Melissa Bailey Photo
Weingarten with Peletier at Tuesday’s convention.
The head of a national teachers union praised a “dear friend” and third-party candidate who was barred from addressing a labor convention — then made a case for why delegates should instead support a governor who has angered teachers.
Harry Potter/ Chion Wolf Photos.
Lord Voldemort (left). Pelto (right).
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), made that case Tuesday at the Connecticut AFL-CIO’s 10th Biennial Political Convention at downtown New Haven’s Omni Hotel, where, according to script, delegates unanimously endorsed Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s reelection run.
Weingarten got behind Malloy, too — after mentioning Jonathan Pelto, an education blogger and former state legislator who recently joined the governor’s race. Pelto, a relentless critic of Malloy, especially on education, is trying to get on the ballot as a third-party candidate under the new Education and Democracy Party. Pelto has played Lord Voldemort in the script of the convention of the last two days: Convention organizers refused to let him speak and in some cases shuddered to say his name, portraying him as the evil third-party spoiler who could snatch the margin of victory away from Malloy in a tight rematch with Republican Tom Foley.
DOL chief Sharon Palmer, Weingarten and Peters.
When she heard a reporter utter the would-be spoiler’s name, AFT CT President Melodie Peters declined a press interview and walked away.
“Pelto?” she said. “I’m not talking about Pelto.”
Lori Pelletier, head of the AFL-CIO of CT, didn’t allow Pelto to address the convention. “Third parties don’t win. They spoil,” she said. She limited the invites to the two majority party-endorsed candidates, Malloy and Foley, who appeared Monday.
The specter of Jonathan Pelto emerged Tuesday, when Weingarten gave a keynote speech right before delegates endorsed Malloy.
Weingarten called Pelto “a dear friend of mine.”
“He’s done a lot of good work,” Weingarten said of Pelto in her convention address. Then she made a case for why delegates should not endorse him or vote for him.
Malloy has angered teachers, particularly though remarks in 2012 that in order to get tenure, teachers just had to “show up” to work. Through his blog, Pelto has hammered Malloy and his education commissioner, Stefan Pryor, on their connection to charter schools, endorsement of the Common Core and other attempted reforms. AFT leaders have endorsed Malloy, fearing the election of a Republican governor less friendly to labor. Pelto is targeting rank-and-file teachers who disagree with Malloy’s education policy and public remarks.
Weingarten got several standing ovations.
On the Omni stage Tuesday, Weingarten obliquely referenced Malloy’s “just show up” remark that alienated teachers.
“Yeah, I don’t like some of the things he has said either,” Weingarten said. But Malloy has increased education spending, she noted. And she said Malloy has led Connecticut to become a national model of how to use new evaluations to improve the teaching workforce — without eliminating tenure. She also applauded Malloy for raising the minimum wage and standing with striking workers at the Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London.
She said the gubernatorial election is not about “helping a friend” but about picking the best candidate.
New Haven Superintendent Garth Harries showed up to grab Weingarten’s ear for a few minutes.
Weingarten elaborated on her stance after she left the stage.
“Jonathan and I have been emailing for the past few days,” she said. “I love Jonathan Pelto. He and I have worked together in the past,” because they both write and speak about education and are active in social media. She said she told Pelto she would mention his name at the convention.
Pelto “knows I am strongly in favor of working for Malloy — because of what he has done, and because of the stakes” in the race.
If Malloy loses reelection, she said from the podium, Foley will “Wisconsinize Connecticut” — dismantle the rights of organized labor.
She was asked about Malloy’s remark in 2012: “In today’s system, basically the only thing you have to do is show up for four years. Do that, and tenure is yours.”
“There are a lot of people who say things they shouldn’t say,” Weingarten said. She said she has discussed the remark with Malloy and he sounded “very regretful.” And she said Malloy didn’t end up eliminating tenure — he found a way to make it easier to fire tenured teachers based on poor evaluations, but he didn’t get rid of their right to due process, she argued. She said Malloy has “been out there” supporting community schools, early childhood education, paid sick leave and a higher minimum wage — all factors important to the labor movement and the middle class overall.
Malloy wasn’t at Tuesday’s convention.
Pryor Experience
In his absence, union members offered a coded rebuke of his choice for education commissioner. The rebuke came from the Connecticut AFT, which represents 29,000 workers in the state, including 10,000 teachers.
Edward Leavy (pictured above), secretary-treasurer of AFT Connecticut, was one of a series of speakers who got behind a resolution that implicitly rejected Pryor as unqualified for the job. Pryor, a former New Haven alder, never held a full-time teaching job. He attended Yale Law School and co-founded Achievement First’s first charter school. Before moving back to New Haven, he was deputy mayor for economic development in Newark.
The resolution, authored by the AFT and adopted by the convention, didn’t name Pryor. But it called for education commissioners to be certified to teach, lead a school, and lead a school system. That means they should have an 093 certification — the same certification school superintendents need. Usually that means having had 80 months of teaching experience, or else a waiver.
Leavy said he disagrees with Malloy’s choice of Pryor as commissioner, and of their support for charter schools. “I don’t think charter schools are the best vehicle” to improve the school system as a whole, Leavy said. That’s an argument Pelto has made relentlessly.
But Leavy, who taught in the state vocational technical high school system for 23 years, said he won’t vote for Pelto over Malloy.
“Jonathan Pelto is going to be the Ralph Nader” of 2014, he said. “All he can do is take votes from Malloy.”
“We have to be very careful of a protest vote,” Leavy said, or “we’re going to end up with Foley.”
Leavy added that while he agrees with some of Pelto’s critiques, he also admires Malloy’s handling of other issues, including the state labor concessions the governor negotiated after his election.