Puerto Rico is still reeling from the twin blows of bankruptcy and Hurricane Maria’s devastation, but Randi Weingarten only wants to add to the pain: The American Federation of Teachers president just got caught trying to shut down the commonwealth’s schools.
The Washington Free Beacon reports that the DC-based union chief was overheard ordering up a strike on a cellphone while in the first-class car of a New York-bound train. And while she denounced the eavesdropping, she didn’t deny her reported words.
Such as saying Puerto Rico’s teachers should “call in for a personal day so they can’t open schools. Let them call in for a sick day.”
And warning her listener to “be careful about the words we use” and “never use the word ‘strike’ ” and to work with “the lobbyists we have” on the plan.
What’s her beef? Gov. Ricardo Rossello recently signed legislation to increase the number of charter schools and voucher programs. Those measures are anathema to the AFT — hence Weingarten’s call to war.
Teachers in Oklahoma and West Virginia have employed walkouts to protest similar school reforms — and the union boss told her associate the teachers “should be cloaking this” in the actions in those states.
Protect union members’ privileges at the kids’ expense, then lie about it. That’s standard AFT operating procedure; the only difference this time is that she got caught.