Lightfoot Slams Weingarten’s Union for Not Reopening Schools

Outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot slammed American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Monday for not working with the city to help get schools reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Obviously, every union should advocate for its members, but it’s got to be in the context of an organization,” Lightfoot told “CNN This Morning.”

“Schools are about children,” she said. “We demonstrated over and over again that our schools were safe. We put $100 million into retrofitting classrooms, making sure that they had the PPE [personal protective equipment], making sure that every single classroom had filters to make sure that the air was safe. Deep cleaning of every single building. But fundamentally, we know that where children learn the best and where they are safest is in the classroom and in-person learning, and none of our parents signed up to be homeschoolers. And the learning loss is real.”

“The union needed to work with us and they never did that,” the Democrat mayor added.

Weingarten set off a firestorm of controversy for saying she worked to reopen schools, despite her union claiming schools in Chicago were “unsafe” to reopen. One of the most powerful teachers’ union bosses in the country, Weingarten testified last week before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that the union “spent every day, from February [2021] on, trying to get schools open” and learning remotely was harmful to children.

Lightfoot said Weingarten might have believed what she said at the time, but her words did not translate into actions.

“That’s not the reality that was happening on the ground in cities like Chicago, like Los Angeles and other places,” Lightfoot said. “We needed to get our kids back in school, and I’m unapologetic about the fight to make sure that we put our kids and our parents first.”

Weingarten also testified during the hearing that President Joe Biden’s transition team contacted her union to coordinate about school reopenings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly worked with the union on reopening schools as well; Weingarten disputes this collaboration.

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., said Weingarten refused to take any responsibility for pressuring political leaders to keep teachers physically out of the classroom.

“I was begging with her to just admit that she made some mistakes,” McCormick said. “She said she made mistakes, but she didn’t specifically get into what she did wrong.

“But when we talk about essential personnel, your doctors have to show up,” the congressman continued. “They actually have to touch the patients who are symptomatic. You had all kinds of people showing up to work who are considered essential. But for some reason, she didn’t think that the teachers were essential enough to show up and actually teach.”