Biden Nixed Returning Kids to School After Mtg With Union Boss

President Biden dropped the administration’s goal for kids returning to school post-pandemic in order to avoid conflict with teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten, according to The Atlantic writer Franklin Foer’s new book, The Last Politician.

“For the sake of avoiding conflict, especially conflict with an ally, the Biden administration trimmed its goal of returning kids to school to a fraction of what had been promised on the campaign trail,” Foer wrote.

“The announcement came as an aside in a press conference,” he continued. “Jen Psaki explained that Biden had really meant that he wanted more than half of the pre-K-to-8 schools to attend at least one in-person session a week by the end of his first hundred days.”

“He was, in effect, conceding that for thousands of students, the rest of the school year would be lost to the pandemic,” Foer wrote. “It was the price of peace.”

Foer also wrote that on the first day of Biden’s presidency, first lady Jill Biden invited Weingarten and National Education Association President Becky Pringle to the White House. “I said I was going to bring you with me to the White House,” the first lady said. “And on day one, you’re here.”

Seven days after that meeting, Weingarten received a call from the president at her home in New York. “I am not abandoning you on schools. I want you to know that,” Biden told her.

Biden was not going to force teachers back into the classroom, Foer wrote, instead having the first lady act as a catalyst to get them behind the move.