Free Republic

Movement of Rank and File Educators will join the Democratic Socialists of America for a 'Ceasefire Now Rally for Gaza' A subsidiary of the nation’s second-largest teachers' union will join the Democratic Socialists of America to protest Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hamas terrorists. The Movement of Rank and File Educators, which describes itself as a "caucus of the United Federation of Teachers," will cosponsor Friday’s "Ceasefire Now Rally for Gaza" in New York City. The presence of the group, which claims it "fights for social justice" and "empowers workers in schools," could cause problems for its parent organization. The Democratic...

The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, attacked Jews who criticized her union’s efforts to keep schools closed for in-class instruction as members of the “ownership class.” “American Jews are now part of the ownership class,” Weingarten said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency a month ago reported by the Jerusalem Post. The 63-year-old union president who represents 1.7 million members was responding to those who criticize efforts to keep schools closed while they exploit the coronavirus crisis for billions in stimulus money that won’t be spent for years. “I think some people are very...

The American Federation of Teachers union boss Randi Weingarten claimed at the union's annual convention that teachers were so terrified of going back to school that they were "quitting in droves" and "making their wills". The AFT threatened that its members would go on strike if they were expected to go back to actually doing their jobs and teaching in a classroom. In New York City, the United Federation of Teachers, which is affiliated with the AFT, marched with cardboard coffins and fake body bags. Some union teachers wore skeleton t-shirts. A Halloween skeleton attached to a garbage bag held...

They get an A+ for creativity. Teachers brought along visual aids, including handmade coffins and a guillotine, while protesting Mayor Bill de Blasio’s schools reopening plan in Lower Manhattan on Monday afternoon. About 200 protesters — many of them educators, parents and students — marched from the United Federation of Teachers headquarters to the NYC Department of Education offices near Foley Square. “We demand safe schools,” they chanted. The crafty group lugged a DIY yellow guillotine, with “DOE” painted on the blade and “US” written where the head would go. They also carried at least two boxes designed to look...

Hello? Just as Mayor Bill de Blasio is to meet with federal prosecutors to talk possible pay-to-play with the city’s teachers union, that same union fulsomely endorses the mayor for a second term. Awkward? You might say. Really. Why not take a bright red Sharpie and draw a fat circle around that $350,000 American Federation of Teachers “donation” to de Blasio’s now-defunct-but-certainly-not-forgotten Campaign for One New York slush fund — followed days later by the $9 billion contract the mayor laid on the union’s local affiliate, the United Federation of Teachers.

“You don’t have to be honest. I mean we can talk in theory.” –Paul Diamond, Executive Vice President, Yonkers Teacher Federation “I don’t’ care if it’s the phys ed teacher you went to high school with, you don’t fucking tell anybody anything…Because old loose lips sink ships.” — Patricia Puleo, President, Yonkers Teacher Federation “You could. Your parents could have been down there, or your cousin could have been down there, or your brother and they were taken by drug dealers and you literally had to go bail them out and you didn’t know what to do and you lost...

The UFT will pay a heavy price for sponsoring the Rev. Al Sharpton’s anti-cop rally on Staten Island—as a growing number of teachers vow to cancel their contributions to the union’s political action committee. The UFT’s Committee on Political Education, or COPE, raked in more than $6 million between Jan. 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. But ever since the union announced its support last week for a protest over the police chokehold death of Eric Garner, hundreds of members have used the UFT’s own Facebook page to publicly sever ties...

Hell hath no fury like a congressman scorned. Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel is giving the teachers union a lesson in political retribution for snubbing him and endorsing his rival Adriano Espaillat for Congress, sources said. Rangel is hitting the union where it hurts — by vigorously supporting non-unionized charter schools. The unions have been fighting desperately to stop or slow down charter-school expansion. “The congressman was disappointed the UFT [United Federation of Teachers] dumped him for Espaillat. I see Charlie speaking out more forcefully on the charter-school issue,” said a Rangel ­insider. “He doesn’t have to be concerned about offending...

The United Federation of Teachers has spent decades pleading for more money for public schools. So eyebrows might have shot up when it turned down federal Race to the Top funds at its UFT Charter School. Well, the mystery’s been solved. While tens of thousands of teachers around the state will be subject to new yearly evaluations, UFT Charter School chief executive Sheila Evans-Tranumn says her teachers won’t have to. That’s because, as a charter, her school is allowed to opt out of the evaluation system, as long as it hasn’t taken Race to the Top money. And it’s chosen...

