Jonathan Pelto reports that the AFT’s Legislative and Political Action Committee endorsed Governor Danell Malloy for re-election, despite his dismal record on education.
The committee did not interview Pelto.
He wrote:
“The decision to endorse Malloy without an open process is a sad commentary on the state of politics. Putting aside the work I’ve done to speak out for teachers and their unions over the past two years, and my lifetime commitment to public education, Governor Malloy has proven himself to be the most anti-teacher Democratic governor in the country. There is not a teacher in Connecticut who has forgotten that Malloy proposed ending teacher tenure and unilaterally repealing collective bargaining for teachers in ‘turnaround schools’ when he put forward his “Education Reform initiative.”
If their own unions don’t defend the rights of teachers, who will?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is reprehensible to support a governor who is against education and supporting teachers. I’m sorry, Mr. Pelto. You deserve to be treated far better than this.
Gee, and I thought Randi Weingarten was your ‘friend’…
Pot shot, Shlomo. Diane didn’t have to even post this, but she did.
agreed
This is truly shocking.
It is not only Gates money which supports Malloy, but Eli Broad was also a contributor to his campaign, and probably others of the billionaires whose goal is to privatize our public schools.
What is wrong with these union flacks who would support and endorse the Governor who is a toadie for the Rheeformers and Wall Street investors?
Jonathan, please start planning your campaign…your state needs you.
So, when did the teachers’ union become anti-teacher?
I feel kind of ignorant about this, being from TX where we don’t have unions but, out of curiosity, can you just opt out of being in that specific union and change to another one?
When you opt out, you still pay in, at least in NJ, because what the union bargains for all teachers, includes you, even as an opted out teacher. This is my understanding. I am not a school teacher.
You opt out but pay a smaller fair share for collective services.
You have unions in Texas and in every state, but they are completely ineffective because of right-to-work laws. They are typically NEA affiliates.
I have to constantly correct people on this. There isn’t a state in the union that “bans” teachers unions/associations (same thing).
Bob,
AFT-CT has long since become a health care workers union, not a teachers union. We are now the minority profession in AFT-CT, and Melodie Peters works on behalf of those workers. We are nothing more than bargaining chips to her. She has made that clear time and time again.
Hint: When it signed on to become a propaganda ministry for the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth, for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and for Pearson.
I hope that every teacher in the state with an AFT membership will cancel it.
What an outrage!!!!
Time for a new union that actually represents teachers.
Sorry, Jonathan. This is just awful. All the more reason why your candidacy is so important.
The only thing that gives me hope these days is Lawrence Lessig’s mayone.us campaign. Give whatever you can…save our democracy. Those in power don’t have the backbone to “do the right thing”….it’s up to us.
ms. weingarten’s union: a shande.
Outrageous, but unsurprising.
I shall never forget Malloy’s claim that “all teachers have to do is show up for four years” to have “tenure,” or that he’s “fine with teaching to the test as long as the scores go up.” Not to mention his Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor, who has no teaching experience or credentials, but is closely tied to a CT charter school chain (and works hard to promote charters).
I will vote for anyone but Malloy. Hopefully Pelto will be an option.
She can return the BAT shirt she borrowed.
Thank you Diane for reposting my blog and reporting the news from Connecticut.
As Pogo said in what appears to be a timeless observation — “we have met the enemy and it is us”
What’s disgusting? Randi’s Union busting.
Angry now? Wait until we see the big fat juicy check that will accompany the endorsement.
I could not agree more with the author.. if our own unions do not represent us, who will?? The other day, I thought Deborah Meier was addressing this issue but she mentioned she was referring to support from other unions in other fields. But this Pelto article points to an extremely serious point. Our union leadership is not representing us. And the first question is always, then vote them out. But truly, there is so much shenanigans (especially at the regional and district levels) that voting is far from a cut and dry process.
We are in a pivotal moment of enormous paradigm change. Just as the Democratic and Republican parties no longer represent the voters but rather stand together for the 1%, the NEA and AFT no longer represent the rank and file but rather the interests of the upper echelons of union leadership, protecting their sinecures and enormous incomes.
It is time to dissolve the old agreements and upend the old organizations, replacing them with new and different ideas and leadership styles. It will be painful, ugly, and take commitment and strength to sever the old ties but it is absolutely necessary.
There are many who are wedded to the way things have always been that will naysay and challenge any attempts to end the status quo. They must be ignored.
