Fox News: Weingarten warns ending Education Dept could hurt kids like school shutdowns during COVID

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Weingarten warns ending Education Dept could hurt kids like school shutdowns during COVID

Randi Weingarten fears abolishing the Department of Education will "hurt" students, and could be as harmful as the school closures during COVID.......                    ...                        ...Teachers union boss Randi Weingarten says she is concerned that shutting down the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login could be as harmful to students as the school closures were during COVID.  ......On Thursday, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login signed an executive order instructing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of shuttering the department.......The executive order You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely."......"You know, you can eviscerate a department by laying off its people, by shutting down a web service or online service," Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said Friday on Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." ......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......"And so, what I don't want is, I don't want it so shut down in so many ways that kids are really hurt. And then somebody says, 'Oops, we didn't mean to do that.' Kids go through kindergarten once," Weingarten added. "We already saw during COVID the longstanding problems that happened when schools were shut down too long. We got to make sure we get this right for kids."......Weingarten, AFT and other teachers' unions have been criticized for years for their reactions to the coronavirus pandemic and reluctance to reopen schools.......In July 2020, Weingarten slammed the Trump administration's guidelines to reopen schools by fall 2020 as "reckless," "callous" and "cruel." She later called on Congress for more federal funding for schools and threatened a strike if they reopened without implementing expansive safety precautions like mask mandates, 6-foot social distancing requirements (up from the CDC's recommended 3-foot distance at the time), and updated ventilation systems. ......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login showed AFT had successfully lobbied the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to be more cautious in its guidelines for school openings.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......American students' reading skills have continued to decline since the COVID-19 pandemic, while their math skills have barely improved in the last two years, according to the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login" the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released by the Department of Education in January......."Today's NAEP results reveal a heartbreaking reality for American students and confirm our worst fears: not only did most students not recover from pandemic-related learning loss, but those students who were the most behind and needed the most support have fallen even further behind," the Education Department said in a statement. "Despite the billions of dollars that the federal government invests in K-12 education annually, and the approximately $190 billion in federal pandemic funds, our education system continues to fail students across the nation."......In a Wednesday You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login the AFT said that the dismantling of the Department of Education is "a move that most people in America don't want because it will diminish opportunity for students." ......Weingarten suggested that she will be suing the Trump administration with a quote in the press release that said, "See you in court." ...

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