EIA Reports: Weingarten Attacks “Austerity-Mongers” in Speech at Jamaica Resort

Weingarten chose an unfortunate time and place to go after the heartless money-grubbers. The biggest issue currently facing the 24,000-member Jamaica Teachers Association is the disappearance and apparent embezzlement of at least $52 million from its accounts.  ... Educational Intelligence Agency

The big Weingarten stories are her comments on St. Louis (where she wants to help fire "bad" teachers) and Philadelphia where schools are getting the royal screwing from Democratic politicians the AFT local SUPPORTED. Oh well. But this snarky (as usual - which is what we love about anti-union Mike Antonucci) post about Weingarten in Jamaica is so criss.

Note that Randi argues that poverty is important. Did she call for family incomes to be factored into VAM? Just curious since I am a bit out of touch. Let me know if she did.

Mike has the video of Randi up on his site.

Weingarten Attacks “Austerity-Mongers” in Speech at Jamaica Resort

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Intercepts

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Weingarten Attacks “Austerity-Mongers” in Speech at Jamaica Resort

Written By: Mike Antonucci - Aug• 22•13

 

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten delivered the keynote speech last Monday at the annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers Association, held at the Sunset Jamaica Grande resort in Ocho Rios. She used the occasion to draw parallels between AFT’s situation and that of the JTA.

“I call them ‘austerity-mongers’,” Weingarten said. “They say that education is really important, but then, when we say that family poverty makes a difference, they say that’s an excuse.”

Weingarten chose an unfortunate time and place to go after the heartless money-grubbers. The biggest issue currently facing the 24,000-member Jamaica Teachers Association is the disappearance and apparent embezzlement of at least $52 million (Jamaican) from its accounts (about $512,000 U.S.).

The teacher delegates were further dismayed when it was revealed that the extent of the fraud could, in fact, reach $112 million (about $1.1 million U.S.), as the auditor’s report showed that amount in difference between it and the organisation’s financial statements.
According to the JTA financial statements, the organisation made a surplus of $72 million for the period. However, the auditor’s report reflected a deficit of $40 million.
“How come we don’t hear of anybody being fired or anybody resigning?” one delegate questioned. Another suggested that persons be jailed for the fraud.

That’s a possible theft of $46 U.S. per member. The average Jamaican teacher earns about $18,000 U.S. annually. Four employees of the union’s account department were placed on paid leave during the investigation, with one person of interest, Marlon Francis, still at-large. He is being sought by the Fraud Squad.
It’s not known whether Weingarten offered any advice to JTA from her wealth of experience on how to deal with union fraud, but JTA seems to have learned American communications strategy pretty well. There is no mention of the missing funds on JTA’s web site.

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Ravitch Friends Randi, Fiorillo and Many Others Object

Randi is just the mirror image of Michelle Rhee.  ... Mike from Texas, comment on Ravitch blog, My Friend, Randi Weingarten

Randi Weingarten is no friend of teachers, and has been at the center of virtually every catastrophe that has befallen us and public education in the past fifteen-plus years. ...She is part of the problem, and there will be no effective opposition to the hostile takeover of the public schools until she and her disastrous policies are repudiated by working teachers. ,,,, Michael Fiorillo, comment on Ravitch blog, My Friend, Randi Weingarten.

This comment is interesting in what it doesn't say: "who would folks prefer has Randi Weingarten’s ear: Diane Ravitch or ArneRhee&Co?" Randi as head of the AFT  should be leading the fight. Why should Diane have to compete for Randi's ear over ArneRhee? The very nature of the question is a condemning one. I too trust Diane who along with people like Leonie Haimson, a parent not a teacher, have led the fight that our supposed union leaders have abdicated. ... Ed Notes, comment on Ravitch blog.

Yes I do trust Diane and I have no problem with her being friends with Randi. Even now if I see Randi I am friendly. This is not personal as I always used to tell Randi but political.

Diane's post has gotten loads of comments, almost all unfavorable to Randi, from all over the nation. And for those who mistakenly think that her chosen successor Mike Mulgrew is trying to distance himself from Randi, those are just words, not action, designed to give a false impression.

