Watching This CA Teachers Union Head Bring His Own Kid to an In-Person Private School Will Make Your Head Explode

Source - Over the weekend, footage surfaced of Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, taking his daughter to pre-school. What should be an innocuous happening is actually monumental since Meyer has blocked a return to school for the other children of Berkeley arguing that school is “unsafe.”

Meyer responded to the video saying “I have my two-year-old in preschool. Unfortunately, there are not public schools for kids her age.”

If there were public schools for two year olds, she would be home and not in school specifically because of people like her father.

A year into this pandemic, we’ve seen all kinds of COVID hypocrites. Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushed for national mask mandates but was frequently spotted maskless. Governor Gavin Newsom dined at the most expensive restaurant in America and sent his kids to in-person private school while enacting some of the most draconian lockdowns in the country.

Politicians like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer told us not to see our families on Thanksgiving but then partied maskless in crowds for President Joe Biden’s victory or even traveled to other states to celebrate.

Governor Andrew Cuomo flew to Georgia to “help” them fight COVID, hugged a bunch of people while maskless, all while telling New Yorkers to mask up and stay home.

All of these people have been collecting a salary while arbitrarily closing businesses. None of them have had to explain why more open states are having the same or better results in fighting the virus than their closed states. The rules are for the little people. 

Before I get into this, a few important points. 

First, this Matt Meyer deserves the right to send his children any place he knows will keep them safe, happy and well adjusted. Good for him that he found a school for his daughter. Regardless of the cheap shot that GuerrillaMomz Twitter account thinks about his race, gender, or choice of hair style. When someone does what's best for their children it's a reason for all of us to celebrate. It's just a goddamned travesty that he's part of the reason why people who can't afford private schools - either because they lost their jobs in the lockdowns or California is taking a huge bite out of the paychecks they do manage - don't have the same ability. Thanks people like Matt Meyer.

Second, let's point out that Covid hypocrisy is bipartisan. It cuts across both parties and every part of the political spectrum. For every Democrat who's violated the very rules they handed down, threaten us with and hold us to, there's a Republican. Like the Lt. Governor of my state who went to a rager graduation party for her niece at the height of lockdowns. 

And I say this as someone whose bewitching Irish Rose has been teaching 400+ elementary school kids, four days a week, since September. But in the Commonwealth of Maskachusetts, she's not eligible for the vaccine yet. But she would be, if she was obese or a smoker. I am not making that up. 

The point being that putting your faith in a politician, any politician, is like believing that the stripper you keep tipping really is into you.

Third, this comparison between a Teacher's Union president and politicians is obviously flawed. They're supposed to work for us, the ones who pay their salaries. He works only for his membership, who also pay his salary. The head of a teacher's union is no more concerned with the quality of your kids' education than the DPW union chief is worried about whether his garbage men left trash at the end of your driveway. Plenty of individual members of the union will care about doing a good job. But if Berkeley's children can't read their diplomas on the day they graduate, that's none of his business. 

But, and this is the fourth and final thing, that doesn't excuse Meyer. Not by a damned sight. As Michael Corelone put it, "We're part of the same hypocrisy, Senator." 

Imagine the towering arrogance it takes to fight to keep schools closed using safety as an excuse, then sending your kid to a school because you can. What, does the virus know it's a private school? Private school teachers aren't in unions. Does Covid-19 only pass from student to teacher if they've got a union card in their wallet? Is it attracted to collective bargaining, the bidding process and grievance procedures? 

It's either a threat or it's not. You can either contract it from being near someone without a mask or you can't. The same rules that apply at Walmart, Home Depot, airlines or the cannabis store should work at ballparks, churches or restaurants. And the rules that allow private schools to be open should open up the public schools. As they're so fond of say, it's science. 

So good for anyone who calls these shameless frauds on their blatant hypocrisy. When all this is over, we need to never forget the ones that made one set of rules for us and another for themselves. And save the receipts.

But then again, maybe we should just remember this happened.