AFT endorses Hillary Clinton for Democratic presidential nomination
Oct 4, 2007 6:03 PM
This time it was a presidential candidate who got a shiny apple from the teachers as the executive council of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers on Oct. 3 endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination for president.
The vote of the 41-member AFT executive council capped a deliberative seven-month process designed to solicit from membership their issues of concern and the candidate they believed would best address those concerns. In a recent Hart Research Associates poll of AFT members, 45 percent said they would vote for Hillary if the election were held today, compared to 21 percent for Obama and 13 percent for Edwards. An overwhelming 71 percent of members (and 83 percent of members who are registered Democrats) said they wanted the AFT to endorse a candidate. The AFT also solicited input through meetings at the local level, through regional caucuses, e-mails and other individual member outreach.
“Our members have told us that they want a leader they can trust to strengthen public education, increase access to health care, promote commonsense economic priorities and secure America’s place in the world,” AFT President Edward J. McElroy said. “Hillary Clinton is that leader.”
UFT President Randi Weingarten, an AFT vice president, added: “This is a political leader who is open to our views and is willing and able to fight for working people. She’s the choice of teachers and the right choice for teachers. I couldn’t be more pleased with the AFT’s endorsement. Hillary certainly deserves the support of the nation’s educators because she has a long and distinguished record as a friend and champion of public education.”
Weingarten added that Clinton worked with her husband when he was governor of Arkansas to raise funding for the state’s public schools and that as first lady she made education a high priority along with health care. “She continues to distinguish herself as a leader of the Senate,” Weingarten noted, “fighting for the concerns of New Yorkers and all Americans.”
UFT President Randi Weingarten with Sen. Hillary Clinton at the 2006 UFT Parents Conference.
Sen. Clinton thanked the AFT executive council for its endorsement and said that, as president, she will be “committed to improving and strengthening our public schools, providing support for teachers, and ensuring our education system is able to meet the needs of the global economy and that we have commonsense laws that make that possible.”
Clinton and virtually all other major Democratic candidates accepted the invitation to attend an extensive question-and-answer session with the council. These meetings in May and July were also attended by rank-and-file members. Each hopeful was asked to respond to an AFT candidate questionnaire.
None of the republican candidates responded to the questionaire or the invitation to speak.
McElroy called the array of Democratic candidates “an embarrassment of riches,” all sharing “an impressive depth of experience and commitment to strengthening America.” The major Republican candidates were also invited to participate, but each either declined or did not respond to the invitation. McElroy said the council “determined that Hillary Clinton is the strongest leader to advance (our) causes.”
Winning the support of the AFT’s more than 1 million members gives Clinton her largest union endorsement to date.
In New York, NYSUT leaders long urged support for Clinton based on what they called her exemplary record as a leader and an advocate for children and educators. Delegates to NYSUT’s Representative Assembly earlier this year, which included UFT delegates, passed a resolution urging the AFT to give every consideration to endorsing Clinton’s presidential bid.
NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi, an AFT vice president, said: “Sen. Clinton listens to our members, understands the important work they do and has a clear plan to strengthen public education. Equally important to our members, she is a recognized front-runner on the critical issue of providing access to quality health care for all Americans.”
That commitment was evidenced at two successive NYSUT RAs where 3,000 delegates repeatedly gave Clinton standing ovations for backing the fight for full funding for — and reform of — No Child Left Behind, her support for early-childhood education and her opposition to private school vouchers and tax credits. Clinton’s attacks on Bush administration budget cuts to the federal Department of Education repeatedly brought delegates to their feet, as did her slamming the overemphasis on standardized testing, which she said shifted the focus from learning to memorization and “teaching to the test.”
Instead, she said she favored funding for programs that work: preschool, smaller classes, teacher-retention programs, extended teaching time and summer school. Her backing of a comprehensive national health-care approach also resonated with delegates.
“The senator has distinguished herself as one of the most hard-working, thoughtful lawmakers in Congress,” Iannuzzi added. “She’s known for doing her homework, and teachers always reward that.”
