It's June 20. The school year is about over. What's happening in the world of the NYCDOE?

We got family leave. I will write more about this tomorrow. ATRs are getting the rating sheets in. Some are not very happy. I had to counsel one very pissed off ATR the last few days. The Open Market is out but as we know it's a scam. Regularly assigned teachers are find out whether or not they are ineffective, developing, effective, or highly effective. Teachers are being denied tenure or having their probation extended. Teachers city wide are taking copious amounts of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications. ATRs are concerned if the next contract will be their end. Teachers are facing abusive principals. Teachers see incompetent and crooked principals get away with everything. The list can go on and on and on and on.

But where there should have been leadership, a light to guide the rank and file by, to grab the bull buy the proverbial testicles has once again taken an opportunity to miss the opportunity.

MORE again stretches a triple into a single.

At tonight's Delegate Assembly MORE is bringing up a resolution (in which none of the above, nor anything that was not mentioned that would be 100% beneficial to the rank and file) matters one iota to putting food on a teacher's table, putting a teacher's children through college, or just having a teacher not dread going to school in the morning.

What is this resolution? It's all about the upcoming New York State gubernatorial election y in September. More so, in my opinion, it is more to get Howie Hawkins name out there.

Look, I think Andrew Cuomo is a complete putz. As for Cynthia Nixon, I want more information. I think she is a stalking horse and put in there by De Blasio to piss off and pull Cuomo to the left. But Hawkins? He's turning into Lyndon LaRouche or Gus Hall. Just running for the sake of running. Besides, his policies are fantasy land.

It really needs to be realized that a teeny, tiny, percentage of the rank and file has true Socialist inclinations. Most have nice egalitarian lives and those are fine. Then there are the Evangelical Socialists that are completely out of touch with reality and seek out young impressionable teachers that still live on mommy and daddy's dime to convert. I get it with these kids. They move to New York City Brooklyn, they are own their own for the first time, they want to save the world. But they are missing the bigger picture.

Any UFT caucus must do right for the ENTIRE rank and file, not just their little corner of the DOE world. MORE in essence has become a top down organization just like the UFT and it's agenda now only benefits a select few.

So today is the day all the votes for the new contract must be in. The ballots have been checked, the envelopes licked and sealed, and the UFT telling us the sky will fall if we don't ratify this contract.

Yes, we'll have to get to the back of the line if we fail to ratify this contract. Well, if it means getting behind the NYPD's Sergeants Benevolent Association (Which is claiming the city has a $4.1 billion surplus!) then we here at SBSB are all for being at the end of the line. Seems the SBA has some guts.

But there is another reality that just might be plausible enough if the contract does not get ratified.

Is it possible that if the contract does not get ratified that Governor Andy swoops in and saves the day with the money to pay the retro immediately (or at least a big chunk of it) and to give us that 8% raise now instead of five years from now?

If you think about it this might not seem to far fetched.

Andy has aspirations on becoming president in 2016. For that too happen he needs two things (among many others but most importantly) to get the nomination. One, Hilary mustn't run, and secondly, he needs some sort of a mandate. Pundits have said if he gets 55% or less of the vote this year his dreams are done.

Western New York and Long Island are up in arms about what Andy has done for education and add
to that the economy of upstate and we can see Andy not doing well there. Astorino has been elected twice in Westchester County and that just might take the county off the chart for Andy. Andy will need Albany County and the Five Boroughs which have always gone Democrat, but Queens and Staten Island can be wild cards. Andy can't just win, he needs to win big.

Now we all can't vote for Rob Astorino  and hold our nose for he will be Andy lite. Expect the number of charters to get bigger in the state and for unions to be more under the gun. Plus, and as much as Astorino claims he his against Common Core and high stakes testing, I am sure that ALEC will be leading him around by the nose.

This is why Andy was involved in getting the TWU the sweetheart new contract. He needs those union votes. He needs their phone banks. He needs the goodwill.

And where is there a lot of good will to be had, or at least in Andy's mind? Teachers of NYC and the money we are owed. Now, I am not saying it will work, but Andy is low enough and self absorbed enough to do it, especially when he sees a threat to his coronation.

There are alternatives. Howie Hawkins is running as the Green Party candidate and he has named Brian Jones as his Lt Governor. But that just might not make Andy scared enough.

The Daily News is reporting that the Working Families Party has asked Diane Ravitch to be their nominee. Now this can make things quite interesting.

I believe that a Diane Ravitch candidacy is quite viable. She can win, but at the very least throw a monkey wrench into Andy's plans.  Imagine the major p3wnage Diane can inflict upon Andy in a debate. Think about it, can Diane have Andy move back, or at least introduce him to the politics of honor that his father embraced?

The vote is to be counted next Tuesday, June 3. Let's see what Andy does if the vote goes against the UFT.