The city’s public school system has a backlog of more than 400 teacher disciplinary cases because the teachers union is refusing to help appoint hearing officers as required, a new lawsuit brought by the city charges. The foot-dragging by the United Federation of Teachers has led to the appointment of just 19 arbitrators to oversee teacher misconduct and incompetence cases – well shy of the minimum number of 39 agreed to back in 2010, the Manhattan court papers say. “Year after year they keep delaying and the backlog keeps getting bigger,” Mayor Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio appearance...

AP is maintaining vote-count pages for both the NY special election and the Nevada special election for the US HouseNew York District 9, Weprin v TurnerNevada District 2, Amodei v Marshall

Will Bob Turner shock the world? Will Obama’s unpopularity cause the Democrats to lose a seat they have held for 90 years? Results from NY-9, formerly known as The Weiner Seat, will be posted here as soon as I get ‘em. If you see them first, pop them in comments. If you live in the district or near it, let us know what you’re seeing and hearing.

Cops booted an unruly group of city teachers union officials from a posh Albany eatery after they caused a ruckus over their dinner tab. Paul Egan, the union's political and legislative director, set off the fracas - claiming the quail he was served, and finished, wasn't large enough. Egan and about two dozen other members of the United Federation of Teachers spread over three tables at the swank bistro Marché inside 74 State, a boutique hotel down the block from the state Capitol. And with Egan apparently worked into a froth over the size of his quail in the $40...

The United Federation of Teachers -- one of President Obama's key political backers -- is the biggest beneficiary of a White House sweetheart deal that will exempt certain outfits from complying with new health-care rules, officials revealed yesterday. The quietly approved federal waivers for 30 companies, health insurers, unions and other groups across the country means the UFT doesn't have to gradually phase out caps on annual health coverage like everyone else. The UFT was concerned that could have been a major financial hit on the union. The one-year waiver, approved last month by the Department of Health and Human...

It’s amazing what a mass of pink slips can do to make a teachers union see the light — especially when the layoffs are publicly hailed by the president of the United States. On Monday, President Obama endorsed the decision by Rhode Island’s smallest, poorest city to fire the entire unionized faculty of its notoriously underperforming high school. Just 48 hours later, the union caved — and publicly pledged to support reforms that it had earlier rejected. In a speech, Obama proposed $900 million in federal cash awards to school districts that get tough with underachieving schools and unproductive teachers.

Now roll over! Now speak! The powerful teachers union had City Council members on a short leash this week -- crafting cue cards with questions for legislators to ask at a hearing. It was an unusually aggressive attempt to direct the interrogation of witnesses regarding charter schools, according to City Council officials. The TelePrompTer-like scripts were quietly hand-delivered to sympathetic members by a union rep during the hearing and contained tough, leading questions for Department of Education officials and softball inquiries for a United Federation of Teachers official.

Last month, 500 angry schoolteachers assembled outside my office. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was furious that "Stupid in America," a "20/20" show I did on education, suggested that some union teachers were lazy. They shouted that I didn't understand how difficult teaching was, and chanted, "Shame on you!" Randi Weingarten, head of New York City's union, took the microphone and hollered, "Just teach for a week!" She said I could select from many schools. "We got high schools, we got elementary schools, we got junior high schools!" I accepted. I even said I'd let the union pick the...

Last month, 500 angry schoolteachers assembled outside my office. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was furious that "Stupid in America," a "20/20" show I did on education, suggested that some union teachers were lazy. They shouted that I didn't understand how difficult teaching was, and chanted, "Shame on you!"Randi Weingarten, head of New York City's union, took the microphone and hollered, "Just teach for a week!" She said I could select from many schools. "We got high schools, we got elementary schools, we got junior high schools!" I accepted. I even said I'd let the union pick the school....

July 20, 2005 -- Education spending per New York City pupil jumped more than 15 percent in the last five years, a new report shows. According to the city's nonpartisan Independent Budget Office, per-student spending in the city shot up to $14,642 this past school year, from $12,673 in 2000-01.

<p>The teachers union, which filed a racial-discrimination suit against the city earlier this month for its hiring practices, has a dirty secret of its own - its top-paid staffers are almost exclusively white, a Post investigation has found.</p> <p>The United Federation of Teachers has charged the Bloomberg administration and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein with civil-rights violations for sending out notices to lay off mostly minority school aides to close a budget gap while at the same time hiring six-figure white educrats.</p>