NY Teacher's Union Funding ACORN and Working Families Party

Do the teachers in New York State even realize their union dues are going to radical groups such as ACORN and the Working Families Party?

Do they even care? I suspect if they realized the level of corruption within their own ranks they may not be too happy seeing huge chunks of money going to these very suspicious groups.

Next week, a coalition of advocacy groups will bus an army of parents into Albany for a "lobby day" against mayoral control of the city's schools -- a prime example of how Randi Weingarten's teachers' union shapes public perception and policy behind the scenes.

The May 5 event, part of the Campaign for Better Schools, is meant to show lawmakers that there's massive grass-roots opposition to Mayor Bloomberg's stewardship of the school system.

The lead organizer of the Campaign for Better Schools is the Alliance for Quality Education, whose celebrity spokeswoman is "Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon.

It received $775,000 last year from the United Federation of Teachers' sister organization, New York State United Teachers, to fund a media campaign, federal Department of Labor filings show. That's on top of a $35,000 grant the UFT gave directly to the Alliance last year.

If they wanted better schools they sure have a funny way of showing it, opposing charters schools every step of the way, unless, of course, Weingarten can find a way to unionize them. Meanwhile, ACORN and the WFP are essentially on the union payroll.

ACORN, a national network of antipoverty community organizations, has worked hand in hand with Weingarten and is now taking a leadership role in the Campaign for Better Schools.

The UFT paid ACORN $406,730 to help the union organize 28,000 child-care providers that contract with the city.

Earlier this month, ACORN also helped organize protests against the proposed phase-out of PS 194 in Harlem to make way for a charter school. The Department of Education eventually caved, and the school will not be closed.

Even smaller participants in the Campaign for Better Schools receive funds from the teachers' unions. The New York Immigration Coalition accepted $15,000 last year. Another immigrant rights group, Make the Road New York, was given $5,000.

Community groups aren't the only outsiders receiving money from the UFT and its state affiliate.

The union-backed Working Families Party received $1 million from New York State United Teachers for a media campaign last year. New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, a pro-union think tank and advocacy group, received $190,000.

"I would challenge anyone in New York to find when they [ACORN, the Working Families Party, and the Alliance for Quality Education] have opposed anything on the union's agenda," said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, an advocacy group funded by proponents of charter schools.

The last time the WFP organized a bus tour they didn't get too many people to show up, but they sure as heck got plenty of media attention.

Priorities: NYC Councilman Wants Fast Food Free Zones

I have a better idea. How about keeping idiotic NYC council members away from television cameras?

A New York City councilman wants to keep school kids away from fast food -- or at least keep the fast food restaurants away from them.

Councilman Eric Gioia is unveiling a proposal that would prohibit fast food restaurants from being within one-tenth of a mile of a school. The idea comes after a study this month found students whose schools are within easy walking distance of fast food restaurants are more likely to be obese.

The study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University found that students at schools in close proximity to fast food restaurants such as McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut had a 5.2 increase in the incidence of obesity.

Just what we need. Importing zany idea from Berkeley.

Seems like a better idea to make schools free from bad teachers. Maybe Gioia can have a talk with his puppet master, Randi Weingarten.

It was child's play for the almighty United Federation of Teachers: Destroy attempts to reform lax tenure rules -- and then brazenly write the very law that preserved the status quo.

Last year, UFT President Randi Weingarten's powerful lobby killed a rule passed by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer -- and supported by Mayor Bloomberg and school boards statewide -- to allow principals to factor in students' test scores when evaluating teachers for tenure.

Weingarten's relentless assault so buried the issue that a special commission, which was supposed to be created to study how test scores may be used, hasn't even been convened, an apparent violation of state law.

"The commission was BS," said one veteran on the losing side of the tenure battle.

What's worse, having illiterate students or the risk of them walking by a McDonald's?

