Weingarten Threatens Nurses for Backing Bernie

Rhonda "Randi" Weingarten 

It was only a matter of time before Wikileaks uprooted more evidence of Democrats eating their own. 

The latest is an email from Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), sent to Hillary Clinton hatchet man John Podesta. The email reveals Weingarten's antipathy toward the National Nurses Union (NNU) in the months following their endorsement of Bernie Sanders for president:

From:rweingar@aft.org To: john.podesta@gmail.com  Date: 2016-01-30 19:18 Subject: Re: D Taylor

On Saturday, January 30, 2016, Randi Weingarten, Office of the President <rweingar@aft.org<mailto:rweingar@aft.org>> wrote: He is psst-but I don't believe it moves him to action. Congrats on the NYT And we will go after NNU and there high and mighty sanctimonious conduct...  R  Sent from my iPhone

Though it's unclear exactly how the AFT slapped the NNU for there their support of Sanders--the implication of the email is clear--an attack on Hillary is an attack on the AFT. And Weingarten's royal "we" sadly implicates all educators in her threat, even the Donald Trump supporters. Members of each union will have to battle it out while Weingarten and Clinton take as many pantsuit selfies as possible. Bernie can go back to Vermont and eat some ice cream. 

The questions surrounding Wikileaks ask themselves, and could easily fill three more debates (save for Trump's sniffling, of course). For example, will we soon find out exactly how pissed Clinton was about the NNU's "sanctimonious" support of Sanders? Pissed enough, apparently, to make Weingarten "go after" nurses? While there's no evidence that either Podesta or Clinton compelled Weingarten's threat, a union leader's loyalty must always default to the workers and not elite politicians. Congratulations to the nurses and their sanctimony for Sanders; Weingarten should realize that we are stronger together only when dissident voices are embraced and not assailed.  

Ultimately, as Sanders said, nobody cares about Hillary's damn emails. Not with Trump in the race. Unless Wikileaks releases an email with a video that shows Clinton chopping off a puppy's head, the boorish and bumbling Trump makes Hillary seem infallible. Trump has been the perfect foil to accentuate and elevate the first woman into the White House, regardless of her serious flaws and failings.    

However, democracy demands the vetting of leaders both during and especially before their terms. As fellow blogger Norm Scott recently wrote, "Let's not throw away democracy in the rush to trash everything Trump and excuse everything Clinton." Indeed, there's almost as much to excuse about Clinton as there is to trash about Trump.    

Weingarten's Wikileaks email is a glimpse of a game most will never get a ticket for. Unfortunately, in this case, the game is most dangerous for union members, since it's using them as prey for a political career.

Will President Hillary continue playing this game in the White House?

Maybe someone should ask her.   
          

Calling the Hillary Clinton Question

Pay attention, teachers. 

To the exasperation of workers everywhere, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) suddenly voted to endorse former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for U.S. president. Though the union made a similarly timed endorsement of her in 2008, this year's bow to Clinton has a growing number of members questioning its motivation. After all, there are enough people currently running for president to fill a school bus, and the destruction of public education has so far received less Big Media scrutiny than Donald Trump's hairline.

Much of the vitriol for the Clinton endorsement is justifiably directed at AFT president and Hillary backslapper Randi Weingarten. Rather than use the election to galvanize 1.6 million educators around issues that matter to lives and livelihoods, Weingarten prematurely called the question, strong-arming teachers into campaigning for a woman whose biggest donors expect her to attack labor unions and public education.

Clinton is a former U.S. senator from New York and big fan of Governor Andrew Cuomo, a neoliberal ass clown who has eviscerated due process rights for teachers in his state while simultaneously underfunding and overtesting students and their schools.

Clinton condones Cuomo

Weingarten is also close to Clinton, and this hasty endorsement appears as nothing more than nepotism run amok. Though she would follow Clinton to the Hamptons and back, the same cannot be said of many of her members. 

Weingarten claims this endorsement was pushed by union leaders in swing states, but Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has drawn bigger crowds than anyone in those states, and don't think that a teacher or twenty in the crowd does not nod whenever Sanders speaks of removing the influence of Big Money from politics, for example. 

