Randi Weingarten Calling School Choice Segregationist Is Like The Arsonist “Complaining That The House Is On Fire”
“The segregation is taking place through the ideology pushed by Randy Weingarten, which is diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory. That’s what’s separating students.”
I had the opportunity on September 15, 2023, to appear on Stuart Varney’s show on Fox Business to talk about two stories related to segregation – one about a school principal in Florida who resigned after protests by Black parents that their kids were singled out for a lecture about poor performance, and also Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers calling school choice segregationist.
The segment was promoted across Fox Business and MSN platforms:
Here is the segment:
Partial Transcript (auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Varney (00:00): A Florida elementary school pulled black children from classes, lectured them about poor grades, parents outraged, and the principal forced out. William Jacobson is a law professor at Cornell University and joins me now. Professor, what do you make of only minority kids being pulled aside for a lecture on their poor performance?
WAJ (00:20): Well, I think this is a reflection of the whole problem with diversity, equity, and inclusion, critical race theory, whatever you want to call it. It treats black students as doomed to failure. And that appears to be what was happening in this elementary school, that they presumed that because of the color of skin that they were going to have a harder time. And that sort of stereotype is so negative for the students. And obviously the parents are objecting.
Varney (00:43):
Do you believe that this happens? I wouldn’t say frequently, but happens elsewhere.
WAJ (00:50): I think it’s unusual to have an assembly just for black students or just for white students or just for any, but I think the purpose is there throughout, in the way that students are treated, in the way they’re taught about our society, that there’s systemic racism, that they’re essentially doomed to failure. So whether they pull them out of the classroom and put them in an assembly or they just do it in the classroom, it’s the same problem.
Varney (01:14): Would you just hold on for a second for us, Professor, I’ve got one more subject I’d like you to address after this. Uh, parents are outraged at new comments from Randy Winegarten. Ashley come into this. What did she say?
[report on Weingarten comments]
Varney (02:20):
Alright, thanks Ashley. Come back in Professor Jacobson, please. What do you make of the comment that the language of segregation is the same as the language of school choice?
WAJ (02:32): Well, it’s somebody who obviously can’t see what’s in front of her. School Choice is choice. It’s empowering parents. It’s letting them make the choice where their kids are going to go. But as we’ve seen in the prior segment, the segregation is taking place through the ideology pushed by Randy Weingarten, which is diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory. That’s what’s separating students.
We need to treat all students the same and fairly based on their performance and their merits, not based on their skin color. So Randy Weingarten is like the arsonist who set fire to the house and now is complaining that the house is on fire. She’s the cause of a lot of these problems and her organization
Varney (03:11):
Real fast. Professor, do you get pushed back at Cornell? For your views?
WAJ (03:17):
It varies over time. Sometimes it’s been very intense, sometimes not intense. But I’m still here. I’m still talking to you. And as far as I know, I still have a job. But yes, there is pushback.
Varney (03:28):
That’s good to hear. We don’t want you to lose your job because of us. And that’s a fact. Professor Jacobson, thank you very much for being on the show. I hope we can come back soon too. Thank you, sir.
WAJ (03:36):
Great. Thanks for having me.
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Comments
Randi Weingarten is a poisonous, bigoted person filled with bile. She has contributed nothing. She excels at division. She only knows how to hate. The people she pretends to defend suffer because, in truth, she could care. How else would one draw such an awful and idiotic analogy.
A bitter, ugly leftist, period.
Is there any other kind?
Weingarten is an ass pimple.
Whether or not she believes her ridiculous rhetoric, I think it’s more a matter of “that’s where the money is” for her and her union.
Weingarten has zero empathy for parents and students who suffered during the lockdowns while her union members were paid and is completely devoted to pushing the elements of American Marxism for their throats via her far left membership
“Segregationist”. You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means. LOL
I don’t know the whole story of the black kids being pulled from class and lectured to by the principal but there may be a deeper motive involved. In Baltimore, Detroit, and many inner cities like them black kids are failing terribly. It has been said that the success of your child in school is reflective of the child’s home life. If that’s the case most black children are already at a huge disadvantage. Of course, the first thing a black parent would yell is racism. They never get to the part where their home is unsuitable for any child to be reared in. Thanks to obama, every black person is now a victim until proven not. If their kid is failing it is the school’s fault and the parent will sue if it isn’t corrected. What else can a school do when black kids cannot keep up and are also disciplinary problems? Many institutions are learning that it is easier to just push the black kids through than to stand up and fight for them against the parents.
