This week the BTU sent thousands of postcards to Mayor Walsh from teachers who support the rights of excessed teachers.

In mid-May the mayor told the Boston Herald that 95% of our members weren’t interested in helping protect the due process rights for our 400 excessed-but-still-unplaced teachers:

‘The thing that bothers me is the supermajority of the average teacher, probably 95 percent of the teachers that teach in Boston Public Schools, what we are looking to fix has no effect on their life at all,’ Walsh told the Herald this morning. ‘I am not sure if the union actually presented it to their membership. I think maybe you should have a conversation with your membership to see how they feel about what the sticking point is. They might realize, why are we holding on this issue?’

Well, we took him up on his challenge, and we presented this to our membership. More than 2,300 of our members voted. The mayor got the “95%” right — but it was 95% in favor of our position to continue to support the right of our excessed teachers to obtain teaching positions. See the results of the membership survey online or the chart below:

Year after year, hundreds of our members are excessed, often because of school closings and turnarounds. Should the BTU Negotiating Team continue to protect the rights of teachers who have been excessed?

pie chart showing poll results