Collaborationist Union Leader Backs Selling Out
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“Despite Image, Collaborationist Union Leader Backs Selling Out,” should be the title of the recent NYT piece on AFT leader, Randi Weingarten. The article says, “She has shrewdly recognized that teachers’ unions need to be part of the reform,” and suggests that “. . .Randi has to know that teacher unionism itself is in jeopardy, perhaps even in mortal jeopardy.”
As president of the AFT, she has embraced tying teacher evaluations to student test scores. In Washington, DC, she helped negotiate a contract that made it easier to fire teachers. She supported a Colorado law that stripped tenure rights from teachers.
Backpedaling and giving in will not make the assault on public education go away. Organizing, education, and public outreach might.
Teacher unionism may be moribund. If it goes, we will have only ourselves to blame for not fighting back.