Moms for Liberty co-founder challenges American Federation of Teachers president to debate

With an accusation of low reading proficiency scores being ignored nationwide, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice challenged the president of American Federation of Teachers to a televised debate about the nation's education system.

Justice hopes to debate the "failing education system" with AFT President Randi Weingarten on Jan. 18 in New York City, according to a Wednesday press release from Moms for Liberty.

"Weingarten owes students and their parents real answers," Justice said. "She claims to share a passion for education, so I sincerely hope she is ready to answer the questions of parents across the country — why are we being cut out of our children’s schools? And why are students performing at the lowest academic levels in US history?"

Justice posed a similar challenge to Weingarten in November, tagging Weingarten in a post on X in which she said she would "debate one on one with you or with others — your choice."

Andrew Crook, press secretary for AFT, pointed to Moms for Liberty's recent scandals as the reason for the requested debate, including election losses in November 2023, two Kentucky chapter chairs posing for a photo with Proud Boy members and co-founder Bridget Ziegler's involvement in a three-way relationship between another woman and her husband and Florida Republican chair Christian Ziegler.

“When extremist groups start to crumble they resort to stunts and smears to try and stay relevant," he said. "Well, the time for stunts and smears is over. Educators are getting on with the real work of helping kids recover and thrive. Tiffany and whatever remains of Moms for Liberty should do the same.”

Who they are: American Federation of Teachers and Moms for Liberty

An affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the American Federation of Teachers was founded in 1916 and represents 1.72 million members in more than 3,000 local affiliates around the nation. Its members include pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, as well as higher education faculty and staff, other school-related personnel, government employees and healthcare professionals.

Moms for Liberty, founded by former Indian River County school board member Justice and former Brevard school board member Tina Descovich in 2021, is a conservative group advocating for parental rights in public education.

At its inception, the group was outspoken against COVID-19 restrictions in schools, and has since spoken out against schools including critical race theory, LGBTQ topics and materials they believe to be inappropriate. It's garnered national attention for its members' protests at school board meetings and efforts to remove books from school libraries, with the Southern Poverty Law Center naming it an extremist group in June 2023.

According to the group's X account, it has 300 chapters in 48 states, with 130,000 members.

'Take responsibility for the damage done to children's education'

Justice said she prompted to call for the debate as she has been "watching as the education system is failing."

"Parents are coming and wanting to have a voice, and wanting to have more of a say in what's happening hte in schools and be more involved, and again, we're being pushed out," she said. "The time is now. Our kids don't have any time to lose."

In Justice's challenge to Weingarten, she accused the AFT president of "continually (ignoring) the fact that only 33% of fourth graders are reading on grade level" in the U.S., a statistic backed up by the National Assessment of Educational Progress as of 2022.

"The American public education system is failing, and will continue to fail until someone says enough is enough," Justice said.

It's not yet confirmed if the debate will take place, though Justice told FLORIDA TODAY that MSNBC had agreed to host the debate on Jan. 18 in New York City if Weingarten agreed to join her.

Justice said she hopes to have an "honest conversation."

"I think that a lot of the conversations that we've been having have been intellectually dishonest, and those conversations have been kind of happening past each other in the media and on social media," she said, adding that she hoped to discuss reading issues, what books are and aren't appropriate and discipline problems in classrooms. "Let's come together, teachers and parents, and let's talk about that."

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Moms for Liberty co-founder wants debate with head of teachers union