Thursday, June 28, 2012

How To Spend Your Teachers Choice Bonanza

This blog (i.e., me) has always had a bug up its ass about Teacher's Choice. I hate the program. I won't rehash all my arguments here; if you are interested, you can read my past rantings about this ridiculous program here. Suffice it to say that my main argument against TC is that classrooms should be adequately supplied at all times--Mayor4Life would never dream of running any of his businesses without supplies, so why would he run schools that way?

Of course, this is a mayor who is trying to install a room air conditioner in his chauffeured SUV because he hates getting into a hot vehicle, while teachers and 1.1 million students sweat out a prolonged heat wave.

As you are probably aware, Teacher's Choice went from $260 a year at its high point, down to $150, then $110, until it was finally eliminated. At its height, the program was woefully inadequate; at its low point, it was a slap in the face to teachers and students alike.

Now, according to Gotham Schools, Teacher's Choice is making a comeback. The City Council is going to give NYC teachers a whopping $40 a year to supply our classrooms. So if you have 100 students a year, as I typically have, you will receive 40 cents per child.

I spent more than that on candy for my students for the last day of school.

The total spent on this failed program will be 3.75 million. Compare that to the 900 million that the city spent on computer contractors last year. Obviously, what this city cares about is making sure that the pockets of business people are lined with cash, while teachers' pockets remain empty. 

Here's what I plan to do with the money, and I urge you to do the same. Buy a ream of paper, a box of envelopes, some mailing labels, and 40 stamps. Then write a letter to Mayor4Life telling him how insulting it is that he refuses to support public schools with proper supplies. Print 40 copies and 40 mailing labels, and send one copy of the letter to City Hall every week starting in September and every week for the 40 weeks of the school year. If every teacher did this, we could dump 75,000 letters on the mayor's desk every week for a year.

I can't think of a better way to thank him.


3 comments:

Brooklynatr said...

Ever notice how our beloved UFT never uttered one little word of complaint about the cancellation of Teachers Choice once the original news story passed over?  We're talking about money out of the pockets of thousands of teachers, but not even one stinking, measly article in the New York Teacher about this?!  The UFT should have raised Cain about this on a steady basis, but instead they just took it lying down, as they take just about every rape of the teachers by Bloomberg.  

Anon said...

I hated the original TC where we had to pick and choose from some catalog. And, we overpaid.   But once we had control, I liked it.  It helped to offset what I paid for each year and gave me the ability to buy things that should have been provided like bookcases and ink for our classroom computers.  But $40 is an insult!!   And putting an a/c in an idle car is a giant slap to the many slaps in the face we get from this mayor.  My former principal REFUSED to repair any classroom a/c even when the teachers or PTA offered to pay for it.

TeachmyclassMrMayor said...

Brooklyn, why are you surprised by this? I am still waiting to hear back from the leader of my union as to why they have no clue how to use the media. They are so interested in playing nice with the mayor and he tramples them EVERY TIME. Will they never learn the lesson from the time a couple of years back when the Jewish holidays dictated a one day school week? The chancellor came out and said those evil teachers, they are the reason that your kids are coming to school for one day this week. The next day, our "leader" Mike Mulgrew, came out and said to the media, "HEY! DON'T BLAME US. THE CHANCELLOR CAN SET THE SCHEDULE, AND WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER IT! Klein & Bloomberg, for once, put their tails between their legs and slinked away. The only way you fight a bully is to punch him in the face. But they (UFT Leaders) are not interested in what we want, but what suits themselves. Oh how I wish I had the time, I would try to run like Ms. Lewis did in Chicago, and see how they have their mayor back on his heels. How the public is behind them and their egotistical mayor has had to call in outside forces to try and put the genie back in the bottle.