Carl Campanile writes for the New York Post about a questionable use of teacher union funds.
American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten tapped hundreds of thousands in union resources to help write her controversial book — working with a team that raked in more than $1.4 million from the labor group, a new analysis found.
Weingarten used the abundance of union-fueled resources for the liber agenda-pushing “Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy,” then pocketed a portion of the proceeds, the Freedom Foundation claimed in a new report.
Her team included an attorney who supposedly worked on the book pro bono but whose firm raked in $977,000 for various work for AFT, as well as a supposed “ghost writer” who earned over $400,000 overall from the union, the report said.
The union also forked over more than $11,000 to two people who “fact-checked” and apparently took photos of the labor big for the tome — which was heralded by the publisher as a “manifesto for our time.”
“Most AFT members pay dues in exchange for workplace representation, not to fund the union president’s literary pursuits,” said Maxford Nelsen, the Freedom Foundation’s director of research and government affairs.
“However, AFT appears to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in members’ dues on top-tier consultants, lawyers, and agents to get WFFT published,” Nelson went on. “Indeed, the wide range of expenses borne by AFT suggests that Weingarten may not have contributed anything at all financially to the enterprise.”
Weingarten is paid $469,442 by the AFT, which boasts 1.8 million members across 3,000 local affiliates. She admitted to sharing royalties with the union and its nonprofit affiliates.
The book was promoted by the publisher as “a manifesto for our time” and caused a stir when critics said the author suggested President Trump is a fascist. The labor leader also invoked Hitler in the book.
