Randi Weingarten, president of the American Union of Teachers, claimed that the Republicans is making issues like decreased enrollment, academic failures, and issues with mental health and substance misuse worse.
In response to growing Republican-backed legislative efforts to expand private school vouchers, ban books and discussions about race, sex, gender, and LGBTQ issues, and undermine public education, the head of one of the most politically influential unions in the nation has blasted the GOP’s efforts. She claims that these efforts are driving teachers away from an already waning profession.
In a “enough is enough” speech delivered in Washington on Tuesday, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten stated that “public schools are cornerstones of community, of our democracy, our economy, and our nation.” Yet other people are using sledgehammers to try to bring that cornerstone down.
She stated that attacks on public education were nothing new. “Today’s attacks are different since they aim to destroy it. to turn it into a political battleground.
Weingerten’s 45-minute speech traced a line from former president Donald Trump and former education secretary Betsy DeVos to the coronavirus pandemic to powerful private school choice advocacy groups to GOP governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Chris Ruffo, one of his most important advisers, who have essentially used culture war issues to advance their legislative agenda. One of the most crucial cornerstones of American democracy is being undermined by a “organised and destructive movement to weaken public schools,” according to the speaker.
According to Weingarten, “the Betsy DeVos side of the school privatisation movement is systematically pursuing its agenda.” “Starve public schools of the resources necessary for their success. Bring up their flaws in your criticism.
In order to achieve their ultimate goal of destroying public education as we know it, atomizing and balkanizing education in America, bullying the most vulnerable among us, and leaving the students with the greatest needs in public schools with the most limited resources, she continued: “Erode trust in public schools by stoking fear and division – including attempting to pit parents against teachers – replace them with private, religious, online, and home schools.”
The warning comes at a time when public schools in the United States are experiencing a turning point due to declining enrollment, academic setbacks, challenges with mental health and substance abuse, the expansion of private school choice programmes like vouchers, education savings accounts, and tax credit scholarships, and a contracting workforce plagued by low pay and low morale.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the overall number of students enrolled in public schools for grades prekindergarten through 12 decreased from 50.8 million in the fall of 2019 to 49.4 million in the fall of 2020. Previous to this time, there had been a rise in enrolment at all public schools between the autumn of 2009 and the fall of 2019. At the same time, there are countless numbers of students attending private schools and being educated at home more than Doubled.
