On Edwize, Leo Casey talks about the mayor's threats as a test of our character. Sadly, this mayor knows us already. He knows we supported mayoral control. He knows we declined to support his opponent in the last election. He knows we failed even to oppose the nomination of Joel Klein as US Education Secretary and that we accepted a known privatizer.
Mayor Bloomberg remembers 2005, when we accepted a compensation increase that failed to meet cost of living in exchange for the sun, the moon, and the stars. He knows we accepted a third "reorganization" that made it virtually impossible for displaced veteran teachers to find new jobs. He also knows we accept the figure of a 43% "raise" without accounting for the fact that the compensation increase entails a great deal more of our time, summer punishment days, and perpetual potty patrol.
Inspiring though it may be as a call to arms, Mr. Casey, part-time UFT President Randi Weingarten, and their enire patronage mill failed their test of character long ago, when they sold us out, when they forgot we'd earned what we had by accepting zero-percent increases, and when they tossed over twenty years of improvements out the window for less than cost of living.
They were tested again when they chose to spend over half a million dues dollars on lawyers negotiating the coming of Green Dot, a charter company that offers neither tenure nor seniority rights, to New York.
There's no need for further testing, Mr. Casey. You've failed us again and again, and after all this time you cannot even take a principled stand against mayoral control, an unmitigated disaster. Mayor Bloomberg is many things, but he's no fool.
He knows you very well.
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