Host the start of a new school year, we welcome back Randi Weingarten, president of the 1. 7 million Member Federation of american teachers. What do you see as the Biggest Challenges facing teachers this school year . Guest the Biggest Challenges first off, its great to have backtoschool. My home local, new york city, today is the first day of school for those kids, so i am wishing them the best year, even though its 95 degrees heat, which is always a problem everywhere when you dont have air conditioning, but i think whats happened is the same problems that afflict the nation afflict schools because schools are a melting pot of everything going on in the nation, the salad bowl, whatever you want to say. We deal with everything thats going on. So the division, the hate, the disinformation, is all really hard to overcome when what we should be doing in schools is having a welcome environment and ensuring every school, every public school, is a place parents want to send their kids, Educators Want to work and kids thrive. Theres a lot of effects of covid as well as position and inequities and climate issues that we have to deal with. Loneliness, learning loss. The disconnection that kids still feel. And so it makes it much harder when teachers are underpaid and overworked and have to deal with the noise of all the culture war. Host create a welcoming environment but the students have to show up for that. Im sure you saw the ap story about absenteeism among students. Across the country, students have been absent at record rates since schools reopened during the pandemic. More than a quarter of students missed at least 10 of the 20212022 school year, making them chronically absent. Before the pandemic, only 15 of students missed that much school. All told, an estimated 6. 5 million additional students became chronically absent, according to the date of the ap found. Whats causing that . Guest there are several things. Whats interesting is that in 20212022, we did 5 million worth of grants for backtoschool and a lot of our members went doorknocking to get kids back to school. And we heard from people who said, and kids who said, i have to work, high school kids. And others who said, well, i really dont want to take tests anymore. And others who were just disconnected. And so one of the things that the washington post, after that story, said, is maybe we should do community schools. Wrap services around schools. Make the school the center of community. What we are proposing is this solution for kids and communities campaign, which is not just wrap services around schools. That is important in terms of socialemotional needs and creating the school as a community for kids and families, but Something Else i am proposing is something that i learned back in teaching at a career tech add school when people were trying to kill those, which is experiential learning, handson learning, making school fun and relevant for kids, so if we created all sorts of different pathways for kids, in music, art, afterschool activities, debate, career tech add work tech ed work, and not just the traditional ones like welding or carpentry, but culinary, health care, all the new work, the made in america work. We have a manufacturing renaissance in the country because of joe biden, because of the work in the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure work. What i we create these career paths starting high school why dont we create these career paths starting in high school . When kids see theres something there for them, they feel it. 94 of kids who go to qualified ct programs graduate on time and 70 go to college. So lets make school fun and interesting and engaging and lure kids back because those numbers is the same in terms of charters and privates. Doug harris did a study that shows the School Enrollment issues have not really you know, they are fairly small, the decrease in School Enrollment, but this issue of ensuring the kids feel agency in connection, thats the big issue agency and connection, thats the big issue. Host Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of teachers. Phone lines, democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. And as we often do when you join us, a special line for teachers and students to call in to ask your questions, 202 7488003. Guest and before you take a question, can i just say, to all those students and parents, we are going to do as great a year as we possibly can because you are number one, and to our members and the teachers and paras and school bus drivers, thank you, because they are host you mentioned taking tests. Survey after survey has shown test scores have suffered for students across grades since the pandemic. How do you fix that . How do you catch kids up and what do you tell teachers when it comes to these tests and scores . Guest what we have seen is theres been a tick up. I dont think that is the issue. I think the issue is what you raised earlier on about kids having agency and wanting to be in school. What these tests are, the math and english tests, they are about memorization, not application, and in this age of ai and chatgpt, we have to be focused on application, critical thinking, on discerning fact from fiction. So i think what will happen is the test scores will go up when kids get a sense of i want to be in school. When you start seeing kids saying i want to be back in school, be connected with my community, you will see test scores go up. Host do Teachers Want