American Federation of Teachers Head: School Choice Helps ‘Spread Teaching of Junk Creationist Science’

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Dr. Susan Berry

With National School Choice Week underway in the United States, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), tweeted out her disdain for school choice vouchers for private schools with a link to a piece written at MSNBC by Zack Kopplin two years ago.

In “Creationism Spreading in Schools, Thanks to Vouchers,” Kopplin complains:

There is no doubt that there are hundreds more creationist voucher schools that have yet to be identified. The more than 300 schools I have already found are those that have publicly stated on their websites that they teach creationism or use creationist curricula.

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Advocates for vouchers argue that private schools and more competition would offer a better education for American students. Schools that teach creationism and do not meet basic science standards will fail our students and do not deserve taxpayer funding.

Despite the billions of taxpayer dollars that have been poured into public schools with no gains made, Weingarten, who heads one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions, wrote in November about the then-upcoming gubernatorial race in her native New York between Andrew Cuomo and Rob Astorino. She said, “It’s well past time to fund our schools, care for our children, support our teachers, and stand up for workers and working families everywhere in our state.”

Weingarten condemned Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s “politics of destruction, public education funding cuts and attacks on workers’ voices,” and hopes the same will not occur in New York.

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