Union Leaders Shut Out in Effort to Protest DeVos

WASHINGTON — It’s been a year, but the air is still frigid between Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the leaders of the nation’s teacher unions.

Randi Weingarten, longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, were left out in the cold Thursday as they tried to deliver 80,000 failing “report cards” to DeVos from educators across the country.

The union leaders found locked doors as they tried to enter the Department of Education building to offer their assessment of DeVos’ first year on the job.

Weingarten said the department had been asked for an appointment and knew that the group of about 100 protesters was coming. The department said guards had barred the group because it did not have an appointment.

Among the educators’ chief concerns, Eskelsen García said, is DeVos’ education budget, which calls for $9 billion in cuts, and the department’s rollback of protections for disabled students.

In the report cards, parents and educators leveled criticisms like “education is not and should not be treated as a business,” and “Ms. DeVos should think about the children whose lives she is making infinitely harder with her actions.”

In a video posted by the American Federation of Teachers, the crowd arrived at the Education Department with boxes in hand — the one Weingarten was holding had a report card with a large red “F” scrawled across it — and tried several locked doors.

“This is a remarkable moment,” Weingarten told the crowd, adding of the department: “They knew that teachers and parents and students from all over the country have actually taken their time to say what is going on in their schools. And here on Betsy DeVos’ anniversary, this is the first time that I have ever been to this building where we were not let in — where the educators, where the students, where the parents of America were locked out of the federal Department of Education.”

Liz Hill, a spokeswoman for the department, dismissed the protest as theatrics.

“It’s unfortunate that instead of working to have productive dialogue, the unions decided it was important to pull teachers out of the classroom for a two-hour political publicity stunt — for which they shot their own footage to send to media outlets,” Hill said.

She added that the department had followed a long-standing security protocol, which union officials were aware of from their days protesting President Barack Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan. “Their leaders should know that no one can get in without an appointment,” Hill said. “If they would like to send a representative to the department to deliver their feedback, we’d be happy to accept it.”

Despite a strained relationship, DeVos and Weingarten had a short meeting of the minds in the spring, when they toured schools together in Van Wert, Ohio.

Eskelsen García said the only communication she had had with DeVos was when she sent her a letter and received a voicemail message in return.

“It’s her actions that speak louder than any talking points she may have,” Eskelsen García said in an interview. “People are universally appalled, universally aghast by a year of failures. She should resign; she should make way for someone who is qualified.”

DeVos is the only Cabinet secretary whose security detail includes U.S. marshals, and she has reportedly received more threats than other education secretaries. She has been met with protests in her travels around the country, and last February, she was nearly knocked down when she was blocked from entering a school in Washington by a handful of protesters.

The group that gathered Thursday debated leaving the boxes of report cards outside the department, but Eskelsen García expressed concern that doing so would be seen as a bomb threat. Union officials said they would try again to deliver the boxes.