Comments on: The Virtues of Competition http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:46:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: curious2 http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-200 curious2 Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:52:50 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-200 Thanks Leo. I will send you an email. As a preview for others, I am curious to learn more about how teacher professionalism and democratic governance in the charter schools will differ from the situation in current public schools. Thanks Leo. I will send you an email.

As a preview for others, I am curious to learn more about how teacher professionalism and democratic governance in the charter schools will differ from the situation in current public schools.

]]> By: Leo Casey http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-197 Leo Casey Sun, 28 Aug 2005 13:34:51 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-197 Curious 2: The UFT is doing charter schools to demonstrate the value of schools which are based on our core values -- teacher professionalism, democratic governance and education for democratic citizenship -- and to serve students in an underserved part of the city. We produced a multi-volume application for the SUNY Board of Trustees which shows how we would do this at great length, and if you are interested, I will send you a copy by e-mail. Just send your e-mail address to LCasey@UFT.ORG. Curious 2:
The UFT is doing charter schools to demonstrate the value of schools which are based on our core values — teacher professionalism, democratic governance and education for democratic citizenship — and to serve students in an underserved part of the city. We produced a multi-volume application for the SUNY Board of Trustees which shows how we would do this at great length, and if you are interested, I will send you a copy by e-mail. Just send your e-mail address to LCasey@UFT.ORG.

]]> By: Mike in Texas http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-192 Mike in Texas Sat, 27 Aug 2005 20:37:04 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-192 Its because when they meant competition, they didn't mean from teachers, a group the Republicans cannot make any money off of. Its because when they meant competition, they didn’t mean from teachers, a group the Republicans cannot make any money off of.

]]> By: redhog http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-180 redhog Fri, 26 Aug 2005 22:21:12 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-180 Ryan Sager is all the rage. Let him stand in front of a classroom of average kids and ten minutes later there would be nothing left than some bits of bone, fibers of hair, and other odious DNA traces. The ghost of his ignorance would float over the chalkboard. That’s about all the substance he ever owned even in the flesh. In the New York Post, that bastion of bashing, he recounts the incriminating cries of teachers as posted on Edwize.org. What child-hating nerve of them to notice that salaries are tens of thousands of dollars higher inches and minutes away! What effrontery of teachers to expect that among qualified applicants, the one with greater depth of experience should prevail for a position! Does Ryan the Un-Sage feel that Congress should scrap the hallowed seniority it has instituted as a basis for committee selection? Would the surly lad allow New York public schools to shed the mantle, and throw off the yoke of morbid regulation and enjoy the freedom of operation in which his adored charter schools luxuriate? The strangling rules and "mandates" he scorns are from the Chancellor’s Office, not the UFT-DOE Contract. Oh yes, Ryan: there is no such thing as a UFT Contract. It's a joint venture with the City. Sager is dismayed that “ a total of three (italics are his) posts urge teachers and parents to boycott Wal-Mart.� (The UFT has over 150,000 satisfied members.) Duty extends beyond the immediate challenge, Ryan. Would you oppose doctors, working in emergency rooms and seeing the effects of drug overdoses on our youth, advocating action to interdict dangerous products at our borders and in our communities? Thanks for your disclosure of the worst-kept secret in North America: that a newspaper and columnist “who shall remain nameless� are “teacher-union-unfriendly.� I thought your editorial board considers issues on their merits, just as they urge the teachers union to do. Ryan, let’s you and me and our readers meet at http://risaac.blogs.com Care to tryst at Happy Hour for some truth serum? It didn’t fall off a truck and sure as heck didn’t leap off the thick pages of a dense Chancellor’s memo. Just name the cross streets, Ryan. Any place will do except the dead zone outside Tweed. Ryan Sager is all the rage. Let him stand in front of a classroom of average kids and ten minutes later there would be nothing left than some bits of bone, fibers of hair, and other odious DNA traces. The ghost of his ignorance would float over the chalkboard. That’s about all the substance he ever owned even in the flesh.
In the New York Post, that bastion of bashing, he recounts the incriminating cries of teachers as posted on Edwize.org. What child-hating nerve of them to notice that salaries are tens of thousands of dollars higher inches and minutes away! What effrontery of teachers to expect that among qualified applicants, the one with greater depth of experience should prevail for a position!
Does Ryan the Un-Sage feel that Congress should scrap the hallowed seniority it has instituted as a basis for committee selection?
Would the surly lad allow New York public schools to shed the mantle, and throw off the yoke of morbid regulation and enjoy the freedom of operation in which his adored charter schools luxuriate? The strangling rules and “mandates” he scorns are from the Chancellor’s Office, not the UFT-DOE Contract. Oh yes, Ryan: there is no such thing as a UFT Contract. It’s a joint venture with the City.
Sager is dismayed that “ a total of three (italics are his) posts urge teachers and parents to boycott Wal-Mart.� (The UFT has over 150,000 satisfied members.) Duty extends beyond the immediate challenge, Ryan. Would you oppose doctors, working in emergency rooms and seeing the effects of drug overdoses on our youth, advocating action to interdict dangerous products at our borders and in our communities?
Thanks for your disclosure of the worst-kept secret in North America: that a newspaper and columnist “who shall remain nameless� are “teacher-union-unfriendly.� I thought your editorial board considers issues on their merits, just as they urge the teachers union to do.
Ryan, let’s you and me and our readers meet at http://risaac.blogs.com
Care to tryst at Happy Hour for some truth serum? It didn’t fall off a truck and sure as heck didn’t leap off the thick pages of a dense Chancellor’s memo. Just name the cross streets, Ryan. Any place will do except the dead zone outside Tweed.

