The people of Puerto Rico are in the streets demanding the resignation of Governor Rosselló, following the release of emails revealing his bigotry and contemptuous comments about those who elected him. Former Secretary of a Education Julia Keleher was brought to the Island to privatize public schools, adopting the Trump-DeVos plan of charters and vouchers. She was recently arrested on fraud charges.
Weingarten: Puerto Rico Gov. Rossello’s Tenure of Corruption and Failure Centers on His Mismanagement of Public Schools
Governor and Former Puerto Rico Education Secretary Keleher Created a Perfect Storm of Indifference and Incompetence
For Release:
Contact:
Michael Powell
WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement on the mismanagement of Puerto Rico’s public schools by Gov. Ricardo Rossello and former Secretary of Education Julia Keleher:
“Nearly 1 million people took to the streets yesterday to call for Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello to resign. His tenure of corruption and failure includes his mismanagement of the public schools.
“The governor and Puerto Rico’s former secretary of education, Julia Keleher, caused significant and lasting damage to children and prevented their access to a high-quality education. Rossello and Keleher’s arrogance and neglect created a perfect storm of indifference and incompetence.
“For two years, Rossello and Keleher ignored repeated requests from the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico and the AFT to use federal recovery money to fund and restore public education on the island. By ignoring our requests, they clearly showed their collective antipathy toward public education and how little they cared about the children and teachers in Puerto Rico’s public schools.
“Instead, they chose to grossly underfund public schools, leaving children with outdated textbooks, no school nurses and school buildings in disrepair. They shortsightedly closed more than 430 schools, one-third of the island’s public schools, and left families struggling to find alternative schools for their children to attend, often many miles away. They diverted much-needed funding from public schools to start charter schools, despite the growing evidence showing that many charters underperform compared with traditional public schools.
“To add insult to injury, we now find out from a recent U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General audit that Rossello and Keleher, to date, have spent $24.1 million—only 4 percent—of the $589 million in disaster relief funds provided by Congress to help fund and repair schools.
“Both knew full well that Congress stipulated in the recovery funding legislation that the money had to be spent in 24 months. Tragically—with the governor mired in a corruption scandal and Keleher being forced to resign after her arrest by the FBI for engaging in a kickback scheme—this federal recovery money will be largely unspent or spent unwisely.
“The governor and former secretary’s lack of commitment to the children of Puerto Rico is appalling. And their disrespect to the teachers on the island who threw their heart and soul into trying to teach and comfort these kids in the months after the storms is unforgivable. The sad chapter of Rossello and Keleher will forever be a stain on Puerto Rico.
“The next governor must not just repair the damage done to the public schools by the hurricanes, but must eliminate the utter contempt that Rossello and Keleher brought to their handling of public education.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Weingarten ignored membership when endorsing Clinton because she was hoping for a plum post as the Education Secretary. She personalized her position for political gain and we have Trump because of it. She should be replaced. https://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-clinton-teachers-20151001-story.html
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Boo-hoo! Never waste a good crisis if you’re Randi Weingarten.
The power structure of the UFT and AFT are not democratic structures at all, which is why Weingarten and Mulgrew are extremely difficult to replace, given their dominating loyalty caucuses.
Only members growing their own caucuses like MORE, etc. will change this. Or go to court. The by-laws for voting in all three unions needs or changer dramatically. Same for NYSUT.
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Here’s WHY.
These are just BROWN people and no one in charge really cares.
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It’s up at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Randi-Weingarten-Corrupti-in-General_News-Congress_Corruption_Education_Funding-190723-969.html#comment740040 with this comment:
( which has links at the above address)
The Deluge of Cash Flowing Into the Charter School Industry. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/10/30/laura-chapman-the-deluge-of-cash-flowing-into-the-charter-school-industry/
and if you wonder why, then know this, It is Shared knowledge that MAKES DEMOCRACY POSSIBLE.
Click to access hirsch.pdf
An ignorant citizenry, especially one that is ignorant of history and fed alternative facts, is the goal, not just the profit made by the businesses that take over our schools. Look who writes curriculum in North Carolina –why its the Koch brothers! https://dianeravitch.net/2014/12/05/north-carolina-plans-to-adopt-koch-funded-social-studies-curriculum
And waddabout Arizona” — David Safier writes in the Tucson Weekly about well-funded efforts by the billionaire Koch Brothers to promote their anti-government, free-market libertarian views into local high schools. https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/guest-opinion/Content?oid=12119561
and learn how billionaire Charles Koch and his allies are pouring money into a massive campaign to transform education in the United States from a fundamental right to a commodity.
The Charles Koch Network plans to spend about $400 million to advance a far-right education agenda in ballots across the country this election cycle and is spending big on alternatives to traditional public schools, including vouchers and charter schools. The group distributed roughly $100 million to 350 colleges and universities in 2017 a sevenfold increase over the past five years and intends to double the amount it spends on K12 schools to promote its conservative agenda. http://www.uft.org/news-briefs/koch-network-spending-big-erode-public-education#
The group’s priorities include breaking teachers unions, draining public school funding into educational saving accounts and developing technologies for parents to use to shop for private classes and tutors online instead of sending their children to schools with trained and accredited public school teachers.
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And if there’s anyone who knows about corruption and mismanagement….
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Beat me to the punch once again, Dienne!
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“Emails show DeVos pulled strings for for-profit colleges”
Uh, oh.
I think prospective college students should start asking themselves if they can trust the USDOE to give them reliable, factual information on college. Who exactly do these people work for?
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Weingarten is great after the fact.
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Yes, she is taking a 180 for now. That’s a good thing because there’s more we can draw out of her. She feels the political winds, But she is no progressive permanently, and she’s not militant about strikes.
Take what you can get when you can get it and utilize it to the max!
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I doubt she’s even a progressive temporarily. This will last about as long as her promise not to take Gates money.
BTW, she IS militant about strikes. Militantly against them.
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The Weingarten
The wine is very nice
In garden, with some ice
And rubbing elbows too
Is what I like to do
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And, Weingarten’s opinion about CAP’s initiative in Puerto Rico which is led by a former Kaplan and Aspira of Ill. executive?
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What is CAP’s a Puerto Rico initiative?
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Posted at the Center for American Progress- “Enrique Fernandez-Toledo is the Director of the Puerto Rico Relief and Economic Policy Initiative at American Progress. The initiative was created in 2018…with an eye toward long term planning…bold, progressive ideas…”
His bio. is also posted – assistant v.p. for government relations (Kaplan) and, in Chicago, deputy director of Aspira Inc. of Illinois.
If I recall correctly, Wikipedia had an entry for Aspira of Illinois which referenced the organization vs. unions.
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Linda–& just who is that former Kaplan/Aspira IL (& is that “Ill.” referring to ILL-Annoy {Illinois}?) executive?
Thanks for the info.!
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