Teachers unions protect a failing system because it works for them

OPINION:

As a former staffer for a major local teachers union, I am compelled to respond to Randi Weingarten’s recent op-ed attacking President Trump’s proposal to downsize the Department of Education. Ms. Weingarten suggests that these efforts would harm vulnerable students while saying nothing about how the system is letting down these students. She also attacks the school choice programs that I now fight for — the programs that offer a way out to students whom the system has left behind.

Her claims completely miss the mark, but they are not surprising. I know how the schooling unions operate and what they are truly concerned about, and that’s why I left.

I also know that Ms. Weingarten has had an opportunity to be part of the solution. Instead, the organization she leads has chosen politics over progress and failed the very students it claims to champion. Her criticism isn’t just misleading; it’s deeply hypocritical. She doesn’t speak for families like mine or the thousands of parents across this country who have seen the system put power and politics ahead of students and communities.

For decades, teachers unions have wielded immense political influence at the local and national levels. Under that leadership, too many students, especially those who are low-income, Black or Hispanic or have learning differences, have continued to fall further behind. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores tell the story: Achievement gaps are widening. However, academic failure is only part of the problem. In my community, we saw firsthand how the union’s failures helped create the devastation.

Under Ms. Weingarten’s leadership, the teachers union fought hard to keep schools closed, even after it became clear how much harm the closures were causing. They even pressured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to alter guidance on reopening schools and successfully blocked reopening efforts, disproportionately hurting the very students they claim to protect.

I saw those consequences up close. In my community, families didn’t have basic access to remote learning — no laptops, no internet, no support. While the union stalled reopening efforts, I was fundraising to get devices into students’ hands. I launched a grassroots initiative to support Spanish-speaking families during the chaotic attempts to shift to distance learning. Through a Facebook group, I connected with more than 1,200 parents, identified those in need and worked to bridge the digital divide just so children could keep learning. Like so many other parents before me, I took on this task not because it was my job but because somebody had to do it.

Our community knows all too well that we cannot count on the system; we can count on only ourselves.

In her op-ed, Ms. Weingarten warns that eliminating the Department of Education would abandon poor children and students with disabilities. The truth is, many of them already feel forgotten. Federal programs are often bloated, slow and inefficient. Money gets lost in bureaucracy long before it ever reaches a classroom. The union knows this, but addressing it would mean giving up centralized control, and they’re not interested in that.

It is no surprise that more parents than ever are demanding school choice, which allows families an exit path when the education system has failed them. Unsurprisingly, Ms. Weingarten also relies on debunked myths to attack school choice in her piece.

The teachers unions oppose school choice not because it’s bad for children but because it’s bad for their influence. Giving families options means giving up control, so they lobby against the very reforms that would empower parents and improve outcomes for underserved students. I saw this dynamic play out when I worked for the local union, seeing leaders prioritize their political power above all.

The schooling unions protect a failing system because it works for them. It’s one that funds failing schools, shields underperforming teachers and blocks any change that threatens the status quo. This isn’t about children. It’s about maintaining the machine.

Leaving the union wasn’t easy. I once believed in its mission. Over time, I realized it was no longer about students or even about teachers. It became about politics, power and protecting a system that doesn’t work for families like mine.

Eliminating a federal department doesn’t scare me, Ms. Weingarten. What scares me is continuing to pretend the system you defend is working for families like mine.

• Valeria Gurr is an education policy expert, a Hispanic mother and first-generation American, and a former teachers union employee who now fights for education reform and school choice.