See Teachers Union Head Deliver Classroom Supplies To A Bus Driver
See a teachers union head delivering classroom supplies in a rarely captured good deed.
For the past few months, teacher’s unions across the country have been taken to task for their very unpopular stances regarding the direction of public education. They have backed critical race theory being taught, they have forced school closures while trying to strong-arm city and state leaders to their way of thinking, and they have threatened even more walkouts over the return to in-person learning, which they feel is less than safe. But with all that bad publicity, there is also some good being done by one teacher’s union in particular and we’d be remiss if we didn’t make mention of it.
You can see Weingarten and AFT’s good deed below.
Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a union that represents over 1.7 million members that include teachers, higher education faculty and staff, and early childhood educators. Weingarten has served in her position as AFT president since 2011. Prior to that, she was the president of the United Federation of Teachers, a smaller but equally as powerful, teachers’ union that represents nearly 200,000 educators in the New York City public school system.
The good deed, led by Weingarten, came with the AFT announcing a $400,000 fund to DonorsChoose, an organization that helps teachers and educators across the country with their basic classroom needs. AFTs $400,000 funding will go toward the requests of over 800 teachers and school staff for items they feel they need which will make a difference in any school-related situation. AFT says their funding will affect over 600 schools by providing them with learning materials, papers, pencils, books, personal hygiene products, personal protective gear, cleaning supplies, and any other materials that can be used to enhance student learning and safety.
Weingarten kicked off the funding in a special way as she appeared in a short AFT video clip arriving at an unnamed school facility announcing, “Books for the bus.” She then went on to explain that she was bringing these materials – a basket filled with children’s books – to an unsuspecting school bus driver. Now, you may be asking yourself, why would Weingarten be bringing books to a school bus driver? Well, there are many times that kids need to be entertained on a bus and reading is a great way to make that happen. There are plenty of bus drivers out there who are trying to help kids in any way they can.
The teachers union leader Weingarten says she is there to surprise bus driver Flo Lopez, and the books are just a small part of what the AFT has done to pledge support of DonorsChoose. Weingarten said, “We wanted to do a little bit of joy in this beginning of March to actually get supplies to people who ask for them, for their kids.” Weingarten can then be seen walking inside the facility carrying a basket of books. She then presents them to a very happy and “all shaky” Lopez.
Along with Lopez, the teachers union claims that hundreds of school teachers and staff will be receiving supplies by mail within the next week. It is a wonderful undertaking that DonorsChoose has started and even better now that AFT has donated their large sum of money. The results can only be positive.
How DonorsChoose works is a teacher or school staff will go to their website and make their request. They explain what they need if it is for a project or simply classroom supplies. Their request gets posted and then donors make their pledge. The website makes it easy to navigate, whether a donor is looking to help local schools or branch out nationally. Donors can choose by subject, by age group, and even by requests for specific items. It is nice to get some good news coming from a teachers union. It’d be even nicer if that became the norm.