If we are to survive the all out assault on public education, public schools with local control, and the profession of public school teaching then we need to acknowledge that our former friends and supporters are now our enemies who actively work against us in order to maximize their own fortunes and futures.
We have so much to lose and so little time to realize this. Once public schools are gone they will not be resurrected. It’s already happened in New Orleans, will soon happen in Newark, Camden, Philadelphia, and is beginning to happen in Chicago, Los Angeles, several cities in Colorado and Ohio.
How many schools must be lost, how many teachers’ careers must be ended, how many children’s lives ruined before we find our collective teacher voices and shout: “STOP! NO MORE!”, empowering ourselves with new visions of non-corrupt unions, non-corrupt political parties, and true solidarity and support for each other as we risk all to win the war against us?
The time is NOW, teachers of the USA. WAKE UP AND FIND YOUR VOICES!
Sorry Pelto, but it is not surprising. Randi Weingarten is at her finest kissing up to every
person of power she can find.
Art, voting them out (I’m only referring to the AFT here) has been made all but impossible by the lack of democracy, cultivated apathy and gerrymandering that these same people have put in place.
There is no rank and file vote for AFT President, who is elected by a vote of convention delegates, who are themselves elected in local balloting.
As a practical matter, this means that the UFT’s Unity Caucus, which last year changed the union by-laws to increase the weighting of the retiree vote, further entrenched itself as the single-party state/permanent government of the AFT.
As testimony to the moribund state of democracy in the UFT, something that suits the (mis)leadership just fine, the overwhelming majority of voters in the last years re-election of Michael Mulgrew was made up of retirees. Less than twenty percent of active teachers voted.
I’d say that seemingly the only thing that can get these people out is their being led out of their offices in handcuffs, but they are not corrupt that way.
To paraphrase the late, great NYC journalist Murray Kempton, commenting on the trial of a political hack accused of bribery, “They (Weingrew) gave away what lesser people would have sold for money.”
@Michael Fiorillo… totally agree with your point because the same exists at the regional level of the NEA affiliates. There is so much corruption and illegalities with voting and such that goes on during our elections and so many back door deals and such. It is hard to know where to even start to bring back real unionism.
Unions are only as strong as the laws that protect them and the courts’ interpretations of the laws. Republican legislators and jurists eviscerated the unions. Pogo, before he identified union leadership as the enemy, would look in the direction of people who voted for Republican candidates.
Those who characterize the political parties as too similar, should ask themselves where the Democrats could turn for money, once the unions lost their power. Business?
And, they can ask what they did to support Democratic candidates, years ago, before the 11th hour of the democracy.
Yes, indeed, Linda, the Democrats will turn to business, as they already have.
In 2008, Barack Obama declined public financing of his campaign and, contrary to the hype, received most of his funding from business, especially Finance.
Linda, I’ve worked for democratic candidates for over 34 years. I’ve manned the phone banks, cold calling and asking people to vote. I’ve walked door to door and asked people to vote. I’ve marched in parades, distributed flyers, donated money, and attended rallies all that time.
Democrats like Bill Clinton (A Nation at Risk), Ted Kennedy (NCLB), Barack Obama (RTTT & CCSS) have betrayed ME for corporate donations and my unions are now following the same playbook. Remember they screened that horrible “Won’t Back Down” movie at the Democratic National Convention. Remember that Barack Obama and Arnie Duncan achieved what no Republican politician ever had a chance of doing: destroying public schools and replacing them with charters and for-profit management companies while demonizing teachers through the voodoo of VAM. Don’t forget D-FER and al the other “smartest people in the room” democrats who came from Ivy League schools to tell us what to do (TFA, etc.)
The old partisan divide is no longer operable or worth considering.
They don’t care about us any more because they get all the money and prestige they want from the 1%. We are an annoyance and little else.
Don’t accuse me of not supporting the Democratic party. It hasn’t supported me for years and years despite my work, dedication, and participation.
“Democrats like Bill Clinton (A Nation at Risk)”
A Nation at Risk was 83 or 84, Reagan era.
I know that anti-union legislation is Republican. I know that anti-union court decisions are Republican.
I speculate that, without Reagan and other Republican politicians, laws and court decisions, would have stabilized or strengthened union power, allowing the middle class to influence the political process.
