Randi Weingarten: Kids have ‘greater needs’ due to ‘pandemic stress and strain’ and ‘two years of disruption

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Douglas Murray slams Randi Weingarten: It's amazing that she blames everybody but herself

Author Douglas Murray on American Federation of Teachers claiming the teacher shortage is due to politics and the coronavirus pandemic.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said on Tuesday that kids have "greater needs" due to "pandemic stress and strain" and "two years of disruption."

The president of the AFT joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the factors driving the teacher shortage, the upcoming school year, and teacher wages.

In the video interview, Weingarten stressed that there are fewer people going into the teacher profession.

"You have a hot labor market where teachers can get 20% more for the skills and knowledge they have teaching in non-teaching jobs. You have all of the pandemic stress and strain, particularly that kids are coming in with greater needs because of two years of disruption," Weingarten said. 

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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers during a town hall with 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and members of the American Federation of Federation of Teachers, in Philadelphia, PA, on May 13, 2019.  (Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

School districts across the country have reported a teacher shortage ahead of the upcoming school year. 

For example, Fairfax County Public Schools have reported that upward of 450 classrooms will be without teachers. 

"And not only have the conditions not really changed, but school districts and the federal government and others just pretend as if there was no pandemic," Weingarten said. 

Her comments came after data showing school closures in the U.S. having a devastating impact on children’s mental health, development and future earnings potential. 

Corey A. DeAngelis, national director of research at the American Federation for Children and executive director at Educational Freedom Institute, argues "parents are never going to forget the harm Weingarten and her union allies did to their children."

"This is top-tier gaslighting from Randi Weingarten. Her power-hungry teachers union fought against reopening schools every step of the way. Her own union even lobbied the CDC to keep schools closed, which hurt kids academically, mentally, and physically. She caused the disruption of which she speaks," he continued. 

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According to data released last month by the National Center for Education Statistics, 70% of U.S. public schools have reported an increase in students seeking mental health services since the start of the pandemic. A study published by the conservative think tank Just Facts reported that the mental stressors brought about by school closures will destroy seven times more years of life than lockdowns saved. 

A study by the American Enterprise Institute also found that nearly 1.3 million students have left public schools since the pandemic began, and schools that stayed remote longer saw even more students leave. The World Bank reported last month that the school closures will cost this generation of students $21 trillion in earnings over their lifetimes, which is far more than the $17 trillion estimated in 2021.

School choice has become a hot-button issue after the COVID-19 lockdowns gave parents a deeper look into public school curricula. 

A teachers union leader reportedly discouraged the potential opening of a private school in the Durango school district, saying they would get less funding.  (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool, File)

Many private schools stayed open while public school systems across the country closed in-person learning for entire semesters, even years, and remote learning lifted the veil on what public school kids are actually learning – and not learning.

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Private schools across the country reported seeing a significant uptick in enrollment over the past two years, while public school enrollment declined on a national scale. Between fall 2019 and fall 2020, total public school enrollment dropped 3% nationwide, erasing a decade of steady growth, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Meanwhile, total enrollment in independent private schools saw a net growth of 1.7% between 2020 and 2022, NPR reported in December.

Fox News' Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.