American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten came under fire on Twitter Tuesday after a post pinning blame for America's teacher shortages on "culture wars."
"The truth about America's teacher shortage -it worsened during the pandemic-because of burnout & "the culture wars that put teachers and staff under constant scrutiny over any conversations involving history, racism and sexuality," Weingarten wrote.
The caption coincided a link to a Washington Post article from last month arguing that the teacher shortage emerged in consequence of low pay failing to attract potential educators to the field.
Many platform users took a different perspective on the "culture wars" claim, lambasting Weingarten not only for her remarks, but also for turning off the comments.
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"Of course she has the comments disabled. No need to hear dissenting views," one user named "Ian" tweeted.
Another slammed her for censoring dissent, writing, "You speak as if ‘constant scrutiny’ of what teachers are teaching is a bad thing? You have really lost the plot. Why are replies turned off?"
Others criticized the notion that parents should refrain from criticizing their children's teachers as well as the content of their course curriculum, arguing parents reserve the right to be involved in education.
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Another comment from a former school board candidate from Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Timothy John Mehl, accused Weingarten and her followers of "grooming" children in his tweet, echoing a common criticism from others in the thread.
"There wouldn’t be a culture war if you weren’t grooming kids," he tweeted, alluding to swirling controversies regarding sexually explicit books and instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary school classrooms.
Others slammed the AFT president for refusing to take responsibility for the shortage, labeling her as "out of touch," a "coward" or a "propagandist."
