It must be the weather; or the time of the year; or perhaps it’s the clang of the gong when reality sets in. Whatever the explanation, it seems everyone is anxious to rewrite history.
The reason for this directly relates to the Republicans re-gaining control of the House of Representatives and the subpoena power that gives them. First, it was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the well-known architect of our Covid pandemic disaster when it came to lockdowns of businesses and schools in a failed attempt to prevent the spread of the virus. We still got the virus, but our economy crashed and our children lost at least a year of education. Fauci, in an attempt to pre-empt his appearance before the House granted an interview to The New York Times in which he rewrites history. I covered this in my last post, Fauci Rewriting History.
Now it’s Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the face of the teachers unions, who is also attempting to rearrange reality. The Wall Street Journal editorial board tells us, “Much still needs to be learned about the long-term health effects of Covid-19, but we already know one of the clear long-term political effects: memory loss. That’s the only way to explain why long-time advocates of pandemic lockdowns are now denying they ever supported the school and economic shutdowns that did so much harm to so many.”
As evidence to back up their statement, they point to Weingarten’s appearance last week before the House of Representatives: “Leading the amnesia parade is Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers president who attempted to erase two years of Covid history in testimony last week to the House of Representatives that was, literally, unbelievable.”
Weingarten had the audacity to say, “We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools. We know that young people learn and connect best in person, so opening schools safely, – even during a pandemic -guided our actions, which I will describe in detail.” But the promised details were not forthcoming. She omitted her description in July, 2020 of the Trump Administration’s push to reopen schools for in-person learning that autumn as “this reckless, this callous, this cruel!” That summer she also endorsed teacher “safety strikes” if unions deemed local reopening protocols to be inadequate. Hundreds of private and charter schools did open that fall without the surge of illness that Ms. Weingarten claimed to fear.
She also failed to mention that local union affiliates were the most aggressive opponents of school reopening throughout 2021 and even into 2022. “We are practically begging the Chicago Teachers Union to come to the table so we can get a deal done,” Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in February 2021.
In Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis ordered schools to reopen in autumn 2020, the Florida Education Association sued the state to keep them closed. The schools nevertheless reopened – much to the benefit of students who learn far better in person according to all the evidence. There are many more examples that could be quoted, but you get the idea. For Ms. Weingarten to somehow claim that unions tried hard to reopen schools is simply an attempt to rewrite their shameful history.
The WSJ editors say, “Ms. Weingarten and others are trying to rewrite history because they realize now, far too late, that their lockdowns are unpopular. The public can see the damage in lost learning and livelihoods. The lockdown lobbyists want everyone to forget it all happened, but it’s important for democratic accountability that they don’t get away with it.”
The operative phrase here is “lockdowns are unpopular.” The teachers unions aren’t shamed by the atrocious learning scores as a result of their actions; they aren’t shamed by the tragic consequences of their deeds for the lives of millions of children. They’re only concerned because the unpopularity of their actions may impact their ability to attract more members and more government spending to line their coffers.
Note: For more on Randi Weingarten, go to The New York Times magazine article entitled “The Most Dangerous Person in the World is Randi Weingarten.”
