Jonathan Pelto is stunned. Despite Governor Malloy’s anti-teacher policies, the Connecticut Education Association endorsed him.
“NEWS FLASH: The only Democratic governor in the nation to propose doing away with teacher tenure for all teachers and repealing collective bargaining for teachers working in the poorest district has received the endorsement of the Connecticut Education Association’s Board of Directors.
“According to multiple sources, the CEA’s Board of Directors reversed the decision the CEA’s Political Action Committee, who had recommended that the state’s largest public employee union make no endorsement in the gubernatorial campaign.
“Considering Malloy’s recent and repeated pledge to “stay the course” on his education reform initiatives, one can only assume that Malloy’s political operatives must have made some “significant promises” since, on the key issues listed below, Malloy has refused to PUBLICLY change his anti-teacher, anti-public education stance.
“Why the American Federation of Teachers and Connecticut Education Association would endorse Malloy without demanding that he publicly retreat from his corporate education reform industry stance is breathtaking.
“For more than two and a half years, Wait, What? has been a platform for laying out and discussing Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy and his administration’s unprecedented attack on public education in Connecticut. Throughout that time Malloy has not made any real or meaningful changes to his policies. Instead, he has continued to undermining teachers and the teaching profession. His disdain for the most important profession in the world and the value of comprehensive public education has been absolute.
“The CEA’s endorsement means that the leadership of all of the major public employee unions in Connecticut have thrown their support behind the candidate who has pledged that he will not propose or accept any tax increase during this second term, despite the fact that Connecticut is facing a $4.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years.While Connecticut’s millionaires continue to celebrate the fact that they have been spared the need to “sacrifice” by being required to pay their fair share in taxes, Malloy’s policies will ensure massive increases in local property taxes for the middle class and widespread cuts in local education budgets.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Perhaps RW might offer a Robocall for Malloy. No need to hide behind a running mate since she has already openly endorsed him.
Tell us again what s great job Weingarten is doing representing teachers. Did she robocall for Molloy yet?
Unions love reformers. What part of this news is surprising Pelto? He knew he did not have union backing. The unions are seeking seats at the table and lack integrity.
This is exactly why mandatory union membership is so insidious. It is a sword that cuts both ways. I would be ready to have an aneurysm if any money from my paycheck went to that union.
No one is able to deny now that the NEA and AFT are enemies of working teachers. The same thing happened here in FL, with the FEA endorsing Charlie Crist because he vetoed 1 merit pay bill several years ago. His platform is straight from the Clinton/Obama rightwing of the Democratic party and he endorses the CCSS and Arne Duncan’s/Obama’s heinous policies.
We are told repeatedly that the only recourse we have now, as union members in a right to work state, is lobbying and voting in elections and even that is controlled by laws that prevent us from discussing politics in any form at the workplace and/or during work hours, effectively silencing us.
The national and state teacher’s unions have been captured by the Democratic party’s corporate wing and we have been sold out for their seat at the table.
It’s time for a new form of union. It’s time to take back our dues and use them to help us instead of enabling harm to us.
Well proud to say NCAE has endorsed pro-public Ed folks or none.
At least NC has that going for it.
This news makes me ill.
The teachers unions hierarchies have become collaborators of big business.
Happy to collect members dues and lead a tranquil work life in their plush offices, they are completely out of touch with the rank and file.
If there’s a hint of serious dissension amongst teachers or god forbid, the call for a strike vote, they go into action to quell the dissension and argue that the union has done good by the members and the current situation is the best they can hope for.
Honestly, they’re more of a threat to teachers than the ed reformers who openly proclaim they want the unions ended.
Perhaps the CEA leadership should read up on what is happening in York, Pennsylvania now where the school district is on the brink of becoming entirely privatized. NEA leadership and the public led recent protests against the plan of the district to hand over all its schools to one of two bidding charter companies.
http://educationvotes.nea.org/2014/09/24/pa-activists-rally-against-the-corporate-takeover-of-public-schools-in-york/?utm_source=EdVotes&utm_medium=email&utm_content=PA&utm_campaign=092714EdVotesEmail
This is the result of Tom Corbett/Dan Melloy style leadership. At least here the PSEA hasn’t endorsed Corbett and his anti-tax, anti-tenure, pro-charter policies, and we have a chance this election with Tom Wolf to enact tax law reforms which will reinstate fair funding to our schools.
20000 teaching positions have been lost in Pennsylvania in the last 4 years under Corbett. Class sizes in some of Philadelphia’s schools, including the prestigious Central High, are 45-50.
Time for the CEA to grow a spine.
