The Nutty Demonization Of Randi Weingarten

By  Valerie Strauss
October 5, 2010
Washington Post
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/teacher-assessment/the-nutty-demonization-of-rand.html

It's not easy being Randi Weingarten these days.

First, the film "Waiting for Superman" by Davis
Guggenheim wrongly portrayed the president of the
American Federation of Teachers as the face of the
dastardly opposition to school reform.

Then NBC turned her into a punching bag during last
week's "Education Nation," when she was put in the
position of being chief defender of traditional public
schools against an army of aggressive attackers who
blame unions for the ills of urban districts and see
charter schools as public education's salvation.

Then an anonymous column on Huffington Post equated
Weingarten with Osama bin Laden. Yes, bin Laden, the
terrorist. And a number of readers posted comments
agreeing with the sentiments.

THEN, Joe Williams, director of the political action
committee Democrats for Education Reform, or DFER, felt
a strange need to dignify the idiotic column with a
defense of Weingarten.

DFER promotes public charter schools (which has become
the favorite cause of some founders of wealthy hedge
funds); the two major teachers unions, Weingarten's AFT
and the larger National Education Association, oppose
the expansion of charters as they are today. (The
biggest research study on charters to date showed that
students at most charters do no better or worse on
standardized tests than their counterparts in
traditional schools.)

"It struck me," Williams told me, "that if things are
going to get this kooky as a result of `Waiting for
Superman,' it makes a discussion impossible." (In fact
there hasn't been a real reform discussion in years
because today's school reformers denigrate anybody who
disagrees with them, calling them defenders of the
miserable status quo.)

So Williams wrote an email and sent it to supporters.
Here is it is, in part:

"Dear friend: The other day, I emailed you about how
exciting it is to watch the public discussions about
education reform unfold in the wake of all the highly
publicized hoopla of late.

But we here at DFER felt a need to call a foul with
some of the admittedly isolated stuff that is starting
to bubble up as part of that conversation. We're all
for rigorous debate, but a recent rogue column on
Huffington Post (and that is making the rounds
elsewhere in the blogosphere) that compares AFT
President Randi Weingarten to Osama bin Laden is so far
over the top it begs for a quick beat-down.

The movie Waiting for `SUPERMAN' clearly evokes a lot
of strong emotions, but this kind of irresponsible
comparison is totally uncalled for in public discourse.

I have known Randi Weingarten for many years, and I
consider her a friend. But even if I didn't, we'd be
emailing you with this plea right now.

Randi Weingarten is the last person you could possibly
describe as hiding in a cave, plotting to destroy
America. She has appeared on so many panels and
television programs as part of the WFS roll-out - and
she's taken quite a public beating in many of them -
that `cowardly terrorist' is the last phrase you'd use
to describe her. (You'll notice that the NEA, which
unlike the AFT has been totally absent from just about
any real reform discussion in the last few years,
hardly even appears in WFS. Surely because Randi
granted access and the NEA didn't.)

Heck, when Manhattan's Ground Zero was still smoldering
after bin Laden's attack on America, Randi moved her
union headquarters a few blocks away, to help show that
the neighborhood could be revived. She represented
teachers who calmly led their children out of Lower
Manhattan to safety on that awful September morning,
etc., etc.

The comparison that is out there is beyond obnoxious."

In case you glossed over it, Williams explained, quite
seriously, that Weingarten couldn't be hiding in a cave
because she has been seen on so many panels and
television programs.

He must have figured that people warped enough to
accept a comparison between the union president and the
terrorist boss could still, nevertheless, be won over
by reason. But apparently, some of them weren't.
Williams told me that he had had some "pushback" from
some of his "friends."

"They thought I was giving the union too much," he
said.

The whole public discourse about school reform has
become "beyond obnoxious," and, frankly, some of the
school reform messages have played right into the hands
of the kooks.

Constant, unfair attacks on traditional public school
teacherss, and the expensive promotion of charter
schools -- hallmarks of DFER and other pro-charter
groups -- have contributed to the sorry state of school
reform discussion. It is unfortunate that it took a
comparison with bin Laden to get Williams to try to
dampen the idiocy of some of his "friends."

Films that unfairly demonize unions and promote charter
schools as if they were the answer to failing urban
schools (they aren't) don't help either. It is
interesting to note that after reviews of "Superman"
noted the unfair attack on unions, Guggenheim said
publicly that he hadn't intended to demonize them.

Movements need heroes and villains, and Weingarten has
become an easy target for school reformers who seek to
blame public school teachers for the ills of urban
education and attack their unions.

She puts herself in the lion's den time and time again,
arguing and debating with opponents in a way that
Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National
Education Association, the country's largest teachers
union, does not.

It is true that she has not been her own best friend in
some of these appearances, trying to make subtle points
when sharp ones were necessary, and allowing opponents
to say things that were patently untrue without
challenge.

She tries to walk a line between seeming not to give an
inch in her rhetorical defense of public school
teachers, but compromising on controversial aspects of
reform in contract negotiations and other areas.

While talking tough, she's made concessions repeatedly:
A teachers contract in Washington, D.C., that gives
teachers the option of being part of a program that
links their pay to student test scores couldn't have
happened without Weingarten. Nor could Colorado have
passed a law that makes at least half of teacher
evaluations dependent on student standardized test
scores.

And Weingarten backed a landmark teachers contract that
was tentatively reached last week in the Baltimore City
public school system -- without the traditional
acrimony between management and labor.

Taking a new approach to teacher evaluation, it rewards
teachers for great work by using multiple measures and
creates steps that teachers can climb that will allow
them to earn more. Teachers themselves had a great deal
of input into the contract, and will help design the
contract's specifics.

Any regular reader of this blog will know that I do not
support using student test scores to evaluate or pay
teachers, including as part of some of the arrangements
supported by Weingarten. Indeed, new research studies
concluded that linking scores to teacher assessment
doesn't improve student achievement (as measured by
increased test scores).

But Weingarten has done more to bring the two sides
together than any other labor leader in education. One
doesn't have to agree with every single thing she does
or says and still recognize the important role she
plays or her commitment to educating kids.

For taking the positions that she does she has been
unfairly demonized by tough union backers, who hate any
compromise, and by union haters, whose mission it is to
bring down unions and traditional public schools.

What does she have to say about it?

"My life's work is promoting public education, and
while I have no problem with whatever people say about
me, the demonization becomes a convenient way to evade
the hard work necessary to help all kids succeed," she
said in an e-mail. "We all need to change, and build on
what works, but I make no apologies for believing we
need to support and listen to teachers ( and to
parents) to get there."

Characterizing Weingarten as a villain is nutty. Just
like today's world of school reform.

Follow my blog every day by bookmarking
washingtonpost.com/answersheet.

And for admissions advice, college news and links to
campus papers, please check out our Higher Education
page at washingtonpost.com/higher-ed Bookmark it!

_____________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]
Submit via the Web: portside.org/submit
Frequently asked questions: portside.org/faq
Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe
Unsubscribe: portside.org/unsubscribe
Account assistance: portside.org/contact
Search the archives: portside.org/archive