to be back in the classroom . A question a headline from nbc news. From crisis to catastrophe, schools scramble once again to find teachers. Talking. About a Teacher Shortage guest theres a new website tracking the Teacher Shortage that im starting to use. Its from i am now forgetting the name. We will get it. But there is a Teacher Shortage. People are leaving who do not want to leave because they feel overworked, overburdened and targeted. A guy like pompeo, the former secretary of state its targeting people. Thats not good. But at the same time, whats happened is a lot of teachers have said they want to be teachers, they want to make a difference in kids lives, they want to be listened to. They went decent pay and to have some agency over the work. They want to be able to meet the needs of kids. You are seeing the communities understand that teachers are underpaid. I loved in the last state of the union the president said we should give teachers a raise and there was a standing ovation. Teachers feel both really pressed and holding the weight of the world and some are leaving because of the worst problem is that we are not getting enough new people to come in and young people can see that the teachers are not treated well, so when parents say, i love my kids teacher but i do not want them to become a teacher, that is a problem because teachers really make a difference. Host is it teachershortages. Com . Guest yes, thank you. I cannot believe you said it we have a National Data bank, but you have to look state after state, and what they see is that we actually have a higher shortage this year than last year, and it gets covered up a lot, like take houston. Completely covered up because they say that there is a warm body in a classroom as opposed to somebody who has certification in the areas in which they are teaching. Host and you can see statebystate the shortages reported with a heat map of where the shortages are. Teachershortages. Com. Guest and when you look at the map, what you have on your handy ipad, you also see a lot of it, not all of it, but a lot of it also tracks where teachers are most underpaid and where there is the most kind of culture wars. Host you are talking about guest florida, texas. Host teachershortages. Com. Plenty of calls already. The line for teachers and students, leslie, new haven, connecticut, good morning. Caller good morning. This is leslie, president of the new Haven Federation of teachers. I want to say we are really excited about the real Solution Campaign in new haven. We are committed to creating joyful and confident readers and bringing handson learning experiences for our students during community connections. We know that is good for our students. Can you say more about why these Real Solutions are also going to help with the Teacher Shortage and how it actually impacts our working conditions when we commit to these improvements . Guest i am going to be in new haven in a couple of weeks to see because they have done a really good job wrapping services around schools because we have to integrate social, emotional, and academic work. That is how kids come to us, and we have to integrate them. That means we have to have an infrastructure of those services. But what this does new haven has done this, and, you, leslie, have done this over the course of the last few years. A Wellness Project we did with educators rising, what we saw is that we stopped burnout or limited it when teachers had more autonomy over their work, when they were not just told what to do, when they said, i need x or y, and their principal said, yeah, lets try to make sure that happens. When there when they could actually get the services that kids needed, they felt better about this. And so i do think that the Real Solutions campaign, what tends to happen is that teachers and parents and kids, if you stop looking at the politics in washington, d. C. , and look at what happens in the school, anywhere in the country, whether the school is in a republican or democratic area, the alchemy that happens between teachers and kids and families is such that they are really trying to make sure we help kids, and when teachers cannot or do not have the resources, when they do not have small enough classes, when the building is so hot in the summer or fall that you cannot teach and people are fainting, when you cannot open windows in the respiratory illness, you see that teachers feel really eaten down. Host in new jersey, steve, line for republican. Good morning. Caller yes. Thank you for taking my call. I am a teacher who i feel like i have been forced to be unemployed, even though i am an experienced teacher with a masters degree and certified in more than one state, and have been unable to get a substitute position, even though i am cpa, also, and a very experienced teacher who gets feedback when they passed the cpa and say what a great experience they have had in my classroom, not only as an instructor but trained as a cpa host why do you think you cannot find employment . Caller i have even tried the local schools. I get a song and dance, oh, well, we will see if we need anybody. Guest steve, why dont you write i am all about solutions and trying to solve things. With that kind of credential and the fact that you want to teach, why dont you write me at our website, write me at the website, we will get to you, you are steve, and lets see if we can help you. Because if you would like to teach and you have that cpa credential, lets