Teacher union chief raps Obama at national convention
Says innovation key, but 'blame the teacher' crowd not productive
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten told her members meeting in Seattle on Thursday that the past two years have been "tougher than I've ever seen," with shrinking school budgets combined with increasing initiatives to punish teachers whose students don't succeed.
She urged her audience to fight against what she called the "blame the teacher crowd" by embracing new strategies to reform public education.
She called it "Fighting Smart": "searching for solutions we believe will work, even if those solutions force us to think outside the box or initially make us feel uncomfortable."
She spoke to more than 2,700 delegates gathered at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center. The loudest applause of the morning when she talked about her feelings of betrayal by the Obama administration.
"I never thought I'd see a Democratic president, whom we helped elect, and his education secretary applaud the mass firing of 89 teachers and staff in Central