As Teachers Face Layoffs, UFT Spends Millions on Parties

No wonder Obama is joined at the hip with the teacher's unions. They like to waste as much money on parties as he does.

It's for the children or something.

As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, the Daily News has learned.

Free-spending United Federation of Teachers brass last year spent nearly $1.4 million for the UFT's 50th anniversary gala at the Hilton - complete with a movie, a book and a paperweight.

Records show they:

* Ponied up $514,000 to 16 separate caterers.
* Dropped $278,417 on the annual Teachers Union Day ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria.
* Bought $6,100 in gift baskets from a lower East Side candy store - and plowed $179,000 into training retreats at a Connecticut resort boasting golf, scuba diving and aqua aerobics.

In one amazing feat of spending, they shelled out $114,870 for annual "coffee supplies" at their five offices across the city - paying the Coffee Distributing Corp. on Long Island $324,000 over three years, records show.

And while most New Yorkers spend hours trying to find a parking space, the UFT rents 25 slots in Brooklyn's Renaissance Plaza Garage for members at an average annual cost of $75,000 over three years.

"I'm not going to apologize for spending money to service our members," said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

"These people are heroes dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our children. They never get the respect they deserve. A cup of coffee, a bottle of water and a few parking spots is the least we can do for them."

A cup of coffee, a bottle of water, a lavish $1.4 million bash. Hey, they work hard for 200 days a year. Let's cut them some slack.

The spending orgy comes to light a week after after The News disclosed that cops bounced 24 rowdy UFT reps from an Albany eatery after they caused a ruckus over an $1,800 tab - and the modest size of a $40 gourmet quail.

Turns out over-the-top spending and a party-hearty culture is a union trademark.

No wonder they're so terrified that the public has caught on to their scam. When the free parties stop it's time to mobilize and demand even more from the taxpayers.

Great News: ACORN Back in Business in NYC

New name, same old thuggery, and supported by the unions. What a surprise!

Watch out! ACORN is back -- in all but its name.

Backed by hundreds of thousands of dollars in union donations, New York Communities for Change -- a rebranded version of the controversial organization that closed up shop amid several scandals -- is acting again as labor's attack dog on controversial issues.

NYCC took over ACORN's office on Nevins Street in Brooklyn, shares some of the same board members and uses its membership lists and other resources.

The "new" organization also fights to provide and preserve affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers.

But when NYCC has to choose between low-income consumers and unions, it dances to Big Labor's tune.

Consider Walmart's bid to open in New York City. It would offer discounted prices, which would disproportionately benefit the poorest New Yorkers.

But instead NYCC has joined the campaign to block Walmart because it is a non-union shop that would compete with unionized stores. That puts NYCC on the same page as Stuart Appelbaum, head of the National Retail, Wholesale and Department Store union -- not all those low-income consumers.

"A Walmart in Brooklyn?!? NO THANKS," NYCC says on its Web site.

Meanwhile the United Federation of Teachers gave NYCC more than $200,000 last year -- a big chunk of the advocacy group's budget -- to help organize child-care workers and parents.

NYCC's views on education mirrors the UFT's.

The UFT last year opposed the city's attempt to close 20 failing schools and replace them with new schools with new principals and teachers.

NYCC agreed. "Fix Our Schools, Don't Close 'Em," it declared.

I'm glad we can help people who provide a valuable service. I'll take help wherever I can get it to help working people. God knows the mayor isn't looking after them," UFT president Michael Mulgrew said.

I guess the fact the First Lady has teamed up with Wal-Mart hasn't helped their image yet. You would think giving "working people" shopping options isn't in the best interest of the unions. Well, not everybody is looking the other way.

Lawyer Randy Mastro, who has battled leaders of the ACORN-tied Working Families Party in court over alleged campaign finance violations, said, "It takes more than a name change to avoid the stigma of ACORN. Nobody is going to be fooled."

Well, most of the media will be. Or they'll just ignore this story. As they do with Walmart philanthropy that does far more to help New Yorkers than these union goons do.

Walmart has spread its philanthropic wealth to local community groups ahead of its campaign to open its first megastore in New York City, The Post has learned.

The Walmart Foundation has contributed $9 million to 40 Big Apple organizations over the past three years.

And the Walton Foundation -- a separate arm of Walmart's founding family -- has contributed more than $3 million to New York charter schools and education-reform groups in recent years, records show.

No wonder the teacher's unions so desperately want to stop them.

Fourth Grade Fight Club

Need another reason to home school your children? Well, have a look at what went on in a Queens, NY, elementary school. Naturally the "teacher" who presided over this atrocity can't be fired because of his cushy union protection. He may need a lot more than union protection once this story circulates.

The first rule of fourth grade - no talking about fight club.

A Queens teacher turned his classroom into a boxing arena for two feuding students, telling the boys to settle their beef with their fists as their stunned classmates watched the bizarre spectacle, authorities said yesterday.

And to make sure no one found out his twisted teaching technique, the instructor, Joseph Gullotta, 29, allegedly supplied the kids with excuses for the nurse to explain away any injuries.

In one corner was a 10-year-old. His opponent was a year younger. The Post is withholding the kids' names.

Before beginning the match at the impromptu fight club at PS 65 in Ozone Park, Gullotta instructed a girl to close the classroom door. He ordered the rest of his pupils to back up and make way for the battle, Queens DA Richard Brown said.

