MORE Misses Yet Another Easy Target

You know what is easy? Standing on a pitchers mound and having just get the ball to home plate 60 feet, 6 inches away. I'm 54 and a lefty. Dang I can do it! Heck, my son was able to do it at the age of 8!

MORE is turning into the Ba Ba Booey (Gary Dell'abate) of UFT caucuses by completely fucking something that easy up.

Instead of fighting for ATRs, work rules, working conditions, getting rid of the lawyers that permeate the DOE, fair student funding, teacher safety, teacher happiness, or any other of the myriad of other wants and needs we have going forward as we approach a new contract next year. MORE has decided to do the opposite. Or as one member has said...

"Dwindling health care benefits in exchange for a raise that will not help us meet the rate of inflation in NYC is a major problem for us."

This is the priority.


Yes, there are things I do not like. I do not like paying $50 to go to an urgent care center when the alternative is to see my GP when I have a cold or need to get in last minute. That is unless I go to Advantage Care Physicians which there is a $0 copay. The only issue I have is that there are 0 ACP offices in Westchester County. It does me no good.


I don't care for the $150 copay for the ER. Yes, I know it is waived if admitted, but not all ER visits necessitate being admitted.

I am not happy that first year teachers will have to spend their first year in HIP. But,most of these teachers will be young and healthy and do not need the care that the more mature teacher desires. Besides, I'm sure a goodly amount of the MORE people are young or living still on mommy and daddy's insurance 

I have no problem if my copays go up another $5. I really don't care. I have had a life without insurance. My right shoulder is a mess because I did not have insurance when I dislocated it. A dear friend of mine is dead because he did not have insurance.


What I do like is that I am paying $0 a month for GHI. That my wife has about $200k of hardware in her back, spent a week in Lenox Hill Hospital and two weeks in BurkeRehab Hospital and we only owe about $200.


I'm grateful for the hernia surgery I had last month was $0. I'm grateful that when my son broke his hand and needed surgery 5 years ago that the only cost was driving to NYU.

But again, another problem with MORE is they just can't or refuse to roll up the sleeves and see the world around them. In others words, REALITY. They think we have it bad.


Well The Crack Team did roll up it's sleeves and wishes to share a major dose of reality on the kiddies at MORE about health coverage across the country. These are true stories from real teachers.

I pay a little more than $450 a month for my daughter and me and ewe each have a $3000 deductible with a $5600 out of pocket maximum per year. We live in Idaho.

$1200/month for family coverage. $15 copay for doctor visits. In NJ, our healthcare contribution is based on our salaries so if you make more, you pay more for the same coverage. That jackass Christie came up with that. Prick. Can't live on my take home anymore.

For Chicago Public schools I pay about $18 a month for insurance, put in about $100 a month to an HSA w/ $600 contributed by CPS for the year, w/ a $2000 deductible. The insurance helps negotiate prices but basically doesn't pay anything until the deductible is met.

$350 a month premium, matched by the state (HI teacher), so $700 a month in premiums, $20 copay for everything, extra for lab work, TONS of other fees. They wanted $700 for an MRI that traumatized me to the core of my being and am refusing to pay.

I am paying $1400+ per month for coverage for a family of three. I would cheerfully choke someone out to pay $600 per month.

Albuquerque Public Schools, high option plan for family of 4 - approx $650/month, plus co-pays and percentage cost-sharing (which seem to get higher all the time!) $25-$40 co-pays for appts, $50 Urgent Care,  $150 ER, percentage of everything else.

I'm a public school teacher in the state of Rhode Island and I pay almost $400 a month for a single healthcare plan. I have different deductibles to meet for different things but just for regular doctors I have to meet $250 and then my co-pays Kickin, to go to a walk-in clinic it's now $100 and to see your primary care it's $25. I am ashamed that our state does this. Good for you and your school district not charging the teachers are ridiculous amount for health care. Best of luck on the rest of your school year.

In Michigan (law change in 2012) we now are required to pay 20% of the cost of premium.  A high deductible ($2700) with HSA account costs $270 a month for full family.  Same policy with coinsurance (%20 after deductible) costs $140 month for full family.  We formed a county consortium to pool policy members and help reduce the costs.  Before the consortium, we were paying $320 a month for the full family high deductible policy; which was our only option.

We do not use our district insurance because the premium is $1265 per month for our family of 4. Yes you read that right. Nevada has the worst insurance coverage in the nation for teachers.

