Paul Toner: From TURNcoat to Collaborator

collaborate: To cooperate treasonably, as with an enemy occupation force in one's country.

Since it became widely known (here, here, and here) that he was a kingpin in the Eli Broad-sponsored Teachers Union Reform Network (TURN), Paul Toner has pivoted and become the chief collaborator with the other wing of the corporate party, this one sponsored by Bill Gates.  

Toner recently had a piece at a WBUR's site advising President Obama to keep on doing what he is doing, which, of course, is what the Business Roundtable has been trying to do for the past quarter century at least: shut down the public schools and turn them over to the corporate welfare kings of the education industry. From Toner, announcing his latest effort to make sure that Bill Gates speaks for teachers in Massachusetts:

In our latest effort, MTA is partnering with the American Federation of Teachers-Massachusetts, Massachusetts’ school committees and superintendents, and area universities and think tanks, to build the Massachusetts Education Partnership. Our mission is “to improve student achievement and success through collaborative labor‐management relations in school districts across the Commonwealth.” It’s because of such partnerships that Massachusetts has some of the best public schools in the United States.

If he knew anything about the history of education in his state, Toner would know that he is giving away the gains that have been made by the teaching profession over the 175 years in MA.  The leaders who fought for the rights of teachers and students during the 1960s would spit in Toner's face if they could today, as he huddles with the positivized emotional eunuchs from the Gates Foundation, who are now calling the shots for MA's turnaround turnover charter reform schools and the rolling back of professional gains made by teachers over the past 50 years.   

The partners in Toner's touted partnership? Van Roekel's lawyers at the NEA Foundation, Gates, and the Boys from the Boston Foundation who misrepresent the People's interests in education matters in MA. 

Can Toner really weasel and whore his way to the top job at NEA when Dennis VanRoekel gets his fill at the trough that the plutocrats keep filled for him and Randi Weingarten?  Massachusetts teachers and parents are in the position to say yea or nay on the matter. It's time for a recall vote on Paul Toner--it's time for leaning out and forward, rather than in and back.  

Massachusetts needs a union leader like Karen Lewis, who speaks for students, parents, and teachers against the War on Public Schools.