Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, stood in front of an Alaska Nurses Association backdrop last week — not a classroom, not a school board meeting, a nurses' union backdrop — and screamed into a microphone about immigration enforcement. "They should not be detained or deported because we have a broken immigration system!" Weingarten shouted. "This is one of the most despicable things that our current government does!"
Forty percent of American fourth graders can't read at a basic level. But sure, let's talk about deportation policy.
Weingarten was in Alaska stumping for Democrat Senate hopeful Mary Peltola, who is running against Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in what's shaping up to be one of the tighter midterm races. Peltola has been trying to pitch herself as a pragmatic moderate. Having the head of the nation's largest teachers union shrieking about how immigration enforcement is "despicable" next to your campaign logo is an interesting way to sell moderation.
The AFT's own filings for the period between July 2025 and June 2026 show Weingarten pulled in $546,158 in total compensation. Half a million dollars a year to lead an organization whose stated mission is improving public education in America. The 2024 NAEP results — the Nation's Report Card — found that only 31 percent of fourth graders scored at or above proficiency in reading. One-third of eighth graders fell below the basic mark. Reading scores dropped 2 points at both grade levels compared to 2022.
Weingarten's response to that crisis has been to launch a boycott of Target. The AFT directed its 1.8 million members to take their back-to-school shopping dollars elsewhere because Target wasn't sufficiently vocal against ICE operations in Minnesota. Not reading programs. Not tutoring initiatives. A retail boycott over immigration enforcement.
Actor Dean Cain summed it up on X: "I thought she was President of the teacher's union, or something like that.... for over $500k a year!! Why have our test scores plummeted? Why can't our kids read? Do your friggin' job, lady."
The woman who kept schools shuttered during COVID — while private and parochial schools found ways to stay open — has moved on from pandemic-era damage control to a new project: positioning the AFT as the moral opposition to federal immigration law. Every hour Weingarten spends on a stage in Alaska ranting about deportations is an hour she's not spending on the 40 percent of nine-year-olds in this country who can't read their own textbooks.
As reported by Louder With Crowder, the video of Weingarten's tirade went viral the first week of October, with the two Democrats seated beside her on stage visibly uncomfortable as she escalated. That image — the union boss losing control while her own allies squirm — tells you everything about where the AFT's priorities actually are.
Weingarten called immigration enforcement "one of the most despicable things that our current government does." The NAEP scores suggest she might want to check closer to home.
Fourth graders can't read. The union boss is in Alaska.
