Will Anti-Union Bill Gates Shower AFT with Money?

[proud2BlibKansan]

<skip>

When teachers began asking why Gates, whose opposition to unions is legendary and whose own workers are not unionized, was going to speak at a union convention, the answer was vagueness about "engaging" with those with whom the union disagrees.

But at a press briefing following her keynote address to the AFT delegates on July 8, AFT President Randi Weingarten told reporters that Gates was expected to give lots of money to AFT for its new projects — and that money would also be coming from the anti-union Broad Foundation. How much, Weingarten would not say on July 8, but now everyone expects the number to be announced following Gates's July 10 speech.

More ... http://www.aftconvention2010.8k.com/ravitch.html

[madfloridian]

1. She was a professor at the Broad Superintendents Academy.

So she is connected to the side of "reform" strongly.

Broad Report Class of 2002

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM 2002 PRESS RELEASES, ETC.:

Participants in the academy will not need to leave their current jobs immediately. They will attend trainings for a number of weekends over a ten-month period in locations across the country. Fellowships, including tuition, travel and all program-related expenses, will be fully covered by The Broad Center. At the end of the training, The Broad Center will help place participants in urban school districts as administrators and superintendents.

The Fellows received guidance from leaders in business, education and the non-profit sectors. Faculty at the Academy included:

* Rod Paige, U.S. Secretary of Education
* Henry Cisneros, CEO, American CityVista
* William Cox, Managing Director, School Evaluation Services
* Chris Cross, Senior Fellow, Center on Education Policy
* Chester E. Finn, Jr., President, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
* Frances Hesselbein, Chairman, The Drucker Foundation
* Don McAdams, Founder, Center for Reform of School Systems
* Donald Nielsen, President, Hazelton Corporation; Chairman, 2WAY Corporation Hugh B. Price, President and CEO, National Urban League
* Paul Ruiz, Principal Partner, Education Trust
* Adam Urbanski, Director, Teacher Union Reform Network
* Randi Weingarten, President, United Federation of Teachers

And it would explain:

Perhaps that is why she would do something like this.

Everyone who has followed Weingarten's ascendancy to her position as AFT President knew that she had been the pick of the Oligarchs. Her earlier sweet talk about gutting the teaching profession with pay per score plans had earned her the Business Roundtable's seal of approval, and now she is returning the favor by shifting her tepid endorsement of weakening ethical teaching into a full-blown advocacy for busting her own union. Randi Weingarten should be recalled by the AFT membership, and she should be put out to pasture with the other nags.

At a time when the greed merchants and uncharged felons of Wall Street burrow into the system once more to plan another financial catastrophe a few years hence, Obama's man in charge of deciding how many millions the CEO criminals should get has just been subcontracted out by Weingarten to create a plan to fire teachers for their "misconduct." The scourge of the nation--teacher misconduct!!

Kenneth Feinberg...good or not. He has a lot of power over teachers. He is said not to be the kind to be influenced by teachers' unions.

The union has asked Kenneth Feinberg, the federal government’s so-called pay czar, to develop a more efficient protocol for disciplining — and when necessary, removing — teachers accused of misconduct.

This would be a big deal. Mr. Feinberg is highly respected and widely viewed as independent. He administered the government fund that compensated those who were injured and the families of those who were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. He also administered a fund set up in the wake of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007.

He is not the kind of guy to go into the tank for the teachers’ union. (John Ashcroft chose him to lead the 9/11 fund.) It will be very interesting to see whether the union actually goes along if Mr. Feinberg fashions a workable plan to streamline teacher discipline that is viewed favorably by school administrators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/opinion/12herbert.html?_r=1

[Hannah Bell]

2. & not really a teacher. she was a lawyer for uft who later did a short teaching stint

apparently in order to be able to call herself a teacher & move into the aft leadership.

she really does seem like a manchurian candidate.

From 1979 to 1980, Weingarten was a legislative assistant for the Labor Committee of the New York State Senate. She received a Bachelor of Science in labor relations from Cornell University in 1980 and a J.D. from the Cardozo School of Law in 1983. Weingarten then worked as a lawyer for the firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 to 1986, where she handled several acrimonious arbitration cases on behalf of the UFT. She was appointed an adjunct instructor at the Cardozo School of Law in 1986.<1> She also worked as an attorney in the real estate department of Wien Malkin and Bettex.

In 1986, Weingarten became counsel to Sandra Feldman, then-president of the UFT. Weingarten handled high-level grievances for the union. She was also lead counsel for the union in a number of lawsuits against New York City and the state of New York over school funding and school safety. By the early 1990s, she was the union's primary negotiator in UFT contract negotiations. Her negotiating positions became more aggressive throughout the 1990s.

From 1991 until 1994 she taught on per diem basis 122 days over the period at Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights. In fall of 1994 she taught history full-time at the school. By 1995, after six months of full-time teaching, Weingarten was elected Assistant Secretary of the UFT. She continued full-time teaching, from 1995 to 1997.<17>

Elected the union's Treasurer in 1997, she succeeded Feldman as President of the UFT a year later when Feldman was elected president of the national American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Weingarten was elected a Vice President of the AFT the same year, and continues to serve on the national union's Executive Council.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randi_Weingarten

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Damn you're good

Wish you were here in Seattle.