American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said on Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) should be “moving heaven and Earth” to make Chicago schools safer for educators amidst the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Weingarten’s statements come after the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted Tuesday evening to conduct only remote learning as COVID-19 cases rise in the city. That vote prompted Lightfoot to cancel classes completely on Wednesday, insisting that teachers get back to the classroom by Thursday morning.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, signs indicate that a teachers strike could be coming, as it’s unlikely a mutual decision between the city and the union will be reached by Thursday morning.
One of the chief complaints is that public schools are not safe enough for teachers even though the vast majority — more than 86% of Chicago teachers union and staff are vaccinated.
Still, CTU voted overwhelmingly to move classes to remote learning and keep children home while Lightfoot and other Chicago health officials desperately tried laying out why it is not only safe, but necessary for teachers to be back in school.
Regardless, on Wednesday morning, Weingarten tweeted that “Let’s be clear here regarding Chicago schools- No one wants schools closed.”
Let’s be clear here regarding Chicago schools- No one wants schools closed. Educators want to be in the classroom with students, where they learn best. We do that through working together to roll out testing, masking, and vaccination—and most major districts have done it.
— Randi Weingarten ☮️🇺🇦 (@rweingarten) January 5, 2022
“Educators want to be in the classroom with students, where they learn best,” Weingarten claimed. “We do that through working together to roll out testing, masking, and vaccination—and most major districts have done it.”
“NYC and LA have instituted rigorous testing programs to catch asymptomatic COVID spread in its tracks & keep educators, students, and their communities safe,” she added. “Mayor Lightfoot should be moving heaven and earth to get it right in Chicago.”
“Until this surge, virtually all public schools were open for in person learning,” Weingarten continued. “We got it right for most of this current school year; now the adults have to work together and double down to get it right as we confront this surge. Omicron’s the enemy not each other.”
“Our kids, our families, our communities and our educators, who have been herculean deserve no less,” she concluded.
Our kids, our families, our communities and our educators, who have been herculean deserve no less
— Randi Weingarten ☮️🇺🇦 (@rweingarten) January 5, 2022
Weingarten’s tweets indicate that the CTU, which is affiliated with the AFT, won’t be backing down anytime soon. But, it also reveals that Weingarten could be engaging in some revisionist history regarding the role that public teachers unions and their members played during this pandemic, as 73% of CTU’s 25,000-plus members voted to reject in-person learning on Tuesday.
As for Chicago teachers’ efforts, readers should remember that last year at this time, an educator who is on the executive board of the Chicago Teachers Union urged special education teachers to refuse to return to work because it would be unsafe. But, then just hours after stating that, she was busted for vacationing after posting a photo on Instagram of a pool in Puerto Rico captioned, “Spending the last day of 2020 by the poolside.” She was criticized for saying its too dangerous to work in person, but not too dangerous to travel thousands of miles away.
And as Weingarten was attacking a typical ally of the teachers union in Lightfoot, several Leftists on Twitter were slamming Weingarten for her claim that teachers wanted to be in school.
In all, the left is now eating their own as the Democratic Party tries to shift gears during an election year to have a sense of normalcy before midterms. If these intra-Leftist fights continue while children suffer, it can only help Republicans who promise to fight teachers unions, bring about school choice, and end COVID-19 mandates.