Randi Weingarten slams pandemic school closure critics in forceful letter to Wall Street Journal

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Randi Weingarten: Very few teachers go into the profession wanting to be 'social justice warriors' but politicians cause them to be one

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said during a back to school town hall with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona that people don't become teachers to be social justice warriors.

In a biting Letter to the Editor published in the Wall Street Journal, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten tore into critics who blamed her for pandemic-era school lockdowns that dramatically harmed the educational progress of the nation’s public-school children.

The letter slammed Weingarten’s critics in The Wall Street Journal, Republican lawmakers, former President Trump and his former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos by name, passing the blame of mismanaging schools to them. 

At the outset of her letter published on Sunday, Weingarten noted that she was responding to a Wall Street Journal editorial published last week, titled, "Randi Weingarten Flunks the Pandemic." 

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American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten slammed critics of public school remote learning and COVID-19 lockdown policies in a forceful letter to the Wall Street Journal. (Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein)

That piece admonished Weingarten and others in charge of the nation’s public schools for pushing COVID-19 pandemic school closures "as long as she possibly could," which resulted in the "unprecedented decline in reading and math scores" among young students, as reported by The National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The editorial also claimed Weingarten "tried to forget this ever happened with her statement on Twitter: ‘Thankfully after two years of disruption from a pandemic that killed more than 1 mil Americans, schools are already working on helping kids recover and thrive. This is a year to accelerate learning by rebuilding relationships, focusing on the basics.’"

The piece reminded readers, "But she and her union were the chief disrupters."

Weingarten's response torched the paper. She opened by defiantly stating that she’s "used to enduring attacks from your editorial page" and recommended that the outlet "listen to the teachers who gave their all to help students and families weather a global pandemic that killed a million Americans and orphaned 200,000 kids."

The head of one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions rebuked the notion that she and other teachers preferred the closures or remote learning programs and claimed it was a Trump government appointee who had championed them at one point. "No teacher I know enjoyed remote and hybrid learning—which, pre-pandemic, was championed by Betsy DeVos. Not one teacher relished teaching art class via Zoom to 40 pupils, 20 of them in a classroom and 20 at home."

According to a National Assessment of Educational Progress report, there was an "unprecedented decline in reading and math scores" among young public school students due to COVID-19 school restrictions. (Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)

"While former President Donald Trump and his education secretary, Ms. DeVos, ranted and raved, their successors put the safety measures in place to get reopening done," Weingarten added, praising the subsequent Democratic administration’s efforts to get things back on track. 

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She specifically praised the Democrats’ American Rescue Act and slammed the GOP in the process, stating, "The American Rescue Plan, which every Republican in Congress voted against, is our vehicle to accelerate learning so kids can recover and thrive."

Weingarten concluded her letter by claiming that those critical of teachers and school policies during the remote learning period need to drop the divisiveness and be more supportive. "Rather than divide and distract, politicians of all stripes should focus on what children need, from reading, math and music to mental-health support and pathways to careers and colleges. Teachers deserve our ear and our help, not shame and blame," she wrote.

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The Wall Street Journal slammed American Federation of Teachers' boss Randi Weingarten for pushing COVID-19 pandemic school closures "as long as she possibly could," which resulted in a serious decline in education standards for children. (Getty Images)