"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, September 04, 2016

Where Your AFT Union Dues Go

Browsing the federal database that tracks union disbursements can be a disturbing exercise.  Here are a few random payouts from the hundreds of millions of dollars that teachers send AFT each year.

The first two sample payouts below are examples of AFT support for "no excuses" charter schools, which has been under threat of closure since 2013.  
Check out Fahari's 11 page Code of Conduct document here.  


 And here is the blurb on Fahari's Treasurer by night, derivatives trader by day, who has been on duty since 2010:  
Steven Yaeger is the Vice President at Athilon Structured Investment Advisors, LLC.  Athilon is an asset management company that utilizes credit derivative products on structure finance portfolios to generate high risk-adjusted returns.  Steve has been a member of the Board of Trustees at Fahari Academy since 2009, and has served as the Treasurer of the Board since 2010.  Steve holds an MS in Mathematics in Finance from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, and a BA in Mathematics and Management & Business from Skidmore College.
Below is another item that may shock some.  We have known that AFT has been a lifelong supporter of Common Core, but it may be news to some that AFT spent teachers' union dues to support the corporate troika, Student Achievement Partners, which penned the standards.  David Coleman must be proud.


And how would our examples of AFT dubious expenditures be complete without an example of Weingarten's misuse of union funds to prop up the Clinton Global Initiative.  We can only hope that Randi got a lunch with Hillary out of this.




2 comments:

  1. For more information on Randi Weingarten's association with the Clinton Global Initiative see
    "Which Side Are You On?" at Defend Public Education

    http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/which-side-are-you-on/

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  2. Anonymous9:56 PM

    Weingarten utilizes AFT funds as her private piggy bank to advance her personal political agenda. Any benefits accrued to public school students and public school teachers are purely accidental. I was mugged Friday at lunchtime close to my school. I am rethinking the wisdom of investing my physical and emotional energies in teaching in an urban environment when those paid to support me focus their attention on entirely unrelated self-serving endeavors.

    Abigail Shure

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