President's Perspective

If at first you don't succeed...: May 8, 2008

They say you can’t blame a guy for trying. But when it comes to contract negotiations, a deal is a deal.

Supporting school safety: April 24, 2008

Too many schools have grown lax about enforcing the discipline code and having up-to-date safety plans.

Tenure: Mine, yours and theirs: April 10, 2008

I made the decision to run because the threats (and the potential) nationally are move challenging even than here.

360-degree accountability: March 27, 2008

Accountability flows both ways — from the school to Tweed, and from Tweed back to the school. Both must fulfill their complementary responsibilities to ensure that students learn and achieve.

A simple message — but loud: March 13, 2008

Advocacy groups and elected officials have rallied around our Keep the Promises campaign.

New TV ad plants ‘seeds of knowledge’: Feb 28, 2008

A new television campaign sponsored by the UFT takes the broader view of what it takes to fully educate a child.

Keeping our promises to kids: Feb 14, 2008

Last April, when the state and city agreed to end 13 years of litigation in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit with a four-year pact to give city schools more than five billion additional dollars, I wasn’t naive enough to think our work had ended. Indeed, when some suggested that the group that brought the lawsuit close its doors, the UFT advised against it.

Facing the new challenges: Jan 31, 2008

In her semi-annual letter to members, UFT President Randi Weingarten says the challenges educators now face are coming from "both Tweed and from our worrisome economy."

Why we’re for Hillary: Jan 17, 2008

One need spend only a few seconds with her to see that her vintage line about making America better so that “everybody has the opportunity to live up to their God-given potential” is really her moral imperative.

City needs to show respect for educators: Dec 6, 2007

What do teachers need most of all? Respect and the support to do their jobs.

One step forward, two steps back: Nov 15, 2007

Accountability is important, but shouldn’t we be building upon and fixing the New York State and federal NCLB accountability systems rather than inventing a totally new one?

Welcome to the UFT: Nov 1, 2007

It is thrilling to see the UFT promoting in such a big way our core mission of organizing working people to collectively fight for a better life, not only for themselves but for the children of needy families they serve.

Turning negative to positive: Oct 18, 2007

We have shut the door on individual merit pay and we have paved the way for others to see working together as a team and respecting teacher voice as the keys to successful schooling.

Fixing NCLB — the right way: Oct 4, 2007

The proposal to mandate individual test-score-based performance pay has gained broad support from both sides of the aisle, despite a full-court press against it from the AFT and the NEA.

Mutual admiration society: Sept 20, 2007

Perhaps the old lawyer’s admonition, “Don’t ask a question whose answer you don’t already know,” slipped the mind of former U.S. Justice Department Attorney Joel Klein when he decided to survey parents, teachers and students about their views on our public schools.

Opportunities and challenges: Sept 6, 2007

Principals who don't yet understand will have to learn pretty quickly that they need you as partners if they want their schools to work.

A message from UFT President Randi Weingarten: Aug 9 2007

You are at the gateway of the most rewarding experience of your lives: becoming a teacher in a New York City public school.

Right makes might: Jun 7, 2007

Some years you are ready to pull your hair out. Then, once in awhile, while nothing is perfect, there’s a year like this one.

A marriage of missions: May 24, 2007

Whatever else I accomplish in my life, I think I will never be more proud than the day that Gov. Spitzer announced his executive order to give 60,000 home child-care providers in New York State the right to unionize.

Build it and they will come: May 10, 2007

We heard a lot of tough talk, true. And we faced some serious threats — to job security, to tenure, to our pensions and health benefits, to name a few. But in the end, we fought them all off, protecting tenure and job security and maintaining all our rights and benefits. And, to boot, we secured an early contract, bringing the increase in salaries in six years to 43 percent and breaking the $100,000 barrier. …

A voice for parents and teachers: Apr 26, 2007

When people are not paying attention, sometimes the only way to be heard is to raise your voice. It may not be considered good pedagogy, but it is an integral part of collective action, and the truth is, it often works.

The Dayenu budget: Apr 12, 2007

The basic foundation for a more equitable school funding system that meets the mandate of CFE has been laid.

Assessing teacher quality: Mar 29, 2007

One thing I have learned after years of advocacy work is that it’s very hard to change people’s belief systems.

Closing in on class size: Mar 1, 2007

Imagine your class or classes had five, six or even 10 fewer students. Or if you had 120 students a day instead of 170. Think of what you could do!

Is there any 'there' there?: Feb. 15, 2007

The plans revealed last month by Gov. Spitzer and Chancellor Klein reflect starkly different values and approaches.

Here we go again: Feb. 1, 2007

As I listened to the mayor’s announcement of yet another reorganization in his State of the City address, I started outlining the letter I hope many of you have received at home by now. We’ve reprinted it here.

A look ahead: Jan. 18, 2007

In a way, it’s a gift. No, not a holiday gift, but something far more precious: the gift of time — something educators know a thing or two about.

Back in the political arena: Dec 7, 2006

The latest — and hopefully last — court decision in the 13-year-old Campaign for Fiscal Equity case is one of those classic “Is the glass half empty or half full?” tests. The answer depends on your outlook.

Two windows, two wins: Nov 16, 2006

There used to be a weekly television program of that name. It stood for “This Was the Week That Was.” I thought of it when I sat down to write this column because this was surely a week worth savoring.

All in a day’s work: Nov 2, 2006

Several of the teachers who participated in the study were willing to publicly discuss the findings at an event sponsored by Common Good [See “Get out of the way!” ]. While their experiences led them to feel the same cynicism about the system — though fortunately not about teaching or about their students — that most teachers feel, like so many others, they had found ways of working around the obstacles their higher-ups put in their path. For one however, that meant leaving the system entirely, rather than betraying her belief that sometimes kids learn better when they are seated in rows, not clustered in groups.

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