Does the headline sound harsh?

It is accurate on both counts. Randi Weingarten has been and remains an advocate for evil policies and is, indeed, a provable liar.

Consider her testimony before Congress.

Only Democrats are dumb enough to believe this.

A cursory glance at her own words from that time proves she's lying through her teeth.

Don't be useful idiots. Do your own research. https://t.co/ELgSHSEsbI

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 27, 2023

The simple fact is the people most responsible for keeping schools closed longer in the Fall/Winter 2020-Spring 2021 are all now refusing to admit their well documented role in keeping schools closed.

That is telling.

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 27, 2023

(Pradeep, by the way, is a great account to follow on Twitter. As am I.)

For those of you who live in a cave and just turned on your computers for the first time, Randi Weingarten is the head of the American Federation of Teachers. She helped spearhead the movement to close down schools and keep them closed for as long as humanly possible.

She, despite being neither a doctor nor a teacher helped the CDC develop draconian guidelines that kept schools closed for months, and in some cases more than a year. And there is a direct correlation between the level of influence unions have in a school district and the length of those school closures.

Congresswoman DEBBIE LESKO: "Do you have a direct number to [CDC] Director Walensky?"

Randi Weingarten: "Yes. I have Director Walensky's direct number." pic.twitter.com/sGsvX28FuN

— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) April 26, 2023

It was indisputable that she was one of the single biggest factors in having schools closed, keeping them closed, and the attacks on those who wanted schools reopened. She was one of the most powerful and loudest voices for keeping kids out of the classrooms. She literally could call the Director of the CDC at a moment’s notice and did. She helped write the school closure guidelines and made them much more draconian than almost any other country’s.

Teachers' union boss and major Democrat campaign donor Randi Weingarten admits her organization "suggested" edits to guidance from Biden's CDC on school re-openings — which were subsequently "accepted."pic.twitter.com/2ftn7zTBtY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023

There was no science involved in the decisions. It was Weingarten pressuring the CDC and the CDC buckling to the demands.

Weingarten was vicious to her critics throughout the pandemic, dismissive of parents who were desperate to get their kids back in school, and a leader of the political fight to use COVID as a political cudgel against Republicans.

In response to concerns that keeping kids out of school would permanently harm their learning and their mental health, she had a simple response that she and others repeated constantly: kids are resilient. Remember that? Kids will just bounce back!

They haven’t bounced back. Everybody now admits that school closures were an unmitigated disaster. Nobody’s life was saved, but millions of children have been permanently damaged. Anxiety, depression, suicide, drug abuse, learning loss…the list of horrible outcomes is endless.

Randi did that.

"Kids are resilient!" Weingarten bellows as she tosses them out of airplanes https://t.co/SRjNebIbQH

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 22, 2021

This response, of course, carries a bitter irony. The very same people who are constantly telling us that we need to get to kids early because their brains are developing also tell us that being out of school and locked up at home is no big deal. We need Early Childhood Education right now starting as young as possible, but also if kids don’t go to school at all they are “resilient.”

As late as 2022 Weingarten was still pushing to keep schools closed.

Back in 2021, President Biden put pressure on Weingarten to get teachers back in the classrooms, as the political negatives of school closures were becoming clear. Weingarten promised that she could deliver for him. But the reality was that the American Federation of Teachers unions were at the forefront of the movement to keep schools closed. It was AFT locals in the largest cities that led the fight against reopening schools, and it was AFT locals who threatened strikes in 2022 to close schools as Omicron surged.

Weingarten, when push came to shove, sided with school closures.

It's telling that pandemic-era leaders like Randi Weingarten and Tony Fauci disclaim responsibility for shuttered schools. Everyone agrees now that decision was a disaster.

But apparently, no one is responsible. A policy conceived and implemented without an author.

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) April 26, 2023

Now, though, she has joined the Fauci brigade: people whose memories get clouded and whose recollection is that they were on the side of the angels, desperately trying to keep the country open as others recklessly shut things down. They were desperate to help people but helpless to stop the insanity.

Weingarten literally said that as a 65-year-old she can’t remember as she used to.

QUESTION: "When was the first time you engaged with CDC?"

Randi Weingarten: "Look, I'm 65 years old. I don't remember everything any more." pic.twitter.com/qsnOaFmN2z

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 26, 2023

Well I, for one, remember. I worry that many people won’t, though because they are blinded both by ideology and by the desire to believe that liberals actually care for their well-being.

They don’t.

Al Shanker, a former president of the AFT was much more blunt about his role than Weingarten. His most famous quote, and the reason why he is remembered decades after he left the union, was crystal clear about his attitude:

“When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”