In Search of Scapegoats: The GOP’s Failed Scheme to Blame the American Federation of Teachers for School Closures During the Pandemic

AFT has prepared this report on the investigation conducted by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (“Select Subcommittee”). Although the Select Subcommittee was authorized at the dawn of the 118th Congress to investigate a set of nine worthy and important issues relating to the pandemic, including the societal effects of school closures, its work has devolved and deteriorated into an extended effort by the Select Subcommittee’s Republican-led Majority to demonize and scapegoat educators and their unions—including most notably, the AFT and its president, Randi Weingarten. This report documents that effort, and summarizes the detailed facts that refute the false and incendiary claims that the AFT’s goals were, at any time, anything other than the safe reopening of schools for in-person learning.