National union leader thwarted in school visit

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, got what she wanted Thursday at Abraham Lincoln High School in Northeast Philadelphia - even though she was stopped just past the metal detector.

Told that a tour of the building would be disruptive, Weingarten instead convened outside Lincoln after the 2:55 p.m. dismissal bell with members of her union's local and students to discuss budget cuts in city schools.

"Obviously they said no today because they don't want us to see the conditions," Weingarten said, TV cameras rolling. "I'm just astounded. . . . I have never been denied access to a public school where our members are working."

A School District spokesman said the principal told Weingarten she was welcome inside after the dismissal bell.

Weingarten was visiting the city on the fourth day of the school year to try to rally public opinion against the Corbett administration's demand that the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) agree to concessions, such as wage and benefit cuts and work-rule changes, in exchange for $45 million in state money for the city's schools.

The PFT also began airing a 30-second television ad Thursday blasting Gov. Corbett for "refusing to fix the mess he created, while our kids pay the price." Two earlier ads paired Mayor Nutter, a Democrat, with Corbett, a Republican, as villains in the school crisis. The new ad focuses on the governor alone.

"Right now, he is holding that money hostage," Weingarten said of Corbett at a news conference outside City Hall earlier in the day.

Two previous PFT ads had angered the mayor by inaccurately saying he had cut school funding. Nutter has helped increase the city share, though he, too, has said the teachers union must give something to find a solution.

At Lincoln High, in Mayfair, parent Michele Bromley told Weingarten that students are not always allowed to use bathrooms or lockers, and that supervision in the hallways was inadequate. "I'm just concerned about the safety of my child," said Bromley, who has a son in the school.

After the 2:55 p.m. bell, PFT members in bright red shirts flocked around their national president to tell of overcrowded classrooms, supply shortages, and lack of counselors. Some said the school library was closed for lack of a librarian.

"We're going to keep on fighting," Weingarten told the teachers. "That's why I'm here."

John Larsen, the chairman of Lincoln's art department, who also coaches varsity baseball and JV soccer, said he and his teachers were paying for art supplies as they always have.

It's not clear there will be any baseball at Lincoln in the spring, he said.

"These cuts going through now, they're killing us," Larsen said. "They're hitting every aspect."