There are some responses to this action. One is to cancel membership. Another is to get involved in the organization. It seems that membership in both NEA and AFT is declining. This story offers a reason why. My last experience in the public schools sent me the message that it was so important to have a seat at the table that compromising to the point of giving up previously negotiated contract provisions was acceptable. The following quote is attributed to Susan O’Hanian: “Screw the seat at the table. It’s time to kick over the table.” Time to act?
I suspect union leaders think the “inside game” is the only game they have. They don’t seem to believe in old fashion mass action or at least don’t think they can pull it off with our masses of apolitical, protest-squeamish teachers. They may fear that if they call for action from our members, the response will be weak and we’ll look like a paper tiger. The union seems to have a corporate Democrat sensibility –it scorns populism. I think this is a mistake. The union first needs to re-educate the masses of teachers. They are ignorant about what unions are, their history, etc. This will take years, but it needs to happen. Get some master teachers together with some master labor historians and some master video makers and crank out smart, effective DVDs to show on every union campus across America. Effective direct instruction about labor for underinformed teachers. Simultaneously, the union needs to pull off clever, strategic attention getting actions a la Occupy Wall Street –starting with dozens or hundreds of participants, but growing the numbers over the years. Feisty, spirited and creative events, not stale re-runs of boring old rallies where everyone stands around on the grass with badly-lettered, insipid signs listening to a string of speakers from twenty different groups spewing cliches. Show some imagination!
The unions lack the political muscle of the past and they know it. To not endorse Malloy would be to show how little power they still have and it would be the final blow to them. By playing this game, they can pretend that they are politically relevant. This Nutmegger plans on writing Jonathan Pelto’s name on the ballot in November.
Yes, but I think there are ways to reinvigorate this muscle. It demands imagination.
I was actively involved with Occupy Oakland which really moved me and convinced me that the People can reclaim their power. Though it fizzled in the end, for weeks it commanded the world’s attention and shifted discourse markedly left-wards. One thing that really impressed me about the protests was how JOYFUL they were. The tent city was imaginative and interesting and filled with soul. But the best part, in my view, were the impromptu marches through the streets. The mildly illegal act of flooding the streets with people was, to me, such a powerful and moving way of embodying the spirit of democracy –we the people were asserting our will without asking permission from the tycoons who controlled the office buildings towering above us. We were declaring that WE were the real rulers of this country –so audacious, no? And yet this is what democracy mean, right? The marches were festive. Live bands played. Floats with PA systems blasted recorded music and men with mics led call-and-response chants. The signage was verbally and visually creative. It was like a medieval bacchanal. Even if it had no political impact, it would have been worth doing! But it did have an impact, and it impacted our souls –re-moralizing us –this is not insignificant. In the end OO fizzled b/c of amorphous leadership and the destructive antics of angry young men dressed in black. The union, should it take up the mantle of Occupy, would have one big advantage over the ragtag team of Occupy organizers. The union is organized and hierarchical –there IS a leader, which is a strength. Should angry young men contaminate our peaceful and merry protests, a leader could condemn them and enlist the peaceful ones to help the police arrest them. Unions should study Occupy Oakland and other people power actions of the past, learn lessons from them, and then launch improved, inspired and inspiring new actions –not just for teachers, but for all citizens who feel impotent –as if our futures are dictated by forces beyond our control. No, we CAN have control.
“I am shocked, shocked that there is gaming going on in this union” — Casablankchecka
LOL!
It’s apparent the unions are not acting in the best interest of the members. Like Malloy & Pryor are not acting in the best interest of Connecticut’s communities, parents and kids and their education.
Maybe the teachers in CT should DECERTIFY their Government controled union?
There are a couple ways of do so.
http://1-888-no-union.com/decertification.html
Shooting themselves in the foot might be okay if that only injured themselves. RECALL THEM, DISOWN THEM, GET THEM OUT OF THE UNIONS. But DO SOMETHING/.
“Jonathan Pelto is stunned. Despite Governor Malloy’s anti-teacher policies, the Connecticut Esucation Association endorsed him.”
I think you misspelled “Esuckation” …
Think tanks want a seat at the union negotiations. They SAY teachers and their unions are ruling the roost and the public needs to know…but they KNOW it is not the unions nor the teacher in control, and they just want to stir the pot further. Think tanks, backed by the 1%, want more propaganda out there about the selfish teachers and the evil unions. They think if they say it, it will be the perception, even tho its all lies and benefits their pockets and the ideal of privatizing everything. Watch for it. Coming to New Jersey if the think tank here has its way. Watch your jobs, watch your pensions, because…they are coming for you.
Therlo,
It is already in New Jersey.
This story needs to read more carefully. The political action committees did not recommend the recommendation, but they were overruled by the executive boards. That means it’s time for teachers who disagree with the executive board endorsements to run for the board (or for state president) and unseat those who voted for the endorsement. The state conventions will be in the spring, so there’s time to organize.