Randi is triangulating, straddling the fence between ed deform and union leader, unwilling to fight them on every front. Witness the difference from the Chicago teachers.

Here is Michael's full comment - check all of them out and leave your own.

Michael Fiorillo
July 10, 2013 at 9:20 am
With all due respect, Diane, as a NYC public school teacher who has had to live under the consequences of her leadership, local and national, I must disagree with you about Randi Weingarten.

In 2002, the UFT under Randi’s leadership agreed to mayoral control of the schools, a policy it maintains to this day. Mayoral control has been the primary vehicle for destabilizing, taking over and privatizing public education in NYC, and has provided a national media stage for the untruths and deceptions based upon it. Towards that end, Weingarten frequently appeared at dog and pony shows where Bloomberg/Klein’s spurious test scores were touted to the public.

In 2005, Weingarten negotiated a contract that eliminated seniority transfers, whereby excessed teachers or teachers at closing/reorganizing schools were guaranteed positions at other schools based on seniority. It was that contract – which also eliminated teacher’s right to grieve letters to their personnel files – that led directly to the epidemic of school closings in recent years, since Bloomberg and his DOE apparatchiks could now close a school and compel teachers to re-apply for their jobs, and which has led to an army of senior teachers, many of them racial and ethnic minorities, being professionally destroyed.

The destruction of the neighborhood public school, one of the primary objectives of so-called education reform, was enabled and accelerated by this.

In 2009, Weingarten said and did nothing while Bloomberg used his fortune to overturn a term limits law that had twice been approved by NYC voters.

Later that year, she convened a union governance committee, on which I served, to develop alternatives to mayoral dictatorship of the schools, which was scheduled to either sunset or be re-authorized that year. While I and others developed a minority plan that involved much greater community involvement in the running of the schools, the leadership-approved plan would have been a marked improvement over what we have now.

But it was not to be, because Randi Weingarten, without consulting what is nominally the Union’s highest body, its Delegate Assembly, casually threw out that plan and unilaterally endorsed the re-authorization of mayoral dictaorship of the schools virtually unchanged. She actually had the nerve to publicly state at the time that mayoral control had brought stability to the schools.

Shortly after, she and her protege Michael Mulgrew sat on their hands and made no endorsement in the mayoral election, allowing Bloomberg to be re-elected when he was vulnerable to defeat. I assume they thought that by shutting up, they’d get a contract for us. But Bloomberg correctly read their weakness, and four years later we still have no contract, despite her protege’s having enshrined VAM, Common Corporate Standards and evaluation checklists in state law. Her protege and vizier in NYC, despite his faux tough guy persona, got nothing for those concessions.

Dozens and dozens of schools have been closed since then, affecting thousands of children and teachers.

I could go on and on: her coziness with Eli Broad, AFT-sponsored seminars on for-profit opportunities in education at the Aspen Institute, helicoptering in to cities and negotiating contracts, as in Newark, that use the pseudo science of VAM in teacher evaluations, doing nothing while politically-connected charter operators cannibalize public school facilities, egging on her own apparatchiks to boo teachers who opposed having Bill Gates as the keynote speaker at the 2010 AFT convention, while Gates returned the favor the following week by attacking our pensions.

Sure, Randi will write a letter, or get special treatment when arrested at a ritualistic, photo op demonstration protesting policies that she has enabled. Alll of that is misdirection and political triangulation, permitting her to point to a few chosen sound bites when overwhelmed teachers look to her for support.

It’s obviously not my place to question your personal friendships, Diane, but Randi Weingarten is no friend of teachers, and has been at the center of virtually every catastrophe that has befallen us and public education in the past fifteen-plus years.

She is part of the problem, and there will be no effective opposition to the hostile takeover of the public schools until she and her disastrous policies are repudiated by working teachers.

Lisa North adds:

That is she has done nothing to mobilize parents, students, teachers, and community members to organize the fight back it will take to push the privatizers out of public education and really create a strong well functioning school system. The AFT and NEA do have some of the resources to help make that happen. Missing in action.

