Sooner or later, parents are going to realize that teacher unions are their enemy, and will demand answers from the elected officials who have done little (or nothing) to protect them. This op-ed, “Parents must end the teachers unions’ stranglehold on education” by Corey DeAngelis, drives home a point state lawmakers would do well to consider.
“Teachers unions exploited the pandemic, holding the education of America’s children hostage to extract ransom payments from taxpayers. Yet, the remote learning they pushed revealed that many schools focused more on indoctrination than education. Unions overplayed their hand and awakened a sleeping giant: parents…
Indeed, the problem is that the Democratic Party is a subsidiary of the teachers unions. In fact, unions engage in what is tantamount to money laundering. In 2022, 99.97% of campaign contributions from the American Federation of Teachers went to Democrats. Make no mistake, this one-sided cycling of cash has been taking place for decades. And politicians listen to the special interest dollars over their own constituents.”
Yes. Teacher unions overwhelmingly subsidize Democratic candidates and causes. This begs the question: “Why are so many Republican state lawmakers willing to protect teacher unions?”
The unions make no pretense of working for “Republican” interests, and certainly don’t support anything that could remotely be called “conservative.” In fact, they routinely act as shock troops for the most radically liberal ideologies available. Why would any GOP-dominated state legislature not have rushed to push teacher unions out of the public trough years ago?
The answer is as obvious as it is unfortunate. Radical, left-leaning teacher unions melted into Republican legislatures a long time ago. As demonstrated over years in the ongoing fight for school choice, a lawmaker being Republican, or “conservative,” has been no guarantee that they cast votes in support of educational options for parents. School choice is an obviously conservative position, yet it has taken years of legislative fighting to see even GOP-controlled states pass laws affirming it. Despite the years of handwringing and doom mongering from school choice opponents, the parental choice has real momentum. Parents want choices, and expect their lawmakers to vote accordingly.
As with school choice, the tide of teacher union domination is going to turn. Parents are going to demand another big change in the education status quo, and platitudes from lawmakers about “supporting our schools” won’t pacify them forever.
“If enough Democratic officials locked arms and listened to their constituents, they could once and for all break free from the militants running teachers unions. If they don’t, sooner rather than later, they will be excoriated and punished by parents, who have emerged as one of the most potent voting blocks [sic] in modern American politics.”