Talking real reform

Soon-to-be AFT Union Prez. Randi Weingarten, is sounding like the reincarnation of Al Shanker. She’s talking real school reform—charters with union teachers, and fully-resourced, community-based schools. Just what Obama's campaign needs to hear.

Says NYT’s Sam Dillon:

In the speech Ms. Weingarten is to deliver Monday, she praises the ideas of a group of Democrats led by Tom Payzant, the former schools superintendent in Boston, who have argued that schools alone cannot close achievement gaps rooted in larger economic inequalities, and that “broader, bolder” measures are needed, like publicly financed early childhood education and health services for the poor.

Her weaknesses also match Shanker’s. Back then, he broke with the power elite on union organizing and teacher empowerment, but stayed tied to them in support for the Vietnam War and in his backwards response to 1968 black revolt. Weingarten showed similar bias when she caved in to pressures from divisive anti-Arab factions in the removal of principal Debbie Almontaser from the Kahlil Gibran International Academy.

Dillon is perceptive enough to recognize the “fierce debate among Democrats seeking to influence the educational program of Senator Barack Obama.” Weingarten comes down clearly on the side of the “bolder, broader group” as opposed to the Klein/Sharpton group, which places all the weight of school reform wholly on the schools.

Blog Notes

Did I embarrass Russo into finally saying something about Obama’s clear opposition to school vouchers in speeches to the NEA and AFT? How else to explain this snide, rear-end-covering comment?

*****

It’s the “Minister of Truth” (Chris Cerf) vs. Manhattan Institute’s Sol Stern over at Eduwonk. Each accuses the other of lying with statistics. Could they both be liars? Stay tuned.