Weingarten, Eskelson-Garcia Fiddle With Ed Reformers While B-Lo Burns

New NEA/AFT Motto

While Buffalo Public Schools are burning in a fire of ed reform and receivership we get the message that Randi Weingarten of AFT President for Life notoriety and her spineless partner in betrayal, Lily Eskelson Garcia of NEA, have signed on with some of the most wretched and obnoxious elements of Corporate Ed Reform's anti union phalangists. Weingarten likes to resort to 1984ish "newspeak"when she explains her endless betrayals of the rank and file. She calls it "solution driven unionism." Her solution unfortunately is always the same: betray the teachers and make friends with the forces attacking public education and unionized teachers. 

Yes friends, while Commissioner MaryEllenElia, the hand picked stooge of  Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch, was giving her own hand picked stooge Kriner Cash, the Superintendent of Buffalo Schools, permission to trample and ignore the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement in place, Randi Weingarten and Lily had nothing to say. They apparently aren't concerned with this precedent setting attack on labor. You'd never even know it occurred if you asked either of them. Maybe they are too preoccupied with trying to newspeak their latest demonstration of  fecklessness in leadership positions. Their boldfaced betrayal of their constituency begs the question Is Friedrich's a done deal? Are they simply trying to position themselves strategically for the Post-Friedrichs landscape? 

Otherwise how do you explain the Presidents of 2 teacher's unions embedding themselves within this group of ed reform bottom feeders? Off the top of my head I can name Bill Gates' funded Educators for Excellence, (Eedjits4Excrement) Jonah Edelman's Stand for (On) Children, elistist Wendy Kopp's Teach for (a Bit) America, The Neo Liberal Center for American Progress and the list goes on. Here it is in all of its Vichy Quisling glory: 

The organizational partners in TeachStrong are: Alliance for Excellent Education, America Achieves, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, American Federation of Teachers, ASCD, Center for American Progress, Council of Chief State School Officers, Deans for Impact, Digital Promise, Education Post, The Education Trust, the Education Policy Program at New America, Educators 4 Excellence, Educators Rising, Emerson Collective, Hope Street Group, Knowledge Alliance, Leading Educators, Learning Forward, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Center for Teacher Residencies, National Center on Time and Learning, National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, National Council on Teacher Quality, National Education Association, National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, National Network of State Teachers of the Year, National Women’s Law Center, New Leaders, New Teacher Center, Public Impact, Relay Graduate School of Education, Stand for Children, Teach For America, Teach Plus, Third Way, TNTP, Urban Teachers, and The VIVA Project.

None of us is enjoying the way things are unraveling here in Buffalo or the reality that this is simply the template the corporate ed reform caste is going to try to use everywhere else if they succeed in eviscerating the BTF. But I think we are still willing to stand in there and fight with whatever we have at our disposal. Naturally the few tools we have available to us are going to hurt us as much as they do the other side but I don't believe that's any reason not to use them. 

It would be such a game changer to have national muscle flexing on our behalf, to know that whatever happens we have support and cover fire from above. Instead we have these two collaborating jackasses running around making googley eyes and playing footsie with the very people who stand to gain from BTF's untimely demise -- people who've dedicated millions of dollars and untold human capital, to use their words, towards destroying teacher unions. 

Spin it any way you like Randi and Lily but you're dancing with the devil. Your solution is to help drive unions into the ground. We will do this without you just as we have been doing it for years. But we will not forget where you were and what you were doing when the wolf broke down the door in B-Lo. The Brits might have burned us the ground in 1812. It's not going to happen again. 

Executive Committee meets this afternoon. 
Council of Delegates Tonight. 
Be There or Forever Hold Your Peace. 
Solidarity.