The conviction that Clinton will easily win the democratic nomination so we might as well support her plays on our most superficial and cynical political paradigms; inevitability builds tyrants, not leaders. Similar to Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary clearly views Sanders as a threat to her inevitability, and has reached out to her friend Randi to dam his progressive tide. 

Clinton has no credibility in the fight against Big Money in politics, however, unless and until she decides to offer Eli Broad and Bill Gates a refund. As a result, should Clinton receive the nomination, campaign finance will merely graze the stratosphere of the presidential debates, with both the moderators and candidates obsessing over psychos on the other side of the world instead of the corporate sociopaths along our shores.

Education will likely also receive its usual brusque treatment in 2016, since it will be in the best interests of both major parties to disregard the plutocrats behind the curtain. If Clinton wins the nomination, vital debate about issues such as Common Core and high-stakes tests will be tempered by phrases like "Education reform is a bipartisan issue" and "Let's agree to disagree on that one." In the meantime, public education will sink further into oblivion, ignored in favor of nonsensical arguments about deleted emails and the constitutionality of health care and marriage. 

Randi Weingarten has a lot of work to do if she expects the AFT to work for Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders is a successful and seasoned senator, former congressman and mayor. He is not going away soon.  

If anything, the AFT 's endorsement of Clinton will only stoke the fires of Bernie's campaign, with working teachers everywhere poking its embers.

It will be up to Weingarten and others to tamp down the flames of dissent and disgust engulfing corporate Clinton.

With Liberty and Charter Schools for All

Where can 12 billionaires turn if they want education laws changed?

That’s right, their checkbooks.

Between late September and Election Day, a dozen hedge funders donated a combined $4.4 million to New York State politics, mainly to ensure that Governor Andrew Cuomo and his slimy associates will help publicly-funded, privately-run charter schools seep deeper into the state.

Led by the likes Paul Tudor Jones II, who recently hosted an education “summit” featuring Cuomo and other corpses, the billionaires see charters as investment windfalls. After all, those pesky teachers unions and their due process rights won’t be around to challenge every test and technology tonic sold to New York’s taxpayers once the metastasis of charters quickens.     

With minimal overhead and oversight, charters and their plutocratic backers can finally corner an elusive market in New York State—public education. In words reminiscent of showman P.T. Barnum, “there’s a sucker born every minute”, and the billionaires see no bigger sucker than New York’s working families, with snake-oil salesmen peddling toxic Common Core tests and standards as the panacea for underfunded public schools.

The billionaires would rather subsume these schools than fix them, however, and their sycophantic public servants are lining up to comply. Cuomo has said he wants to “break” public schools in his second term, and lest we forget what Secretary of Education Arne Dunked-on said just last year:

“…he [Duncan] found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

In a recent interview, Jeremiah Kittredge, founder of Families for Excellent Charter Schools (an anti-labor, pro-douchebag super PAC which spent $9 million on the New York election) continued efforts to slime our schools. Kittredge’s organization is calling for an “epic infusion of excellent schools” to rescue 249,000 children supposedly “trapped” in public schools statewide. Kittredge wants parents to believe their local schools face a “crisis of epic proportions” for which charters apparently hold the cure. 

Kittredge says charters are “outperforming” public schools, but it doesn’t require a close-reading of Kittredge’s claims to reveal his simplistic and savage suggestion: charter school students are just better test-takers.

Yet even if their scores are higher—and study after study prove otherwise—most parents would rather raise compassionate, well-rounded human beings instead of test-taking cyborgs programmed by flawed standards. 

Look no further than Pink Floyd’s classic “Another Brick in the Wall” for an allegory of corporate charters and their subservient students. Note how the children in the video react after too many trips through the meat grinder of educational malfeasance: 

The rebellious students in the video throw their teacher on a bonfire, while the New York State Education Department (NYSED) throws teachers on the scrapheap in real life.

With allies like Kittredge doing their bidding—who in the same interview calls public school teachers the “worst servers” of special education and ESL students— Education Commissioner John King and Chancellor Merryl Tisch are paradoxically demanding more accountability for unionized teachers and less for charter chains, from the “board of trustees” down to the lowly teachers.

