Posted on 02/07/2017 1:05:29 PM PST by billorites
Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education.
“DeVos’ confirmation battle has a major silver lining: The public in public education has never been more visible or more vocal, and it is not going back in the shadows. This same public—from rural towns to urban centers, from liberals to conservatives—will now serve as a check and balance, and they will be fierce fighters on behalf of children. I am honored to be a soldier in that movement for children.
“It’s telling that even when Trump had full control of the legislative and executive branches, he could only get DeVos confirmed by an unprecedented tiebreaking vote by his vice president. That’s because DeVos shows an antipathy for public schools; a full-throttled embrace of private, for-profit alternatives; and a lack of basic understanding of what children need to succeed in school.
“If she wants to work with the educators who work hard every single day—in districts as diverse as McDowell County, W.Va., Detroit, and Scarsdale, N.Y.—to provide children the opportunities they deserve, we renew our invitation to have her visit America’s public schools and see the strategies that work for kids.
“But it’s more likely we’ll now hear the same trashing of public schools that the disrupters, the privatizers and the austerity hawks have used for the last two decades. That makes this a sad day for children.”
Common Core, No Child Left Behind, etc. all take away flexibility from the teacher and turn teaching jobs into something very similar to factory jobs.
I'm sure bad teachers might like Common Core because it takes all the thinking and responsibility away from them, but decent teachers oppose most initiatives that come out of DC.
These weenies have been the self appointed martyrs of our society claiming they are the most overworked and underpaid element of society but most nobly, all their sacrifice is for the children. That is bull$#!t in it's purest form.
The NEA and AFT seek two things:
Promoting and keeping their members in all levels of education thereby preserving their monopolistic operation.
Their second objective, sadly, has been the indoctrination of students in a sociological utopian marxist society in lieu of actually teaching real subject matter.
>>This same public—from rural towns to urban centers, from liberals to conservatives—will now serve as a check and balance, and they will be fierce fighters on behalf of children.
That public elected Trump to drain the swamp, including the DoEd and putting kids over teachers’ unions.
You know what’s really heartbreaking? There was a voucher program in DC and it was a smashing success. The kids loved it, the parents loved it. Predominantly minority children were benefiting, their grades went way up. Psychologically, they were healthier. Not having bullets whizzing past your head all day will have a salutary effect on your concentration. The DC program was a model.
Then, Obama got elected. Over the cries of the parents and teachers, he killed the program. The heartless bastard sent those children right back to gang infested hell holes.
This was some years ago now, and I still feel rage when I think about what Obama did to those little kids to please the almighty unions.
Yep, and Trump and Betsy understand that all too well. They're going to introduce competition and reduce the size of public schools, hopefully by more than half in four years.
All public service unions have an inherent conflict of interest.
Wonderfully well said. Thank you.
Why is it assumed that teachers who voted all voted for Clinton?
Dear Ms. Randi, how about stop complaining and start teaching? You lost and now get to work educating kids instead of indoctrinating them in the leftist crap du jour.
While I have some questions about DeVos, the opposition to her appointment by AFT President Randi Weingarten has certainly elevated my opinion of DeVos’ suitability for the job.
AFT President Randi Weingarten’s motto could easily be “Of, by, and for union card-carrying teachers - children and taxpayers come last”.
I wish and hope you are right about that. Unfortunately, it seems to me that about half of families in America today don’t give a runners damn about their kids education. That is part of the reason teachers unions are so powerful and education is so poorly run. It’s been that way for two or three decades. My two sons were so underserved in public school that Mrs Afterguard and I put them in private school we simply couldn’t afford. Maybe the EdSec can make public schools better, or private schools more affordable to working families.
>>Do teachers donate their time? Are they not working to make money?
Talk to almost any teacher and they’ll act like they work for tips and $2/hr. Get into specifics of annual salary and hours worked in a year and then they switch to “well, I have an advanced degree and I make less than a (insert well-paid blue collar job here).”
So, I ask them, “Did you really think that you were going to make big money when you CHOSE this profession? Teachers were whining about the pay when I was a kid 40+ years ago! I guarantee you that the plumber did his research before he started working with sewer pipes.”
Oh, did I say “teacher”? I meant “edddd-U-catorrrrrr”.
I agree with that. I think it’s just glaringly obvious in the public schools.
Those teachers are people we should be able to trust to leave political issues up to parents.
Instead they do their best to corrupt them.
Well, well, well. Let's just see about that. Shine the light, Betsy! Is that okay with you, Randi?
She will mushroom charters and then our kids will be in a “good school” taught by TEACH FOR AMERICA Marxist -trained teachers.
Too bad Trump did not give any time to the Conservative grassroots warriors on education.
That's because Harry Reid killed the filibuster for cabinet nominees only a couple of years ago, so a 50-50 tie needing a Vice President to break was not really possible, since the filibuster ensured a controversial nominee needed 60 or 67 votes in support.
You'd think these "educators" would know that.
Yeah, Randi, you keep feeding your kook base that tripe. Truth is, you lost. Bigly.
Bitch, get over yourself!
The federal dept of education should be a weeklong conference where each state sends their dept. Education rep to decide on optional education standards guidelines. And they should only meet a week every two years at most...
Anything more or holding states hostage with federal money is tyranny.
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