MEDIA WATCH: How out of it is Randi Weingarten? Instead of opposing 'Race To The Top' and the Duncan administration, she blames the corporate media for losing New York's RTTT bid
[Editor's Note: One of the bigger mistakes union leaders are making in the USA today is believing that America's corporate media are there to publish the news in an unbiased way and bring the facts to the public. While that quaint belief is even true in Chicago — where the two corporate newspaper giants, the Sun-Times and Tribune, managed to ignore the school closing hearings two months ago, and the most important federal injunction two weeks ago — it's obvious that Chicago is not the only place where delusional working people — and union leaders — are at work. Consider the case of Randi Weingarten, the teachers union leader who was never really a teacher as another example. Instead of opposing Race To The Top, Randi supported Arne Duncan and blames the media for...]
The New York Daily News, one of the city's biggest circulation newspapers, published the following editorial on April 7, 2010:
Power tripping: Union chief tries to blame papers for federal ed funding fiasco EDITORIALS
Wednesday, April 7th 2010, 4:00 AM
Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch? Education Commissioner David Steiner? Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver? Senate Democratic Conference chief John Sampson? City teachers union President Michael Mulgrew?
Not according to Randi Weingarten, formerly of New York, now heading the national American Federation of Teachers.
Quoted in the current issue of Education Week, Weingarten considered why New York got skunked while Delaware and Tennessee pulled in big bucks. She put blame for New York's failure squarely on the newspaper you're holding in your hands, or reading online, at this very moment.
"The key lever to changing schools is changing systems, which means you have to change the labor-management dynamic to be one that is very disciplined and very collaborative," Weingarten said. "The screaming you heard from the [newspaper] tabloids in New York compared to the working together quietly in Tennessee and Delaware teaches us a thing or two."
Pardon us while we, well, scream.
With laughter.
New York was among dozens of states that competed for Race to the Top funding. The criteria for winning established by federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan included raising standards, fostering school choice by encouraging charter schools and using student achievement data to reward great teachers and remove poor ones from the classroom.
The judges also wanted evidence of broad public support for a state's application, including from the teachers union. This was not forthcoming, and so New York's Legislature did not lift the state's cap on charter schools or authorize measuring teachers based on how well students do.
To hear Weingarten tell it, her successor Mulgrew was set to join hands with Tisch in a new Age of Aquarius. But then, just as harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust were about to abound, the Daily News and others said boo - and the whole thing went down the tubes in bitterness and recriminations.
Would that we had such make-or-break power. We don't. But Mulgrew did - and does. New York can apply for a second round of funding in June. And that is no laughing matter.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/04/07/2010-04-07_power_ tripping.html#ixzz0khff7tfd
