CITYWIDE

UNIONS COMPLAIN ABOUT EDUCATION POLICIES

The leaders of the city’s teachers and principals unions blasted the Department of Education yesterday for failing to listen to teachers, principals, and parents, as the department defended its record of reform. The president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, told a panel led by Manhattan’s borough president, C. Virginia Fields, that a new survey of 9,000 teachers union members found that 63.6% of teachers reported they received less support from the bureaucracy last year than in previous years.

She said since Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein implemented the Children First education reforms in early 2003, teachers’ concerns have gone by the wayside.

When the union has raised issues privately, she said, “our concerns were dismissed.” She said when the union has turned to press conferences and other public outreach, “our concerns were ridiculed….I think it’s time for the system to take a fresh look at Children First.”

The head of the principals’ union, Jill Levy, charged that the chancellor, “like the mad Queen of Hearts in Alice and Wonderland, confuses accountability with an unbridled public mean spirit.”

She questioned the chancellor’s spending priorities, including his small-schools initiative, his principal training school, the Leadership Academy, and his token third-grade intervention program, the Summer Success Academy.

She said the education department in the new era of Children First “lacks accountability, lacks foresight, lacks vision.”

The deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, Carmen Farina, said, “In any change, we can always look at either a glass half full or half empty. I’m going to start with the half full….I think this administration should be held accountable for the increase in promotion rates…. I think we should be held accountable for improving our reading and test scores,” she said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PROTESTERS WANT THEIR BIKES BACK

Hundreds of those arrested on the eve of the Republican convention say they have been desperately trying to get back the bikes that were detained with them.

The bikes – there are more than 300 of them – are being held in a storage facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But in the 11 days since police arrested a mass of bikers for obstructing government buildings and disorderly conduct, most have had no luck with pick-up attempts.

“It’s a huge hassle for people who use their bikes on a daily basis,” said the spokesman for the still disorganized group, Brendt Barbur. “They are frustrated, they feel like they bikes are being unjustly kept from them.”

A National Lawyer’s Guild organizer, Simone Levine, said the NYPD is unlawfully keeping the bikes of people who have pleaded guilty, already had cases processed, and had charges dropped. She also called the NYPD’s claim that the remaining bikes are needed for evidence “ridiculous.”

The Deputy police commissioner for public information, Paul Browne, said the NYPD confiscated 354 bikes before and during the convention and has returned 37. Those who have pleaded guilty or been seen before a judge have had bikes returned, he said. Others will be required to wait until court appearances. The only delays are for those who refused to accurately identify themselves when they were arrested, he said.

Mr. Barbur and several others are attempting to organize those crusading to get their bikes back. They are holding twice-weekly meetings and have posted tips for navigating the system on the Web. But many of the court dates are weeks away and there will likely be hundreds left forced to temporarily take subways and buses.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun