This just in from Zephyr Teachout, the upstart who ran against Andrew Cuomo as a total unknown with no money yet won 1/3 of the vote, sweeping many upstate counties. She played David to his Goliath and stunned the media. Cuomo refused to meet her, shake her hand, or acknowledge her when she ran against him.
Right now, as public education is under attack in Albany, I have an idea about what we can do: recruit teachers to run for public office at every level.
I’m doing an 18-day, 17-event tour to find candidates and talk about how we can wake up some sleeping politicians in New York politics. (Event list below).
Public education is the heart and soul of democracy. I’d love it if teachers could stay in the classroom, but they may need to bring some lesson plans into the broader public.
For this tour, I’m collaborating with the Working Families Party and NYSUT on their project to build a pipeline of great candidates.
We want to build a pipeline of power and joy to take on Pearson and the privatizers.
We can also get a message to lawmakers right now. This year Governor Cuomo and the Republican Senate went on an all-out attack on public schools. As I write this, they are trying to pass a tax giveaway to wealthy New Yorkers clothed as “Parental Choice.” We want to be ready with a slate of pro-education, anti-corruption candidates so if lawmakers feel like joining the giveaway, they realize they might get a challenger!
Also, if we’re going to get more women to run for office (which we desperately need in New York), we should target professions where women are heavily represented.
I’m starting today in Syracuse, and then traveling to Auburn, Woodbury, Kingston, Elmira, Warwick, Ithaca and the Rockaways, among other places. (Yes, Greenwich Connecticut is on there–I’m interviewing Pussy Riot, extraordinarily courageous political women).
The final event is a great honor, and focused on the central role of labor in democracy. I’m the keynote speaker at the North Country Salute to Labor on June 18th in Altona—prior keynotes have included Attorneys General Spitzer and Schneiderman, Senators Gillibrand, Clinton, Schumer, and Comptroller DeNapoli.
Lets flood the future of new york politics with hope and hard work!
Zephyr Teachout
Events
1. June 2nd, 5 PM – Why Educators Should Run, Syracuse
Syracuse Regional Office 4983 Brittonfield Parkway, East Syracuse
With: Mayor Stephanie Miner, Common Council Member Pamela Hunter, Jesse Lenney, moderated by Ian Phillips. Organized by NYSUT and WFP.
2. June 2nd, 7:30 PM- Cayuga Democratic Women
Auburn Public Theater, 8 Exchange St, Auburn, NY 13021
3. June 4th, 7 PM, Manhattan Young Democrats, Engendering Progress Awards
Goldbar, 389 Broome Street
4. June 5, 1 PM, Pro-Internet and I Vote: How Can the Net Build Political Power in 2016?
Personal Democracy Forum
Kimmel Center
With: David Segal, Jesse Tolkan, Craig Aaron
5. June 5th, 4:30 PM, The Politics of Joy, Personal Democracy Forum, Manhattan
Closing Keynote, Skirball Center, NYU
6. June 7th, 12 PM, Conversation with Pussy Riot
Moderating a Discussion with internationally renowned political activists, Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokonnikova and Maria (Masha) Alekhina
Greenwich International Film Festival
1:30pm, BowTie Cinema, Greenwich, CT
7. June 8th, 6pm – Why She Ran, Kingston
Kingston Public Library, 55 Franklin Street Kingston 12401
With: Jen Metzger, Nina Dawson. Organized by WFP.
8. June 9th, 6:30pm – Why Educators Should Run, Woodbury
Nassau NYSUT Regional Office – 1000 Woodbury Road, Suite 214 Woodbury
With: Emily Abbott, moderated by Jeff Friedman
9. June 10th, 6:30pm – Why Educators Should Run, Hauppague
Suffolk Regional Office – 150 Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, Suite 306 Hauppague
10. June 13th, 12pm – Why Educators Should Run, Elmira
NYSUT office, 100 West Church Street. Suite 200
11-12. June 13th, 4pm – Tompkins County Democratic Committee Issues Committee Forum on Corruption, and Tompkins County Democratic Committee Spring Wine and Cheese Reception
4 PM: Focus on Corruption, Ithaca Town Hall
6 PM: Reception Remarks, DeWitt Auditorium
13. June 14th, 1PM – Warwick Democratic Committee
Keynote Speaker
Landmark Inn, 526 NY-94, Warwick
14. June 15th, 6:30 PM – Lennox Hill Democrats
LHDC Annual Reception
6 East 44th Street
15. June 16th, 6 PM — Rockaway Wildfire
Organizing meeting
Location TBD
16. June 17th, 5pm – Why Educators Should Run, Albany
NYSUT HQ Auditorium, 800 Troy Schenectady Road, Latham
With: Phil Leber, moderated by Randy Gunther
17. June 18th, North Country Salute to Labor
5:30 PM
Keynote Speaker
Rainbow Wedding and Banquet Hall
47 Woods Falls Road
Altona, NY 12910
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Conversation with Pussy Riot on the agenda? I suspect that they are funded by a neocon non profit. Remind me why they matter.
