Corey DeAngelis joins to discuss Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, resigning from the Democratic National Committee.

Washington

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has resigned from her position on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after 23 years. The discussion highlights the longstanding relationship between teachers unions and the Democratic Party, noting that the AFT has consistently directed the majority of its political contributions to Democratic candidates.

The segment also addresses criticism of teachers unions for their political activism and the impact on education policy. Corey DeAngelis, a school choice advocate, argues that union leadership is more focused on political issues than classroom outcomes, and suggests that increased competition through school choice could better align educational priorities with student needs.

Teachers union president quits DNC

Joining me now to discuss is Senior Fellow at the American Culture Project and School Choice Activist, Corey DeAngelis. Corey, thank you so much for joining me. Why was Weingarten connected to the DNC in the first place? I mean, yeah, we all heard about her departure, but nobody really mentioned that before. She was at the DNC for 23 years. And although it was surprising to hear that, it wasn't so surprising because the teachers union is basically an extension of the Democrat Party. It has been for a long time. If you look at the Open Secrets website, you can see that Randy Weingarten's union, the AFT, gave about all of their political contributions to Democrats every single election cycle. In 2024, it was 99.89% of that funding went to Democrats. It's a money laundering operation. It ought to be illegal. We should abolish these public sector unions, these teachers unions. They've become more of a political activist arm than an organization that's concerned about educating kids. No wonder our test scores are in the gutter. No wonder we're throwing more money at the problem and things aren't getting any better. Randy Weingarten makes over half a million dollars a year. And for what? She fought to keep the schools closed. She held children's education hostage. Now we know she's at the DNC. Her and Becky Pringle was also at the Democratic National Committee. She's the head of the largest teachers union, the National Education Association. For her showing up at these No Kings protests, it should be a national embarrassment for teachers who are on the ground just trying to do the right thing. Randy Weingarten shouldn't just leave the DNC. She should step down from her post as the head of the teachers unions. It's time to get back to the basics and stop this political activism. They're focused more on the LGBTs than the ABCs. And that's why our kids are not learning how to read, write, or do math, because they want to push politics into the classroom. And from what we've seen with Randy Weingarten over this past weekend, they want to spread their far-left agenda all across the country. Yeah, no, I wrote about that in the Washington Times, how teachers unions are fueling anti-ICE anarchy. You spoke about Becky Pringle, the president of the largest teachers union. She was out in L.A. joining the protests there that later turned into riots and anarchy at night. And Randy Weingarten had a huge role in organizing the No Kings protests nationwide. Did she not? Exactly. They have Trump derangement syndrome. And as you wrote in the Washington Times, it affected their bottom line. They want more illegal immigration, because if you have more kids in the schools, whether they're legal or illegal, then they're going to get more funding. Public schools are funded based on the number of students attending them. And guess what? Here's the kicker. It's even worse than that. The public schools get more money per student if they are non-English language speaking students. So they get, they've hired more people. That means more dues-paying members for the teachers unions. And they just, based on the funding formulas, get more than the average for these non-English speaking students. So the teachers unions are political animals, but they're also thinking about themselves. They want to pad their pockets, because at the end of the day, the more money that they get in dues and revenues, they send that money back to the Democrat campaign coffers. It's a wash, rinse, repeat. I mean, it's an incestuous relationship between the Democrats and the unions. And that is more obvious now than ever. They also don't represent all of the teachers, right? My sister is a teacher working in upstate New York. She's not a Democrat. She does not support these protests, but her dues is going to promote them. My co-host, his wife is a teacher. She doesn't want to get into the political arena, I'm sure. She just wants what's best for the students that they teach. And they're inspired by their kids. So this isn't indicative of the actual teachers in the classroom, but the upper echelons of their union. Is there any way to kind of abolish this union or start from fresh to detangle the politics from the educating? The best way to do so is to create competition so that the teachers union bosses like Randy and Becky have a little bit more of an incentive to listen to the customers, the parents and their kids, to focus on math reading and writing as opposed to political activism, and to do a better job for teachers. Because, look, the teachers aren't seeing the money. The public school system has seen an increase of 170 percent in real terms of more funding being thrown at the problem. But teacher salaries have been flat. They've only increased by about 3 percent since 1970 in real terms. So the teachers are getting the short end of the stick, too, with this monopoly that the union bosses hold. If they can have school choice, that means more competition among providers, so their employees start to funnel more money into the classroom, start to pay the teachers better because they're the most important educational resource at the school, as opposed to the administrators who are making a quarter million dollars a year, half a million dollars a year, depending on where you're looking. The superintendents aren't improving student outcomes. The teachers are. So let's have a win-win solution. Let's have school choice. The red states are doing it already. The blue states, hopefully, they need to come along, too. All right, Corey DeAngelis, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks, Kelly.

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