Would the Koch’s have been emboldened to privatize all public services, without a Republican House? Would the Koch’s money have been able to defeat opposition candidates, in districts, from the largest to the smallest, without Republican judges?
Your choice and mine is to identify the party that is more likely to pass laws that limit spending by the oligarchs and stops the erosion of voting rights. We need a party that will appoint jurists that protect union rights.
If we can get democracy back, we may be able to elect third party candidates. In the mean time, abandoning the Dems, serves what purpose?
Like you, Chris, I am angry and feel betrayed. You and I worked for democracy. Others voted for business, electing the party of the Koch’s.
FLERP! I know that A Nation at Risk was a Reagan cabinet initiative. But Clinton, a democrat, which is what I was talking about, used the report to begin his own reform movement when he was governor of Arkansas. This was one of many triangulations he used to further Republican/conservative initiatives (like welfare “reform”) under the guise of a middle of the road democrat, the foretaste of Obama’s neoliberalism.
Sounds like the rank & file need to take a page from the Karen Lewis play book. Teacher’s unions should not be aligned with corporate interests.
“If their own unions won’t defend the rights of teachers, then who will” was the last line of the article.
Well, why not ask Miss Leader – make that “misleader” Randi Weingarten herself?
But ultimately, we union members, like the UFT caucus MORE and like the CTU and the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association, will all have to reinvent our unions and get rid of the powers that be.
While this is very difficult and complicated, it is by no means impossible.
Knew this would happen. Politicians and money – CRIMES!
Time for new leadership. Union leadership, that is.
A picture is worth a thousand words. The company the Clinton’s kept at the Inauguration of Obama in 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/n3rbzjj
I just read a school funding lawsuit in CT will go to trial in Sept. I am interested in what people here think.
http://ccjef.org/
Doubtless with Randi Weingarten’s support.
Malloy is postponing moving forward with Common Core until after the election. Weingarten is pro-pro Common Core. Of course she wants Malloy.
I will never, ever be able to understand why, Mercedes.
It’s simple, Bob: she is one of Them, or rather deludes herself into thinking that, by selling us out, she can become one of Them.
She’s wrong about that one, too: the Overclass will quickly discard her once she has fully served her purpose of co-managing the devolution of the public schools, and when the union she has mislead can be safely ignored.
Ms. Weingarten just loves that mythical “place at the table” that she is willing to sacrifice us all for, but at a certain point, she will have made the union weak enough to drown in a bathtub – or more practically, get decertified by fifth columnist groups like Educators for Excellence – and at that point, she’ll find herself having a harder time getting her phone calls to Bill Gates and Eli Broad returned.
The CCSS will do incalculable damage to our kids and our country.
When you think that things are IMPOSSIBLE and that NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE, remember this, from American Society: How It Actually Works, by Erik Olin Wright & Joel Rogers. The moral is that BIG STUFF HAPPENS. And then things are not as they were. At all.
1905-1920: World War I and the Russian Revolution; first commercial radio broadcasting
1920-1935: From the roaring 20s economic boom with an unshakable, large Republican majority to the Stock Market crash, the Great Depression, and the New Deal
1935-1950: World War II and the atomic bomb to the cold war; first commercial television broadcasts.
1950-1965: The civil rights movement; the end of segregation in the South; the beginnings of the student movement and hippies of the 1960s; the assassination of Kennedy.
1965-1980: The first defeat of the US in a war; the mass anti-War movement; the impeachment of Nixon; the sharp move of national politics to the right in the
U.S. and the U.K.; personal computers
1980-1995: The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communism and the cold war; the creation of email and the Internet.
1995-2010: 9/11 and the war on terror; the electoral triumph of the most extreme, ideologically right-wing political coalition in modern U.S. history controlling both the congress and the executive branch; the election of the first Black president with strong Democratic Party majorities in both houses of congress.
To which I would add:
And as the curtain rises on the next act, Dimocrats and Repugnicans reach lowest Congressional approval rating in history and both parties and UNIONS supposedly representing working people completely sell out THE COUNTRY’S CHILDREN to curry favor with plutocrats and oligarchs.
2015-2025????????????
