If teacher union administrators ever designed a government lesson, it’s plausible to think it would look drastically different from what actually goes on in the classroom.
In fact, the lesson plan would take all of one day, replacing government structure and elections with one simple rule that applies to Democrats: Don’t cross Randi Weingarten by remotely associating with a reform supporter, or AFT will torpedo your political reputation.
It might seem narrow-minded, but it’s the only rule that seems to matter to union officials.
Clearly, Gina Raimondo, current Treasury Secretary of Rhode Island, was initially unaware of this rule.
Otherwise she may not have had the audacity to introduce fiscal reforms involving a hedge fund manager who also happens to take pride in being vilified by Weingarten.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Weingarten took the high road by threatening Raimondo’s political standing if she didn’t divest state resources from reform supporter Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund. This is by no means to condone Raimondo or Loeb, they’re simply the ones caught in Weingarten’s petty political crosshairs.
It’s all to point out the increasing distance between senior union leadership and issues that have anything to do with improving schools, and the lengths at which a union leader goes to carry out a political vendetta. Seeing as the hedge fund was by all accounts beneficial to union labor, there’s no conceivable reason someone who claims to be focused on education would be involved in an issue like this.
The fact that the head of one of the largest teacher unions in the US would be so heavily invested in political axe-grinding rather than focusing on the real issues facing schools reveals a widening disconnect, not to mention irrelevance to doing what’s best for kids.