The two combatants came out swinging and then began wrestling.

During the bout, the older boy's head rammed into the younger one's mouth. The younger boy suffered a cut lip; the older one, a bruised head.

"When two fourth-graders became involved in a verbal dispute, their teacher allegedly told one of the students that he should 'take it out' on another student," Brown said.

"When parents send their children off to school, their teachers have an obligation to provide a safe environment for them."

Teacher's aide Abraham Fox, 43, was in the classroom during the clash, but did nothing to break it up, the DA charged.

Neither student was offered a visit to the school nurse, despite Fox's observation that the 9-year-old might need stitches, Brown said.

Then out came the schoolbooks for two periods of more traditional instruction before Gullotta finally allowed the younger boy to visit the nurse.

These two were actually charged with crimes but not yet dismissed.

Gullotta and Fox were charged with two counts each of acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17 and could face up to a year in jail if convicted.

Fox was suspended without pay; Gullotta was reassigned to a rubber room.

People answering the door at the Long Island homes of Fox and Gullotta declined to comment.

You can have one outrage after another at these NYC public schools and despite repeated failures the unions and others go out of their ways to keep the status quo.

You'd think the NAACP would be leading a fight for better schools for these kids. Instead, it's teamed up with the teachers -- at the students' expense. It claims the closures discriminate against minority and special-needs kids.

Only the NAACP knows its true reasons for joining the suit, but perhaps UFT payments it got over the years had something to do with it: In its latest US Labor Department filing, for instance, the union reported funneling some $15,000 to the NAACP through July 31, 2009.

It's heartbreaking that so many minority and other kids have endured such abysmal schools for so long -- and sad indeed to see a group like the NAACP join a move to keep them there.

Yet anyone who complains is called racist.

Paid to Stare at the Wall

Nothing like having a cushy union deal to take advantage of.

Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.

Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" — off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.

The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues — pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.

"You just basically sit there for eight hours," said Orlando Ramos, who spent seven months in a rubber room, officially known as a temporary reassignment center, in 2004-05. "I saw several near-fights. `This is my seat.' `I've been sitting here for six months.' That sort of thing."

Ramos was an assistant principal in East Harlem when he was accused of lying at a hearing on whether to suspend a student. Ramos denied the allegation but quit before his case was resolved and took a job in California.

Because the teachers collect their full salaries of $70,000 or more, the city Department of Education estimates the practice costs the taxpayers $65 million a year. The department blames union rules.

"It is extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher because of the protections afforded to them in their contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.

Now starting this week they get the entire summer off.

What a deal.

In the Tank: NYC Council Puppets Reads Off Cue Cards Prepared By UFT

Not that it's any secret Democrats are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the teacher's unions, but man, this is ridiculous. It's not enough the deck is stacked against charter schools. It's not enough poor kids are mired in failing publics controlled by the UFT. But the union has to go and stage a hearing with scripted cue cards prepared for the Democrat-controlled city council. What a joke.

Chastened officials with the United Federation of Teachers yesterday promised never again to put words in the mouths of City Council members after the union's cheap stunt -- giving scripted questions to lawmakers at a hearing -- caused a furor.

"We certainly don't plan on it happening again," said a contrite Ron Davis, a spokesman for UFT president Randi Weingarten. "This is the first time, at least in our staff's memory, that this type of communication occurred during a hearing."

UFT reps were caught red-handed passing out the cue cards with leading questions for council members to ask Department of Education officials at a hearing on charter schools Tuesday.

Mayor Bloomberg decried the tactic yesterday, saying council members should have been clear about the origins of their queries.

"They probably should have disclosed that those questions were written for them by a party that has a vested interest," said Bloomberg, who is battling the union over mayoral control of the school system and an expanded charter-school program.

"The real issue here is supporting the schools that parents want to send their kids to," he added. "And we have a waiting list of 30 or 40 thousand kids who want to go to charter schools."

Although the union made the council look like puppets, council Speaker Christine Quinn defended her members' independence.

"Clearly what happened at the hearing was regrettable," she said. "Obviously, pre-printed questions are something that shouldn't have happened, but any belief that council members are puppets and not informed are as outrageous as those cards were."

Translation: We're puppets, but I'm outraged that you would call me a puppet.

Just pathetic.

More reaction here.

The questions for the Department of Education were sharp and confrontational.

The questions for the union were softballs.

UFT officials sat in the front row of the ornate council hearing room to insure their script was being followed.

If that wasn't outrageous enough, legislators were told which question to direct to which official.

It's not uncommon for lobbyists, advocates and even reporters to request that a specific question be posed at a City Hall hearing.

But no one had ever seen what the UFT pulled off.

"It crosses the line," said Felder. "It's not the actual questions. It's the directing. It's the atmosphere that was created."

He's right.

The union's ploy, observers said, went far beyond typical lobbying tactics of briefing council members before a hearing or providing position papers.

"I've had people suggest to me ask the commissioner this or ask this witness that. I've never had anybody type up cue cards for me," said Councilman James Oddo (R-SI).

A former council member, who's been in politics for decades, couldn't recall a similar incident in his career. "I've never heard of it being done on a mass basis," said the veteran pol.

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