Teachers union spent millions on baseball, retreats and food

I recently posted an article slamming the misuse of teachers' dues monies by this president of the UFT, the very venal and amoral Michael Mulgrew: adulterer, liar, thief, and willing collaborator with the politicians out to harm teachers. I angrily noted the email sent out recently to teachers exhorting them to go on UFT-funded buses to a Washington, DC rally to rally for the rights of women, men, LGBT, dogs, and any other group they feel Trump is going to oppress.

Now today I see an article decrying this very same misuse of both teachers' dues monies AND the time/resources of the UFT. These resources, supported by teachers' dues monies are supposed to help teachers---NOT support BLM, protest deaths or arrests of petty criminals, NOT protest the election of a legally elected president, NOT be directed to ACORN or the Communist Bertha Lewis's Black Institute. I don't know how or who, but this man and the biggies in the UFT should be arrested and put on trial for redirecting teachers' dues monies toward their personal political causes instead of seeing to the needs of their hardworking members.

I know that this article will be edited due to the agreement between FR and the NY Post, but I wish to bring out that a couple dozen UFT biggies make north of $200,000/year---doing VERY LITTLE to help teachers. And they gave, without teachers' knowledge or permission, $207,977 to ACORN, NY Communities for Change, and $10,000 to the criminal commie Bertha Lewis's Black Institute.

Here are a few excerpts from posts in education blogs written by NYC teachers who are supposed to be protected by this union, to whom they pay $1300/year:

I have never experienced evil, vindictive, petty, lying control freaks like I've found in DOE administrators. In ten years I've had ten administrators (it's like a revolving door), and each new one was actually worse than the last. I survived and was only put under the flame thrower for one six month period, but it was so intense I felt my soul was burned. I saw many good people reduced to tears and panic attacks. A few were fired for absolutely no reason - just made up stuff because the admins didn't like them or wanted to look tough to their superintendents. At this point, I just keep my head low, only talk to a few trusted friends at work, rake in as much per session as possible, let myself be seen by the admins 'staying late,' and smile to everybody. Oh, and did I mention: everybody passes with no less than a 65, and most get above 85. I don't like it, but any staff members who try to 'hold them accountable' literally get a big, fat target on their backs and are made to suffer.

...My experience with admins, 8 so far in my 11 years in the DOE, is that all but one were horrible people. Mean, vindictive, unreasonable, unfair and just plain liars and dirty players...

Another teacher: ...It is so true. On my way home yesterday I was so stressed, I don't even remember driving home. I went right to bed for like 4 hours because I could even talk to anyone. By the way, if anyone could recommend a good psychiatrist who takes GHI please post a name and number....

Another teacher: ...I retired early with an age penalty. Too much stress. Second, i wanted to leave before I did or said something stupid. Its like working in a twilight zone dystopia where the system makes it seem there is something wrong with you. Some can thrive in such an environment just as in totalitarian regimes. Those who are honest and have self respect will quit, retire early, or work under mental stress...

Another teacher: ...Under the Danielson's (an evaluation system which was adopted a couple of years ago, which is used more as a weapon than an honest evaluation) tyranny, you are just NEVER GOOD ENOUGH for the small minded box circlers. That rubric is just awful. If they like you, they circle higher regardless of your lesson. If they don't like you, they circle lower, even if you hit every box. It's just so sad. And this 'surprise' observation stuff? Is that not the perfect way to promote PTSD or what? In what other profession do you get surprise ten minute pop-ins 4 times a year that determine your whole employment status?...

I can personally attest to every one of these teachers' statements, and worse. I retired after experiencing much of this same abuse which I told you about on FR. I was suffering from a couple of stress-related medical conditions and it was either retire or suffer from yet more stress and more medical problems. And just retiring wasn't enough to simply flick the "OFF" switch on the stress-related conditions immediately; I am still in the process of undoing the physical health damage done to me by the vindictive treatment I experienced in school. As a matter of fact, I just got out of the hospital last night, they thought I might have had a stroke.

The NYC Dept. of Education (DOE) HATES honest graders and teachers with integrity, as one of the teachers I quoted here attests. It's all fraud and politics now, administrators passing kids who should never pass, graduating kids who can barely read and write, to please their political masters. I view this as a blow to my beloved country from within, creating a subclass of illiterate non-critical-thinking-capable people without the skills to hold jobs. They will, by virtue of their sorry state, be amenable to any quick-talking recruiter from ACORN, ISIS, or other malign entities. At the very least, they will be dependent on the government teat for life, unable to contribute back to the society which paid to educate them. A redistribution of wealth will be their only recourse, whether it be from welfare---or crime.

So the teachers who are honestly trying to teach the way their subjects should be taught, to bring about the ability to analyze and calculate, etc. are being culled from the ranks and the teachers who use the right acronyms and fake their results are those remaining. This presents what I consider to be the seeds of a "clear and present danger" when the populace is not capable of critically evaluating information necessary for them to effectively participate in a democracy, but rather falls prey to charismatic recruiters for malignant entities.

Trump’s Labor Dept. needs to audit the s*** out of unions.

I view this as a blow to my beloved country from within, creating a subclass of illiterate non-critical-thinking-capable people without the skills to hold jobs. They will, by virtue of their sorry state, be amenable to any quick-talking recruiter from ACORN, ISIS, or other malign entities. At the very least, they will be dependent on the government teat for life, unable to contribute back to the society which paid to educate them. A redistribution of wealth will be their only recourse, whether it be from welfare---or crime.

We agree.

You expected us to fight fair?

It's all fraud ... administrators passing kids who should never pass, graduating kids who can barely read and write...creating a subclass of illiterate non-critical-thinking-capable people without the skills to hold jobs

Many years back I'd go thrift store shopping with a teacher who would buy blankets, pens, pencils, sweaters and jackets for her students (out of her own money). Her room was cold and many of her students were poor. On top of that various parents would participate in bake sales, car washes and other 'fund raising' efforts to get money for small school projects.

It was nuts.

You'd think the American school system was a poor charity in a third world country...rather than an educational system that spends MORE per pupil than any country on the face of the earth.

Burn it down.

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You’d think the American school system was a poor charity in a third world country...rather than an educational system that spends MORE per pupil than any country on the face of the earth.
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That is to presume said monies were spent ON the students’ education. No such thing will/can occur when going *through* govt.

Return it to the service based\pay-per-use it is. Rip out all property taxes and when mom\dad\guardian must write the check\mo, you’re damn tooting they’ll start caring about quality\poor attendance\expulsion\etc.

I am so very sorry. So sorry.

“Would you kindly” consider the possibility parents are in the system temporarily... and lack the power to make substantial changes in a closed system? Even teachers working within the beast have little chance of making changes...

The only choice so far that correlates with students actually doing better is SMALLER SCHOOLS. Smaller classes don't matter, most ‘programs’ don't matter - but small neighborhood schools work. Maybe in that environment parents have more power. Or administrators making bad decisions - - are more obvious.

All we know for sure is something in very wrong with what we're doing now.

Money Laundering that even makes the Mob jealous.