A slight revision to that last bit:
To which I would add:
And as the curtain rises on the next act,
a. Dimocrats and Repugnicans manage to attain the lowest Congressional approval rating in history;
b. wealth and income inequality in the United States reach levels not seen since the age of the Robber Barons; and
c. the leaders of the two major teachers’ unions completely sell out their members and THE COUNTRY’S CHILDREN by embracing the creation of a centralized Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth in order to curry favor with plutocrats and oligarchs attempting to implement a business plan for digitizing education whereby they expect to reap enormous profits by replacing most teachers with computer-adaptive software, especially at the upper grade levels and in colleges and universities.
2015-2025 ????????????
So, what’s the surprise in 2015-25?
The Nation At Risk was ’83 – the beginning of the ed deform movement to undermine public schools. AFT President Al Shanker endorsed Nation at Risk, thus beginning the AFT/UFT collaboration with ed deform. Clinton jumped on it with an ed deform package in Ark and then as President with Goals 2000, the precursor to NCLB and RTTT. The AFT/UFT went along all the way supporting both programs. Teachers have been left to fight a 2-front war – with the deformers and their own union leaders.
Both unions have accepted enormous amounts of money from the Gates and Helmsley Foundations to serve as propaganda ministries for the Common Core. Because they really think that monocultures are preferable to ecologies? That seems completely unlikely. I mean, that’s just CRAZY. INSANE.
So, one is left looking for other explanations. None of those is very pretty.
To follow up – Randi and Mulgrew were behind the split they fomented in NYSUT over their support for another anti-teacher gov – Cuomo. They were behind the Working Family Party Cuomo endorsement. Cuomo pushed through the charter bill that forces the DOE to pay for space for charter schools, one of the clearest example of anti-public school and union teachers we have seen. Always follow this mantra: watch what Randi does, not what she says.
As co president of a small NEA affiliated union in Indiana, I read with interest the comments in this post. It is truly disturbing that a teacher’s union would endorse a union buster – no doubt about it. But over the last few years I have come to the sad realization that my own fellow colleagues, whom I love and respect as professionals in the classroom, are the very reason our profession is being successfully converted to a minimum wage “job”. Teachers who cannot bother to attend school board meetings, contact their legislators, take a personal day to attend a lobby session during the legislative session, or even talk to their neighbors about what is happening in our public schools have doomed us to the pathetic situation we find ourselves in today. So when so many individuals point to union leadership as the source of all evil, I can only shake my head and ask – What power would that one individual have if hundreds of thousands, if not millions of individuals hadn’t granted it by their acquiescence in the democratic process? That outward pointing finger needs to make a 180 degree turn. We need to acknowledge our own individual weaknesses, “man up”., and take control. It IS possible!
One of the wonderful things about the internet is the immense and diverse range of viewpoints that you run into.
One of the problems, of course, is that there is so much being written that a comment like this one by Michele sometimes gets lost in the tsunami of information that we’re hit with every day. (I’m reading this now at 5 a.m. because I just happened to wake up early, thinking about school. In fact, I was thinking about the very idea that Michele is writing about before I figured I might as well just get out of bed.)
I think Michele makes a very important point here that needs to be followed up on.
I don’t know where to go with it but I think it deserves more discussion. The issue raised bothers me A LOT. (I don’t know if Diane would be reading these additional comments but I’d be interested to hear what she thinks, as well as comments from the other stalwarts who regularly contribute to this site.)
A fellow teacher said to me not that long ago something to the effect, “Just give me the script so I can read it.” ie. Basically, don’t make me think. That comment was very disturbing, though it’s difficult for me to be angry at colleagues because I know full well how stressful teaching has become.
New York State has these “modules” that some of the teachers have been downloading…..there’s this “we must do everything at the same time, the same way” thing going on. There’s an element of de-humanization happening here that I find to be troubling. I’m a history teacher and it just seems VERY clear that BAD, BAD things have happened in the past when people are de-humanized like this. And, it’s so easy for good people to be swept away in such a torrent!
Thanks, Michele, for raising a valid point. And, best wishes for all your work in Indiana.
The teachers in my large suburban district here in NY state are just beginning to understand why it is necessary to take political action after years of education, agitation and leading by example. Organizing is hard work, especially if you already have a full time job as a teacher in a classroom. Other teachers are open to discussions and actions that they were not open to even two years ago. Don’t mourn organize!
Well-stated, Michele Bartels. If you mailed a copy of your comments to the teacher representatives at all of the public schools in Indiana,
would there be change?
That’s what a school board member in Athens, Ohio did. I am hopeful.