$104 a month for the least expensive choice through my district, which includes my husband and two kids, dental and vision.  $7000 deductible, $10 doctor, $25 specialist, $52 urgent care, $75 ER (unless admitted, then there is no co-pay). 

It's time for MORE to stop sniffing its own farts and get a reality check not only concerning the rank and file but life as well. 

The ATR Wah Wah

I've been listening to a lot of George Harrison's solo work of late. I was a big McCartney/Wings fan back in
the day and never thought John Lennon had done much with his solo work. I bought Harrison's "Somewhere in England" back in 1981 because it contained the tribute song to John Lennon "All Those Years Ago."

But his song, "Wah Wah" from "All Things Must Pass" is really hitting home of late. For those who are unaware of this song...

...Harrison wrote the song following his temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969, during the troubled Get Back sessions that resulted in their Let It Be album and film. The lyrics reflect his frustration with the atmosphere in the group at that time... In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison explains that the song title was a reference to "a 'headache'

Yeah, I am having a special fucking ATR headache. And it ain't happening from the students. The illogic in the banality and inanity of this fucking ATR shit is giving me a damn wah wah!!!! But I refuse to cave. I refuse to not do what I have to do to get through each day, each week, each month, each school year.

We, all of us, ATRs have that ATR wah wah. Don't cave, don't give them what they want. Stay strong, you can do it!

Wah-wah
You've  They've given me a wah-wah
And I'm thinking of you me
And all the things that we I used to do
Wah-wah, wah-wah

Wah-wah
You made me such a big star an ATR
Being there at the right wrong time
Cheaper than a dime
Wah-wah, you've they've given me your my
Wah-wah, wah-wah

Oh, you don't won't  see me crying
Oh, you don't might hear me sighing

Wah-wah
I don't need no but I have a wah-wah
And I know how sweet life can be
If I keep myself free, wah-wah
I don't need no but I have a  wah-wah

Oh, you don't see me crying
Hey baby, you don't hear me sighing
Oh, no, no, no, no

Wah-wah
Now I don't need no wah-wahs
And I know how sweet life can be is
If I keep myself free in spite of wah-wah
I don't need no but still I have a wah-wah

Timmy the ATR Widget

Meet Timmy. Tim says hi. Timmy is an ATR. Tim has been an ATR for some time now.
Timmy always puts his best face forward when arriving to a new school and always bent over backwards for the school community. Timmy, while he doesn't love being an ATR, wants to do what's best for the kids. The students in the schools where Timmy has been have liked him.

Timmy has a masters degree in Educational Widgets. Timmy at one time had been a widget staff developer as well as a widget coordinator in his school. Timmy knows his widgets. Timmy has been to many a school where the widgets are not being integrated with the curriculum. Timmy's widget knowledge would, in theory, be beneficial to whatever school he is in.

Over the summer there was a posting for a widget staff developer working out of the Widget Department at Central. Timmy was excited. Timmy read the requirements and while he did not have some, he had most. This position would be perfect for Timmy.

Timmy wrote a great cover letter and spruced up his resumé. He emailed it in by the deadline. All Tim wanted was an interview. Nothing more or nothing less. Timmy didn't want anything handed to him.

Timmy knew getting the position would be a long shot. But Timmy was thinking. Central is already paying his salary. Wouldn't Central rather pay Tim's salary having Timmy contributing and doing something that would benefit the students if not all of mankind?

It's been almost a month, and Timmy hasn't heard back. Timmy doubts he will get the position let alone be interviewed. Timmy is stoic. Timmy will not give up on getting a permanent position.

Poor Timmy.

The UFT Hides While Teacher Aida Sehic Suffers Alone

Here we go again.

In yesterday's Post there is a story about an ATR, who escaped war in Bosnia only to walk into another one within the NYCDOE.

This, according to the Post, is some of what happened to Aida Sehic...

"...rampaging pupils broke her nose with a bag of metal rulers, stabbed her with a mechanical pencil, demanded sex acts, trashed her classroom and hurled epithets at her including “white bitch.’’

Of course, guess whose fault this was? The system? The DOE? The schools in which she taught? The administrators? The students? The students parents? Nah.

It was, of course, the teacher herself. Heck, Aida even tried to take the high road in attempting to appeal to one student's mother only to have the student retort back...

“...When my mother comes in tomorrow, she’ll deck you,”

Aida reached out to anyone and everyone she could. The DOE, NYPD, and the UFT. She got nowhere other than being brought up on 3020-a charges in 2016 for incompetence.

