In a surprise to nearly no one, children’s reading and math scores have plummeted. National Assessment of Educational Progress, nicknamed “the nation’s report card,” results show the first-ever drop in math and the largest drop in reading in more than 30 years. Black children had an even bigger collapse in scores. Decades of educational progress undone. Poof.
Horrific. Stupid. Unnecessary.
We know the school closures did this. It wasn’t the COVID virus. It was the hyper-political reaction, from the left, on reopening schools during the pandemic.
The orders came from the top. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the directives. Kids had to be kept six feet apart in classrooms. Why? To this day, no one knows. It made no sense when implemented, since we knew the COVID virus was airborne, and it made even less sense when it arbitrarily switched it to three feet later in the 2021 school year.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, kept flipping back and forth on school opening before finally settling on the nakedly partisan position of arguing that President Biden’s spending plan must pass before schools could open. This was in February 2021, when schools around the country in places that didn’t live or die by his whims had been open for months.
But absolutely no one did more damage to children than American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. Weingarten, a far-left activist who regularly pushes her bonkers ideas into our schools, was instrumental in keeping schools closed. In a world divided into “essential” and “nonessential,” Weingarten made sure that public schools were the latter.
She treated kids like her personal cash cow, demanding funds from the Biden administration before she’d open schools. She won, of course, because Democrats rely on her support in elections. But the kids lost. They continue to lose because of her leadership. The money she traded their futures for? Unspent. It turns out the only way to open schools is to remove her from blocking the door. No amount of money mattered more than that. As late as summer 2021, Randi Weingarten was refusing to commit to open schools.
Individual teachers did the best they could. Plenty of teachers taught in person as early as fall 2020. They’re heroes and should be treated as such.
But teachers need to understand that the face of their union is an anti-child activist who has done more to harm to education in this country than anyone else. She has destroyed the relationship between parents and schools. She has led a divisive, politicized campaign to stop parental involvement. She does harm to us all.
We can’t fire her — but you can.
Teachers who know that her noxious, damaging influence has been a disaster for the children of this country should finally say so. She wasn’t protecting you, she was flexing her political power and showing that she was in charge. That came at a very high cost for so many kids. It’s a cost we will all be paying long after Randi Weingarten has finally exited the stage.
And not just teachers need to speak up for her firing. Democrats who were last seen doing a jig and whistling away from her need to face what they’ve done by giving this woman power. Since 2020, 1.2 million kids have exited the public-school system. While the school-choice movement thanks Weingarten for her service, those who believe in the public-school system need to understand that she has driven a stake through it.
The Biden administration allowed Weingarten to craft school-opening policy for the CDC, and Democrats across the country let Weingarten pressure them to keep schools closed. The NAEP results are at their feet as much as Weingarten’s. If they don’t push Weingarten out the door, they’re sending a loud and clear message: We see these results and the damage caused to children, we just don’t care.
Twitter: @Karol