Can you guess which BTA members are under all of those layers of winter clothes?  

At Saturday's (very cold) food drive at the A & P, Glenn Stockton and I were joined by Jean and Joe Windels, Lynne Torrey, Mary Schenck, Mandy Gersten, Gene Orsenigo, Katie Brosnahan, Bob Devlin, Julia Brogan, and Kathy Marron as well as some students.  

Thanks to Glenn Stockton and Meg Weiss for the organization of this event.

Thanks to Catherine Gill, Maggie Eller, Arthur Arrieri, and Justine and Brian McClellan for stopping by while they were shopping to offer support and drop off some donations.  

Coming in March - our annual Food Drive luncheon in support of the Food Bank for Westchester, with a homemade meal prepared by chef (and BTA retiree) Tony Manganiello!

David Katz, Joyce Myers, and Christina Reidel helped raise more than $4000 for Hospice of Rockland shooting pool with our brothers and sisters.  We had a great time (and even sunk a couple of balls).  Luckily, we look better in our BTA shirts than we shoot pool!

NYSUT: Cuomo misrepresents reality of public education in NY

ALBANY, N.Y.  Jan. 21, 2015 — New York State United Teachers today released the following statement in reaction to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address and budget presentation:

NYSUT President Karen E. Magee said: “The governor is misinformed. New York has one of the strongest public education systems in the nation and a professional, highly dedicated teaching force. Gov. Cuomo should be celebrating that excellence. Instead, today we get intellectually hollow rhetoric that misrepresents the state of teaching and learning. Students, parents and teachers, who know better, aren’t buying this agenda, which everyone knows is driven by the governor’s billionaire hedge-fund friends. The truth is, there’s no epidemic of failing schools or bad teachers. There is an epidemic of poverty and under-funding that Albany has failed to adequately address for decades. Nearly 1 million New York schoolchildren — including more than one-third of African-American and Latino students — live in poverty. The state’s systemic failure to provide enough resources for all of its students and to do so equitably — while giving all teachers the tools and support they need — is the real crisis and the one our governor is trying to sweep under the rug.”

NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta said: “What comes out crystal clear is this governor is misguided about what teachers do, what our public schools do and what our students need. We again invite the governor to attend public forums in our schools. Instead of recycling tired rhetoric and relying on ideas from his billionaire contributors, we want him to listen to the aspirations of students who want to excel but don’t have art, music, foreign languages or guidance counselors. We want him to hear from parents who want a greater state and local investment in their public schools, so their sons and daughters can have a full range of services and aren’t crammed in classes of 30 or 35 with outdated textbooks. And, we want him to listen to the experts — educators and administrators who love their jobs and are dedicated to their students, know a greater focus on standardized testing is wrong and know that ‘opportunity’ is just a word unless it’s backed by enough funding that goes to the right places.

“The governor’s school-aid proposal and his funding agenda for public higher education — SUNY, CUNY and our community colleges — and public hospitals are starting points. Still, in the K-12 arena, the governor’s proposal falls short of the $2.2 billion that is needed to begin reversing years of neglect that hit the hardest in poor communities serving the neediest students. There is a lot of fine print in the budget proposal, and we will be studying it carefully and commenting in more detail in the coming days. As always, we look forward to working collaboratively with legislators in both houses and both political parties to ensure that every child gets the best possible public school education.”

Thursday, January 22 at Diamond Jim's in Nanuet  

The event is a fundraiser for the Rockland Hospice (it's a $20 donation per player in addition to the per-team donation that the BTA already sent).  
 
The event is sponsored by the Rockland County Teachers Association, Hudson Valley United and the NYSUT Tarrytown Regional Office.  NYSUT President Karen Magee and Vice-President Paul Pecorale will be attending.  


Members of the BTA will meet at Joyce Myers' house in New City for a practice round on her family's pool table (and, perhaps, some snacks and a drink) before the event.  

Please join us!

In opening legal arguments on Wednesday, NYSUT and UFT legal teams and city and state officials argued that the lawsuit against tenure in New York be dismissed before going to trial.

During the hearing, Richard Casagrande, NYSUT general counsel, accused the plaintiffs of trying to eliminate due process rights for teachers, noting that "due process is a basic, fundamental right."

NYSUT president Karen Magee attended the hearing, and told reporters that "tenure gives teachers the right to advocate for students." She added, "The whole premise behind the case is unfounded."

Each side was given a total of 50 minutes to present arguments. We now await the judge's decision.

Here is a collection of clips from the heavily covered hearing.

Urge your members to contact state legislators about the importance of tenure and why it matters. Share these NYSUT talking points.

New York State Allies for Public Education, a coalition of 50 groups, sent a letter to the governor responding to the offensive, outrageous education questions he circulated in December. Go to the MAC to support our coalition partners in NYSAPE, sending a message to Cuomo and Chancellor Tisch.

NYSUT launched a nearly $1 million ad campaign this week urging Gov. Cuomo to move beyond politics and ensure the state adequately and equitably funds its public schools.

The 30-second, documentary-style television ad features a narrator reading from a Jan. 5 New York Times editorial headlined, "The central crisis in New York education."

"Gov. Cuomo's forthcoming State of the State address is expected to focus on what can be done to improve public education," the narrator reads as quotes from the editorial appear on the screen. "If he is serious about the issue, he'll have to move beyond peripheral concerns and political score-settling ... and go to the heart of the matter ... that the state has not met its constitutional responsibility to ensure adequate school funding."

Here's the ad and here's NYSUT's announcement of the campaign launch.