State Legislators Are Mounting A Stand Against “Critical Theory’s Long March”
Andrew Sullivan: “If the left has stealthily changed public education from above, the right has now used the only power they have to fight back — political clout in state legislatures.”
I know I’ve been repetitive on the loss of institutions at virtually every level of society. But maybe it’s also worth focusing not only on which institutions have been lost, but what remains and how much power what remains can have.
There is, of course, people power that exists outside institutions. That people power in 2021-2022 is focused on the parents’ movement to reclaim their children. It’s not just about Critical Race Theory, it’s about whether children are children of their parents or of the state and teachers unions. That people power also is manifesting itself in disgust with unscientific, irrational, harmful, and abusive lockdowns and Covid-related random acts of government abuse.
But there is an institution that remains, and it’s starting to engage in a serious way.
I touched on this issue in my speech to approximately 100 state legislators last summer — they may not be the only thing that stands between us and the abyss, but they can save the nation, “The fight over Critical Race Theory in education is a fight in many ways for our national survival”:
… I’m speaking to a group, although I only have 15 minutes, in many ways, you are the most important group ever spoken to. Because you can actually make a difference. You are really at the center of what this fight is about, and you can help change the trajectory of the country.
Now, I know you probably thought you were coming to a meeting to talk about educational policy, not how you’re going to save the nation. But I want to talk about how you can save the nation….
The fight over critical race theory in education is a fight in many ways for our national survival. And you are on the front lines of that fight.
The state level is where the action is happening particularly in education. And apart from a handful of Governors’ offices, state legislators are taking it upon themselves because there is almost no one else left.
Andrew Sullivan, in a substack post arguing the that right-wing pushback is becoming as bad as the left-wing push, makes the point that opponents of the “long march through institutions” have turned to the one institution that remains, state legislators (emphasis added):
… And in public education, once again a battleground in the culture war, it seems quite obvious to me that the left bears the burden of responsibility for the conflict.
Critical theory’s long march through the institutions reached its peak some time ago in higher education — and has gone on to capture media, corporate America, medicine, the federal government, tech, science, and every cultural institution. Over $14 billion have been spent on philanthropic “equity” initiatives since the summer of 2020 alone. Of course children’s education would be affected. What hasn’t been? And of course critical theorists aim directly at children. The woke, like the Jesuits, understand the value of instilling certain concepts at a very young age. How else to transform the world?
That’s why Ibram Kendi has bequeathed the world not just one but two books on how to rear “antiracist babies.” The publisher says the new one, Goodnight Racism, “gives children the language to dream of a better world and is the perfect book to add to their social justice toolkit.” My italics. Another recent book, Woke Baby, instructs toddlers to be “a good revolutionary,” and another one explains how “activism begins in the cradle.”
You truly think that in school districts where teachers are saturated in equity training, whose unions invite Kendi to be their keynote speaker, that this is all being made up? Just peruse through all the “equity” conferences, courses, syllabi, lesson plans and curricula that now dominate public ed. Many parents found out only because they overheard what their kids were being taught online during the pandemic. Or you can just surf the web as the woke dismantle schools for the gifted, abolish SATs, describe merit as racist, and lay waste to excellent schools merely because too many Asian-American kids are succeeding in them.
What we’re seeing now is the reaction to this left-wing power grab. And — guess what? — it’s a right-wing power grab. If the left has stealthily changed public education from above, the right has now used the only power they have to fight back — political clout in state legislatures. 122 separate bills have been introduced since January 2021, 71 in the last three weeks alone. They all regulate speech by teachers in public schools, but many are now also reaching into higher education — a much more fraught area — and outright book banning. The bills are rushed; some appear well-intentioned; others are nuts; many are very vague, inviting lawsuits to clarify what they can mean in practice. In most cases, if passed, they will surely chill debate of race and sex and history — and increasingly of gender, sex and homosexuality — in high schools. And that’s a bad thing for liberal education.
State legislators need to draft legislation carefully and constitutionally, but they should not shy away from the fight.
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Comments
Mr. Jacobson,
Dr. Duke Pesta is someone you should meet,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un3dK7sUYRA
His bio,
https://wihomeschool.org/dr-duke-pesta-freedomproject-media/
if passed, they will surely chill debate of race and sex and history — and increasingly of gender, sex and homosexuality — in high schools. And that’s a bad thing for liberal education.
