Staff Letter 3

FROM ARTHUR GOLDSTEIN, UFT CHAPTER LEADER
VOTE MORE/ NEW ACTION 2016

This is the best job there is, and I am determined to keep it that way. I am thrilled to see my students every day, and I want you to be too. That’s why I am running with MORE/ New Action for the UFT Executive Board

We are rated, like widgets, via a checklist. Charlotte Danielson, who wrote the checklist, no longer thinks it’s appropriate. We are rated by student test scores, which have little to no validity, according to both Diane Ravitch and the American Statistical Association.

It’s nice that we’re finally getting some of the money that was due us back in 2008 and 2009, but it’s outrageous that we have to wait until 2020 to finish receiving it.

If we win the high school seats, we will have at least 7 of the 90 seats on the board. That doesn’t sound like much, but I’m good at directing my voice. You can see it in the NY Daily News.

http://www.nydailynews.com/authors?author=Arthur-Goldstein

You can see it in Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arthur-goldstein/

You can see it in Chalkbeat NY.

http://www.chalkbeat.org/author/arthur-goldstein/

And you can read it almost every day at nyceducator.com, where I’ve been blogging for over ten years.

When Lewis was overcrowded to the point of bursting, I alerted the press. We were in the Times, the News and the Post. Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein had to answer us on network television.

If you elect me to represent you in UFT, I promise to bring issues real educators like you face each and every day before leadership. Unity has been in power over half a century. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it’s time for  the voices of Francis Lewis High School and schools across the city to be heard by leadership.

Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. By working to improve them, we work to improve the lot of our students and children.