The “blame the teacher crowd” would rather “affix blame than fix schools

Randi's idea doesn't solve the problems created by individuals who can't handle their jobs. We need to put the right people in the right positions, not just pretend that we can fix any teacher. It's better to put a struggling teacher in a position with less responsibility, such as assistant to a master teacher.

The “blame the teacher crowd” would rather “affix blame than fix schools,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten as she outlined a sweeping plan to “build a system of public education as it ought to be,” at AFT’s biennial convention.

AFT Leader Outlines Vision to Build Better Public Education System
by James Parks, Jul 9, 2010

Saying America’s teachers would “lead and propose, not wait and oppose,” AFT President Randi Weingarten... spoke yesterday at AFT’s biennial convention in Seattle, which runs through Sunday. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will address the convention tomorrow.

She told the more than 3,000 delegates that the “blame the teacher crowd” would rather “affix blame than fix schools.” These critics, she continued, “would have Americans believe that there is only one choice when it comes to public education: either you’re for students, or you’re for teachers,” which Weingarten called a “bogus choice.”

It’s simply wrong to suggest that there is an epidemic of bad teachers and at the same time to ignore poverty, budget cuts, the absence of curriculum, the huge attrition of good teachers—all things we know truly hamper student success.

No teacher—myself included—wants a bad teacher in any classroom. The AFT and our locals are taking real steps to solve the problem and to strengthen teaching...