You take the King’s shilling, you march to his fife and drum. Simple as. The fix for this is to end public funding of education above the municipal level, if even there. I’ve yet to see a good argument for public funding of education and it’s not a proper function of government.
The only thing holding them back in my state is parents un-enrolling kids.
We stay only to thumb our noses at the power structure and to be giant pains in the asses.
Legislature has been full steam ahead with this garbage.
With respects to Andrew Sullivan, the pushback has not even been implemented broadly speaking. As to his concerns about casualties and collateral damage; the time for those discussions was prior to and during the leftist assaults over the past decades. Where was the principled stand then? It was largely absent and when present was demonized as reactionary. The unified populist right has finally decided to join the fray and it’s far too late to be concerned with overreach or excess in the manner or methods used to achieve victory.
“The bills are rushed; some appear well-intentioned; others are nuts; many are very vague, inviting lawsuits to clarify what they can mean in practice. In most cases, if passed, they will surely chill debate of race and sex and history — and increasingly of gender, sex and homosexuality — in high schools. And that’s a bad thing for liberal education.”
Yes, it is. However, it has long been the practice of the left to demand the outrageous, and eventually settle for the simply-damaging as if they were doing us a favor. So if badly-written right-wing laws put the left on the defensive side of this fool’s-battle for a change, I will not shed a tear.
First now that the only institutions we are competitive in is state legislatures and the only institutions we could hope to increase clout in for the near future is the United States Federal Government maybe it is time to abandon Laissez Faire? Laissez Faire would mean we are not allowed to use the government for anything which in current circumstances is literally the same as unconditional surrender (and yes 149 years from now the free market sorting it out….I don’t care sorry) so perhaps the Laissez Faire principle which cause us to squander a golden opportunity in 2017 should go?
Second
“, if passed, they will surely chill debate of race and sex and history — and increasingly of gender, sex and homosexuality — in high schools.”
And getting this garbage out of public schools is bad how exactly??? I actually experienced these “conversations” they are what they are designed as and they need to be removed. Furthermore a trial lawyer will find that the law on education curricula is what the state legislature says it is, the right to teach what you want to due to freedom of speech ranks right up there with a bus drivers right to drop you off at the wrong location due to his freedom of movement.
For all the doomsaying about anti-CRT bills coming up with that sort of thing just makes me more determined to use government not less. Two birds one stone.
“maybe it is time to abandon Laissez Faire? Laissez Faire would mean we are not allowed to use the government for anything”
What a silly argument. That’s like suggesting people “abandon the nonaggression principle” because people are aggressing against them. But self-defense is not aggression.
What’s more ridiculous is that you suggest abandoning laissez-faire as if we still had it in the first place. This entire problem comes about because laissez-faire was abandoned long ago. Enforcing it again “would mean that THEY are not allowed to use the government for anything, either.”
So no regulations to protect employees from CRT loving employers forcing their beliefs on them? No using the government to regulate more freedom of speech in the public sphere so google can’t algorithmically rig the debate next time?
Yes Laissez Faire is surrender. It is surrender to corporate America on the culture war it is waging, it is surrender to big tech in the culture war, and it is surrender everywhere else to.
I am however surprised you think DeSantis (who has abandoned Laissez Faire and passed regulation of big tech and intends to go farther so isn’t repentant about it) is wrong.
Institutions we have-State Government. Institutions we may be able to gain some power in-US Federal Government
Institutions the left has
Education
Entertainment
Corporate America
Military
Media
Big Tech
Yep lets keep a principle that says we aren’t allowed to use government for anything then repeat the catastrophic mistakes of 2017-2018, we could instead of regulating big tech lower Jeff Bezos taxes again!!!
This is not about laissez-faire (government education is not the free market, nor is it private business), so this discussion got a bit derailed by an unfortunate word choice. But this discussion must be had on the right.
Me? I want state governments to stop this CRT indoctrination post hasty. Only they have the power to do so (because, again, these are not private businesses or in any way a part of the free market); these are government entities that have gone off the rails and can only be corrected by government.
You may think differently, and that’s great. But think it through just a tiny bit (i.e. government-run and (taxpayer-)funded public schools are not Twitter).
But I don’t think private schools should be permitted to teach people that they are oppressors or oppressed based on the color of their skin, perform deliberate segregation, or falsify history either and don’t think the principles of the free market are a good reason the state legislatures shouldn’t use their power an these private (as in private enterprise) schools. I also think the state legislatures should use their influence on colleges for promoting the positive and demoting the negative.
I also think we should be protecting employees against their pro-CRT bosses, so they can’t be forced to submit to CRT indoctrination as a condition of employment as millions are today.
Even with education we are using a large power structure against a smaller power structure when we employ the state legislature.
Even the argument public school is government (which is 100% accurate) how are we going to pass big tech regulation so we could actually engage in communications with people who aren’t already committed Republicans? Big tech isn’t government.
There is also big finance. While they are fringe figures on the right big finance has blacklisted members of the right and suffered no free market consequences.
Do you really think we won’t be blacklisted to eventually? Better to stop the problem while it still only impacts the fringes.
The public square has been heavily regulated for every generation of American history there never was a point where the U.S. Government would have permitted corporate suites to make the call on what speech is allowed because in a Republic speech is politics (which is not a bad word).
It is also regulated today only instead of the tradition of the U.S. government doing the regulating the Democratic Party does.
Danny, I think that we mostly agree, but I also think that there are some minor flaws in your logic. For example, you write, “Even with education we are using a large power structure against a smaller power structure when we employ the state legislature.” What does that even mean? K-12 is state-run and as such is under the purview of state government. This is like saying the Department of Justice uses its larger power structure against the smaller power structure of the FBI (a DOJ agency). Well, yes, of course it does. So? That’s how the system is built, it’s not an accident.
There is no such thing as an independent K-12 power structure; any power K-12 has is granted through the government (be it state, local, or federal).
There is, to mind, no ideological argument to treat a government-run entity (public schools) as we might private entities operating in the free market. Do I think that states have the Constitutional authority and even mandate to step in and protect its citizens from actual private entities’ or even federal government overreach? Well, yes. But these are not related questions to my mind since we are talking about the government on the one hand (public schools) and private industry on the other (social media, banking, etc.).
What percentage of academia has been corrupted beyond redemption? How do we ensure that corrupted people are no longer in a position to further damage children?
I really don’t think there’s much that can be done about academia in the sense of higher education. What is going to happen, though, is that enrollment will nose-dive as degrees, even those from formerly prestigious universities, become meaningless in real world terms. Universities are literally graduating people who are functionally illiterate (but they learned their “justice” mantras by heart).
For about a decade, we tried to hold the line by only awarding an A to actual A-level accomplishment, while tossing out (as required by grade-inflation demanding admin) passing grades like candy to the types of college students we would have flunked five years earlier. Employers learned to get transcripts for top-paying jobs to get a real sense of where their potential employee stood (As were still As, Cs were Fs, etc.). But even that is gone now, so employers have no way of knowing if they are hiring a college graduate who literally cannot write a coherent sentence (let alone a paragraph) and who thinks that 2 + 2 = yellow.
Employers were the first to notice back then, and they will be this time. When enough people stop sending their kids to college, recognizing that a college degree is now about as meaningless in the real world as a GED, the universities will begin to correct, but it won’t happen any time soon, these things take time (as in a decade or more).
Just write universities off, in other words, they’re gone for the foreseeable future.
As to protecting our children at the K-12 level, states have to start changing the college degree requirement for teachers. As an example, someone with a Ph.D. in X subject is not “qualified” to teach that subject in public K-12 schools unless they have an Ed. degree (a thoroughly laughable joke of a degree even before all the woke crap infested everything) or jump through whatever hoops the state requires to get around that. That’s dumb.
If I have a Ph.D. in English with a focus on American Lit, say, I have more knowledge of that subject than some moron who took a whole nine credit hours in their field (the rest being in “education” and basic undergraduate degree requirement courses), so why shouldn’t I be “allowed” to teach 9th or 12th grade English? Well, rules. Uh huh.
The whole approach to who is qualified to teach K-12 needs to be rethought and restructured to bypass the indoctrinated woke incompetents with utterly useless “Education” degrees to K-12 classroom pipeline.
There are ways to fix this, but they take time (decades), dedication, and effort. In the meantime, if you have K-12 school age children, get them out of public schools if you can. And if you can go the private school route, investigate thoroughly what they are about (ten mins with the head master/principal should be enough, heh).
“But I don’t think private schools should be permitted to teach people that they are oppressors or oppressed based on the color of their skin, perform deliberate segregation, or falsify history either and don’t think the principles of the free market are a good reason the state legislatures shouldn’t use their power an these private (as in private enterprise) schools.”
Well then, you’re clearly an authoritarian, and not a classical liberal.
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.
–WlLLlAM ALLEN WHITE
Well, no, Henry, I’m neither an authoritarian nor a classical liberal and have no desire to be either. What a bizarre conclusion to draw from what I wrote. I am a Constitutional conservative; I have little interest in much of classical liberalism (which ended up bastardized by anarchists who call themselves libertarians). I like government, I want to have government, but the government I support is the one prescribed by our Constitution: limited, non-intrusive, unable to rescind our God-given rights and with the vast majority of power reserved to the states and to the people.
And yes, that includes what is taught in government-run schools. The unions (unelected, non-government, corrupt outfits) run many school systems, but in free states, like Florida, the state has and has always had the power to determine what should and should not be taught (within the confines of the Constitution and the law).
This is, to my mind, as it should be in our Constitutional Republic. I believed this when the left was pushing Common Core and states revolted, and I believe it now. Look, if I had my way, we would have no federal department of education and schools would still be teaching from and through the Bible, as our founders intended and was the case for at least a century.
Smearing me as an “authoritarian” and presuming that being declared “not a classical liberal” would be received as an insult is strange, henry. I don’t get it. Is that all you have these days? Insults and mud-slinging? If I don’t believe exactly as you do, I’m . . . what? The enemy? Is the prof also the enemy since he, too, supports these state laws? Is he an authoritarian and (gasp!) “not a classical liberal,” too? What about my governor and a future president of these United States, Ron DeSantis? Is he the enemy, too? A tyrant and Nazi authoritarian? This is just bizarre to me, but then, I never understand when the regressive left lashes out at its “enemies” with name-calling and smears. How close the far fringes of both “sides” are, after all, I guess.
Thank you henrybowman for pointing out the mammoth, gaping flaw in Danny’s argument. Why would we want to “take over” America’s best example of totalitarian socialism?
You have a philosophy of government that’s anathema to me. Only government can force me to do something at the point of a gun. An employer can’t force me to do anything, especially not if I’ve lived my life right.
“Yep lets keep a principle that says we aren’t allowed to use government for anything”
I agree. As Barry Goldwater and Jerry Ford both reminded us, “government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.”
So you want to surrender it all on the culture war, based on outdated rhetoric from over 50 years ago because you don’t acknowledge there are power structures outside of the government………in other words you are a Bush Republican.
I am a Jeffersonian classical liberal and a Randian libertarian, and Bush is a swamp-dwelling CIA creature. The outdated rhetoric I base my philosophy on is 200-300 years old, and is the philosophy the US was founded upon and operated under during the period when it was at its freest and worked best.
I’m happy to be quite clear about all of the above.
For all his great qualities, Jefferson was in favor of majority rule (which many founders saw as “mob rule” and built protections against it into our Republic’s Constitution); of note, he was infamously known for his insistence on the “absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority.”
Jefferson was also a big fan of, what the radical left now terms, the “living Constitution,” and he disavowed the coequal status (explicitly defined in the Constitution) of the Supreme Court. He claimed that almost all power should reside with Congress (i.e. even if Congress passed unconstitutional laws, the Supremes should be unable–in direct violation of our Constitution–to strike them down on the basis of law and our Constitutional foundation). He is also the author of one of the most destructive ideas ever to take hold in America: separation of church and state. Oh, and not inconsequentially, Jefferson was a huge cheerleader for the disastrous and evil French Revolution and was an avid “nation builder.” Thomas “limited government for me, but not for thee” Jefferson thought it was super fun to impose his “Jeffersonian” claptrap on other nations.
You can be a Jeffersonian blah blah all you want, but if you own that descriptor to the point you call yourself a “Jeffersonian” anything, you really own all of it, including the crazy.
Call yourself what you want your politics and policies are identical to those of the Bush administration on every issue besides (Now that you have hindsight) Iraq.
Bush was a Government bad Corporate good guy to.
You are not a Jeffersonian, Thomas Jefferson was an enemy of the concept of corporate power being the main power structure of a nation, did not like banks, and most definitely would not be in favor of all political discourse in the country needing to be approved by a couple of billionaire oligarchs.
He never coexisted with the kind of corporate power we have today but to delude yourself into thinking he was a corporate power guy you need to avoid anything he ever wrote. You also need to avoid going over his presidency where he actually did expand presidential power, which makes you sir no Jeffersonian you just picked the name because it sounds good.
Yes Ayn Rand was something of a corporatist who thought the only thing that could be bad in world was government, and religion; Bush and others adopting that line of thinking got us to where we are today.
Yes I am an authoritarian subhuman fascist nazi because I don’t want children to be taught they are oppressed or oppressors based on the color of their skin, I suppose me and other famous Nazis like MLK Jr. Dwight D Eisenhower, Ronald Raegan and well every figure in American history who enforced standards (which is 100% of them) will just have to wear your label and we have to surrender in the culture war (which is what you are advocating).
Your idea that only government can force you to do something is anathema to American and all other history, not reality in the 21st century (or any other century)
By the way if you think the 1870s were a time you could say and do anything you pleased congratulations you are illiterate.
In 1868 Obscenity was the law and you would get arrested for wearing the wrong thing, and for saying the wrong thing, and no schools weren’t permitted to teach anything (i.e. teach women that sex work is real work would get the principal arrested for obscenity).
Thanks for grabbing a quote from a great man, try figuring out what he meant by liberty before throwing it around again, he did not mean liberty to obey a corporation with absolute power over the country, or freedom from enforcement of standards.
I think you are right here, though I fear its consequences.
Thank you, and I understand fearing the consequences although I think the consequences are already here because in a fight your opponent has a say in what weapons are used.
They don’t want equity nor equality….they want superiority and revenge.
That won’t happen, as history repeats itself and they will once again be betrayed by their own.
Dear Boston Harbor Families,
It is hard to believe we are almost in the month of February. We have been grateful for the dry, sunny days that we have had the last few weeks. It sure beats rainy day recess! One exciting change that has happened this month is that we were able to have two in-person assemblies in the gym! We had to divide the school in half and do two assemblies to ensure safe social distancing, but it was really a joy to be back together in that space. Our fifth graders taught us the importance of the Bear Basics with some fabulous skits and we were able to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. with Mrs. Healey leading us in beautiful songs and our students sharing examples of MLK Jr.’s profound and important question: “What are you doing for others?” It was rewarding for all of us to see the wide variety of service and support that our students wish to give to others.
As we move into the month of February, we have been planning how we, as a school community, will honor Black Lives Matter at School Week, as well as Black History Month.
Last night, our Olympia School District Board of Directors adopted an important and valuable proclamation. Part of the proclamation states;
WHEREAS, no individual is free until all are free and our collective liberation from racism is intersectionality tied to all those who are oppressed. Each and every student has the right to a school system that confronts and dismantles racial inequity and discrimination…
RESOLVED that, the Board of Directors of Olympia School District No. 111, Thurston County, Olympia, Washington endorses and encourages our community to participate in the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action to be held January 31- February 4, 2022;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, the Board calls on all district staff to teach with the resources, and engage in professional learning, grounded in the 13 Guiding Principles of Black Lives Matter at School. The Board encourages educators, students and families to incorporate the 13 Guiding Principles of Black Lives Matter at School into their discussions about race and privilege all year long by teaching Black Lives Matter lessons aligned with Washington State Learning Standards, to realize Olympia School District’s Student Outcome 4, which states “Our students will have the skills, knowledge and courage to identify and confront personal, systemic and societal bias.”
We have many things planned for this next month, beginning with putting our signage up in the fence for Black Lives Matter at School Week. As we do not have a reader board to proudly display our support and allyship, we will again put up our sign in the fence. We will do this on Monday afternoon at 2:30. All are welcome to come and help!
Among other activities this month, we will engage in a school-wide read aloud of the book Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliott, and students will create a drawing or virtual museum sharing important things about themselves with their classmates. We will also do an all-school read-aloud of the book Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson and celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Day on February 17th.
I feel so grateful that our BHES staff and our school district recognize the need for this ongoing conversation about the value that each individual student brings to the collective community. We must show care and love for every student. Not despite the color of their skin, not regardless of who they are, but rather because of the color of their skin and because of who they are. We talk about moving beyond “I don’t see color,” to “I see you and I see your color and it is something that I appreciate and adore about you.” Our students have the power and opportunity to change the world and highlight the value every student brings because of who they are. This is true liberty, true justice and true freedom.
We look forward to celebrating this month with you all,
Jen Brotherton, Principal
During Black history month, people should compare and contrast MLK’s vision and that of BLM. MLK reasonably asked for equal opportunity. Black demands today are not reasonable.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
–GOETHE
Laws against teaching the components of CRT have a couple of problems.
