Duncan: We need to keep teachers working

It’s not your typical school day when U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (center) pays a visit. Duncan came to PS 214 in East New York, Brooklyn, a school that has gone from a C to an A in its School Progress Report through a winning combination of a collaborative principal (and former UFT member), an enriched curriculum and after-school offerings, and teamwork on the part of hard-working teachers and administrators. With Duncan are Principal Patricia Tubridy and UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan took the stage at PS 214’s auditorium in East New York on May 18 and made a push for the “Keep Our Educators Working Act” introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa. The bill would throw a one-year lifeline of $23 billion to schools across the country to fund state and local education jobs.

That money, said Duncan, would “keep children learning and classes from skyrocketing.”

The Harkin bill would prevent massive teacher layoffs, which current estimates put as high as 300,000 nationwide. The city Department of Education has threatened to lay off more than 4,000 teachers in New York City.

Without an influx of education dollars, Duncan said, valuable programs such as summer school, after-school, early childhood education, sports, music and the arts were in danger of elimination.

“That’s not good for education or our country. ...We need to keep teachers teaching and America working,” he said.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew, who visited the school with Duncan, stressed to reporters covering the event what is at stake for New York City public schools.

Chapter Leader Vicky Buccellato credits the school’s “amazing staff, junior teachers, senior teachers, everyone does what’s right for the children,” as part of her school’s recipe for success. “Everyone plays a role in the big picture,” she said. Buccellato has been at the school for 27 years.

“A school like this would be devastated if we get these cuts,” he said, referring to PS 214. “We’re going to do anything we can to get the Harkin bill passed — this is something we all need to get behind.”

Mulgrew called the lack of a state budget “one of the biggest dangers facing the city school system.”

During his visit to Brooklyn, the education secretary also visited a charter school and another district school. The visit, timed one week before the June 1 deadline for state Race to the Top applications, was portrayed in the tabloids as a final push to get New York to lift the cap on charter schools in the state.

Duncan himself was more even-handed on the subject. While clearly a supporter of charter schools, when questioned by reporters, he said, “There are phenomenal charter schools and phenomenal district schools.”

Of PS 214, he said, “This school is one that’s gotten better and better. And we need better schools throughout our country.”