As more tragic news on the state of affairs in public education surfaces, President Joe Biden chose to appoint Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers union (AFT), to the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council (HSAPC) advising the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on school safety.
This is like putting a Jan. 6 rioter in charge of Capitol security.
To recap, Weingarten and her fellow union leaders lobbied to keep schools closed well past when it was evident that they were among the safest places for children to be during the pandemic—and even after demanding and receiving the privilege of pushing their members to the front of the line for the initial vaccines, even at the expense of some vulnerable populations.
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The school districts that followed her lead were closed well into 2021 and, once reopened, many followed draconian policies that made children’s learning experiences pointlessly difficult. The vast number of districts that ignored her guidance brought students safely back into the buildings at least a full school year sooner.
As a staffer at the White House after 9/11, I helped stand up the original Office of Homeland Security and create DHS. Weingarten’s presence on this council goes against every principle we held back then. We were trying to knock down bureaucratic barriers in order to keep America safer. Randi Weingarten erects bureaucratic barriers—between parents and children, children and learning, and children and safety.
The vision of the department included having councils of outside advisers to help officials live outside their bubble and impose policies that would invite collaboration and success. I sat in the room with the original Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), a bipartisan group of state and local officials, law enforcement experts, business leaders, and crisis responders who were enlisted to find policy consensus that DHS could use to create meaningful change.
Conversely, Weingarten’s council will almost certainly be a cloistered bubble of academics.
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, testifies about the effect of the coronavirus disease pandemic on students and schools in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on April 26, 2023.
Elizabeth Frantz/ReutersWith nobody formally representing the customer—parents and students—this council is ripe to repeat some of Weingarten’s worst mistakes.
For example, there’s her support for the Department of Justice targeting as threats concerned parents speaking at community meetings. Weingarten advocated for federal law enforcement to come down on parents vocally opposed to policies she supports—conflating their expressions of concern, and even anger, with “threats”—a move that even the National School Boards Association walked back after instigating it.
One can only assume that much of the council’s focus will be on gun violence. Nobody can dismiss the seriousness of that issue, as gun violence increases and policymakers struggle for a solution. But one related aspect that cannot be ignored is the mental health crisis that plagues students today, and which is upstream of these violent events. Weingarten, through her opposition to reopening schools, threw gas on the mental health crisis fire, while exacerbating other threats to kids, like the increased likelihood of domestic abuse, and robbing them of the educational opportunities that can lead a child toward better outcomes than they’d otherwise face.
Americans recently learned that student scores in math and reading plummeted last year. The math score decline was the steepest in 50 years. This assessment of 13-year-old students across the country was alarming but in line with the trends. In May, we learned history scores are the lowest since assessments began three decades ago. In April, we learned that depression, self-harm, and suicide among students are reaching terrible levels. Prior to that we learned of the spike in fighting, violence, and behavioral problems in schools.
Given this landscape, you would expect some humility, some contrition, some acknowledgement from the people who were in charge (and remain in charge) as this mess developed. You surely wouldn’t expect these same people to be trotting out political endorsements, getting plum White House appointments, and being given countless hours of media airtime to express “serious concern” over the situation they created—all while disingenuously denying they ever wanted to keep schools closed!
But Weingarten isn’t the only one who fails at contrition. We have heard no apologies or acceptance of responsibility from her counterpart at the National Education Association (NEA), Becky Pringle, or the former head of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, or any of the other dozens of people who pressured schools across the country to devalue the well-being of children.
Outrageously, in a recent interview with ProPublica, a teachers’ union official in Virginia commended the school closures, saying it gave teachers more time to run errands, walk the dog, and exercise. He went on to say that now everyone was equal—as though everyone being equally in a terrible place is a desirable outcome.
Of course, this is not true, as students in states like Florida or parochial schools that fought back against the union-led school closures have not experienced the same alarming disparities.
There has been no soul searching among the unions who created this disaster—they’re unrepentant. And there is absolutely nobody holding them accountable.
THE WAY OUT OF THIS MESS
The past few years have not gone well for progressive education advocates, with 14 states passing legislation that would significantly increase access to vouchers or alternative schooling options, and many other states considering their own reforms. (Randi Weingarten may be the best advocate for school choice ever born.)
AFT President Randi Weingarten speaks during 'March for Our Lives', one of a series of nationwide protests against gun violence, in Washington, D.C. on June 11, 2022.
Joshua Roberts/ReutersThere is hope for meaningful education reform, but it takes winning elections. And the only chance we have is for voters on the left to join parents on the right and hold school officials and teacher unions accountable. The right cannot do it alone. I speak to countless parents who voted for Biden and whisper to me that they agree with me on the “school issue.” This crisis will not be abated by whispers.
I don’t believe any voter in America wants our children to fail. But, please folks: Wake up. They are being failed.
In some areas, like Baltimore, the systemic failure is catastrophic. In other areas, the failure is duller. But it’s there. If you want public schools to succeed, jump in this fight. Bring on new leadership. Demand answers from the highly paid union leaders who keep making this mess.
And teachers, despite a century of the AFT and NEA lobbying, you are still underpaid—a cliche used to describe few other union jobs. It might be time to ask your union leaders why that is?
Even if you are a die-hard teachers’ union booster, you have to be thinking that the status quo is unacceptable. I promise your political goals will be in a much greater position in the long run, but it requires a hard break from failed leadership. The alternative is Republicans implementing school choice across every red state, and people will continue flocking from the states that listened to Weingarten to the states that did not.
Weingarten’s legacy is one of failing our children. President Biden and Democrats ought to seriously consider whether continuing to embrace a leader carrying this much political liability is worth elevating to such a lofty position.
Rory Cooper is a former White House staffer, Communications Director to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and the father of three children.
