That makes much more sense than converting PD days into attendance days. After all, it's of pivotal importance that we learn how bad it is for kids to be late, how we have to teach some special way, and how they've repackaged ten-year-old ideas that didn't work into new ideas that don't work. Perish forbid we should miss a moment of that. Better to strip hard-working teachers who've just lived through the worst catastrophe in their living memory of the break they're all looking forward to.
Why forge creative solutions when you can simply capitulate and do whatever Dennis Walcott golly goshdarn feels like?
Here's the thing--this is not about Children First. Not remotely. If it were, we'd have converted the PD days in a flash. It's about the money the state gives Mayor Bloombucks, ostensibly to run schools. If we don't show, he loses that money. Then, how will he finance the next ARIS? How will he pay for the next round of preposterously flawed Spanish pseudo-Regents exams?
And most importantly, where will he find the money to not give hard-working teachers a raise for the fifth year in a row?
We had to do this, because the law is the law. Unless it involves term limits. Or selecting an unqualified chancellor. Or fulfilling FOIL requests. Or negotiating in good faith with the UF of T. Or anything else Mayor Bloomberg doesn't feel like doing.
And the law apparently forbids thinking outside the box, seeking creative solutions, or using the COPE money teachers like me faithfully send in to enable such things.
I know. They did the best they could do.
Just like in 05.
It's time to either do things better, or find someone who can.
Related: ICE-UFT Blog
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