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Earlier this month, the presidents of America's two largest teachers unions co-hosted a screening of the new documentary "Bully." The movie, of course, aims to combat bullying of schoolchildren. But even as they publicly eschew bullying, these unions and their locals across the nation bully teachers and competing organizations to maintain membership and power. I have published a new report on the details of this ugly trend in School Reform News. In February, a Utah teacher named Cole Kelly testified in favor of a bill that would penalize school districts for not granting all teacher organizations -- not just unions,...

Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the AFL-CIO's educational (strong) arm, announced the group's endorsement of the Obama-Biden ticket in 2012. In case it matters to you, she makes $350,000 per year as a union boss. [quote] Declaring that President Obama is the only candidate who will fight to preserve and expand the middle class, close the inequality gap and ensure everyone has a "fair shot" at success, the AFT announced its endorsement of President Obama and Vice President Biden for re-election on Feb. 7. [end quote] This selfless administrator's devotion to the middle class, earnings...

Rep. Darrell Issa, who has been investigating the Fast and Furious operation for nearly a year, declined on Friday to call for Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to resign over the botched undercover probe that led to hundreds of weapons being “walked” to gun smugglers in Mexico. Mr. Issa, California Republican, said the operation is not about Mr. Holder or Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, both of whom he has criticized strongly over their handling of the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive’s (ATF) investigation. “It is not about...

Ten months of congressional investigation, document dumps and following leads provided by ATF whistle blowers have led many to conclude that the real villains of Operation Fast and Furious were the Department of Justice led agents of Director Robert Mueller’s FBI. Since whistle blowing Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent John Dodson first brought the Fast and Furious scandal to the attention of Senator Charles Grassley, blame for the gun trafficking scheme has been directed at the ATF from operatives throughout the Obama Administration. But during the criminal doings of Fast and Furious, the ATF was often played for a stooge...

.....But it's not just the celebrities who are joining in on the fun. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have spent the past month ginning up their own public relations machines so they can declare their solidarity for the Occupy Wall Street protesters and for all which they stand. Earlier this month, AFT President RandiWeingarten (who took a few steps out of the union's plush offices on Broadway to join the protests) proclaimed that "we need to get serious as a nation about working together to create economic opportunities for all Americans." Twenty-four of the union's...

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Occupy LA movement grew by the thousands Wednesday as unionized workers, caregivers and their patients joined the call for an end to corporate greed and Congress to put Americans back to work. The demonstrators held large signs, chanted loudly and blew whistles as they marched through the streets of downtown Los Angeles to the steps of City Hall. Organized by the Service Employees International Union, the demonstration was in support of President Barack Obama's American Jobs Act....

The government-sanctioned gunrunning operation Fast and Furious was a plot to undermine Second Amendment rights in the United States, National Rifle Association officer Wayne LaPierre charged on Friday in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV. “It’s the only thing that makes any sense,” LaPierre said. “Over a period of two or three years they were running thousands and thousands of guns to the most evil people on earth. At the same time they were yelling ’90 per cent… of the guns the Mexican drug cartels are using come from the United States.’ “That was a phony figure from the very start....

Sharyl Attkisson, the same CBS reporter who was screamed at by the White House to stop reporting on the Fast and Furious gun scandal, is reporting today that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) will be issuing a subpoena to DOJ head Eric Holder: CBS News has learned a congressional subpoena directed to Attorney General Eric Holder could go out as early as Tuesday, ordering him to turn over documents to lawmakers about when he was aware of a controversial gun smuggling operation known as Fast and Furious. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports the the subpoena will come from...

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) –Mexico’s attorney general is demanding an explanation from the United States as evidence grows the Obama administration was more deeply involved in Operation Fast and Furious than top officials admitted in previous statements. Operation Fast and Furious was a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives effort to track more than 2,000 smuggled guns to Mexican drug cartels by allowing gang members to purchase them illegally from U.S. gun stores then take them back to their leaders. However, the federal agency lost track of many of the guns. Some later were traced to murders...

he AFL-CIO announced it has invested  more than $150 million in job-creating infrastructure projects and registered 8,000 more apprenticeships in clean energy training. During the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in Chicago last June, the AFL-CIO outlined plans to work with member unions, pension funds, investment professionals and the government to invest at least $10 billion in job-creating infrastructure projects. The federation also committed to invest at least $20 million in specific energy retrofits over the next year, to retrofit our headquarters building, and to train tens of thousands of workers in the skills necessary to work on 21st century infrastructure.Here’s what has been...

