Ask This Chapter Leader Why the UFT Leadership Won't Debate Julie Cavanagh and He'll Say...

John Elfrank-Dana is the UFT Chapter Leader of Murry Bergtraim High School in Lower Manhattan -and a member of the MORE Caucus of the UFT. He dropped these thoughts today about why the leadership isn't having a debate during it's elections and I thought I'd share.

... sorry but I have to break ranks here.  

I don't blame Mulgrew for not debating Julie Cavanagh of MORE. Did you see what Julie did to that E4E teacher she debated on NY1? No mercy! She pummeled that poor woman on every point. Our leadership needs to remain aloof! A public spanking like that can only embarrass our union. 

Mulgrew has too many pressing concerns than to prepare for a beating. He waits by the telephone for orders from Albany about what the next steps will be on teacher evaluation. He is busy planning to preserve mayoral control for Mayor Quinn- our union's next regret like not supporting Thompson, supporting mayoral control under Bloomberg, experimenting with teacher data reports, ending seniority transfer and the 2005 contract.
So, there's no time for debate.
John


John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
www.elfrank.org/

Thanks to John for letting me share that on this blog He's got one of his own here. Check it out). For my part, I'm actually beginning to think that the president isn't all that bad. It's his caucus that kind of stinks! Imagine being a take-charge alpha male and being stuck with a bunch of subordinates who really don't think they should do a whole lot for their members but think they should absolutely be wary of their own control. Talk about a buzz-kill! You have a straight forward guy on the one hand and a whole bunch of people who couldn't, na wouldn't know how to 'come at you straight' if they tried on the other. #awkward!

And although he prefers to be called 'Mike', they all  still refer to him as 'the president' when they're at meetings. After this many years. Yikes, that's telling. Man, if Julie weren't at the top of the ticket for MORE, I'd want Mike Mulgrew to be. I think his style would match MORE's 'fight' philosophy a whole lot better than Unity's 'Quick! Lay Down!' approach to unionism.

Anyway, my take? Mulgrew is being advised not to debate Julie.

(although, full disclosure: I still don't know much about unionism .. it's so different than teaching).