“It is both ironic and disappointing that, on the same day we learn about continued declines in students’ math and reading scores from the National Center for Education Statistics, the Biden Administration announced the appointment of teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten to a Department of Homeland Security school safety advisory committee,” said Maxford Nelsen, director of labor policy at the Freedom Foundation.
“Reading and math scores in the 2022-23 school year plummeted across the board for 13-year-old students, erasing years of progress,” continued Nelsen. “What happened? Teachers’ unions like Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to close schools and extort government officials and parents into giving in to union political demands as a precondition to teachers returning to the classroom. With Weingarten at the helm, AFT pressured federal officials at the Biden Administration’s CDC to make reopening schools more difficult and closing them again easier. Locally, unions used their political influence and manipulated the collective bargaining process to ensure union-dominated schools were the last to reopen. Their actions were catastrophic for children’s academic performance, physical health, and mental and emotional development.”
“We’re still suffering the effects of Weingarten choosing to play politics with kids’ education,” said Nelsen. “Three years later, schoolchildren are still suffering the consequences of her terrible policies, but unfortunately President Biden’s quest to be the most pro-union president in history apparently means placing union executives like Weingarten in positions of power where they can do even more damage.”
“Randi Weingarten is a union lawyer, first and foremost,” concluded Nelsen. “She only taught public school for less than five years, she caused untold damage with her advocacy for prolonged school closures, and she continually chooses her Left-wing political agenda over the well-being of American students.”
“Quite frankly, she doesn’t belong anywhere near a school and has no business advising the DHS about how to keep schools safe.”
