Appealing to Union, Hillary Clinton Calls Teachers ‘Scapegoats’
Hillary Rodham Clinton at an event in Hampton, N.H., on May 22.Credit Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times
Hillary Rodham Clinton made an appeal for an endorsement from theAmerican Federation of Teachers this week, suggesting in a private meeting with union officials that critics have turned teachers into “scapegoats for all of society’s problems.”
“From what I’ve seen, all of the evidence, and my own personal experience, says that the most important and impactful thing we can do for our public schools is to recruit, support and retain the highest-quality educators,” Mrs. Clinton said before a question-and-answer session with teachers, according to the union, which released her remarks.
“It is just dead wrong to make teachers the scapegoats for all of society’s problems,” she said. “Where I come from, teachers are the solution.” Mrs. Clinton’s remarks were first reported by BuzzFeed.
Mrs. Clinton, as well as two other Democratic presidential hopefuls, former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, appeared at the union’s executive council meeting this week. But even allies of Mr. O’Malley and Mr. Sanders acknowledge that Mrs. Clinton is likely to earn the federation’s backing.
Still, Mrs. Clinton is under some pressure from advocates of an education overhaul, who have been at odds with the teachers’ union for several years and believe President Obama has been a supporter of their issues. Representatives for teachers have publicly denounced Mr. Obama’s education agenda and programs like “Race to the Top,” which awarded bonuses to school districts based on performance markers. That makes Mrs. Clinton’s comments about teachers as “scapegoats” all the more striking.
In an interview in March, Ann O’Leary, who has since become a senior policy adviser for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, indicated that the candidate planned to engage in a dialogue with both the teachers and advocates of an overhaul, something Mr. Obama has been accused of not doing.
Lea Crusey, of the group Democrats for Education Reform, who called Mr. Obama “a consistent champion for reform,” said advocates had “been in contact” with Mrs. Clinton’s team, and that they hoped to hear from her on issues such as college affordability, charter schools and “continued support for accountability.”
Mrs. Clinton has a long record on the subject, including on efforts to overhaul public education. In Arkansas, when she was first lady, she was part of a task force that tried to improve the state’s poor-performing schools.Appealing to Union, Hillary Clinton Calls Teachers 'Scapegoats' - First Draft. Political News, Now. - NYTimes.com:
