Two of the questions I keep getting from teachers is "why didn't the union file an unfair labor practice?" and "how come the union never filed a lawsuit?"when the DOE implemented the"fair (unfair) student funding"formula that discriminates against senior teachers? The simple answer is that the union leadership didn't care that's why.
If the union had cared not only would they have filed an unfair labor practice with the NLRB and a PERB complaint with the State but would had taken the offensive against the Bloomberg/Klein/Walcott tyranny by going to the mass media by showing that their ideological policies were actually hurting the students.
For example, the union could have produced a commercial showing how important it is for students to have a "quality teacher" in the classroom and that many "quality teachers" find themselves without a classroom because the"fair (unfair) student funding" formula forces principals to hire the cheapest and not the best teachers. Study after study shows that a"quality teacher"is the most important part of a student's academic development in school. However, the consequences of the Bloomberg education policy and the reduction of school budgets by 14% in the last six years requires schools to look for the most inexpensive teachers rather than the "quality teachers" that are needed for students to succeed.
If your child needed surgery would you want an untested surgeon in her first year in practice to preform the operation or a veteran surgeon who has done thousands of the same type of operations? The answer is very obvious, the veteran surgeon! The same is true for your child's education as it takes an experienced teacher to get the maximum academic achievement out of them. We're sure you wouldn't want your child to be the educational "guinea pig" by getting an untested and inexperienced teacher who is subject to a"steep learning curve"instructing them.
The fact that our union remains strangely quiet and has taken no action against the DOE policy of dumping senior teachers into the ATR pool while encouraging principals to hire untested teachers because they are cheap speaks loudly that our union is part of the problem and not the solution to this discrimination against senior teachers and the ideological policy of Tweed that results in a "children last"program for the New York City Public Schools.