One of the reasons this situation bears watching is because of how the rise of Lewis and CORE have had reverberations throughout the American Federation of Teachers, CTU's parent union.
AFT has played the card of being the more accommodating of the two national teachers' unions with respect to national policy movements, such as teacher evaluations based partly on student achievement. But Lewis has shown that outright resistance and opposition can work in some contexts, too, and that has proved to be an attractive option for some.
Opposition groups modeled on CORE have sprung up in the AFT's affiliates in New York City and Newark, among other places. And they seem to be having an effect on AFT, which has taken a much more strident tone on standardized testing and school closures lately.
Norm Scott says no:
Don't leave out the connection to the Chicago 80% victory by Karen who is leading the battle against ed deform while Randi once again defends Common core in the NY Times. The AFT I believe gave the CTU money to support the CC or something like that. But from what I hear they are ready to take on that battle. At the AFT convention in LA in July 2014 many of these issues will be fought out with the local 800 Unity slugs just elected will still be pulling back from the battle.
Ed deform will not fall until we drag the UFT/AFT into the battle. The Chicago election was a referendum on the Randi collaboration strategy and that took a beating.
I take a hardline on Randi.
Having watched her here in NYC, I can tell you that all Weingarten cares about is advancing her own career.
This is a labor "leader" with no core beliefs, no principles, no standards of conduct other than "How do I get on television more?"
She maneuvered herself into the "reform-friendly labor leader" slot because that was the place that would personally enrich and benefit her the most.
Until she has her power stripped from her or is carted out on RICO charges, Weingarten will not abandon her chosen role in the education reform war - the collaborator who works from within to destroy teachers and teachers unions.
I am glad that Karen Lewis and CTU are putting some pressure on the AFT leadership.
Winning with 80% of the vote after winning a fight with Rahm Emanuel is, I believe, making the AFTers a little worried that other locals will clamor for the same kind of pushback from their union against the deformers.
So their making some noises like they're pushing back.
But make no mistake, just because the AFT leadership is feeling a little pressure from a local doesn't mean their core collaborator policies will change.
They'll make it look like they're changing their policies without actually, you know, changing their policies.
Kinda like calling for a moratorium on high stakes attached to the Common Core tests, but not pushing for the end of high stakes attached to the Common Core tests.
Sure, Weingarten made headlines, but in the end, she did nothing to halt the education reform steamroller about to crush teachers with value-added measurements based on the Common Core tests that were added before the Common Core curriculum was taught.
That's the stuff Weingarten is made of - getting headlines for herself while doing nothing to help teachers (or worse, actively harming them.)
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