Randi Weingarten – my union president, not my bff

Diane Ravitch has been a powerful voice for US teachers against the Billionaire Boys Club, who have carried out a program of social engineering that has devastated our schools.  Ravitch is a friend of public education, a friend of the social movement trying to push back these terrible "deforms." This distinction is one Ravitch misses when she defends her personal pal, Randi Weingarten, who is coming under intense pressure for  supporting the Common Core,  a national curriculum that is generating resistance on the left– and the right.  Weingarten should state clearly that adopting this curriculum cedes the power decide what our kids learn to a self-appointed elite. The process has been thoroughly undemocratic and a teachers union that wants respect for teachers has to say that. Weingarten is my union president, not my bff.  We need leadership and integrity from her, not  attendance at our birthday parties. And when she's wrong, as she is on this national curriculum, we have to call her out.

You can now follow me on twitter @drloisweiner.