Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone has a hilarious article about a hedge fund manager who manages pension funds, but is also a board member and co-founder of StudentsFirst in New York, which advocates against defined benefit pension plans.
You will enjoy reading the exchange between Dan Loeb, the hedge fund manager, and Randi Weingarten, who tries to set up a meeting to discuss the inconsistencies in his views.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Speechless. Absolutely speechless.
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Isn’t Randi Weingarten being inconsistent in the way she thinks she can manage pension funds too?
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/12/6869681/bloomberg-throws-cold-water-clinton-endorsed-infrastructure-investm
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Defined benefit plans are the standardized tests of hedge fund managers. They don’t want to be measured by their output – a standard of what they are supposed to “produce.” They just want to be measured by their “cut” of a defined contribution plan.
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This, along with other things, proves what a phony farce StudentsFirst is.
Seriously, the organization states that it’s all about the students—it puts them “first”—and that one of its tenants is “to provide ever child with a highly effective teacher—but at the same time, puts most of its lobbying efforts into passing legislation that guts teacher salaries and eliminates teacher pensions. (and also job protections).
Put yourself in the shoes of those currently in college or high school considering a future career. Now, the word gets out that the teacher salaries—which are alreadly low compared to most other professions’ salaries—are going to shrink even more, ARE THOSE STUDENTS, AND FUTURE STUDENTS GOING TO MORE OR LESS LIKELY TO BECOME TEACHERS (OR CAREER TEACHERS)?
One of the selling points of a teaching career—or at least it WAS—is that after a career that is poorly compensated, you will be rewarded by being care of during your retirement… AND NOW MICHELLE RHEE WANTS TO KILL THAT, TOO ????!!! Again, ONCE THIS GETS OUT, ARE THOSE STUDENTS AND FUTURE STUDENTS GOING TO MORE OR LESS LIKELY TO BECOME TEACHERS (OR CAREER TEACHERS)?
Studentsfirst? Gimme a break!
Among other things, this is all about destroying teaching as a profession, and changing things so corporations will pay less taxes, and thus have higher profits, and increasingly greater prices for their stock shares, and happier investors.
It’s about breaking teacher unions, so that the whole public education system will be replaced by a privatized, de-unionized Walmart-ized job system that only the most desperate will even want to have—like fast-food or retail.
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Maybe Chris Hayes will run with this story. It is truly shocking.
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Hmmm…smells like Illinois, land of the teacher pension thieves.
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