Does Mulgrew really care about large class sizes, or does he just want more dues-paying union teachers?

By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

NEW YORK ? United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew decided to grandstand about the city?s public school class sizes this week as presidential hopeful Mitt Romney appeared for NBC?s Education Nation Summit.
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Mulgrew

Mulgrew ?complained to a small crowd outside New York City Museum School in Chelsea that ten more schools than last year are over the class size limit written into the UFT?s collective bargaining agreement, the Huffington Post reports.
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About 670 schools, up from 660 last year, have classrooms that are over the contractual capacity, and the number of special education classrooms that exceed the limit has increased from 118 last year to 270 this year, Mulgrew said. He cited a union survey that the city?s Department of Education deems inaccurate.
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While Mulgrew?s statements may or may not be true, his grandstanding was undoubtedly a deliberate attempt to counter the message presidential hopeful Mitt Romney delivered to the Education Nation summit across town the same day.
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?We know the answer as to what it takes to fix our schools, is to invest in great teachers. Teachers are the answer,? Romney said, dismissing class size as a major concern when it comes to quality education.
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The news site also highlighted a speech Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology late last year in which he said in an ideal world he would fire half of the city?s teachers and pay the remaining ones twice as much. Like Romney and numerous education experts, Bloomberg is convinced that the quality of a teacher is much more important than the number of students in the classroom.
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We certainly agree that teacher quality, not quantity is a key to improving education, but that?s a viewpoint that doesn?t jibe very well with the union agenda. The more public school teachers the city employs ? regardless of how well they teach ? the more the union receives in dues revenue. It?s really that simple, and it?s the biggest reason union bosses are constantly fighting to reduce the number of students in each class.
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Mulgrew?s comments are not only self-centered, they?re disingenuous.
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New York City spends tens of millions of dollars each year in salaries and benefits for teachers who school officials have deemed too dangerous or incompetent to teach students, but cannot fire because of provisions in the teachers union contThose teachers used to be corralled in ?rubber rooms? where they would sit idle all day, but were recently dispersed throughout the city?s public school system to do menial tasks.
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The union contract also stipulates the city must continue to pay teachers in the absent teacher reserve pool ? educators who have been laid off from schools closed by the Department of Education.
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DOE spokeswoman Erin Hughes told the Huffington Post that if Mulgrew was truly concerned about the impact of class size on students, ?he would accept our many proposals to stop paying those in the absent teacher reserve pool who are draining resources that could otherwise be used to put permanent, effective teachers in the classroom.?
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Of course, that would mean fewer dues paying members, and for Big Labor that would be totally unacceptable.

Posted on: September 30th, 2012 by Jason

Source: http://eagnews.org/does-mulgrew-really-care-about-large-class-sizes-or-does-he-just-want-more-dues-paying-union-teachers/

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