U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced Wednesday that American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is among 20 new members appointed to his Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council (HSAPC), which seeks to advise the DHS secretary on “campus safety and security, improved coordination, research priorities, hiring, and more.”
“The newly appointed members are a diverse group representing higher education associations, campus law enforcement, two- and four-year colleges and universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges, and Asian American and Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions,” DHS said in a press statement about the new appointments.
“Leaders of our academic institutions and campus life have a great deal to offer in helping us counter the evolving and emerging threats to the homeland,” said Mayorkas, elaborating on how the newly appointed members will help “safeguard the American people”:
The Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council’s insights into strategic research, innovation, career development, and partnership opportunities for the Department will support our mission to safeguard the American people, and help our country think through and prepare for whatever threats lie ahead. I am grateful to each of the twenty Council members I am appointing today for their willingness to serve, and I look forward to receiving their guidance and recommendations.
DHS states the secretary will provide “taskings” to the council which, in turn, will offer its “advice and recommendations” about “safety and security, including prevention, response, mitigation, recovery, and other emergency management and preparedness measures.”
The council members will also assist the secretary with “improving coordination and sharing of actionable threat and security-related information, including threats of violence as well as targeted violence and terrorism prevention.”
Weingarten’s appointment appears to come under DHS’ stated desire to include an “Education Employee Association or Education Employee Labor Organization” as a means to “leverage the broadest range of professional experience as well as diverse, inclusive membership.”
“It is both ironic and disappointing that, on the same day we learn about continued declines in students’ math and reading scores from the National Center for Education Statistics, the Biden Administration announced the appointment of teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten to a Department of Homeland Security school safety advisory committee,” Maxford Nelsen, director of labor policy at the Freedom Foundation, said, reacting Thursday to the union boss’ appointment.
“Randi Weingarten is a union lawyer, first and foremost,” he continued. “She only taught public school for less than five years, she caused untold damage with her advocacy for prolonged school closures, and she continually chooses her Left-wing political agenda over the well-being of American students.”
“Quite frankly, she doesn’t belong anywhere near a school and has no business advising the DHS about how to keep schools safe,” Nelsen said.
According to results of test scores released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), math and reading achievement for 13-year-olds in the United States is at its lowest level in decades.
Earlier today, Commissioner Peggy Carr spoke with NPR Morning Edition about the newest math and reading results for the nation’s 13-year-olds. Listen here: https://t.co/KPyH1eoiDv #NAEP @EdNCES pic.twitter.com/fwrNCG3wsn
— NAEP, The Nation's Report Card (@NAEP_NCES) June 22, 2023
Nelson added:
Reading and math scores in the 2022-23 school year plummeted across the board for 13-year-old students, erasing years of progress. What happened? Teachers’ unions like Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to close schools and extort government officials and parents into giving in to union political demands as a precondition to teachers returning to the classroom. With Weingarten at the helm, AFT pressured federal officials at the Biden Administration’s CDC to make reopening schools more difficult and closing them again easier. Locally, unions used their political influence and manipulated the collective bargaining process to ensure union-dominated schools were the last to reopen. Their actions were catastrophic for children’s academic performance, physical health, and mental and emotional development.
During the COVID pandemic, the Biden administration was found to have “colluded” with the teachers’ unions to keep schools closed.
.@RWeingarten’s unchecked access to the CDC had a direct, negative impact on children and their education.
Today, in front of the House COVID Committee, she must be held accountable:https://t.co/HscjKK1blK
— Americans for Public Trust (@apublictrust) April 26, 2023
In April, the AFT and Weingarten had more significant input into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pandemic school reopening guidelines than was known in 2021, according to documents obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT).
The independent watchdog organization discovered in emails and records shared with the New York Post that Weingarten “spoke twice by phone with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in the week leading up to the Feb. 12, 2021, announcement that halted full re-opening of in-person classes — including the day before the guidance was released,” the Post said.
“Randi Weingarten colluded with the Biden administration to put politics over science, threatening the wellbeing of children,” APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told the Post. “Her multiple calls, emails, and non-scientific recommendations to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and her team illustrate the level of dark money influence that was allowed to shape school reopening policies.”
“We’re still suffering the effects of Weingarten choosing to play politics with kids’ education,” said Nelsen. “Three years later, schoolchildren are still suffering the consequences of her terrible policies, but unfortunately President Biden’s quest to be the most pro-union president in history apparently means placing union executives like Weingarten in positions of power where they can do even more damage.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Randi Weingarten” by Marc Nozell. CC BY 2.0.
