The following are Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s remarks as delivered this morning:

“Before we take other topics, let me just briefly talk a little bit about negotiations for a teacher evaluation agreement, which I’ve gotten a number of questions about.

“As I said last week, I am extremely disappointed, but I will say I’m not surprised, that the UFT walked away from our negotiations last week.

“I’m disappointed because they have blocked our teachers from having the kind of useful feedback and accountability that is helping teachers – and children – in other parts of the country, and I’m disappointed because the UFT is costing our schools hundreds of millions of dollars.

“But I’m not surprised because I always have been skeptical, as you know, that the union leadership would be willing to accept a deal that made meaningful distinctions about the quality of teaching.

“Those distinctions would enable us to attract, retain and reward the best teachers, and make it easier to remove teachers who, even after two years of extra support, are ineffective.

“We have 75,000 teachers in our system – and the great majority of them are hard-working and talented, and they really make a difference in the lives of our kids – and they deserve credit for our successes over the last decade: rising graduation rates, narrowing of the achievement gap, progress on state tests that outpaces the rest of the state.

“But the truth of the matter is, with 75,000, not every teacher is effective – and all teachers can benefit from the kind of feedback that a fair evaluation system provides. And blocking that system, as the UFT has done, hurts teachers, and it especially hurts our children.

“The Obama Administration knows that. That’s why they promoted Race to the Top as a means of encouraging real evaluation systems. And that’s the kind of deal we were seeking: identify the good teachers and the teachers who need help, help all of our teachers excel, give special help to those who need it most, and for the few who still don’t perform up to standards, replace them.

“That’s why we wanted a deal, and still do – and it’s why the UFT leadership did not.
“For an entire year, the UFT leadership has been dragging their feet and throwing up roadblocks – and they have been trying to inject issues that are entirely unrelated to an evaluation deal into the discussions.

“Then, last week, at the very last minute, they introduced new demands designed to undermine the evaluation system and torpedo the deal. They demanded that the deal expire before bad teachers could be removed from the classrooms. They wanted the deal to go out of existence before it could go into effect.

“It was just deliberately trying to throw as many procedural roadblocks up that it would be so impossible to remove a teacher, even if the deal didn’t expire. Neither is something that we could ever live with.

“The UFT’s demand that we revert to the old system after two years, and its demand for a new grievance process, are not contemplated in the law and are clearly designed to undermine everything else the law requires.

“When we refused to go along with these demands, they held a press conference and unilaterally declared negotiations over. Despite this, I will say, we did make one last attempt last week late at night – and that too was rebuffed.

“Some have suggested that we should accept their last offer, pretending it was adequate, and taking the State’s money. We will not do that. We are not going to be complicit in a fraud.

“For decades, the system was run for the benefit of adults, and our kids suffered from a system that was a dysfunctional failure. We spent the last decade making sure that the system is run for kids. We will not go back by making a deal that protects adults at the expense of kids, nor will we do a deal that purports to do one thing when we all know it’s impossible to do it the way they want it structured.

“We’ve changed, and we aren’t going back.

“Furthermore, it would be irresponsible for me to give the UFT a huge hammer over the next mayor in contract negotiations.

“The UFT would be able to say: Give us what we want, or we’ll let the evaluation system expire, and I’m not going to put our 1.1 million schoolchildren in that position.

“Other states have dealt with this issue differently. They passed bipartisan legislation that gave districts and unions an opportunity to negotiate, but they insisted on implementing fair evaluation standards even if no agreement was reached by the deadline, even if the union objected.

“Unfortunately, when our evaluation law was passed under Governor Paterson, our State gave the union a veto over that process. That proved to be a terrible error, as some of us said back then, because the union is content with the status quo.

“And the union, if there is no deal, suffers no consequence. It is the children who suffer the loss of up to $450 million, and it’s up to the City now to figure out how to address it. That will mean moving monies around and doing less. We always try to do more with less, but there’s a limit to how much we can do.

“The union will always, on the other hand, put its own interest ahead of the interest of kids – no matter how much money is on the table.

“I spoke over the last several days with the Governor, with Merryl Tisch, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They have urged us to resume negotiations – and we tried to do last week, after the union walked out.

“Again this morning, Dennis Walcott called Michael Mulgrew and suggested they meet.

“We are always willing to talk, and we will do everything we can to reach a deal that is good for our children. But we cannot – and I will not – accept a return to the days when the system functioned for adults and call it ‘reform.’

“We will not be party to any transaction just for the sake of getting State money or Federal monies that says they’ve got a deal, which we all know is not possible to work.”

(YWN Desk – NYC)