Reporter Wayne Barrett

.... by the time he had graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1968, at the height of the antiwar movement, his politics had veered to the left. To avoid the draft, he became a public-school teacher in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, where he moved with his wife, the former Frances Marie McGettigan, whom he married in 1969...

As a teacher, he became embroiled in a racially charged debate in the largely black Ocean Hill-Brownsville district over what should take precedence in the tumultuous transition to school decentralization: community control over hiring, or the seniority rights of unionized teachers.

Mr. Barrett sided with nonunion teachers on the hiring issue, but he also documented malfeasance by the local school board and reported it to prosecutors and in The Voice, revelations that led to federal corruption charges.... NY Times Obit

The death of reporter Wayne Barrett, who was born a few months after me, reminded me of the 2 times I met him. It was not long after my political activation in 1970-71 and local school board elections in those post 1968 teacher strike days were the hot bed of school politics, often between the UFT political machine and local community forces. The major battle ground was District 1 on the lower east side where a UFT slate was running against an activist slate which was supporting the local superintendent who I believe was named Luis Fuentes. Forces were needed on election day- which was in May - to reinforce the ground game against the power of the UFT. I took a day off to assist that day and went down to volunteer where I met a beautiful young couple who were there to volunteer too -- Wayne and Fran Barrett. We spent the day working the campaign and I really liked them both and hoped to spend some more time with them but that was it. After that day there was no contact.

The next time I ran into Wayne was years later at my childhood friend's -- Marty Needelman's -- wedding. Marty was a legal aid lawyer in Williamsburg where I taught and ran in the same circles as Wayne. Marty and crew had been involved in the local school board politics in District 14 and it was through him that I met Lew Friedman who, with people in his school - IS 318 -- had begun a local teacher based newspaper called Another View - me entry into both activist politics and a muckraking form of citizen journalism. By that time Wayne was already a famous journalist for the Village Voice.

It was Wayne who exposed Randi Weingarten's distortions about her teaching career. See links below for more Barrett articles on the UFT of which he was a major critic.

Neo-Liberal Wayne Barrett, Pseudo-Progressive Anti-Union Charter School Lover

It's remarkable that someone as "progressive" as Barrett fails to comprehend the corporate influence on the modern Democratic party... NYC Educator

You sound like a shill for privatizers. I too am critical of the UFT for not advocating class size reduction and addressing poverty. .. but tenure is hardly the boogie man here, hence my skepticism. In Europe, especially Scandinavia, teachers enjoy tenure protections and hassle-free careers where they’re not observed in the scheme of relentless scrutiny that the UFT has agreed to. They have the most progressive systems on the planet. I know, I have been there many times to see firsthand. Yes the UFT is run by a corrupt political machine. And they have done more to advance what you think is needed. but anyone calling for the abolition of tenure or just gradually dismantling it as the UFT has been doing can't call themselves "progressive"... John Elfrank-Dana responding to Wayne Barrett anti-union diatribe

The most telling bit of information comes after his piece: Barrett is an investigative journalist. His wife is an aide to Gov. Cuomo. One of the things his wife, Fran Barrett, was put in charge of was Cuomo’s initiative to ensure that non-profit CEO’s don’t have salaries above $200K – esp. whose organizations that get more than 30% of their revenue from the state. Unfortunately, they never appeared to apply that rule to charter schools... comments on NYCEDNEWS listserve

Former Village Voice writer and charter school lover Wayne Barrett spent his 10 minutes in the classroom before becoming a so-called "investigative journalist" who can't seem to investigate why over 50% of the kids disappear in Eva's Success Academy and in the KIPP chain - See Gary Rubinstein: The time KIPP was booed off the stage at TFA:
[See below for the numbers -- maybe Wayne might bother to do a little investigating.]

Wayne (who has not been missed since he left the Voice), a self-described "progressive," joined the other whining neo-liberal ed deformers in attacking the UFT [leadership] - which of course he doesn't separate from the rank and file. Arthur took a nice shot at him:

NYC Educator Wayne Barrett Is Shocked, Shocked - It's important to Wayne Barrett that you know he is progressive. *I am a progressive, * How can you argue with that? After all, that's clear.

Barrett's piece is so inept it could qualify for one of those rotten strawberry awards they give to bad films. I met him twice -- at my childhood friend Marty Needelman's wedding in the 70s. Before that I worked with him and his wife Fran in the District 1 local school board election c. 1971 or 72. Supt Louis Fuentes was a target of the vicious UFT assault to remove him and radicals/liberals came out from under the woodwork to work in the campaign for Fuentes. So I guess I can get Barrett's anti-UFT stance. But how narrow can he get? Focusing his anti-UFT venom and directing it at teachers rather than a leadership with its own narrow agenda? Did the investigative journalist miss all the support the UFT gives to the charter movement, overt and covert, while at the same time trying to put up a militant face to the members that they have their backs.

Back to Arthur:

Wait a minute. Is Barrett stating that the United Federation of Teachers represents the interests of (gasp!) teachers? Now I'm shocked too! But what Barrett also does here is advance the meme that the interests of teachers are counter to those of students. Why aren't we out rallying for more work for less pay? After all, isn't that what the children of America need? Despite Barrett's boast of how amazingly progressive he is, teacher v. student is precisely the argument you'll hear from Michelle Rhee, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Bill Gates, Chris Christie, and virtually all other supporters of corporate reform.

I am shocked, just shocked that anyone actually would declare the UFT represents the interest of teachers.

Gary runs the numbers on KIPP below the break.

Updated: Charters, Bloomberg, the UFT and Randi Succession Obsession

Interesting article in the Voice by Wayne Barrett, who has always been anti-UFT.*

He makes lots of assumptions in this piece. Barrett obviously favors charters. But he misses on the growing opposition to charters from various forces in the schools and communities.

What this shows about Randi is that when you try to play the middle against both ends you get hammered from both ends. Barrett thinks she is opposing charters (while many of us think she supports them more than oppose them) to squeeze a raise by making a deal with Bloomberg even if such a deal totally subverts public education. But we have learned to never think she is above doing that.

Of interest to many of us is this passage:

The UFT will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. Other than a couple of years of temporary and muddled leadership at its start in 1960, it has been governed by only three presidents, and each of its long-lasting potentates—Albert Shanker, Sandra Feldman, and now Weingarten—has handed it off to a designated successor. Weingarten, who was Feldman's lawyer for years before she became a part-time teacher to position herself for the presidency, is about to do the same. Former carpenter Michael Mulgrew, the vice president for vocational and technical schools, is expected to take over, possibly as soon as this summer.

Like Shanker and Feldman, Weingarten is giving up her city post after using it for 11 years as a stepping stone to the presidency of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and will leave town only when she is sure she can install a disciple here that she can influence from Washington (no rule bars her from holding both titles).

What's baffling is why Weingarten has embroiled herself in a Harlem street fight below her $350,000-a-year pay grade.

Weingarten's actions are baffling if she indeed intends to give up the UFT position to Mulgrew, who many feel is not ready for prime time. UFT elections are in March 2010 and it is theoretically smart to put Mulgrew into office so he can function as President and run as an incumbent. But both Feldman and Shanker replaced themselves soon after getting elected, thus giving their successors a few years grace. Weingarten's inability to let go is giving Mulgrew a small window. It would have made sense to have given him the position last January, over a year before the election.

Can she influence him from Washington? Sure. Shanker influenced Feldman. But Feldman had a harder time controlling Weingarten, who started purging her people fairly quickly. If Mulgrew screws up - something he is totally capable of doing (witness the City Council cue card fiasco) – and the Unity Caucus absolute control of the UFT, which is the heart of controlling the AFT, slips even a little, the shock waves will be felt all the way to the Beltway.

But maybe that's the plan all along– give Mulgrew as small a window as possible to screw things up before running for president. Now, don't get me wrong, the Unity machine has so manipulated the election rules that there is absolutely no chance of losing at the top level. But the real battle for control of the UFT ultimately lies in the schools with hand to hand combat. Sort of like the battle of Normandy. Maybe that's why the UFT has put up little resistance to the breakup of large high schools which used to be bastions of old-line UFT power. Make it hard for the opposition to get control of these places. Fragmentation of the school system can benefit both the UFT and Tweed. True partners in crime.

Oh, what to do? Mulgrew as a puppet with Weingarten pulling the strings from DC? What if Mike has that lean and hungry look for real power and starts purging Randi's people? Once the cat is out of the box there is little Randi could do since the real source of power lies in the UFT, the tail that wags the AFT dog. It wouldn't be that hard for a smart political operative to reverse the balance of power on Randi. She may not be worried about that occurring with Mulgrew in charge. Maybe that is why she chose him in the first place.


Barrett's piece evoked this comment on ICE mail:
What a tired old wind bag Barret has become. Doesn't even do his research anymore. Murdoch doesn't seem to mind though, imagine having one of those pesky investigative, trust busting crusaders on the payroll. Quite a coup for the consciousness industry fatcats, but another low point for the craft of journalism.


*Barrett was once a teacher who opposed the '68 strike and supported community control. I spent part of a day working with him and his wife campaigning against the UFT school board slate on the lower east side in the early 70's during the Luis Fuentes/UFT wars. The next time I saw him was at my childhood friend Marty Needelman's wedding a few years later when Barrett had left teaching and was a journalist. Marty, by the way, was working as a Vista lawyer doing community organizing in the late 60's in Williamsburg not far from where I was teaching and it was through him I became active in school politics.