Randi Weingarten Archives - The Virginia Star

Commentary: The Year in Teacher Union Double Dealing

September 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

This has been an egregious year for the country’s teachers unions. Okay, you may be thinking, so what else is new? But 2023 has exposed them as hypocrites par excellence.

The National Education Association convention in July provides myriad examples. While one might think a gathering of teachers would be concerned with the lack of literacy in public school students, he would be dead wrong. This year’s NEA convention in Florida was strictly political, and sex- and gender-obsessed ideas were front and center.

Politico: Democrats Say Republicans Have Failed in Proving Teachers’ Union Colluded with CDC on School Reopening Guidance

August 2, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

A report at the German-owned Politico Monday stated Democrats are now claiming Republicans have failed to provide evidence that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), led by Randi Weingarten, exerted extraordinary influence over government school reopening policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Democratic staff said in a memo obtained by Politico,” the news outlet stated, that “[d]espite a lengthy investigation, Republicans still can’t prove one of the nation’s largest teachers unions had undue influence over the Biden administration’s school reopening guidance.”

Commentary: Randi Weingarten Is the Last Person to Give Advice on School Safety

July 6, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

Straight from the “No matter how cynical I get, I just can’t keep up” file, it was recently announced that American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has been appointed to the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council. According to the Homeland Security website, the HSAPC will “provide strategic and actionable recommendations to the Secretary on campus safety and security, improved coordination, research priorities, hiring, and more.”

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) vented his frustration with the appointment, tweeting that Weingarten “is the last person who should be advising anyone on school safety.”

Commentary: To Unions, Organizing Time Is Fine When It’s on the Taxpayers’ Dime

June 28, 2023 RealClearWire

Randi Weingarten, the powerful president of the American Federation of Teachers, hasn’t been a working teacher in more than a quarter of a century.

Of the six years she spent teaching social studies, half of them appear to have been as a substitute. Yet despite the long absence from her short tenure in the classroom, the union leader described herself during a recent congressional hearing as being on leave from Brooklyn’s Clara Barton High School.

Homeland Security Secretary Appoints AFT President Randi Weingarten to Security Council to Advise on Keeping Schools Safe from ‘Terrorism’

June 23, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced Wednesday that American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is among 20 new members appointed to his Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council (HSAPC), which seeks to advise the DHS secretary on “campus safety and security, improved coordination, research priorities, hiring, and more.”

Union Boss Randi Weingarten Ripped for Denying She Pushed Biden Administration to Keep Schools Closed

April 28, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is drawing fire from many sides for her denial before a congressional subcommittee that she pressed the Biden administration to keep government schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as U.S. private and religious schools, and public schools in Europe, reopened. CNN contributor and Kentucky parent Scott Jennings confronted Weingarten Thursday night for pushing the Biden administration to keep schools closed during the COVID crisis but claiming to the House COVID subcommittee she had always wanted to reopen schools.

Documents: Teachers’ Union Played Significant Role in CDC’s Halting of Full School Reopening

April 26, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and its president Randi Weingarten had significant input into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pandemic school reopening guidelines than was known in 2021, according to documents obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT).

Teachers’ Union Boss Randi Weingarten’s Rant About Student Loan Forgiveness at SCOTUS Draws Fire

March 3, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, who was unhinged as she ranted and raved on the steps of the Supreme Court over the prospect that Joe Biden’s student loan handout could be declared unconstitutional, is drawing rebukes for being the height of hypocrisy.

Weingarten, joined by other far-left proponents of student debt relief, screamed on the steps of the Supreme Court Tuesday as oral arguments were heard in challenges to Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loan payments, claiming the move is essential to “make good with the students of America.”

Teachers’ Union Boss Backs GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s Controversial ‘Civics’ Bill

October 13, 2022October 12, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten announced her endorsement of a federal “civics education” bill sponsored by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), one that the National Association of Scholars (NAS) observed “is more an attempt to smuggle activist training into American K-12 classrooms than it is a good-faith effort to improve civic literacy.”

Weingarten began her column at Newsweek last week with a call for renewed civics education that is all entangled with her view that Donald Trump “and his cronies ran roughshod over the principles most of us learned in grade school.”

Teacher Union Boss Randi Weingarten in Ukraine This Week, Says She’s Heading to Border to ‘Assess the Situation’ Following Missile Strikes

October 11, 2022October 10, 2022 Admin

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is in Ukraine this week to meet with Ukrainian students and teachers and “to offer solidarity and support” to Ukrainian students and teachers “amid heinous attacks on Democracy,” according to the AFT website.

The Ukrainian teachers union, the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers, invited the AFT reportedly, “to bear witness and call attention to the effects on children, families and educators and the impact of Russia’s attacks on democracy and democratic institutions.”

Teachers Union President Defends Minnesota School District That Will Lay Off White Teachers First

August 24, 2022August 23, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten defended a contract between Minneapolis Public Schools and the union which will fire white teachers over minority teachers, according to a Monday tweet.

The March contract between Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) includes a deal that fires teachers who are not a part of underrepresented populations first, instead of basing termination on seniority. Weingarten tweeted an article by Associated Press with a quote from Greta Callahan, the president of the teachers chapter of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.

Teachers’ Union Boss Randi Weingarten Says Conservatives Are Working to ‘Undermine’ Teachers

August 6, 2022August 5, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten said Wednesday at a union conference that conservatives are “working consistently” to undermine teachers.

“Conservatives are working consistently to undermine educators in this country,” Weingarten said at the New York State United Teachers conference this week. “They’re in the same race as we are between fear and hope, aspiration and despair, democracy and autocracy. And they’re doing this because our members worked so hard during COVID.”

Commentary: The Master of Politicizing Schools Says Education Is Too Politicized

July 25, 2022July 24, 2022 RealClearWire

Last week, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten tweeted the results of a poll of teachers showing “nearly 9 out of 10 respondents say schools have become too politicized.” As she put it, “AFT members were on the frontlines of the first wave of the pandemic, but in many ways the last year was even harder” due to “mask wars, culture wars, the war on truth, or the devastation in Uvalde.”

Teachers’ Union Boss Raked In Massive Six-Figure Salary While Fighting to Close Schools

June 13, 2022June 12, 2022 Admin

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was paid nearly half a million dollars during the 2021-2022 school year, a report from Americans for Fair Treatment stated Wednesday. Weingarten raked in six-figures while simultaneously pushing for schools to stay shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With teacher’s union dues, Weingarten is paid $449,562, the Americans for Fair Treatment report stated. Weingarten’s salary is about seven times more than the average high school teacher makes as of 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

Larry Sand Commentary: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Needs to Get a Grip

May 31, 2022May 30, 2022 Admin

My Dearest Randi,

What is going on! It has been a year since my last missive, and I have not heard a peep from you. This is not the first time you have snubbed me, however. When I tried to say hi to you outside the Supreme Court after the Janus oral arguments in 2018, you refused to even look at me, and then turned to a newsman and launched into a kooky rant, insisting that unions “actually make communities safer and…the right-wing is threatened by that.”

‘Borderline Illiterate’: Christopher Rufo Rips Teachers’ Union Boss for ‘Fighting Against’ Parents

May 3, 2022May 2, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo ripped American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten in a Monday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation, addressing the latest battle in an ongoing feud.

Weingarten wrote a Friday op-ed in Time magazine titled “Extremists Are Using Lies to Undermine America’s Public Schools: We Need to Take a Stand,” which criticized “Rufo and other dark money-funded extremists” for their “attack” on public schools. Rufo, an advocate against the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools, responded to the op-ed, calling Weingarten “perhaps the single greatest oppressor of American children in the United States today.”

Republican Report: CDC Official Confirms Teachers’ Unions Given ‘Unprecedented’ Status on Whether to Reopen Schools While Parents Not Consulted

April 1, 2022March 31, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used “political science” and not “medical science” to collaborate with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to create guidance on the issue of reopening the nation’s government schools.

Appearing as a guest on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Scalise referred to a report released by Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that revealed a CDC official’s testimony confirming the nation’s top health agency coordinated with teachers’ unions at an “unprecedented” level to craft school reopening guidance, despite the CDC’s earlier claims that their coordination with the unions was routine.

Commentary: Virginia Paves the Way for Trump’s Return

November 10, 2021November 9, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

There has been a great deal of discussion of the widespread Republican victories last week, many of them belaboring the obvious. Fundamentally, the United States is a political society based on personal freedom, a free market, and on democratically legislated and responsibly enforced laws. The current administration’s belief in virtually unrestricted immigration, higher taxes, authoritarian regulation—including COVID vaccine mandates, and a heavy redistribution of wealth from those who have earned it to those who have not—are all antagonistic to the ethos that the United States has had for all of its history. In the circumstances, some sort of reversal was almost inevitable and is the off-year American electoral custom.

Those who were surprised by the Republican victory in Virginia and the near-dead heat in New Jersey had not recognized the extent of the affront to traditional democratic voters of the Sanders-woke-leftward lurch.

Teachers Union President Backing McAuliffe Promotes Article Claiming Parents Don’t Have a ‘Right’ in What Kids Are Taught

October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 Admin

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten shared an article that claimed parents do not have a right to shape what their children learn in school.

“Great piece on parents’ rights and #publicschools,” Weingarten commented on the article by The Washington Post. The piece describes movements by parents to influence what schools teach their children as “paranoid” and a “frenzy,” and it characterizes parental involvement as an obstacle of sorts to children “[thinking] for themselves.”

Commentary: A School Movement Targeting Minorities That Works, Progressives Don’t Like It

September 1, 2021August 31, 2021 RealClearWire

Michael Landsbaum hit bottom after his father lost his job and couldn’t pay rent, leaving the teenager homeless in Dallas. He slept on friends’ couches for months until he was rescued by an unlikely source: his high school.

But Pathways in Technology Early College High School did much more than provide him with a place to stay at a counselor’s home. Its accelerated program, including college courses, gave Landsbaum the drive to get through the tough times and the hope for better days.

Commentary: Unions Enforce Masks for the Public But Don’t Require Member Vaccinations

August 5, 2021August 4, 2021 RealClearWire

Flight attendants’ and teachers’ unions whose members are on the front lines of disputed Covid safety protocols are ardent enforcers of mask mandates for the public but do not require their members to get vaccinated. Such inoculation is widely acknowledged as the most effective step in stopping the spread of the new Delta variant, while masking is viewed as of secondary importance, and many are highly skeptical of its effectiveness and critical of its inconvenience.

As the Association of Flight Attendants continues to urge federal authorities to allow flight attendants to police passengers for masking – a policy that has led to fisticuffs on some flights – the union has struck an agreement with at least one airline, United, to allow unvaccinated members to fly. American Airlines and Southwest Air say they also do not require their flight attendants or other employees to vaccinate. Flight attendants for both airlines are unionized.

Commentary: Confronting Teacher Union Twaddle

July 20, 2021July 19, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Randi Weingarten, the gaffe-prone president of the American Federation of Teachers has outdone herself, and that isn’t easy. In a series of seven open letters over the years, I have playfully chided the union boss about her trove of inane and bizarre musings. But now she has jumped the proverbial shark.