The American Federation of Teachers “panicked” in the words of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff over a report that Joel Klein, former chancellor of New York City public school system, had taken an official role in the campaign. Klein was a noted reformer who was opposed by teachers unions during his 2002-2010 tenure.
In an August 2015 email, Clinton labor outreach director Nikki Budzinski told other staffers about a “panicked call I just received from AFT about Joel Klein.” She needed a quick answer to the question of whether he was “joining the campaign in any capacity.”
The email was published by WikiLeaks, which presumably was recieved through an illegal hack of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s account.
Rumors were flying at the time that this was the case. Several reporters had called the union seeking a comment.
“AFT has flagged this as a really big issue for them. I would expect that Randi [Weingarten, president of AFT] is going to reach out to John [Podesta] on this today,” Budzinski said.
Podesta seemed puzzled in a response, asking what their concern was involving Klein.
“They hate him and someone made up a rumor we hired him, which is just weird. He’s a max donor and that’s it,” replied Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook.
Klein was a notable success as an education reformer in New York but had to fight the teachers unions to do it because his reforms involved closing down large, poorly performing schools, and opening smaller ones in their place, which cost some union members their jobs.