Great point, Michelle. I am one of the few teachers in my district to phone bank, attend lobby day, walk precincts, or protest Walmart (as I did, again, yesterday). Ironically, we can blame previous generations of educators for this sad state of affairs: they didn’t teach us about labor history. Knowing facts matters. Had that knowledge been implanted in young minds, our current crop of teachers would grasp the value of unions and the actions necessary to keep them strong. The anti-fact bias in American education dooms Americans to repeat the mistakes of history.
Michele,I can’t speak for the goings-on in the NEA and its locals, but, while the apathy among teachers you refer to is sadly true, here in NYC that apathy is intentionally cultivated by our (mis)leadership, and is integral to its functioning as a single-party state and permanent government.
Look at our popular culture–after the selling of the unreal as the natural by advertisers (It’s the real thing; all natural; change you can believe in), corruption at the highest levels has become the most common popular culture theme and meme.
Every other wildly popular movie and television program is about this–is about the fix being in–from the Hunger Games to Elysium to House of Cards.
NO ONE buys it any more. No one. People have come to EXPECT that they are being lied to and manipulated for personal gain, that the whole system is venal and irredeemable.
“There’s something happen’ here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. . . .”
but it has something to do with the fact that the more certain the average person becomes that the fix is completely in and that the system is completely venal and corrupt, the more centralized and authoritarian the powers that be become, the more systems they put in place for command and control. Hell, they can set up a central committee for mandating what IDEAS must be taught in the United States, and leaders in the Land of the Free say, yeah, that’s a good idea.
I suspect that in the coming decades, things are going to get very, very interesting.
Of course, “May you live in interesting times” is a curse.
But one wonders what is going to be born from all this. Something unforeseen, certainly. We are going to see interesting times ahead.
Ms. Ravitch,
Your final remark suggests that the AFT and CEA are no different. As President of the Bridgeport EA and a member of the Board of the CEA, we have not endorsed Malloy. Also, intends my request of a couple of years ago that you come to Bridgeport this fall and help us continue the fight against corporate Ed Deformers. Rob Traber 203-260-9618 (cell)
Sent from my iPhone
Robert,
There are teachers in Hartford who would like to discontinue our affiliation with AFT-CT and look into CEA. Is there a way to make this happen?
Robert,
We teachers believe that we are a minority within our own Union, that we are the bargaining chips that Peters will use to get what she wants for her favorite jewels, the health care workers. We teachers do not have a voice in the American Federation of Teachers except on the local level. Peters has made that clear last summer when she appeared on the picket line of a nurses’ strike but she will do nothing to help teachers resist the corporate education deformers. Therefore, my question is a serious one; many teachers in Hartford feel frustrated and alienated by Peters. Please email me at bmorri6409@sbcglobal.net or call at (860) 334-6610. Thanks
Provided as information only-
About a week ago, Truthout, published an article, analyzing the NEA’s weakness, at the national level, in advancing counter attacks. The author did not address the NEA’s use of teacher pension investments,
as a weapon, available to the organization.
Perhaps the real solution is to create our own.
Wrong trailer, this is the one I meant. This theme and meme in our popular culture is very, very revealing. This is what the people think is happening.
A Heartland Institute blueprint for higher education currently being considered by the governor’s blue-ribbon higher-ed panel for action during the upcoming legislative session includes this gem:
“The effort to have everyone obtain a college degree has led to many workers becoming over-trained for the low-skill jobs they take after graduation.”
This is a sentiment that Bill Gates often expresses as well. The oligarchs in the United States have decided that too many people are going to college, that it’s too expensive, that the cost lies in professors’ salaries, and that replacing those professors with videotaped lectures and worksheets on a screen and standardized tests of attainment will hit all the right targets. It will produce the “trained” workforce that the oligarchs need at a much, much lower cost.
And our K-12 teachers unions are being played to implement precisely this game plan: Cradle-to-college workforce training at much lower cost on the other side of a digital revolution that will replace humane education by, well, humans.
cx: I meant to say “by the Florida governor’s blue-ribbon higher-ed panel.” Rick Scott, not Gov. Malloy.
Training for the children of the proles. Education for the children of the elite. The new American Feudalism.
Well, that’s one vision for the future.
It seems to me that the elite are protecting their own because they are scared if their children compete with everyone they may lose their “spot” in the social/financial order. They are trying to cheat at survival of the fittest by stacking the cards in their favor. However, I don’t think this will bode well for our species as a whole.
