Teacher Union President Randi Weingarten: School Choice ‘is About Undermining Democracy’
“They have not one thing that they offer as a solution other than privatizing or voucherizing schools which is about undermining democracy and undermining civil discourse and undermining pluralism because 90% of our kids go to public schools still”
Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, is not a fan of school choice and it’s easy to see why. School choice is a direct threat to the power of teacher unions.
She recently went so far as to say that school choice undermines democracy, which is laughable.
FOX News reports:
Teacher union boss Randi Weingarten claims school choice ‘undermines democracy’
The leader of one of the nation’s largest teachers unions was seen in a viral video saying that school choice “undermines democracy.”
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten made the remarks at the “Network for Public Education Action” national conference in October.
A clip of her remarks blasting methods of school choice was shared on X and went viral on social media this week.
In the video, Weingarten took aim at former White House Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, and American Federation For Children Senior Fellow Corey DeAngelis for advocating for school choice measures.
“They have not one thing that they offer as a solution other than privatizing or voucherizing schools which is about undermining democracy and undermining civil discourse and undermining pluralism because 90% of our kids go to public schools still,” she said. “They just divide. Divide. Divide. Divide.”
School choice policies allow parents to send their kids to schools outside their neighborhood or opt out of going to the public school in their neighborhood. Most states restrict parents to schools within their zip code or the school district that presides over their residential area.
Watch below:
🚨Randi Weingarten says people who want to let families choose where they send their children to school are attacking our democracy:
“[School choice advocates] have not one thing that they offer as a solution other than privatizing or voucherizing schools, which is about… pic.twitter.com/EP4mQ1Kpq0
— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) December 18, 2023
Weingarten is getting mocked for this on Twitter/X:
she's losing and she knows it. pic.twitter.com/2Jq13OpqBD
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) December 20, 2023
Imagine being this dumb. pic.twitter.com/wsCslcxSz3
— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) December 20, 2023
Everything the left supports is pro-democracy. Everything they’re against is a threat to democracy.
No one is buying Weingarten’s argument. From NBC News in Texas:
Proponents of school choice measures have rebuked Weingarten’s remarks, arguing offering more education options to families accomplishes the opposite of what the union leader claims.
“This country was founded on the principle of individual rights. There is nothing democratic about forcing kids to remain in failing schools,” Angela Morabito, a spokesperson for the Defense of Freedom Institute (DFI) and former press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC). “The right choice for our country’s future is to allow families to access the schools where their children learn best.”
“Randi’s utopia is to have every kid in America stuck in a classroom that prioritizes failing standards, identity politics, and frivolous days of the year over academic achievement,” Michele Exner, a senior advisor at Parents Defending Education (PDE) told CITC. “She was the champion of school closures and is one of the main reasons students are suffering from historic learning loss.”
Recent polling suggests support for school choice is on the rise.
Funding should follow the student, not the school.
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Comments
School choice (i.e. free choice by parents) undermines democracy? In this context democracy can’t only be defined as “what leftists want.” Public discussion is impossible with leftist liars.
“. .. . because 90% of our kids go to public schools still,” [Weingarten] said. “They just divide. Divide. Divide. Divide.”
Randy, it’d be great if 100% of that 90% actually knew how to “Divide. Divide. Divide.” Or add or subtract or multiply. Or know where the Mississippi River is or know when the War of Northern Aggression occurred.
Another serious case of Progressive Projection.
Indeed. It is the leftist agenda writ small: their offerings are so horrible, they have to force kids to “study” in their obviously poor choices.
Much like socialism/the leftist agenda. They can’t argue the positive points to attract people to their cause (cult?), so they have to force them, through law, censorship, mob pressure and media manipulation/misinformation.
If it were as good as they claim, they wouldn’t have to force people to attend. They would want to come, or feel comfortable about going. I have just left the secondary school system, and I can tell you from experience, that the students rule the roost. One complaint, and the admins can the teacher. And the students know this, so they just oppose/resist the teachers as they please, using their phones constantly, being offensive, taking long bathroom breaks, fighting, etc. They may be ignorant and lazy, but they sure aren’t stupid. So the students have power over the teachers, now with pathetic pronoun requirements, and the admins have power over the teacher. It is a rare parent that cares, so the teacher is the scapegoat for all of the ills of education.
