Atlanta, GA – Today, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is holding a hearing titled, “The Consequences of School Closures, Part 2: The President of the American Federation of Teachers, Ms. Randi Weingarten.” In response, TPPA Honorary Chairman Jenny Beth Martin issued the following statement:

“This is an accountability moment for Ms. Weingarten. At every step along the way of the Covid crisis, she ignored the science to keep kids out of classrooms. Even as every other industrialized country was returning to in-person learning, American children were suffering because of Randi Weingarten’s political agenda.

“That prolonged time out of the classroom has had profoundly negative effects for children. Thanks to the school closures that Weingarten orchestrated, U.S. children suffered the sharpest decline in reading scores in more than thirty years. Furthermore, for the first time since we began tracking nationwide math scores more than fifty years ago, American children fell behind in math. Families today are still grappling with the effects of this wrong-headed policy Weingarten initiated.

“When these closing were taking place, Tea Party Patriots Action mobilized parents at school board meetings to demand that schools reopen. Ms. Weingarten, Dr. Fauci, and others stood on the other side and they were wrong – disastrously wrong, and our children will be dealing with the effects of this pure folly for decades. The consequences of this ‘lost year’ for children are now undeniable, in terms of the harm it’s done to our children’s learning and socialization. This was completely avoidable and can never happen again. Ms. Weingarten should apologize at today’s hearing.”