1. Leftist teachers, fresh out of the leftist cauldrons we call “schools of education” will find ways around the laws.
2. In a nation which supposedly values freedom, it is un-American to deny leftist parents the right to have their own children indoctrinated in leftism.
Regarding “power”, the power of parents to affect the education of their own children is available to most parents already – they can remove their children from the government schools and make use of several alternatives. Friends and churches can help.
Legislatures would be more helpful if they concentrated on implementing school choice. School choice is quite popular with parents whose children are stuck in failing inner city schools.
1. Which is why this Laissez Faire ideology has to go if we want anything besides “GOVERNMENT BAD VOTER BASED POWER BAD CORPORATE POWER GOOD” (which we have right now by the way) because state legislatures could influence a wide variety of things including how colleges teach by banning and enforcing a ban on political discrimination to make it actually possible for Republicans to prosper in academia. Instant results? No but better than zero results.
2. No it isn’t. Education has and will always be regulated. Don’t believe me? Go back to 1950 and get a principal to burn the American flag and teach Marxism, and count how many seconds before every teacher in his school complains and he is removed. Or see what would happen in 1940 to a teacher who celebrated the Fall of France and teaching that Daladier was the aggressor. Like it or not there will be standards the question is do you want the CRT standards the left is pushing or our standards. Education has always been highly regulated this recent and stupid idea that government has no role to play in anything is stupid and the left does not delude itself into pretending that is the case (and by the way it never will be the case anywhere). It also as I already demonstrated has never been the case in American history.
3. Not all parents could.
4. Republican legislatures have been doing school choice for over 20 years now, it is something being done and it is something that has had zero impact on this issue.
Danny,
I largely agree with you. The key difference for me is allowing the taxpayer funding to follow the student to the school that works best for the student as determined by the parents. It might be a govt school or one of many alternatives; private, parochial, home, neighborhood, pod, on line, blended.
The actions of education unions over the past two years have certainly undercut any argument for the necessity of in person instruction in govt schools so the next logical step is apportionment of the tax dollars to the follow the student.
The education unions and their allies have long demonstrated they are largely incapable of delivering high quality outcomes and have now demonstrated they are uncommitted to even being present in the classroom. These unions and their allies can hardly complain when the public takes their refusal to deliver seriously. They will try of course but, IMO, they have destroyed much if not all remaining goodwill and credibility in the minds of much of the public.
I agree the money follows the child is a great idea and should be done, this is one of the ideas I think traditional conservatives got right over the years.
I didn’t mean my last point as a criticism of school choice, only a criticism that school choice is a panacea for everything. I support it because it allows people cursed by location to get a decent education, but negatives in modern education like CRT or radical gender theory (a less talked about but still major issue) aren’t really impacted by it but I think everyone deserves a good education.
We are actually doing a pretty good job against the teachers unions today, although I think the time has come to consider of we should be forming conservative teachers unions.
This isn’t really relevant to the rest of the thread and I would fully understand if your answer is “we tried teachers union it doesn’t work” but
As it stands now conservative teachers and school administrators don’t really have union reps they will be on the side of the cancellers.
To be a conservative teacher means you have to really love teaching as a passion because you aren’t just dealing with students you have to deal with knowing you will be terminated as soon as your actual beliefs are learned.
Why not strike two birds one stone? Give teachers who are most passionate about teaching a voice in how resources are spent against the progressive teachers who just want status quo, and give teachers on our side protection against unjust moves?
The police union works pretty well and does tend to advocate for spending priorities and policies that reduce crime while making sure cops are well looked after (but without getting absurd), we could potentially do the same thing by forming our own teachers unions.
I completely and totally reject public unions; there is no way on this earth that government employees (at any level: city, county, state, federal) should be allowed to unionize. If the taxpayers fund it (i.e. any public service from dog catcher to teacher to firefighter to cop), they should have no ability to shutdown these services to score a big pay or benefit windfall.
People have died because union “negotiations” dragged on and first responders (EMT, fire, police) were on strike. Garbage has piled up, escalating rats and related disease threats, because of striking union workers. The list goes on and on.
Retired union workers are raking in taxpayer cash in the six figures, while normal Americans making $24k/year struggle to pay their mortgage because their money is being funneled into these cushy union pensions.
Create our own public unions? No way. We need to completely and totally eradicate all public unions. Period. Becoming the thing we hate is a pretty bad plan.
I’d like to see private unions gone, too, but that’s another hill for another day.