Mulgrew Confesses The Truth

Yes, we here at SBSB have not been to kind to UFT President Mike Mulgrew in the past. We don't

think it has ever been personal, just business. Yes, an argument can be made to tone down the snarkiness and sarcasm, but that is what makes this blog so neat.

But as was told an SBSB groupie yesterday, we will defend Mulgrew when he needs defending, as when "lawyer" Joy Hochstadt decided to rope in a naive teacher, Andrew Ostrowsky, and sued Mulgrew. We vehemently defended Mulgrew and exposed Hochstadt. The Crack Team is not aware of what became of the suit, but with Joy leading the legal team, one can only assume...

 So now is another time we here will defend Mulgrew for remarks he made at the UFT Delegate Assembly last week as reported with a great deal of hyperbole in this past Friday's New York Post, "A Union Boss Confesses."

Now, we here at SBSB while having no qualms with taking advantage of recording those affiliated with the Dark Side of the DOE, we do have qualms with whomever recorded the DA and passed it along to Chalkbeat from whence the Post got it's story. We at SBSB do not care for airing our skeletons and dirty laundry to outsiders and emphatically chastise those that do. Tape a DA fine, don't give it to the Post or Chalkbeat. There are plenty of NYC education blogs to share recordings with and that is where it should have stayed.

Mulgrew was quoted as saying in referring to the edict, or rather the sword of Governor Andy holding $290 million over the DOE's head to put in place a new evaluation system that he was going to;

 “gum up the works”

Well good for him! Our only complaint is that we wish he said this (Maybe not in those words) publicly to the rank and file and all of planet Earth last year!




And what happened? See for yourself;

@SoBronxSchool @NYGovCuomo Puhleez. Blah, blah, blah Bloomy, Cuomo, Rhee. We only care about the $290 MILLION, UFT SABOTAGE COST OUR KIDS!
— NYC Parents Union (@NYCParentsUnion) May 9, 2014

I like Mona. I have met her and talked with her and find her passionate and smart. But this time I must disagree with her.

Mona seems to have a short memory and forgot how in 2011 Bloomberg proposed cutting $350 million from the DOE budget. Or how Bloomberg wished to cut monies for special ed students to attend private schools which are their right under federal law. Or how in September 2012 Bloomberg; 

....ordered the Education Department to cut 1.6% in the current year’s budget and 4% in the following year’s spending plan.

Where was Mona's outrage then? 

Mona shared that each school was out about $200k which could have gone to the arts, to music, to AIS. But those monies were gone already and we have too many principals ignoring student's IEP's and not giving the services that are mandated by federal law. Where's Mona's outrage?

Do we know if the $290 million that Governor Andy promised would have found its way into the classrooms or have gone to pay incompetent and corrupt vendor after vendor for curricula that is irreverent and impossible?

Mona needs to understand that Governor Andy has no true care for the students of NYC. He only cares for himself and his presidential aspirations. He wanted us to whore ourselves to him to make him look good, for him to be the savior of the boys and girls of color, so that he, and only he, can run in a few primaries and raise gobs of cash which he will wind up keeping. And chances are there is some too weird Oedipal thing happening with him as well.

Mona, The Crack Team has speculated, believes Coumo when he said he was the "children's lobbyist," but nothing could be further from the truth when he pulled out all the stops of a street walker and caved to Eva and her minions and signed a bill that will force the NYCDOE to pay for charter rent in outside buildings and not to charge rent inside DOE buildings.

The charters stand to get about $40 million a year from the DOE for rent payments. Is that not monies that can be spent on the arts, music, and AIS? Again, where is Mona's outrage? What about the other 97%???

Gideon Stein, Eva's little apologist, sycophant, and boy, put it best in a New York Times op-ed in March when he came up with a great idea on what to do with the rent monies paid by charters;

Rather than paying rent to the DOE’s general fund, payments should go to the school or schools with whom the public charter is co-located.

Great idea! Perhaps each school could have received $50k from a co-located charter school? I mean we're guessing here and of course it's safe to say the co-located charters would have been paying on a sliding scale, but that still would have been monies for school for music, art, and AIS. Right Mona? Again, where is the outrage?

Mike Mulgrew was right in what he said and how he said it, and proud that he did not run away from his comments and took ownership of them. We at SBSB wish for him to continue to make such comments but in public. Not only to the rank and file, but the press, the parents, the governor and all of mankind.