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We in LA had 5 real teachers on our LAUSD BoE….for all the good it did us…and now we have 5 and an owner of 16 charter schools who bribed and lied to get elected, and his soulmate who helped him. We shall see how that works. Be careful what you wish for Zephyr.
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Yes, one of the founders of the group was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA front group that provides money to NGOs and others who are seen as having the potential to help undermine governments not sufficiently receptive to US interests.
I love the group’s name, even if it suggests their childish and easily-manipulated politics, and I’m an admirer of Zephyr Teachout, but am disappointed to see her involved with another group that seeks to bring about a bogus “color revolution” in Russia.
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Maybe Zephyr does not know everything about every group she associates with?
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She should know, if we know. She needs to get rid of her “handlers”
Glorifying some egotistical bitches who have to invade and desecrate a church to get attention in Russia, these are friends of Hillary the Impaler and her foreign policy.
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I could see NC legislators trying to make it a law that if you’ve been a teacher you cannot run for office. They already made a bill that would restructure our state board of ed such that if you have been a teacher or are married to a teacher you cannot serve on the state board of ed; but I don’t think the bill has gotten anywhere.
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They’re ridiculous. As disgusted as the public is with the revolving door, self-enriching, ethics-free corruption-riddled government they decided the big ethics threat was the “conflict” posed by teachers serving on state boards of ed?
Do they really want to open this “conflict” can of worms? They’re all going to lose in that fight.
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Yes, but if you worked for the FDA, you can become a lobbyist for a pharmaceutical corporation.
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And if you are Denny Hastert and you jump right from the Congress of the US to being a lobbyist (illegal on the face of it) and make multi millions FAST…only to pay it to a fink for hush money, what good does it do you?
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Pitchforks and torches, Ellen!
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This is a great idea except most teachers couldn’t care less about politics or being any sort of activist.
Most prefer to live in a cave until THEIR interests are affected. They couldn’t be bothered that their colleagues are being abused at the hands of an abusive administrator or that children are being deprived of a quality education. This is definitely true at the elementary level.
Teachers can’t even organize themselves, you expect them to organize people to vote for them? Laughable.
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I can see where you are coming from. As a beginning teacher, especially one having to go to school at night as well as raise a family (and often as a single parent) your need to be politically involved is not the first thing on your agenda.
But even in LaLa land there are a fair number who have been active and continue to be. And some have been active in supporting charter and voucher movements, not realizing the long-run effects of using public money for what are often private enterprises. They really do not see that the way everything is set up that they are putting themselves out of work, that their retirement is under attack, and that even the union-affiliated, district-authorized charters can come under attack for low scores.
Many of these younger teachers in their 30’s and 40’s are excellent teachers, but they can be replaced by even younger, hipper teachers. In Ca it just depends on the governor of moment.
More experienced teachers, who are a threat to the current status quo, are seen as protecting their tenure by the younger, hipper teachers (just as the press wants) not for their wisdom.
There are also younger teachers who see the handwriting on the wall and who elected an activist Union leader. So we will see.
Having taught for 44 years a variety of language arts classes at various grade levels in a wide range of communities, I found that teachers reflected their areas of expertise. Elementary teachers would allow the principal to keep them beyond contract time for staff meetings, the middle school teachers would remind the principal of the time and become restless and disruptive, and the high school teachers would get up and walk out. English teachers were rabble rousers, math teachers conformists, and history teachers ran for office. Science teachers are from Missouri.
So Diane should seek out high school history teachers for candidates and English teachers to run the campaigns. And if she can find a math teacher to do their bidding, to provide the education parents/voters need about testing, statistics, and flaws with VAM. The science teachers should dig up the accurate research. Voila!
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P. S. Diane, given your agenda, it seems you have the stamina to run yourself!
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You’re right.
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The NYS Assembly is already controlled by the teachers Union and look at the leader ship that they provide on education and the issue with Common Core, it is only for teachers, not children or education.
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That is a patently silly comment.
If NYSUT actually “controlled” the NYS Assembly, it is doubtful the budget bill would have passed with the changes to the APPR law.
They wouldn’t have allowed outside observers to count more that twice as much as the principal’s observations. They wouldn’t have allowed BS tests to count for 50% of the teachers score. They wouldn’t have allowed more nonsensical VAM into the system.
NYS teachers wish they controled the Assembly, but alas, they do not.
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Shelly Silver was not there, the new tool may be just getting up to speed. It is really hard to know what the Union wants, by what it says, when they love the new Commissioner and “fought for her” and support Common Core.
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Not sure that a “good” teacher would give up a union job. Those teachers who go into politics are either retired or not suited to be a teacher and look to leave.
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Do not disrespect teachers on here, Joseph. And teachers did not want Common Core, either. And NO current teachers helped write the Common Core. Go do your teacher hating somewhere else.
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Teaching is considered by some a call to public service. Certainly many teachers choose their profession with that in mind.
The ability to communicate, to articulate ideas and facts seem vital to politics as well as teaching. None of that has anything to do with union membership. If that were the case, there would be no union members in politics, and that simply isn’t the case.
I think that many teachers are ideally suited to politics, especially the good ones. Whether they want to climb into that pool or not is the question.
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I like her just for putting corruption in government front and center. That was a real public service.
“In a rare show of unity, Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, agree that money has too much influence on elections, the wealthy have more influence on elections, and candidates who win office promote policies that help their donors.”
Politicians can continue to ignore it but is the overwhelming consensus of their constituents. At some point they have to address it. 66% of people polled say they serve the wealthy. 66%! Both Parties.
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teachers are trained and conditioned and hired for their lack of political ambitions and willingness not to rock the boat. they are even unaware of their own conditioning, as are the children.
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You, sir, are a jerk. Many of us are VERY politically active. Two different teachers and one retired teacher are in the 104 member legislature in my state. Many of us go to rallies, contact legislators, etc. Your ad hominem attacks simply show that you are this week’s privatizer-paid troll.
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Either that or school’s out and kids are moving off of snap chat and onto this blog.
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An educated and balanced teacher would not use that language and would not be suitable for politics, case in point Do you say that to your students too? A self examined life is not worth living (Socrates). confronting one’s conditioning is not easy, but necessary. There are exceptions to teachers, but as a rule, there is much work to be done. Their conditioning has only increased since NCLB.
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Seriously? Did you just come down off of Mt. Sinai? People aren’t perfect, Joseph. And calling us conditioned (read: stupid) is not nice, either. I’m glad it didn’t make bigblackdog angry, but it does me. I’m a social studies teacher. By nature, we tend to be nonconformist and VERY aware.
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Joseph, I don’t know why the responses to your post are so aggressive. I think maybe the words struck a resonant subconscious chord of truth that your critics are afraid to confront. I don’t feel personally under attack by your words. (I am a teacher.) I agree whole-heatedly. In fact if you follow the US system of promotion in education, you will see that the ones promoted to positions of increasing responsibility often are the least suitable for those positions and best suited to follow without questioning the mandates from above. (Not a fan of Japan – but if look at their system of promotion in education you will see lengthy round table discussions intended to identify the most knowledgeable in the field by a consensus of education professionals.) As for the kids, sure seems like we are turning out vast number of non-thinkers (sorry kids). These future Walmart employees will be perfect fodder for our democracy-plutocracy. As crazy as Hitler was, he understood the importance of controlling education. Without sounding extreme, I just can’t help see parallels here. The US is changing dramatically in front of our eyes and we are for the most part sheep.
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Diane, this is what I think. I look at you and I see the most inspiring person in education I have ever met, you and Sydney Clemons. But why? It is all Chuck Melchert’s fault for teaching me about the theories of education: public, private, or church. It is all the same. He was my professor at Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va. I loved his and Sara Little and Don Griggs’ classes. I really want to work on Bernie Sander’s campaign because I truly believe he would be a great president! Can you imagine a country run by teachers instead of lawyers?
Off to read……..
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I’m with you! Or at least 50% them and 50% us . . . .
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I second everything!!!!
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teachers are and always have been political that’s why they are a target.
Educators are political and intelligent so get rid of civics, social studies and history, substitute mindlessness and an entire generation has no idea who to vote for, what the issues are or how what is happening in government is impacting their lives.
Just focus on getting higher and higher test scores, insanity doesn’t bode well for the future if this pedagogy or miseducation continues while so many needs go unmet
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I respectfully disagree with you.
Most teachers are barely political animals. Their unions high up at the top are political and some representatives at the lower levels are political in local ways, but in general teachers are, like most other Americans, sheeple.
Had we teachers generally been political by reading up on this reform since “A Nation at Risk”, there would have been much more robust collective action in the last twenty years with the vast majority of teachers joining in and possible reinventing their corrupt unions.
Teachers nationwide should have been striking over NCLB big time and certainly Race to the Top.