A glance at NYSED’s handy-dandy “Guide to Charter Schools in New York State”, for example, tells us that 30% of the teachers in a charter don’t need to be certified.

At least the important parts are in color

Meanwhile, Tisch seeks an “aggressive” proliferation of charters as her department makes it more difficult for those who would rather teach in unionized public schools to become certified—the majority of job seekers throughout the state. More and more of these applicants might soon find a home in New York’s charters, however, who will entice them with a logo only a hedge funder could love:

Sadly, the day when billionaires like Merryl Tisch control who gets to work in schools has finally arrived. Up-and-coming teachers are not far from signing contracts with corporate boards instead of boards of education, one bad test score away from working at Walmart.      

It was industrious journalism and not NYSED which exposed the fraudulent resume of “Dr.” Ted Morris, Jr., whose Greater Works Charter was revoked by the state after it was revealed Morris lacked both a doctorate and a high school diploma. Both Tisch and King disavowed responsibility for this gross oversight, with Tisch blaming her unnamed underlings and Director of Charter Schools Bill Clarke in hiding since the scandal broke.

With their schools tumbling toward insolvency and privatization, where can members of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) turn to preserve their profession?

From Manhattan to Massena, the state's teachers union is only as strong as its weakest links.

Though not yet an existential threat, non-urban locals should fight charters as much as urban locals should fight non-urban threats like the Tax Cap and Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA).

No teacher outside of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), for instance, would be offended if UFT President Michael Mulgrew suddenly spoke out against the Tax Cap, just like Mulgrew should not take umbrage if a teacher in Westchester spoke out against New York City charter schools.

Things might be different for NYSUT if Mulgrew had threatened to punch someone other than teachers who opposed the Common Core, or if American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten’s next arrest is outside the offices of Cuomo or NYSED.   

The privatization of public education is a many-headed hydra, fed by a handful of plutocrats.

This should be no match, however, for an organization fed by 600,000 workers instead of 12 billionaires.

NYSUT must lead this fight before public education starves to death.            

Unions Must Jump Out for Teachout

How many Democrats will jump Cuomo's ship on September 9? 

Today's Democrats are turning into yesterday's Republicans.

Confused?

Look no further than New York State, where Democratic governor and aspiring outdoorsman Andrew Cuomo reportedly warned of "repercussions" for members of the state AFL-CIO if they did not endorse him at their union's annual convention on August 18. Amid this language and other acts of douchbaggery, it’s no surprise that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara  is investigating Cuomo for meddling in the affairs of the supposedly independent anti-corruption Moreland Commission. Among other things, Cuomo is suspected of having an inflated head that's leaking something other than air.

Sure enough, Cuomo's name was absent from all convention literature and open discussion about the race for governor was prohibited before the body. The Lobbyist for the Student's name has become so toxic in his home state that he doesn't even want to talk about himself these days, brushing aside a recent call for a debate with Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout, his opponent in the Democratic primary. Referring to political debates as a "campaign strategy", Cuomo said he'd leave the decision to debate Teachout up to the campaigns and "whatever they decide."

Evidently, an open discussion about the future of New York State now hinges on the whims of Joe Percoco, Cuomo's campaign manager who was also recently suspected of strong-arming members of the Moreland Commission into scrubbing Cuomo clean. Multiple sources say Percoco pressured key members of the commission into issuing public statements in support of the executive office in the days following the publication of a New York Times article which ripped the lid off the inner workings of Cuomo's Albany.

Teachout should not expect comments from Percoco about a debate anytime soon, however, as Percoco seemingly cherishes his role as Cuomo's "man behind the man" and invisible campaign manager. With both men refusing to talk about talking about the issues, voters can only speculate about the status of a government that has grown less transparent than pond scum.

Among other stark contrasts with Teachout, Cuomo's icy relationship with unions and other groups is indicative of a shifting paradigm in local and national politics—an intra-party rejection of Democrats beholden to big money in favor of grassroots populists who seek to rise above the fetid fumes of money and threats to transparent, moral ground.

