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message from the President - Brian Mroczek
Our profession has been under attack for years. It’s been an easy target for anyone irritated with taxes, confused about the meaning of tenure, or simply those who have a grudge against unions. Throw in insurance and a retirement system and the daggers often come out. Recently, attacks have come from a more powerful voice, Governor Andrew Cuomo. It seems he has made attacking teachers his primary focus. The disturbing part is that his attacks are not directed at our profession, they are directed at us, personally. During his recent State of the State speech, Cuomo claims the APPR system agreed upon only three years ago is “baloney.” He states that while roughly a third of the students tested were found to be “proficient”, only 1% of teachers were scored “ineffective.” His blame is directed squarely at teachers and principals. No longer does he think the 60/20/20 system negotiated is fair. Cuomo is demanding a change in the system…50% from state testing and 50% from observations. Ask yourself how many points out of 20 did you get from your state test last year? It gets worse. Of the observation portion, 35% of that will come from an “independent observer” chosen by the State and 15% will come from sitting principals. It appears obvious that he is calling both teachers and in house principals corrupt…interesting suggestion coming from someone in Albany. It gets even worse. If his demands are not met, he will essentially freeze state aid to schools at last year’s numbers. He is even withholding the aid numbers from districts until changes are made. School districts must conduct their budget runs using last year’s state aid amounts. Cuomo also mentioned tenure in his speech. He is pushing to extend the probationary period from 3 years to 5 years. Merit pay, raising the cap on charter schools, and closure of underperformed schools were also addressed. However, Cuomo failed to speak on the GEA, one of the biggest obstacles for districts to overcome. And, shocking to me, at no time did he mention anything positive taking place in our schools! I can recall being told “when you’re going to critique someone, you should start with something positive.” Apparently, the governor was absent that day. It has been suggested in the past that you become involved. It is now imperative that you do so; you are being attacked like never before. If you do not stand now, teaching will become a job instead of a passion. Community Forums and social media sites are listed below to help us com-bat Governor Cuomo. Do yourself, your profession, and especially your kids a service and get active! |
| allkidsneed_1.pdf |
| foc_planning_summary_2-4-15.pdf |
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