"Weingarten [the AFT President] said part of the reason we invite people who some of you people might have problems [with] is that its important for them to see who we are, that there's a lot of diversity, that we're local," explained Titus. But, "Gates has been involved in supporting the idea of charter schools, which is an anathema to the K-12 schools. I think charter schools is an attempt to destroy unions and reasonable education in a small community."
Titus mentioned that Gates, however, donated a lot of money to AFT so it made sense that AFT would give him a platform. And, she noted that he s funding some experiments in teacher evaluation that are happening in Florida.
Klonsky said of Gates, "I would have no problem with Gates speaking at the convention. He gave them millions of dollars to the AFT's Innovation Fund and therefore you can expect the AFT leadership not to act in an unfriendly way toward Gates. But, on the other hand, what was really bad about what the AFT leadership did and Randi Weingarten in particular was that they attacked those who were critical of Gates and didn't allow any questions or discussion to take place after Gates' speech. He spoke and then they rushed him out the back door."
"They tried to exert improper control over the body of the convention and not let any dissenting voices be heard, which was a huge blow to union democracy," concluded Klonsky.
This concludes part 1. Stay tuned for part 2 when Klonsky comments more on anti-teacher, anti-union sentiments in the country and a recent victory for public education in Chicago.
Below is an interview
that was shot with Michael Klonsky at the US Social Forum in June. It features
more discussion of small schools and the "Ownership Society."
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