Teachers Union President To Testify On School Closures At COVID-19 House Hearing
Reagan Reese on April 11, 2023
The president of the nation’s second largest teachers union will testify at a U.S. House Select Subcommittee’s hearing on school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Hill.
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten agreed Monday to go before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on April 26 to testify at its hearing titled “The Consequences of School Closures, Part 2: The President of the American Federation of Teachers Ms. Randi Weingarten,” according to the Hill. The hearing will focus on the effects of school shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic and how Weingarten and the teachers union contributed to closing schools.
In 2021, Weingarten, the AFT and the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers union, worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to draft reopening guidance for schools. After the CDC announced that students could return to school and that in-person instruction was safe, the AFT called the reopening “reckless and unsafe” for educators and children.
The hearing aims to “delve into the role Ms. Weingarten and the AFT played in editing the CDC’s school reopening guidance and keeping schools closed longer than necessary,” a subcommittee press release stated.
In December 2022, Weingarten did not testify at a previous subcommittee hearing titled “preparing for and preventing the next public health emergency: lessons learned from the Coronavirus crisis.” The hearing aimed to discuss the AFT and Weingarten’s role in drafting government guidance on school closures.
“It’s rare to receive an invitation to testify before Congress … but I look forward to a real discussion — with congressional leadership and appropriate notice — on the challenges educators, students and families faced during COVID and their efforts to help kids recover and thrive,” Weingarten previously said.
AFT and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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