Top News Stories
Whistle-blower bill passes
Apr 26, 2007 11:45 AM
Marvin Reiskin, the UFT’s director of legislation/political action, and borough political action coordinators give a thumbs up for the legislative victory.
By a vote of 43-to-1, the City Council passed the UFT-supported “Whistle-blower Bill,” which is meant to encourage reporting of acts against students as well as to protect what it calls “educational whistle-blowers” from harassment and retaliation by school supervisors.
The bill, passed on April 12, would protect any city worker — not just teachers — who reports incidents or practices that might present “substantial and specific risk of harm to the health, safety or educational welfare of a child by another city officer or employee.”
UFT President Randi Weingarten hailed passage of the bill, which was one of the union’s major legislative priorities.
“We are gratified that the City Council recognized the importance of passing this bill to protect educators from being harassed, punished or fired for having the courage to speak up when they see conduct that hurts children,” Weingarten said.
The union president said that given the new high-stakes-test-driven school culture that will judge school mostly by test scores, the bill was needed now more than ever.
“Many principals will now be under tremendous pressure to make the statistics look good by cooking the books … cutting corners by providing mandated special education services, or fudging the numbers of safety incidents,” Weingarten said. “Enacting this pending legislation will guard against deeds that may protect the statistics but hurt children.
“This bill goes a long way toward ensuring integrity, transparency and checks and balances in the school system, and we hope the mayor will sign it into law as quickly as possible”
At a March 2, 2006, City Council hearing, Weingarten told legislators that it was crucial that public school educators “know that they can advocate on behalf of children and families without putting their careers at risk.”
The legislation must now be approved by the mayor to become law, but published reports have suggested the mayor will veto the measure. He has argued that it is overkill and redundant, something the UFT and its City Council sponsors adamantly deny.
If the mayor vetoes it, the Council would need to override the veto for the bill to become law.
“We were looking for a veto-proof majority to pass this resolution, a majority that showed the breadth of support for this staff protection bill,” UFT Legislative/Political Director Marvin Reiskin said. “The solid 43-1 vote shows we got it.”
If enacted, the bill would extend the city’s already existing whistle-blower protection, which limits itself more narrowly to covering city workers who report criminal activity, conflicts of interest, crimes or abuses of authority. For teachers, the new bill extends legal safeguards from retaliation to those reporting such misdeeds as doctoring test scores or failing to provide legally mandated services for special-needs kids.