There should be a “recall clause” in every union contract that if over 50 percent of the teachers who are union members vote “no confidence” in their “elected officials” that these officials must step down and have no say in the newly nominated then voted members who are elected. This news is a disgrace. I would be sickened if my union dues went to support my demise with support from the very people elected to represent me! Sickened! It is important to have unions so the idea of not joining one is not appealing nor should it be. BUT… this is HIDEOUS and will certainly lead teachers to refuse joining unions and understandably but regrettably so. Have the union “leader” idiots that backed Malloy considered the notion of “planned obsolescence” and how it might apply to them and their union jobs? Guessing they are being promised higher salaried future jobs by “ed reformers” for their role in this! Disgraceful!
Unions need to get together behind a third party… Either way you vote nowadays makes no difference… Both parties are doing what the money wants them to do and not listening to what voters are telling them the country needs…
Agreed. While Jonathan Pelto is running as a write-in candidate, we all understand that a vote for him is purely symbolic and will merely make a statement. Joe Visconti (http://www.viscontiforgovernor.com) was directly nominated to the ballot by over 10,000 petitioning voters. Joe is running unaffiliated and has been actively opposed to Common Core since before it was labeled Common Core. Joe is pro-teacher, and pro-labor, having been a union member himself.
Joe has been running a completely grass roots campaign with a large number of very active supporters, and has spent less than $20,000 of donors’ money. With that he managed to get 7% of the “vote” with only 11% name recognition in the Quinnipiac poll conducted Sept 3 – 8. That is 63% of the people who know of him said they would vote for him if the election were held that day. Compare that to Foley who had 46% of the vote with 75% name recognition (after spending $11 million on a failed campaign 4 years ago), that is 61% support. Malloy comes in at 40% of the vote with 95% name recognition for an abysmal 42% support.
The challenge Joe faces is name recognition. When people learn about him, almost 2/3 go for him. He had almost zero media coverage until the Q-poll was released. Since then, a few media outlets such as WFSB channel 3 have refused to even discuss his existence, and, because he is not spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money on television ads, all the commercial stations are excluding him from their debates. Only Connecticut Public Television has invited him to their debate on October 16 at 7:00 pm. Joe’s grass roots supporters are now launching major protests against this hijacking of democracy by the pay to play television stations. You can help, too, by writing letters to the editors, spreading the word on blogs and social media, and contacting the TV stations and sharing your opinion.
Joe also needs more volunteers and donations because we need to get his name recognition above 60% to win. Remember, in a 3-way race, the winner only needs as little as 34% of the vote. The state cannot afford 4 more years of Malloy, and I fear 4 years of Tom Foley will do us no good either. We have a clear alternative in a person who is not an entrenched establishment politician. Please learn more about Joe Visconti and save our children’s future.
Both NEA & AFT need to attend to this latest Clinton screed. In his usual both-sides-of- the-mouth rhetoric he proclaims New Orleans a grand success yet charters must be accountable. How so, Bill? The charter lobby & TFA are writing our federal education legislation. Nothing in this speech adds up.
m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5878084?utm_hp_ref=politics
Arne was the well planned farce Obama/Clinton played on teachers’ unions. If the NEA/AFT don’t stop pretending that Dems are our friends and make real demands in every election, public education will be a lost memory in 15 years.
“Darling-Hammond appointment was only a sop to a faction that would have no real influence,”
http://www.epi.org/publication/grading_the_education_reformers/
“The reformers’ arrogance is best on display when Brill gloats about the charade of appointing anti-reformer Linda Darling-Hammond to lead Obama’s official post-election education planning, while DFER, with funds from Eli Broad, wrote a secret memo for the “informal yet real education transition team.” Jon Schnur organized the effort and strove to calm his nervous fellow-reformers, assuring them that the Darling-Hammond appointment was only a sop to a faction that would have no real influence, while DFER’s secret memo set forth the Administration’s actual policy – including the naming of key Gates Foundation and Teach for America operatives for crucial administration policy posts, and calling for use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. It is disclosures like this that make Brill’s book something less than the unambiguous morality tale he aimed to present. Had the reformers been a little less sure of themselves, they might have less to answer for when their program, as it certainly must, eventually implodes”
I agree on the Clinton quote. It’s a measure of how bad Democrats now are on public education that this is taken as some kind of huge departure from Bush/Obama. We’re all supposed to be grateful because Bill Clinton admitted what’s obvious to everyone who actually has to live with this garbage: they aren’t regulating charter schools and they over-test students.
It’s exactly what Duncan says – “what works”, the fake-CEO tough guy talk on closing schools, a weak suggestion on reducing testing, palming everything that’s gone wrong with ed reform on “the states”. Duncan has done NOTHING to regulate charter schools. He has also done NOTHING to reduce testing. They’re only now paying attention to it because it’s a political problem for them.