There is a moment in Shaw’s Pygmalion that I found extremely moving in which Liza Doolittle says,
“I tell you, it’s easy to clean up here. Hot and cold water on tap, just as much as you like, there is. Woolly towels, there is; and a towel horse so hot, it burns your fingers. Soft brushes to scrub yourself, and a wooden bowl of soap smelling like primroses. Now I know why ladies is so clean. Washing’s a treat for them. Wish they saw what it is for the like of me!”
I found this moving because the wealthy in Shaw’s day typically castigated the poor for being dirty, but Shaw had the good sense to understand that there was a reason for this. In our time, people who are well to do often think the same sort of thing about the economic conditions of the poor–if these people just worked harder, cared more, were more gritful–if we just demanded more of them, tested them more, raised the bar, held them to some standards. . . . blah, blah, blah, then the worthy ones would improve their lot and the rest of them would at least learn to be dutiful and obedient.
Exactly. They perceive themselves as superior and to hell with fairness and the rest of us.
Excellent point.
I hate to admit it, but I have become far more Socialist than I have ever been. Not that I am for equal distribution of wealth; rather, I am appalled by the fact that 89% of our population controls only 7% of the wealth. That is wrong because the wealthy would have nothing if not for the work done by the working classes. Corporate education reform is class struggle. I see this clearly in Hartford, CT, where even the Superintendent of Schools and all Board members can guarantee their children admission to any magnet school they desire while the rest go into a lottery. Those not admitted to magnets are basically thrown on the scrapheap, the narrow so-called small learning academies. These students are usually not even given their choice of schools. This is the very essence of class struggle.
Your union activism is absolutely commendable. The situation in Ct. is truly deplorable. Really, though, Socialism light? Either you is or you ain’t. And what is wrong with “Equal distribution of wealth” (obviously, a far away dream)? Such redistribution would, once and for all ensure, among other social goods, equal educational opportunity. All the rest is band aides and smoke and mirrors:.
Socialism light . . . LOL! I come from a very ultra-right wing family that would hold an intervention if they discovered I am a Socialist. Old habits die hard.
Concerning equal distribution of wealth, I believe that those who are able to earn more should keep more, but not to the extreme rate we see in Corporate Amerika. Are you familiar with George Harrison’s story about why he wrote “Taxman”?
Movement to Socialism light lolol at myself. is real movement and with all due respect, i understand that such movement does not come without internal struggle. The point is to move to positions that supports kids, parents, communities, schools, etc., if you get my drift. I would love to hear the “Tax Man” story.
In 1966, after the Beatles quit touring, Harrison had his accountant calculate his total worth. The accountant later informed him of a total worth far below that which he was expecting after three years of sell-out crowds and many hit records. He was then informed of his being in the 95% tax bracket; most of his earnings went towards the British Socialist economy. He wrote Taxman as a form of protest.
I feel that that is an extreme form of Socialism. However, I believe that the wealthy must do their share in helping to provide social services and our civilized society. By 1966, Harrison had made so much money that he probably should have paid 50% or thereabouts. Yet, we all know of the ultra-wealthy like Mitt Romney who shelter most of their money out of greed and pay 13.9%, which is unfair and absurd. It is also immoral. I may not quite believe in equal distribution of wealth but I certainly believe in an equitable distribution of wealth.
Bill Morrison,
You might as well believe in Socialism; after all, the Overclass does, at least it believes in Socialism for itself.
What else are bank bailouts and Quantitative Easing, whereby insolvent but favored banks are loaned money for free, and then loan it back to you for 19% on your credit card, to be called?
Look at the NFL, that institutional monument to this country’s love of violence and militarism: all television revenues for the league are distributed evenly among the teams, whether they play in small or large TV markets.
While so-called free market capitalism has always been a myth, it does provide a convenient screen for the Socialism-for-the-rich/digital-feudalism-for-everyone-else dynamics that dominate our society.
“What else are bank bailouts and Quantitative Easing, whereby insolvent but favored banks are loaned money for free, and then loan it back to you for 19% on your credit card, to be called?”
Careful, this critique sounds almost Austrian . . .
Michael,
Well said!
Why does this post hold true for Connecticut, but not for Florida and NYS??? (While the AFT/UFT haven’t publically endorsed Cuomo, they did threaten the WFP with pulling funding if Cuomo didn’t get the endorsement.
