Comments on: Mulgrew tells Assem. Hoyt to go back to school on edu reforms http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:27:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dropout Nation » Blog Archive » READ: Tuesday-Morning Quarterback Edition http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-227099 Dropout Nation » Blog Archive » READ: Tuesday-Morning Quarterback Edition Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:18:58 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-227099 [...] in order to gain a share of Race to the Top funding, New York’s teachers unions look to scuttle proposals to do the same in the Empire State. Share this post: Share this post with the [...] [...] in order to gain a share of Race to the Top funding, New York’s teachers unions look to scuttle proposals to do the same in the Empire State. Share this post: Share this post with the [...]

]]> By: KitchenSink http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-226920 KitchenSink Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:15:27 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-226920 And by the way, INT, you need to find a better administrator because all those issues you cited with your students are not things you can deal with by yourself. There needs to be a schoolwide effort to counter the anti-intellectual, anti-school ethos your kids are bringing into the building. Take advantage of the free market, do your research, and find a school leader who is working with "difficult" kids but putting supports in place for teachers. They're out there. And by the way, INT, you need to find a better administrator because all those issues you cited with your students are not things you can deal with by yourself. There needs to be a schoolwide effort to counter the anti-intellectual, anti-school ethos your kids are bringing into the building. Take advantage of the free market, do your research, and find a school leader who is working with “difficult” kids but putting supports in place for teachers. They’re out there.

]]> By: KitchenSink http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-226919 KitchenSink Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:13:29 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-226919 I'm with you, INT, but one of the reasons I left the classroom to start a charter school was that I felt like my work and that of most of my qualified, dedicated faculty colleagues was being dragged down by less scrupulous, less hard working and less competent colleagues - who should not have been teaching but who had job protections out the wazoo that just don't exist in other professions. I understand the historical need for those job protections, but in 2009 there is great availability of means for transparency to shine a light on bad administrators, and greater accountability for those administrators. Loren, district funding was not cut...in 2007-08, which is what the LAW says 2009-10 charter school funding should be based on. That's right, that's the same law that was ignored by the legislature when passing its budget, at the behest of NYSUT and the UFT. Now if the district funding is indeed cut in 2009-10, charters are going to experience that CUT TWICE - once in 2009-10, and once in 2011-12, when we are slated to have our funding formula based on this year's district expenditure. And by the way, it is my understanding (I don't have data to back this up, but maybe some enterprising and informed reader does) that the district funding has actually been supplemented by state and federal stimulus dollars, which don't figure into the charter formula at all, so that overall districting spending is going up, not down. Are you surprised to learn that charter funding is based on a two-year lag of district spending? Ask the back room deal makers in 1998 who passed the state charter law with all kinds of compromises such as this one, and including a pay raise for legislators. I’m with you, INT, but one of the reasons I left the classroom to start a charter school was that I felt like my work and that of most of my qualified, dedicated faculty colleagues was being dragged down by less scrupulous, less hard working and less competent colleagues – who should not have been teaching but who had job protections out the wazoo that just don’t exist in other professions.

I understand the historical need for those job protections, but in 2009 there is great availability of means for transparency to shine a light on bad administrators, and greater accountability for those administrators.

Loren, district funding was not cut…in 2007-08, which is what the LAW says 2009-10 charter school funding should be based on. That’s right, that’s the same law that was ignored by the legislature when passing its budget, at the behest of NYSUT and the UFT. Now if the district funding is indeed cut in 2009-10, charters are going to experience that CUT TWICE – once in 2009-10, and once in 2011-12, when we are slated to have our funding formula based on this year’s district expenditure.

And by the way, it is my understanding (I don’t have data to back this up, but maybe some enterprising and informed reader does) that the district funding has actually been supplemented by state and federal stimulus dollars, which don’t figure into the charter formula at all, so that overall districting spending is going up, not down.

Are you surprised to learn that charter funding is based on a two-year lag of district spending? Ask the back room deal makers in 1998 who passed the state charter law with all kinds of compromises such as this one, and including a pay raise for legislators.

]]> By: I noticed that... http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-226168 I noticed that... Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:21:07 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-226168 Please stop lumping teachers in the category of mediocre. There are a large proportion of great teachers in nyc. There a few, few teachers who don't belong in this profession and the union and other teachers always advise them to leave the profession and seek another career. Good teachers want to work next to good teachers. By the way, no one is great. Why? Because everyone has good and bad days. I feel that the public need to focus on how parents play a tremendous part in their child's life and because of parents' involvement, teachers can do they job of teaching. Stop blaming the ills of society on teachers! You have mediocre politicians in office too, too long. You have mediocre principals that are protected by the DoE. You have mediocre administrators, who have never taught a day in their life, creating policies that are absurd, but Klein will protect them. I spend the entire day disciplining high schoolers who come unprepared to school (no notebook, pens, pencils, paper), on their cell phones, will teachers are trying to teach, come to school 50% of the time, but teachers are forced to give them extra credit so they can pass, curse at teachers in way that would make a drunkard sailor blush. So pardon me if there are a few mediocre teachers. What about the 90-95% of the teachers who work extremely hard under those conditions to teach student who unwilling want to learn. If you going to blame teachers, then blame everyone, too. Please stop lumping teachers in the category of mediocre. There are a large proportion of great teachers in nyc. There a few, few teachers who don’t belong in this profession and the union and other teachers always advise them to leave the profession and seek another career. Good teachers want to work next to good teachers. By the way, no one is great. Why? Because everyone has good and bad days. I feel that the public need to focus on how parents play a tremendous part in their child’s life and because of parents’ involvement, teachers can do they job of teaching. Stop blaming the ills of society on teachers! You have mediocre politicians in office too, too long. You have mediocre principals that are protected by the DoE. You have mediocre administrators, who have never taught a day in their life, creating policies that are absurd, but Klein will protect them. I spend the entire day disciplining high schoolers who come unprepared to school (no notebook, pens, pencils, paper), on their cell phones, will teachers are trying to teach, come to school 50% of the time, but teachers are forced to give them extra credit so they can pass, curse at teachers in way that would make a drunkard sailor blush. So pardon me if there are a few mediocre teachers. What about the 90-95% of the teachers who work extremely hard under those conditions to teach student who unwilling want to learn. If you going to blame teachers, then blame everyone, too.

