Behind Randi Weingarten's secret meeting with Steve Bannon

The Washington Post reports that neo-fascist, white supremacist Steve Bannon, Pres. Trump’s former chief strategist (replacing the recently-indicted Paul Manafort) secretly met with AFT leader Randi Weingarten in April to talk about "education issues".

The meeting was set up by right-wing media mogul and Trump ally, Chris Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media Inc. who, according to the Post, "is a friend of both Trump and Weingarten". Ruddy approached Weingarten about the secret meeting because Trump “likes her” and supported opening a conversation to see whether there was common ground", says Ruddy.

The idea for a conversation between the White House and Weingarten developed, Ruddy said, when he was talking to the president about education and mentioned he knew Weingarten. Trump also knew her — both were prominent figures in New York in their own fields.

“The president knows her and likes her,” Ruddy said. “He obviously knows her from the New York world. . . . So I mentioned this to the president as an opening to communications with her. Steve [Bannon] was excited about that. I set up a meeting and they had a private meeting outside the White House.”

Actually, Trump's rationale for the meeting is much clearer than Weingarten's. Trump had already been successful in driving a wedge in the labor movement through meetings with Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Each applauded Trump for pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threatening other international trade agreements. Trumka even took a seat on Trump's manufacturing council (which never met) and supported Trump's plan to build the oil pipeline through the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.

Also, around the same time as the Bannon/Weingarten meeting, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was holding his own closed-door meeting with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Nobody knows what went on behind those doors. But within weeks, a voucher bill was passed in IL by a majority Democratic legislature, without any resistance from Emanuel.

Weingarten however, offers no strategic or tactical rationale for her consenting to hold the secret (from her own membership) meeting. When she tries, she sounds like someone who has drunk the  populist kool-aid.

She says, she thought Bannon sought the meeting [she thought? m.k.] because he believed there was common ground; she and her union have been critical of the power of hedge fund managers and “crony capitalists,” as has Bannon. 

Bannon, an enemy of the hedge-funders???

No, no, no. Not true... Bannon's rise to power has been largely underwritten by hedge funders and crony capitalists like billionaire Robert Mercer, a long-time Trump crony who up until this week ran Renaissance Technologies and it's crown jewel, the Medallion Fund, which, according to Bloomberg, is perhaps the world's greatest money-making machine. Medallion is open only to Renaissance's roughly 300 employees, about 90 of whom are Ph.D.s, as well as a select few individuals with deep-rooted connections to the firm. The fabled fund, known for its intense secrecy, has produced about $55 billion in profit over the last 28 years.  

Weingarten tells the Intercept:

“Look, I will meet with virtually anyone to make our case, and particularly in that moment, I was very, very concerned about the budget that would decimate public education,” Weingarten said. “I wanted it to be a real meeting, I didn’t want it to be a photo-op, so I insisted that the meeting didn’t happen at the White House.”

Weingarten didn’t take notes at the meeting, which was held at a Washington restaurant, but told The Intercept she and Bannon talked about “education, infrastructure, immigrants, bigotry and hate, budget cuts … [and] about a lot of different things.”

Her takeaway: Bannon is no Martin Luther King. Really?

The [Martin Luther] King philosophy of jobs and justice is not the Bannon philosophy, let’s put it that way.”

But on the other hand, she did buy some of his faux working-class populism.

“I think he sees the world as working people versus elites. And on some level, he’s thought about educators as working-class folks."

Lots of questions here... Why did it take seven months for this meeting to be revealed, and only then by a Bannon friend? Why, with the AFT and the labor movement in general in a state of crisis, bleeding members and money, would Weingarten look to Bannon for common ground?

I'm not saying or implying that Weingarten cut a back-room deal with Bannon. I'm not sure that either of them had the power to make any kind of deal. I think this was more of a feel-out meeting that was intended to be kept secret on all sides.

Weingarten and the union leadership seem lost at sea with no real sense of direction. She has nothing to deal. Her first instinct seems to be to scramble for her own personal seat at the table. Or as she puts it...

“If you are the president of the union and you’re fighting fiercely to get budget restorations and to not have a dismantlement of public education or of higher education and the administration asks to – or it’s made clear to you that they want to meet – you meet,” she said. “You don’t not meet. You meet.”

 At the same time she was secretly not not meeting with Bannon, she was also asking DeVos to do joint school tours with her. This even while DeVos was being picketed by parents and teachers at local public schools.

But her meetings with Bannon and DeVos did nothing to get adequate funding for public ed. Since the meetings, the federal public school budget has been slashed to pieces and billions of dollars shifted over from public schools to privately-run charters and school vouchers.

Meeting with Elites... Intercept explains:

Hearing Bannon attack elites, including the types of hedge fund Democrats who fund the charter school movement, in the same way she would, was surreal. “He hates crony capitalism,” Weingarten said. “The same kinds of things [we say], you could hear out of his mouth, and that’s why it’s so — you sit there in a surreal way, saying, ‘How can you sit right next to all these elites?'

That would be a great question for Weingarten herself to answer.

No, this is not a time for secret meetings with fascist demagogues. It is a time for organizing and mobilizing rank-and-file resistance.

Randi's school visit gambit with Betsy DeVos

DeVos and Weingarten at Van Wert H.S. 

AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten seems convinced that she can show Trump's Ed. Sec. Betsy DeVos the error of her ways. By touring a few public schools together with DeVos, Randi hopes to show her that public schools are not the devil's workshop after all and should be supported by the D.O.E., rather than demolished as is essentially the stated ambition of the Trump administration.

Even after DeVos' first visit to Jefferson Academy in D.C. began with her having to sneak in the back door to avoid protesting parents and community members and ending with her debasing the teachers there, Weingarten's response has been to plead with DeVos to do another school visit, but this time with her.

