NOT SWEETNESS AND LIGHT: LOCAL DEM OFFICIALS BASH TEACHERS UNIONS, DRAW D.C. FED RETORT

(PAI)NOT SWEETNESS AND LIGHT: LOCAL DEM OFFICIALS BASH TEACHERS UNIONS, DRAW D.C. FED RETORT

 

            DENVER (PAI)--Not all was sweetness and light between local Democratic elected officials--several big-city mayors and school officials--attending their party’s national convention and two big and politically active unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.

 

            As a matter of fact, the sniping got so bad at an education panel on August 24, before the convention opened, that it prompted Jocelyn Williams of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Central Labor Council to fire back at his city’s mayor, Adrian Fenty.

 

            The education panel was overshadowed by subsequent events at the convention, including speeches by new AFT President Randi Weingarten of New York and retiring NEA President Reg Weaver of Harvey, Ill.  Both the 1.4-million-member AFT and the 3.2-million-strong NEA--the nation’s largest union--support the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

 

            And Obama, in turn, has criticized anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind education law as being too test-oriented and too quick to fail public schools and to shift federal education money to private schools, a favorite Radical Right cause.  The mayors and school officials, led by Fenty, didn’t blame the law, but teachers.  They said so, and Fenty blamed AFT in particular.

 

            The problem began when education panel moderator John Merrow asked Fenty “what interests benefited from reactionary education policies that hurt children.”  Morrow did not cite Bush’s education law or the Radical Right by name.

 

            "Definitely the unions," Fenty replied.  New D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, whom Fenty named after the city council gave him control of the schools, “is negotiating what is probably the most aggressive union contract in the country.  She'll be able to fire teachers but also be able to pay them more," the mayor added.  Rhee’s contract proposal abolishes tenure, among other things.

 

            "The American Federation of Teachers, which I don't think does anything for the people of the District of Columbia, is weighing in against it.  And the only thing I can think of is that the heads of the union, they want to keep their jobs," Fenty said.

 

            Added Los Angeles school superintendent Roy Romer, a former Democratic governor of Colorado: "In the Democratic Party you have to be realistic about some coalitions that are wedded to the past on education.  Let's not be wedded to somebody's union rules...An adult agenda wins too often in our present union situation."

            Fenty’s blast at AFT was the last straw for D.C. union leader Williams, who has had other disputes with the mayor.  Fenty, Williams said, is “a budget-shattering, union-busting, promise-breaking political boss whose poor performance and bad management are costing D.C. taxpayers millions of dollars."  D.C. unionists visited other union delegations in Denver to denounce Fenty and garner support for their critique.

 

            “Fenty's hostility to workers and unions is completely at odds with the Democratic Party's longstanding commitment to these major groups.  This year's platform includes the strongest support ever for organized labor, and Obama himself has been outspoken in his support for the right of workers to organize,” Williams said.  Not Fenty, he added.

 

            Williams said the mayor “turned a deaf ear to workers, unions, community groups and the City Council….We are deeply disappointed the mayor of our nation's capital refused to meet with us, to talk with us, and to work with us to solve” D.C. problems.

 

            AFT’s Weingarten covered none of this in her Aug. 25 convention speech, carried only on cable networks.  She did not blast Bush’s education law by name, or even mention the president, but she did criticize NCLB’s emphasis.

 

            “We believe that access to an excellent education is a basic civil right,” said Weingarten, a New Yorker who originally supported home-state Sen. Hillary Clinton for the presidency.  AFT, over “no” votes from Georgia, Hawaii and Illinois, had endorsed Clinton, who also strongly criticized Bush’s education law, during the party primaries.

 

            “For the children denied the education they need to fulfill their God-given potential, it is a personal tragedy, and an inexcusable injustice.  It’s also an affront to American values... This must change.  And that requires leadership, not demagoguery.  That is why we need Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House,” Weingarten said of the Democratic ticket.

 

            “The American Federation of Teachers is ready.  Our #1 priority is, as it has always been, strengthening our public schools to better serve our students. Let’s do what we do in our best schools...in all of our schools.  Barack Obama knows that teachers must be partners, not pawns, in federal education policy. And federal education policy must be about a lot more than testing.  I ask you to join us in this quest,” she declared.

       

            The new Democratic ticket, Weingarten vowed, “would help usher in a new era of excellence” in public schools.                     ###