Harris' VP pick Walz a big win for teachers' unions that pushed schools to stay shuttered for over a year

Teachers’ unions rejoiced this week when Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, describing the left-wing ticket as a major win for public educators.

But critics are warning that Harris’ selection of Walz, a former teachers’ union member who is opposed to what he has described as the school choice "agenda," over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a school-choice advocate, should raise alarm bells for parents and children in the public education system. The teachers’ union pushed hard to prolong school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic — many districts remained shuttered for over a year.

"Anyone who makes Randi this excited is a 5-alarm fire for parents and students," former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Tuesday after teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten posted a video of herself gushing over the Walz pick.

"We're so excited," Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said of Walz. "We have known him for years as a social studies teacher, as a vet, as a union member, as a congressman, as a governor, he cares about working people. We've seen it."

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Vice President Kamala Harris is welcomed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz before she delivers remarks at a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

"A teacher and a unionist. Enough said," wrote the Chicago Teachers Union, which is currently being sued by parents for its handling of the pandemic.

National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle also praised Walz as an "exceptional choice."

The AFT was the first labor union to formally endorse Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination after President Biden was pushed out of the race by his own party. The United Federation of Teachers in New York City and the Washington Teachers’ Union also said they were "proud" to endorse Harris. 

After Biden’s withdrawal last month, Harris gave a speech at the AFT slamming Republicans as wanting to "ban books."

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The outpouring of support from teachers’ unions has prompted renewed scrutiny of their widespread influence on public school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the same unions endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket lobbied school districts as late as 2022 to keep kids and teachers out of the classroom.

When schools in red states like Florida began to reopen in the fall of 2020, Weingarten called those efforts "reckless, callous, cruel." The Chicago Teachers Union echoed the sentiment at the time, claiming the push was "rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny."

When President Biden entered the White House in January 2021, the AFT and NEA worked closely with then-White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and past analyses by Fox News Digital revealed the two unions played a significant role in shaping national guidelines.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is sworn in before testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on June 3. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Weingarten signaled the potential for future school lockdowns as late as January 2022, writing, "There are very real logistical decisions schools are making. We know kids do better in person, but the spike is real. We need adequate staff & the safety measures in place including testing, masking, ventilation. There is a lot of stress."

That same month, the AFT-affiliated Chicago Teachers Union led a five-day strike over COVID-19 measures that kept kids out of school even longer, prompting an ongoing class action lawsuit claiming students were robbed of $213.4 million worth of learning time.

Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, reacts in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 26. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)

The power of teachers’ unions in state and local politics is undeniable. The NEA has donated more than $21.7 million almost exclusively to Democratic candidates and liberal groups in the 2024 election cycle, and the AFT has donated more than $3.8 million to Democratic candidates and liberal groups this cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org.

A working paper first released in October 2020, which examined more than 10,000 school districts across the country and their COVID-19 reopening plans, found that partisan politics and teachers’ union strength in a particular area had more influence on schools reopening than local health guidances.  

Similarly, a study released in March 2021 by Corey A. DeAngelis and Christos Makridis examined 835 public school districts across the country and found that school districts in locations with stronger teachers’ unions were less likely to reopen in person, and that no evidence showed that COVID-19 risk correlated with those school reopening decisions. 

More recently, The New York Times conceded in a March report that "remote learning was a key driver of academic declines during the pandemic." 

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Fox News Digital asked AFT to detail its role in the public school closures and whether the lockdowns were a mistake.

"It’s only weirdos like Fox News who think this lol — mainstream outlets know that the AFT fought to safely reopen schools from April 2020 on," an AFT spokesperson responded.

The state perhaps most influenced by the power of teachers’ unions was California, which was the last in the country to reopen schools for in-person learning. Over the course of the pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to use his emergency powers to compel schools to reopen amid intense pressure from teachers’ unions. Even when restaurants and bars were permitted to reopen, many school districts in the state remained closed, especially those with powerful teachers’ unions like those in San Francisco and Los Angeles, which are both AFT affiliates.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom campaigns for President Biden at a Democratic Party event in South Haven, Michigan, on July 4. (Chris duMond/Shutterstock)

Republicans and parents’ groups angered over the lockdowns launched a recall effort against Newsom that failed in September 2021. The NEA-affiliated California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers' union, donated $1.8 million to stop the recall. 

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Data over the years has shown that school closures in the U.S. have had a devastating impact on children’s mental health, development and future earnings potential. 

A study released in June 2022 by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that 70% of U.S. public schools have reported an increase in students seeking mental health services since the start of the pandemic. A study released about the same time by the American Enterprise Institute also found that nearly 1.3 million students had left public schools since the pandemic began, and schools that stayed remote longer saw even more students leave. 

In December 2023, the Programme for International Student Assessment released a report that found test scores for 15-year-olds in the U.S. were down 13 points compared to 2018. 

The school closures could also cost this generation of students $21 trillion in earnings over their lifetimes, according to a June 2022 joint publication by the World Bank, UNICEF, FCDO, USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNESCO.

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Fox News Digital asked the Harris-Walz campaign for its official position on school choice, whether the candidates supported the closures and whether it could declare school lockdowns a thing of the past, but did not receive a response.

The NEA did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment for purposes of this story.