The AFT has been endorsing Neoliberals for awhile now, yet when they have a pro public school candidate like Nan Rich in Florida, they support the guy who supports Jeb Bush. Nan just got the endorsement of the National Women’s Political Caucus.
You cannot be upset over one state, and keep silent over how Weingarten and the AFT are in bed with Reformers in many states.
I don’t believe that this story holds true only for CT: it’s just that union endorsement of Malloy is more recent than what is happening elsewhere. It is simply a shock that any union, especially a teacher’s union, would endorse an anti-teacher and anti-union Democrat.
It’s a whopping 6 days more recent than the Cuomo deal.
Why is anyone shocked at this point about AFT/UFT sellout!!!! The 2005 contract for NYC teachers gave Bloomberg/Klein what they desperately wanted: The loss of seniority transfer rights which encouraged school closings in an attempt to force veteran teachers to resign or retire if they could. The ATR pool was created for excessed teachers who were mostly high cost veterans but now their protections have been reduced. ATR’s are subject to dismissal with less due process protection that appointed teachers. Everywhere RW has helped in negotiations has resulted in a weakening of teacher protections. Ultimately teachers are to blame for not voting for new leadership.
I don’t think many are shocked by it.
Whatever . . .
Exactly! “A fish rots from the head”. Weingarten is the rotten head who has been in bed with the “educational deformers” for years now and shares a big part of the blame for allowing Democrats to believe they can trample all over teachers yet still be endorsed by our unions. There is a huge disconnect between our union leaders and their members.
To readers: Of all the important comments here, I feel those made by Chris and by Michele Bartels are the most helpful as to what must be done. It is difficult, but it is, indeed, up to US to pushback, to work in our locals to get together to change things in our unions. How, indeed, do you think that the CTU elected Karen Lewis & threw out the old regime? Lots of planning and hard work, not kvetching and pointing fingers.
I used to teach special ed., had a contest, & one of the kids came up with the motto, “Quit your whining & start your winning!” He was also an artist, and he drew an excellent design which we made into posters we put up all over school. As Michele stated so well, it is up to US. And–NYC–I have to say, I am sickened that Unity keeps being reelected as carried by the votes of retired teachers! In ILLAnnoy (so spelled because of the politics, not for any other reason), we retired teachers are working hard to affect change, especially in the IEA & IFT, because it starts locally. In fact there are more actives to vote than retirees.
In any event, the point is this–the CTU CORE took back their union. We CAN do it as well–city by city and state by state. It’s tough during the school year, but locals should be getting together over the summer to make plans and to carry them out.
Thank you, Chris & Michele, for making the important point that “we must affect the change that we want to be.” (I know someone out there knows who originally said this, but I don’t remember!) Yes, WE can…and we WILL!
Quotation is often attributed to Gandhi, usually given as, “Be the change that you want to see.” However, see this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/falser-words-were-never-spoken.html
Just perfect….
I know who will . . . VOTE PELTO!
Also, we have formed a new professional organization for teachers in CT called Connecticut Association of Professional Educators. Our goal is not to compete with the unions but rather give teachers a political voice. We represent one of the most highly educated and certified professions in the United States yet our politicians and our unions ignore us when making educational policies. Just look at the decision taken by AFT-CT to endorse Malloy against the wishes of nearly 50,000 professional educators in our state. This is an intolerable situation. Please look into us and consider joining! http://www.cape-teach.org and http://www.facebook.com/capeteach
Anti-unionists long ago hyped the “union thug” meme. I saw this first hand in Lansing Mi in December 2012. During the right to work for less protests. Anti-unionists taunted 12,000 union members and when this was not provocative enough knocked one to the ground. The scene was carefully edited to show his “thuggish” reaction and played endlessly on Fox. Silencing us is one facet of their strategy.
The idea that standing up for teachers and against bad policy is thuggery is one reason our unions compromise for a seat at the table only to be had for dinner. It is past time for our unions to become more militant and join the right side of history. The alternative is to be complicit as it all comes down and reinforce the notion that unions serve no good greater than themselves.
I wish this were the only such example. We who are delegates to the AFT convention have a job to do there, don’t we.
As a teacher under CEA, I know I will not vote for Governor Malloy again and if CEA asks me to, I will ask for a refund of my union dues! Malloy won the election on the backs of teachers and then turned around and made us his political pawns. Not again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!