I don't know what there is about photo-op school visits she thinks are so powerful as to turn this evangelical hater of anything public into an advocate for public ed. But Randi is a committed corporate liberal who has faith in the good intentions of corporate power brokers and profiteers and her ability to get them to do the right thing if only they give her a seat at the table. Here, I'm thinking back to the union's brief flirtation with Bill Gates or Randi's flights to Chicago to support Rahm's Infrastructure Trust or to London to sit in on Pearson board meetings 

DeVos flees protesters at D.C. school.

So DeVos agreed and she and Randi toured Van Wert H.S. in Ohio together yesterday. The visit got a nice write-up by Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post.

DeVos agreed to visit a traditional public school with Weingarten, who chose to take the education secretary to the small, rural Van Wert school district in Ohio, where about half of the students come from high-poverty neighborhoods. Weingarten wrote in an op-ed that just ran in a local newspaper in Van Wert that she sees the district as a model for others trying to improve:

The hallmarks of successful public schools (and systems) include four essential strategies: promoting children’s well-being, engaging in powerful learning, building teacher and principal capacity, and fostering cultures of collaboration. Van Wert puts these four pillars into practice.

 In contrast, Ohio’s charter schools have been plagued by fraud, mid-year school closings, lying about student attendance to receive additional funding, mismanagement, and an overall lack of accountability that has led even charter proponents to call Ohio the “Wild, Wild West” of charter schools. One study by state auditors found more than $27 million in improperly spent funds at Ohio charters. The Akron Beacon Journal found that “charter schools misspend public money nearly four times more often than any other type of taxpayer-funded agency.”

When DeVos agreed to visit a traditional public school with Weingarten, the union leader agreed to visit a charter school with DeVos. That visit has yet to be scheduled.

If some WaPo ink is all Randi was after, all well and good. But if she's providing some union cover for DeVos in exchange for some credibility with the Trump administration, she's playing a fool's game.

Yesterday's Tweets

Fred Klonsky toon.

Tweet from Randi Weingarten ‏@rweingarten
The Illinois Senate pension proposal is a good and fair agreement: http://bit.ly/10FkSub  #1u 

Reply from Mike Klonsky ‏@mikeklonsky 
It's that much harder to fight cuts to our pensions and health care when @rweingarten is calling them "good" & "fair".. But we will.

Tweet from SmallSchoolsWorkshop‏@Smallschools
@rweingarten How can you call SB 2404 which calls for major cuts in retired teachers' pensions and health care, a "fair solution"?

Tweet from Randi Weingarten‏@rweingarten 
@Smallschools- have you seen the other proposals? This is the agreed upon bill-and I believe retirees were not impacted

Tweet from fklonsky‏

@fklonsky@rweingarten Retirees face a loss of cost of living increases and access to state health care. How do you not know this? 

Tweet from Randi Weingarten‏@rweingarten 
@fklonsky @smallschools -the bill that was negotiated is huge improvement over what others had planned- future retirees have some choices

Tweet from Mike Klonsky‏@mikeklonsky 
@rweingarten @fklonsky "Choices"? You mean between giving up COLA or health benefits? Are those the choices AFT supports? Both bills worse

Tweet from Randi Weingarten‏@rweingarten 
@fklonsky @smallschools - I understand - there's been real support in Ill for the Senate bill- don't let them do what happened in RI..

Tweet from Randi Weingarten @rweingarten 
@fklonsky -fred as u know,Ill pension system in bad shape-everyone doing something to save it-inc 2 year staggered cola holiday 

Everyone?

To be continued...

Shades of Reagan

If there was any doubts that the mass firings of Central Falls H.S. teachers came straight from the top, Obama put them to rest yesterday when he took a public kick at the 93 fired teachers and staff yesterday, blaming them and them only for lagging test scores.

Obama's speech, tantamount to a declaration of war, was reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's 1981 busting of PATCO, the air controllers union and marked a major open break with reform partner Randi Weingarten and the AFT.

The only question now is, will the AFT and NEA stand and fight or lose all credibility as a voice for their 4 million members?

In a joint response, Weingarten and local union officials said:

"We know it is tempting for people in Washington to score political points by scapegoating teachers, but it does nothing to give our students and teachers the tools they need to succeed."

In an interview, Weingarten said Obama's comments about the school "don't reflect the reality on the ground and completely ignore the commitment teachers have made to turn things around." Seemingly trying to put the president's speech in the best light, Weingarten said the union was "profoundly disappointed by the comments" and said the president "seems to be focused on . . . incomplete information."

Does she really think that Obama would make such a strategic move without first getting all the facts?

National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel echoed Weingarten's Obama-is-naive response:

"It's time for federal officials to get out of the blame game and into the classroom. One thing is certain: Firing the entire faculty of a school that is on the path to improvement is no recipe for turning around a struggling high school. And relying on a magical pool of 'excellent teachers' to spring forth and replace them is naïve at best and desperately misguided." ... in reality, we all know that the solution is not blame, it is collaboration...collaboration among school employees, management, parents and communities."

The AFT also took the opportunity to offer a 2009 report that highlights turnover in leadership (6 principals in 4 years) and a variety of conflicting, failed, top-down reform programs.

Yes, to vax and mask mandates. Randi flips for the better.

Randi Weingarten says it's a 'personal matter.'

"In order for everyone to feel safe and welcome in their workplaces, vaccinations must be negotiated between employers and workers, not coerced.  -- Randi Weingarten, Statement July 26th

"Since 1850 we’ve dealt with vaccines in schools, it’s not a new thing to have vaccines in schools. And I think that, on a personal matter, as a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers – not opposing them – on vaccine mandates." -- AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten, Meet the Press (Aug. 8th)

It didn't take very long for AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten to walk back her opposition to vaccine mandates. RW claims her new position is a "personal matter," a "matter of personal conscience." I'm not sure what that means in this context. Is she not speaking for her union? I guess we'll find out soon enough. 

But I'll go out on a limb here and say the real reasons for the shift are fairly obvious. 

~Most teachers and parents want their children to return to school safely. The only way to ensure that is to have all adults and as many children as possible vaccinated and masked. The teachers unions misread community sentiment.

