The ballad of Randi Weingarten

Shhh…quiet. Can you hear that? Listen closely. That’s the sound of backpedaling. Beautiful, isn’t it? The left’s panic is conspicuous as their woke figureheads try to reverse course on the lockdowns.

The real unraveling began on Thursday morning when the New York Times ran a piece headlined ‘President of Key Teachers’ Union Shares Plea: “Schools Must Be Open” in Fall’. This ‘plea’ came from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. It likely came as quite a surprise for parents across America. After all, they had been pleading with the AFT’s head honcho to open schools for over a year now. But Weingarten was too busy flying all over the United States on Boutique Air flights to worry about valid concerns from desperate families.

Weingarten, the president of the second largest teachers’ union in the country, appeared on Fox News earlier this week. When Martha MacCallum pressed her on why she was stalling school openings, Weingarten offered the most tired excuse in the Democrat playbook: she blamed Donald Trump for all her problems. Really groundbreaking stuff.

To be fair, her pathetic rebuttal might have worked a year ago, but we are five months into the Biden presidency. Even the most Trump-deranged egghead would have a hard time putting a positive spin on the union boss’s lackluster performance —though I have no doubt that Brian Stelter will try his very best.

But surely it wasn’t a bad hit on Fox News that sparked Weingarten’s U-turn on schools. The change-up was also not due to Weingarten’s worries that ‘prolonged isolation is harmful’ to the kids, as she said in a virtual speech this week. If any of these teachers’ unions cared about the wellbeing of students and ‘followed the science’, then they would have ended this charade a long time ago.

So what did the trick? Did Joe Biden finally get on his knees and beg? It’s possible. Or perhaps, Weingarten looked at the numbers. No, I’m not talking about the number of coronavirus cases or deaths among children. The numbers that could have played a part in Weingarten’s decision are the enrollment numbers.

A PBS article from April announced how ‘California public schools have experienced a sharp decline in enrollment this year as the pandemic forced millions into online school’. A downturn in enrollment could spell trouble for public funding for schools and therefore teachers’ jobs. By ignoring common sense, Weingarten has not just endangered the mental health of millions of children; she has also endangered the livelihood of the teachers she is supposed to protect.

Now in the beginning of the pandemic, before we understood the risk levels, there was an outpouring of appreciation for teachers. TV producer Shonda Rhimes tweeted, ‘Been homeschooling a 6-year old and 8-year old for one hour and 11 minutes. Teachers deserve to make a billion dollars a year. Or a week.’ Many other overwhelmed parents echoed the sentiment.

But as time progressed and the world started to learn more about the virus, the teachers’ unions did not veer away from virtual learning. They stubbornly leaned into it. Most sane people shudder at the idea of a computer taking their job. Weingarten on the other hand welcomed the Zoom replacements. Maybe she thought that by punishing parents and kids with remote learning, the unions would prove that teachers aren’t just underappreciated — they are irreplaceable.

Alas, Weingarten’s extortion backfired in a big way. The AFT’s never-ending non-COVID related wish list and constant manipulation pushed parents towards other options. Some parents opted for homeschooling. Others moved their kids into private or Catholic schools, or moved to a different state all together.

Now that the worm is turning, so is Randi. She probably expects exhausted families to welcome her reversal with open arms and tears of joy. But parents, among their many strengths, have finely-tuned BS detectors. Randi Weingarten was too cute by half — and America’s alarm bells are going off.