May 28, 2024 • 24 mins
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, joins Danielle once again for a conversation about the issues facing students and parents in the 2023-24 school year and what's at stake in this election.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to willk F Daily with
me your girl, Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
you know, for those of you have been following me
for quite some time, you know that one of the
positions that I had throughout my career was that of teacher.
(00:34):
I taught first and second grade general and special education,
went to school, got my master's in education, went to
Capitol Hill, worked on education policy, worked at an environmental organization,
worked on environmental education and connecting kids with the outdoors.
(00:54):
Throughout my career, education has been my through line or
what I do now on my podcasts and through my
writing as education, but with a different audience and on
different topics. There is nothing that I don't think is
more important in this country than a quality, robust education,
(01:17):
which is why it is so alarming that education has
been under attack by the radicalized right wing. They don't
want our children having critical thought. They don't want certain
books by certain people, black, brown, queer being right in
the classroom. They don't want to offer up the whole
(01:39):
truth about this country, about its founding, about how right
our past prejudices have informed our current inequities. They don't
want there to be questions that are raised, because then
young people will demand answers to those questions. One of
(02:03):
the things that is really truly leading the radical right
is the fact that they are looking around at Generation
Z and they don't like what they see. They don't
like young people that have the ability to tell other
people how to see them, how to address them. They
don't like the fact that these young people are changing
(02:26):
the workforce and are asking questions like why have we
been working five days a week with only two days
off one and a half? Really, why do we have
to sit in a cubicle and do our work when
technology affords us the ability to be elsewhere and get
the same amount of work done. Why don't I have
(02:47):
more control over my life right and my livelihood? And
so these are questions that this generation is asking why.
Because the promises that future generations had, like being better
off than prior generations, is not going to happen for them.
(03:08):
And so, in order to stop what they believe is
you know, the devil's work, I call it progress, they
have to cut off education at the root and make
sure that they're just creating a bunch of yes men
(03:28):
widget workers. Creating the permanent underclass for their you know,
oligarchs that they want that they will have. So coming
up next on today's show, I sit down again with
the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randy Weingarten
to talk about what teachers have been facing, what our
(03:52):
education system has been facing, but more importantly here about
her ten year initiative around giving every child a book
and why it's critical in a time when literacy rates
are going in the wrong direction. So that conversation is
coming up next, folks, I am very happy to welcome
(04:18):
back to WOKF Daily the president of AFT, the American
Federation of a teachers' union union that has one point
seven million members, to discuss a huge campaign that was
just wrapped up with First Book, giving away more than
ten million brand new books at schools and community centers
(04:42):
completely free over the last decade, making sure that a
child has a meaningful book that they can call their own.
Randy talk to us about why this initiative was so important,
this decade long initiative to get ten million free books
(05:05):
into the hands of children across this country.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So Danielle, first, thank you for having me on, and second,
it's pretty simple, meaning books. If you believe that literacy
is the absolutely most important thing we can do to
help our kids thrive, then you have to actually give
(05:29):
kids the tools and create joy and have kids see
themselves in their surrounding. And there's no better way to
actually make literacy exciting but to have books and to
have books that have themselves in them. And so that's
(05:51):
part of what we were doing here. And we started
by safely working with First Book to see if we
could help create classroom libraries for teachers who taught in
either Title one Schools or Title one Kids, which is
the Johnson Anti Poverty Program. And one thing led to
(06:11):
another from classroom libraries because they got books at a
pretty good price point. So we could, you know, get
this to teachers who often you know, dig into their
pockets for everything for kids anyway, So what was amazing
is one thing one led to another. Then we said, okay,
why don't we actually do book give boys and why
don't we have literacy fairs. And then we had one
(06:34):
of our first book give boys was in Appalachia and
the First Book and I were there together and Kyle
and I leaned down Kyle as the head of first book.
And one of the boys took a book from me
in a very you know, intrepid way, and he said,
this is going into my library. And so I'm leaning
down and talking to him, and you're smiling, you know,
(06:55):
and I'm smiling and you're smiling because you know where
this is going. And I'm like, wow, you have a
whole library. He said yes. So I didn't say, well,
whatever other books in there. He said, this is my
first one. And so you had that story to fast
forward to this last Saturday. A grandma came up to me.
She had been at some of our she's a teacher,
(07:17):
she'd been at some of our first book events. And
she runs up to me with a book about Haitian
culture and she says, I had never seen a book
about Haitian culture in any of these book fairs. This
is I'm taking this home. We're going to use it
for Mother's Day tomorrow. So, you know, just Matthew Cherry
(07:41):
was with us this past Saturday. He wrote the book
Hair Love To and Which is Band?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
In someplace I was going to say, I'm like, this
book is banned.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And it's a book about black kids and their hair
and loving their hair. And so you know this is
so I mean here it's ten million books, it's probably
ten million stories. But what we've done is we've made
this into not just giving out books to spark the
(08:11):
joy of reading and learning, but also to create community.
So in the last just the last two years, we've
had three hundred and ninety events pretty much on a
Saturday or a Sunday or an after school where community
with parents, where we'd have literacy fairs, we'd have bouncy houses,
(08:34):
we'd have you know, all sorts of other groups, you know,
healthcare groups, the unions that were around, other community groups
you know, have tables as well. Three hundred and ninety
in two years. This past Saturday we had we we
gave away one hundred fifty thousand books in New York City, Ohio, Illinois, Texas,
(08:57):
and Florida. And then a couple of other of our
virtually said, oh, we weren't in on it. So West
Virginia did it, Puerto Rico did it. The Puerto Rican schools.
After they did it, fifty schools called our Puerto Rican
leaders to say, oh, we want to do this in
our school as well. So what we're doing is we're
also making this a community event. So think about it.
(09:19):
You and I've had these conversations. As extremists ban books,
we're giving them out. As extremists try to erase history
and identity, we are making sure the kids see themselves
and see and can read and their family can read
about honest history. As you know, others are trying to
(09:40):
create chaos and fear and division. We're bringing people together
as a community. So it has all of these ingredients.
And we decided and look, this is our members buying
the books at at a good price point. But you know,
no doubt buying the books. It's cost us millions of
dollars to do. So we're going to keep on doing
(10:01):
a million books a year because we know how important
it is for kids and for communities.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You know, I just I love this so much. I
love this initiative one because I've always said as a
former teacher that schools need to be the community hub, right,
that in many ways they are the community hub, but
that we don't treat them that way exactly, and particularly
so creating this kind of you know environment where you're
(10:31):
inviting in other unions to have tables, where you are
you know, inviting in the community to participate is something
that is really beautiful and cherished, and I think too, frankly,
at a time when books are being banned, I mean
they're right now. I don't need thousands thousands of books
have been banned. Librarians have shut down portions of you know,
(10:52):
sections of their libraries in school out of fear of
being prosecuted. And you know what I saw right before
I came on to talk talk to you, Randy, is
that we have a really big literacy problem in this country.
That the literacy rates and proficiency on literacy tests have
really declined since COVID and have not rebounded. Can you
(11:16):
talk to us about what kind of teachers are facing
as we are at a time when books are being banned,
on top of which children are having are really struggling
in this country, particularly black and brown children with literacy
and proficiency.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So what we're seeing, let me just say that in
places that we're working with communities like in Wichita and
Saint Louis, we're actually seeing a rebound in terms of
literacy rates. And so we've had a tutoring program using
the books, a tutoring program in Wichita which saw a
(11:55):
significant increase in their test course to share same in
terms of Saint Louis and we're you know, because what
we're doing is we're working with parents, we're working with kids,
and we're working with teachers. We're also doing a bunch
of work to help teachers learn the tools about the
science and reading because for a very long time we
(12:16):
tend to my most favorite new phrase, Danielle is reject
the binary because we've done this says.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
This are this or it's that right.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
So, you know, so for years teachers actually you know,
taught whole language, which I love in terms of reading,
but we have to actually teach the tools of learning
how to read. So if you have a kid who's dyslexic,
they need to be hardwired in terms of the tools
(12:47):
and recognizing words on being or recognizing human words and
being able to put things together the same in terms
of E and lwards. So there's there has always there's
been issues around how we do the science of reading
and what we do in terms of literacy and people
(13:07):
taking these positions that are either or and we have
to do a both end at both and in terms
of both the tools about how you teach reading as
well as the love of reading. Well, what has happened
layer on top of that, and look, you just.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Have a a Utah governor and a senator from Connecticut
who are both now started working on the happiness deficit
because we have a loneliness problem in the country.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And one of the worst things that happened in COVID
was a that schools were not the priority. Bars and
gyms and restaurants were, so that the stuff that you
needed to do to reopen schools quickly as what happened
in Europe didn't happen here. And you know, some of
that was Trump and some of that was fear, but
(13:58):
it wasn't a priority. Schools didn't open as quickly as
they ought to in a safe way as they ought to,
and so that created a disconnect. And it's the disconnect
that you're thinking about. It's the disconnect that that has
helped create terrible loneliness and learning loss. And then on
top of that, layer on top of that, the fixation
(14:20):
with phones now and the fixation with TikTok and with
Instagram and with the phone being or you know, or
your device is being more important than looking at each other.