In the Tank: NYC Council Puppets Reads Off Cue Cards Prepared By UFT

Not that it's any secret Democrats are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the teacher's unions, but man, this is ridiculous. It's not enough the deck is stacked against charter schools. It's not enough poor kids are mired in failing publics controlled by the UFT. But the union has to go and stage a hearing with scripted cue cards prepared for the Democrat-controlled city council. What a joke.

Chastened officials with the United Federation of Teachers yesterday promised never again to put words in the mouths of City Council members after the union's cheap stunt -- giving scripted questions to lawmakers at a hearing -- caused a furor.

"We certainly don't plan on it happening again," said a contrite Ron Davis, a spokesman for UFT president Randi Weingarten. "This is the first time, at least in our staff's memory, that this type of communication occurred during a hearing."

UFT reps were caught red-handed passing out the cue cards with leading questions for council members to ask Department of Education officials at a hearing on charter schools Tuesday.

Mayor Bloomberg decried the tactic yesterday, saying council members should have been clear about the origins of their queries.

"They probably should have disclosed that those questions were written for them by a party that has a vested interest," said Bloomberg, who is battling the union over mayoral control of the school system and an expanded charter-school program.

"The real issue here is supporting the schools that parents want to send their kids to," he added. "And we have a waiting list of 30 or 40 thousand kids who want to go to charter schools."

Although the union made the council look like puppets, council Speaker Christine Quinn defended her members' independence.

"Clearly what happened at the hearing was regrettable," she said. "Obviously, pre-printed questions are something that shouldn't have happened, but any belief that council members are puppets and not informed are as outrageous as those cards were."

Translation: We're puppets, but I'm outraged that you would call me a puppet.

Just pathetic.

More reaction here.

The questions for the Department of Education were sharp and confrontational.

The questions for the union were softballs.

UFT officials sat in the front row of the ornate council hearing room to insure their script was being followed.

If that wasn't outrageous enough, legislators were told which question to direct to which official.

It's not uncommon for lobbyists, advocates and even reporters to request that a specific question be posed at a City Hall hearing.

But no one had ever seen what the UFT pulled off.

"It crosses the line," said Felder. "It's not the actual questions. It's the directing. It's the atmosphere that was created."

He's right.

The union's ploy, observers said, went far beyond typical lobbying tactics of briefing council members before a hearing or providing position papers.

"I've had people suggest to me ask the commissioner this or ask this witness that. I've never had anybody type up cue cards for me," said Councilman James Oddo (R-SI).

A former council member, who's been in politics for decades, couldn't recall a similar incident in his career. "I've never heard of it being done on a mass basis," said the veteran pol.

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Bloomberg: 'We Love the Rich'

I've had no shortage of disagreements with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over the years, but when it comes to business and taxation, I'll defer to his expertise considering the guy is a billionaire and certainly is well-versed on the subjects.

So it comes as a welcome relief that he's fighting back against the creeping socialism and the popular if greatly misguided notion that simply soaking the rich will solve our economic crisis.

Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday that proposals to tax the rich will backfire and end up hurting the poor whom they are intended to help.

"They [the wealthy] are the ones that buy in the stores so that people that work in the stores have jobs in the stores, generate sales tax," he said.

"The rich are the ones that go to the expensive restaurants where, as a matter of fact, I looked at a list the other day of restaurants where the staff is unionized. They're the expensive restaurants. They're not the cheap restaurants."

"You know, the yelling and screaming about the rich - we want rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people."

Sadly, not many do. They just think you can drop a higher tax rate on them and they'll willingly pony up. Clearly they're living in an alternate reality. After a certain point people will resist doings the things they did to become rich, will intentionally try to keep themselves from earning more that $250,000 and that in turn results in fewer jobs created, ironically for those who were whining yesterday about soaking the wealthy.

The mayor's comments on his weekly WOR radio show came a day after thousands of union workers rallied outside City Hall to push for higher taxes on those at the top of the income ladder to prevent cuts in government services as revenues contract.

Bloomberg said even the protesters clamoring for increased taxes on those earning $250,000 up had to be aware of the new economic reality.

