C-SPAN Caller Puts Teacher’s Union Head on the Spot; She Tries to Rewrite History [WATCH]

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten was confronted by a caller on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Wednesday about her involvement in school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The caller, phoning in from Minnesota, questioned Weingarten directly about her “role” in “advocating” for school closures, pointing to the negative impact extended remote learning had on student performance in core academic areas like math and English.

Weingarten acknowledged that the closures caused harm to students.

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“I believe that COVID closures did hurt kids. And I have said that over and over again,” she said.

She then added, “And in April of 2020, we were the first ones to actually put out a report about how to reopen schools and reopen them safely and try to make schools the priority … And so, you know, regardless of whether people put words in my mouth or not, if you look at the evidence, we actually tried. What we wanted to do — and nobody knew very much about anything — is we wanted people to be safe.”

Weingarten continued, “We wanted our kids to be safe, we wanted their families to be safe and we wanted teachers to be safe. But literally, we believe in public schooling. We believe that they should have been open far earlier than they were and that they should have been a priority.”

Host Pedro Echevarria followed up by asking Weingarten if AFT advocated for the initial closures.

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“AFT advocated for closures in March, but we were not the first ones to advocate for closures,” she responded.

“We didn’t know, you know, so we advocated for closures in March when we saw what was going on, but by the end of April, we were advocating for schools to be reopened, but reopened safely.”

Weingarten worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on school reopening guidelines.

According to testimony from former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, Weingarten advocated for including language in CDC guidance that would allow schools to automatically shut down under certain conditions.

Despite these collaborative efforts, the AFT referred to school reopening plans as “reckless and unsafe” in a January 2021 statement.

In July 2021, Weingarten publicly criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s push to reopen schools, warning it could result in the deaths of “millions” of people.

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In July 2020, Weingarten also warned that AFT leadership would support “safety strikes” if health protocols demanded by the union were not implemented, as reported by NPR.

In October 2023, AFT released a report distancing the union from decisions on school closures.

The report stated, “The CDC’s guidelines were advisory, not compulsory. Therefore, to blame the CDC guidelines for the length and extent of school closures and their tragic consequences was both wrong and disingenuous.”

The report also claimed it was “even more wrong and disingenuous” to blame AFT rather than Trump administration officials for the extended closures.

Weingarten herself had previously written in July 2020 that then-President Donald Trump’s call to reopen schools was “reckless and wrong.”

According to a March 2024 report by The New York Times, American students continue to experience setbacks related to remote learning.

The analysis found elementary school students lagging in math and facing ongoing difficulties in reading and science.

The debate over school closures and learning loss continues to surface as students and educators navigate the lasting impact of pandemic-era decisions on the U.S. education system.

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