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

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.”

The story noted the investigation, conducted over a four-month period by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, during which the subcommittee reviewed over 3,000 pages of documents and held public hearings, including those with testimony from Weingarten (pictured above) and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, failed to prove AFT and Weingarten exerted undue influence over CDC.

“I think Republicans on this committee are exasperated because they can’t get to the conclusion they want,” Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA) reportedly told Politico. “There’s no evidence to support the story they’re trying to create. Randi is a respected education leader … and they just want to attack working people and the teachers that she represents.”

In late February, Weingarten delivered a “maniacal” rant at a rally for student debt cancellation:

The “Democratic staff memo” obtained by Politico reportedly claimed, in response to Weingarten’s testimony that she had a direct phone number for Walensky, that CDC “consulted a wide range of stakeholders before AFT was even aware” of the agency’s guidance and had not invited AFT to a forum during which the guidance was previewed.

The memo contained the narrative that AFT “received a draft of the guidance seven days after CDC sent complete draft guidance to several other groups for feedback. AFT also testified that it learned about the draft guidance from The New York Times.”

Weingarten provided a statement to Politico:

The right wing’s contorted attempt to blame educators and their unions for the effects of pandemic was both wrong on the facts and a callous undermining of the very people who tried to help children and families in their darkest hour. Rather than playing political games, the majority should be focused on helping us address learning loss, literacy and loneliness—the strategy I outlined … in DC.

As The Star News Network reported, Americans for Public Trust (APT) uncovered documents in April showing that Weingarten had significantly more input into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pandemic school reopening guidelines than was known in 2021.

Weingarten claimed the Biden transition team “solicited school reopening advice directly from the union,” APT tweeted.

“This comes after we obtained documents showing how [Weingarten] worked with the Biden admin to re-write the CDC’s school re-opening guidelines,” the organization added.

Aaron Withe, CEO of the Freedom Foundation, said in comments to The Star News Network that House Democrats “are counting on short-term memories and a complicit media to gaslight the public into forgetting there is overwhelming proof that teachers’ unions lobbied the Centers for Disease Control to keep schools shut long after the rest of the country started getting back to work.”

Withe reviewed the evidence collected:

Any schoolchild writing a report can find there are emails between the American Federation of Teachers and CDC officials negotiating specificities on school reopening guidelines. During a congressional hearing, Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko even forced former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to admit that she and AFT president Randi Weingarten exchanged text messages about school reopening guidelines, shortly after which Walensky resigned her position at the CDC.

“CNN commentator Scott Jennings even went so far as to call Randi Weingarten – to her face – ‘the tip of the spear of school closures’, which she couldn’t possibly have been if she didn’t have power over at the CDC to follow her directives,” he said.

The Democrat memo is reported just weeks after a Gallup poll found Americans’ confidence in the nation’s government schools continues to falter, with only 28 percent saying they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in public schools, down from 32 percent in 2022.

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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Randi Weingarten” by Randi Weingarten.

 

 

 

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