]]> By: Labor Blog http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-154 Labor Blog Thu, 25 Aug 2005 20:13:12 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-154 <strong>UPDATE ON EDWIZE</strong> In a new record for Labor Blogs, Edwize has had its very own denunciatory editorial in the rabidly anti-labor New York Post in the very first week of publication. For our response, with a link to the editorial.... UPDATE ON EDWIZE

In a new record for Labor Blogs, Edwize has had its very own denunciatory editorial in the rabidly anti-labor New York Post in the very first week of publication. For our response, with a link to the editorial….

]]> By: curious2 http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-150 curious2 Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:34:14 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-150 How will the union-run charter schools differ from current public schools? Paulrubin makes some points, but mostly by writing in the negative, so I am having trouble understanding what will be different. By the way, these aren't leading questions -- I really want to know! How will the union-run charter schools differ from current public schools? Paulrubin makes some points, but mostly by writing in the negative, so I am having trouble understanding what will be different. By the way, these aren’t leading questions — I really want to know!

]]> By: paulrubin http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-148 paulrubin Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:25:00 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-148 Why does the UFT want to run some charter schools? That should be obvious. It allows them to conduct a simple experiment. Is it possible to construct an effectively run school without total and blatant disregard of the work rules in the UFT contract, and where those workrules are to be changed, can those changes add to the professionalism and independence of the staff rather than detract from it. I'll be the first to admit the UFT doesn't have all the answers. The administration of the DOE and Mayor Bloomberg doesn't have all the answers. The teachers don't have all the answers. The parents don't have all the answers either. For that matter, neither does private industry. If UFT-run charter schools fail miserably, that provides truly useful ammunition for those who oppose the union. They're the ones going out on a limb. Of course if those schools turn out to be well run, well isn't that a scary thought for all the so called experts who would like to blame everything wrong with NYC public education on work rules rather than address the real problems: (1) insufficient funding as compared to others in the region when cost of living is considered and when the percentage of students with special needs is considered (2) teachers teaching out of license so now instead of having unlicensed teachers teaching math, now we have gym teachers teaching math (3) overreliance on english and math test scores to evaluate success which in turn has led to giving the kids more of those two subjects at the expense of every other subject in the curriculum (4) Standardized instruction in a system that's so diverse and huge that you essentially don't meet the needs on the individuals at all anymore (5) Continued lagging behind more progressive districts in the area of technology (6) only lip service paid to retaining teachers once you get them into the system (7) a total failure to recognize that as private industry comes back to life, teacher recruitment and retainment will go back into the toilet unless the underlying problems are addressed of working conditions, salary, administrative support, benefits, etc. I know from first hand experience under multiple principals, that when a school's administration is working together with the faculty and parents, great things happen. I don't need the UFT charter schools experiment to know it's more than possible. But unless that triumverate works together we'll hear a lot of politically motivated mis-used statistics and another generation of kids will lose out. The faster all involved recognize that each special interest group does in fact bring something useful to the table, the better. Whipping the UFT exclusively helps nobody. Why does the UFT want to run some charter schools? That should be obvious. It allows them to conduct a simple experiment. Is it possible to construct an effectively run school without total and blatant disregard of the work rules in the UFT contract, and where those workrules are to be changed, can those changes add to the professionalism and independence of the staff rather than detract from it.