Ridiculously false choices and rhetoric ruled the evening when the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers hosted a closed-media conference call with Vice President Joe Biden to inform their members about the latest government school and teachers’ union bailout. In a recording obtained exclusively by PublicSchoolSpending.com, Biden explained the administration is seeking to spend $30 billion to create a “Teacher Layoff Prevention Fund.�  He also said that many schools today are “deciding whether or not to heat the school or keep a teacher.� Like school stimuli-past, Biden said schools would not be able to bank the money,...

President Obama is changing his rhetoric in trying to get Congress to approve $50 billion in new spending on roads, bridges and railways. Out are the words “stimulus” and even “infrastructure,” a term seemingly tied to the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved in 2009. In is the word “jobs,” which is what the president says will be created if Congress approves his $447 billion package. That Obama would ditch the word “stimulus” is hardly a surprise considering the political bruises he’s taken from Republicans, who say the stimulus failed to create the millions of jobs promised by the administration....

If the reassignment of ATF officials in recent weeks and the abrupt resignation of U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke were attempts by the Department of Justice and the Obama administration to cover up the Gunwalker scandal, they have failed, miserably. Now they are saddled by yet another claim of retaliation against a whistleblower and new revelations that gunwalking was far more lethal and widespread that originally thought. David Codrea of the Examiner has been at the forefront of the investigation, and reveals that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and FBI — two of the agencies that played...

Newly obtained emails show that the White House was better informed about a failed gun-tracking operation on the border with Mexico than was previously known. Three White House national security officials were given some details about the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons. The supervisor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in Phoenix specifically mentioned Fast and Furious in at least one email...

***VIDEO AT LINK*** Dr. Moe: “If you stand up for kids, you have to oppose this [collective bargaining] Schools get organized by the adults on the basis of interests and concerns that have nothing to do with kids. So, why would you expect that system to work?” As students head back to school, it is a good time to reflect on why education is failing and continues to fail. Terry Moe, Chairman of the Political Science Department at Stanford, provides a dispassionate and extensively researched book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools, which should become a useful and...

Detective Gregory of the Devonshire Constabulary: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" Sherlock Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time." Holmes: "That was the curious incident." -- "Silver Blaze," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The energetic Richard Serrano of the LA Times, who is rapidly making his name as the premier print reporter of the Gunwalker Scandal, writes "Family of U.S. agent slain in Mexico demands to know gun source." Yes, as should we all. Five months after U.S. immigration agent...

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten recently led a delegation of union representatives to Cairo, Egypt to meet with “leaders of Egyptian unions that were instrumental in the recent political and governmental changes there,” according to a news release issued by the union. Whoa.  Are public sector unions planning a similar “regime change” here in America?If not, why would Weingarten be cavorting in the Middle East at a time when American public schools are seeing massive dropout rates, budget reductions and reforms that strike at the base of union power?Details are scant regarding Weingarten’s trip or agenda.  The union...

A review of Special Interest: Teachers Unions and American Public Schools, by Terry M. Moe (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), 513 pp., $34.95 Seldom has the raw power and unbridled selfishness of teacher unions been more on display than it is today in state capitols around the country. Teachers led the union riot that shut down Wisconsin's state government for more than two weeks, making legislators afraid to enter government buildings while angry mobs defaced public property and shouted threats against elected officials. Terry Moe, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution and author of numerous books and studies on education...

Madison - One day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of collective-bargaining legislation that potentially affects thousands of public-sector employees, a coalition of unions filed suit in federal court seeking to block it.The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO on Wednesday joined a number of other unions seeking to halt Gov. Scott Walker's controversial collective bargaining legislation.The groups include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 24, AFSCME Council 40, AFSCME Council 48, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the Wisconsin State Employees Union, The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Service...

I know you are probably sick of me harping on government schools and teachers unions.  Well then, I guess is sucks to be you.  As long as I’m on the air I’ll keep preaching against government education; and especially against teacher’s unions.  I’ve said and I will repeat that there is no other entity in this country – or anywhere in the world, for that matter – that has done more damage to the fabric of America than teacher’s unions.  The problems we face in this country would be greatly reduced if the people were just informed enough and bright...

The good old American inclination to wave a magic wand and say to an urgent problem, "Begone!" is on display in the fast-emerging movement for a national K-12 curriculum.Ah, you didn't know there was such a movement, far less that it was emerging. Here's the lowdown. Various analysts representing mostly the education establishment are pressing for a so-called "common curriculum" -- one that would supposedly engage the minds of all American students, aligning their performance with the latest thinking as to what's needed.All but six states (including Texas) have fallen into bed with an effort -- supported by the U.S....

These are tough times for Minnesota schools. In Lakeville, for example, the school board recently announced wrenching cuts of almost $7 million. Ninety-four teachers will lose their jobs, arts programs will suffer and a school will be closed. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth, but the board set its jaw: There's not a dime for anything extra. Unless you've got an ax to grind with white folks. Then the money spigots open. The Lakeville schools are sending a delegation of teachers to the 12th annual "White Privilege Conference" at the Bloomington Sheraton from Aug. 13-16. The district is shelling...

I believe there is a difference between rank-and-file teachers and the leadership of radical teachers’ unions. The trouble is, the rank-and-file sits idly by as the radicals embarrass them, time and time again. Perhaps we’ve reached the point where the rank-and-file can rightfully be accused of being complicit of such behavior. Why aren’t teachers angrily denouncing a recent resolution passed by the California Federation of Teachers in which the union "reaffirms support for death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal"? The American Federation of Teachers, led by Randi Weingarten, has to date issued no statement in opposition to this offensive resolution....

Why can't teachers who have been chronically absent from work be the first to go? Or the ones who have been convicted of crimes? Or the ones who are languishing—with full pay and benefits—in some "reserve pool" because no school will hire them? Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently said that "last in, first out" policies hit low-income kids hardest because the poor are more likely to attend schools where teachers have less seniority.

In December of 2009, Russell Vanderwerf, Director of Industry Operations for the Houston office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was arrested in New Orleans after staffers at the Residence Inn .. he was staying were sent to investigate a malfunctioning hotel fire alarm. It seems Mr. Vanderwerf had disconnected the smoke detectors in his suite and removed the alarm horn, leaving it hanging out of the wall. But far more interesting to hotel employees, Vanderwerf had also removed the door between his bedroom and the outer suite and replaced it with a four by five foot piece...

As predicted in Revolt! (Dick’s and Eileen’s new book) – States Lead the Way Toward Reform It is not only the Arab world that is in turmoil! Reform Governors like Scott Walker (Wisconsin), John Kasich (Ohio), Mitch Daniels (Indiana), Tom Corbett (Pennsylvania), Butch Otter (Idaho), and Rick Scott (Florida) are leading a movement for fundamental change in America. In Revolt!, Morris and McGann’s new book, they describe how newly elected Republican Governors – impelled by their budget crises and empowered with GOP Legislatures – will accomplish sweeping changes in our politics. Read how: * Republican Governors will destroy the political...

California taxpayers have almost become immune to stories about the high cost of generous defined-benefit pensions, employer-subsidized healthcare plans, job protections and degree- and seniority-based pay scales struck by the state, school districts, and affiliates of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. Not even the fact that 3,090 of its retired teachers are earning more than $100,000 a year in annuity payments causes a stir. But they are getting riled up -- and learning about such concepts as internal rate of return and special situation fund -- thanks to the notoriously underfunded California State Teachers Retirement System....

"Coverage of teachers unions needs to emerge from its current position as an afterthought on the education beat, and assume its place alongside national fiscal and political reporting. Only then will the public see that Big Oil and Big Tobacco have a brother called Big Education." Mike Antonucci is the director of the Education Intelligence Agency, which specializes in education labor issues.

By now, you've probably heard about the urgent teacher layoff crisis threatening America. Because of shrinking state and local budgets, as many as 300,000 teachers could be laid off, with devastating educational consequences for our children. The only cure is $23 billion in fresh federal deficit spending, rushed through Congress as part of a bill to fund U.S. overseas military operations. 'The urgency is high,' President Obama warned congressional leaders in a June 12 letter. Don't believe the hype. Start with that number being bandied about: 300,000 teacher layoffs. The sources for it are teachers unions and school administrators, whose...

Like the Nazis jumping to help the Japanese during World War II the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) rushed emergency funds to their anti American allies in ACORN when it got caught on tape coaching a “pimp and his main girl” on how to game the system. The AFT sent ACORN $352,510 to help mitigate the damage caused when the skunks were exposed offering instructions on faking information on bogus loan applications, running a brothel and employing child prostitutes Americans for Limited Government (ALG) has reported. The ALG says the AFT used the cover story of needing the thugs at...

On Capitol Hill, all eyes have been focused on the House, as efforts to pass healthcare reform have grown increasingly dramatic. But a less-watched debate began in the Senate Tuesday, which offered a second chance for the Washington, D.C. private school voucher program that Congress phased out last year. The effort, however, was quickly squashed by a vote Tuesday night, with most Democrats voting against it along with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised in January that he would allow debate about the program on the Senate floor. And on Tuesday, the Senate began considering...

<p>On a personal level, union leaders such as Education Minnesota President Thomas Dooher no doubt care about our schools, teachers and communities. We all know many wonderful teachers in Education Minnesota's ranks. They are our relatives, neighbors and friends.</p> <p>Yet on issue after issue, Dooher stands defiantly in the school entrance, horn in hand, blocking any innovation that would lift black children from north Minneapolis out of the endless cycle of poverty and failure. Many leaders within the black community, including us, will not stand politely by and allow such injustice at the hands of Education Minnesota to happen any longer.</p>

January 18, 2010, 4:00 a.m. The Amazing RandiA brave union official endorses a commonsense reform to improve accountability. By Marcus A. Winters In what could prove a turning point in favor of education reform, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten came out in favor of considering student performance on standardized tests as one part of teacher evaluations. If Weingarten turns her words into real actions, and if the teachers’ unions follow Weingarten’s lead, it will improve teacher quality across the country. Support for using student test scores to evaluate teachers is a departure for Weingarten. Two years ago,...

Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark. Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion. Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN...

An attorney for Sarah Palin has delivered a letter threatening legal action against an anti-Palin blogger who was the source of a divorce rumor that the attorney for the former Alaska governor called "categorically false." Publication of the letter at a Web site that repeated the rumor has uncovered circumstantial evidence that the anti-Palin blogger "Gryphen" is a kindergarten teacher at an Anchorage elementary school.... CNN stringer/anti-Palin blogger Dennis Zaki published ... a copy of a letter from Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein, ordering "Gryphen" to retract the allegations -- calling them "complete fabrications, false and defamatory" -- or face...

THEY could be the lesbian power couple of all time: Randi Weingarten, the new president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, is dating Hilary Rosen, former head of the Recording Industry Association of America, who appears on CNN and is Washington, DC, editor-at-large for the Huffington Post.

"We finally have an education president," exults Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers. And President Barack Obama has assured the nation's children and parents that his Department of Education "will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. ... It's not whether an idea is liberal or conservative — but whether it works." Yet this is the president who has remained silent when his congressional Democrats essentially killed the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the city where he now lives and works. Of the 1,700 students, starting in...

When I listen to the AFT and NEA union thug bosses at the DNC two things POP out at me. 1) The teacher's Unions are firmly in the pocket of the Democrats, or vice versa. We will never have education reform until people understand the unions are political big government liberals, not interested in education, only interested in more pay for less work (smaller classes and thus the need for more dues paying teachers). 2) Their message alwasy goes unchallenged by the media. Thre is no connection with higher per pupil spending and educational outcomes - it's time to freeze...

<p>The newly elected head of the nation's largest teachers union on Monday called on school districts nationwide to create community schools that would offer services to students and their families ranging from health care to recreation.</p> <p>Speaking to about 3,300 conventioneers at Navy Pier, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said minority students need the help to bridge the achievement gap between them and their white counterparts.</p>

Randi Weingarten has delusions of grandeur. She thinks she should be given the power of a dictator instead of those of a teachers union president. Instead of just teaching kids, Weingarten imagines that she should become doctor, nanny, nutritionist, psychologist, and mother to every kid in America. She imagines that she should be given the care and feeding of all the nation's kids. Parents? Who need 'em when we've got Mother Weingarten to trot them off to re-education camps where they will be fed and cared for on a daily basis? Catch the arrogance, see this nanny-state despot lining...

Senator Obama apparently felt free enough from obligations to the American Federation of Teachers, which is meeting in his home city of Chicago, that he skipped their convention and appeared by video. The AFT had endorsed Mr. Obama's opponent, Senator Clinton, in the Democratic primary. Too bad Mr. Obama doesn't feel free enough to deviate from the union's policy agenda. That he is captive to it was made clear by his prepared remarks. "What I do oppose is using public money for private school vouchers. We need to focus on fixing and improving our public schools; not throwing our hands...

