‘Borderline Illiterate’: Christopher Rufo rips teachers union boss for ‘absolutely deranged’ attack against parents

Christopher Rufo and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, have publicly feuded over the future of America’s public education system in recent weeks.
Weingarten said Rufo and “far-right advocates of privatizing public education” are “using Big Lies to undermine public schools,” according to her Friday op-ed in Time magazine.
“Randi’s legacy is one of failure, is one of harming kids, and is one of working against the interests of parents,” Rufo told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “She should immediately resign and enroll in a remedial English and grammar course.”

Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo ripped American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten in a Monday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation, addressing the latest battle in an ongoing feud.

Weingarten wrote a Friday op-ed in Time magazine titled “Extremists Are Using Lies to Undermine America’s Public Schools: We Need to Take a Stand,” which criticized “Rufo and other dark money-funded extremists” for their “attack” on public schools. Rufo, an advocate against the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools, responded to the op-ed, calling Weingarten “perhaps the single greatest oppressor of American children in the United States today.”

“She is virulently anti-education,” Rufo told the DCNF. “She wants to trap poor kids in failing schools with no exit and she’s fighting against the average parent, who simply wants to have a bit more control over his or her child’s education.”

“Sadly, Chris doesn’t like to be called out for not telling the truth,” Weingarten told the DCNF when reached for comment.

Weingarten claimed that “far-right advocates of privatizing public education are using Big Lies to undermine public schools,” calling on public school supporters to stand against “these ugly attacks,” according to the op-ed, which was written with Jonah Edelman, the CEO of Stand for Children. She also mentioned a lecture Rufo gave at Hillsdale College, where he discussed school choice.

In her op-ed, Weingarten also said “Rufo and other dark money-funded extremists” attack public schools through “lies, smears and distortions that stoke fear and anger” which are “spread on social media and Fox News.”

“They are demanding teachers remain neutral on, or worse—teach both sides of—Nazism, slavery, lynching, and other historical atrocities,” the op-ed read.

Rufo said Weingarten’s rhetoric “comparing parents who want to have more school choice to genocidal Nazi propaganda …. is absolutely deranged.”

“It mocks and minimizes the legacy of the Nazis’ brutal crimes against millions of people, and shows the absolutely lunatic desperation of people like Randi Weingarten, who have wrecked their own credibility, who have destroyed the education for kids for the last two years, and are seeking to find a convenient scapegoat,” Rufo told the DCNF. “She can come after me, but what she doesn’t know is that I represent millions of American parents, and they’re not going to be stopped by a petulant, whiny, deranged, middle aged bureaucrat like Randi Weingarten.”

Weingarten doubled down, stating the school choice movement, promoted by “Rufo and other extremists,” will “increase segregation,” undermine democracy and erode America’s middle class.

Rufo told the DCNF that Weingarten is “a borderline illiterate” evidenced by “her horrific punctuation and her tweets.”

“Randi’s legacy is one of failure, is one of harming kids, and is one of working against the interests of parents,” he concluded. “She should immediately resign and enroll in...

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