(Headline USA) Teachers union president Randi Weingarten testified before Congress on Wednesday regarding her role in COVID-19 school shutdowns, which records show she had a direct hand in.
Weingarten, who heads the American Federation of Teachers, attempted to downplay her advocacy for school closures, claiming that reports that she worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to delay school reopenings is a “faulty premise.”
“With a strategy focused on opening schools, it was completely fitting and proper for the CDC, which specializes in science, not education, to consult with education groups. The CDC conferred with more than 50 organizations about the guidance, according to Dr. Walensky,” Weingarten said in her opening remarks.
“Any claim that the contact the AFT had with the CDC was unusual or inappropriate, particularly in reviewing its February 2021 Operational Strategy, is simply wrong,” she continued.
Weingarten then suggested that congressional Republicans aren’t really interested in helping students recover from the pandemic.
“We are asking you to help us help students recover from the effects of the pandemic—learning loss, trauma and sadness. The unrelenting attacks on teachers over pandemic-era school closings must end as well,” she claimed.
Records obtained by the New York Post this week show that Weingarten was much more directly involved in drafting the CDC’s school reopening guidance than previously known. She spoke twice with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in the week leading up to the release of the guidance, including the day before the guidance was released, the records showed.
The CDC had been prepared to encourage schools to bring back students full-time regardless of transmission rates, but Weingarten reportedly insisted that a provision be added saying, “In the event of high community-transmission results from a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, a new update of these guidelines may be necessary.”
QUESTION: "When was the first time you engaged with CDC?"
Randi Weingarten: "Look, I'm 65 years old. I don't remember everything any more." pic.twitter.com/qsnOaFmN2z
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 26, 2023
