My Comment on Ravitch Defense of Randi

Diane,
I support your choice in defending Randi (Why I Defend Randi). When you changed your mind the turnaround has had an immense impact. But you as an academic affected policy. Randi's positions had a direct impact on the working conditions of teachers. As a union leader her pushing of positions that turned out to be wrong emasculated the union membership's ability to fight back against the forces attacking public education. She bears some major responsibility in helping enable NCLB and especially RTTT.

As members of the local union she led for a decade and the national union she now leads we have an obligation to question the kind of decision making that led to so many turn-arounds on poor decisions that not just affect us theoretically but the very nature of what public education has come to mean. I can speak as one who as far back as the late 90s and early oughts urged the Randi to take a position on high stakes testing with resolutions I put up at the Delegate Assembly only to get the most adamant defense of those practices that have so harmed us. I should point out that I raised the story of Chicago where the process began in 1995 and by 2002 around the time Arne Duncan replaced Paul Valas we had enough info to make an informed decision. Yet Randi continued to make deformer decisions and crippled the one organization with the resources that had the capability to lead the fight. With this latest turnaround my sense is she should hold a Chris Christie like press conference and apologize to every AFT union member for the entire enchilada of errors. I would forgive her but never trust any of her decisions in the future to be correct, given her past.

One of my teacher friends just posted this:
"Good that she's changed her mind. But she needs to use her position to ACT. She needs to speak to Obama and Duncan. She needs to sit down with Cuomo and Tisch and King. She needs to pull our districts out. She needs to apologize for the horrible contracts she helped negotiate. We in the trenches have this CCLS yolk around our necks. Our children are being crippled academically and teachers are being rated under them. Those, like Randi, who can should get to those powers and get education...public, private and otherwise back on track and demand the funding and changes in economics that will make education the best it can be across this country. Sitting on a panel defending herself is not going to bring about change!"