Randi Weingarten thinks you are an idiot.
The American Federation of Teachers union president, a lady who makes a reported nine times the average teacher’s salary, is on a bit of a torrent to rewrite COVID history. As she tells it, she wasn’t hellbent on holding your child’s education hostage during the pandemic; she wanted to get those kids back in school as quickly as possible. As supposed “proof” of her heroism, Weingarten has been touting a report from Politifact that artificially absolves her from any wrongdoing or feet-dragging during COVID.
Don’t let her — or Politifact — get away with the whitewashing of history. Her actions stunted an entire generation of kids and unleashed a deluge of negative consequences as a result of keeping kids out of school for so long.
For example, Weingarten is now saying that since the spring of 2020, she wanted schoolchildren back in classrooms and learning from teachers.
“We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open,” Weingarten testified before Congress last week. “We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten: "We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools." pic.twitter.com/1qNL05VD3u
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 26, 2023
But in the spring of 2020, she said schools could only re-open if done “safely.” What did “safely” look like to Weingarten? Well, at the time she said that in-school learning could only happen if teachers across America received at least an “additional 19% — $116.5 billion — from pre-virus funding levels to stabilize budgets and then reopen safely.”
The New York Times, which also is running cover for Weingarten, noted that her union had a list of demands in April reopening:
The A.F.T. had issued its own reopening plan in late April, calling for adequate personal protective equipment, a temporary suspension of formal teacher performance evaluations, a limit on student testing, a cancellation of student-loan debt and a $750 billion federal aid package to help schools prepare to reopen safely and facilitate “a real recovery for all our communities.”
What does advocating limiting the number of tests or forgiveness of student-loan debt have to do with re-opening safely? Nothing. Weingarten used the pandemic to push for more and more demands and to demonize members of the Trump administration.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
As pointed out by HotAir’s David Strom, “Congress wound up passing $190 billion in funding to meet her demands, and it still didn’t move her.”
In Strom’s excellent piece, he also flagged a terrific montage showing the myriad ways from 2020 to 2021 that Weingarten delayed in-person learning — even after the science suggested it was safe to do so.
Outstanding compilation of footage of teachers’ union leader Randi Weingarten calling for COVID school closures throughout 2020 and 2021, contrary to her now casting herself as a bold advocate for schools reopening.pic.twitter.com/UcWjfmqpno
— Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) May 3, 2023
That video is pretty good, but it is nothing compared to the shellacking Weingarten has been receiving thanks to the Community Notes feature — crowdsourced fact-checking — on Twitter.
For example, Politifact tweeted, “Teachers union President Randi Weingarten advocated for reopening schools with pandemic safety measures. She criticized the Trump administration’s 2020 calls to reopen schools fully, but it’s misleading to claim that she opposed reopening at all.”
Teachers union President Randi Weingarten advocated for reopening schools with pandemic safety measures. She criticized the Trump administration’s 2020 calls to reopen schools fully, but it’s misleading to claim that she opposed reopening at all. https://t.co/Km8FkMkXd2
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) May 3, 2023
Politifact’s conclusion, as the Left would say, is “missing context.” What sort of “context”? Well, the kind that shows Politifact’s ruling is complete nonsense.
“Politifact is misrepresenting Weingarten’s positions,” the Community Notes added, replete with notes backing up the assertions. “She called attempts to reopen schools in the fall of 2020 ‘Reckless, callous, cruel’ theguardian.com/us-news/2020/j… Her union pushed aggressively at the local level edweek.org/teaching-learn… They continued in 2022 nytimes.com/2022/01/08/us/…“
In January 2021, a CDC study found low transmission of COVID in schools with proper safety precautions — such as social distancing and staying home when sick, and other commonsense guidelines. In other words, the science showed it was safe to be back in school.
The science was not enough for Weingarten. She said it was still too stressful for teachers to go back at the time.
“All the risk is on the educators, in terms of going back to school buildings,” she said at the time. “The science is one thing, but the moment — psychologically — you [return to in-person classrooms], you’re always wondering if you’re the case, if you’re the one in 100.”
While Weingarten was running around doing media interviews, mental health problems for America’s youth were skyrocketing, as were drug addictions, and learning loss.
When it became patently obvious that untold damage was being done, and that maybe kids should have been in school long before they finally returned, Weingarten said it was no biggie because “kids are resilient.”
.@danprimack: Is there a point at which kids' lost education isn't recoverable?
AFT president @rweingarten: "No, I don't believe that. I believe that kids are resilient and kids will recover. But we as adults have to meet their needs." #AxiosOnHBO pic.twitter.com/Dc4H0Hherc
— Axios (@axios) February 22, 2021
Weingarten, and Politifact for that matter, each get a big fat “F” for their COVID revisionism. We’ll let CNN Senior political analyst and father of four Scott Jennings have the final word.
.@ScottJenningsKY to @rweingarten: “I am stunned at what you have said this week…I think you’ll find that most parents believe you are the tip of the sphere of school closures…I hear no remorse whatsoever about the generational damage that’s been done…” pic.twitter.com/gVCDgpP3dN
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) April 28, 2023
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.