American Federation of Teachers president says anti-CRT efforts spell ‘the demise of public schools’

The president of the second largest teachers union in America said “the real agenda of the right” is “the demise of public schools,” according to a leaked email.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), criticized Christopher Rufo, director of the Manhattan Institute’s initiative on critical race theory (CRT), and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, in an email to union members.

“The real agenda of the right, as Betsy DeVos, Christopher Rufo and others make clear, is the demise of public schools and the fracturing of our neighborhoods,” Weingarten said in the email.

This is one page of @rweingarten's psychotic email manifesto she sent to union teachers. @RamonaBessinger forwarded it to me.

If you write dumb shit like this, you're too dumb to teach. @realchrisrufo pic.twitter.com/q9VHceoGMI

— Nicole Solas Domestic Terrorist! (@Nicoletta0602) December 23, 2021

CRT argues that America is fundamentally racist at a “structural” level but when implemented, teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its advocates seeking the end of anything that highlights inequality between racial groups, like meritocracy.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called CRT “state-sanctioned racism” and “an elite driven phenomenon, driven by elites in universities, bureaucrats, and corporate America” when he proposed legislation banning it in schools and corporate staff trainings earlier this month.

Rufo has been one of the most prominent critics of CRT, revealing examples of the theory’s use in school curricula, as well as staff trainings in government and America’s largest corporations.

DeVos, as Secretary of Education under former President Donald Trump, was a staunch critic of today's teachers unions. This included a Twitter spat with Weingarten, where DeVos tweeted that 69% of parents would prefer to send their students somewhere beside a public school.

.@rweingarten

It's time for a lesson on accuracy!

Parents don’t "choose" to send their student to a government-assigned school – they actually don’t have a choice at all! In fact, 69% say they’d prefer to send their student elsewhere.

Source: https://t.co/rz6FVx2tIe https://t.co/Hr7rKM3H1l pic.twitter.com/EnJ17HWoQ2

— Secretary Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) December 10, 2019

The AFT was among a network of teacher’s unions that fought against DeVos’s nomination as education secretary in 2017.