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Do Teachers Unions Actually Care About Teaching Anymore?

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  July 21, 2026 5:00 PM

From 2015 to 2025, reading scores in the United States plummeted in 47 of 50 states. Federal data show that kids don't read for pleasure anymore, and even colleges are reporting students come to institutions of higher education unprepared and unable to read textbooks and full-length novels. Math scores aren't much better, with the Nation's Report Card showing just 39 percent of fourth graders perform at or above proficiency in math. That number declines to 28 percent by 8th grade and 22 percent by 12th grade.

If you're wondering why, you need look no further than teachers unions and the face of those organizations: Randi Weingarten. I told you the other day about how Weingarten went on some weird tirade at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) conference recently. There she was joined by Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis, both of whom attacked school choice and both of whom send their kids to private school.

During that conference, the AFT passed a bunch of resolutions. Here are a few of them:

First, the AFT declared May 1 a "Day of Civic Action."

Then it called for the abolition of ICE.

Next, it resolved to undermine parental rights so they can socially transition kids in schools.

The AFT also passed a resolution to mobilize for the 2026 midterms.

And it called to make D.C. a state.

Other resolutions included a call for a "tech tax," warned that billionaires are going to defund government-run schools by pushing for vouchers, called for a repeal of President Trump's national school choice program, demanded Medicare for All, supported "gender-affirming care," called for insurance to cover that "gender-affirming care" and "comprehensive" reproductive care (read: abortion), demanded taxpayer-funded childcare and universal preschool, called for public-sector worker housing developments, and for a ban on pension trustees from investing in businesses that privatize public sector jobs and that opposes collective bargaining.

Can you spot what's missing?

There's not a single resolution about, you know, teaching kids reading and math or improving the abysmal state of most government-run schools. Nothing about teaching kids to write, nothing about bringing up test scores. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Then again, the AFT probably thinks literacy and math are white supremacy.

Apparently, Weingarten just can't be bothered to actually educate anymore, and she's even lost the will to pretend.

She sees government-run schools as vehicles for leftist indoctrination and a bottomless piggy bank off of which public sector employees can mooch until they retire on our dime. The last thing she cares about is actually teaching kids. Kids who can read, write, and do math don't need the Democratic Party-controlled welfare state. That's why they vehemently oppose homeschooling and school choice; they have to funnel kids into their failed schools so they can bring up a generation of ignorant, illiterate, but politically like-minded drones.

In a sane country, Randi Weingarten and her ilk would be run out of town on a rail.

The only contribution she made to schools during her career was colluding with the Biden administration to keep the school doors closed as long as possible in the name of "COVID safety." If she could have gotten away with it, schools would still be closed. And given what the AFT prioritizes, maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing.