Dive Brief:
- Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has been frank in his criticism of Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of city protests around the deaths of unarmed black males Eric Garner and Mike Brown, and this week, Giuliani widened his sphere of disapproval to include teacher unions.
- In an interview with Geraldo Rivera, Giuliani said those protesting against police would save a lot more black lives if they shifted their attention to a discussion of black education.
- Specifically, Giuliani used attacked teacher unions, saying, "Maybe all these left-wing politicians who want to blame police, maybe there’s some blame here that has to go to the teachers union, for refusing to have schools where teachers are paid for performance, for fighting charter schools, for fighting vouchers so that we can drastically and dramatically improve education."
Dive Insight:
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who was one of many arrested last week for protests blocking major roads including the Brooklyn Bridge, took to Twitter immediately, writing:
Did #rudygiuliani really blame school teachers -not economics nor racism nor excessive force 4 #garner's death. Has he lost it?
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 8, 2014
Weingarten's tweet is in line with many of the criticisms of the education reform movement: namely that it ignores very real issues like poverty and racism. More specifically, Giuliani's call for more choice and charter schools in the city could have some hidden meaning. Many of the city's charter schools ascribe to a zero-tolerance form of discipline, which is exactly what many of the protesters feel unfairly led to the deaths of Brown (jaywalking) and Garner (selling loose cigarettes).