Randi Weingarten's Pension Veto

The teachers union chief tries to blackball hedge funds that support school reform.

From the WSJ: Public pension funds are frantically chasing higher yields to reduce their roughly $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities. But don't tell that to Randi Weingarten, the teachers union el supremo, who is trying to strong-arm pension trustees not to invest in hedge funds or private-equity funds that support education reform.

That's the remarkable story that emerged this week as the American Federation of Teachers president tried to sandbag hedge fund investor Dan Loeb at a conference sponsored by the Council of Institutional Investors. CII had invited Mr. Loeb, who runs Third Point LLC, to talk about investment opportunities and corporate governance. Ms. Weingarten is an officer and board member of CII.  But Ms. Weingarten's real concern is that Mr. Loeb puts his own money behind school reform and charter schools….

Read all about it at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323809304578429372927039816.html