Randi Weingarten, who is both president of the American Federation of Teachers and a veteran lawyer, describes the AFT’s efforts to save the pensions and benefits and dignity of teachers in Puerto Rico as the Island faced bankruptcy and predatory lenders.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Pensions, Puerto Rico, Unions

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retired teacher says:

October 17, 2019 at 2:20 pm

I am happy that the AFT is trying to help the teachers of Puerto Rico hang on to some of their pension benefits. Hedge funds are bad news! Through financial manipulation, they profit from others’ misery. Hedge funds should be regulated, and there should be laws to keep them away from public pensions.

Puerto Rico is not the only place that does not offer social security to its teachers. “Now teachers in 12 states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas — don’t have coverage arrangements with Social Security. In addition, three other states — Georgia, Kentucky, and Rhode Island — have varying degrees of coverage that differ by school district.”https://www.fool.com/retirement/2018/10/07/why-does-social-security-leave-out-teachers-in-the.aspx

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  October 17, 2019 at 3:23 pm
  
  The pension warriors like billionaire John Arnold May not know that teachers in 15 or so states are not eligible to collect Social Security.
  
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    October 17, 2019 at 4:31 pm
    
    For background on Diane’s comment, here: https://www.teacherpensions.org/blog/why-aren%E2%80%99t-all-teachers-covered-social-security
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    October 17, 2019 at 5:34 pm
    
    Lest anyone might have forgotten (or never known) about Weingarten’s previous “help” , read this
    https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/weingarten-wants-me-want-common-core-state-standards
  - retired teacher says:
    
    October 17, 2019 at 6:02 pm
    
    The public school teachers of Puerto Rico voted in 2018 to become an affiliate of the AFT. At that point they probably saw the pending financial collapse and made the decision to join the AFT. They sought membership to have better representation during the crisis. The AFT has lawyers and bargaining agents that are skillful negotiators.https://www.aft.org/press-release/puerto-rico-teachers-vote-again-affiliate-aft
sh mc says:

October 17, 2019 at 3:55 pm

Hi, Once again, where were you when Gina Raimondo of R.I. cut our defined benefit in half? 401As so not make up for this!!! This happened to all teachers who did not have 20 years in the system as of July 1,2012.

>

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Linda says:

October 17, 2019 at 5:12 pm

The National Public Pension Coalition has great, short videos that expose John Arnold’s pension villainthropy. Arnold deserves mocking and the site delivers. First, Arnold was at Enron then at hedge funds. With his demise, like David Koch’s, America will be better off.

NPPC informs state governments about the size of the monetary loss the states would experience without pension spending through charts at the site.

The Koch playbook to eliminate Social Security was rolled out first in the states and targeted public pensions.

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SomeDAM Poet says:

October 17, 2019 at 5:28 pm

I’m confused.

If teachers in Puerto Rico did not get Common Core, testing out the wazoo, VAM, and Bill Gates experiments on kids (the way teachers in the 50 states did with Weingarten’s help), how could the AFT have possibly helped them?

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- democracy says:
  
  October 18, 2019 at 4:54 am
  
  Yeah. I’m confused too. At the bottom of the Weingarten piece, it says that she is “committed to improving schools.” So, why did she take all that Bill Gates Common Core moola, and then say recently that it is essential that America’s “classrooms are freed from the tyranny of testing and test prep.” Did Weingarten not understand that Common Core came with a BIG testing component?
  
  Recently Weingarten wrote Trump, telling him that “we can find common ground on effective, meaningful solutions” to school issues, including violence in schools. This summer she told teachers that “Our freedoms are under attack there is no ‘both sides’ on matters of human dignity, equal rights, tolerance of diversity, civility and truth, or the rule of law.”
  
  She seems to excel at talking out of both sides of her mouth.
  
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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  October 18, 2019 at 5:05 am
  
  “Talking out of both sides of your mouth” is the main skill taught at Cornell’s school of Industrial and Labor Relations where Weingarten got a degree.
  
  But theory is one thing and practice another.
  
  Cornell ILR teaches the theory but it takes years of practice after college to get really good at it
  
  Reply
  - Linda says:
    
    October 18, 2019 at 8:58 am
    
    With better teachers union presidents, the battle against public schools wouldn’t have the traction it has.
    
    There are signs that AFT’s spending on political activities currently makes sense. If Weingarten gives money to CAP this year…forget what I wrote.