“Idiocracy” appears to be the destination as it produces the most compliant subjects. Why else would we develop and then support a system that engenders “failure” as a goal?
School choice would tend to result in two educational systems – one for parents who prioritize their children, and one for parents who don’t. Parents who don’t would reap all the negative results they deserve. That might result in some of them adjusting their priorities.
Short-sight on situations. Grab the shiny thing. Instant gratification. Victimhood.
Slavery.
Opportunity abounds when you look beyond your immediate grasp.
Randi Weingarten’s real priorities (in order of most important to trivial) are Randi Weingarten, money, power, teachers, Democratic politicians, news media, ….., dinner, that nice looking new pants suit, …, her choice of toilet paper, laundry supplies, and students.
Well put!
The bell curve explains all. The rest is useless palaver. Deal with it benevolently and rationally, or continue on the accelerating decline into chaos.
Back with the racist nonsense. The bell curve explains a small part of it. The rest is lousy schools due to teachers unions and democrat politicians, and foolish parents.
Randi is first of all looking out for her status and salary. She like other Democrats are fixated on destruction of normal and traditional. She can’t be working for good as we have known it, but rather on dysfunction which her peer group will proclaim to be ‘good’. Next to Hillary Clinton she might be the most vile woman in America.
I have two kids who “attended” our local public school. A total of 12 private tutors later, one is a lawyer and the other is in law school after finishing her MBA. Any parent whose kids are in their local public school should take a really hard look at the quality of their education. In all too many cases it’s almost nonexistent, requiring the parent to pay once in taxes and then again privately for a decent education.
I understand that the good Professor doesn’t get the opportunity to steer a short video interview, especially when live, but it would have been fun to point out that the president of the Chicago Teacher’s Union believes in school choice, since she sent her child to a private school.
Weingarten doesn’t seem to grasp that taxpayer funded education is not the same as govt schools. She and her teacher union seem to mistakenly believe those tax dollars belong to them. That her teacher union members are entitled to a job.
It is past time to end that by an aggressive school choice program in every State where it is possible to provide a similar program as AZ has done. Stop catering to the damn public employee unions, for that matter neuter them by every means possible starting with a prohibition on strikes and requiring new opt in annually.
Still and again, due to the lAw Of tHe Land which scotus established with Janus v. AFSCME in 2018, I blame rank & file teachers for continued funding the inordinate amount of malignant marxist political power the teachers unions wield under the command of malignant marxist meat puppets, like Weingarten.
The rank & file teachers are the problem. To paraphrase that erudite and gracious congresscritter from California, Maxine Waters(D), “Confront them at restuarants, gas stations! Get in their faces! Tell them they’re not wanted here!”
Until that money dries up, nothing will change. Blame the teachers.
I’ve only ever met one teacher who would admit to being in a union. Which was weird, because she worked at a charter school where belonging to a union is worthless.
Well done Professor Jacobson!!!
It may be helpful to consider that for a successful and arguably privileged white person to deny that there has been a history of inequality towards blacks is like the pot calling the kettle black. But at some point, we as a nation do have to move on from the “inherently unfair” narrative, not by denying it , but by seeking a higher ground based on hope and reward for hard work whilst still recognizing the need to help overcome the obstacles and biases oppressed people still have to face on a daily basis. There are more and more examples of black people who did not claim to be victims of inequality and succeeded, the recent victory by the newly elected US House of Representatives Gabe Amo in Rhode Island would be the good example and there are many more, perhaps even Barack Obama (who to this day still endures unjust libel against the contributions and dedication he has bestowed to our country). However hopefull these examples are, both of these remarkable people are unfortunately the exception and not the norm. The recent Supreme court decision to end college admissions based on race was monumental progress in the direction of change that the conservative critics of the educational system won, why are they not satisfied that this landmark decision will pave way for the future that they successfully litigated? Conservatives delivered a knockout punch and prevailed brilliantly, why are they still so afraid of the truth about our history that they feel it’s necessary to bury it?
Conservatives are not trying to bury the truth about the warts of America’s past. Conservatives want to go forward eliminating racial preferences judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, a la Martin Luther King in 1964. We should eliminate race as a criterion for anything! What conservatives don’t like is the preferential treatment given to those of a race who were subjugated in the past. Let the past be past and move toward a society that just doesn’t care what color you are. Let all those with their hand out for freebies from the government learn to earn their way through life like everybody else does.
Competition raises all boats, Randi.