Teachers’ Union Played Big Role in ‘No Kings’ Protests
“Imagine if Randi Weingarten fought half as hard to improve public education. Maybe then more than a quarter of American kids would be proficient in math.”
The repellent Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, who long ago abandoned any pretense of improving academic achievement in public education, was a key speaker at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “No Kings” protest on Saturday.
Bouncing up and down spastically as if she were on a trampoline only she could see, Weingarten launched into a familiar litany of platitudes: “You are the community to this president’s chaos and together, we build a future of opportunity and justice for all. Hope over fear, aspiration over anger, the promise of America for each and every American. That is what we are fighting for today.”
Here's Randi Weingarten leading a "No Kings" rally today.
Abolish teachers unions. pic.twitter.com/VFsV59WSpm
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) June 14, 2025
Odd that the president of the second-largest teachers’ labor union in America would preside over a political rally? According to school choice activist Corey DeAngelis, “teachers’ unions are more invested in political activism than in prioritizing education.”
DeAngelis told The New York Post, “Their actions expose them as little more than an arm of the Democratic Party, pushing a radical agenda that puts taxpayers on the hook for funding the K-12 education of illegal immigrants.”
“Imagine if Randi Weingarten fought half as hard to improve public education. Maybe then more than a quarter of American kids would be proficient in math,” he added.
DeAngelis is right. Unfortunately, neither Weingarten nor the union she leads is all that concerned with childhood education. They’re far more focused on gaining and maintaining power for the Democratic Party, knowing full well the benefits, financial and otherwise, that come with it.
That’s why the AFT played such a major role in organizing and funding the No Kings protests. In fact, they provided an entire webpage of volunteer opportunities populated with related events.
All unions prefer having a Democratic president in the White House because it makes it easier for them to operate their grift, and the AFT is no exception.
Union brass were particularly outraged when President Donald Trump signed an executive order to shut down the Department of Education to return control over education to the states and local governments in March.
Along with the National Education Association, America’s largest teachers’ union, the AFT sued to block Trump’s dismantling of the agency.
They cited a lengthy list of reasons why dismantling the DOE was supposedly a terrible idea. At the top of the list was the claim that staff cuts would “negatively impact students, educators, and school districts nationwide.” The union also warned of potential “harm to vulnerable students, including those from low-income families, English learners, and students with disabilities, who rely on the department’s support and resources.”
But this — and everything else on their list — was little more than a smokescreen.
The New York Post explained why calls to close the DOE “directly threatened both unions’ [NEA and AFT] bottom lines.”
Every increase in Washington’s education spending helps union causes.
For so many problems with the American education system, unions will claim that the trouble is a teacher shortage, then lobby lawmakers for more taxpayer cash as a solution.
Historically, that’s been the pattern ever since the Education Department was established in 1980: Per-student spending consistently increases, school officials hire more staff — and the problems persist.
During lean economic times that disrupt the job market, such as the 2009 financial downturn or the COVID-19 pandemic, unions can decry any potential cuts to education as threats to student success.
Yet no matter how many staffers are hired, achievement gaps remain.
Test scores in math and reading today are at or near historic lows.
The teachers’ unions are not merely opposing Donald Trump out of ideological disagreement or concern for education policy. Their motivations are deeply entwined with the broader political interests of the Democratic Party.
Simply put, when a Democrat occupies the White House, the machinery of government tends to operate in a way that benefits entrenched interests like the unions. Funding flows more freely, regulations tilt in their favor, and political influence becomes easier to wield.
However, when a Republican, particularly one as unorthodox and disruptive as Trump, takes office, that system seizes. The usual channels of influence become clogged, oversight increases, and the unions’ ability to shape national policy diminishes dramatically.
And no presidency has made that more evident than Trump’s. The mechanisms they’ve long relied on to maintain their power slowed to a crawl, and in some cases, stopped altogether.
That’s why their opposition is so intense. This is not merely political disagreement; it is institutional self-preservation. They are determined to remove the obstacle that threatens their standing and influence. And if that means discrediting, vilifying, and mobilizing against Trump by any means necessary, so be it. This fight is not about education for Democrats. It is about retaining control over the system that sustains them.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Funny how summer – when teachers are not in the classroom – has become riot season. Idle hands…
Near the end of my high school years in Southern California, around the beginning of summer, is when the most fights broke out due to the aggravating effects of the heat. This phenomenon isn’t lost on the organizers.
Unions should be banned, they no longer serve the public good.
Unions are a good liberty concept, but like churches, should be banned from all political activity.
“teachers’ unions are more invested in political activism than in prioritizing education.”
“Their actions expose them as little more than an arm of the Democratic Party”
This is true of all the major unions, not just teachers. It was extraordinary for the Teamsters NOT to back the Democrats last election (the cowards didn’t back the GOP either). Meanwhile, union members have been skewing heavily Republican while “their” unions endorsed Democrats.
Public sector unions are a big part of why California politics is so screwed up.
FDR was correct: No public sector union should have bargaining power. Nor should they be allowed to make any sort of donations to campaigns.
Frankly, donations should be strictly limited to individual citizens who wield the vote. It’s a huge moral hazard for government officials.
Unions have never served the public good and that is not their job. They serve their members. The AFT is a prime example of this. Nothing this loathsome creature has ever done has anything to do with serving the kids.
Yep. We need to seriously consider revamping the K-12 academic calendar. Not to keep students and teachers in the K-12 warehouse but to get the students completed with HS sooner. Retain the nine week grading periods but run five of them not four. Have an extra long weekend in between four of the periods similar to the way schools work around Thanksgiving. Eliminate ‘spring break’. Any extra time is ‘off’ in early-mid August after the final nine week.
The goal should be to get the students completed with HS when they turn 16 instead 18. This gives them the ability to go out and gain life experience in the workplace before attending college, to get a sooner start on a trade career via OJT/apprenticeship. The 16 year old grads wouldn’t be eligible to sign a loan contract for another two years so community college and living at home becomes more of an option. This reduces time and $ spent at Univ to as little as two years which provide the opportunity to graduate University by age 20. For a HS grad seeking a military career it would put them on pace to complete the 20 years to earn a pension at age 37 b/c they can sign an enlistment contract with Parental permission at age 17. We might even consider a requirement to either have completed a 4 year enlistment or be age 25 to enter all grad school. This would deter the ‘professional students’ and provide four years of life/work experience after earning a BS/BA.
Well, you don’t expect them to have their strikes during their “vacation,” do you?
She states that dismantling the Dept. of “Education” will “negatively impact students, educators, and school districts nationwide.”
How about this: we keep the Dept. of “Education” (under President Trump’s control) and dismantle every single teachers union?
If the DOE was shut down wouldn’t that free up a giant block of money that could be sent directly to states increasing the education budgets?
Oh my goodness! There are kings all over the place. Kings, kings, kings. Whatever are we going to do?
Let’s organize protests to protest kings—thousands of protests all across the country.
On the other hand, if you quit watching tik tok, you would recognize there are no kings.
That would save a lot of wasted effort and unneccessay headaches.
Yeah, but organizers gotta organize. Protesters gotta protest. Haters gotta hate.
What happened to banning TikToc?
Ask Trump. Congress acted and passed a law that required it either be sold or shuttered months ago. That law didn’t contain ANY provision that allowed the Executive to extend the deadline. But, Trump extended the original deadline 60-days and just last week, extended it again…and no one cares. Or, I should say no one will really criticize him about it. Also last week, Trump’s ‘deal’ with China stipulates that we’re not going to limit student visas given to the Chicoms and in fact, we’re probably going to give them even more. And again, no one will criticize Trump over it.
I thought you were pointing out all the burger kings everywhere.
Weingarten is a disgusting pig, a liar and revels in the fact that students under her care are to stupid to read an Archie comic book, much less Uncle Scrooge.
She is an Anti-American communist dwarf.
The older lesbians get, the angrier they get
My No Kings day happens every July 4.
Besides, you dare not protest a king within his kingdom. That is a fast track to ostracism at best.
This noxious grandstander is the epitome of the modern, unattractive sh*tlib womb-man.
