For millions of American children, the pandemic didn’t just interrupt a school year—it stole irreplaceable months of learning, friendship, and growth. As the nation continues to grapple with the fallout, new scrutiny has fallen on a figure long overshadowed in the public debate: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
While Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced intense criticism—and his recent diaries have reignited questions about his role—many parents and education advocates argue Weingarten bears equal, if not greater, responsibility for the prolonged closure of schools. According to a report from The Daily Wire, Weingarten repeatedly used Fauci’s public statements to justify union demands that kept classrooms empty well after evidence showed children were at lower risk and schools were not major spreaders.
From caution to control: The 2020 pivot
At the outset of the pandemic, some initial caution was understandable. But by the summer of 2020, data increasingly pointed to lower hospitalization and death rates among children, and early reopenings in some states suggested schools were not driving community transmission. Organizations like the Heritage Foundation released guidelines for safe in-person learning, and many experts argued that the harms of continued closure outweighed the risks.
Weingarten, however, doubled down. In July 2020, the AFT threatened lawsuits and safety strikes against reopening plans, declaring “nothing is off the table.” The union demanded community positivity rates below 5%, extensive testing and tracing, accommodations for high-risk staff, and the authority to re-close schools if conditions weren’t met.
That same month, Weingarten invited Fauci to address the AFT convention, where he warned educators that returning to classrooms would make them “part of the experiment.” For Weingarten, this was a powerful tool: the nation’s most trusted public health voice legitimizing her union’s ever-expanding demands.
Behind closed doors: Shaping policy from the inside
The AFT’s influence didn’t stop at public advocacy. By February 2021, as the CDC prepared to release new school reopening guidance, Weingarten and other AFT officials were in direct contact with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky via her private line. According to The Daily Wire, the union successfully pushed two changes that gave schools and districts more leeway to delay full reopenings—or shut down again. The CDC even thanked the union for being a “thought partner.”
Critics say this was a striking overreach: a labor union, not a public health agency, shaping federal policy in ways that prioritized teacher preferences over student needs. Even as evidence mounted that closures were devastating children’s academics and mental health, the AFT continued to dismiss these documented harms.
‘Children be damned’
The Daily Wire piece quotes Weingarten insisting she “spent every day from February on trying to get schools open,” and Fauci demanding, “Show me a school that I shut down.” But parents who lived through those years remember a different reality: months—sometimes more than a year—of remote learning, with many kids left behind.
It wasn’t until May 2021 that Weingarten called for full-time in-person learning for all students. By then, millions of children had lost critical time for learning and social development—gaps that many have yet to close.
A generation’s scar
The consequences are not abstract. The 2022 Nation’s Report Card recorded some of the largest drops in student achievement ever measured. As of 2025, national reading and math scores still lag pre-pandemic levels. And a 2025 survey found that more than one in five parents said their children’s mental health or social development had not recovered.
Alleigh Marré, executive director of American Parents Coalition and mother of four, argues that Weingarten’s “unscientific, entirely political power plays” must face accountability. She says the AFT’s influence over reopening decisions was “a reckless alliance” that weaponized Fauci’s rhetoric to keep schools closed, with “children be damned.”
Fauci’s diaries add fuel
Fauci’s recent diaries have added to the controversy. The Daily Wire notes that he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times before senators questioning his COVID-era decisions, and that his diaries suggest he privately boasted about his influence over school closures. But the report argues Weingarten deserves equal scrutiny—she used his words as cover for her union’s demands.
“Fauci may be the one invoking the Fifth now, but it was Weingarten who used his warnings as cover to hold school reopenings hostage to her union’s demands,” the article states.
Accountability and the path forward
As parents continue to fight for their children’s recovery, many are asking whether Weingarten and the AFT will ever be held responsible. Some call for Congressional hearings, others for public apologies. But for the families still watching their kids struggle to catch up, the wait itself is part of the damage.
The Daily Wire report concludes that Weingarten “needs to be held accountable for continuing to prioritize political agendas over children.” For millions of parents, that accountability can’t come soon enough.
This article is based on reporting from The Daily Wire.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-generational-toll-of-randi-weingartens-pandemic-politics