‘Parents Union’ Blasts Teachers Union Influence On Biden School Closures, Calling CDC ‘Infected’

A Parents Union — a counterpoint to the powerful teachers unions and the PTAs, which also reflect teachers’ interests — has come out swinging against the Biden administration’s twisting of science to keep schools closed.

A group calling itself the National Parents Union said Wednesday:

The Biden administration has asked parents and families to trust the guidance of the [Centers for Disease Control (CDC)] … But it is now clear that when it comes to school reopening guidance, the recommendations from the CDC were tainted by outside influence, including teachers unions, who had no expertise in the area of public health … Allowing outside groups to influence CDC decision-making breaks the trust that President Biden is trying to build with families and raises the question as to whether guidance is based on politics or science. If the administration wants the trust of parents and families, they should not allow the CDC to become infected by partisan politics and union posturing.

Democrats have frequently ordered people to “trust the science” in accepting school closures and mask requirements, but emails disclosed by the New York Post Saturday showed that the CDC recommendations on reopening schools were influenced by lobbying from teachers unions, with the health agency adopting some union suggestions nearly verbatim.

On February 3, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said, “There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated.”

But after honchos with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) had what the AFT called a “rich discussion” with CDC officials, the guidance issued February 12 was much more restrictive.

“I can assure you that this is free from political meddling,” Walensky said at the time.

The Parents Union teaches parents how to write cease and desist letters to schools, how to file Freedom of Information Act requests to shake secrets loose from school systems, and about their rights to homeschool.

Its president, Keri Rodrigues, is a former labor activist with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and an elected member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, according to her biography.

The group says it “unites parents of color, low-income parents, special needs parents, single mothers and fathers, grandparents, formerly incarcerated parents and parents in recovery with traditionally represented parent voices to join a vibrant coalition that disrupts the traditional role of parent voice in policy space.”

Despite more than fifty million children in public schools, and the drastic impact school closures have had on families, parents have had little voice, especially juxtaposed against the National Education Association — the largest union in the country, and which counts first lady Jill Biden as a member — and the well-heeled American Federation of Teachers.

Parents looking for someone who would advocate for their interests have found themselves out of luck with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), which criticized President Trump’s effort to re-open schools and opposes positions supported by most parents, such as school vouchers.

The PTA, The Daily Wire previously found, has teachers union officials in top roles.

Elena Fishbein, a parent activist with a group called No Left Turn, told The Daily Wire: “Being involved in education is not selling wrapping paper to help teachers. That’s what the role of parents has been reduced to by the PTA. Parents would be asking tough questions, because there are a lot of problems in schools. Yet the supposed parents’ association is sitting there planning parties?”

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