And that's what teachers told me in twenty three to
twenty four, twenty two to twenty three, and twenty three
to twenty four, teachers have told talked to me more
(14:42):
and more about how do we reconnect kids with their lives,
with other kids, with critical thinking, with play, with relationship building.
And when you start seeing that happen, you start seeing
grades going up again. But COVID did was it disconnected people.
(15:03):
And that disconnect is actually the worst thing I mean,
other than obviously the deaths, or actually the worst thing
in COVID for young people. And that's what we've had
to overcome and I'm saying it in twenty three twenty
four being overcome more. But then Layran. The third thing
out with Lran is all the culture wars. So as
(15:26):
we're trying to recreate a community, think about what the
extremists are doing. Oh no, you know, divide, divide, divide, fear,
fear fear. Oh we're not going to meet people where
they are. Oh no, we're not going to be able
to mitigate or militate conflict because we don't want kids
to actually read things that may be conflictual. Oh we're
(15:47):
not going to do sl el because we you know,
that's woke. I mean, so it's so on top of it,
the culture wars actually made this stuff worse. Instead of
everybody saying, let's be all in to help kids recover,
let's make schools a priority, let's be all in, we've
been having this craziness. So all of that, all of
(16:08):
that is part of why it's taken a long time.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And I think about, you know, I just want to
stick with the craziness for a minute, because I think
about the ways in which the culture wars have really
begun to drive teachers out of the classroom and create
a teacher shortage. Can you speak to us about that?
Right that there is a crisis in some ways in
(16:35):
the profession because people no longer want to take on
their governors in their states that are not trusting them
with curriculum, that are not trusting them with books, and
so they're deciding, you know what, I'll go do something else.
What has been the effect of the culture war on
(16:56):
the profession? New teachers entering in and all so older
teacher is just deciding to retire out.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So we had we've had a lot of retirements, not
significantly more than we would have predicted if you didn't
have COVID, but what we really have had because because
people who have decided to stay for five or ten years,
they're in like they have decided to stay, they have
really figured it out. I mean, I'm not saying that
(17:26):
there hasn't been attrition. There's about four hundred thousand vacancies
each year, so there's it's a large attrition profession anyway.
But the two things, the three things that have happened,
and there's some data on this is Number one, there's
fewer people who are going into teacher ed and we've
already seen you know, you don't hear teacher for America
(17:49):
very much anymore because it doesn't work. You actually have
to be prepared for the profession. So there's fewer people
going into teacher ed and that's a real problem. Number Two,
it's a labor market. So if you look at the data,
you can actually make twenty to twenty five percent more
for the same skills in some other job. And so,
(18:11):
given you know what happens with student debt and given
all of these other things, wanting to make a difference
in the lives of kids is why people become teachers
and status teachers. But you know, you actually have to
live on a family sustaining wage. And so even though
a lot of our collective bargaining has done very well
this year and last year, you know that if you
(18:34):
can make twenty twenty five percent more in a non
teaching with the same skills and a non teaching job,
that's a big inducement. And number three, and this is
where we also have data. You have the thirty forty
to fifty sixty percent of teachers. It's gone from thirty
to sixty dependent upon this stay Ran data just came
out saying that they have felt chilled by these laws.
