Randi Weingarten is mistaken.
Americans still love our teachers.
We just don’t love our teacher-union leaders.
Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, claimed in USA Today that “MAGA Republicans” are destroying public schools and it’s up to oldsters and teachers to save lots of them.
One thing is correct: parents and teachers should join forces to fight for public schools in our country.
Republicans, nevertheless, are the least of her worries.
With regards to destroying public education, enemy #1 is Randi.
For the past 15 years, Weingarten, a former lawyer and briefly teacher, has presided over 1.7 million union members, including greater than 200,000 health professionals in 18 states and greater than 250,000 retirees.
Under her leadership, AFT, the 107-year-old, second-largest teachers’ union within the country, has moved away from its founding principles.
Former AFT presidents reminiscent of Albert Shanker have been staunch supporters of high-quality public education, as evidenced by his support for charters, national competency tests, merit pay for teachers, and stringent highschool graduation requirements.
AFT President Sandra Feldman supported President George W. Bush’s bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, which sought to make schools more accountable for educational outcomes.
Randi just desires to teach our children how one can be progressive activists while they fall behind in basic subjects like reading and math.
Activism plays a vital role in education.
AFT’s wealthy history boasts of being the primary union to confess black teachers as members (in 1919), demanded equal pay and compulsory education for black children.
Union advocacy and the interests of scholars and families converged during this era.
But under Weingarten’s leadership, the politicization of teachers’ unions became more extreme; unions are increasingly taking an interest in political issues outside of education and drawing them into the classroom.
Randi confuses teachers with teachers relationshipsbut union leadership is a poor proxy for members today.
While the AFT is the Democrats’ leading donor, actual members are more diverse.
A 2017 National Education Week Research Center study found that while 41% of members are Democrats, 30% are Independents and 27% are Republicans.
About half said that they had “somewhat” or “largely” avoided political activity due to their work.
Many teachers are also parents and should not want their union leader’s policies infiltrating their very own kid’s classrooms.
Through the pandemic, Randi colluded with the Biden administration to maintain schools closed.
She claimed this was to make sure the protection of minority teachers and students, but in actual fact she was blinding us.
While schools have reopened safely across Europe, union news has reinforced the view that schools are unsafe and teachers will die in classrooms.
Minority families have been told that face-to-face school is dangerous and distant school is a safer and fairer option.
A few of these families and teachers were all clamoring for distant school on the time, and supporters of reopening schools were vilified as “white supremacy.”
But distant hasn’t proven safer for teachers or students.
A recent study found that teachers who worked remotely were more more likely to experience depression and isolation than those that taught in person.
Minority children have suffered disproportionate academic losses and mental health problems as a results of the disruption to their academic, sporting and social activities – policies Randi describes as “fair”.
And Randi continues to light the gas, pretending to be a savior for college students damaged by the policies she pushed.
He also talks about parents and teachers as his partners, but Randi is a multi-millionaire earning over $500,000 a yr.
It’s hard for her to assert to be a woman of the people.
She could have started off as a teacher, but today she’s a detached extremist, yelling at her constituents relatively than talking (or listening!)
In Latest York City’s declining Democratic schools, the minority-centered student population is funded at $38,000 per child, teachers are well-educated, and funding is distributed fairly amongst schools relatively than allocated based on the wealth of the founding base.
Republicans cannot take the blame Or because of Randi’s policy.
AFT’s mission includes a commitment to democracy.
But as Philip K. Howard, writer of Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Worker Unions, says, “Democracy is a technique of accountability,” and at every moment Randi resisted accountability.
Today, because the nation struggles to heal the deepening party divide, Randi is fanning the flames of the culture war she helped spark.
ON social media in print throws rockets at “MAGA Republicans” and politicizes classrooms.
Shanker once said, “I do not represent children. I represent teachers. . . . But basically, what’s within the interest of the teachers can be within the interest of the scholars.”
That is an obvious truth.
Randi noted that schools will not be just physical structures.
Indeed, they’re respiratory, living ecosystems where teachers and students intertwine.
There may be definitely room for restoring teachers’ unions to their basic principles of representing teachers and improving student achievement.
But first there have to be a change of leadership.
Natalya Murakhver is the co-founder of Restore Childhood, a non-profit organization that works for youngsters. It produces “15 days. . . “ Documentary about school closures.
Twitter: @AppletoZucchini