Sellouts Will Kill Unions and Public Education

Diane Ravitch still hasn't figured this out about her friend Randi Weingarten.

Weingarten is an obvious mole, a fake, just like Barack Obama is a fake Democrat put in the party to weaken and eventually kill it. There is precedent for that sort of thing, so it isn't conspiracy nonsense. Infiltration of perceived opponents was done time and again during the 1960s-1970s with anti-war and other "left" groups seen as "subversive" by the FBI. What makes people think this sort of thing still isn't going on?

Neoliberals can't win on rational arguments, for what they believe is untenable in a democracy or even a functioning society, so they engage in various forms of subterfuge in order to "win." Infiltration of unions and political parties is one way to do it.

The Barack Obama of American Teachers' Unions

AFT's Randi Weingarten tries to persuade skeptical members that she is really and truly on their side:

This morning I addressed a group called the Association for a Better New York and spoke about the Common Core State Standards for math and English language arts that have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. I predicted these standards will result in one of two outcomes: They will lead to a revolution in teaching and learning, or end up in the dustbin of abandoned reforms. Educators want these standards to succeed—we know; we’ve asked them. But, in order for that to happen, we must have a chance to implement them before someone starts assessing how they’re working.

So today I called for a moratorium on the consequences of high-stakes testing associated with the Common Core standards until states and districts have worked with educators to properly implement them. Stand with me.

We are committed to the success of getting the transition to Common Core right. To do that, we must help teachers and students master this new approach and not waste time punishing people for not doing something they haven’t yet been equipped to do. Can you imagine doctors being expected to perform a new medical procedure without being trained or provided the necessary instruments? That’s what is happening right now with the Common Core.

We have the ability to transform the very DNA of teaching and learning, to move away from rote memorization and endless test taking, and toward problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork—things I know we have been advocating for years. It’s kind of amazing that we have to call on states and districts to implement the Common Core State Standards before making the new assessments count. But that’s what we’re doing.

Send a message to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and your state education commissioner: When states and districts get the alignment right—which will require moving from standards to curriculum to field testing to revising—success will follow. But, until then, a moratorium on the stakes is the only sensible course.

Making changes without anything close to adequate preparation is a failure of leadership, a sign of a broken accountability system and, worse, an abdication of our moral responsibility to the kids we serve. The Common Core standards have the potential to be a once-in-a-generation revolution in education, but there must be a tangible commitment from leadership that says very clearly, “We support you, and the Common Core, and these are the concrete steps we are going to take to help you and them succeed.”

Stand with me, because if we are able to put our foot on the accelerator of high-quality implementation, and put the brakes on the stakes, we can take advantage of this opportunity and guarantee that stronger standards lead to higher achievement for all children. Help me send that message.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President

Then, when members are pacified enough, she will continue knifing them in the back while colluding with the "reformers" whose interests she truly represents.

She is a mole for the reformers to destroy a major teachers' union by killing it from within, just like Obama is a mole for the banksters to kill the Democratic Party from within.

Value Subtracted

The mole who calls herself a protector of teachers' rights continues to brazenly collude with the "reformers" and billionaires out to destroy public education in the good ole U.S.A..

Randi goes way back with the privatizers, even having worked with ol' Eli Broad in the early days of his superintendent "academy."

This woman, an attorney, is totally unqualified to run a teachers' union; she taught only five or six months as an actual teacher some twenty years ago.

In both cases, we have union presidents signing their names to documents alongside people who represent the antithesis of teachers' interests.

The Gates Foundation has absolutely zero credibility on the subject of teacher evaluation due to the pervasive role they have played in promoting the terrible policies now sweeping the nation. I entered my dialogue with them last year hoping they were prepared to shift their views in meaningful ways. When it ended, they gave little reason to believe they had done so. To co-author anything with their representative means you are lending credibility and standing to them.

She's a fraud who needs to be run out of the AFT.

Diane Ravitch also weighs in on Weingarten's treachery.

Randi the Mole

AFT's Randi Weingarten continues to cavort with the enemy, but that is because she is one of them herself.

She shoehorned her way into the AFT in order to kill it from within.

How in the hell did somebody this unqualified ever head a major union in the first place?

From the comments following the post is this description of her background which explains a lot:

I know people with lots of classroom experience who have spent decades analyzing what children need to learn to be successful in the long term, what good teaching looks like and how to support teachers. I am disappointed that Randi continues to be the voice for teachers when she is a lawyer, not an educator. I found some information on a blog called Linking and Thinking on Education by Joanne Jacobs. She writes this: ” How long did Weingarten teach? EDUCATION REFORMERS WOULDN'T LAST 10 MINUTES IN A CLASSROOM, SAID AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS PRESIDENT RANDI WEINGARTEN THIS WEEK. A lawyer turned union leader, Weingarten's classroom time was limited, counters Education Action Group. Weingarten's AFT bio claims she taught history at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn from 1991 to 1997. EAG obtained her personnel file via a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. Weingarten was hired as a substitute teacher in 1991 and received a provisional license in 1993. In 1994, she received a certificate to serve as a substitute. A 1997 letter indicates Weingarten didn't submit documentation showing she'd met requirements for licensure. No record indicates she ever served as a full-time teacher or was evaluated by a principal or other school official. When Weingarten ran for president of New York's United Federation of Teachers in 1998, her opponent, Michael Shulman, suggested that she was not a "real teacher." "She worked five months full-time that I've been aware of, in 1992, at Clara Barton High School," Shulman was quoted as saying in the New York Times. Since then she taught maybe one class for 40 minutes a day. An education reformer with two years as a Teach for America teacher apparently has more classroom experience than the AFT leader.” When will the educators who have spent their professional lives learning about teaching be heard?

As I mentioned in the comments there, she was put in AFT to kill it from within.

Kind of like Obama was put in the Democratic Party to destroy it and further the elites' neoliberal agenda.

The Barack Obama of the Teacher Unions

Of course, I am referring to AFT head Randi Weingarten, an attorney by trade and not a teacher, who decided to create a publicity stunt by getting herself arrested in Philly yesterday.

Philadelphia schools are under attack by the Broadie sup William Hite, and closings are planned.

Weingarten was released from custody.

She attempts to take the high road by calling the closures "immoral." They ARE immoral, but Randi is right in bed with the very forces who are out to destroy American public education.

Just as Cory Booker was used by the far-right Bradley Foundation to infiltrate the African American community by pushing charter schools (which further segregate education), so too is Randi Weingarten being used by the "reformers" to infiltrate a major union in the country to destroy it from within.

I just don't understand how she hasn't been run out of the AFT.