AFT President Randi Weingarten on Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Presidential Run

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement:

“I have quite a different recollection of Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s treatment of educators than he does. It’s no secret that the mayor and I had a complicated and often cantankerous relationship during the years he was New York City’s mayor and I was United Federation of Teachers president. While we were able to secure necessary resources for our classrooms and our children, and contracts that provided pay increases for educators, the mayor chose a schools chancellor who disrespected—rather than supported—the city’s teachers and fixated on high-stakes tests, top-down dictates and charter schools, instead of focusing on students and their needs, including fixing, not closing, neighborhood schools. 

“There’s a difference between Mayor Bloomberg and philanthropist Bloomberg, though, which is why we have partnered on commonsense gun safety reform work and are glad he finally offered a long-overdue apology for the deeply flawed stop-and-frisk policy.”