Does Randi Weingarten think no one is paying attention?
On September 9th, the Answer Sheet ran a column in the Washington Post under the title “What if Randi Weingarten were U.S. education secretary?” The article is an interview with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten by author C.M. Rubin, author of several education books, two on-line series on global education, and publisher of the online blogCMRubinWorld. She is a Fellow of the Disruptor Foundation.
Right off, Ms. Weingarten launches into her usual spin, that, while mistakes were made in education under President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan with “too many tests” and inequitable funding, things are being “reset” with the Every Child Succeeds Act of 2015. The specifics of the disaster of Race to the Top, especially for low-income school districts that have seen dozens of schools closed and public schools being put on starvation budgets to expand privatization with charters, are not mentioned. According to Ms. Weingarten, U.S. education is on course to a brighter tomorrow with ESSA.
Asked, “Does the current state of our underprivileged school systems help foster radicalism?" Ms. Weingarten says she does not know of “any empirical data that would answer your question.” She then makes a series of platitudes about how unfortunate the underfunding of schools in low-income communities is with no mention of who is responsible for this situation. Apparently listening to Schools Matter: Does Randi Weingarten think no one is paying attention?: