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When UFT/AFT President Randi Weingarten jumps on the one-way accountability bandwagon – “Yes, we do want to be accountable” – we know we are in trouble. I’ve been asking Randi for a decade, “Accountable for what and to whom?” I jumped on her from the day she first uttered her support for mayoral control in 2001 when I knew from the Chicago experience that the only answers politicians will have is to blame teachers and their union while they escape accountability for underfunding schools.

What I want my union leader to say is: We have always been accountable to our children and to our parents and to our principals. But to some federal, state and city government that raises itself above accountability by refusing to fund education adequately while funding money for billion dollar bailouts and illegal wars? No way!

Randi had a golden opportunity in her speech at the Democratic convention to make an important point for teachers. She failed the test.

Chapter leader Lisa North commented: Wow, Randi’s speech basically said nothing about education except that public education is important and too must testing is not a good idea. It seemed very weak.

I didn’t expect anything more. Did you hear her mention class size and the studies that support it? Did you hear her call for full funding of education instead of wars and bailouts? Did you hear her call them on No Excuses – on their part?

Randi has always tried to play both sides against the middle by bending over backwards to try to show she is a reasonable union leader and “progressive” in a willingness to give up teachers.

To be perfectly fair, she is just following the trail blazed by Al Shanker back in the early 80′s when he jumped on board the same bandwagon.

But what good as it done the AFT/UFT as they still keep coming under attack?
Unfortunately, Randi Weingarten will continue to lead the teacher union movement into oblivion.