Teacher unions parasitize the public education system to funnel as much money as possible into political power. It really is that simple. All political power gained by teacher unions is wielded to protect the education establishment from any attempts at reform, and to push the most far-left political ideologies they can get away with.
In union-dominated public schools, more parents are realizing that simply asserting beliefs about what is best for their own child is enough to be targeted as an enemy by the teacher union.
“Newly disclosed records reveal the American Federation of Teachers hired a prominent Democratic pollster the following month to survey parents and devise messaging to shore up AFT’s weaknesses – particularly by tarring dissenting parents as racists – and shared it with a senior Department of Education official.”
This article details some results from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the U.S. Department of Education from 2021, which have finally been received and introduced. In the course of investigating how the federal department and the powerful American Federation of Teachers (AFT) shared polling data and messaging ideas, some revealing narratives from the polling have come to light.
“Critical race theory’ has been successfully defined by our opponents, and many parents are also uncomfortable with the idea of teaching ‘systemic racism’ or ‘white privilege,'” it says.
That’s why AFT should go on the attack: “Expose and define your opponents’ real agenda,” which is about “prevent[ing] students from learning all of American history, both the good and bad,” keeping “students of color and their families … invisible in history” and “trying to divide our community to advance their political agenda.”
If you are a parent who opposes Critical Race Theory in the classrooms you fund, you are an opponent with an agenda that needs to be exposed and defined by a powerful special interest in DC. Specifically, you are a divisive racist.
This is just one example from one instance where the union mask slipped. When the unions tell you that they “just want to support teachers,” or “are just fighting for our public schools,” they are lying, and always have been. This is about accumulating and exercising political power. Power over the education system, power over legislatures, and power over parents.