~Hours before his death, AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka made clear his support for vaccine mandates. To have the teacher unions appear to be bucking Trumka on this would be divisive and damaging to the entire labor movement.

~At a time when the Biden White House is weighing vaccine mandates for businesses and the federal workforce, there's no way AFT leaders can allow themselves to be seen as oppositional. I'm pretty sure that Joe Biden and Education Sec. Miguel Cardona applied some screws where needed.  

~Weingarten's initial opposition to mandates would have put her in step with the most reactionary Republican governors in the nation, like Abbott of Texas and DeSantis of Florida.  Both have threatened to punish any school or district that mandated masking or vaxing. DeSantis has even refused to mandate masks and has blocked school districts from requiring them, despite his state leading the nation in pediatric hospitalizations.

There are even more good reasons to explain the union's shift, but I will stop there. I'm just happy for her change of heart on this regardless of what's driving it.

I'm hoping it will get some of our local Chicago union leaders, like AFSCME's Roberta Lynch, who's still opposing mandates, to rethink their positions. Then there's the CTU leadership, who's remaining quiet on the issue. 

**********

With schools set to open in days, the delta variant has brought the danger to young children into sharp relief. In Tennessee, for example, the variant is spreading quickly in children--so quickly, in fact, that the state's health department projects that children's hospitals in TN will be completely full by the end of next week. 

Two children died from COVID-19 over the weekend in Memphis. and children age 10 and under now account for more than 10% of all new coronavirus infections, one of the highest rates of any point during the pandemic. 

The Resistance... Austin, TX school Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde announced that the district will require face masks, defying Gov. Abbott's executive orders banning ​​mask mandates. Entities that defy Abbott's orders face fines of $1,000, but it's unclear if school districts could face multiple fines for violating the order. Abbott's office didn't clarify how the order would be enforced, but in a statement Tuesday it mentioned possible legal action, promising the governor would work with the Texas attorney general to fight "for the rights and freedoms of all Texans." 

IL Gov. Pritzker is moving right ahead with vaccine mandates for many state employees including state prison staff. Last week he announced vaccinations would be required for all state employees who work in highly populated facilities. That includes officers in prisons operated by the Department of Corrections and Juvenile Justice. Republicans immediately filed a lawsuit and the FOP went ballistic. 

Becky Pringle, president of the largest U.S. teachers' union, the National Education Association (NEA), is still hanging on to the old line. I guess she didn't get the memo about personal conscience. She told the NYT last week that any vaccine mandate should be "negotiated at the local level." But it's not clear what there is to negotiate when both sides have the same interests.

There's also no legal platform for such negotiations and with the clock on school openings ticking, there's no time left to bargain. 

Right-wing and neo-fascist media fear-mongers, including populist shockcasters like anti-gay bigot Joe Rogan, have made vax mandates their fave key wedge issue in hopes of driving white, male listeners to the polls next year to restore a MAGA congressional majority.

Rogan, who calls himself a liberal when it's convenient, claims that mandated masks and vaccine passports are driving the country one step closer to "dictatorship." What a fool! 

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.

Newark teachers got the shaft [Updated]

Warning to teachers. Please don't watch this video immediately after eating.

I was sickened to see Randi Weingarten and Tea-Party Gov. Christie on Morning Joe, fawning over each other and over the deal they cut on the Newark teachers' contract. It was the worst display of seat-at-the-table unionism I have seen in years. Both are hailing the deal as a "model" for the rest of the country. I hope against hope that it isn't. Christie called it "the most gratifying day of my governorship, by far." That should tell you something about the deal right there. New Jersey Education Commissioner and chief privatizer Chris Cerf (not be be confused with Che Guevara) called the contract "revolutionary." Union President Joseph Del Grosso was a little more restrained, calling it a "roadmap" and  “a step in the right direction for the teaching profession."

I can understand why many Newark teachers voted for the contract (actually, only a slight majority of city teachers even voted and 62% of them voted yes). They have been forced to work without any contract these past two years, under the state takeover of their schools, and now will receive some retroactive pay. They were also given some input into the design of their own evaluations which are still based largely on student test scores along with peer evaluation, and which will determine whether they receive "merit pay" from now on. So the argument could be made that this was the best they could get. Of course, that's not what Weingarten and Christie are saying.

Teacher pay is now also dependent upon the largesse of billionaires Eli Broad and  know-nothing power philanthropist Mark Zuckerberg who can pull the plug on his $100 million gift at any time -- for example, if Christie or Newark mayor Corey Booker were to be defeated in the next election. This is the same kind of top-down manipulation and leveraging of Gates and Broad grant money that Michelle Rhee and former Mayor Fenty pulled off in D.C. before voters gave them the boot. Newark schools have been turned into beggars operating largely on private funding to circumvent public decision-making. A Tea Party dream come true. 

Teachers are no longer guaranteed pay step and lane increases based on credentials. They can win bonuses for teaching in low-performing schools (not a bad idea in and of itself). Teachers who are deemed "ineffective" based on a test-based, value-added formula, can elect to be rated by an independent "peer validator." That review will be considered before determining their final ratings or whether they should be fired or "mentored." However, Newark School Superintendent Cami Anderson will have the final say if an agreement on a teacher's competence can't be reached. What? Where's the union grievance procedure in all this?

The Star-Ledger reports that Christie is now threatening the NJEA:

The AFT is only affiliated with Newark teachers; the rest of the state’s more than 100,000 teachers are aligned with the New Jersey Education Association, which insists merit pay is discriminatory and a recipe for low morale. "I hope that they would look at this as a model," Christie said of the NJEA. "If they don’t, they’ll become dinosaurs, because this is where education in America is moving, and you can either be part of the difference or you can be run over by it."

Edweek reports that critics of the contract include the members of a new political "caucus" or party within the NFT. Called the New Caucus, the group has posted a number of documents that pick apart aspects of the contract.

