Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Next Great Compromise

You can see it coming, can't you? The DOE has agreed to put off releasing the Teacher Data Reports until next month, when the case goes to court. BloomKlein has a history of doing whatever the hell they want, the law be damned (witness Bloomberg's shameless theft of a third term as mayor and his current assertion that the term limit extension should only apply to him). So why didn't they release the TDRs before the union had a chance to sue?

If you buy the argument by my fellow blogger Norm that the UFT is in league with the city, the answer is simple. The threatened release of the reports was just a head fake. If you recall, the city signed an agreement with the UFT saying that they would not disclose TDR information to the public. As such, they would most likely lose in court. At that point, the data would be sealed forever. What to do?

The city doesn't want to come off looking like the bad guys. They need the UFT to support them in releasing this data. So sometime between now and the court date in November, look for the DOE and the UFT to come to some sort of new "agreement". It will probably entail releasing the data some time down the road, perhaps in 2011 when the new evaluations are set to take place. The UFT will agree to release the TDR data as part of some "teacher report card" that includes the TDRs, plus evaluation data, etc. The UFT will claim that this system is fairer because it will give a "big picture" view of a teacher's performance rather than just the narrow TDR view.

By doing this, the UFT can continue to look like a friend of reform while still claiming to be protecting teachers. They'll be able to claim victory even as the reports come out.

Don't think this can happen? Think back to the many things the UFT has signed on to and claimed as a 'victory'. The 2005 contract. Loss of seniority. Changes in tenure evaluations. Race to the Top. The added 37.5 minutes in each school day. ALL of those were claimed as wins for the UFT while they were losses for the members.

Don't say I didn't warn you. TDRs, and along with them your privacy, are the next great compromise.

8 comments:

Pissedoffteacher said...

It is scary to think you are exactly on target with this one.

Ms. Creant said...

You have most likely hit the proverbial nail on its head.....UFT=UTTER FAILURE to protect TEACHERS. They "sue" and then have the case quietly dropped just like the age discrimination lawsuit which went the way of seniority transfers.

Anonymous said...

You have no idea how the Freedom of Information Law works. The mere fact that an agency entered into an agreement not to disclose something does not protect the information, let alone data, from public disclosure. If a court deems that no exemption applies, that's it. Even if the DOE and the UFT come to some sort of agreement, that will not stop the newspapers requesting this information from pursuing a denial of access, or even a delay in access, in court. No matter what, if the NY Post wants this data, and a court agrees that there is no privacy interest in it, then out it goes.

Anonymous said...

You're wrong. The court will decide this issue. The government has no obligation to subject us to the F.O.I.L., because these are our private, personel records. Klein is just playing dirty again. The contract or agreement between the UFT and DOE should be upheld by the court. Can you imagine if it wasn't? Every city and municipal worker could have their whole work life made public. Let's hope the court doesn't have it's head up its ass this time.

Hypatia said...

Interesting take on the UFT's relationship to the DOE. But why did you leave out the rest of the story? You know.. how the UFT is actually in league with the aliens from area 51 who blew up the World Trade Center so that they could harvest the body parts of teachers who were discontinued from the Rubber Rooms in their effort to reconstruct the dna of Hitler and have him shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on the grassy knoll just before he sets all the alligators loose in the sewer system?

I don't get you anti-UFT people. Why don't you tell the truth as you really believe it?

Anonymous said...

I don't think any teacher has any faith in the DOE or the UFT. Teaching is such a difficult job and made even more difficult by the corruption and immorality of the DOE and the UFT. It is all so strange.

Moriah Untamed said...

It's not crazy or paranoid to try to anticipate the next move of your enemy. It's called strategy. Let's consider the possibility that the UFT leadership is a little too "friendly" with Klein. What else could explain the Union's losses to the Bloomberg administration? Start trembling when you hear the word "agreement" because that has always meant another step back for us and another step forward for them. When the agreement comes out of a closed door session that we don't get to vote on--FUBAR.

The Union is not the leadership. The Union is the membership.

I propose that teachers stop buying the newspapers that want to pillory them, and ask their friends and relatives to do the same. Also ask sympathetic parents and students to join in the boycott.

It worked in Montgomery with the buses.

Smellington G. Worthington III said...

I say, I do wish you rabble would get used to this sort of thing. When your little schools close, there will always be positions in the Smellington Charter School, slated to open this September. We will not need TDRs, contracts, or any such fiddle-faddle.

Cheers!