Randi Weingarten, the New Yorker who is rising to become president of the American Federation of Teachers, says she wants to replace President Bush’s focus on standardized testing with a vision of public schools as community centers that help poor students succeed by offering not only solid classroom lessons but also medical and other services. Ms. Weingarten, 50, is running unopposed for the presidency of the national teachers union, whose delegates at an annual convention in Chicago are expected to elect her Monday. In a speech prepared for delivery after the vote, Ms. Weingarten criticizes No Child Left Behind, President...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Acting on behalf of its more than 1.4 million members, the executive council of the American Federation of Teachers today endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, citing her proven ability to advance our nation’s key priorities, and her bold plans for a stronger America. “Our members have told us that they want a leader they can trust to strengthen public education, increase access to healthcare, promote commonsense economic priorities and secure America’s place in the world,” said AFT President Edward J. McElroy. “Hillary Clinton is that leader.” Clinton thanked the AFT executive council for the union’s...

Letters to the Editor     The article on gun-show regulations in Virginia contains a serious mistake ("Panel kills gun-show checks for private sales," Metropolitan, Thursday). The article cites state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis as claiming that "the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has reported that gun shows are the second-leading source of guns used in crimes, behind only unscrupulous licensed dealers." Unfortunately, the study she cites simply was not designed to reach the conclusion that Mrs. Davis claims, because the ATF report looked at 198 non-randomly chosen investigations. The ATF doesn't make the claim that its investigations are...

American Federation of the Totally Clueless by: Malcolm A. Kline, October 19, 2006 Recently, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) took sideswipes at two friends of mine—Candace de Russy and David Horowitz. What AFT editor Barbara McKenna did was to set up a quote from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and then ask whether it was said by Candace, David or Mahmoud. “A) is a good guess, since conservative reformer de Russy has been on a two-year tear to implement an academic bill of rights at [the State University of New York] SUNY, as Free Exchange on Campus has reported” McKenna...

This week's back-to-school ads offer amazing bargains on lightweight backpacks and nifty school supplies. All those businesses scramble to offer us good stuff at low prices. It's amazing what competition does for consumers. The power to say no to one business and yes to another is awesome. Too bad we don't apply that idea to schools themselves. Education bureaucrats and teachers unions are against it. They insist they must dictate where kids go to school, what they study, and when. When I went on TV to say that it's a myth that a government monopoly can educate kids effectively, hundreds...

This week's back-to-school ads offer amazing bargains on lightweight backpacks and nifty school supplies. All those businesses scramble to offer us good stuff at low prices. It's amazing what competition does for consumers. The power to say no to one business and yes to another is awesome. Too bad we don't apply that idea to schools themselves. Education bureaucrats and teachers unions are against it. They insist they must dictate where kids go to school, what they study, and when. When I went on TV to say that it's a myth that a government monopoly can educate kids effectively, hundreds...

Attorneys for a group of students who sued the state to suspend the high school exit exam have filed an emergency request with a state appeals court. They want the court to urgently hear their claims the test should be suspended for this year's graduating class. On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court stayed a lower court's injunction that had barred the exam from taking effect for the Class of 2006. It meant the exam would be a requirement for seniors to graduate. The students and their parents argued that the exam is discriminatory because all California students do not have...

Educators who oppose standardized testing and vouchers claim to have the best interests of students at heart but it is a claim worth examining. “The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has promoted high-stakes testing for school accountability,” Monty Neill of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing writes. “Its claim was that without ‘accountability,’ the public will abandon public education, and that the use of standards and tests would lead to educational improvement.” “This was never a good argument, though it appeared to address the justifiable anger directed by racial minorities and low-income communities against second-class educational opportunities.” Fair...

Although they still claim to be the last best hope for public education, the influence of teachers’ unions has wanted so much that criticism of the association’s and federations has spread beyond conservative and Republican groups to the school boards and superintendents that they once made and broke. “There is a teacher I have hired and I don’t know if he’s with us on our team,” Baltimore Talent Development High School principal Jeffrey Robinson said at a recent meeting at the National Academies of Science. “I know the unions have their rules and something must be done about the unions.”...