The New Caucus seems modeled on the rise of similar groups, such as the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators in Chicago, from which emerged Karen Lewis, the hard-charging president of the Chicago Teachers' Union; and the the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators, a similar one in New York City.

Weingarten was one of Christie’s most prominent critics last year, when he slashed state pensions and health benefits by shifting more costs to public workers. Christie joked that if he could find common ground with Randi Weingarten, then Democratic President Barack Obama should be able to get along with Republicans in Washington. Buckle up, folks. 

Educators have no business supporting war

Damascus after the attack. 

War is the enemy of education, of children and families. Education leaders have no business supporting war or encouraging war-mongering politicians or militarists to invade or bomb other countries. But this is exactly what happened Thursday when Trump bombed Damascus and other Syrian cities in response to the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons in it's war against rebel groups.

Without getting congressional approval, and with Gen. Mattis, and Sarah Huckabee-Sanders admitting there was "no conclusive evidence" the Assad regime had used those weapons (a day before inspectors from the OPCW were attempting to enter Syria) the U.S. launched, what turned out to be a largely symbolic missile attack on selected targets. Those targets may or may not have had anything to do with chemical weapons production.

Symbolic as the raid turned out to be, gaining no U.S. military or political advantage and obviously more for domestic political consumption, one can only imagine the terror felt by Syrian children and families as missiles rained down upon their already war-torn cities. So far, U.S. missiles have already reportedly killed more than 6,000 Syrian civilians. If anything, the attack seemed to rally more Syrians in support of Assad.

WaPo reports:

Hours earlier, civilians and soldiers gathered in Ummayad Square in Damascus for a show of support, waving Syrian flags and dancing to songs that praised the army.

More than that, the missile attack threatened to turn the cold war with Russia into hot war and lead to Israeli-inspired military action against Iran. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed. Reportedly, Pentagon generals were on the hotline with their Russian counterparts before the raid.

[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Dunford said the only communications that took place between the United States and Russia before the operation were “the normal deconfliction of the airspace, the procedures that are in place for all of our operations in Syria.”

You got to love this new word added to the war lexicon, "deconfliction".

Trump has personal interests in avoiding confrontation with Russia. More accurately, he's in bed with Putin and the Russian oligarchs. See how he pulled the rug out from under Nikki Haley after she announced Russian sanctions at the U.N. Meanwhile top Democrats and neocons continue to push for regime change in Syria and expansion of the Syrian conflict to include Russia and Iran.

The thing that angered me most was seeing support for Trump's bombing raid coming from top Democrats and AFT leaders like Randi Weingarten and Leo Casey. Their criticism of Trump was that his attack on Syria "didn't go far enough".

Weingarten called the illegal bombing raid, "a retaliatory strike" as if the U.S. was attacked by Syria.

Then she signaled approval for the attack with this tweet:

Absolutely important to put Syria on notice over Chemical attacks: Trump Orders Strikes on Syria Over Suspected Chemical Weapons Attack via @NYTimes https://t.co/qtMCAxuR06

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) April 14, 2018

None of this is really news. Here's AFT's official statement from a year ago when Trump bombed Syria.

WASHINGTON—Statement by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on U.S. attacks on Syria:

“Syria’s barbaric use of chemical genocide required an immediate response, which President Trump’s missile strikes accomplished last night. While we believe Trump should have gone to Congress first, I find it curious that many members of Congress who are applauding the U.S. strikes had opposed former President Obama when he sought congressional approval for similar action.

Casey went even further, referring to those opposed to the missile attack as "isolationists" and "America Firsters", even accusing anti-war activists of being silent on the settlement of Syrian war refugees. A ridiculous charge.

My unpopular opinion: I see a lot of people who were silent on US' refusal to accept refugees from Syria waxing righteous about the bombing of chemical weapon facilities. It's an America First, isolationist wolf in sheep's clothing.

— Leo Casey (@LeoECasey) April 14, 2018

Pretty vile stuff.

When confronted with the illegality of the attack and it's violation of international law, Casey echoed Trump, tweeting:

If you actually believed in international law, you are a dollar short and a day late.

— Leo Casey (@LeoECasey) April 15, 2018

As expected, support for the bombing also came from top Dem leaders like Nancy Pelosi. 

“Tonight’s strike in Syria appears to be a proportional response to the the regime’s use of chemical weapons. -- Fox News

Shades of '68. It seems, there are now two pro-war parties in the U.S.

Gates threatens to pull $40M in Pittsburgh funds unless union caves on VAM

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten's sudden turn against so-called Value-Added Models (VAM) of teacher evaluation or not.

But I see that in Pittsburgh, Bill Gates is threatening to renege on $40 million he promised the district if the teachers union and PPS don't "work in harmony" to develop a VAM plan in which teachers are evaluated and paid on the basis of their student's test scores. Collaboration in this case obviously means that the city's teachers are forced to accept anything the district throws at them for fear of being blamed for losing the Gates money.

Gates pulled the same crap in D.C.

You may remember that Gates, Broad, and Walton pulled the same crap in D.C. when they, along with Arne Duncan,  threatened to pull out millions in district funding if voters booted out Mayor Fenty and Michelle Rhee. They did.

But Fenty's replacement Vincent Gray and his current Supt. Kaya Henderson (Rhee's assistant) have bowed to the power philanthropists and continued Rhee-ism (including VAM), without Rhee.

This is precisely why AFT rank-and-filers were concerned with when Weingarten accepted millions from Gates for the union's Innovation Fund. "Innovation" has become practically synonymous with VAM.

This is what happens when public schools are forced to go begging to the world's richest man in order to keep "public" education alive. The question now is, are Weingarten and the PFT willing and able to stand up to Gates' blackmail.

