Randi Weingarten | American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

Weingarten Urges Activism and Advocacy in New Jersey

February 01, 2012

Adrienne Coles, AFT

Randi Weingarten speaks to AFTNJ and HPAE members at the Rutgers Labor Education Center. Click image for more photos.

As the New Jersey legislative session was set to begin, AFT president Randi Weingarten took some time on Jan. 27 to talk with members of AFT New Jersey and the Health Professionals and Allied Employees about the importance of getting actively involved in political education and advocacy.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is pushing an agenda filled with attacks on K-12 education through undermining tenure and promoting vouchers, as well as a hastily conceived plan to merge higher education institutions. Medicaid is likely to be targeted, and further attempts to diminish public employees’ healthcare and pension benefits are in the offing.

The economy has created an opportunity for the “scapegoaters and the demonizers,” said Weingarten. “Instead of taking the responsibility of governing in tough times seriously, they are pointing fingers” and attempting “to turn the very people who are trying to make a difference in the lives of others into villains.”

It’s unfair, and our members see it, said Weingarten. “They want to know what we are going to do about this. How are we going to make it better?”

AFT affiliates in New Jersey are working on legislation to protect members. “We have to work together, not just with one another, but with state lawmakers to get the best possible legislation,” Weingarten urged. “We have to come together with a quality agenda to engage members.”

Members are understandably frustrated over legislation passed in the last session that has chipped away at the ability to bargain healthcare, changed pension rules and cut funding for education. “We can’t sit it out” this session, Weingarten said. “We have to find a way to work together.”

The last two years have shown us a whole new world, she added. “If you look around this country, you see a new movement growing out of a moment. It’s not just in Wisconsin or Ohio, it’s all over.”

Active, involved members have really made a difference in this movement, Weingarten noted. “Every real movement that is successful has two components: students and the labor movement. You are the key to both.”

Christie’s ‘Pants on Fire’ and other Fact Checks from the State of the State

January 18, 2012

While Governor Chris Christie said positive things about teachers, but stayed silent about higher education in Tuesday’s State of the State address, PolitiFact and AFTNJ identified several snippets of harmful hyperbole from the Governor that earn him a “Pants on Fire” rating. AFTNJ President Donna M. Chiera addressed Governor Christie’s education reform agenda from her classroom experience and seat on the teacher evaluation and effectiveness task force.“It is unfortunate that Governor Christie continues to repeat misstatements about the Newark Public Schools that denigrate the students and teachers there,” said Chiera. “Since PolitiFact gave the Governor a ‘Pants on Fire’ rating for undercounting by more than half the percentage of Newark students who graduate from high school back in December, you would think he would stop using this misleading figure.”The claim has been debunked twice but Christie continues to repeat the erroneous statistic, according to PolitiFact, editorializing, “Consistently repeating a proven falsehood isn’t just wrong, governor, it’s ridiculous. Pants on Fire!”

The use of misleading statistics can only detract from a meaningful dialog about school reform, which is a genuine interest of committed educators, according to Chiera. She points out that even the state is not ready to truly start “measuring teacher effectiveness, both with professional observation, and objective, quantifiable measures of student achievement” since the two-year pilot study is on teacher evaluations is in its first year.

“The state has no evaluation system in place so legislation to reduce seniority protections and weaken tenure protections is premature at best,” said Chiera. “We also need to see teachers at the table with any discussion of reform so that classroom practitioners—not politicians—are driving real reform that will benefit students.”

While Governor Christie touts research to back his efforts to weaken teachers’ voice in guiding their profession, AFT national President Randi Weingarten called for are more global outlook. “Top-performing countries like Finland and Singapore place a high priority on recruiting and retaining talented teachers, investing in teacher preparation and continuous improvement, and respecting teachers’ input,” according to Weingarten.

Chiera also noted that Christie’s speech made no mention of his much-publicized task force created to propose merging higher education institutions and called for stakeholder and public input into the planning process.

Fact Checks

Pants on Fire

Says “kids who start in the ninth grade in the city of Newark this past September, 23 percent of them will graduate in four years.”

- Chris Christie on Thursday, December 29th, 2011 in a radio interview

Chris Christie repeats misleading statistic on Newark’s high school graduation rate.

Half True

Says “we’ve accomplished balancing two budgets without raising taxes. We’ve now created 60,000 new private-sector jobs. We’ve made government smaller.”

-Chris Christie on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 in a video

Chris Christie touts accomplishments in video previewing State of the State address.

For more, see
Chris Christie dredges up old claims in annual speech

A Win for Workers, and for Us All

November 14, 2011

By Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers

Randi Weingarten talking to Ohio families about the importance of collective bargaining rights.

“As Ohio goes, so goes the nation” has taken on new meaning after this week’s election. The people of Ohio used their citizen veto decisively to repeal legislation that would have stripped police officers, teachers, firefighters and other public workers of their right to bargain collectively.

It is the first time in the nation’s history that collective bargaining rights have been upheld on a statewide ballot. And it is a clear sign that Americans understand we can’t rebuild the economy without rebuilding the middle class.

The opposition to the legislation’s partisan overreach went well beyond public employees and union members. More people voted to repeal Senate Bill 5 in November 2011 than voted to elect John Kasich governor a year earlier. That message should not be lost on the legislators who voted to pass it.

Election results from Maine to Mississippi and from Ohio to Arizona demonstrated that voters were fed up with politicians who thought they could exploit a tough economy to advance extremist agendas. The public is crying out for leaders to help get the economy back on track for all Americans.

In Ohio, voters saw the public services that public workers provide as being essential to their communities—whether it was the cop on the beat or the teacher in the classroom. And, implicit in that is the acknowledgment that employees having a voice in their work is a way to ensure and improve the quality of vital public services.

More>>

Unions investing in America’s infrastructure

November 02, 2011

“At a time when banks have frozen investment and municipalities have frozen borrowing, we’ve decided to step forward,” says Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. In January, Weingarten began meeting with the leaders of other major public employee unions, including some — the Service Employees International Union, the National Education Association — that aren’t AFL-CIO members. They decided to commit a share of their retirement funds to projects that shored up the nation’s infrastructure. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) assisted them, setting up meetings between the union leaders and supportive state treasurers.

More>>

AFT supports the American Jobs Act

October 24, 2011

Randi Weingarten on Education Nation

September 25, 2011

NBC and MSNBC will be focusing on education during this week’s Education Nation programming. President Weingarten will be a guest on a number of panels and news shows. She is currently scheduled to appear on:
SUNDAY, Sept. 25 – 9 a.m. ET – MSNBC’s UP with Chris Hayes
SUNDAY, Sept. 25 – 12 noon to 2 p.m. ET – MSNBC – Randi and many AFT members will be in the audience at a Teacher Town Hall.
MONDAY, Sept. 26 – 4:30 p.m. ET – MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show
TUESDAY, Sept. 27 – 2:40 p.m. ET – MSNBC’s news with Tamron Hall

Randi Weingarten Shows Solidarity with Newark Teachers Union

March 01, 2011

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers and former head of New York City’s teachers union, last Thursday unveiled her plan for revamping teacher tenure.

On Monday, where better to make one of her first stops than in New Jersey, a state that has become a national showpiece for how school reform — including tenure reform — could play out?

Weingarten traveled to the home of the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) yesterday to promote her plan.

AFT president promotes strategy for streamlining tenure and improving teacher evaluation
John Mooney
Read full article at http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/11/0228/2329/