{"id":1564360,"date":"2022-07-21T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T10:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1564360"},"modified":"2022-07-21T09:19:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:19:35","slug":"the-master-of-politicizing-schools-says-education-is-too-politicized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-master-of-politicizing-schools-says-education-is-too-politicized\/","title":{"rendered":"The Master of Politicizing Schools Says Education Is Too Politicized"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-master-of-politicizing-schools-says-education-is-too-politicized%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1564360&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><em>By\u00a0Robert Pondiscio\u00a0&#038;\u00a0RJ Martin for RealClearPolicy<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last week, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rweingarten\/status\/1546501534032302080\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweeted<\/a>\u00a0the results of a poll of teachers showing \u201cnearly 9 out of 10 respondents say schools have become too politicized.\u201d As she\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/press-release\/under-siege-survey-teachers-finds-34-point-increase-job-dissatisfaction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">put it<\/a>, \u201cAFT members were on the frontlines of the first wave of the pandemic, but in many ways the last year was even harder\u201d due to \u201cmask wars, culture wars, the war on truth, or the devastation in Uvalde.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This has become a persistent theme for Weingarten. Just last month, in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/press-release\/american-federation-teachers-educators-are-breaking-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a> titled \u201cEducators are at a breaking point,\u201d Weingarten said that \u201cteaching has never been an easy job\u201d but the added stress of \u201cthe injection of politics into our classrooms has done a real number on our educators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weingarten\u2019s laments about the politicization of education would be far easier to take seriously if she practiced what she preached. Instead, she routinely utilizes her perch atop America\u2019s second-largest teachers union to opine on virtually every political topic imaginable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/exorbitant-foia-fees-latest-weapon-deployed-by-schools-against-concerned-parents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Exorbitant FOIA Fees Latest Weapon Deployed By Schools Against Concerned Parents<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For instance, on June 30 Weingarten\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/press-release\/aft-president-randi-weingarten-slams-supreme-court-ruling-west-virginia-v\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">slammed<\/a>\u00a0the \u201cextremist right-wing majority\u201d on the Supreme Court for changing how the EPA regulates greenhouse gas emissions. Six days earlier, she\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/press-release\/afts-weingarten-slams-supreme-court-ruling-overturning-roe-v-wade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">thundered<\/a>\u00a0that Roe V. Wade was overturned by \u201cextremist judges\u201d and was \u201ca threat to freedom everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A day earlier, Weingarten\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/press-release\/aft-president-supreme-court-decision-new-york-state-rifle-and-pistol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released<\/a>\u00a0yet another statement attacking conservative justices for \u201ccallously and cravenly imposing its view of who has rights\u201d after they struck down a New York gun control law.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, Weingarten is not the first teachers union chief to use her high-profile position to opine on issues beyond her remit. For nearly three decades, her predecessor, Al Shanker, spent millions in teachers\u2019 union dues to purchase ad space on\u00a0<em>The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0op-ed page to publish his weekly \u201cWhere We Stand\u201d column, often straying far from education into a range of economic, social, and political issues.<\/p>\n<div id=\"subscribe\" class=\"email-signup inarticle\">\n<h4>Support Conservative Voices!<\/h4>\n<h5><strong>Sign up to receive the latest<\/strong> political news, insight, and commentary delivered directly to your inbox.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>Those columns arguably enhanced Shanker\u2019s prestige as a public intellectual. Weingarten\u2019s public musings, by contrast, sound less like the reasoned analysis of a public intellectual and more like red meat for a partisan base.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2020, under her leadership and direction, the AFT\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/resolution\/confronting-racism-and-support-black-lives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issued<\/a>\u00a0\u201c19 commitments to combat systematic racism,\u201d which included \u201cmobilizing and engaging\u201d people to \u201cvote for Joe Biden.\u201d She has indulged the convenient rhetorical dodge that critical race theory is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/07\/27\/opinions\/teachers-union-critical-race-theory-schools-weingarten\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">taught<\/a>\u00a0\u201cprincipally in law school\u201d and colleges, not in K-12 public schools (even though the \u201canti-racist policies\u201d she wants to see adopted by school boards are precisely a product of CRT), while promising to \u201cdefend any member who gets in trouble for teaching honest history,\u201d the preferred term of art for curriculum viewed through a CRT lens.<\/p>\n<p>It is bizarre and incoherent to complain about the effects of culture war and politics on classrooms when you routinely stake out nakedly partisan and divisive positions.<\/p>\n<p>The barrage of official press releases and Weingarten\u2019s active Twitter feed are not an aberration but business-as-usual. The American Federation of Teachers under Weingarten is obsessed with politics. Take some of the agenda items from one of their recent biennial conventions. As AEI\u2019s Rick Hess\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/op-eds\/the-american-federation-of-teachers-puts-class-warfare-before-class\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pointed out<\/a> after the 2020 AFT convention:<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/democrats-support-school-choice-but-only-for-themselves-not-for-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democrats Support School Choice, But Only For Themselves, Not For You<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There was the resolution\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/resolution\/demand-us-supreme-court-order-upholding-daca-be-implemented-and-condemn-donald\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proclaiming<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cTrump is openly establishing himself as a despot, ready to reject all democratic norms in pursuit of mobilizing his racist right-wing base and consolidating a regime of tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The policy agenda could have prompted complaints of plagiarism from Bernie Sanders. The AFT\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/resolution\/support-green-new-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">endorsed<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca Green New Deal,\u201d increased marginal tax rates of up to 70 or 80 percent, a \u201cBillionaire Net Worth Tax,\u201d cutting defense spending by at least 10 percent and \u201csingle-payer\u201d health care or \u201ca public option\u201d by 2025. It also wants Washington\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/resolution\/healthcare-system-works-all-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to explore<\/a>\u00a0banning for-profit hospitals and reviewing \u201cthe charitable status of nonprofit hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some of these ideas are so far to the left that even the Democratic Party won\u2019t touch them.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, Weingarten is almost certainly right about teachers feeling their job is too politicized. And she\u2019s likely far to the left of many of her membership: A 2017\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/epe.brightspotcdn.com\/be\/2b\/1bc98850470e9fecf8f8085a3284\/educator-political-perceptions-education-week-12-12-2017.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EdWeek poll<\/a>\u00a0found 43 percent of teachers described themselves as politically moderate, 29 percent as liberal, and 27 percent as conservative.<\/p>\n<p>If Weingarten and the AFT were serious about turning down the temperature in schools, getting the culture war out of the classroom, and returning politics to its proper place, they might begin by taking a hard look in the mirror. If Weingarten wants the culture war to end, she should stop stoking it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. RJ Martin is the program manager of education at AEI.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer\">The opinions expressed by contributors and\/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Political Insider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Robert Pondiscio\u00a0&#038;\u00a0RJ Martin for RealClearPolicy Last week, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten\u00a0tweeted\u00a0the results of a poll of teachers showing \u201cnearly 9 out of 10 respondents say schools have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1574852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1564360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1564360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1574852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1564360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1564360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1564360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}