American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten was appointed Monday to a new Department of Homeland Security school safety advisory council tasked with making recommendations on “emergency management,” “preparedness measures,” and “safety and security” in schools.
Weingarten rose to prominence during the Covid pandemic as one of the chief advocates of school closures. The AFT, the nation’s second-largest largest teachers’ union, pushed the CDC to delay opening schools well after most other developed nations has returned children to the classroom, emails obtained by Americans for Public Trust revealed.
In the fall of 2020, Weingarten denounced calls to reopen schools as “reckless, callous, cruel.” An AFT affiliate in Chicago similarly condemned then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2022, who called her efforts to reopen school “rooted in sexism, racism, and misogyny.”
Prolonged school closures have, in part, hampered academic achievement rates, particularly among American kids and teens.
On Wednesday, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), popularly known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” revealed that math scores for 13-year-olds hit a decades low. Reading scores of American teenagers have also witnessed a similar decline, dropping four points since the last assessment in 2020.
Representative Ben Cline (R., Va.) condemned the announcement. “Randi Weingarten chose appeasing teacher unions over getting students back in the classroom during the pandemic. Now, math and reading scores for the Nation’s 13-year-olds are at the worst decline in decades.”
“Why is DHS rewarding bad policy?” the Freedom Caucus member wrote on Twitter.
Senator Rick Scott (R., Fl.) similarly vented his frustration with the appointment. Weingarten “is the last person who should be advising anyone on school safety,” he wrote.
Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced Weingarten was among the 20 new members appointed to the 30-person council on Monday afternoon. “Leaders of our academic institutions and campus life have a great deal to offer in helping us counter the evolving and emerging threats to the homeland,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
“The Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council’s insights into strategic research, innovation, career development, and partnership opportunities for the Department will support our mission to safeguard the American people, and help our country think through and prepare for whatever threats lie ahead.”
Weingarten was brought before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in late April, to address the union’s role in delaying the reopening of schools. House Republicans zeroed in on the AFT’s lack of qualification to be involved in public-health discussions with the CDC.
“Did your scientific experts present to you, as of June of 2020, among 1.8 million children in this age group, do you know how many died from Covid?” Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R., Iowa) asked the union boss.
“I don’t have that number in my head,” Weingarten replied, to which the Iowa representative answered her own question saying the number was “zero.”