Five months have passed since Carmen Farina assumed the role of Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education following 12 years of the sadistic reign of Michael R. Bloomberg. And while, unlike her three predecessors, Farina is indeed an educator, little at Tweed, other than the tone and rhetoric, has really changed. The institutions and the policies remain eerily similar to that of Walcott and Klein.
To wit: Tweed remains bulging with lawyers charged with advising principals how best to fire tenured teachers. The loathed and exorbitantly expensive networks are still running around pretending that they are actually working and actually know what they’re doing. Sociopathic principals are still ruining the careers of new teachers without a second thought, while the cases of hundreds of unfairly U rated or discontinued teachers remain wholly unexamined. The Leadership Academy continues to churn out new “business model” principals by the sackful.
And the newly ratified UFT contract goes near none of this.
In many ways, teachers are struggling through what can rightfully be called Bloomberg’s fourth term.
The first real volley to demand an end to the Reign of Bloomberg will be a rally to take place tomorrow on the steps of Tweed from 4:30 -5:00, organized by the newly created Don’t Tread on Educators. (http://dtoe.org/)
All those who can attend should attend. Nothing will change until we make it change and we have no one to depend on but ourselves.
Raginghorseblog 
June 11, 2014 at 5:39 pm
[…] Reading Horse A Rally to End the Fourth Term of Michael R. Bloomberg 4:30 at Tweed […]
June 11, 2014 at 11:27 am
Patrick, what makes you, or anyone else, think that Farina “runs” Tweed anymore than Dennis Wolcott ran Tweed under Bloomberg? None of this will change unless deBlasio wants it to change and he’s a little busy these days.
I know you didn’t set up the protest but it should be protesting deBlasio and not Farina. Yes, we’ve got to start somewhere so good luck but taking a loud, noisy crowd willing to do some non-violent CD on the steps of City Hall would make a damn better start than putting a 100 of the usual suspects on the steps of Tweed.
June 11, 2014 at 11:44 am
I hear you Harris and I am in agreement. I saw this as a good first step in the right direction and a hell of a lot better than silence. But I think you’re right. deBlasio should be the target and CD the method. Let us see what we can do in the near future.
June 9, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Just wanted to say it was nice meeting you and your wife at the ClassSIzeMatters Skinny Awards tonight! :)
Mary
June 10, 2014 at 6:11 am
And you, Mary, and you.