OPINION:
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has once again shown her true colors by boasting that she used the union’s financial clout to meddle in politics.
In a video first shared by Manhattan Institute investigative journalist Stu Smith, Ms. Weingarten detailed her efforts to pressure Target executives into taking a public stand against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota. She bragged about leveraging the teachers’ retirement funds, which hold millions of shares in the retail giant, to push this anti-ICE agenda during a meeting with Target’s leadership.
This meeting wasn’t about better pay for teachers or improved classroom resources. It was pure political theater aimed at undermining President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies.
It’s a stark reminder that the AFT, under Ms. Weingarten’s leadership, functions less as an advocate for educators and more as a political operative for leftists, diverting resources from the actual needs of America’s students and teachers.
This interference with Target is emblematic of a broader pattern wherein Ms. Weingarten and her union prioritize partisan activism over educational excellence. The AFT passed a resolution last year explicitly opposing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration agenda, condemning “detainments, deportations and visa revocations in the strongest terms possible.”
During the chaotic Los Angeles riots last year, Ms. Weingarten put out a statement blasting ICE and criticizing the Trump administration’s use of the National Guard to restore order amid protests against immigration raids.
By weaponizing pension funds to bully corporations such as Target, Ms. Weingarten is using money from teachers’ paychecks as leverage for a political crusade that many educators might not support. It’s a betrayal of trust, turning a professional organization into a tool for ideological warfare.
The National Education Association, the other major teachers union, is equally complicit in this shift toward radical politics. Last year, it passed a resolution committing to help students “organize against ICE raids and deportations” and broadly against Mr. Trump’s policies.
The union encouraged teachers to wear blue on designated days as a form of protest against ICE, hosted anti-ICE trainings for educators, and made pro-open-borders posters available on its website for classrooms.
Just last month, NEA affiliate the Florida Education Association platformed at its official press conference a speaker who described student protests against ICE as “rational” and “required.”
These actions transform schools into hubs of political organizing rather than neutral grounds for learning, distracting from core subjects where American students lag behind.
The consequences of this misplaced focus are evident in our nation’s dismal educational outcomes, despite massive investments. The U.S. spends about $20,000 per student in public schools each year, yet about 80% of our children aren’t proficient in math.
That failure is probably because the teachers unions are more focused on activism than academics, pouring energy into political fights while student achievement suffers.
Ms. Weingarten stepped away from the Democratic National Committee last year after serving for 23 years, ostensibly because of ideological disagreements, but her actions suggest she is still in sync with its liberal wing.
In the last election cycle, a staggering 99.9% of the AFT’s political contributions went to Democrats, turning the union into a political fundraising apparatus for the left.
Ms. Weingarten has forged alliances that smack of global elitism. She announced a partnership between the AFT and the World Economic Forum to create curriculum materials, inviting international bureaucrats to shape American education, prioritizing globalist agendas over foundational skills.
Her new book labels conservatives as fascists, framing disagreements as threats to democracy and demonizing opponents. All this anti-conservative activism while Ms. Weingarten rakes in about half a million dollars annually, a salary that dwarfs what most teachers earn.
Recently, she jetted off to Seattle to stand on the picket line with striking Starbucks baristas, cheering on a dispute over coffee shop wages that has nothing to do with teaching. Why is the head of a teachers union there? Because her allegiance lies with broader left-wing solidarity rather than with improving education.
In 2019, the NEA failed to pass a resolution that would have made student learning its top priority. At its 2025 convention, the NEA’s Teacher of the Year, Ashlie Crosson, proclaimed that her job is “deeply political” and has always been. She acknowledged that activism trumps academics.
In the end, teachers unions such as the AFT and NEA have strayed from their core mission, using dues to bankroll left-wing causes, bully corporations on extraneous issues and push indoctrination over instruction.
Conservative and other ordinary teachers who want to focus on the basics (reading, writing and arithmetic without politics) should starve the beast by opting out of these unions. They can join alternatives, such as the Teacher Freedom Alliance, which offers free liability insurance without ideological baggage.
That mass exodus would get Ms. Weingarten’s attention, forcing her to stay in her lane.
• Corey DeAngelis is a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at Americans for Fair Treatment.
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