“Bouncing up and down spastically as if she were on a trampoline only she could see…”
*Applauds with awe*
As a teacher, I wanted the teacher association (union) to protect my interests first and public education a close second. Instead, it protected the leadership’s interests and political goals.
Thank goodness, union membership or even Fair Share is not required in Florida as it was in Pennsylvania.
The teacher union and Randi are an integral part of the ‘5th column’ attacking America now.
In general I’m in favor of public schools for reasons I won’t go into now. However, I’m on the verge of changing my mind and the reason is Teacher
Unions. Unions for public employees must be outright banned, They are an anathema. Even FDR didn’t support public employee unions.
Their support for something so anti-democratic as No Kings is Exhibit A.
Weingarten herself is exhibit B. Another low life scum who should be cleaning toilets for a living (maybe that is too important a task for her), What’s worse is that she isn’t the worse example of a public employee union leader. There is the whole SEIU (example David Huerta) and there are a whole plethora of teacher’s unions each one worse than the next.
“Imagine if Randi Weingarten fought half as hard to improve public education. Maybe then more than a quarter of American kids would be proficient in math.”
Neither the children or the parents pay union dues. There is no reason for her to care.
As at least some unions are communist front organizations her attitudes and actions don’s surprise me the least bit.
The teachers unions are part of the cabal to destroy America. They work with the Globalist and the progressives to dumb down America and richly rewarded with legislative protection and cash.
Trump wants to be principal.
He is President.
We need “No Pigs” protests against Weingarten and the the teachers’ unions.
She is absolutely reprehensible.
“The repellent Randi Weingarten…”
I would have gone with ‘odious’ but you be you.
Weingarten is a one person example why childless lesbians should not be anywhere near education, especially in a position of power. While that may sound awful, Weingarten has NO skin in the game. She’s not a parent and not a member of a nuclear family. These irrefutable facts color her positions on every point of policy in her portfolio to the detriment of everyone paying taxes to operate local schools.
IMHO, nothing will change in public education as long as there are public sector unions as part of the mix. By no means are unions the only problem, but they are a big one.
It should be illegal for public sector unions to donate or campaign for ANY politician.
The idea that they can donate huge sums of money to the politicians responsible for approving their union contracts is an abomination.
You can tell she’s a Dem by the photo. Republican women are generally hot. Dems … Not so much.
That’s a fact, Jack. Literally every Lib/Dim/Socialist female is so Fugley, their Parents wouldn’t claim it, Eleanor Roosevelt is a great example. No wonder FDR had affairs later on in life.
Teachers unions exist to fatten the coffers of the demonrats. President Trump should take Floridas “opt in” approach national. It has cut in to the unions ability to donate to demonrats without the first amendment hysterics. It has also cut their membership by a significant amount. All because teachers have to “opt in” to the unions ability to take dues from their pay checks. Turns out teachers like having ALL the money they earn paid to them. This is how Governor DeSantis turned Florida bright red.
Heard there was something called a ‘No King’ protest Saturday. Spent my Saturday w/a classier group of people down @ my VFW post. We celebrated the YS Army Birthday, the VFW post Birthday, & properly disposed of worn out American flags on Flag Day
Teacher’s unions have consistently demonstrated they add no value to the education system. Taxpayers spend more money and see lower educational results. It’s time to abolish the unions. Out students will be better off and so will the teachers.
No value to the teachers, either. I know.
When will parents/gop stop the funding of these re education camps?
Affirmaction renamed DEI
DEI renaming itself
Public schools teaching reading writing arithmetic should be renamed:
social justice climate change and environmental justice >>ARE ALL ONE IN THE SAME AND ARE MEANT TO OVERTHROW JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WESTERN FREEDOM VALUES for tribalism
Teachers unions are in business for 2 things. They are there to protect their members and get as much money as possible for them and the second is that they are a money laundering operation for Dems. They force Dems to increase school funding which allows the Unions to demand more money for the teachers which in turn is returned to the Dems by donations.
Nothing they do has anything to do at all with children.
The United States does have a “No Kings” day, July 4th. The signers of the Declaration of Independence specifically wanted to have no kings governing them. There is no reason for doing what the demonstrators did on June 14, 2025.