see what we can do. Because there is far too much bureaucracy and paperwork. The number one issue teachers talk to me about all the time, get rid of the paperwork and let us focus on teaching lets see if we can help. Go to aft. Org, or dm me on twitter. I cannot, because of all the threats i have gotten in life, i cannot give you my emails anymore. You can understand that. But just get to me on either twitter, dms, or on aft. Org, and lets see if we can help you. Host atwater, ohio, line for teachers, good morning. Caller good morning. Randi, i have a question. Guest sure. Caller i just retired at the end of last year and i have to admit i already miss it. I totally agree with everything you say, and chronic absenteeism among students and teachers went ram. After covid rampid after covid. When we introduce common core in the state testing, i feel like teachers were all of a sudden, their pace increased dramatically. My students were struggling to keep up, but it took away the otani and independent autonomy and independence. We did Amazing Things prior to that. That seemed to change. It was like this throw it at the wall, hope they get it, and move on. It took the fun out of teaching. I saw kids, you know, not enjoying education like they did. Do you see that as being a part of the problem or is it just me . Guest no, first off, thank you for teaching, pam. Thank you for all the years you taught. I was the president of the Teachers Union in new york city for a long time, and we ended up , one of the last things i was able to do was help all of those moms, at that point, moms more than dads, but all of those moms who left for a few years to raise their kids. They came back but did not get the same attention. There was an equity. We actually fixed that. I am so glad you came back to teach after you raised kids, but common core, the problem with common core was it was an attempt to actually really get to deeper curriculum knowledge across the country. Like European Countries do, but it became common core testing, not common core teaching. So teachers felt like they were on an Assembly Line to produce test scores as opposed to meeting the needs of kids. That is what it was thrown out, and that is why there was so much going on about it. But that did limit the agency that teachers like you had to actually address how to teach kids. How to meet their needs. And not always look at it through the pace and calendar that somebody gave you. Host staying on curriculum, how much input who should design curriculum . Guest [laughter] host how much input should parents have . And when and how should that input be given . Guest this is going to shock a lot of people who are calling in. Neither parents nor teachers have enough input on curriculum. Neither of them do but there are places that actually have good, programmatic ways of getting to good curriculum. So, on a state level, curriculum is basically done on a state level, not district level. Districts have some latitude, but on a state level. So they are curriculum committees. There are people who sit on the curriculum committees and they report to the state commissioner, this is what should happen. We often say that parents and teachers should be on the curriculum committees and give input so that there is real and put there. But there should be real input from both parents and teachers in terms of curriculum. But that then gets to the question of what you do, like what happened in terms of all of these culture wars . What happens there and banning books . There is also a process in most places about when a book gets read or put in a library there are these processes. There are School Board Meetings and real input that happens, and so when something turns out to be inappropriate, there is a process to actually deal with that. What has happened now, take florida, 60 of the book mans in florida book bans in florida are done by 11 people, most do not have kids in school. The person who actually pushed to ban Amanda Gormans the hose we climb, the book i brought with me the hills we climb, the book i brought with me, that is the poet who did the poem during the inauguration. 24 hours after she did that beautiful poem, i did not hear anybody say, oh my god, that was problematic. It was beautiful and great for Elementary School kids who pushed to ban that . Somebody who has not even read it someone who is a holocaust denier we have to have a news the processes that create input for both parents and teachers. They both have to have agency in the input of curriculum. Host on. Input, i would like to get your thoughts on the group moms for liberty. One of the members was on the program. This is one minute about what she had to say about the founding of moms for liberty. [end video clip] [video clip] we have not put any money in promotion. It has been authentic, facets growth. The media and National News comes out all the time and says this is not happening in and Public Schools, that is not happening. Then a mom opens the backpack of her child and sees the curriculum and the problems. So she googles, who can she go to for help . It turns out, moms for liberties is the only organization that will stand with parents. Parents are starting to see the educational failure in america. Lets lay out what happened. The scores came out last year, followed up this year, we have the lowest math scores in the recorded history of the u. S. , the lowest reading scores since the 1980s. Two thirds of american