I had an interesting give-and-take with Randi yesterday after she Tweeted:

@NEPCtweet @mikeklonsky-I have always been leery abt #VAM-it's in contracts b/c RTTT-compelled state law- not wking in places its been tried
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) 

I responded:

@rweingarten If you were "always leery" why did you praise Cleveland #VAM deal allowing dist to fire teachers after 2 yrs of bad evals?
— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) 

And:

@rweingarten @NEPCtweet But you called New Haven contract "a model" "a template". Doesn't sound like you were "leery" abt #VAM. Does it?
— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) 

And it went on from there. More probing her always leery comment on my part. No real responsiveness on her part, especially about the damage already done in New Haven, Cleveland, N.Y. and now in Pittsburgh. So much for the power of the Tweet.

You can't "trust" Rahm's Infrastructure Trust

More arrests this afternoon at the Chicago Health Dept. as protests continue over the mayor's closing of half the city's mental health clinics.  Word is that another patient just died, allegedly due, directly or indirectly to the closing of their clinic. Some patients, with few means of transportation, have to travel 10 miles or more across town to get treatment.

In what's proving to be one of the biggest lies ever told by a politician, Rahm and the Dept. of Health bureaucrats continue to claim that closing neighborhood health clinics is "good for patients" and that "every City client has a personalized transition plan and is being monitored closely..."

Side note: AFT Prez. Randi Weingarten came to Chicago a few weeks ago to march with 8,000 teachers. She gave a fine speech at the giant CTU support rally.  As readers might recall, I gave her her props for that. However, she was back in town again last week speaking on a panel at Clinton's Global Initiative and in support of Rahm's opaque "Infrastructure Trust" (one of the great misuses of the word Trust, ever), which will supposedly bring thousands of jobs to the city.  What it will more likely do is line the pockets of a handful of Rahm's billionaire patrons and give the mayor an unregulated slush fund to use for his own political advantage. No city program has been rushed through the City Council without careful review since the great parking meter heist during the Daley administration. 

“People want to work,” Weingarten said. “And what we’re seeing, whether it’s the mayor’s infrastructure program here in Chicago or everything else we’re doing around the country, is that when labor and business start working good together on trying to put people back to work with good jobs, when we start building things again, it builds huge hope around the country.”

Weingarten could perhaps be forgiven for jumping on the IT bandwagon, along with nearly all of this town's other union officials. Clinton is rallying the party behind Rahm and the project. The Mayor even put Jorge Ramirez, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, on the board of the Trust. The promise of jobs, no matter how illusory, is pretty enticing.

But in the middle of CTU's difficult contract negotiations, and with Emanuel never missing an opportunity to attack the teachers and sabotage their strike vote; indeed with the union's very existence on the line, Weingarten failed to even mention anything  about the city's priorities -- i.e., keeping schools and mental health facilities running -- or to put pressure on the Mayor even while hailing Caesar. Tactical compromise is one thing. But compromise can't mean no struggle.

WLS Radio's Bill Cameron put it best: "Looking at these two, you would never guess her Chicago affiliate is at war with his school system."

Axelrod's old firm behind 'Infrastructure Trust', Citibank, and attacks on CTU

Obama, Emanuel & Axelrod

Well, mercy me! Look who's behind those ads blasting the CTU. Why, it's ASGK Public Strategies and AKPD, David Axelrod's old firms. An embarrassed Axelrod is claiming that he no longer has any connection to the firms since he sold them in 2009, when he became Obama's Senior White House Advisor. But he's still very much connected (the A stands for Axelrod) and he pulls down a nice $200,000/year from them.

Among ASGK clients are Citibank, the financial giant that received $45 billion in bailout money after helping to cause the global financial collapse. Citi is also the driving force behind the Mayor's so-called Infrastructure Trust scheme. Another client is the Ricketts family, owners of the Cubs. You might recall, it was Joe Ricketts, the right-wing family patriarch, whose PAC planned the racist ad campaign against Pres. Obama. Rahm Emanuel then feigned outrage and threatened to turn his back on the Ricketts' demand for about $500 million in public funding for the renovation of Wrigley Field.

Emanuel’s top spokeswoman says hiring ASGK won’t win Citibank and the Cubs any favors from City Hall. “If you think hiring Axelrod’s old firm will get you special access or privileges, you are sorely mistaken,” says spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton. “No person or company has an inside track into City Hall.”

*****

Sorry for the break in this post. It took me a couple of minutes to get off the floor and back onto my chair after that one. My side still hurts from laughter. 

Another Axelrod-founded firm — AKPD Media and Messaging — recently produced ads critical of the Chicago Teachers Union, which is locked in a contract battle with Emanuel, who seems hell-bent on destroying the city's public employee unions. AKPD oversaw Emanuel’s ad blitz during his mayoral campaign, and the firm is a paid consultant to his political committee, state records show.  

Like ASGK, AKPD continues to pay Axelrod for selling his stake in that firm. AKPD owed him $2 million, to be paid over four years, when he became a White House aide, Axelrod told federal ethics officials.

Both AKPD and ASKG are housed at the same River North address that’s also home to Axelrod Strategies, the firm he founded upon leaving the White House last year. “I rent space in my old offices, but I work full-time out of Obama headquarters these days,” Axelrod says.ASGK’s managing partner, Eric Sedler, won’t talk about the work the firm is doing for the Cubs and Citibank.

And no one, it seems, will say anything about the anti-CTU campaign.  

All this calls into question the motives behind AFT President Randi Weingarten's recent visit to Chicago. Weingarten spoke in support of the Infrastructure Trust at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative Conference. To her credit, Randi had been in town a few weeks earlier to support and march with thousands of rallying union teachers. But now, here she was rallying support for the very forces that were attacking the CTU in a massive media campaign. According to the Sun-Times report:  

Emanuel was seated onstage next to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, whose largest member union, the Chicago Teachers Union, [was] taking a strike-authorization vote this week, frustrated with Emanuel’s administration, which killed a negotiated 4 percent raise for the teachers last year. Emanuel has said he thinks teachers deserve a raise. His board has offered a 2 percent raise in the first year of a proposed five-year contract and no guaranteed raise after that.