Cracks in the system have only been deepened by the supposed standard-bearers of the Democratic Party, with the tax and trade policies of Cuomo, the Clintons, and President Obama turning Ronald Reagan's trickle-down into a deluge for .01 percent of Americans. Today's most prominent Democratic leaders have become everything Reagan dreamed they could become and more, insulating the pockets of plutocrats with the calluses of working men and women everywhere.

It seems NYSUT—whose members comprised the majority in attendance on August 18—could also use a dose of transparency these days. Cuomo recently signed a bill that the Albany legislature approved faster than you can say quid pro quo, as even the NYSUT Board of Directors was not aware of a law which strengthens the retirement safety net of a mere three members—Karen Magee, Paul Pecorale, and Martin Messner—all of whom were elected NYSUT officers in the union's recent election.

While questions linger about the origins of the bill, the larger question is did newly-elected officers of the state's largest teachers union—with the unanimous support of lawmakers—trade self-serving legislation for political favors? Both the timing and secrecy of this legislation raises unsettling questions about the principles of union leadership, who must not tip-toe away from transparency but march towards it.

The union has no good reason not to challenge Cuomo, after all, and a non-endorsement only muffles the political discourse and forces working teachers to retreat into their classrooms, away from politics in both voice and vote. Teachers in the United States cannot afford to sink further into political apathy, and union leaders have a responsibility to help engender an open debate about those government officials who are helping the rich subsume the system.

NYSUT members must hear why State Senator Jeff Klein, for example, deserves their time and VOTE-COPE money. Klein, a Democrat who yielded progressive control of the senate to Republicans and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Cuomo at a recent rally for charter schools, is another example of a leader with the face of a Democrat and the fangs of a Republican.

State Senator Jeff Klein (background) has a face only NYSUT could love.

Former New York Senator and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, recently sighted hobnobbing in the Hamptons with AFT President Randi Weingarten, will dilute any national conversation about economic inequality should she be the Democratic nominee for president in 2016. Both Republican and Democratic talking points will likely revolve around the need to help "all" Americans by cutting corporate taxes and shipping jobs overseas competing in the global economy.

Cuomo's "death penalty" for New York's public schools also spells doom for both social justice and his core values as a Democratic, which he likely never possessed in the first place. The good news is that Zephyr Teachout and her running mate for Lieutenant Governor Tim Wu exist, and their campaign has gained momentum since Cuomo unsuccessfully tried to kick Teachout off the ballot for not being as New York as him.

Cuomo and his running mate Kathy Hochul—a former bank lobbyist and future Republican—have $35 million to spend compared to Teachout and Wu's $181,000. This money, however, speaks only through glossy campaign flyers and commercials, and no amount money could turn Cuomo and Hochul back into real Democrats.  Perhaps the Cuomo campaign will soon invite Republican challenger Rob Astorino to debate, confident they can out-Democrat him.

America’s workers, not its lawmakers, keep the machine of democracy running daily. It is therefore up to workers and their unions to be first on the scene when its engine seizes in a cloud of cronyism and greed.

Unions must lead with solutions, promoting candidates like Teachout who will seek to undo recent changes to the Great Seal of the United States:



Both political parties have finally agreed on one thing.

Our democracy depends on it.

Memo to Working Teachers: Ignore Your Union Leaders

As the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) sideshow convention sputters to a finish in Los Angeles, one thing should be clear to working teachers around the country: our leaders are escorting us into the mouth of privatization while admiring its teeth. Look no further for examples of this than the two most controversial resolutions passed overwhelmingly by delegates on Sunday which address the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Though the CCSS have grown more toxic than Chernobyl on a windy day, the adopted AFT resolution describes the "potential and promise" of standards that are threatened by, among other things, a "political agenda to privatize education." The union acknowledges the existence of an insidious agenda to privatize public education, an agenda which paradoxically must be stopped before we can fix the CCSS. That's like saying we need to breakup monopolies before we can turn Walmart back into a mom and pop store. They are one and the same. Whether teachers love them or hate them, the Common Core brand has so polluted the air of meaningful progress in education that an exorcism may be necessary before AFT members can start distributing those "resource kits" meant to strengthen the standards and their twisted tests.