They all sound the same. They all say exactly the same thing, they even use the same phrases, the same language. What’s funny is, if you actually live in one of the states where GOP governors have really harmed public schools, DC Democrats also sound EXACTLY like those governors. Kasich = Duncan = Walker = Clinton.
The next 15 years of ed reform will be exactly like the last 15 years. There is NO dissent, no real debate. They’re making minor tweaks in a market-based, commercial approach they ALL signed onto.
Brainstorm:
1. Protest outside a KIPP school dressed in white with posters showing cartons of cream (or apples and oranges). Lesson’s objective: teach the public there’s more to the story of no-excuses school success.
2. Have a protest at Walmart to highlight the Walton Foundation’s funding of charters. Or even better, do this protest at public radio/TV stations to protest their accepting Walton funds. Lesson objective: teach the public that Walmartizing the teaching profession is a real possibility.
3. Orchestrate simultaneous protests outside places associated with the billionaires –Broad, Gates, etc. Lesson objective: teach the public that the “big bad union” is under assault by the far bigger, badder Billionaire’s Boys Club.
4. Street theater outside Khan Academy HQ with live cellists, clarinetists, etc Lesson objective: teach the public that the privatizers dream of replacing live teachers with canned, on-line content.
5. Solicit fine and performing artists –perhaps some celebrities –to do some street theater/ music/ readings outside LA City Hall to protest the narrowing of curriculum brought on by NCLB and Common Core. Read aloud typical Common Core lesson plans to reveal how stultifying they are –how they’re no fuel for the next generation of performing artists.
6. The union might develop a Creative Protest Working Group with some artists (e.g. Burning Man veterans, street theater pros), teachers and staff people. Have free wheeling charettes, brainstorming sessions, then pick the most promising ones. Plan well in advance. Make the production values strong. Pre-select clever messages/verbiage and get it on well-made signs and scripts. All verbiage should converge to help make one bold point. High-quality handmade signs with lettering cut out of colored paper and pasted on make a bolder impact than factory-printed signs or signs with small and/or sloppy hard-to-read Magic Marker lettering. Recruit theater and art teacher union members to help form a hard-core of actors. Start small and get bigger. Success will inspire and attract more teachers willing to give up occasional Saturdays and evenings.
7. The union might consider a movement to redefine “dues”. Include action as part of dues. Tell members we need four actions per year from you in addition to cash dues. Actions could include GOTV help, participation in protests, sign making, letter writing. Site reps could keep records of what each member does.
Democratic and Republican politicians have a nice scam going on public schools, I must say.
The politician at the state level points to the federal government for all the problems with ed reform, and the politician at the federal level points to the states for all the problems with ed reform.
Ed reform cannot fail, it can only be failed, but only by someone other than the ed reformers.
Common Core for Republicans at the state level? Federal. They were “coerced”! A ridiculous number of standardized tests and unregulated charter schools for Democrats who are at the federal level? The States! It’s their fault.
They should look up the word “accountability” and apply it to themselves.
For years, the term “regulatory cognitive capture” has been used to describe the phenomena of financial regulators abdicating their responsibility because of, one, their cluelessness about what the banks were actually doing, and two, their fundamental acceptance of and deference to the premises under which the banks operated. Recent audio recordings made public by a Federal Reserve Bank of NY whistleblower, and played on NPR, (www.npr.org.2014/09/26/351520037/former-fed-bank-examiner-says-secret-tapes-show-fed-leniency) show the depths of that.
That regulatory capture of regulators, among other things, led directly to the financial panic of 2008, and will be central to the next panic, whenever it occurs.
I think we have seen something similar with the abdication of our unions. After all, aren’t unions and collective bargaining intended to restrict/regulate the otherwise unchecked power of management? That capture of the union leadership by the so-called reformers continues to be the case here in NYC and, as this post shows, Connecticut and elsewhere.
By the way, these are OUR UNIONS, not Weingarten’s, or Mulgrew’s or Eskelson Garcia’s union. Our unions. But if teachers passively accept the betrayals of a clueless leadership, then some of that responsibility is one their shoulders, and we shouldn’t be surprised when people like Michael Mulgrew treat the teachers they ostensibly represent with barely-disguised contempt.
The heads of the teacher’s unions, even granting the difficult macro circumstances they face, have repeatedly demonstrated that they have been cognitively captured by the so-called reformers.
Let’s free ourselves from their grip, while keeping the precious, vulnerable institution that is OUR UNION.
The Ohio Federation of Teachers remains on a list of Fordham Institute funders, along with oligarch foundations. An Ohio United Way organization put forth the effort to get its name removed from the Fordham list, thereby correcting the wrong impression of inferred endorsement. Makes a person wonder about the OFT.