Weingarten and Emanuel didn’t go near that issue Thursday.

Why not?

Cross-posted on Schooling in the Ownership Society. 

SOS Labor Panel and Workshop at upcoming convention

Weingarten calls for "new unionism"

After stops in Cleveland and Philly, two cities now viewed as "models" of privatization by the corporate reformers, I'm headed to D.C. this morning to take part in the upcoming SOS Convention. I'll be part of the convention's Labor Panel and Workshop, which is looking even more interesting in light of the so-called "solutions driven unionism" being pushed by AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten.

Weingarten, who was re-elected this week for a third term as union president with 98 percent of the vote, is claiming a mandate for her approach to dealing with corporate reform. She's holding up recently signed agreements in New Haven and Cleveland as models of collaboration, agreements which include teacher evaluations and merit pay based on student test scores.

All this should provide fodder for an interesting discussion within SOS as the fledgling organization tries to figure out how to support teacher unions and collective-bargaining rights now under attack nationwide, while maintaining its own badly-needed organizational unity. The labor workshop will likely produce a resolution calling for support for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in its contract negotiations with the mayor's hand-picked school board -- a battle that still could lead to a strike next month. The CTU's fight-back approach, which has mobilized support from parents and community allies, is seen by many inside and outside the AFT as a counter to Weingarten's new unionism. Last week, the CTU forced important concessions from Rahm and the board, and a CTU victory without a strike now seems possible. Such a victory could set a more militant tone for other contract negotiations.

Messing with the headlines

To close or fix struggling schools?

Here's the headline on yesterday's AP story by Libby Quaid: OBAMA WANTS TO SEE 5,000 FAILING SCHOOLS CLOSE. The same exact Quaid piece ran again today with this headline: OBAMA WANTS TO TURN AROUND 5,000 FAILING SCHOOLS.

The headline was also changed in the online editions of several newpapers, including the Sacramento Bee,. Quaid's piece, which was picked up by global media outlets, offered no attribution for the original headline statement. But the article came on the heels of a meeting between Obama and the three bedfellows, Bloomberg, Gingrich, and Sharpton. Did the novice Quaid simply accept their spin on Obama's position and run with it without checking? Or are Obama and Duncan really pushing such a massive school-closing policy? If they are, then why no direct quotes or White House press releases on such an important policy shift?

To be continued.

******

Meanwhile, the AFT's Weingarten is making her presence felt at the "reform" table, offering a trade-off with Bloomberg--support for mayoral control in exchange for keeping neighborhood schools open. While the press focused on the Bloomberg's kiss on Randi's cheek (it's Spring and love is in their air), here's the meat of the Daily News story:

Weingarten Saturday proposed a way to turn around failing schools without shutting them down, offering teachers a reason to line up behind the mayor. "If somebody wants to look at it as an olive branch, they'll look at it as an olive branch," she said...

Weingarten's idea for helping troubled schools would be funded with Race to the Top grants, stimulus money from Washington specifically set aside for school reform. Weingarten cited three supposedly failing schools originally slated for closure this year - including Middle School 399 in the Bronx - where reading tests scores skyrocketed as proof that some schools need to be given a second chance.

AFT's early Clinton endorsement is creating a rank-and-file backlash

The AFT's early endorsement of Hillary Clinton comes as no surprise, at least to me. Randi Weingarten and the current AFT leadership has long been tied to the Clinton's political organization by a thousand threads.

After all, the 1.6 million-member union backed Clinton over Obama in the 2008 primary, even as Barack was running to become the country's first African-American president.

Weingarten sits alongside the biggest Democratic Party fundraisers on the board of Clinton's SuperPAC, Priorities USA Action, a PAC which in the past has been riddled by fights between Obama and Clinton factions.

This is the way things are done in the AFT.

When incumbent Obama ran unopposed in the 2012 primary, the AFT rushed to endorse him without making any demands or getting anything in the way of pro-union, pro-teacher concessions from an administration and a political party that had clearly turned a deaf ear towards the interests of public school educators and parents. The early endorsement didn't sit well then with many rank-and-file teachers (including even many Obama supporters) who saw the move as crass opportunism and a give-away of any leverage the union might have had in shaping policy on issues like testing, teacher evaluation or Common Core.

Leave it to Weingarten to proclaim last month -- without any self-reflection -- that...

"Despite the best intentions, what essentially happened here is President Obama and [Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan essentially followed the No Child Left Behind-Bush template in terms of testing and charters and sanctions.There's a growing consensus that we need a reset to educational policy in the country."

So there was never any doubt in my mind that another Hillary early endorsement was forthcoming. What did surprise me was the clumsy and self-defeating way it was done, once again without bringing the membership along or getting or asking for anything from Clinton in exchange.

The AFT executive board did meet with Clinton and Democratic Party rivals  Sanders, and O'Malley, (Chafee had not yet announced) to discuss issues. But issues were never really the issue here since all are pretty much indistinguishable on public education matters and none of the Clinton contenders appear to have the money or juice within the party to win the nomination -- not counting a major Clinton campaign stumble.

Clinton has come out in favor of of tying teacher pay to student performance on standardized tests. She has been outspoken in support of privately-run charter schools.

In fact, the only thing the union got from Hillary was this vague statement of support, reminiscent of many made by Obama and Duncan over the past 7 years.

"It is just dead wrong to make teachers the scapegoats for all of society's problems," Clinton told the AFT. "Where I come from, teachers are the solution. And I strongly believe that unions are part of the solution, too."

Sanders and O'Malley made similar statements.

In a social-media announcement I received yesterday, RW claims the leadership surveyed "a million" AFT members before making the endorsement with an overwhelming 3-1 majority voicing support for Hillary over the Sanders and the other contenders. The announcement calls Clinton, "the champion of working families" and asks those of us in social media to sport these I'm With Hillary social media badges. I won't be sporting any.

I'm dubious about the million-member survey mainly because I can't find even one rank-and-file teacher here in Chicago who says they were polled. If there's indeed 3-1 membership support for the early (nothing-in-return) endorsement, it sure isn't showing up on Twitter or other social media. You would think that RW would have a host of rank-and-file teachers all over social media proclaiming their support for the endorsement. Instead there appears to be an swell of anger and resentment, at least from ed activists over the endorsement and the leadership's undemocratic (small d) leadership style. No surprise there either.

A petition circulated yesterday, calling on the union to revoke its endorsement, got thousands of signatures in just a few hours.

I did see one official poll done by Hart Research Associates of 1,150 union members. But that's a far cry from 1 million.

Here’s the memo from our pollster—Hart Research, one of top firms in US—on their findings of our member poll http://t.co/mhIt9HfpVQ

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) July 12, 2015

BTW, guess who runs Hart Research Associates? None other than Geoff Garin, who briefly served as co-chief strategist for Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign. Geoff's company also works for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which has poured millions into the AFT coffers in an attempt to influence union policy.

So yes, the Clinton juggernaut is rolling. Clinton PAC money is flowing. Look for its influence to be felt not just on unions (the NEA will have no choice but to follow suit) but on local community organizations and social movements as we head toward 2016.

It would be ironic however, if the bullish and undemocratic way the Clinton endorsement was done leads to a rank-and-file backlash that ends up actually hurting, rather than helping the campaign and letting Hillary and the Democrats once again, off the hook on education policy.

Day one of the AFT/Quest Conference

AFT President Randi Weingarten lays out the union's line on charters

Weingarten said charter schools should be held to the same standards as other public schools and they "should not be pitted against each other."

"Successful charter schools should be applauded and should share their lessons; troubled charter schools that fail their students should be held accountable and closed; and charter school teachers should be supported and given the right to union membership and voice," she said.

Weingarten cautioned elected leaders not to walk away from their responsibility to help all public schools succeed "by turning entire public school systems into charter schools." (AFT-Quest 2009)

McCain was no 'hero' for labor or for public education

Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney at the memorial service for Sen. John McCain.

Okay, I understand why liberal pols, former presidents, congressional colleagues and union officials are being "civil" and paying their respects to Sen. John McCain. Some, like AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten, are spreading McCain-love around right now, in order to take shots at Donald Trump, his hated Republican competitor.

Others like neocon warmongers, Henry Kissinger, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman spoke adoringly at McCain's funeral in order to try and salvage something of what's left of the old GOP.

I'm okay with trying to take advantage of splits in the enemy's camp. I will even give McCain credit for being a voice for mild campaign finance reform and against the use of torture ("enhanced interrogation") of prisoners.  But gushing and going overboard in praise of McCain on the part of Democrats and union officials only makes them look like opportunists.

Case in point...Weingarten, who's not even running for office, lavished unnecessary praise on McCain, calling him "a hero of America". His heroism being all about his role as a village-bombing Air Force pilot and then a POW in Vietnam. I hope she can understand why those of us who fought so hard against that genocidal war, including many members of her own union, will take a knee on that one.

But the great irony here is that Randi's "hero" spent a career making war on organized labor, and teacher unions in particular. This piece from the N.C. AFL-CIO in response to the McCain/Palin 2008 presidential campaign, lays it out pretty well.

McCain rarely met an anti-union or anti-public-school bill he didn't like. He was the main sponsor of legislation supporting privately-run charters and vouchers. In his 2008 debate with Barack Obama, he called it, "the civil rights issue of the 21st century".

 And all this while more than 50,000 Arizona teachers were wildcat-striking for union rights and decent pay in one of the most anti-union states in the nation.

He was also okay with school districts opting to teach creationism. Supported the ban on teaching ethnic studies. Voted against the King holiday. And then there's his lifetime support of war, the greatest enemy of children and education along with massive defense spending, which takes billions of dollars directly out of American classrooms.

No, John McCain was no "hero" when it came to schools, teachers or their unions. Pay respects to the McCain family if you must. But no more B.S. please.

Not one iota of civility for a hero of America!!! Trump allies fume at McCain memorial addresses, urge counterattack - POLITICO https://t.co/c2gPymT0Xf

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) September 2, 2018

DAY 10 -- Support builds and the media curtain has finally lifted.

Rep. Rob Martwick and other pols step up. Martwick is sponsor of the Elected School Board bill. 

The Tribune and Sun-Times have finally discovered the hunger strike. So has the Washington Post.

A SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten who flew in yesterday to speak in support of the strikers. She was joined by a group of pols including Reps. Martwick, Flowers, Hernandez & Ford; Commissioner Chuy Garcia; Progressive Caucus Alders John Arena, Sue Susan Sadlowski Garza, Carlos Rosa and others.

Pres. Weingarten & hunger striker Jitu Brown

Weingarten called the community's proposal for a public (not charter or "contract") Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School, “the best proposal I have seen in my entire career.” 

CTU V.P. Jesse Sharkey spoke. As did IFT Pres. Dan Montgomery. CTU Pres. Karen Lewis voiced her support in the Defender.

I spoke on the phone yesterday with Stanford Prof. Linda Darling-Hammond who voiced her support for the hunger strikers.

Ald. Will Burns is alleged to be hiding under the mayor's desk.

With striker Jeanette Ramann hospitalized yesterday after collapsing at the CPS board meeting and Irene Roninson hospitalized Monday, many of the strikers are now feeling the effects. But still no action on the part of the mayor or his puppet school board.

But don't think board members aren't feeling the heat. At the Board of Education Wednesday, one gallery speaker after another called on CPS to approve the green tech plan for Dyett.

According to the Sun-Times, board member Mahalia Hines called for some resolution to the Dyett question.

“This has been going on well beyond this board and I think we either need to get a yes or a no.” 

Board president Frank Clark (former ComEd CEO) replied:

“The Board is not immune to the people who choose to enter into a hunger strike and put their health at stake to get a resolution on something important to them... We do need to reach a conclusion, it may or may not be the conclusion that everybody wants, but a conclusion I think is necessary as soon as we can do that.”

