CSPAN - Washington Journal Randi Weingarten

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Oct. 18, 2025 02:09-02:53 - CSPAN

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Washington Journal Randi Weingarten

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greta brawner

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unidentified		On C-SPAN 2, exploring the people and events that tell the American story.
		This weekend, as the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, join American History TV for our series, America 250, and discover the ideas and defining moments of the American story.
		This week at 11 a.m. Eastern, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps mark their 250th anniversary with celebrations throughout the city of Philadelphia.
		Then at 8 p.m. Eastern on Lectures in History, Gettysburg College professor Timothy Shannon chronicles the colonists who settled on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1587, only to mysteriously disappear soon after.
		And at 9.30 p.m. Eastern on the presidency, on the 35th anniversaries of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum looks at the 1990 diplomatic efforts in the Persian Gulf and the successful war coalition led the following year by President George H.W. Bush.
		Exploring the American story, watch American History TV Saturdays on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org slash history.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Joining us this morning is Randi Weingarten.
		She's the president of the American Federation of Teachers and also the author of a new book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers, Public Education and the Future of Democracy.
		Randy Weingarten, let's begin with the government shutdown.
		We're in day 17, and the Education Secretary Linda McMahon said recently this week that the shutdown confirms the Department of Education is unnecessary.
		Your reaction.
unidentified		It's only unnecessary to somebody who doesn't actually care about education.
		So what McMahon did was fire, I mean they're back now because of a lawsuit, but fire every single person who works with children with special needs.
		So you're a parent of a child with a special need and you have a problem, there was no one to take a phone call.
		There was no one to actually make sure a school district would do what a school district is supposed to do under the law, under civil rights law, to help kids with special needs.
		We've gone to the court any number of times now, and lower courts have now supported us on making the department do its job.
		On kids, young people, 45 million people have student loan debt, and they have a loan servicer who doesn't actually answer the phone or make sure that loans get serviced.
		We have to go to court about that.
		We have to go to court about them rewriting the civil rights laws.
		So ultimately, you know, given that she doesn't really know education, it's not a shock to me that she would say the department that she's running shouldn't, you know, she's doing the president's bidding.
		But at the end of the day, as Johnson, as Eisenhower, as others know and saw, we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help all kids.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We want to ask our viewers to join us in this conversation this morning.
		And we do have a line for parents and educators.
		And if you are a parent or an educator and you've tried to reach out to the Education Department during this government shutdown or you're impacted by the government shutdown as a parent or a teacher, we want to hear from you.
		So Republicans, dial in at 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		Independents, 202-748-8002.
		And then parents and educators, your line this morning is 202-748-8003.
		Randy Weingarten, you referenced this headline from USA Today.
		Judge temporarily reverses Trump's special education layoffs.
		How many people work in this unit at the Education Department?
		What's the impact?
unidentified		Well, my understanding was there were about 4,000 people nationwide, and they fired every one of them.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And overall, they...
unidentified		No, let me just say this.
		There are 4,000 people that the lawsuit covered.
		In terms of the special needs department, there were about 1,000.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		About a what?
unidentified		A thousand, sorry.
		There's really only three different places where the Department of Education really, really, really operates these days.
		One is in student, you know, the Congress and President Obama, when there was a scandal in Sally Mae and Freddie Mac, they moved all of the people who do service student debt.
		They moved all of that to the education department.
		So the education department is a big bank.
		But then the other, really, the other areas that were a lot of people were people who, because of the Individuals with Disabilities and in Education Act, before that act, you know, the federal, the country did not care enough, I would say, in many areas, did not care at all about our kids with special needs.
		And so that act was being implemented by the Department of Education.
		So if somebody has something called an IEP, an Individuals with Education program, it's the Department of Education that deals with that.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Overall, where is this administration in shutting down the Education Department?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		The president has said he put Linda McMahon in that position so that she would put herself out of a job.
unidentified		Well, let me just say this.
		The Department of Education doesn't run one school.
		Historically, and I think appropriately, states are the ones that run public schools and any kind of schooling in America.
		States and localities.
		It has to be close to where parents are.
		It has to be in communities.
		So I didn't quite know what Donald Trump was talking about when he said that the Department of Education runs schools because they don't.
		What it did since the Civil Rights Movement, since frankly, and I talk about this in the book that I wrote, Lyndon Johnson was president.
		Johnson was a teacher before he was president.
		He was a teacher in Texas.
		And he taught really poor kids.
		He taught kids who were Mexican-American principally.
		And what he understood from his teaching was that we need, if we really believe in capitalism and competition and innovation and a country of opportunity for all, that we really need to make sure that we give kids a level playing field when they're really young.
		And so that's what the Department of Education is about.
		It was to implement those laws to give everyone a shot at success in their, particularly in their youngest years, so that they could buy and be successful later in life.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We're talking with Randy Weingarten this morning about the government shutdown, its impact on education.
		We want to hear from all of you, so begin dialing in.
		Republicans 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8000.
		Independents 202-748-8002.
		And parents and educators 202-748-8003.
		Randy Weingarten, before we go to the next one.
		Yeah, go ahead.
unidentified		Can I just add that, look, all the things that happen in America.
		You know, every parent knows this.
		Every teacher knows this.
		It shows up in a classroom.
		So, you know, for example, the reason right now that the government is not open is that the Democrats are trying to get a solution so that 25 million people who get these, you know, their health care through Obamacare, through enhanced Medicaid, who get the children health care program that was passed years ago.
		All those things are at risk right now.
		And so what happens if a child comes into a school and doesn't have any health care, doesn't have any dental care?
		What happens if a parent no longer has health care because the premium payments are too much?
		We see that.
		That gets felt in a classroom.
		If a child is sleeping because he has a toothache, how do we help a child deal with that toothache?
		If a child doesn't have healthy meals and we can't give kids healthy meals, how do we deal with all of that?
		All of these things that the government does, you see it in classrooms.
		And that's what we're trying to make sure.
		We're trying to make sure that schools, schools should be about reading, writing, arithmetic.
		They should be safe and welcome.
		We should have engaging curriculum.
		I'm a big believer, and I hope the Republican line hears this.
		I really believe in career tech ed.
		But we need the funding to be able to do all these things.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Rainy Weingarten, let's talk about the title of your book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Who are the fascists?
unidentified		Well, what I, Reta, what I was concerned about as I was writing this book was that we don't teach about comparative governments in United States classrooms.
		Like, thank God, we have always had for 249 years a democratic system.
		I don't mean Democratic Party, a system of democracy in our republic.
		And I watched John Kelly and Mark Milley try to warn America, two great heroes, try to warn America about what fascistic behavior is and what that kind of demonizing and dehumanizing leads to in other places, leads to violence, leads to a division that's not political, but it's cultural.
		And it becomes a place of oppression and repression.
		And I wanted to give that warning.
		And that's what I did.
		I didn't call anybody a fascist in the book because I didn't want to.
		I wanted to describe fascistic behavior.
		And I wanted to make sure that people knew what the antidote is.
		Because what we do in classrooms, when we create pluralism, meaning when we create a safe and welcoming environment where everyone, regardless of who they are, regardless of where they live, that every single child is welcome in our classroom.
		And then make sure that we actually teach critical thinking so that kids can discern fact from fiction.
		That's what I wanted to do.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We'll go to calls.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Andrew in New York, Democratic Caller.
unidentified		Yes, I'd like to say, first thing I'd like to say is, as for child health care, I would never ever say a child should be without health care.
		So I just want that out there because that's absolutely, they need that.
		I agree.
		But what I also, what I don't agree on is my father was a World War II Ranger.
		I'm 61.
		And I was highly like this as a child.
		So he once said to me, your job is to go to school, read, write arithmetic, and learn.
		My job is to keep the world away from you until you're mature enough to handle it.
		Now, ever since we've gone to both parties, every activist and anybody with an agenda is now allowed to use our children as little political pawns.
		We have seen the mental illness grow, grow, grow, grow amongst our kids because of social media and everybody like this woman in the political parties using our children as advocates.
		for all this stuff.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Okay, Andrew, let's get a response.
unidentified		So, Andrew, look, I actually agree with you.
		And if you actually read my book on page 76 and 77, I go right to that point, which is that I don't, we have a different role in schools as school teachers than we do as advocates.
		And as school teachers, our job is not to teach kids what to think, but how to think.
		Now, there are values in America that we're going to teach about.
		And I always wear, I don't know if you can see it, I always wear my American flag because I don't, I don't, I'm sick and tired of people saying, because we disagree with each other, that people are not patriotic.
		But I do think you're right.
		Unfortunately, you're right, unlike what your dad did for you, social media and the environment around us intrudes in our classrooms.
		And instead of ignoring it, we have to compete with it.
		But we should, whatever we do on the outside, which I think we have a right just like everybody else.
		You know, I'm going to be at No King's Day on Saturday.
		I know many of my members are.
		I know many people are.
		But what we do in classrooms is we have to teach kids how to think.
		We have to teach resilience.
		We have to teach critical thinking.
		We do have to help kids learn how to deal with differences and conflict and problem solving.
		So there's a lot of things we have to do in school, but we should not be looking as a teacher through the lens of what our individual, what our individual ideology is.
		We should be looking as a teacher of what do we do to help kids have the best experiences and be prepared for their future.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, we'll go to Helen next, who's in New York, a Republican and a teacher.
		Hi, Helen.
		Welcome to the conversation.
unidentified		Hello.
		Yes, good morning.
		Yes, I taught in New Jersey schools, in community college mostly, for 30 years.
		And over that time, I saw a degradation of the ability for the students to think critically as the salaries and the tax money went up, up, up in public schools.
		The learning went down, down, down.
		They can't critically think.
		I had students who went through an entire 12 years of public school who could not read.
		I mean, they actually could not read.
		Now, how did those students get passed through to be able to come to a community college?
		The emphasis has not been on the children.
		The emphasis has been on welfare for the teachers and more and more benefits and more and more pay.
		And we're really doing a disservice to our students.
		And I think Ms. Weingarten is on the wrong track.
		And I think they've become just places for indoctrination, turning out little robots instead of critical thinkers.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Randy Weingarten.
unidentified		Well, I agree with your caller that critical thinking is absolutely vital.
		And I spend my whole first chapter talking about that.
		I don't know when you taught, but I have watched the following.
		No Child Left Behind, which was actually a Republican initiative by President George Bush, worked on by Senator Ted Kennedy together.
		What it did was it actually, I think your caller is right, it actually squeezed out the most important ways in which we teach because it focused so much on reading scores and on math scores that the way in which you teach critical thinking is just like your listener, your caller knows in community colleges.
		The way you teach it is you need to dwell on it a little bit.
		You need to have a classroom where you're doing a back and forth with kids in terms of asking questions and follow-up questions and having them be able to answer it or do it in groups and be able to write something like a debate or like an experiential project.
		Critical thinking doesn't just happen in a bottle.
		And the same thing in terms of reading.
		And I think what has happened, and I'm glad we are doing a lot more about the science of reading, we have to make sure that kids know and have access to great books and books that interest them.
		But we also have to be able to teach phonics and we also have to be able to teach decoding.
		And a lot of that in the basically the beginning of the 2000s, it got moved out and de-emphasized.
		And I'm very glad the AFT, frankly, has always been critical of that.
		We always thought that we needed to emphasize both.
		And I'm glad it's coming back.
		Now, the real issue that we're competing with, and we see that in the test scores since 2010, and Jonathan Haight and others who have been studying children see it, the real thing we're competing with is cell phones and with screens.
		And what we're seeing is that kids have reduced appetite for reading, or they have a reduced concentration.
		And those are the things, that's why you see a bunch of places that have put into effect distraction-free school and cell phones not in schools anymore.
		So kids are starting to look at each other again.
		They're starting to work with each other again.
		We need this to be a human, a human enterprise.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Mary in Michigan, Independent.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		I'm listening to Randy Weingarten, and I must say, I've been very disappointed in her.
		In my school district, only 36% of the students can read at grade level, and only 28% can do math.
		I think to go back to teaching the basics, get gender, get sex, get orientation, get that out of, especially out of elementary schools.
		When I went to school, I didn't know who my teacher's spouse was, what her sexual orientation was.
		I think we put way too much on children too early.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Let's take your point, Mary.
		Let's take your point.
		Randy Weingarten.
unidentified		So I think that we have to, first off, I don't know which district you're in or not, Mary, but I do think we have to actually see people for who they are and treat people for who they are.
		And that, you know, years ago, if a teacher got pregnant, she got fired.
		I mean, I don't think we want to go back to that.
		But what we, I think that what we've learned in terms of research in the world is that we have to treat people, particularly our youngest kids, as human beings.
		And so, first and foremost, we have to keep them safe in schools.
		And second, we have to keep them welcome so they want to be in schools and they feel like a million dollars.
		If a kid feels like she, you know, is that she has confidence, that she has agency, that is absolutely key to learning.
		And the other piece is, in the world that we're living in right now, kids don't need, you know, we're going to have AI.
		Kids need to learn how to problem solve and critically think.
		So we need to create experiences for them so that they actually understand the world that they're facing.
		I think we have to do it in an age-appropriate way, but we have to do all of these things.
		And so I think that you have a lot of schools that are trying to do all of that.
		And you have places where we need to do a lot more for kids who are falling behind.
		So if you have a picture of your husband or your wife, a young person then says, oh, my teacher is really a human being.
		If a teacher has a picture of their kids on the wall, then a young person says, oh, my teacher has a family too.
		So I think that those kind of things build community.
		And I don't think that, I don't think we should be wearing our ideology on the sleeve, but I think those kind of things build community and are important.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Jay's next in Florida, Republican caller.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Jay.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Man, I don't know where to start.
		Ms. Weingarten, you have put out about everything that you could to denigrate the public school system.
		I think that since you've been in office or in your position, schools have gone down.
		They haven't gone up.
		There's not one good report that you can give us for our children.
		I raised two deaf daughters, and I raised them through the school district.
		And the one thing that you've skipped over completely is the state.
		Everything with you is federal.
		Yes, because that's where your money comes from.
		Now, I'm so tired of listening to somebody who says, I want to bring socialism into the schools.
		And I don't mean socialism isn't communism.
		I mean socialism.
		You want to teach what's going on out into the real world inside your classroom.
		And that is the parents' responsibility, not yours.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Jay, Jay, let's get a response to what you're saying.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		So, Randy Weingarten.
unidentified		So, Jay, clearly I have not been a good teacher because I've said virtually the opposite of what you just said.
		I said for this whole last, I don't know, 27 minutes.
		So, what is it?
		I don't want to put you on the spot.
		And I'm so, look, the fact that you raised two deaf, the fact you will raise two deaf kids and you sound like you are an amazing parent.
		I don't, I don't, I want states to control schools.
		I don't want the federal government to control schools.
		And there is one school in the United States of America that I actually serve on the board of, New York City.
		It's actually a unionized charter school.
		And our kids are doing, but we have somewhere between a 95, 90, and 100% graduation rate.
		But here's where I think you and I differ.
		Everything shows up in our classroom.
		If something's going on in the world, like take, you know, when we've had these terrible situations where there's been gun violence in schools, kids show up with that.
		They're anxious about that.
		You can't ignore that if you're trying to teach kids.
		You have to meet kids where they are.
		And I think I said, and that's why I wrote it specifically in the book.
		I think you, my book, I think we have to divide what we do as activists and what we do as school teachers.
		And we have to do that.
		We can't wear ideology on the sleeve.
		We wear our compassion on our sleeve.
		We wear the zeal that we want to make a difference in the lives of children on our sleeve.
		But this notion that I'm a socialist or communist, this is part of the concern I have in terms of governments that start smearing people or start putting out propaganda like that.
		My grandfather actually escaped from Russia because of the persecution against him, escaped from the Ukraine, brought my grandparents' family, brought his family, my grandmother's family here.
		So the attributes that you have towards me, because I'm on this show and because I'm been the head of a union for these years, it's just completely false.
		I care about people.
		I want to fight for people.
		I care about children.
		I've spent my life devoted to that.
		So how does that get you to what you just said about me?
		That's what's wrong with the way in which we debate and we discuss in this country.
		We attribute to people we think are our enemies or our opponents such terrible things.
		That is a problem.
		We may disagree on different things, but let's not attribute evil intent or motivation to each other.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Then why title your book, Fascists?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Why Fascists Fear Teachers?
unidentified		Well, because I was giving, right, I was giving a warning because I see it.
		I see the kind of when you understand fascism, you understand what happens is that there is this road, very dangerous road that is taken about from division to degradation to dehumanization to thinking that your opponents are not worthy to be living,
		to be, and if you see that, you saw that in fascistic governments in the 20s, the 30s, and the 40s.
		And so to actually create a warning that says, I hope to God we never get there.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Chris in Louisiana, Democratic caller.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, I would like to say to our system.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Oh, I'm so sorry, caller.
		I hope you can call back in again.
		Accidentally pushed that button.
		Apologies to you.
		We'll go to Vicki in Washington State Independent.
		Caller, I do hope you call back.
		Rainy Weingarten, this is Vicki in Washington State, Independent.
unidentified		Hello, Ms. Weingardner.
		I agree, education is important.
		And I guess I was fortunate.
		I'm a baby boomer.
		I'm 74.
		We had a lot of current events in our classes.
		We would talk with our teachers and they would talk about what was happening in the world.
		Obviously, I grew up in the 60s when a lot was happening in the world.
		It wasn't as there was division, but the hate wasn't like it is today.
		But I do think the education system in this country has gone down.
		And partially, it's easier to control ignorant people.
		You talk about fascism.
		Yeah, teaches knowledge is the enemy of fascism, and people need to read history more.
		But parents need to start teaching their children how to learn at home.
		I think a lot of that too, read to them and talk about things.
		You can talk about things in a newspaper.
		I also want to make a comment about the no kings.
		The no kings is probably one of the most fundamental things in this country right now because that's what our country was funded on, getting rid of King George, and we don't want another king.
		And when the Republicans say that this is a hate America, no, it's not.
		It's love America.
		I'm a veteran.
		I spent two years stationed in Germany.
		I learned a lot about what it was like when Hitler was coming into power.
		But most important of all, I love my country, and I don't want a king.
		I don't want a tyrant.
		I don't want a fascist or communist or whatever to take over.
		And I wish the Republicans would get off their knees and stand up and fight for our democracy.
		Thank you very much.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Randy Weingart.
unidentified		Look, I completely agree with your caller.
		And I think that what happens is that veterans who have served, so, you know, your caller and I both grew up, and I'm 60, I'm about to be this year, I'll be 68 years old.
		So I too am at baby boomer.
		And we also had, there was a lot of contention.
		I remember being in sixth grade when in Kent State when those kids were killed.
		I remember the, you know, the civil rights movements.
		I remember when Kennedy was killed, when King was killed.
		There was a lot of contention.
		But that level of seeing your opponents as an enemy to be hated, as opposed to they had a different point of view.
		And how do you solve problems and how do you think about things?
		How do you critically think?
		Now, part of it is we did not have no child left behind.
		It didn't squeeze out the curriculum.
		My teachers could actually give the grades that they believe that they should give, as opposed to there being social promotion or things like that.
		But there was, so I, so I grew up in a school system like the caller.
		But the second piece that the caller said, which I think is really important, and this is a knowledge of history, and this is a knowledge of American history as opposed to European history or as opposed to Mussolini or Hitler or the other,
		or fascism itself, is that the one thing that really bound this country together, you know, we were a rebellious lot when we were 249 years ago and didn't want taxation without representation.
		And the men, and they were white men, who put this country together, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, the one unifying principle they had was that they wanted to govern themselves.
		They wanted to be a government of and by the people, not by a king, not by a tyrant, not by somebody who could make their own rules.
		And they really believed, and you could see it in what the founders and framers said, and I spent a lot of time talking about that in this book.
		They understood that critical thinking in education was absolutely essential in order to avoid and make sure we never had another king.
		And I would say, and this was an independent caller, that she was completely right.
		You're going to see on Saturday a lot of middle-aged women who are going to be out, who are who have, you know, RSVP said they're going to be out there.
		You're going to see a lot of veterans out there.
		You're going to see a lot of what is America out there because people want to have freedom in this country.
		Just like Greta, the freedom to speak, the freedom to criticize, the freedom to tell me what they think.
		And that you notice in my behavior here, I'm not critical of people.
		I want to have a real conversation.
		That is what schooling is supposed to be.
		supposed to be.
		That's what we should be teaching our kids how to do, to talk about our differences in a way that people can hear it and then react to it and to actually try to solve the problems of America.
		That's what people in public service should be doing.
		That's what people who are elected should be doing.
		And I actually agree with Marjorie Taylor Green.
		You have to deal with the fact that 25 million people are about to have such a high premium increase in their health care that it's not going to be affordable.
		That's a real problem.
		Deal with it.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		CNN's reporting millions more expected for round two of the No Kings rally.
		You'll recall that back in June, 5 million, according to CNN, took to the streets to protest the Trump administration.
		They're reporting that more than 2,500 demonstrations, about 450 more than were planned in June across all we're up to 2,600 now.
		2,600 across all 50 states are slated for Saturday in the second round of the No Kings protest.
		Chris called back in Louisiana Democratic Caller.
		Chris, my apologies to you.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Yes, ma'am.
		I would like to share to Ms. Randi, good morning.
		Ms. Randi, I've listened to what you were saying, and I want to say these things.
		In reference to education, public education, growing up in the parameter of a school, that's the walls of a school, of a classroom, the teachers taught the subjects that they were assigned to teach.
		For each hour, it would change to another subject.
		And within that hour that they changed to another subject, they taught that subject.
		The teachers had prepared a lesson plan, too, for what they would be discussing and teaching that day.
		And the majority of the time, with these lessons plans planned out, done by the teachers, they would never deviate hardly at all to where we were fully talking about politics.
		When we talked politics, we were in our civics classes.
		And in civics, that's where we really got into trying to understand the things about the democracy, the word democracy, and the branches of a democracy.
		You know, why the branches hold each other accountable.
		And it was used that way by the funding fathers so that I guess I would say keep things on an even keel, not let one take over over another one.
		But that was learned in civics.
		Now, when you went to your math class, you learned mathematics.
		And the other class is history, you learn the history that was being allowed to be taught.
		And nobody complained.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Okay, Chris, I think we understand your point.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Randy Weingarten.
unidentified		Look, I think the caller is right.
		I mean, the issue, I think that part of the dilemma we have these days is that we don't actually teach civics enough,
		and we don't actually leave the time to have civics being taught in an experiential kind of way so that kids really feel the agency to know and to be proud of what a government is supposed to do and how it's supposed to do it.
		So one of the stories I tell about a current civics teacher, a current elementary school teacher in Washington, D.C., Rafael Bonholm, is that the way in which he teaches civics in an age-appropriate way to his class is that they take a project that they want to solve or they want to do in Washington, D.C.,
		and then they figure out how to do that project.
