Why I sometimes hate DTU, endorsement edition

First let me say I think DTU has done as well as humanly possible on economic issues, hands down, though I have been disappointed on how we have given in on the treatment of veteran teachers, especially when it has to do with surpluses.

Then as somebody who has been in trouble multiple times with the district I can say unequivocally the union has always been there and fought for me. I can't express in words how appreciative I am of them.

So with that out of the way I can't stress how disappointed I am that the union choose to co endorse businessman Nick Howland and former teacher Elizabeth Andersen.

The union co endorsing Howland and Andersen is like rooting for Florida and Georgia when they play, or wanting to vote for DeSantis and Gillum, it doesn't make any sense.

Howland has taken money from people who would drown the union in a bath tub given the chance while Andersen is a former teacher who was in our classrooms.

Howand is the candidate of charter schools and alternate teaching routes while Andersen is the candidate of teachers and public schools yet somehow they are the same?

Bull Sh^t!

I know what the union did and that's they hedged heir bet, which is a huge lack of leadership. Does DTU think Howand is ever going to support union positions? If so I have some swampland, prime real estate I would like to sell them cheap.

The union has sacrificed the moral high ground on the chance it might not alienate a future board member rather than go all in on the perfect candidate for the job and it makes me ill.

I am a union guy and will be one tomorrow too, but this is so disappointing.

At the end of the day if you care about public education there is only one candidate in district 2 and that's Elizabeth Andersen, how the union, or more accurately the small percentage of the union that does the endorsing didn't see that,  is beyond me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gary Chartrand in a new TU op ed wants you to think he cares about your kids, he doesn't.

Gary Chartrand a grocer by trade parlayed huge donations to Rick Scott into a spot on the state board of education despite the fact he had zero education experience and in an op ed to the Times Union he wants you to believe he cares about your children but the truth is he doesn't. He says that being in a good public school depends on the zip code you live in and nothing can be farther from the truth.  There are great public schools in every zip code even though there may be a difference in performance on state wide tests. The reason is poverty, something he has spent his life ignoring. Quite simply put, children as a group that live in neighborhoods mired in poverty don't do as well as children who don't. Chartrand would have you believe it is the schools fault ignoring the fact that here in Florida we invest very little in education when compared to other states. Chartrand says, if there is a school that is doing as well as he thinks it should, then parents should be allow...
Read more

When bad administrators get promoted up.

Vitti had a thing for former principal Alvin Brennan despite a long history of bullying his staffs. Vitti put him in charge of First Coast high an A school on the rise and Brennan mostly through massive staff defections dropped its performance in no time. There are at least three administrators that I know of working in the ivory tower that if a teacher would have performed as bad or as unethical as they did when they were principals they would have been out of a job but instead they were promoted down town. While they were principals they held the fate of many teachers in their hands, some had their carers cut short. This is why the following is so troubling. From the Sarasota Herald,   Members claim they were not informed about a state investigation into superintendent Cynthia Saunders When Cynthia Saunders became Manatee County Schools superintendent last June, the board that elected her was unaware she was under a state investigation for fraud. Her superior — and longtime frien...
Read more

With school board elections over, Jax says yes to educators and no to special interests, millionaires and privatizers

Three fearless women went up against the forces of privatization and the hundreds of thousands of dollars they funneled into the races and two of them won and one barely lost. If this isn't a repudiation of special interests attempting to buy control of our schools, people like businessman Gary Chartrand and organizations like Jax Biz, I don't know what is. In district 2 former teacher and current mental health counselor Elizabeth Andersen defeated Nick Holwland. Howland raised 77,519 dollars to Andersen's 13,360, (full disclosure 800 of that came from me, from My Scott Shine stash). Howland's six fold fund raising haul and all his business endorsements including Jax Biz who endorsed all three male candidates, didn't matter as Andersen won going away. 58.25-41.75. Charlotte Joyce's fundraising disadvantage was just as daunting as her opponent Dave Chauncey taking money hand over fist from charter school interests out raised Joyce by nearly 90 thousand dollars, 1...
Read more