AFT Convention in Seattle Day 1

“Our vision is that every neighborhood school should be an excellent school that all families know they can count on, every year, for all of their children.”

and that was too much. Neighborhood schools? When her legacy in the Bronx was to destroy neighborhood schools? When “school choice” guarantees that struggling schools are shut instead of improved. When kids routinely travel past several closer schools on their way to theirs. When Weingarten sat on the board of New Visions, and helped fragment our high schools? When “zones” were abolished for Bronx high schools?

My negative feelings would have been plain to anyone looking at my face (though they may not have known if they were of annoyance, boredom, anger, or impatience.) But who is going to look at my face at the American Federation of Teachers convention? Apparently a few thousand delegates, as I was flashed rolling my eyes on the jumbotron…

No confidence in Race to the Top! That’s what the NEA came up with. I heard nothing along those lines today.

(it’s late. I’ll add a part 2 about the rest of Day 1 in the morning.)