]]> By: fred http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-226159 fred Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:16:30 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-226159 nobody who hasn't been in front of thirty kids all day trying to teach in an urban area hasn't a clue. perhaps parents should learn not to leave their children behind and see what is going on. and politicians who spent some time in school who became experts should join them. get real.... nobody who hasn’t been in front of thirty kids all day trying to teach in an urban area hasn’t a clue. perhaps parents should learn not to leave their children behind and see what is going on. and politicians who spent some time in school who became experts should join them. get real….

]]> By: mel http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-225925 mel Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:55:49 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-225925 Why am I not surprised? "Teacher's Union Blocks Any Attempts To Improve Our Children's Future. Steady paycheck for minimal work & accountability is far more important" Sounds about right Why am I not surprised?

“Teacher’s Union Blocks Any Attempts To Improve Our Children’s Future. Steady paycheck for minimal work & accountability is far more important”

Sounds about right

]]> By: EFM http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-225838 EFM Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:36:12 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-225838 Increase the school year by a month, across the board? Is Hoyt kidding? Where is the funding for such a move going to come from? If such money existed, why wasn't it used to retain the teachers, and school aides, that got dumped because of the budget crisis? As for the proposed extra month of school, just exactly what is it supposed to be filled with? I don't see any mention of graduation standards being raised, or of revising the curriculum. Please don't tell me it's going to be more test prep.. Is it Hoyt's intention to get more children to graduate on time, or to bore them into dropping out sooner? Increase the school year by a month, across the board? Is Hoyt kidding? Where is the funding for such a move going to come from? If such money existed, why wasn’t it used to retain the teachers, and school aides, that got dumped because of the budget crisis?

As for the proposed extra month of school, just exactly what is it supposed to be filled with? I don’t see any mention of graduation standards being raised, or of revising the curriculum. Please don’t tell me it’s going to be more test prep.. Is it Hoyt’s intention to get more children to graduate on time, or to bore them into dropping out sooner?

]]> By: Loren Steele http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-225790 Loren Steele Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:57:13 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-225790 KS, what you conveniently forget to mention is that while charter school funding froze, public school funding was cut. I mean, be fair... QP, The city is already gaming the system to make it seem as though test scores are going up. It would be easy for them to play the same game with job security for teachers. IOW, come up with a fair system for teacher evaluation and we'll support it. So far the DOE has not shown itself to deserve our trust. KS, what you conveniently forget to mention is that while charter school funding froze, public school funding was cut. I mean, be fair…

QP, The city is already gaming the system to make it seem as though test scores are going up. It would be easy for them to play the same game with job security for teachers. IOW, come up with a fair system for teacher evaluation and we’ll support it. So far the DOE has not shown itself to deserve our trust.

]]> By: QueensParent http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-225761 QueensParent Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:33:53 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-225761 I think Mr. Mulgrew should "spend some time with people who understand what it means to educate children." The UFT's ongoing support of keeping poor and mediocre teachers standing up in front of children just to get a paycheck is shameless and a total failure of kids by adults. Or wait, I forgot. He represents adults, not children. I think Mr. Mulgrew should “spend some time with people who understand what it means to educate children.” The UFT’s ongoing support of keeping poor and mediocre teachers standing up in front of children just to get a paycheck is shameless and a total failure of kids by adults. Or wait, I forgot. He represents adults, not children.

]]> By: KitchenSink http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/02/mulgrew-tells-assem-hoyt-to-go-back-to-school-on-edu-reforms/comment-page-1/#comment-225740 KitchenSink Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:48:06 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=26727#comment-225740 Re "Last year, the state and city teachers unions threw their political weight behind the ban on linking teacher tenure to student achievement, successfully lobbying Albany to insert the provision into the state’s budget." : Last year, the unions also lobbied to freeze charter school funding. In effect, NYSUT and the UFT rewrote legislation, reducing legally entitled payments to schools that included some of their members among them. Would spending time with someone who understands education help me learn why the unions would do this? Is there an educationally driven reason for this lobbying? Re “Last year, the state and city teachers unions threw their political weight behind the ban on linking teacher tenure to student achievement, successfully lobbying Albany to insert the provision into the state’s budget.” :

Last year, the unions also lobbied to freeze charter school funding. In effect, NYSUT and the UFT rewrote legislation, reducing legally entitled payments to schools that included some of their members among them.

Would spending time with someone who understands education help me learn why the unions would do this? Is there an educationally driven reason for this lobbying?

]]>