To the surprise of no one familiar with her long record of deceit, delusion and disjointed logic, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten has decided to ignore the lesson of last month’s presidential election and continue using her soapbox to push the same failed liberal agenda voters rejected so emphatically at the ballot box.

In a Nov. 15 interview with News Nation, Weingarten not only defended her penchant for involving AFT in a wide range of issues having little or nothing to do with the pay, benefits and working conditions of its members, but also suggested there was no correlation between the union’s extensive political activity and the appalling state of U.S. education.

In fact, Weingarten asserted, “If (teachers unions) were listened to a lot more, I think we’d see the kind of results you just talked about.”

Under her leadership, AFT boasted annual revenues of $209 million and $220 million in 2022 and 2023, respectively, even as the union has been outspoken in its advocacy for Democrat candidates like Kamala Harris and causes like defunding law enforcement, environmental extremism and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The “About Us” heading on the AFT website, for example, includes a subsection titled “Resolutions” that articulate Weingarten’s — and by extension, her union’s — stance on astonishing range of issues, from open-water lifeguards, climate change and the optimal temperature of a classroom to her disdain for automated self-checkout technology in grocery stores.

Many of these pronouncements, which actually date back to 1951, actually precede Weingarten’s tenure with AFT, and deal with arcane concerns like tenure laws, loyalty oaths, and textbook censorship. But at least these had some connection to the wellbeing of teachers, their ability to teach and a student’s education being of good quality.

While many modern resolutions ring only in the ears of those in AFT’s echo chamber, many make their way into the public eye. Once there, other unions, politicians and demand they be adopted by every public school in America.

Examples from just the past four years include:
– In 2020, AFT adopted a resolution solemnly titled “Enough” that focused on police brutality and white supremacy in America’s schools. Meant to reflect the outrage of the BLM riots and encourage its members to support it, AFT concluded, “(T)his white supremacy is systemic and institutionalized, and influences the lives of everyone living in the U.S.” The manifesto insisted that the eradication of white supremacy be made a “primary goal of education.”
– Another resolution in 2021 called for an “end to ‘zero tolerance’ and other disciplinary policies” in an effort to create a more inclusive environment for students.

Even as Weingarten and her union were pointing fingers and conjuring up scapegoats to blame, the country was experiencing an epidemic of crimes committed by actual young people. In a report published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, both nonviolent and violent offenses committed by 12- to 17-year-olds increased significantly from 2021 to 2022.

Homicides jumped from 8.9 to 11 percent of total arrests. Robberies cilmbed from 17.9 to 19.9 percent, aggravated assault increased from 6.7 to 7.8 percent, and burglary showed an increase from 8.7 to 9.8 percent.

Poor behavior from students also soared after long term school closures for COVID, which Weingarten enthusiastically supported, before later falsely claiming she wanted schools reopened from the early months of the pandemic.

Additionally, in 2022 AFT released two more resolutions, one condemning state laws banning trans children from playing sports and another defending homosexual teachers and students from perceived anti-LGBTQIA pressures.

AFT further supported “nondiscrimination policies for transgender and gender-expansive students,” suicide statistics as a main area of concern. Schools acted swiftly, adopting measures that advocated for transgender girls to have access to any sports teams their hearts desired.

A resolution passed by AFT just this year proclaims the union’s unwavering “support of affirmative action” and promises to “reaffirm the need for affirmative action to ensure representation and promote diversity.”

Despite their consistently radical words and actions, teachers unions now wield considerable influence over American schools. And they bear much of the burden for the horrendous results seen on achievement tests even before Weingarten and others demanded students be barred from the classroom during the COVID scare.

When Americans went to the polls on Nov. 5, they unequivocally rejected the woke candidates and causes teachers unions have been funding for generations with their members’ dues money. The fact that Weingarten not only refuses to take ownership of her failures, yet promises more of the same in the future, should forever destroy her credibility, and position both her and the organization she leads as far outside the boundaries of mainstream thought in this country.