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I guess some did not take advantage of 25/55 when they could, so the unions have ordered the state legislature to make it available again.
 
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/pols_pitch_pricey_pension_sweetener_6YvwPAOZpLgLZdJGFPmrcL
 
No extra contribution for retiring 10 to 15 years earlier than the serfs who pay their benefits with fewer and fewer active teachers in return.
 
The suggestion is that lower benefits (and perhaps pay) for future employees could be traded for a huge increase in costs for those cashing in and moving out.
 
Shrewd move by Mulgrew not to go for 20/50 until 2016, when Cuomo might be running for President.  Then, if the city’s economy is doing better, he could demand a huge increase in schools funding to “make the schools better,” and then make a quick strike with 20/50 before a dime gets to the classroom.
 
And before anyone says “but that’s the Post!” why don’t the Gotham Schools reporters call the local state pols and ask if it is true they are sponsors, and why they think it’s fair to all their constituents who have no pension at all.
 
“With pension costs crippling localities across the state, we should be looking at ways to reform the system, not for ways to balloon costs further,” said Mark Botnick, the mayor’s Albany lobbyist.

Hey Bloomberg, I thought allowing people to retire years earlier without kicking in an extra dime saved money?  Oh, that was when YOU were running for President.

The video of the Beach Channel teacher is beyond depressing.  Stuff like that is why I’m inclined to back teachers in almost all classroom altercation disputes.  I wish principals and the DOE would, too.  Is that a juvenile detention center or a high school?  I concede, it’s hard to see how the quality of teaching matters in classrooms like that.  

I’ll ask the question again, are student and parent contributions taken into account when teachers are evaluated?  If not, why not?

Let’s imagine that teachers were required to post all their tests and homework assignments to an online database that anyone could see, with principals expected to check in on what students were doing to what effort teachers were made to correct them.
 
And let’s imagine that there were two surveillance video cameras (the new, cheap kind everyone is getting not the $zillion a city contactor would provide) in every classroom, one looking forward at the teacher, one looking out at the class, piped to the principal.  The principal could look at and/or record from either camera at any time, and the teacher could hit a button to record and call attention to a camera (ie. Help!) at any time.
 
Well, it would be much easier to see how much effort the teacher was putting in, and what they had to deal with, right?  Advice could be given, help could be given, and if they couldn’t hack it, advice to move on could be given.  And there would be more fairness or more honesty.
 
But to the union, that kind of actual observation of the actual work smacks of 1984.  Due you know three (was) is? a provision in the UFT contract that said principals were not allowed to look at any of a teachers work, their lesson plans or assignments?  It went in during the Dinkins years.  Back in the early 1990s, I was told by a neighbor that after that deal, a third grade teacher at the local elementary school decided to stop teaching math – she had to teach her kid math herself!  That’s the goal.
 
So there is no use discussing any of this.  Thanks to the pension deal, the city can’t really afford the cameras, the staff to check them and the work papers, the certified teacher or their replacement.  Perhaps they should just get rid of the principals to save money too, and just put it in the pension.
 

You really needed to turn this into a story about you and pensions.

Grow up.  

This kid could’ve pulled a knife on this teacher and then you wouldn’t have to worry about pensions.

You really needed to turn this into a story about you and pensions.

Grow up.  

This kid could’ve pulled a knife on this teacher and then you wouldn’t have to worry about pensions.

When someone has only one agenda he keeps repeating himself over and over again. It must be terrible to live with a person who sees only one thing.
Is it that you will not get a pension that makes you so angry?

The “articles” in the Brooklyn Paper and in SchoolBook, regarding the Moscowitz/Grannis proposals, were very disappointing. The Brooklyn Paper had the good grace, later, at least to include a photo of those in opposition (a clear majority) to Eva’s hostile real estate takeover, still…. When the media distorts a story, when they don’t “report” objectively, they lose credibility. I think that this type of “reporting,” is clearly not journalism, and if “presented,” as fact, it is most unethical. The fact of the matter is, that most of the community, is opposed to Eva’s charter being placed in Junior High 50.

Those who weren’t lucky enough to be 55 at the time and kick in nothing are indeed kicking in for whatever years they have left.  A fraction of the cost, but something.  Perhaps this new proposal would eliminate that too. It implies yet another “pension incentive” with nothing kicked in.

So what is my agenda?