Punk unions like Weingarten’s don’t do diddly for the teachers, acting instead as a funding mechanism for the Democrats. The they elect them, and the Dems, knowing the unions are in their pocket, give nothing but lip service to their demands until the next election. The state education depts just pass on what are effectively unfunded mandates for behavior and “professional development.” You haven’t lived (DIEd, actually), until you’ve had a PD about systemic racism in teaching and how to “cure” it. Yet many teachers swallow it whole.
The Covid shutdown and remote “learning” was the biggest self inflicted wound the schools ever had. Parents actually saw what was passing as “teaching.”
How does 90% doing the same thing promote “pluralism?”
What an idiot. Not surprising given the state of education she is trying to support.
I don’t give her credit for being an idiot. She knows exactly what she is doing and why.
To a hard leftist America is by it’s nature as an individualist capitalist country the Enemy.
She is out to destroy individualism and capitalism, and doing a pretty good job of it.
I get the distinct feeling that in Randi Weingarten’s perfect world there would be NO democracy.
Public sector teacher unions are the single biggest don0r to dem governors in deep blue states with dem one party super majority, such as CA.
In her world it would be a “People’s Republic”.
Which brings up the old saw about how every “People’s Republic” is neither.
A boot, crushing a human face…forever!
-Orwell, 1984
Randi weingarten is a socialist groomer.
“They use the words, but they don’t know what they mean.”
– Chris Plante
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. — Inigo Montoya
You know, that has gotten progressively unfunny as it keeps getting applied to these folks. 🙁
Too true. 🙁
“Progressively unfunny” sounds like a pun. Or redundant.
“When I use a word, it means what I say it means. The question is who is to be master.” — The Dodo, Lewis Carroll
Freedom is not won or kept with words.
And definitely when the left redefines normally understood words.
I love those eyes, those lips, that fabulous smile
She laughs and spring goes right out of style
And never will these eyes behold a sight that could replace
That face, oh, that face, oh, that face
All of that might be true if your objective is to stop a clock,
https://www.phrases.com/phrase/stop-an-eight-day-clock-and-throw-it-into-reverse_16868
Or turn people into stone.
What a disgusting, self-serving cu*t.
Someone gave you a downvote because you called her name, I assume. When an argument is so illogical and so absurd, the only thing you can do is insult the person making the argument. Ad hominem in and of itself is not a bad logical device so long as the argument demands that it be used. Bravo to you, sir, for the proper use of ad hominem.
Don’t sugarcoat it!
Does this reprobate have any influence on anybody anywhere?
******
Homeschool your children.
AFT has an annual budget of around $200 million. That will curry a lot of favor with ‘The Big Guy’ and other political grifters.
P. Galvin, Strike a Victory for Freedom,
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/04/paul-galvin/strike-a-victory-for-federalism-eliminate-the-public-schools/
P. Galvin, Achieve Educational Freedom, Excellence and Harmony: Eliminate the Public Schools,
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/04/paul-galvin/achieve-educational-freedom-excellence-and-harmony-eliminate-the-public-schools/
90% and dropping like a rock, because public schools have gone from being ineffective to outright detrimental.
good point. When we started homeschooling 20 years or so ago, the homeschool kids were a bit less than 2%, and the private were a bit more than that, so about 4% of kids were NOT in the public schools. You are right – public schools are dropping numbers, especially if you take out all the charter public school kids.
Most of the time when I was with my kids I was teaching, jokes, teasing, cuddling I was teaching something. I tend to judge people and groups over how well the do with children, even tweens and teens. If we are going to have children, then they should be a top priority for 20 or more years.
Most whites, Asians and Jews place a high value on education and their children.
Compare that to blacks, Pales, often natives across the world, and their outcomes. No, I do not care rather or not they like my opinion.
All of society pays a price for those who abuse their children, rather it is neglect or over abuse.
overt abuse
You see what you get when you let these sorry ass Leftists continue to get away with their lying and redefining of terms to suit their nefarious ends?
Boiled down, this evil woman is saying if you get to make choices, you are a threat to their definition of democracy. Conservatives and libertarians need to stop putting up with Leftists’ BS.
Speaking of Undermining, Randi Weingarten is about undermining:
truth
common sense
parents and children
everything with a hint of conservative
and the good ole USA
So you are saying she’s a Democrat? 😉
Yeah, nothing says democracy like denying freedom to choose, whether a school or a president. Seems to be a consistent theme with the repulsive Democrat party. With everything but abortion, although, notwithstanding their nonsense slogans, democrats in a sense also want abortion immune from change, either by state constitutional amendments or judicial fiat.
Their fight for abortion is not a fight for choice, despite their slogans. To the Evil Progressive Democrats, the right to abortion means that your only choice is an abortion.
Another grave I hope to visit someday…with a full bladder. Loathsome human being.
Better to defecate.
The only democracy the US has is the democracy of common possessions. Notice how this is the only time race in these poor-performing schools is not mentioned.
The head of the AFT invoking pluralism as an argument against true school choice where the public funding follows the Student is beyond hypocrisy.
This is the person who shuttered the schools during ‘Rona. The same person who believes Parents confronting woke school boards are criminals. The same person who at every turn refuses to hold teachers accountable for their failures. She’s a grifter and a hack.
I’d spell that “”Ronna” in honor of Ronna McDaniels.
Exactly, what is this “Democracy” she speaks of ?
I remember from grade school that ‘democracy’ is about voting.
What is more democratic than to vote with your feet ?
“Democracy” in school nowadays is letting the students run the asylum.
If there is such a thing as systemic racism, its best example is the teachers unions preventing economically disadvantaged black children from attending better schools.
With many black children, the home environment pretty much dooms helping their children. I come from a family of teachers.
This is also true of many white children, whose parents prioritize their own enjoyment above their children’s welfare and leave them to the indoctrination of the government schools.
I agree, but the per capita rate with white children is far lower, and Asians, Jews seem to perform better than whites.
One bear’s opinion: she is one of the most dangerous people in the nation.
I would say that the way public schools are going that she is doomed to failure.
Given her goals, I would say she is succeeding very nicely. The schools are a wreck, and the local chapters tell a lot of boards how things will be done.
I don’t agree. She’s just the union head. The decisions about how children are miseducated are made by the local school boards, which are controlled by the local union chapters. Her role is analogous, not to the Biden administration but to the head of the DNC, who is… <looks it up> …Jaime Harrison, whom I’ve never heard of. Her role is to lead cheers and to raise funds, to lobby Congress and to hold press conferences, and generally make it possible for the people who do the actual damage to have free rein.
“undermining democracy and undermining civil discourse and undermining pluralism because 90% of our kids go to public schools still”
“And we’d have gotten it even lower, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling c*ts.”
I use the word “scrunt.” The Urban Dictionary gives a satisfactory definition, having the right combination of consonants, and it slides by the censoring filter.
It’s amazing that such a fundamentally stupid person has risen so high in the education world.
it seems to happen in quite often in so many other aspects of life as well.
These kids would have an excellent chance of having their needs met if they paid union dues.
No, they would still shortchange the children.
“They have not one thing that they offer as a solution other than privatizing or voucherizing schools which is about undermining democracy and undermining civil discourse and undermining pluralism because 90% of our kids go to public schools still,” she said. “They just divide. Divide. Divide. Divide.”
Perhaps she’s onto the solution: CLOSE ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS
An argument can be made for public schools, as an education can help one to provide for oneself and to, in turn, contribute to our society. However, the children are no longer truly being educated. Many would say the children are instead being indoctrinated with a Leftist agenda. Whether or not this is an accurate assessment, there is no doubt that the children are being provided with few usable skills that might serve them well in adulthood.
All education begins with indoctrination. Since their very beginning, the government schools have been indoctrinating children. The question is exactly what the government schools are indoctrinating YOUR children into.