Michael Pat D:

I would choose Ravitch also and basically trust her leadership and reproach of the ed deformers. BUT we are not out from under Randi. She is as powerful as ever. She has helped to procure some very bad contracts around the country as the President of the AFT as well as the disastrous ones here in NY. She has a strong finger, still, in NYC’s pie and she makes sure she keep Mulgrew in line. She is not our friend. Friends strengthen each other. They don't stab you in the back looking for their moment in the lime light. as Randi does by courting some of the major ed deformers. A friend fights alongside you for what is right. She is not “in our court.” Damage is still being done and Weingarten, unfortunately, is a major player in the cause.

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Obama Cuts Drones But Can't Guarantee Safety of Karen Lewis

"We have Al Qaeda on the run but right now the biggest threat to our agenda is Karen Lewis and the Chicago Teachers Union," said an Obama spokesperson.

Karen Lewis seeking drone

"Our pal Rahm Emanuel has been forced to close 50 schools in retaliation for the strike led by Lewis and now suffers poll numbers so low they are getting close to the interest rate. He is actually being criticized for using money he saves by closing schools to put $100 million into building a new basketball arena where our president and Arne Duncan will be able to shoot hoops once their term in office is over. For that Rahm is being called the most loathsome politician in America? How dare they?"

"And some in the media have started ganging up on some of our allies like Michelle Rhee. And Arne Duncan's poor record in running the Chicago schools for so many years has been re-examined due to the work of Karen Lewis' union.

"And then to top it all our hand-picked crew to beat her in the election got only 20% of the vote despite being supported by our press pals at the Chicago Tribune, thus showing Chicago teachers will not go to the woodshed like the lambs being led by Randi Weingarten, our most important asset, who by the way we have supplied a military escort to protect, but let me point out that we are not using public money for Randi's escort since Bill Gates is paying."

"Getting Bin Laden was so much easier."

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Randi's "Mid-Course" Babble on Common Core: Who's doing more harm to public education, Glenn Beck or Randi Weingarten?

Can we call for a moratorium on Randi Weingarten? -- Fred Smith

Susan Ohanian asked that intriguing question about Glenn Beck and Randi in the headline. The amount of damage Randi's AFT/UFT capitulation has done to public education is exposed as parents and teachers reacted to Weingarten's worthless words to cover her ass with a soundbite when the entire common core crap she has had the AFT/UFT push down everyone's throats comes apart, as so much of ed deform has before it, ed deform that Weingarten supported and enabled.

Here is more from Susan:

Extreme Common Core rhetoric clouds serious debate
The fact that Phyllis Schlaffley and I agree on opposing the Common Core doesn't scare me. . . or drive me into alignment with her other opinions. If you doubt her proposition about training students to be obedient servants of the government, think about the way teachers are being forced to become obedient servants of the government's Common Core. Remember: the Feds are pushing the Common Core States agreed to adopt the Common Core only because they didn't want to risk access to federal monies. Of course state departments of education are now rushing to push quite bizarre curriculum.

I'm disappointed that Valerie Strauss chooses to give lots of ink to the "teachers need more time" approach a la Randi Weingarten. I commented on Weingarten's 'teachers need more time' strategy here.

Teachers don't need more time to learn the Common Core. They need to stand up for their right make professional decisions. They need to learn how to say no. The outrage is that teachers have no union or professional organization to organize and bolster their professional independence.

Who's doing more harm to public education? Glenn Beck or Randi Weingarten?

It's a question worth discussing. 

Susan is in town for the weekend to speak at a conference I can't attend. I was hoping to discuss that question and I'm hoping she will be around for a chat.

Yesterday I posted about about media mea culpas (or mid-course corrections if you prefer) regarding ed deform (As Ed Deform Failures Mount, Mid-Course Correction for Former Cheerleaders Merrow, Goldstein, Weingarten) and promised a follow-up today on Randi Weingarten's common core moratorium speech the other day. How people still take her waffling seriously still baffles me.