I’ll be the first to admit the UFT doesn’t have all the answers. The administration of the DOE and Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t have all the answers. The teachers don’t have all the answers. The parents don’t have all the answers either. For that matter, neither does private industry. If UFT-run charter schools fail miserably, that provides truly useful ammunition for those who oppose the union. They’re the ones going out on a limb. Of course if those schools turn out to be well run, well isn’t that a scary thought for all the so called experts who would like to blame everything wrong with NYC public education on work rules rather than address the real problems:
(1) insufficient funding as compared to others in the region when cost of living is considered and when the percentage of students with special needs is considered
(2) teachers teaching out of license so now instead of having unlicensed teachers teaching math, now we have gym teachers teaching math
(3) overreliance on english and math test scores to evaluate success which in turn has led to giving the kids more of those two subjects at the expense of every other subject in the curriculum
(4) Standardized instruction in a system that’s so diverse and huge that you essentially don’t meet the needs on the individuals at all anymore
(5) Continued lagging behind more progressive districts in the area of technology
(6) only lip service paid to retaining teachers once you get them into the system
(7) a total failure to recognize that as private industry comes back to life, teacher recruitment and retainment will go back into the toilet unless the underlying problems are addressed of working conditions, salary, administrative support, benefits, etc.

I know from first hand experience under multiple principals, that when a school’s administration is working together with the faculty and parents, great things happen. I don’t need the UFT charter schools experiment to know it’s more than possible. But unless that triumverate works together we’ll hear a lot of politically motivated mis-used statistics and another generation of kids will lose out. The faster all involved recognize that each special interest group does in fact bring something useful to the table, the better. Whipping the UFT exclusively helps nobody.

]]> By: everyman2 http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-147 everyman2 Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:05:08 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-147 I read three newspapers a day. I read the NY Times for the best factual information. I read the Daily News for information that is a combination of truth and fiction. I read the NY Post for laughs and twisted informtion, especially when reporting on unions and in particular, our own UFT. I read three newspapers a day. I read the NY Times for the best factual information. I read the Daily News for information that is a combination of truth and fiction. I read the NY Post for laughs and twisted informtion, especially when reporting on unions and in particular, our own UFT.

]]> By: curious2 http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-146 curious2 Thu, 25 Aug 2005 18:57:53 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-146 Why does the UFT want to run charter schools? What problems in the public schools do they think they can improve upon in their charter schools? Is there a document that explains this? Why does the UFT want to run charter schools? What problems in the public schools do they think they can improve upon in their charter schools? Is there a document that explains this?

]]> By: Maisie http://www.edwize.org/the-virtues-of-competition/comment-page-1#comment-145 Maisie Thu, 25 Aug 2005 18:44:05 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=38#comment-145 The Post, of course, has no ideological axes to grind. They're dedicated to the classical journalistic ideals, right? Right? Wait. Oh no, never mind, for a moment there I was thinking that Rupert Murdoch controlled the editorials. P.S. Congratulations to Ryan Sager on recently getting his Bachelor's. Does he know that all NYC public school teachers have Masters degrees? The Post, of course, has no ideological axes to grind. They’re dedicated to the classical journalistic ideals, right? Right? Wait. Oh no, never mind, for a moment there I was thinking that Rupert Murdoch controlled the editorials.

P.S. Congratulations to Ryan Sager on recently getting his Bachelor’s. Does he know that all NYC public school teachers have Masters degrees?

]]>