She finally did the math.
The leader of the second-largest teachers’ union in the US linked the worldwide drop in math scores on a key international test to the COVID-19 pandemic — during which she had lobbied against a full return to in-person learning.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued a statement that said remote learning was to blame for the drop in the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment math evaluation after scores were released Tuesday.
“Worldwide, the extraordinary drop in math and reading scores shows how detrimental the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath was to student learning and highlights just how important it is that we prepare now, so we’re not caught off guard during another public health crisis,” Weingarten said.
“In-person learning is where kids do best, which is why educators and their unions worked so hard to reopen US schools for safe in-person learning beginning back in April 2020, and why we’ve spent the last several years following the pandemic prioritizing public schooling and investing in real solutions that help kids recover and thrive,” she added.
Weingarten, 65, had fought the Trump administration’s push to reopen schools nationwide in July of 2020, reportedly calling the decision “reckless” and “cruel” as millions of Americans were sickened with and dying of COVID-19.
“It’s as if [then-President Donald] Trump and [then-Education Secretary Betsy] DeVos want to create chaos and want to jeopardize reopening,” Weingarten told The Guardian about DeVos’ plan to fully open schools in the fall of 2020.
“There’s no other reason why they would be this reckless, this callous, this cruel.”
She then successfully lobbied the Biden administration to put the brakes on a full reopening and allow some teachers to work remotely in the winter of 2021, The Post exclusively revealed.
Earlier this year, Weingarten was accused of “misrepresenting her prior positions” when she claimed she fought to reopen schools beginning in May of 2020.
US 15-year-olds saw their test scores on the PISA assessment drop by 13 points from pre-pandemic levels as part of a worldwide trend.
Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administered the test in the US, downplayed a correlation between the pandemic and the poorer results in a statement Tuesday.
“Most of the change in scores was not due to how long schools were closed,” she said.
The National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the US, told The Post in a statement that the results showed that more investment is needed in American education, but did not mention the pandemic.
“As seen in previous PISA results, ‘high performing’ nations and systems are those that combine high levels of achievement and high levels of support for student learning and well-being,” said NEA President Becky Pringle.