The American Federation of Teachers Endorsed Hillary Clinton—and Not Everyone’s Happy About It
Hillary Clinton is nervous—and the second-largest teachers’ union in the country wants to help. On Saturday, two days before Clinton’s big economic policy speech, the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers announced the first big union endorsement in the 2016 cycle when it came out for the Democratic front-runner. From AFT President Randi Weingarten’s plug:
Hillary Clinton, a product of public schools herself, believes in the promise of public education. From early childhood learning through higher education, she sees how that promise can create real opportunity for kids, building a much-needed bridge to the middle class. Hillary understands that to reclaim the promise of public education, policymakers need to work with educators and their unions.
The choice of Clinton is not exactly a shocker: She and Weingarten have been tight since Clinton was a New York senator and Weingarten the head of New York’s United Federation of Teachers, and Weingarten sits on the board of the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action. The AFT supported Clinton during her bruising primary against Obama in 2008. In subsequent years, it’s unlikely that the big teachers unions have found cause to regret that choice, as they have often disagreed with accountability-focused, charter-friendly Obama.
And Clinton seems to be the defender of traditional public schools that the unions have been longing to install in the White House: She was pushing for universal pre-K long before it was part of the national political conversation. Then again, she’s also spoken favorably of charters and has never exactly come out swinging against tying test scores to teacher performance. (In the 2008 election, as this New York Timesstory pointed out, it wasn’t necessary to take a position on these now incredibly contentious issues.)
Still, if it was all but inevitable that the teachers unions would endorse Clinton, why’d the AFT pull the trigger so early? The timing of the endorsement has attracted as much attention as its content. Last time, the AFT didn’t endorse Clinton until October 2007, and in recent months Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, has been urging unions not to endorse candidates until they know more about their economic positions. The obvious answer is that the Clinton camp choreographed the AFT endorsement as a safeguard against the unexpected threat posed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders—a candidate, incidentally, that unions seem to like so much thatAFT Hillary Clinton endorsement: Not everyone's pleased with the early pick.:
The AFT’s Endorsement of Hillary Clinton Is an Insult to Union Democracy
On Saturday, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced that its executive council “overwhelmingly” endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president. It did so, the official announcement says, on the basis of interviews (not released to members) and the results of a poll.
The decision couldn’t be more wrongheaded, and it’s one that members should demand the union executive council rescind. We should propose instead a decision reached by a very different process: a referendum of members that follows and is informed by debate in union outlets.
Every local should be charged by the executive council with providing space and place for members to air their opinions. The national union should encourage use of its magazine and website for this debate. In this discussion the leadership will have the opportunity to persuade members that endorsing Clinton is the wisest choice, but it will be obligated to carry out the will of the membership as expressed in the referendum.
What is most destructive in the AFT’s endorsement of Clinton is that it has disempowered members at precisely the moment when we most need revitalized teachers unions to save a system of education that is being destroyed as a public good by powerful elites and the politicians they control.
Instead, a rushed decision was made without any semblance of legitimacy. The questions and answers about the process offer few specifics except that the national union conducted polls of members and interviews with (some) candidates. According to the union, the endorsement was made based on this information, though people who know Washington politics have been aware for many years of the public love fest between AFT President Randi Weingarten and Clinton. The process of seeking member opinion was an embarrassingly transparent cover for Weingarten’s longstanding desire that Clinton be the AFT’s candidate.
Not all executive council members approved of this endorsement, though how individuals voted has not been revealed to members. We have a right to know how leaders voted and should demand this information.
While Weingarten holds much responsibility for handling this endorsement, as if it were hers to make, the executive council members are equally responsible. Those who supported the endorsement supported it on behalf of members without having The AFT’s Endorsement of Hillary Clinton Is an Insult to Union Democracy