(18:59):
But even think about it, you're, you know, a former teacher.
If you have somebody, a kid in your classroom who
say has decided I don't know, maybe I'm gay, and
you're in Florida, and before the settlement that Robbie Kaplan
and others got that said, oh no, you can actually
say gay, even though it says don't say gay. But
(19:19):
a kid asks you a question and you don't know
if you can answer it, because you're going to get
fired if you answer it. Teacher in Jacksonville had a
Black Lives Matter flag for years, all of a sudden
gets fired because she has a Black Lives Matter flat.
We're defending her, we're fighting for her. But what does
that say. A teacher in Houston teaches a peak of
(19:42):
doesn't know what he can He's going to retire this year.
He's sick and tired of having to walk on eggshells
about what he can say about slavery. So these things
have an effect. And so what you know, I make
no apower. Jeane's about saying, we have to be able
to teach on its history and we have to meet
(20:04):
the needs of kids. And that's who we are. And
we as a union have said that we will defend
our members. It's if they are attempting to do it
and they get in trouble for it.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
You know, last question for you, Randy. We're heading into
less than two hundred days until the most consequential election
of our of our lifetimes, and education in many ways
is on the ballot. Right in the Republicans Project twenty
twenty five, they want to get rid of the Department
of Education if Donald Trump were to get a second term.
(20:38):
They want to do way with public education altogether. Yes, Biden, right,
and first lady, first lady is a professor, is a teacher.
They have tried to make investments into education. One wins
or the other wins. Where will aft be right post
(20:59):
November in terms terms of fighting for public education and
fighting for teachers.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So look, at the end of the day, whoever wins,
we're going to fight for kids and we're going to
fight for public education. And public education is an anchor
institution for democracy and pluralism. It doesn't mean just like
with public education, we always have to strengthen it. We
always have to strengthen democracy, We always have to strengthen pluralism.
(21:26):
You're never done, you know, And I kind of go
back to the talmat that says your job is to
be involved in a task, to start a task. But
given what we do, you too, You've ever done it
is always the journey to strengthen it. But the difference
is going to be and the Republicans of the Congress
strit to do it this year. What is the federal
(21:48):
involvement in public education? We give funding for schools that
help poor kids, rural white poor kids, urban black poor kids.
You're going to take all that away? Okay, So how
are you going to level the playing field to help kids?
If you don't do it in education? Where else are
you going to do it? What do you want to do?
(22:08):
How do you help them become engaged as citizens? You
want them to do child labor instead of help them
be engaged in citizens. I mean, so I think that
we have the better side of this argument. And more
and more and more when you ask parents, what do
you want? Do you want to not have public education
and just have you know, private alternatives where private school
(22:31):
boss could say you can go to my school and
you can't go to my school depended upon how you
look or your gender or whatever. Or do you want
something that says I have an obligation to help meet
your child's needs and do everything I can so your
child can thrive. And you know, by eighty twenty people
say seventy five twenty five, eighty twenty people say they
(22:52):
want purplic education. So we're going to keep fighting for it.
But the other thing we're going to do is it
can't just be about the fight. It has to be
like we said before, about meeting on literacy and community
schools and meeting kids where they are experiential learning, having
workforce development pathways from high school on. We also have
to change to make sure that we are meeting the
(23:14):
needs of kids. It can't just always be a fight.
And what I'm saying is that like with the book giveaways,
when you meet the needs of kids and families, when
you create that connection, we create that community. Then what
happens is the community storms for schools and make school
centers of community. And when you do that, we save
(23:35):
democracy because with our kids and with our public schools
comes our democracy.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Amazing as always, Randy Weingarten, I appreciate you. I appreciate
the work that you continue to do with AFT, the
voice that you give to teachers, and the time that
you make for wok A. Really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Thank you, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
H That is it for me today, dear friends on
woke A f as always Power to the people and
to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke
as fuck.