There were some good comments on my post:

Michael FiorilloMay 2, 2013 at 1:40:00 PM EDT

There's a quote attributed to Churchill, where he supposedly said of the Germans, that they're either "at your feet or at your throat."

In fact, this perfectly describes the cravenness of the media and most journalists: they sycophantically build people up, then join the lynch mob to bring them down.

While I'm pleased that John Merrow - whose recent reporting on Michelle Rhee is superb - and Dana Goldstein finally seem to be half-awake about what so-called education reform really means, that does not excuse the fact that they have helped enable the ongoing destruction of public education and teaching with their earlier credulous, hero-worshipping, accept-the-premises-of-the-powerful coverage.

It's a good thing that they are finally exposing some of the racist, class war elements embedded in so-called education reform, but they're also one of the reasons we face the dilemmas we do.

As for Weingarten, she's hopeless, and is not correcting anything. She is merely throwing out some sound bites she can refer to later, so she can (falsely) claim that she opposes high stakes testing. In fact, she bears as much responsibility as anyone for the life-or-death situation the public schools and their teachers face. She could have strangled this bad seed in its crib, yet she chose to collaborate with those who would destroy the public schools and teacher unions.

Her speech this week was a favor granted for past services rendered, giving her a stage for her membership, since there's no chance whatsoever that Tisch, King, Cuomo and the rest will listen to her, and she's knows that full well.

Anon: The latest edition of the AFT paper prominently displays a photo of Karen Lewis CTU President at a rally protesting school closings. Weingarten and her comments are to be taken with two grains of salt as she now speaks out against the common core. She is as phony as a two dollar blomberg Bill. Looks like the AFT wants to take credit for the CTU stand against the reformers. Too little Too late.

There were many comments on Leonie's NYCEducationNews:

Lisa Donlan leads off with some great points that touch on the teacher centric approach vs the broader social justice aspect that MORE advocates:

More salient to the anti HSST is the failure here to question the entire data driven accountability model of the last decade. Rather, teachers need more time and more better curricula aligned w/ the more better tests to meet the deeper higher standards of CCLS.

So many missed opportunities to offer real opposition and raise real issues, such as exposing the actual costs of these tests and data systems as compared to the inadequate sums granted to districts in RttT or the outrageous premiums paid to corporations to develop the much in demand national curricula (rather than state by state as previously), etc, etc.

Once again, in order to be "relevant" and keep a seat at the table, the teachers' union relies on the "yes, but" approach, accepting the basic premises of bad policy and disagreeing only w/how the implementation affects teachers.

What if instead they applied the Karen Lewis sniff test:
Does this advance our goals?
Does this create unity and consensus among allies/
What a different speech this would be!

There is just so much to lament in this speech, starting w/ the "public school on the LES" she cites, which is in fact a HIGHLY selective citywide Gifted and Talented school that has a long history of exclusion of LES, and high needs kids in general (and where Eva's eldest kid is enrolled!). See my posting at GS for more details
http://gothamschools.org/2013/04/30/weingarten-calling-for-moratorium-on-common-core-stakes/

Tim Slekar at The Chalkface (full post at bottom):

This is not “solution driven unionism.”  This is individual protectionism. This is nothing more than a massive sell out of AFT membership and American public school children. Randi Weingarten’s call for a “moratorium on the consequences of high stakes testing with the Common Core standards” is worthless! We don’t need a moratorium on “consequences” associated with the Common Core.  We need the abolition of all high-stakes testing and dissolution of the Common Core. Anything else is a capitulation to the destructive forces of the education reform machine!

Loretta Prisco:

She sings the same tune as Mulgrew- It's not mayoral control - only this mayor. It is not high stakes testing - only the way they are being implemented. It is not common core - on the way that they are presented without teacher input an training.

Justin Wedes:

What a courageous stand, Randi! ... let the corporate reformers institute their national curriculum and THEN test the hell out of the kids. Ugh.

