Randi Weingarten says Republicans 'just don't want public schools'
The American Federation of Teachers president was tasked with laying out 'the sheer breadth of Republican attacks' on public schools during an MSNBC appearance.
Parents and education activists took issue with Randi Weingarten's new defensive letter pushing back on criticism over COVID-19-related school closures, which appear to have set young students back socially and academically and worsened an adolescent mental health crisis.
"No teacher I know enjoyed remote and hybrid learning—which, pre-pandemic, was championed by Betsy DeVos," Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "Not one teacher relished teaching art class via Zoom to 40 pupils, 20 of them in a classroom and 20 at home."
Weingarten's note appeared to be a retort to the Wall Street Journal editorial board's scathing review of her leadership during the pandemic, which left nothing to the imagination in the title alone, "Randi Weingarten Flunks the Pandemic."
"After the first months of Covid uncertainty, the school shutdowns had nothing to do with safety," the editors concluded. "You flunked the pandemic, Randi, and set back America’s children for years."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, during a town hall with 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and members of the American Federation of Teachers, in Philadelphia, PA, on May 13, 2019. (Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
"As a union leader in the public eye, I’m used to enduring attacks from your editorial page ('Randi Weingarten Flunks the Pandemic,' Review and Outlook, Sept. 2)," Weingarten responded this weekend. "But I’d suggest you also listen to the teachers who gave their all to help students and families weather a global pandemic that killed a million Americans and orphaned 200,000 kids."
The union leader instead condemned Republicans for voting against The American Rescue Plan, President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, calling it a "vehicle to accelerate learning so kids can recover and thrive."
"Once again deflection and scare tactics are used as an immature attempt to avoid accountability. Randi Weingarten is aware that in 2011 the government run school systems received federal guidance and funding to ensure preparedness for a school disaster, pandemic, or any other future biological event," former Fairfax County special education teacher and parent Debra Tisler said. "If the AFT truly cared, they would have made sure their teachers were trained in meeting the needs of their students during a pandemic. Instead, they chose the blame game. It's never too late to make changes."
"It's pretty outrageous that Randi Weingarten thinks the American Rescue Plan does anything to actually help children with learning loss," Virginia Mavens founder Tyler Ohta said, noting how $15 million dollars of it was found to have been spent on "anti-racism" and "social activism" programs for kids.
"Someone should account for where those 1.9 trillion in funds went, because I guarantee you it wasn't spent on helping children recover from the devastating effects they suffered, and the most recent data reports confirm it," Ohta said.
Others zeroed in on Weingarten's line that teachers "deserve our ear and our help, not shame and blame."
"It was the courageous parents as well as teachers who stood up to what seems to be a very partisan and politically focused teacher’s union, for a full year to open schools in Fairfax County and beyond that were closed," Elizabeth McCauley of the Virginia Mavens told Fox News Digital in response. "It was the parents who creatively and boldly advocated for children and their reading, writing, math, music, mental health and social and emotional needs as well as those of the teachers. Instead of playing politics, parents across the country proposed solutions to keep schools open only now again to be gaslighted and blamed by Weingarten and her political operatives. We the parents want to ensure that our children and their teachers are never put through such hell again and would appreciate an apology from Weingarten rather than another out of touch, condescending dismissal of these horrific learning losses."
Corey DeAngelis, the national director of research at the American Federation for Children, said that Weingarten's letter did not address the Wall Street Journal's "central claim."
"It's particularly notable that Randi Weingarten didn't even address the central claim: that she fought to keep schools closed, which hurt kids in so many ways," he told Fox News Digital. "She must have finally realized her gaslighting about her role in closing schools and hurting kids isn't going to fool anyone. That's also probably why Randi turns off the replies on just about all of her tweets. We have the receipts. Parents aren't going to put up with her lies. So, at this point, the best she can do is try to deflect. Too bad for her, that's not going to work, either."
The Department of Education released a report that found student test scores decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. ( Allison Dinner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"She is now trying to play victim after fighting to close schools for over a year, but the real victims are the children who were hurt by the school closures she caused," DeAngelis said.
Weingarten's critics have blasted her in recent weeks as more research has come out about the negative impact of school closings, accusing her of trying to "rewrite history." Most notably, the AFT and the National Education Association, the two largest teachers unions in the U.S., received a copy of the guidance for a return to in-person learning before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released it to the public, emails revealed. That correspondence appeared to have a hand in the slow walking of the return to in-person instruction.
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The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed a stark decline among 9-year-old students in reading and math scores during the pandemic. Like Weingarten, the White House pointed the finger at the previous administration.
"Let’s step back to where we were not too long ago when this president walked into this administration, how mismanaged the response to the pandemic was, how… in less than six months, our schools went from 46% open to nearly all of them being open full-time. That was the work of this president," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week.
She, too, partly blamed Republicans for the academic mess for not voting for the American Rescue Plan.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks before a crowd of striking educators at Capital High School in Charleston, West Virginia, U.S., February, 19 2019. REUTERS/Lexi Browning ( REUTERS/Lexi Browning)
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In addition to the academic decline, 76% of public schools reported an increase in staff concerns about students' mental health, data collected in April from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) revealed.
DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall accused Weingarten of trying to "change the subject" from these harmful effects in her Wall Street Journal letter.
"Weingarten is using this letter to change the subject and suggest that anybody who criticizes covid school closures is actually attacking teachers," he told Fox News Digital. "This rhetorical sleight of hand is not helpful and most Americans won't buy it. It is generally acknowledged that closing schools was a mistake and was harmful to students emotionally and academically. There is little doubt that the teachers unions were instrumental in decisions on closure."
"To ignore that and instead try to turn these educational issues into partisan politics certainly won't help the students who have suffered enough already," he continued. "The news media should not be snookered by Weingarten's redirection and should instead focus on reporting studies of real harm students experienced and what steps can now be taken to improve matters."