		And then they go to the city council and they meet with their council people and they try to get that project done and then they report on it to the rest of the school.
		So it's finding ways that you use the, you know, the laws of the city of Washington to actually solve a problem that the students want to solve.
		That's a way of teaching civics where you see the potential of what a government should be doing for the people, which is solving problems.
		And so, you know, math should be math, science should be science, foreign language should be foreign language.
		But the one thing I would say to the caller is in this competition that we right now have with social media, we have to actually make sure that kids want to go to school and that they want to learn.
		And so that means how do we make schooling relevant and interesting and engaging for our young people?
		And what we see around the country, regardless of all the problems that are around the country, poll after poll after poll talks about how parents really, really, really appreciate their kids' teachers and what their kids' teachers do for them.
		And I just want to, you know, I don't know if we have another question, Greg, or not, but I just really want to say that teachers every single day, all across the country, want to make a difference in the lives of kids.
		And they are not treated with the respect and dignity that they need.
		And they need to be because they are helping to try to nation build to help and make sure future generations have the skills and knowledge that they need to be able to take our country to higher hopes and higher places.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Rainy Weingarten, one more call.
		Kristen in Ohio, an independent and an educator.
		Kristen.
unidentified		Hi.
unidentified		I got to tell you, I'm seeing a lot of just double talk on here because for a few reasons.
barbara fisher ▲ ● ▼		As an educator, I'm seeing things get worse and worse and worse in the classrooms in terms of behaviors, in terms of social-emotional loss.
barbara fisher ▲ ● ▼		And a lot of that social-emotional loss and the nationwide chronic truancy problem was, number one, I'm going to say, brought on by all these draconian policies, not even policies, but recommendations that they wanted to do.
unidentified		I mean, these problems were there before the pandemic, but let me tell you something.
		What was made to feel like a force on schools and what they had to do contributed now to the skyrocketing truancy problems and parent problems that, you know, the core, the core problem is getting to the parents, the ones who are not supporting their kids' education.
		Nobody is talking about that.
		Nobody.
		It's always the school's problem, the school's problem, the school's problem.
		I'm also a union rep in my school, and I feel very passionately about, you know, teachers having their rights, but also that we get what we need for our kids.
		And I'm paying union dues over union dues year after year, and Ohio has some of the highest.
		Yet, yet, I know most of that money is just going towards politicians when it comes to the higher-ups, okay?
		That's going to the politicians.
		And I tell you, I'm done with politicians on both sides because I do believe that the Democratic Party uses our kids as pawns.
		And I do believe that the Republican Party is not for them constantly stripping money away.
		You stated that you believe it should be to the states.
barbara fisher ▲ ● ▼		Well, as much as I don't like to see what's even going on at all in education, I am seeing that this administration is trying to put it to the states.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And I have to jump in and we'll get a response from Randy Weingarten because we're short on time here.
unidentified		So the states have always controlled education.
		What the administration is doing, first of all, I completely agree with you that I want parents to be more engaged.
		And in terms of our union, we spend much more of our resources on things that kids need and things that you need and our members need than we do on politics.
		We just put out one of these, you know, we're required every year to put out reports.
		And I think it's that overwhelmingly we spend money on representation.
		But look, I understand what you're saying about, you know, being sick and tired of politicians on each side.
		But what you're talking about in terms of that period of time and the people like Jonathan Haight and others who have been studying this in terms of social media, they've seen that since screens have basically taken over in 2010, that we have lost the competition with screens in terms of our kids.
		And that's what we're trying to fight.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Randy Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers, and her new book is Why Fascists Fear Teachers, Public Education, and the Future of Democracy.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Randy Weingarten, thank you for talking to our viewers this morning.
unidentified		Thank you so much.
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		And pass president nomination.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Why are you doing this?
unidentified		This is outrageous.
		This is a kangaroo club.
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