Day One: The goal of Bloomberg to eliminate unions

Welcome to my blog. I'm starting this blog because I am deeply concerned that we are losing the foundations of our democracy.

Today's issue is Bloomberg's viscious attempt at eliminating the unions, the UFT in particular.

As a NYC educational employee, I fear that the jobs of my colleagues are in grave danger as our current mayor aims to eliminate not only tenure, but seniority.as well.. I've worked in this field over 20 years. I have 2 master's degrees.Like most of my colleagues, I am driven, smart, ambitious and very hard working. We've always been given subtle hints that our jobs could be eliminated.However, the fear has never been so palpable.Threatening older pedagogues (aka: employees that earn more $) by comparing them to younger pedagogues with the implication that the younger teachers are "better", "more innovative", "more creative", and "more dedicated" is deceitful, dishonest and destructive. Bloomberg is quite effectively using the divide and conquer method to pin pedagogue against pedagogue.Experience is much more valuable than a sound byte. There's no evidence supporting the premise that newer younger teachers/pedagogues are superior to more experienced, and yes, older, educational personnel. It's a lie. It's insulting. Personally, I was in the field for five years before I began to really become adept at my job.But here's the big  picture which is getting lost in the media hype. The truth is, Bloomie wants to save money. So he is promoting this media blitz in order to malign the older, more expensive teachers and to fool the public so that he can SAVE MONEY. The public is eager to be fooled, not because they are ignorant but because they are fearful of their own jobs and their incomes and their ever increasing expenses. So, like the dictator he has become, he is attempting to marshall the troops (aka: the citizens of New York City) by demonizing the experienced pedagogue.We cannot let this happen. Why hasn't the idea of  reforming tenure ever come up? Because it's not the issue, and never has been. The mayor wants to SAVE MONEY. Merit is b.s. I worked in a poorer socio economic neighborhood. My children scored poorly, but performed better as time went on. I transferred to a school in a higher socioeconomic neighborhood and voila, my children performed better than in my previous school. Did the quality of my instruction instantaneouly improve with a shorter commute? I think not. Merit can only be judged when it is based in context. That being said, the whole structure of merit pay is flawed.Most doctors became doctors to help save lives. Most educators became educators so that they could improve the lives of children through education. It was never about the money; we'd all make more money in the private sector.The benefits of belonging to a union, having a pension, and being rewarded based on seniority was the trade off for a lower salary.Please join in!! We''ll be at the rally at City Hall Park tomorrow morning at 11am.
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