September 2020
RADICAL TEACHERS’ UNIONS: IT IS NOT ABOUT THE CHILDREN
While our cities are being ransacked, local economies are struggling, and families are trying to return to a normal life, teachers’ unions are exploiting the coronavirus fears and social unrest to advance their radical ideology. Schools have resisted opening. Teachers have worried on Twitter about parents’ being able to see what they are teaching in their online classrooms. In one school district, teachers staged a “sick out” on opening day to protest having to go to work, forcing classes to be cancelled that day. It is time to ask an important question: “Is this really about the children and their wellbeing?”
Be afraid, but not for the reason you might think.
The public angst over whether schools should open back up and whether teachers should “put their lives at risk” has created unnecessary fear for teachers, students, and parents. A more urgent alarm for all of us should be that there is an intentional effort on the part of some teachers and school districts to hide what they are teaching in their classrooms. With so much emphasis now on students’ personal and political lives, especially their sexuality and activism, teachers assure them that their conversations are “confidential” and “private,” and their classrooms are “safe spaces” where they can share very personal matters. Their parents “don’t have to know” because parents are often viewed as problems to overcome. Not all teachers feel this way, of course, but the national teachers’ unions have promoted these ideas for years.
Teachers’ unions are well-funded and politically powerful Democrats.
Parents and teachers might not know that the National Education Association (NEA) prides itself on being the nation’s largest labor union, boasting a membership of three million, from preschool teachers to college instructors. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teachers’ association. Most states have state organizations, also, that are affiliated with the national groups.
The NEA and AFT are far left, progressive associations that promote far left, progressive politics at every turn, including the national Democrat Party platform. Politics and social justice indoctrination, not our children’s education, are always their top priorities.
Highly paid NEA lobbyists stalk the hallways in Washington, DC to push for liberal policies and causes. At least 94% of the $143.5 million that the NEA has contributed to federal candidate campaigns and political action committees since 1990 has gone to Democrats. Both the NEA and the AFT have officially endorsed Joe Biden for President and have also posted rave reviews of his vice-presidential pick, Kamala Harris.
Teachers’ unions do not keep their mission a secret.
The easiest way to find out what the NEA plans for public schools is to follow what the delegates address each year at their national convention. Social justice issues are always at the forefront: graphic sex education beginning in early elementary school, LGBT and transgender issues, opposition to school choice, anti-American narratives of U.S. history, and now the Marxist Black Lives Matter curriculum. Leftist ideology runs so rampant that 2+2=4 is considered by some education “thought leaders” to be a white supremacist concept.
States have their own teachers’ unions, and they are often just as bad.
A frequent response of local boards of education to parents who express concerns about the NEA’s radicalism is, “Don’t worry. Most of our teachers belong to the state association.” The implication is that state teachers’ unions would never foster political extremism. State teachers’ associations are usually in lock-step with the national groups, however, and they heavily utilize the extensive resources that are provided to the states. State boards of education, along with curriculum specialists and textbook committees, are also influenced by national teachers’ unions’ philosophies.
COVID-19 has made their agenda more transparent.
Even though national health associations favor students’ returning to school, teachers’ unions across the country have taken extraordinarily radical steps to prevent schools from reopening. On August 3, teachers and other union members joined a National Day of Resistance to declare their opposition to returning to work. One university watched as faculty and graduate students participated in a “die-in” outside the university president’s office, while a teachers’ union in Los Angeles demanded that schools not reopen in the fall unless the police were defunded.
Do not forget who is training future teachers and administrators.
Colleges of Education are awash in social justice ideology, and they pass it down to their undergraduate and graduate students. Especially now, education departments post their social justice mission statements, and there is an assumption that all who are in education or who seek to become teachers in the future will abide by these worldviews.
We must understand the ideology and the oversight.
Parents and grandparents know little about this extremism. Most, in fact, think that “their teacher” would never subscribe to these ideologies. The leftist messages come down to local school districts from the NEA and state associations, however, such as this speech by last year’s outgoing NEA president. The unions even address students directly to encourage radical activism.
Being a teacher today means working under much more oversight, from principals and boards of education to Curriculum & Instruction Specialists and standards compliance “experts.” The earlier No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, and now the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), have increased the demand that teachers prepare their students for standardized tests using textbooks and materials approved by state textbook committees. This perpetual oversight results in less flexibility for teachers to create their own lesson plans and curricula for their students. Outwardly objecting to teaching worrisome content in the materials is often not an option.
Now is the time for parents to talk with their school leaders.
As parents have been forced the past few months to more intently engage in their children’s education, they undoubtedly have noticed the consternation and protests surrounding the reopening of schools. Why has there been such an extreme reaction, and why, in particular, would any teachers think out loud on social media about the “dangers” of parents’ (especially conservative parents’) being able to watch their children’s online classes? Concerned parents and citizens should take this opportunity to ask questions of their school leaders, and they need to feel confident in their parental rights and influence.
There are resources to help.
United States Parents in Education (USPIE) has a project that encourages and supports parents who want to rescue their children’s education from the extremists. There are many things they can do, both small and large, and there is great strength in numbers. The teachers’ unions count on our not being informed, but they will back down on the local level if they meet determined parents. This might be our best opportunity to make a crucial difference in our children’s futures.
There is a dilemma in American education. On the one hand, teachers are essential to student achievement. On the other, teachers unions promote self-interests of their members which are antithetical to the interests of students. So, how do we fix this problem? In five minutes, Terry Moe, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, delineates this quandary and offers solutions.
HISTORY OF TEACHERS’ UNIONS
And, if you are looking for books to further explain the history of teachers’ unions, we found a few older resources to consider:
Samuel Blumenthal explains in detail how the NEA was created, what its goals are, and what it stands for. Here’s a little hint for you: its NOT about educating our children. The NEA has been since its inception, and continues to be today, a vehicle for Socialist indoctrination of our youth.
In this startling expose, Myron Lieberman shows how the teachers’ unions raise and spend vast sums to maintain their power over education and to push a narrow political agenda. Even dues-paying teachers will be angered to learn how their unions stifle dissent, sabotage meaningful reform, and hold parents hostage to bureaucracy.
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Parents, if you are looking for good books for you and your children to read, Landmark Books series has some biographies that are based upon authentic historical content, and other types of excellent classics. These are books that you and your children will love and will remember forever.