The real aim is revealed in Weingarten’s choice to devote most of its pages to attacking her political opponents—especially supporters of school choice—and defending the interests of the American Federation of Teachers.
Claiming that 90 percent of kids in America attend public schools, Weingarten argues that the school-choice movement will destroy the institutions responsible for educating our citizens and nurturing democracy. For starters, that figure is outdated. Data from the 2021 Census indicate that the share of public school students stood at 81.9 percent. And that’s before the expansion of universal school choice in states like Texas and New Hampshire. Half of American children now have access to school choice.
Weingarten characterizes the school-choice movement as a conspiracy orchestrated by Christopher Rufo, Moms for Liberty, and other right-wing activists—a “plot to destroy public education,” in her words. The real drivers of the choice movement, however, are parents like Virginia Walden Ford, a black, low-income mother in Washington, D.C., who grew frustrated watching her son struggle in public school and helped create the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program—the nation’s first federally funded voucher initiative.
Weingarten also insists that vouchers are devised by whites to undermine desegregation. This isn’t just wrong—it gets the history completely backward. In fact, some teachers’ unions fought vouchers because they facilitated integration.