PSC Resolution Helps to Spur Action in Albany
A NYSUT resolution sponsored by the PSC and our sister union at SUNY, United University Professions, has helped to create pressure on Albany to delay implementation of the Teachers Performance Assessment (edTPA), the controversial teacher certification exam adopted by the Regents and scheduled for immediate implementation. The edTPA resolution was passed at the NYSUT Delegate Assembly in New York City the weekend of April 6. Days later, legislation to set a moratorium on the start of edTPA began moving in the Assembly. Now Senator Ken LaValle, chair of the higher education committee is sponsoring an edTPA bill that’s a companion to the Assembly bill.
Stand Up for Future Teachers and Students
If you believe teacher training should be in the hands of education faculty, not for-profit testing corporations like Pearson, and that teacher certification should be more than mere test prep, please send this letter to your representatives in Albany. Please send it today! The Senate and the Assembly need a push to move legislation (A9207/S7001) to delay the implementation of the high-stakes teachers’ certification exam, edTPA. The bills establish a moratorium on the use of edTPA until July 2015 so there will be time to take a new look at teacher certification in New York State.
March for a New Contract on May Day—Thurs., May 1
Labor unions have joined forces with immigrants’ rights groups to organize a powerful, inclusive May Day event on Thursday, May 1. There is always good reason to celebrate grassroots labor action, but there is added urgency this year because of the 152 City contracts with public employee unions—including the PSC contract—that have still not been settled. This year’s march starts with a rally at City Hall. PSC members and allies will meet Thursday, May 1 at 4:30 p.m. at the southwest corner of Broadway and Chambers Street. Sign up here.
The march and rally will pay special attention to low-wage workers, many of whom have been courageously organizing at car-washes and fast-food outlets across the city. Shamefully, academia also has a large share of low-wage workers, especially adjuncts and other contingent employees. PSC is urging adjuncts and other low-wage academic workers from across the city and state to march with our union. Please invite your colleagues from other colleges, and welcome adjuncts and allies who march with us. Together with colleagues from UUP, our sister union at SUNY, the PSC is highlighting a national mobilization to lift the minimum payment for adjuncts teaching a course to $5,000—MayDay$5K. Come and show your support. Download the May Day $5K flier and the general May Day flier.
Purging CUNY Faculty: Lessons of the ‘40s and ‘50s
Marjorie Heins, author of Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge, will lead a forum at the PSC Union Hall (61 Broadway, 16th floor) the evening of Wed., Apr. 23. Frank Deale, professor of law at the CUNY Law School and former legal director at the Center of Constitutional Rights, will offer a commentary on Heins’s work focusing on the implications for CUNY today. The event is sponsored by the PSC Academic Freedom Committee. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for a brief reception with light refreshments. The presentations will begin at 6 p.m. (Learn more.)
Sign Up for CUNY at the Council – City Budget Advocacy Day—Wed., May 7
CUNY at the Council is scheduled for Wed., May 7. Sign up here. Meetings with City Council members will take place in the morning and early afternoon at 250 Broadway. CUNY students trained by NYPIRG will be there to lobby alongside you. (Learn more.)
Registration Deadline for NYC Universal pre-K—April 23
The PSC supported Mayor de Blasio’s hard-fought Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) campaign, which won $300 million in State funding for all-day universal pre-K in New York City. If you live in NYC and your child is turning four in 2014, you have to register immediately. The deadline is Wed., Apr. 23. Here’s the enrollment page, and the mayor’s announcement.