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to willk F Daily with
me your girl, Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
you know, for those of you have been following me
for quite some time, you know that one of the
positions that I had throughout my career was that of teacher.
(00:34):
I taught first and second grade general and special education,
went to school, got my master's in education, went to
Capitol Hill, worked on education policy, worked at an environmental organization,
worked on environmental education and connecting kids with the outdoors.
(00:54):
Throughout my career, education has been my through line or
what I do now on my podcasts and through my
writing as education, but with a different audience and on
different topics. There is nothing that I don't think is
more important in this country than a quality, robust education,
(01:17):
which is why it is so alarming that education has
been under attack by the radicalized right wing. They don't
want our children having critical thought. They don't want certain
books by certain people, black, brown, queer being right in
the classroom. They don't want to offer up the whole
(01:39):
truth about this country, about its founding, about how right
our past prejudices have informed our current inequities. They don't
want there to be questions that are raised, because then
young people will demand answers to those questions. One of
(02:03):
the things that is really truly leading the radical right
is the fact that they are looking around at Generation
Z and they don't like what they see. They don't
like young people that have the ability to tell other
people how to see them, how to address them. They
don't like the fact that these young people are changing
(02:26):
the workforce and are asking questions like why have we
been working five days a week with only two days
off one and a half? Really, why do we have
to sit in a cubicle and do our work when
technology affords us the ability to be elsewhere and get
the same amount of work done. Why don't I have
(02:47):
more control over my life right and my livelihood? And
so these are questions that this generation is asking why.
Because the promises that future generations had, like being better
off than prior generations, is not going to happen for them.
(03:08):
And so, in order to stop what they believe is
you know, the devil's work, I call it progress, they
have to cut off education at the root and make
sure that they're just creating a bunch of yes men
(03:28):
widget workers. Creating the permanent underclass for their you know,
oligarchs that they want that they will have. So coming
up next on today's show, I sit down again with
the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randy Weingarten
to talk about what teachers have been facing, what our
(03:52):
education system has been facing, but more importantly here about
her ten year initiative around giving every child a book
and why it's critical in a time when literacy rates
are going in the wrong direction. So that conversation is
coming up next, folks, I am very happy to welcome
(04:18):
back to WOKF Daily the president of AFT, the American
Federation of a teachers' union union that has one point
seven million members, to discuss a huge campaign that was
just wrapped up with First Book, giving away more than
ten million brand new books at schools and community centers
(04:42):
completely free over the last decade, making sure that a
child has a meaningful book that they can call their own.
Randy talk to us about why this initiative was so important,
this decade long initiative to get ten million free books
(05:05):
into the hands of children across this country.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So Danielle, first, thank you for having me on, and second,
it's pretty simple, meaning books. If you believe that literacy
is the absolutely most important thing we can do to
help our kids thrive, then you have to actually give
(05:29):
kids the tools and create joy and have kids see
themselves in their surrounding. And there's no better way to
actually make literacy exciting but to have books and to
have books that have themselves in them. And so that's
(05:51):
part of what we were doing here. And we started
by safely working with First Book to see if we
could help create classroom libraries for teachers who taught in
either Title one Schools or Title one Kids, which is
the Johnson Anti Poverty Program. And one thing led to
(06:11):
another from classroom libraries because they got books at a
pretty good price point. So we could, you know, get
this to teachers who often you know, dig into their
pockets for everything for kids anyway, So what was amazing
is one thing one led to another. Then we said, okay,
why don't we actually do book give boys and why
don't we have literacy fairs. And then we had one
(06:34):
of our first book give boys was in Appalachia and
the First Book and I were there together and Kyle
and I leaned down Kyle as the head of first book.
And one of the boys took a book from me
in a very you know, intrepid way, and he said,
this is going into my library. And so I'm leaning
down and talking to him, and you're smiling, you know,
(06:55):
and I'm smiling and you're smiling because you know where
this is going. And I'm like, wow, you have a
whole library. He said yes. So I didn't say, well,
whatever other books in there. He said, this is my
first one. And so you had that story to fast
forward to this last Saturday. A grandma came up to me.
She had been at some of our she's a teacher,
(07:17):
she'd been at some of our first book events. And
she runs up to me with a book about Haitian
culture and she says, I had never seen a book
about Haitian culture in any of these book fairs. This
is I'm taking this home. We're going to use it
for Mother's Day tomorrow. So, you know, just Matthew Cherry
(07:41):
was with us this past Saturday. He wrote the book
Hair Love To and Which is Band?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
In someplace I was going to say, I'm like, this
book is banned.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And it's a book about black kids and their hair
and loving their hair. And so you know this is
so I mean here it's ten million books, it's probably
ten million stories. But what we've done is we've made
this into not just giving out books to spark the
(08:11):
joy of reading and learning, but also to create community.
So in the last just the last two years, we've
had three hundred and ninety events pretty much on a
Saturday or a Sunday or an after school where community
with parents, where we'd have literacy fairs, we'd have bouncy houses,
(08:34):
we'd have you know, all sorts of other groups, you know,
healthcare groups, the unions that were around, other community groups
you know, have tables as well. Three hundred and ninety
in two years. This past Saturday we had we we
gave away one hundred fifty thousand books in New York City, Ohio, Illinois, Texas,
(08:57):
and Florida. And then a couple of other of our
virtually said, oh, we weren't in on it. So West
Virginia did it, Puerto Rico did it. The Puerto Rican schools.
After they did it, fifty schools called our Puerto Rican
leaders to say, oh, we want to do this in
our school as well. So what we're doing is we're
also making this a community event. So think about it.
(09:19):
You and I've had these conversations. As extremists ban books,
we're giving them out. As extremists try to erase history
and identity, we are making sure the kids see themselves
and see and can read and their family can read
about honest history. As you know, others are trying to
(09:40):
create chaos and fear and division. We're bringing people together
as a community. So it has all of these ingredients.
And we decided and look, this is our members buying
the books at at a good price point. But you know,
no doubt buying the books. It's cost us millions of
dollars to do. So we're going to keep on doing
(10:01):
a million books a year because we know how important
it is for kids and for communities.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You know, I just I love this so much. I
love this initiative one because I've always said as a
former teacher that schools need to be the community hub, right,
that in many ways they are the community hub, but
that we don't treat them that way exactly, and particularly
so creating this kind of you know environment where you're
(10:31):
inviting in other unions to have tables, where you are
you know, inviting in the community to participate is something
that is really beautiful and cherished, and I think too, frankly,
at a time when books are being banned, I mean
they're right now. I don't need thousands thousands of books
have been banned. Librarians have shut down portions of you know,
(10:52):
sections of their libraries in school out of fear of
being prosecuted. And you know what I saw right before
I came on to talk talk to you, Randy, is
that we have a really big literacy problem in this country.
That the literacy rates and proficiency on literacy tests have
really declined since COVID and have not rebounded. Can you
(11:16):
talk to us about what kind of teachers are facing
as we are at a time when books are being banned,
on top of which children are having are really struggling
in this country, particularly black and brown children with literacy
and proficiency.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So what we're seeing, let me just say that in
places that we're working with communities like in Wichita and
Saint Louis, we're actually seeing a rebound in terms of
literacy rates. And so we've had a tutoring program using
the books, a tutoring program in Wichita which saw a
(11:55):
significant increase in their test course to share same in
terms of Saint Louis and we're you know, because what
we're doing is we're working with parents, we're working with kids,
and we're working with teachers. We're also doing a bunch
of work to help teachers learn the tools about the
science and reading because for a very long time we
(12:16):
tend to my most favorite new phrase, Danielle is reject
the binary because we've done this says.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
This are this or it's that right.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
So, you know, so for years teachers actually you know,
taught whole language, which I love in terms of reading,
but we have to actually teach the tools of learning
how to read. So if you have a kid who's dyslexic,
they need to be hardwired in terms of the tools
(12:47):
and recognizing words on being or recognizing human words and
being able to put things together the same in terms
of E and lwards. So there's there has always there's
been issues around how we do the science of reading
and what we do in terms of literacy and people
(13:07):
taking these positions that are either or and we have
to do a both end at both and in terms
of both the tools about how you teach reading as
well as the love of reading. Well, what has happened
layer on top of that, and look, you just.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Have a a Utah governor and a senator from Connecticut
who are both now started working on the happiness deficit
because we have a loneliness problem in the country.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And one of the worst things that happened in COVID
was a that schools were not the priority. Bars and
gyms and restaurants were, so that the stuff that you
needed to do to reopen schools quickly as what happened
in Europe didn't happen here. And you know, some of
that was Trump and some of that was fear, but
(13:58):
it wasn't a priority. Schools didn't open as quickly as
they ought to in a safe way as they ought to,
and so that created a disconnect. And it's the disconnect
that you're thinking about. It's the disconnect that that has
helped create terrible loneliness and learning loss. And then on
top of that, layer on top of that, the fixation
(14:20):
with phones now and the fixation with TikTok and with
Instagram and with the phone being or you know, or
your device is being more important than looking at each other.
And that's what teachers told me in twenty three to
twenty four, twenty two to twenty three, and twenty three
to twenty four, teachers have told talked to me more
(14:42):
and more about how do we reconnect kids with their lives,
with other kids, with critical thinking, with play, with relationship building.
And when you start seeing that happen, you start seeing
grades going up again. But COVID did was it disconnected people.
(15:03):
And that disconnect is actually the worst thing I mean,
other than obviously the deaths, or actually the worst thing
in COVID for young people. And that's what we've had
to overcome and I'm saying it in twenty three twenty
four being overcome more. But then Layran. The third thing
out with Lran is all the culture wars. So as
(15:26):
we're trying to recreate a community, think about what the
extremists are doing. Oh no, you know, divide, divide, divide, fear,
fear fear. Oh we're not going to meet people where
they are. Oh no, we're not going to be able
to mitigate or militate conflict because we don't want kids
to actually read things that may be conflictual. Oh we're
(15:47):
not going to do sl el because we you know,
that's woke. I mean, so it's so on top of it,
the culture wars actually made this stuff worse. Instead of
everybody saying, let's be all in to help kids recover,
let's make schools a priority, let's be all in, we've
been having this craziness. So all of that, all of
(16:08):
that is part of why it's taken a long time.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And I think about, you know, I just want to
stick with the craziness for a minute, because I think
about the ways in which the culture wars have really
begun to drive teachers out of the classroom and create
a teacher shortage. Can you speak to us about that?
Right that there is a crisis in some ways in
(16:35):
the profession because people no longer want to take on
their governors in their states that are not trusting them
with curriculum, that are not trusting them with books, and
so they're deciding, you know what, I'll go do something else.
What has been the effect of the culture war on
(16:56):
the profession? New teachers entering in and all so older
teacher is just deciding to retire out.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So we had we've had a lot of retirements, not
significantly more than we would have predicted if you didn't
have COVID, but what we really have had because because
people who have decided to stay for five or ten years,
they're in like they have decided to stay, they have
really figured it out. I mean, I'm not saying that
(17:26):
there hasn't been attrition. There's about four hundred thousand vacancies
each year, so there's it's a large attrition profession anyway.
But the two things, the three things that have happened,
and there's some data on this is Number one, there's
fewer people who are going into teacher ed and we've
already seen you know, you don't hear teacher for America
(17:49):
very much anymore because it doesn't work. You actually have
to be prepared for the profession. So there's fewer people
going into teacher ed and that's a real problem. Number Two,
it's a labor market. So if you look at the data,
you can actually make twenty to twenty five percent more
for the same skills in some other job. And so,
(18:11):
given you know what happens with student debt and given
all of these other things, wanting to make a difference
in the lives of kids is why people become teachers
and status teachers. But you know, you actually have to
live on a family sustaining wage. And so even though
a lot of our collective bargaining has done very well
this year and last year, you know that if you
(18:34):
can make twenty twenty five percent more in a non
teaching with the same skills and a non teaching job,
that's a big inducement. And number three, and this is
where we also have data. You have the thirty forty
to fifty sixty percent of teachers. It's gone from thirty
to sixty dependent upon this stay Ran data just came
out saying that they have felt chilled by these laws.
(18:59):
But even think about it, you're, you know, a former teacher.
If you have somebody, a kid in your classroom who
say has decided I don't know, maybe I'm gay, and
you're in Florida, and before the settlement that Robbie Kaplan
and others got that said, oh no, you can actually
say gay, even though it says don't say gay. But
(19:19):
a kid asks you a question and you don't know
if you can answer it, because you're going to get
fired if you answer it. Teacher in Jacksonville had a
Black Lives Matter flag for years, all of a sudden
gets fired because she has a Black Lives Matter flat.
We're defending her, we're fighting for her. But what does
that say. A teacher in Houston teaches a peak of
(19:42):
doesn't know what he can He's going to retire this year.
He's sick and tired of having to walk on eggshells
about what he can say about slavery. So these things
have an effect. And so what you know, I make
no apower. Jeane's about saying, we have to be able
to teach on its history and we have to meet
(20:04):
the needs of kids. And that's who we are. And
we as a union have said that we will defend
our members. It's if they are attempting to do it
and they get in trouble for it.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
You know, last question for you, Randy. We're heading into
less than two hundred days until the most consequential election
of our of our lifetimes, and education in many ways
is on the ballot. Right in the Republicans Project twenty
twenty five, they want to get rid of the Department
of Education if Donald Trump were to get a second term.
(20:38):
They want to do way with public education altogether. Yes, Biden, right,
and first lady, first lady is a professor, is a teacher.
They have tried to make investments into education. One wins
or the other wins. Where will aft be right post
(20:59):
November in terms terms of fighting for public education and
fighting for teachers.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So look, at the end of the day, whoever wins,
we're going to fight for kids and we're going to
fight for public education. And public education is an anchor
institution for democracy and pluralism. It doesn't mean just like
with public education, we always have to strengthen it. We
always have to strengthen democracy, We always have to strengthen pluralism.
(21:26):
You're never done, you know, And I kind of go
back to the talmat that says your job is to
be involved in a task, to start a task. But
given what we do, you too, You've ever done it
is always the journey to strengthen it. But the difference
is going to be and the Republicans of the Congress
strit to do it this year. What is the federal
(21:48):
involvement in public education? We give funding for schools that
help poor kids, rural white poor kids, urban black poor kids.
You're going to take all that away? Okay, So how
are you going to level the playing field to help kids?
If you don't do it in education? Where else are
you going to do it? What do you want to do?
(22:08):
How do you help them become engaged as citizens? You
want them to do child labor instead of help them
be engaged in citizens. I mean, so I think that
we have the better side of this argument. And more
and more and more when you ask parents, what do
you want? Do you want to not have public education
and just have you know, private alternatives where private school
(22:31):
boss could say you can go to my school and
you can't go to my school depended upon how you
look or your gender or whatever. Or do you want
something that says I have an obligation to help meet
your child's needs and do everything I can so your
child can thrive. And you know, by eighty twenty people
say seventy five twenty five, eighty twenty people say they
(22:52):
want purplic education. So we're going to keep fighting for it.
But the other thing we're going to do is it
can't just be about the fight. It has to be
like we said before, about meeting on literacy and community
schools and meeting kids where they are experiential learning, having
workforce development pathways from high school on. We also have
to change to make sure that we are meeting the
(23:14):
needs of kids. It can't just always be a fight.
And what I'm saying is that like with the book giveaways,
when you meet the needs of kids and families, when
you create that connection, we create that community. Then what
happens is the community storms for schools and make school
centers of community. And when you do that, we save
(23:35):
democracy because with our kids and with our public schools
comes our democracy.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Amazing as always, Randy Weingarten, I appreciate you. I appreciate
the work that you continue to do with AFT, the
voice that you give to teachers, and the time that
you make for wok A. Really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Thank you, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
H That is it for me today, dear friends on
woke A f as always Power to the people and
to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke
as fuck.
Host
Danielle Moodie
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