#TimeFail News Conference

Post date: May 18, 2015 2:20:5 PM

More Than 100,000 Petition Signatures Delivered to Time

October 31, 2014:

AFT President Randi Weingarten joined parents and teachers at the Time-Life Building in New York City on Oct. 30 to deliver more than 100,000 petition signatures to Time magazine. The petition asked Time's editors to apologize for its recent misleading cover, which casts teachers as "rotten apples" needing to be smashed by Silicon Valley millionaires with no experience in education."Obviously, we can debate a lot of things about public education," Weingarten said at the event. "We can debate if there's enough money. We can debate how to attract, retain and support teachers. We can debate the kind of parental engagement we need. We can debate whether we need more art and music. We can debate the role of testing. What shouldn't be debatable is whether a cover that suggests that teachers need to be smashed is appropriate. A cover that suggests that teachers need to be smashed is dead wrong. And that's why more than 100,000 people have signed petitions this week asking Time to apologize for its cover."Weingarten was joined by United Federation of Teachers President (and AFT vice president) Michael Mulgrew, New York City teacher Sara Berger, New York City parent Natasha Capers and North Bergen, N.J., teacher Laurie Troiano.

Since the petition delivery, more than 10,000 additional petition signatures have been collected, bringing the total to 110,634. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/news/more-100000-petition-signatures-delivered-time#sthash.9I3AnBBU.dpuf