(The opinions expressed in guest op-eds are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)
Just when it seemed things couldn’t get worse for Ukrainians, the besieged country this week endured an invasion from Randi Weingarten.
Apparently no longer satisfied with simply abusing her position as president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) by embroiling the union in a laundry list of issues that advance a radical political agenda and feed her insatiable appetite for attention but do nothing to represent its members, Weingarten has now added the title of foreign diplomat to her resume.
Under the guise of delivering supplies to makeshift Ukrainian schools, the AFT chief showed up for a photo op in the war-torn nation — during which she couldn’t resist the temptation to tweet out her malformed impressions to the waiting world.
Case in point:
No one doubts that war is hell. No one doubts that war brings great suffering, and Americans are a sympathetic and generous people.
It’s a noble thing to donate one’s financial resources, physical supplies, and time, to ease the burden of war for others.
But what is Randi Weingarten doing there?
Weingarten, of course, has about as much foreign service training and expertise as Hunter Biden, and she’s not serving in an official capacity. But given how many millions of her members’ dues dollars she diverted into Hunter’s father’s coffers during 2020 and the unprecedented influence it bought her and other union leaders, she might just as well be.
Weingarten will be reporting her “findings” to the U.S. State Department — in the unlikely event the current administration needs more bad advice on which to base its actions.
Following a series of tweets, the AFT put out a press statement in which Weingarten is quoted as saying:
“The war’s effect on kids and families has been brutal and the Ukrainian teachers’ persistence, compassion and bravery in helping students continue their learning in an active war zone should be lifted up and championed.”
Dr. Irwin Redlener, accompanying Weingarten on the trip, said:
“The children of Ukraine have become the latest ‘war generation,’ impacted by a brutal war they never asked for. Prolonged educational disruption and persistent psychological trauma may really impair the ability of many children to fulfill their potential. That’s bad news for Ukraine’s future.”
Millions of American parents agree, as their children suffered prolonged educational disruption and persistent psychological trauma by the very deliberate actions of one Randi Weingarten.
Weingarten posted this video on Twitter, in which she speaks despairingly of how children in Ukraine are forced to learn remotely and in bunkers. Evidently, Weingarten has forgotten this is her preferred education model because she spent most of 2020 and 2021 trying to keep American children out of school and learning from home while she and fellow labor leaders exploited COVID fears to extract concessions from schools that couldn’t have been won at the bargaining table under normal conditions.
As a direct result of her contempt for the students whose welfare she claims to care passionately about, U.S. students, on average, are five months behind in math and four months behind in reading. Students in the U.S. are falling behind every day and she chooses to lecture on the horrors of kids learning remotely in Ukraine.
AFT members should be embarrassed and upset by the reality that their union dues are funding this grandstanding trip. If they needed one more reason to join the thousands of teachers who’ve opted out of what has evolved from a labor organization to Randi Weingarten’s personal vehicle for spewing leftist garbage, this misadventure provides in spades.
Aaron Withe is CEO of the Freedom Foundation. www.FreedomFoundation.com