Democrats should ‘break up' with Randi Weingarten, ex-Harris campaign aide argues
'Democratic leaders should thank Weingarten for her service, then lock the door behind her as she makes her way out,' Austin wrote in The Hill. 'As a party leader, Weingarten gaslit Democrats into believing that the best response to the Republican free market smorgasbord of school choice with loosely regulated vouchers is to make sure there is no choice of any kind.'
Weingarten announced that she would be leaving the Democratic National Committee due to a disagreement with party leadership in June.
Austin, the founding director of Education Civil Rights Now and a strong supporter of unions, also called out an affiliate of AFT for wielding 'considerable power to bully politicians and defiant parents into fealty during the school closures.'
6 President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten speaks to a reporter on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 25, 2025.
REUTERS
6 Sen. Kamala Harris looks on as Randi Weingarten speaks to reporters in Detroit, Michigan on May 6, 2019.
REUTERS
The affiliate, United Teachers Los Angeles, strongly opposed Austin's community-organized effort to get teachers back in the classroom throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Weingarten's affiliate initially opposed teaching over zoom. And while United Teachers Los Angeles trapped Los Angeles Unified School District students at home indefinitely, cut off from learning, they rooted their opposition to reopening schools in bizarre racial ideology, not science,' he wrote.
'These Los Angeles Unified School District parents encountered endless Kafkaesque roadblocks erected by Weingarten's union. And as it happened, I watched a group of smart progressive parents I'd been organizing with transform into Trump voters one-by-one. It was like a real-time focus group of the damage Weingarten and her allies were doing to my party's credibility,' Austin continued.
6 Vice President Kamala Harris and Minn. Gov. Tim Walz on stage during a campaign event in Philadelphia, Penn. on Aug. 6, 2024.
Getty Images
6 Vice President Kamala Harris meets labor leaders including Randi Weingarten in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 18, 2021.
Shawn Thew / Pool via CNP / SplashNews.com
Austin said Weingarten's leadership had been 'tragic' for American children.
Austin accused the Democratic Party of 'offshoring' education policy to teachers unions.
'Here's a lesson plan for my party: Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won because they had the guts to challenge party orthodoxy on behalf of the American people. Democrats like Harris — along with every nominee since Walter Mondale who lost in the general election — ran as avatars of party orthodoxy and offshored education policymaking to Weingarten and the teachers unions,' he wrote.
He said former Vice President Kamala Harris never talked about schools in her campaign speeches and said it was by design.
6 President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office of the White House as Secretary of Education Linda McMahon shakes hands with Annette Albright on April 23, 2025.
REUTERS
6 Randi Weingarten joins Democrats during a rally at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 13, 2025.
Getty Images
'Democrats became the party of public education because they had the courage to fight for it. That courage is needed again today — to challenge failed leaders, stand with parents, take back power and fight for democracy,' Austin concluded.
AFT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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