Fred Smith:

This outrages me. When did Randi get the memo? Why don't these poseurs get lost!!! The leaderless UFT would rather control a corrupt system than clean it up. Yours truly called for a moratorium, before I knew which way the wind was blowing. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/n-y-testing-parents-patience-article-1.1193382. Do I get royalties?

Some people did not take exception to Randi's speech, which prompted some debate. 

Deb Meier:

Clarify for me---what is it about her speech or demands etc etc that angers you so? Spell it out for me. Thanks. Deb

Justin Wedes:

What angers me is that Randi could easily stand up and say "Enough is enough! End the Common Core! End high stakes testing! Let's tax the corporations and use the money to give districts autonomy and the needed resources to create their own culturally-relevant curriculum rather than selling out our children to a corporate logo-laden national curriculum designed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" but instead we get this luke-warm, please-nobody-except-Arne-Duncan nonsense. This article pretty much sums up - generously to Randi, in my opinion - where the country stands on Common Core.

Jim Devor agrees with Deb:

Deborah,
As explained in the article pointed to by Justin, the Common Core "standards emphasize critical thinking and problem solving and encourage thinking deeply about fewer topics." Given the hysterical response on this list to Randi's speech, it is obvious that the objection is NOT to its implementation, but rather the very IDEAS underlying the Common Core. Or as the Jefferson Airplane sang in my youth, "got to revolution!" Apparently then, actually developing a coherent pedagogical policy is only suitable for the Upper Classes - not the peasants who attend public schools and CERTAINLY not for the teachers who toil in those corrupt and decrepit vineyards.

Lisa Donlan replies:

Just like NCLB closed the achievement gap and RttT fostered innovation and flexibility! Let's not confuse the hype w/ the reality.

Deb Meier:

But surely you don't expect her to say that. And I'm not sure most teachers would want her to do so. We've got a lot of work still to do to persuade our colleagues. You do so daily I'm sure, and it's frustrating but... there's more to be done!!!!

Jim Devor:

Lisa,
I agree with you that much of the Common Core stuff is hype. At a minimum, it would be nice if a curriculum were developed that could be examined and critiqued. Still, just as reducing the achievement gap IS a worthy goal, so is a lot of the values underlying Common Core. After all, it shares many of the precepts found in progressive education as advanced by John Dewey. Merely because hucksters are trying to make a buck off it don't make it fundamentally wrong. I kind of think that was Randi's point. But I could be wrong.

While we're at it, make sure to sign this petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-new-york-state-department-of-education-make-the-2013-nys-common-core-exams-available-for-public-viewing

If we're getting screwed, we have the right to see the screwdrivers.


Below is the full ChalkFace piece

high stakes testing moratorium? @slekar says not enough!

April 30, 2013 By Timothy D. Slekar 5 Comments

Sorry, but Randi Weingarten’s call for a “moratorium on the consequences of high stakes testing with the Common Core standards” is worthless!
We don’t need a moratorium on “consequences” associated with the Common Core.  We need the abolition of all high-stakes testing and dissolution of the Common Core.

Anything else is a capitulation to the destructive forces of the education reform machine!

According to Randi, “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….”
What in the world is she talking about?  I agree with her first assertion and that the DNA of teaching and learning will be transformed.  However, let’s be honest.  The transformation will really be a genetic mutation that disfigures teaching and learning so that “rote memorization and endless test taking” will be at the core of all teaching and learning.   Problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork will be forever banned from the genetic material that makes up real teaching and learning.

However, I do agree with Randi that “[t]he Common Core standards have the potential to be a once-in-a-generation revolution in education….”  If we allow this “revolution” to proceed we will destroy authentic teaching and learning and reduce our children to untapped vessels of data. We are literally about to sell the souls (data) of millions of children in the name of the Common Core and this will revolutionize education!

There is no middle ground on the Common Core.  It is a curriculum directly linked to high stakes testing and the selling of data to for profit companies.
Someone has to say it!

This is not “solution driven unionism.”  This is individual protectionism. This is nothing more than a massive sell out of AFT membership and American public school children.

http://atthechalkface.com/2013/04/30/high-stakes-testing-moratorium-slekar-says-not-enough/

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