We’re midway through the stress weeks: Report cards and three evenings of parent conferences.
And then there’s all the nonsense that is coming out of last weekend’s IEA Board of Directors meeting.
Yesterday I reported on rumors circulating through the IEA of a proposal in which the Association would support taxing teacher retiree pension benefits. The fact that the discussion took place at last weekend’s IEA Board of Directors meeting has now been confirmed.
Monday I’m going to begin reporting on what Ken Swanson presented to the Board as a “challenging issues discussion.”
The list constituted all the possible give-aways our IEA could come up with. It was a white flag of surrender of rights that our Association has spent decades fighting for and winning for our members.
Imagine going into negotiations with your school board and in preparation you had a discussion among your negotiators of all the things you could give away.
Starting Monday we will take a look at this list and see what six years of IEA President Ken Swanson, former IEA Executive Director and now special assistant to Arne Duncan, Jo Anderson and present IEA Executive Director Audrey Soglin have cost our Association, our members and the fight against the attacks on public school teachers.
The NY Times’ business writer loves Joel and will surely miss him.
Joe Nocera writes a glowing tribute to the parting NY schools Chancellor. He talked to one of Klein’s wealthy supporters, Wall Street hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson.
Charter schools, explained Whitney Tilson, the founder of T2 Partners and one of their most ardent supporters, are the perfect philanthropy for results-oriented business executives. For one thing, they can change lives permanently, not just help people get by from day to day. For another, he said, “hedge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small amount of capital into a large amount of capital.”
A wealthy hedge fund manager can spend more than $1 million financing a charter school start-up. But once it is up and running, it qualifies for state funding, just like a public school. Except that in most cases, charter schools save the taxpayers money because they are much more cost-conscious than the typical big city public school. “It is extremely leveraged philanthropy,” Mr. Tilson said.
Gail Collins on the Bowles-Simpson Committee plan to kill Social Security.
A couple of years ago we were all walking around saying: “Wow, Barack Obama is president!” Now we’re all saying: “What do you think of Bowles-Simpson?”
Doesn’t Bowles-Simpson sound a lot like a medical procedure? Or a really high-end vacuum cleaner?
Confirming Cathie Black as the new New York Schools Chancellor will not be a walk in the park.
Opposition is building to former media mogul Cathie Black as NY schools Chancellor.
Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn said: “The Department of Education should not be treated as a playground for the rich and famous or who are tired of their corporate careers. Cathie Black has not demonstrated any indication throughout her entire adult life of an interest in public education.”
A reporter from GothamSchools and I spent Friday calling various lawmakers from New York City. We called Democrats because the first few people to speak out were Democrats and we wanted to know if this was a political movement. What we heard is actually a lot of concern. Even from someone who supported continuing mayoral control over the schools last year, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto of the Bronx. He said he trusts the Mayor but he was disappointed by his choice, because Black doesn’t have any experience in education. And that’s what we heard from about eight or 10 other lawmakers as well.
Fred Klonsky 
This report and news from the IEA really disturbs me I actually feel sick to my stomach.
When I told this to a friend of mine who is also retired, I actually saw her face whiten, then turn red before she responded to me.
What has happened to the IEA? What have they done for us in the past six years? What have we done for our members? What has happened to our backbone?
I firmly believe if the Board supports Ken Swanson and any other candidate/officer on this issue, they will lose the support of the IEA-R. Why would anyone become a member when the union who is supposed to be our advocate gives away 3% of our pension? And, hopefully, the active members who will be retiring soon will speak up (or any active member for that matter!) and write emails of discontent to the IEA and their Region Chairs BEFORE this ridiculous, give-in, spineless vote takes place! This is a disgrace!
Thank you Fred for releasing this information to us. I have not heard a word from the union on this.
Ken Swanson should be ashamed of himself for even letting this idea come into his mind!
This should come as a surprise to no one.
I’m going to post more about this and the rest of the “challenging issues” list next week. But we should all be clear. Going all the way back to when Jo Anderson dropped the campaign for fair funding just before Lobby Day to push for his Burnham Plan (an omen of what was to come when he went to work for Arne Duncan) to Ken Swanson’s swooning over Michelle Rhee as a “change agent,” to their sitting at the table strategy (which signaled Mike Madigan to go ahead and create a two tier retirement system), to Audrey Soglin leading the committee that caved to Race to the Top demands and linked teacher evaluations to student performance, theirs has been a shameful record of sell-outs.
The current and recent leadership of the IEA not only has refused to lead the charge in combatting the attacks on teacher unions and public school teachers, they have caved at every important step along the way.
No candidate running for IEA president deserves a vote if he or she does not repudiate this agenda.
I was not aware of all of this information. Retirees don’t seem to be in the loop. I just sent an email to Ken Swanson via ieanea.org. and expressed my discontent. I hope other members do the same. I agree with your final statement Fred. It is a betrayal of trust.
It is not just retirees that are not in the loop. But every member should make their views known. ken.swanson@ieanea.org audrey.soglin@ieanea.org