Isn't it possible, that the constant threat to one's physical well being, the constant fear for one's safety, just might have an affect on one's pedagogy?

Aida was excessed in 2011. She has been teaching since 1999. Three schools, IS 218 in the Bronx, MS 322 in Manhattan (School site and Inside Schools), IS 143 (Which was closed for poor performance according to Inside Schools) in the Bronx were the schools where she was abused.

Anyway, Aida was lucky. I guess. She kept her job. She was fined, $7,500. But she could have lost her life at any moment and left her two children without a mom. As one colleague shared with me who had been through something very similar to what Aida had been through...

"Wait until a teacher is killed. It's coming, people."

I don't think so. I hope not! But sadly, if it did happen, I would not be surprised.

But something is bothering me more. I am not upset at the lack of any action by the DOE or the NYPD.What I'm upset about and sadly not surprised at all is the lack of any action by the UFT. 

Why would the UFT ignore this teacher's desperate pleas for help? Where was an action team from the UFT when Aida needed one? Where were her chapter leaders? District leaders? 

This story was in in yesterday's Post. It was on the Post's website Tuesday night. Today is Thursday, September 13.Where is a statement, a communique, and email to the rank and file in support of Aida and calling for outrage against the DOE for the way her situation was handled? Something. Anything?

But I'm able to get a robocall last night at 7 PM from the UFT imploring me to vote for Cuomo and his crew. And then, guess what? I got another robocall this afternoon (As did many other teachers) again requesting that I sell my soul for Cuomo. WTF????

The UFT has time for this inane electioneering for Cuomo but doesn't have the inclination nor the time to have a teacher's back? What the F*** gives? If Aida were a cop, Patrick Lynch (as much as I think he is a turd) would be front and center having her back!!

But not our union. Not the union we no longer have to pay $100 a month to (even though I will).

Well, Aida has filed a federal lawsuit. Good for her. Even better, she has hired Bryan Glass as her attorney. She can't go wrong there. She is damn good hands. Get some fuck you money from the DOE.

We, each and every teacher, must fight back in a united method against the UFT.

Is MORE Becoming the Omega House of UFT Caucuses?

One of the reasons I chose to be on steering back in the halcyon days of MORE was I did
not think that MORE had done, nor was doing, enough to help teachers in who were having difficulty.

I thought, and others had as well, that MORE turned it's attention to too many of these irrelevant issues that just didn't affect teachers in any way. When it comes down to it teachers want bread and butter issues. They want to know when and if that next pay check is coming, will there be food on the table to feed my family, will I be able to put my kids through college. Will they have a job come September?

MORE showed no inclination to grab the real issues by the proverbial balls and lo and behold, this is why we are where we are now. Or why MORE was up in Ithaca trying to find itself.

The Crack Team has been pouring over the MORE retreat notes from their August retreat in Ithaca and many things (Which will be shared on these pages in the upcoming weeks) caught The Crack Team's eyes. One came from a session entitles, "Vision and Mission."

The question put forth to the standing room only crowd of 12 is...

...Role of a caucus in our union how do we imagine our caucus moving the union/acting within the union structure as a whole?  What should our approach to the Unity leadership be?

OK, fair enough. Good question or topic, or whatever it is called. So there was a good response from someone.

Some caucus have set up a grievance hotline – that’s effective – direct response to people. Sometimes you can help them directly, other times help them think about organizing on an issue.

Not bad. Very lucid and well thought out. Something like this is what I had been pushing for with MORE but sadly, they were disinterested. Kudos!

One response to the above caught our eyes here at SBSB.

The response is from Mike Stivers. He teaches at Millennium High School in Park Slope. For those that do not know about MHS in Park Slope, it is a ...

...a small, selective school with strong academics and a friendly vibe.

That's just super.

So Mike Stivers responded...

 MORE is not a consulting space. We can’t drop everything and help everyone who comes in

What are you talkin' about Willis Mike?

But Mike, that is real organizing. Rolling up your sleeves, getting your fingernails dirty, getting in the much and organizing and helping people. The very people you claim to want to help.

My 9th grade Algebra teacher Mr Tina would say when faced with an easy problem, "That's a piece of Entenmann's" or "It's a Twinkie." Both terms for "piece of cake." Millennium High School is an Entenmann's Cheese Danish Twist. Try some real organizing. Come to the South Bronx or try Boys and Girls High School. Leave Omega House and try Delta!

Can't drop everything? I have many a time when a teacher in need as contacted me. And I have a wife and a son. And Sparkles the Cat. Why can't you?