LETTER: Don’t you dare blame the teachers union for school shutdowns

The results are in and they’re not good. Test scores in elementary school math and reading plummeted to the worst levels seen in decades, according to the first nationally represented report comparing student achievement from just before the pandemic to performance two years later.

Who’s to blame? Teachers, students, parents, remote learning? Dr. Anthony Fauci recently cleared his conscious by saying the student learning declines are not irreversible. Private and charter schools remained opened through it all. Is the national teachers union and its leader, Randi Weingarten, to blame for closing schools for two years? She said she didn’t do it.

No, it’s not the union’s fault. Unions serve their dues-paying members, not the local communities and the greater good of society. School leaders and our elected officials, who listened to the union demands, are to blame.