Standing Up to Superman: An Interview
with Barbara Madeloni
In choosing Barbara Madeloni as president, the Massachusetts Teachers Association has elected a fierce opponent of neoliberal education reform.
(Yen Yen Woo / YouTube)
Barbara Madeloni is an educator and activist from Northampton, Massachusetts, who was elected in May as president of the 110,000-member Massachusetts Teachers Association for a two-year term. Madeloni defeated Tim Sullivan, the chosen candidate of the previous, term-limited president Paul Toner, who was known for his closeness to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and the state’s Democratic Party establishment.
She first became known in 2012 as a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s School of Education, where she led opposition to a proposed teacher evaluation system overseen by Pearson, the large for-profit education company. She was fired because of her activism around the issue.
Madeloni is unique among labor leaders. Her level of analysis concerning the crisis facing organized labor and public education is refreshing at a time when both national teachers unions — the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — seem unshakably wedded to a failed model of unionism.
The NEA was one of the unions to endorse Obama for reelection despite his many betrayals of teachers unions. Under the tenure of President Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers has received millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — perhaps the greatestinstitutional threat to public education in the US today.
In contrast, Madeloni is committed to a fierce campaign against neoliberal education reform and is unafraid of mentioning the word “capital” or pointing out the deeply destructive role of the Democratic Party in the crisis of public education. Those on the Left interested in the revitalization of the labor movement would do well to study Madeloni’s spirited defense of public Standing Up to Superman: An Interview with Barbara Madeloni | Jacobin: