Randi Weingarten under fire after tweet about remote education's shortcomings
American Federation for Children senior fellow Corey DeAngelis dives into the debate over the role of parents in their child's education on 'Fox News @ Night.'
Teachers' union boss Randi Weingarten was excoriated on social media after firing off a tweet aimed at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"DeSantis should be fixated on the cost of living issues in Fla- housing is unaffordable, home insurance even worse, but instead he is exanding gun access, defunding, public schools, & banning everything he dislikes-teachers, journalists & the vulnerable," Weingarten tweeted on Sunday.
Twitter users quickly piled on Weingarten for her criticism of DeSantis.
"Why is she always commenting on everything? I thought she was the head of the mafia—I mean teacher's union," filmmaker Dean Cain tweeted.
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Alexander Diaz, a student at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., noted that the cost of living in Florida has risen because of the large influx of people moving to the Sunshine State since 2019.
DeSantis Deputy Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern also weighed in, noting that Weingarten should be "fixated" on why so many parents left New York for Florida.
"Maybe it's because they wanted to be as far away as possible from schools where Randi has influence," he said.
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Weingarten, the head of America's Federation of Teachers, the nation's second-biggest teacher's union, also received numerous responses that pointed out the missing letters and poor use of commas in her tweet.
"My teachers always called me out for not proof reading my spelling and grammar and they were right in doing so. Below is from the president of the national teacher's union," Carlos Lopez-Cantera, the first Hispanic lieutenant governor of Florida, tweeted.
American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten famously pushed shutdowns but has not received criticism from most major media outlets. (Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Others called Weingarten out for barring Twitter users from replying to her tweets.
"Notice how this brave public servant disables the ability to replay to her tweets? She knows it is all lies and doesn't want to be challenged," author and podcast host Dr. Mark Young wrote.
Weingarten has repeatedly slammed DeSantis for his policies in Florida, particularly those related to the public school curriculum.
Just last week, Weingarten shared a video of DeSantis' recent speeches in which he defended the Florida Department of Education's decision to pull explicit LGBTQ material from libraries.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has repeatedly chided Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for his leadership decisions in the Sunshine State. (Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Eva Marie Uzcategui via Getty Images)
In the clip, DeSantis cited Florida "standards" that grant the state DOE the power to do so and expressed his belief that "99% of parents" would agree with removing such books from children's library shelves if the media weren't misleading them.
He also noted that the mainstream media has characterized this as "book banning," a strategy he called a "book ban hoax." The governor elsewhere mentioned how MSNBC claimed that the Florida DOE compelling a public school African Studies school class to drop its woke aspects amounted to the DeSantis administration outlawing the study of slavery.
Despite these assertions, Weingarten commented on the video, claiming that DeSantis is clearly lying about what he's doing.
"[Question]: Did Fla teachers complain of book banning before DeSantis started his 'anti woke' crusade?" she tweeted. "Did we see pictures of tarps over classroom libraries? Were teachers threatened with felonies if they used the 'wrong' book? [Answer]: No. Now that he is being exposed. Now it's a hoax."
AFT president Randi Weingarten has become the enemy of conservative parents over public school policy in the last several years. (Screenshot/MSNBC/MorningJoe)
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In early February, Weingarten also accused DeSantis of "race baiting" over his decision to bar the College Board's proposed AP African American Studies course framework from schools in the state.
"As an educator who has taught AP, I'm disappointed with the omissions & changes to the AP African American Studies course," she tweeted. "This is a college elective course 4 high school students & people like #APhilipRandloph & #bellhooks should not be given short shrift," she added.
Fox News’ Taylor Penley and Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.