Yes, standards must be embraced, improved and utilized, but only at the most local of levels with experienced administrators and teachers monitoring their fruition throughout daily activities with students. And no, we don't need another brand name that polls better than the Common Core; standards should always begin with a lower case "s" and be incorporated into the curriculum based on how the professionals see fit. The AFT and others must stop propping up corporate brands like the Common Core; even Arne Duncan doesn't refer to them by their proper name anymore.

Duncan has said a lot in recent weeks, however, dismissing the National Education Association's (NEA) resolution that he resign as "local union politics" which he and most teachers stay out of.  Sadly, he may be right, as how many working teachers realize that their union's "resolutions" carry about as much weight these days as this blog post? Moreover, how many working teachers even know what happens at a union convention?  

What didn't happen over the weekend was the AFT echoing the NEA’s insistence that Duncan free up more time in his hoops schedule.  Delegates bizarrely called on President Obama to implement a "Secretary Improvement Plan" (SIP), stating that Duncan should resign if he does not improve.  After all, his "due process rights” will have been “upheld." Ignoring the obvious false equivalence and the imaginary timetable for Obama’s imaginary plan, what has Duncan, as Secretary of Education, done to earn tenure in the eyes of the AFT? According to the resolution, for the past five years (two years longer than the new teacher probationary period in New York, by the way) Duncan has:

...aligned with those who have undermined public education, with those who have attacked educators who dedicate their lives to working with children, and with those who have worked to divide parents and teachers. He has failed to bring parents, students, teachers and community members together to improve the quality of public education for all children, and he has promoted misguided and ineffective policies on deprofessionalization, privatization, and test obsession:

What reads like a warrant for Duncan's arrest is merely another lame attempt to keep the AFT's seat at the kiddies table in the White House, at once seeking to placate and punish Obama. The only way Duncan's first five years could have been more disastrous is if he had also taught a class or two along the way. Unions should call for nothing less than the immediate resignation of this "promoter of privatization" and organize daily rallies outside his office until he leaves with his bag of basketballs bouncing on his back. If the AFT wants the president and politicians of all parties to take them seriously, they must unequivocally hold political leaders accountable by standing in solidarity with the NEA instead of passing toothless resolutions that at most will make the president's press secretary chuckle at the reporters who remember to even ask about education.

Messages to leaders can and should assume many mediums, but as the AFT emphasizes in writing, there is an overt and covert attempt to undermine teachers unions in the United States today, and big money has a comfortable seat at the table. Duncan, Obama, Cuomo, Walker, and Christie are just some of the leaders who've pushed in its chair. Unions must shout louder than big money if they expect to be heard. Tongue-in-cheek jabs at Duncan's due process only muddy the issues even more. The AFT holds its convention every two years anyway, so if and when Duncan's SIP is up for review, he'll already be weighing job offers from charter schools with the scales tipping further in favor of privatization.

As Duncan observed, unions have their own politics. Just like Obama, union presidents have voters to answer to. However, part of the problem is that not enough members are engaged in political action both outside and within their unions, with many teachers ignoring politics at all costs under the assumption that someone else will fight for them. These teachers may continue ignoring politics, however, as long as they proceed as follows:

-Ignore NYSUT President Karen Magee's fear of the New York press; you are the best and loudest messengers for students. (And feel free to scream your hatred of the Common Core, since a looming loss of due process rights could soon make this impossible anyway.)

-Ignore UFT President Michael Mulgrew when he threatens to beat people up over the CCSS and mocks members who question the involvement of Eli Broad and Bill Gates.  Our devils cannot get the better of us. Mulgrew's Revive slate is hoping we'll also ignore their platform leaflet from the NYSUT election just over three months ago:



-Ignore AFT President Randi Weingarten when she stands with the likes of Duncan and Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy; you don't need a seat at their table to be heard.

-And to teachers in New York, ignore all of the above leaders as they push a Cuomo endorsement in this year’s gubernatorial election; you should vote for Zephyr Teachout or Howie Hawkins anyway.

Ignore your union leaders and follow what you believe is the best course for the profession. After all, your leaders are doing a splendid job ignoring you.