fourthgraders are not reading on grade level. Parents are starting to wake up to this in question who has been in charge of Public Education and why are my children are learning . [end video clip] host that entry from july. Your thoughts that interview from july. Your thoughts. Guest there are a lot of fantastic parentage is, starting with the ptas, where people have been volunteering for years. Then there is red, white and blue, moms rising, parents get together, with a platform of 5 million parents. Parents, thank god, are looking for ways to be engaged in their kids schools. The other parents i talked about do not do divide and conquer. And in terms of florida, they do not do it she just said. They are curriculums that are done by the state, and you saw this year, the hullabaloo, and frankly, the noxiousness, that the state tested by changing the curriculum on history jested by changing the curriculum on history. Frankly, that has been promoted by people like desantis and, you know, let me just say people like desantis. Ultimately, what we need to do is we need to try to stop these problems, which, by the way, the new research says, according to doug harris and things like that, that these problems actually were caused by the disconnection and by the issues around covid. But when we talk about solving those problems, i talked to anybody, even a group that private southern and law group is called an extremes group. Even a group that basically one of their chapters [indiscernible] i will talk to anybody about trying to solve the problems our kids have of loneliness, of learning loss, illiteracy, but you have to work with teachers, not try to create division. Host you mentioned desantis. Thats good afford, robert, line for independents. Caller good morning. Just picking up on what you just said, the absolute importance of parent engagement in the childs experience in school. With that said, can you tell the viewers if you oppose or support parental notification by the school when their student or child is requesting to use different names or perhaps transition . Do you think it is a thing when the teachers contact parents . I personally think it is horrible. Lets hear your opinion. Thank you. Guest let me just say this in a personal way, i figured out that i was gay when i was in high school. I confided to one of my teachers about it. I loved my parents. I would have hated if my, if that teacher told my parents. I was not ready to tell my parents at that point. I was not. I do not know what i was or what i wanted to do. So this is the question, these are tough issues that teachers have all the time. If somebody confides if something is done that is harming or hurting the kids, absolutely, we have to talk to parents, absolutely. But what if somebody confides in you and says, i do not know what i am or who i am . What do you do . What i did as a teacher when that happens is i go to the guidance counselor, i go to the others, and we try to figure out what is going on, and we try to make a decision in the best interest of the kid. Host and you are on the other side of that when you were a teacher . Guest yeah, and so these are really hard. Most of the time i leaned to we have to tell the parent. But what if you have a situation like this, particularly with trans kids and they do not know what to do . So we have to try to work this through in a way that is in the best interest of kids. I am not saying we get it right all the time. We do not. But there is not a bright line here. I say this personally as a kid who experienced it, and i did not tell my parents until i had until i was a lawyer. Until i was ready to actually deal with their reaction to it. So, you know, it is just a matter of what do we do, how do we wade in . I do not think there is a bright line here in terms of what we do. What is happening is and i want to say one more thing. Kids, we have to meet the needs of kids, and we have to make sure that families are involved, and we have to create a trusting, collaborative setting. And that requires us to work with parents, regardless of ideology. And that is why it is really important to have parental involvement. Host back to the line for educators, this is mina in west hempstead, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for addressing the curriculum. I, retiree i am a retiree. Going back to everything that i have been listening to, and thank you for touching on the moms groups that are not trying to divide parents and teachers because we need parents and teachers together so that we can in what you just explained teach our kids and raise our kids without getting staff burnout and without getting to a Teacher Shortage. One a to flip the script. I know you have been around the country, school just started. For us in new york city, kids came in today. What programs have you seen while visiting schools or what is on the rise out there so that our kids can engage or perhaps you have seen experimental learning . I know we have career Technical Education programs and Career Pathways to help kids. Lets get that out there. What are we doing . Guest so, you know, this new strategy that we have, a lot of it is from places where we have seen things work, like wrapping services around in terms of community schools. Like making sure we are helping teachers help kids with literacy. So not only are we getting out lots and lots of books when others are trying to ban them. We have given out 9 million thus far in book fairs and