Teachers unions across the country have emerged as power players in President Joe Biden’s administration, wielding near-absolute authority over school reopenings and mask mandates. The pandemic exposed just how much control teachers unions have and how the best interests of students have played second fiddle to their own.
This year, the unions had the ear of Biden, courtesy of first lady Jill Biden, an educator and member of the National Education Association, the country’s largest teacher union, which boasts more than 3 million members. Through this connection and others, teachers unions were given seats at the table during discussions at the White House and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When they didn’t get what they wanted, they threw tantrums, staged sickouts, and padded their list of outrageous must-do ultimatums, holding the education of millions of schoolchildren hostage.
As their antics increased, the public’s patience began wearing thin.
TEACHER UNION LABOR DISPUTES WEIGHED IN BIDEN SCHOOL REOPENING GUIDANCE, EMAILS SHOW
The pandemic began with parents cheering teachers for pivoting and adapting quickly to remote learning, David Labaree, a professor emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, told Education Week. But soon the mood changed, and teachers (and their unions) who had once been hailed as heroes were viewed “not as the first responders, but more the people blocking the path to the classroom door,” Labaree said.
Unions have not only pushed back on reopenings — they also dismissed scientific data and bullied their way into getting what they wanted.
Dr. Vinay Prasad, an associate professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, tweeted this year that teachers unions “will be held responsible for their irrational demands and stonewalling, and I am not sure they will survive the public reckoning.”
And the teachers unions will be held responsible for their irrational demands and stonewalling, and I am not sure they will survive the public reckoning
I am confident in these predictions. Screenshot it.
— Vinay Prasad, MD MPH ?️? (@VPrasadMDMPH) January 18, 2021
United Teachers Los Angeles, for example, called for schools to remain closed until the district could ensure adequate supplies of protective gear for students and teachers. Fair enough. But the 35,000-member union also slipped in a clause that demanded a moratorium on new charter schools in Los Angeles, which had nothing to do with COVID-19 or school reopenings. In fact, it could have been argued that the pandemic revealed the need for additional schooling options that charter schools could provide.
Teachers unions in Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul teamed up with the Democratic Socialists of America to say traditional public schools could not continue without changes that included a national ban on evictions, an end to voucher programs, and the abolition of standardized testing.
For their part, the unions didn’t seem shy about leaning into the spotlight despite complaints that their unprecedented power grab got out of control.
The NEA’s proximity to power even turned into a cringeworthy attempt at humor during an East Room event in September.
“By the way, of course, I sleep with an NEA member every night,” Biden told a group of labor leaders who responded in applause.
NEA President Becky Pringle, who was elected in September 2020 to a three-year term, has often claimed that Biden has drawn from her union’s playbook to shape policy goals such as prioritizing teachers for vaccinations.
She was also instrumental in scoring record-level school funding in the COVID-19 relief packages. In 2020 and 2021, Congress passed three stimulus bills that provided nearly $279 billion as relief aid through the Education Stabilization Fund.
Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, admitted that the Biden administration asked her union for “language” the CDC could use in creating guidelines on school reopenings. The New York Post reported how the powerful teachers union influenced the administration’s decision on when and how to open schools and that the union’s language was included nearly verbatim in the final guidelines.
“Randi Weingarten exercises more real practical political power than any senator or cabinet secretary, and her power is exercised exclusively in the interest of public-sector workers and the Democratic Party, which they effectively control,” an opinion column in National Review read. “Perhaps it is time for Americans to take back some of that power.”
Financial disclosures have also exposed the political power of the country’s two largest teachers unions.
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Between 2020 and 2021, the NEA shelled out more than $8 million to liberal dark-money groups such as the State Innovation Exchange, Strategic Victory Fund, and State Engagement Fund, Fox News reported. The State Engagement Fund received more than $6.5 million and operates under Democracy Alliance, described by Politico as “the Left’s Secret Club.”