Eating can help one keep on breathing, which is necessary for the above to happen, and yet that is not an argument for public commissaries. Instead we have private supermarkets, and those who need help are given subsidies by the taxpayer so they can shop there. The same goes for shoe stores; shoes are a necessity, but we don’t use that as an argument for setting up public shoe dispensaries. We make people shop for shoes at private stores, and we help those who need it. I can’t see an argument for why education should not be the same. Make everyone shop for their children’s education at private schools, and give vouchers to those who need help affording it.
Assuming that homeschooling parents are teaching both academics and practical skills like repairing stuff, building, canning and a broad spectrum of other self sufficiency skills, then their children will generally fair better in life.
After listening to Biden and his Dem minions, it is now clear that democracy means the government decides. As in their latest attack on free speech where they claim that some speech is not free and must be censored by the government. They are trying to mandate EVs as the only cars available. They have declared that men with long hair can be called women and compete against women in sports. They have declared that we all get vaccinated or else. All of these are examples of the left’s democracy in action. If school choice means the end of democracy then I say It’s about time!
What do we expect in Bizzaro World, where preventing people from voting for a candidate protects democracy? We can’t expect anything otherwise.
I haven’t read the article yet, so this is just my immediate reaction to the headline:
She’s right. School choice is about undermining democracy in education. Democracy in education means the voters in your district get to decide how your child is educated, at the expense of the taxpayers in your district (who are generally not the same people). School choice is about keeping your child’s education, at least to some extent, at the taxpayers’ expense, but not allowing the voters (who, again, are generally not the same as the taxpayers) to democratically decide how that education shall be conducted and what your child shall be taught. Removing democracy from the process is the whole point, because it’s your child, not the voters’. Let them miseducate their own damn children.
Weingarten’s part in this is because most people who are eligible to vote don’t, which in practice means the actual voting pool consists of teachers union members, and others who vote as the teachers’ union asks them to. Only a few people vote against the union’s recommendations, so the union effectively decides what the democratic education shall be. Allowing parents to escape the union’s effective monopoly undermines its power. In most places that have school choice, every parent who exercises it takes money away from the school board, and thus the union. And every parent who does that makes it easier for the next parent to do the same. Therefore the union is against it.
??? So the percentage of the population that teaches in public schools, or works in public school system is SO HUGE, that it changes the complexion of the vote from Red to Blue?
Where did you say YOU learned to count and figure out percentages?
(( Public School system by any chance ?? ))
No, you clearly didn’t read what I wrote. It’s not that the union’s percentage of the population is so huge, it’s that the number of voters is so tiny. It is very well known, to the point that I’m astonished you don’t know it, that school board elections are controlled by the teachers’ unions, and what they want almost always passes. Most people who vote are either union members or union supporters, and they vote as the union asks them to. People not under the union’s influence generally don’t vote.
“undermining democracy” – If D voters weren’t the stupidest creatures that ever existed, D leaders wouldn’t make such absurd comments.
“…pluralism because 90% of our kids go to public schools still”
Um, so at 90% wouldn’t more kids in different kinds of schools be more pluralism not less?
Her math seems weak. Didn’t know the teachers’ union head was a product of the public school system.
When a leftist says that something is a threat to “our democracy”, what they actually mean is “our kleptocracy”.
Insane. Rabid dog level insanity.
as she sends her own kids to private schools…. smh.
I have always been against “school choice”! Well, except for the CHOICE of having DECENT, SAFE, SANE Education Facilities for ALL Children! We need to take back OUR SCHOOLS from the lunatics! Return to teaching and not indoctrinating and sexualizing! Remove all INSANE people from Teaching/Adm/Unions! Make it a CRIME to stand in front of children and discuss your sexuality/weekend orgies! We already pay for Our Schools – clean them out of the misfits and allow children to LEARN to exist together without fear of attacks. Teach RESPECT for others and their property! END the TEACHERS UNIONS!! Ok, I”m done – just don’t get me started!
School Choice ‘is About Undermining Democracy’….If by ‘democracy’ you mean communism.
School choice is fundamental to recognizing that a child’s education is first the responsibility of the parents. You cannot expect your child to reflect your values if the child is subject to the opposite every day. Public education gives the government through the teachers unions a path to indoctrinating a child in whatever path the government deems necessary. Failing schools are the result of parents who don’t care or simply keep silent. A parent is responsible for their child’s education and no one else.