USA Today columnist blasts Randi Weingarten's 'What Kids and Communities Need’ campaign: 'Total gaslighting'

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A USA Today columnist blasted American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten for a new campaign she charged is mere "gaslighting," considering how Weingarten and her union conducted themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The "What Kids and Communities Need" campaign is described as "a new effort to invest in public schools and communities, and encourage Democrats and elected officials on the federal, state, and local levels to recapture the debate around education by getting back to the basics and focusing on what matters most for student success." Weingarten launched the effort at AFT’s biennial convention, where she was reelected to an eighth term as president.

USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques questioned the union's motives in a new piece entitled, "Teachers unions want parents to forget what happened during COVID. Don’t let them."

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"It’s total gaslighting," Jacques wrote of the campaign. "What kids and communities need is simple: They need reliable schools where teachers show up and do their job. Yet, that’s not [what has] happened in far too many cases in the past two years." 

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, along with members of Congress, parents and caregiving advocates hold a press conference supporting Build Back Better investments in home care, childcare, paid leave and expanded CTC payments in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on October 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MomsRising Together) (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MomsRising Together)

Jacques wrote that teachers unions played major roles in extended pandemic-related school closures and the negative consequences that came with them. Two years of inconsistent schooling, studies have shown, resulted in academic slowdowns and mental health crises, among other issues currently plaguing young students. Jacques noted teachers union often prevented a return to classrooms, writing how Weingarten instructed union members in April 2020 to "scream bloody murder" if they felt schools were lacking the proper safety precautions.

"If schools are reopened without proper safety measures, "you scream bloody murder," Weingarten said at the time. "And you do everything you can to... use your public megaphones."

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Now, highlighting a recent conversation the AFT president had with the USA Today editorial board in which she appeared to absolve unions of blame, Jacques said Weingarten is "trying to rewrite history."

"What I regret is COVID," Weingarten told USA TODAY. "What I regret is the fear. What I regret is the misinformation. Would I have liked us to have a crystal ball, and know then what we know now, so we could have been more firm about saying, if you do X and Y and Z, we can reopen schools in person? Yeah. Because I think that being in person is most important."

A general view of the message board in front of Millburn High School during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which reads, "Schools Closed but We Never Cancel Hope" on May 9, 2020, in Millburn, NJ. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"Never mind those facts. Weingarten is now trying to rewrite history to absolve the union of responsibility for what it did to children and families during the pandemic," Jacques said. "School closures hurt kids."

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Parents have been speaking out at school board meetings across the country in the wake of continued COVID-19 mandates and revelations about progressive curricula, and Republican lawmakers have been introducing measures to combat many of the same issues. At AFT's biennial conference, Weingarten accused conservatives of trying to "undermine" educators. 

"Randi Weingarten has been one of the most toxic voices fighting against kids, fighting against school choice everywhere she can," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas told Fox News Digital at the Club for Growth School Freedom Forum earlier this month.

Members listen before Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Democrats from the Texas state legislature at the American Federation of Teachers, Tuesday, July 13, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

"Part of the ‘What Kids and Communities Need’ tour is fighting against what Weingarten calls the efforts of ‘partisan political extremists’ to sow distrust of public schools," Jacques wrote. "If Weingarten really wants to address that distrust, she should first look inward."

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The AFT and National Education Association were covered in controversy last year when they were found to have corresponded with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ahead of their release of new school reopening guidance. The emails showed the unions offering suggestions to the CDC on guidance for the re-opening of in-person classrooms. The CDC appeared to use the unions' suggestions word-for-word in more than one instance in the final text of the CDC document.