We are not the French . . . . . or the Spaniards. We could well afford to be.
Of course, now teachers are starting to get in touch with their inner Cesar Chavez, and while I don’t think it’s too late, the delay will make the struggle to win this much harder and more complex.
Still the fight is not over.
We’ve only just begun . . . .
Bring it on, baby . . . .
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Robert,
This is the best writing I have seen from you. I can almost agree. Keep it up.
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And you can almost agree because?
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In high school I had two very active history teachers. One was an ultra conservative and the other was one of the few Democrats in our conservative Republican community. The ultra conservative took a group of her like-minded students to the five year meeting of Quakers to debate war and peace issues. The Democrat ran for and became mayor. They would have students in their classes raise issues in the other teacher’s class. (I think they planned it.) I feel sorry for Joseph that he missed such experiences. Maybe he is a student stuck in Common Core pacing, which was not developed by teachers. That it was is only the P. R.
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Indeed I had such a history teacher in school that taught me to challenge authority. These teachers are a real minority. We need to go from the specific to the general. Nice to hear about one field trip, I used to take my students to the original Quaker Meeting House in Flushing, the oldest home in NY State, where John Bowne lived and was arrested by Peter Stuyvesant, an anecdote will not prove the overriding conditioning of teachers.
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In my experience, politically aware and active teachers are the exception, not the rule.
If that were not the case, so-called reformers would not treat us as the scapegoats and punching bags they do, and our union misleaders would not have been allowed by the membership to collaborate with our enemies. So far, very few elected officials have paid any price for their attacks on us and public education.
That stands as pretty powerful proof for Joseph’s point.
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In New York State, I’d like to run for Assemblyman or State Senator or the Governorship. I am Nationally Board Certified, and administrative intern, and have taught low income children for 22 years.
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Cx:
. . . . an administrative intern . . . .
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In Alabama teachers cannot run for the state legislature. They passed a law to ban educators from public service.
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Wha??? Wow. I hope that’s being challenged in courts (and that the challenge wins).
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Do you have a link to that statute?
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Remember Hillary Clinton is no friend to PUBLIC EDUCATION. If Hillary wants to join our band and leave the CORPORATISTS camp great but we can’t let ourselves be fooled by another wolf in sheep’s clothing like Cuomo.
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So agree with your Hillary Clinton statement, peacebwu. Again–could we please hear from some Arkansas teachers who were active around the time when Bill was guv, & Hill attacked the ATU? (Why so silent? I’ve asked so many times for some response on this blog, & there’s been none.) Again, to verify, read Carl Bernstein’s 2007 book, A Woman in Charge.
That having been said, you are correct, Zephyr. And, in Mike & Fred Klonsky’s blogs, it came up that Karen Lewis suggested to Troy LaRavierre (sp.-?), that brave, outspoken, 100%-for-kids-teachers-parents-public-schools CPS principal–run for mayor. An outstanding idea, & start the campaign now!
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Jews leading up to the HOLOCAUST knew their religious culture had been the target of persecution in the past many many times and they hoped that the wave of persecution would end quickly if they followed the rules until the pendulum swung in a progressive and tolerant direction. Jewish effort to comply so as to not exacerbate the situation ended up making them ALMOST complicit in their own destruction. Hell the Nazis had Jews digging their own graves, building the showers of death and crematoriums. What are those lessons…speak up, speak up early and often before the structure is built that removes your voice, your power.
Teachers don’t dare speak up and make it worse for yourselves you have always been scapegoats and regarded as a profession that it is easy to scapegoat. Political football if you will. First rule is make people think of your target group as other and provide the “others” no room for defense because any defense is perceived as a self serving lie.
Teachers are complicit in the destruction of effective, meaningful public education. They dig their own graves by not speaking up early, often and loudly. Teachers are scared hoping if we just do as “They” say we will be alright until the pendulum swings back to a more progressive position but what will be killed by then and who will have taken advantage at the expense of educating children and supporting democracy and greedily emptied the public coffers. Unfortunately SOME of these profiteers will be teachers, administrators and union leaders.
“My life is my message” Gandhi
What’s yours?
🕛🕐🕑🕒🕓🕔🕕🕖🕗🕘🕙🕚🕛🕐🕑🕒🕓🕔
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
🕛🕐🕑🕒🕓🕔🕕🕖🕗🕘🕙🕚🕛🕐🕑🕒🕓
Frederick Douglass
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
Frederick Douglass
Sent from my iPhone
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I agree with Zephyr. I asked our members to develop relationships with their legislators, but it wasn’t enough. I’m happy to say, one of our sisters is now an alderman.
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