in bringing families together. But we have something called reading universe. We tested our american educator, we did the american educator literacy magazine this year, which is all to parents and teachers about how to help kids learn. Host and Everything Else we show viewers. Guest exactly, and really be joyful and confident readers. What we are also doing for teachers is that most of us either did our lesson plans late into the night or early in the morning, or all weekend long. What happens i was not a literacy teacher. I was a high school teacher. What happens if one of your kids, you see is having a problem decoding words . You see it and you are not illiteracy teacher or coach not a literacy teacher or coach . Reinvested in reading universe, a free website that wta has not produced, so that we can actually has now produced, so that we can actually help parents and teachers if we see kids having problems with literacy. And get some tools to help just in time. That is the kind of stuff we are doing. Last thing i will say is you just hit on what is my, my school Love Interest these days, which is career tech ed and experiential learning. The more handson learning we do, the more kids feel agency, work in teams, get practical skills they need when they graduate from high school, 60 of kids do not go to college. Lets make sure they are prepared for life. These kind of programs, we have 2200 certifications available according to skillsusa. If we start in high school, not Community College or technical schools, but start in high school, do things like culinary, health care, cybersecurity, i. T. , help train up kids to take these jobs in advanced manufacturing. Could you imagine what it would in in terms of changing the country and kids doing better feeling better about themselves and families feeling like schools are really delivering for them . Host about 10 minutes left with Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of teachers. We will look at the first statement from kathy in delaware, line for republicans, good morning. Caller good morning. I am concerned about the fact that ms. Weingarten is blaming parents for blaming children not going into the teaching profession. I think that is an excuse. Guest i was not blaming parents. I was giving you a poll results from last year that said when parents were asked, they said they loved their kids teachers but they did not want them to go into teaching. Caller now that you have filibustered on my time, i would like to finish what i was saying. Guest i am sorry. Caller millions of dollars of union dues are going to the Democratic Party so that that agenda for dei, pushing parents out of decisionmaking for their children, low test scores from our nation compared to other nations, demonizing the whites i n the school curriculum, and you are double dipping to hundreds of thousands of dollars of the taxpayer money because you do not even step foot in a classroom to teach. I am wondering why you have the audacity to blame parents as your agenda has done in keeping the parents out of the important decisions in their childrens lives. Host let me give Randi Weingarten her response. Guest i have clearly failed in my teaching of cspan today because i did not say any of that stuff, so i am sorry you feel that way about me. I love parents. You know, i am a grandparent myself. I think we really, really need to work with parents all the time. I think it does not matter in terms of ideology. We have to unite the country and create connection and community, regardless of ideology. I am sorry there was nothing that i said today that, you know, it made you actually say, maybe she really does care about this stuff. I am sorry i was not effective. Host a headline from the washington post, masking that schools remains divisive. Should there be masking in k12 schools again . Guest what we really need to do is fix the ventilation. We have to fix the ventilation. The most important thing we can do in terms of and i will get to masking and a second, the most important thing we can do when we have respiratory illnesses is have really good fresh air that moves the air when you have this kind of respiratory virus and whether it is asthma or covid. I think because of i am not a Public Health person. I am a teacher, a lawyer, and i have watched and looked at all the work in Public Health, good fitting masks actually protect people. They protect you, and they protect the people around you, particularly if you are sick. That is what they do. I do not think we will get to a place anymore in this moment of time that requires masks because there is no Public Health the fight about safety for ourselves and others, unfortunately, has been overcome by the disinformation about masks. I say this as somebody who is asthmatic, who really labored intensively every time i had to wear a mask, but i just think we have lost the battle. So making sure that masks are available, that people who are sick have to wear them, even though we do not have any rules that require that morally, they should because if they do not, they will get others sick. It will be voluntary and stigmatizing for either people who do or do not wear masks, but if we do something about ventilation, it will deal with much of the airborne issues. Host back to florida, fort pierce, felicia, the line for educators. Good morning. Caller good morning. First, thank you for your leadership and all of the great education innovators that came before. My grave