsy Combier

Price tag of ATRs back in news

Weingarten responded with the following statement:

For immediate release

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

LINK

On September 22, The New Teacher Project reissued a report it had released earlier this year on the city’s Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR), and this time it included a new afterword with updated data and an open letter to UFT President Randi Weingarten and Chancellor Joel Klein that blames the UFT and the Department of Education for not finding permanent placements for the educators in the ATR pool.

Weingarten responded with the following statement:

There they go again. The New Teacher Project, a wholly owned subsidiary of the DOE, curiously weighs in on this issue after it has assisted the DOE in hiring so many new teachers this summer that they cannot even place all the new teachers that were hired, much less the hundreds of veteran teachers who have been trying for months to find permanent placements because of school closings and the current budget crisis.

If TNTP did not have a financial stake in hiring new teachers, they might have pointed out how irresponsible it was for the DOE to bring thousands of novices into a teacher market where the supply already far outstripped the demand. Alternatively, they might have pursued their previous recommendation to create financial incentives for schools to hire ATRs or even propose eliminating the new so-called fair student funding formula as their former president, Michelle Rhee, has done in Washington, D.C., or propose a moratorium on hiring of new teachers until all the ATRs were placed. It declined to take any of these steps, opting instead to bash the UFT because we pointed out errors in their first report – errors they just repeat here, such as the baseless claim that ATRs are six times as likely as other teachers to be rated unsatisfactory.

The facts remain as they were before: When this mutual consent provision was negotiated in 2005, we warned the DOE that unless principals were urged or given incentives to accept ATRs, a number of teachers would not be placed. They told us not to worry and they agreed to the job security provisions as a condition of ending all forced placements. Now instead of implementing a moratorium on new hires until most ATRs are placed, the DOE has exacerbated this situation by continuing to hire new educators from around the nation when there were no jobs for them. It also has left in place a funding formula that, coupled with its phasing out of schools and the budget crunch, makes it hard for principals to hire seasoned teachers who had the courage to work in at-risk schools that have since closed. Also, the DOE could offer incentives for principals to hire ATR teachers, but it has stubbornly refused to do so.

The UFT remains committed to working out ways, as we tried to do all of last year, that would place these valuable ATRs who have been displaced through no fault of their own, which would save the city money. To date, the DOE has declined, ignoring its own actions in creating the situation and seeking to unravel the job security clause. And now TNTP has joined in the pile-on.

UFT President Asked AFT President Randi Weingarten To Donate To Mayor's Nonprofit Lobbying Arm While The UFT Negotiated a New Contract With City Hall

Bill de Blasio



But it's not a conflict of interest. Huh?

Betsy Combier

Mulgrew details union's gift to de Blasio effort

The teachers' union president says it was he, and not the mayor, who asked Randi Weingarten to make huge AFT donation to Mr. de Blasio's nonprofit lobbying arm while the UFT was negotiating a new contract with City Hall. Not a conflict, he insists.

By Chris Bragg Crain's

LINK

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, whose parent union donated $350,000 to Mayor Bill de Blasio's nonprofit in the midst of contract talks in April, says the mayor never asked for the money—and that accepting it wasn't a conflict of interest.

UFT President Mike Mulgrew

"He keeps the two things separate," Mr. Mulgrew said in an interview Thursday. "We don't bring the two things up at the same time."

The donation, on April 9, came less than a month before Messrs. de Blasio and Mulgrew struck a nine-year, $9 billion contract, which included back pay and raises. The same day the $350,000 flowed in, Mr. de Blasio's nonprofit, Campaign For One New York, which was running low on money, spent exactly $350,000 on politically helpful television commercials that celebrated Albany's approval of pre-K funding for the city.

Mr. Mulgrew said the prospect of the AFT making a donation did not come up at a March 8 meeting. Mr. de Blasio's schedule shows that he met with Mr. Mulgrew and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten for a lunch that Saturday at Harlem's Red Rooster restaurant. They were accompanied by a top de Blasio aide, Emma Wolfe.

The meeting was a month before Ms. Weingarten's AFT made the $350,000 donation, and less than two months before the Mr. Mulgrew's UFT struck the $9 billion contract deal with the mayor. Mr. Mulgrew says the conversation focused on Mr. de Blasio's battle to win pre-K funding from the Legislature. "It was more about strategy," Mr. Mulgrew said.

Asked if Mr. de Blasio or his team had ever asked for a donation to the mayor's nonprofit, Mr. Mulgrew said, flatly, "No." A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio, meanwhile, said there was no talk of a donation at the Harlem meal.

"Absolutely not," the spokesman said. "This was a substantive meeting that focused solely on legislative strategy."

Two days after the pow-wow, in a March 10 appearance on "Morning Joe," Mr. de Blasio said he would be open to accepting pre-K funding from the Legislature without an income tax hike—a major shift in strategy.

Mr. Mulgrew did say that he had asked Ms. Weingarten, herself a former UFT president, to help with making a donation to Campaign For One New York. "Of course I asked Randi to assist on that," Mr. Mulgrew said.

One oddity of the donation's timing is that the state budget containing the pre-K funding passed in late March—and the AFT donation was not made until afterwards, on April 9. Mr. Mulgrew said the donation was not intended for any specific purpose other than to promote pre-K. "We were just donating to the fund itself," Mr. Mulgrew said.

Chirlane McCray

The $350,000, however, was immediately spent by Campaign For One New York on television ads featuring first lady Chirlane McCray touting the funding of universal pre-K as a "landmark win for New York City." The New York Times reported that the nearly $1 million ad blitz, which was made possible by the AFT donation, was meant to help the mayor "regain command of his political message as he approaches his 100th day in office." (Mr. de Blasio's poll numbers had been hurt, in part, by a multimillion dollar charter school ad campaign targeting the mayor.)

Mr. Mulgrew said it had simply taken time for the AFT to line up the $350,000—the biggest donation given to Mr. de Blasio's nonprofit since its creation following his mayoral election in November. He added that the money would be helpful for a "second phase" of Mr. de Blasio's pre-k push—urging the public to sign up for the program—and that Mr. de Blasio's $950,000 ad blitz made New Yorkers aware of the program.

Mr. Mulgrew said it didn't make sense for the UFT to stop pursuing this part of its agenda just because it was simultaneously in contract talks with the mayor. "We're very involved with pre-K," Mr. Mulgrew said. "That's a natural thing for us."

A charter-school group has called for a city Conflicts of Interest Board investigation into the AFT donation, and the New York Post called on Mr. de Blasio to return it.