You can tell when they're nervous. The room fills up with double-talk.

#FightForDyett #WeAreDyett Beautiful Photo by @OLBLightBrigade and @MTEAunion pic.twitter.com/2YOOggb6lk

— phillip cantor (@phillipcantor) August 27, 2015

Was Hillary misquoted? Taken out of context?

"I Wouldn’t Keep Any School Open That Wasn’t Doing A Better Than Average Job”

Let me start by saying, I don't think Hillary Clinton has either the will or the power to close half of America's schools. But her recent comments still deserve a strong critical response.

When I posted the video of Hillary's speech in Iowa -- the one where she says she wants "below average" schools closed -- I fully expected the response I got from Team Clinton, which includes of course, both national teacher unions. Clinton apologists immediately moved into circle-the-wagons mode with the AFT damage-control squad doing the heavy lifting. Remember, it was AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten who felt compelled to endorse Hillary long before she even announced her candidacy.

First came a tweet from Hillary's senior policy adviser Ann O'Leary. She retweeted a post from (can you guess?) Alexander Russo who in turn posted Hillary's statement as quoted in US News -- the same exact statement that's in the video above -- in order to somehow show that HC's school closing call was "taken totally out of context."

Please read this article explaining the context of the remarks, which were obviously taken totally out of context: https://t.co/WuNfnla8nw

— Ann O'Leary (@Ann_OLeary) December 23, 2015

No they weren't.

It's true that the gist of Hillary's speech was a call for fair and adequate funding for Iowa's rural schools. She's always been a supporter of more funding for public education as well as a voice for the expansion of early childhood programs. She deserves a SmallTalk salute for that.

But it was precisely in that context that she makes abundantly clear, her rationale for her defense of these schools is that they are "above average". As for schools that aren't -- she clearly says, they should be closed.

More from O'Leary:

Hillary's entire career has been a commitment to fixing struggling schools, not shutting them down. #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/Gv39eueIuI

— Ann O'Leary (@Ann_OLeary) December 23, 2015

School-closer Rahm laughs it up with pal Hillary.

That's great. Perhaps, O'Leary could produce just one example of Hillary's opposition to mass school closings from such a long and distinguished career. A quote or two in opposition to Chicago's school closings carried out by none other than Clinton favorite, Rahm Emanuel would do.

While she hasn't really been that significant a figure on ed policy, I remember that as the senator from N.Y., Hillary was an early supporter of No Child Left Behind, which mandated sanctions, including closing, of hundreds of low-scoring schools. Up until very recently, she was reaffirming her support for NCLB. She also been a strong backer of charter schools (she's been somewhat critical of their "cherry picking" lately) and Teach For America.

Next one up doing damage control was the AFT's Michelle Ringuette. She's Randi's assistant for Labor, Government Relations and Political Affairs. She blames the Washington Times for biased editing of HC's speech.

I'm suspicious any time the Wash Times starts aggressively moving a clip out of sync with rest of remarks. https://t.co/FCaZGBDirS

— Michelle Ringuette (@Ringuette) December 23, 2015

And then there was this  Randi Weingarten herself:

@MikeKlonsky campaign made it clear: she went to IA fight closure, will work to fix, not close, schools pic.twitter.com/vzPZAKlN9k

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 23, 2015

Hard to know what to make of that. So Hillary went to Iowa to fight school closings but along the way, called for the closing of "below average" schools.

If I was Randi or O'Leary or any of Hillary's handlers right now, I would sit her down and explain the problem with identifying schools as average, above average, or below average. Perhaps she's mixing things up with the Lake Wobegon effect. Or maybe she was looking back fondly on NCLB's mandate that all students will perform above average by the year 2014.

Next, I would advise her to admit that she misspoke in the Iowa speech, and then say what she really meant, ie. "I'm for fixing schools not closing them," and move on from there. If she doesn't, the Republicans are going to have a field day with her speech. Like ISIS with a Trump speech, if you know what I mean.

She might also admit, as most of her fellow Dems have already done, that NCLB was a (bi-partisan) mistake. One that it will take years to recover from.

Don't even get me started on Race To The Top, the greatest school-closing initiative in recent history.

Weingarten at Pearson Stockholders' Meeting

In a scene right out of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, AFT President Randi Weingarten goes to London, hat-in-hand, to plead (more sir) for Pearson's Board of Directors to stop spying on students who may have been chatting on social media about the PARCC exam.

Now there's nothing wrong with union leaders (even belatedly) joining with the thousands of their own members, parents and students, who have been demanding that Pearson end this vile practice. In fact, they should have been out front of the national revolt against Common Core standards and imposed testing madness in the first place. Yes, we need to turn up the heat, not just on Pearson, but on our own politicians who take campaign money from Pearson, and on those school district leaders who throw multi-million-dollar, no-bid contracts Pearson's way to impose their own mis-education policies on our teachers and public schools.

"Please sir..."

But there was something in RW's pathetic appeal to these global education profiteers -- recognizing their sovereign right to profit, while at the same time, asking them politely to temper their spying activities and to "mediate the contract language" that allows such practices -- that shamed me as an educator and a public school parent.

Weingarten's plea:

While I recognize the Pearson has a duty to its shareholders to be profitable, my question centers on another obligation. That is to conduct business in a way that befits the world's leading education organization.

This while the AFT and its own state affiliates have signed on to the very legislation that allows or mandates these practices. This while half-a-million parents back in her home state of New York are actively and courageously opting-out of Common Core testing. This also after her wishy-washy and bewildering response to a question posed to her by Diane Ravitch at the Chicago NPE meeting:

Ravitch: "Where do you stand on the Opt-Out Movement?
R.W.:  “Every parent should have the right to opt out or not to opt out.”

As if parents were being forced to opt out... by who? How?



I wish RW a speedy return to the U.S. so she can explain this gobbledygook to those parents.