AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten Details How Educators Are Stepping Up for Students During Pandemic

Leslie begins the hour with her 'Ripped from the Headlines' news segment.

She's then joined by Randi Weingarten, President of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, which represents teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state and federal government employees; and early childhood educators.

Leslie and Randi discuss how children and parents are dealing with a huge digital divide, which is why the AFT decided to donate 10,000 books to a network of homeless shelters in NYC to help fill the gap. Randi also shares how the COVID-19 pandemic has "exasperated and exposed every inequality" in both our education system and our country as a whole.

Since COVID 19 began, thousands of educators have submitted requests to FirstBook.org for funding to choose and purchase books for their students to support distance learning. A donation to FirstBook.org would help get books into the hands of kids in need across the country. We've posted the link on our video stream and will do the same on all of our social media accounts. So please go to FirstBook.org and donate whatever your budget allows.

The website for the American Federation of Teachers is AFT.org and their Twitter account is @AFTunion. President Randi Weingarten's account is @rweingarten.

The AFT champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for students, their families and communities. The AFT and its members advance these principles through community engagement, organizing, collective bargaining and political activism, and especially through members’ work.