"We can tax the rich, except that, if you haven't looked at the stock market lately, they aren't making any money," he said.

Seems these people would prefer to be on the welfare rolls, which is exactl where Democrats want them, indebted to the government.

But United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten declined to take such a personal potshot. "I respect him," she said of the mayor.

"We disagree on this. What we're doing here is saying, for a period of time, the people who are still doing well should help the people not doing well. Ultimately, that's fundamental fairness."

No, ultimately, that's socialism. I don't see Weingarten in any rush to fork over any of her bloated salary.

Something else few seem to notice is charities are taking a huge hit, which again will simply result in more government dependence, which is by design.

Bloomberg also stuck up for the rich on another front - maintaining tax deductions for charitable contributions.

In a rare public break with President Obama, the mayor said attempts to lower tax benefits for donations by families earning $250,000 or more would have a devastating impact on charities that have already lost 30 to 40 percent of their endowments.

"The people they depend on for new gifts have lost an enormous amount of money," the mayor said. "And to make it harder by making less deductibility doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever."

Very little of what Obama is doing makes any sense. The sooner he starts listening to people like Bloomberg, men who have created wealth and jobs, the sooner we may emerge from the recession. Obama plays make believe and says he's going to 'save or create' jobs when in his entire life he hasn't created a single job for anyone nor has he ever run a business.

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Almontaser Still on NYC DOE Payroll

While former Khalil Gibran International Academy principal Debbie Almontaser resigned Friday, it's disturbing to see she's still on the payroll of the Department of Education. Of course, city officials are probably worried that the stormtroopers from CAIR would probably file some nuisance lawsuits.

Compounding the problem is the feckless Mayor Michael Bloomberg making nice-nice with this woman, who shouldn't be anywhere near a school.

INTIF-ADIOS TO SCHOOL CHIEF

The principal of a controversial city-funded Arab-themed school abruptly resigned yesterday after she ignited a firestorm by saying there was nothing wrong with T-shirts that said "Intifada NYC."

Pressure for Debbie Almontaser's ouster had mounted all week since her tortured explanation that "intifada" was a message of empowerment. The inflammatory statement was about Arab women in New York City "shaking off oppression" and not supporting the Palestinian uprising that killed thousands, she said.

Those remarks, first reported in The Post on Monday, focused renewed attention on her mission to create a dual-language Arabic school for grades 6 through 12. Critics say Khalil Gibran International Academy, which would be located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, will isolate Muslim students.

"I think she felt that she has become the focus of, rather than having the school focus, and so today she submitted her resignation, which is nice of her to do and I appreciate her service," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday on his radio show.

Almontaser will remain on the Department of Education payroll and be reassigned to a position not connected with the academy.

"I became convinced yesterday that this week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized," Almontaser said in a statement. "I will not allow the recent outcry to undermine these possibilities for the children of our city."

She was to make $120,197 as principal.

The Department of Education said it remains committed to opening the school, and is searching for a new principal.

Numerous elected officials, citizens and advocacy groups said Almontaser's comments, made in a city already in the cross hairs of Islamic terrorists, raised doubts that she could handle the sensitivity of managing an Arab-themed school.

Maybe if she lit up a cigarette or served some food with trans-fats, then Bloomberg would spring into action.

Despite Almontaser's years of experience working in media and as a spokeswoman for the Arab community, Bloomberg said she simply misspoke about the tees.

"She's certainly not a terrorist. She really does care . . . She's not all that media savvy, maybe, and she tried to explain a word rather than just condemn," he said.

Yes, he's presidential material. He'd fit right in with the painfully pandering Democrats any day of the week.

Meanwhile, the Post editorial smacks School's Chancellor Joel Klein upside the head.

JIHAD'YA LATER

First the good news: Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser yesterday quit as principal-designate of the city's new Arabic-themed public school - though not without blaming her resignation mostly on The Post (not by name, of course).

But here's the bad news: The Department of Education says it still plans to open the Khalil Gibran International Academy. And Almontaser herself will remain on the DOE payroll in an undetermined role.