concern is for democracy itself. Teachers, as you know, First Responders on the frontline of democracy, we are defending it every day, and as a florida resident, there is real reason to get alarmed on the attacks on books, teachers, diversity, all the things that make america great, and to keep american democracy functioning. How can we fight back on book bands and these assaults on our profession and on democracy itself . Guest i would say that at this point, if you believe any of these polls, a spate of them have come out the last few weeks, most of america is with you. Most people believe the book bans are not good. What they actually do is they limit the freedom of parents who want their kids to read these books. People want to make sure that books are available, appropriate books, ageappropriate books are available and that libraries have books. I think the question you are asking is a bigger one than that, which is how do you have a democracy or how do you have a country that is governed in a way where the will of the people is respected and where every voice is respected, and where even when we disagree with each other, we can actually get to solutions instead of smears and instead of completely undermining the Human Dignity of each other . That is the work we have to do in schools and that is the work we have to do a communities. That is the work of democracy. That is what we are trying to do. Thank you for wanting to do it. Host time for one or two more phone calls with Randi Weingarten. A lot of folks from florida. Linda is apparent, come alive for republicans. Good morning. Linda, are you with us . Got to stick by your phone. This is judy in brighton, colorado, line for democrats. Caller hi, randi. Thank you for your leadership. I appreciate it. I am a retired teacher, and then i ran for the state legislature and served on the education committee. I am now the chair of an Organization Called advocates for Public Education policy in colorado. Our organization is fighting against the privatization of corporatization of our Public Schools. We believe that the highstakes game required by the federal government needs to change because we are taking away the authenticity of teaching and the professionalism of teachers. Could you speak to what is happening in houston . And could you also speak to the corporate and the private money that is coming in . We believe it is destroying our Public Education. Guest i think john is going to have to invite me back to do all of those topics. Let me just say this about two of what you raised, which is that still today, over the course of decades, between 85 and 90 of parents send their kids to Public Schools, and that is with lots of different charters and private schools and things like that. This new Voucher Movement right now about universal vouchers you see in florida that has been actually paying for disney trips and kayaks and things like that, which most people would think is an appropriate, this movement is inappropriate, this movement to define Public Schools is worse because what will end up happening is that the Public Schools do not get the money they need to serve all the kids, two other kids who will fall behind and at risk . It is not just the corporatization or the privatization, it is the sense of taking money away from kids who really, really need it, and making sure that we have that for all kids. That is the fight we have to have. The second piece that you said, and i think you heard earlier even in one of the tapes, the weaponization of test scores, what happened in europe is different than what has happened in america. In europe, and several places, schools are priorities, not bars or restaurants, and there was a consistency in terms of what to do, and when covid rates went up, schools got closed again, and schools reopened as much as they could because they were a priority. Test scores went down there, as well, but if you look at the place where they have the best test scores, finland, they do things i am talking about in the Real Solutions campaign, having teachers much more agency and meeting the needs of kids. We need to learn from other places and actually have ways of assessing where kids are, but having it too highstakes as opposed to really meeting the needs of kids is wrong. I agree, we should change it. Host you are going to be back up here on capitol hill next week, september 13, alongside a highprofile group of people to the likes of mark zuckerberg, bill gates, what are you going to be talking about . Guest artificial intelligence, chat gtp. I know lots of people look at things for what is wrong, where are the problems . We look at things for how do we use social media and how do we use technology. This is a game changer. We have to make sure that we protect Peoples Security and deal with disinformation and deepfakes. This can really be helpful, just like the calculator, with the calculator did to math. This chatgtp can really be helpful. It can be helpful in teaching and in other ways, but we have to make sure that the progress and the responsibility on the progress kind of lines up together instead of the progress happening and the responsibility lags behind. So we are meeting with members of congress that day. I was really honored to be invited by senator schumer. I am glad he is taking leadership and trying to bring the public Civil Society and the tech folk together with the senate to say, what do we do . Host Randi Weingarten is the president of