The endorsement race has begun and Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders all spent time courting the American Federation of Teachers this week. Ruby Cramer
reports that Clinton made an impression on AFT president, Randi Weingarten.
The AFT meetings, which took place over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, may offer Clinton the possibility of an early, influential endorsement from the major teachers union that endorsed her in the 2008 presidential race. Weingarten herself is close to and has supported Clinton for years. She sits on the board of Priorities USA Action, the super PAC raising millions to support her candidacy.
On matters of education policy, according to Weingarten, Clinton engaged the group with noticeably more depth and granular detail than her competitors. It was, she said, the most striking difference between the three candidates, particularly on the set of issues that have created fissures inside the Democratic Party, including testing, teacher evaluations in tenure decisions, and Common Core.
“Both in terms of the presentation as well as the questions, Secretary Clinton was clearly understood and spoke in great depth,” said Weingarten. “The members of the board did not ask Sen. Sanders or Gov. O’Malley as many questions about public education."
It's also worth noting that when Weingarten was still president of the United Federation of Teachers, she endorsed Clinton in the '08 cycle. But Weingarten made clear in the article that she's just "one person" on the board.
The tension here among Democrats is that, against the wishes of the unions, some wealthy Democrats have begun to lobby for more charter schools and voucher programs. Accordingly, some are pushing Clinton to share her views on such issues early.
Ann O’Leary, the campaign’s top policy adviser, told the New York Times earlier this year that Clinton would be engaging with leaders on both sides of the debate more than [the] Obama administration has: “both the teachers union and the reformers will really feel like they have her ear in a way they haven’t.”