After she defended the sale of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Intifada NYC," and then issued a quasi-apology that only made things worse, it was inevitable that Almontaser would have to step down as head of the Arabic academy she'd first proposed.

Her words had brought a sharp rebuke from, among others, teachers-union head Randi Weingarten (until then a strong supporter of the Gibran school), who said, "Parents and teachers have a right to be concerned" about a school run by someone who didn't seem to understand the difference between "peace and war-mongering."

Chancellor Joel Klein's office refuses to release Almontaser's resignation letter. (Why not? Did she write something that would embarrass the department even further?)

But it did issue a statement attributed to Almontaser in which she complained, "This week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized."

That is, she's blaming the media - in this case, Post reporters Chuck Bennett and Jana Winter and this page - for reporting and commenting on her foolishness.

I doubt this is the last we'll hear from Almontaser, and if she continues down this radical path, the city will have some explaining to do as to why she's still on the payroll.

Elsewhere, the New York Sun reports there are increased calls for this school to be shut down entirely, which I wholeheartedly concur with.

"I hope that this is the beginning of the end for this entire project," a Democrat who represents Boro Park in New York's state Assembly, Dov Hikind, told The New York Sun Friday. "If this woman, who I hear is a nice woman, if she couldn't get this right, then I think the whole concept just doesn't work."

The Department of Education had backed Ms. Almontaser after her statements about the "Intifada" T-shirts, saying it accepted her quick apology, in which she said she regretted "minimizing the word's historical associations." But after the president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, issued a condemnation of Ms. Almontaser, the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said he admired her decision to resign, saying the "controversy about her remarks threatened to destabilize the school."

Must everyone qualify their remarks by noting "how nice" Almontaser is? This pandering political correctness is simply nauseating.

Previously: "Intifada NYC Principal Resigns.

UPDATE: Reader NY Nana notes the NY Times has finally discovered the story after ignoring it all week.

Head of City’s Arabic School Steps Down Under Pressure.

So nice for the "paper of record" to catch up with the New York Post, New York Sun and the blogs after six days.

Union Boss Slams "Intifada NYC" Principal

We have a bona fide flying pig moment here. Someone I've always found utterly detestable, NYC teacher's union boss Rondi Weingarten, has come out firing against "Intifada NYC" principal Debbie Almontaser.


RANDI RIPS 'INTIFADA' PRINCIPAL

Teachers-union boss Randi Weingarten slammed the principal of a new Arab-themed school in Brooklyn yesterday for not immediately condemning T-shirts linked to her that sport the inflammatory message "Intifada NYC."

In a conversation yesterday with The Post - and in a letter to the editor - the United Federation of Teachers president said her support for the Khalil Gibran International Academy was shaken this week by Principal Debbie Almontaser's dismissal of concerns that the shirts were an incendiary call to violence.

Almontaser backtracked the next day, but the damage was done, said Weingarten.

"I'm very concerned about it, and it's not often that I write as blistering a letter as I wrote, but it's not OK to explain away 'intifada,' " she said. "Maybe this was just a real error in judgment for which she has now apologized, or maybe, ultimately, she should not be a principal.

"She now has a much higher standard that she has to prove, that this is not the way she's going to run that school."

In typical pandering PC, Weingarten blindly supported this academic farce, but certainly now has doubts, likely due to the public outrage.

But that support took a significant hit when Almontaser defended the shirts, first reported Monday by The Post, by defining "intifada" as a "shaking off" of oppression rather than acknowledging its widespread association with the call to violence among some Palestinians against Israelis.

"I'm glad she apologized quickly, but this is the kind of thing that you immediately say, 'No. People shouldn't have T-shirts like that. That's warmongering. That's preaching,' " said Weingarten.

"That's something that ought to be denounced, not be explained away."

While Weingarten stopped short of calling for Almontaser's dismissal, she appealed for "extraordinary oversight" of the school and its principal.

We'll see about that.

Previously: Arab School All About "Peace"