C-SPAN Caller Presses Teachers Union Leader On Her ‘Role’ In Pushing For School Closures During COVID

A C-SPAN caller challenged American Federation of Teachers (ATF) President Randi Weingarten on Wednesday about her “role” in pushing for school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prolonged school closures and remote learning during the pandemic had detrimental effects on students’ aptitude in core subjects, including math and English. On “Washington Journal,” a Minnesota caller noted the “negative impact” of the closures and asked Weingarten about her involvement in “advocating” for them.

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

“We wanted our kids to be safe, we wanted their families to be safe and we wanted teachers to be safe,” she continued. “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 asked Weingarten if AFT pushed for closures at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.