This week, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten delivered remarks titled “In Defense of Public Education.” Her remarks only made it clearer that nothing is a greater threat to our children’s education – public, private, or otherwise – than Randi Weingarten, the teachers union she directs, and the ideology she is dedicated to pushing on America’s children. If parents and concerned Americans want to fix our broken education system, we must begin by standing up to the powerful teachers unions that have destroyed it.

Incredibly, Randi Weingarten began her remarks by painting efforts to support school choice as attacks on public education meant to hinder “the urgent work of helping kids recover from learning loss, sadness, depression and other effects of the pandemic.” It’s puzzling how Ms. Weingarten managed to say this with a straight face, considering the fact that she and her cohort of activists and unions were the loudest proponents of extending the ridiculous COVID lockdowns long past the point they were necessary.

And many prominent AFT members even went so far as to deny the importance, or even existence, of lockdown learning loss: The Chicago Teachers Union called learning loss a “contrived notion,” while Weingarten herself claimed she didn’t believe in it, instead saying “kids are resilient and kids will recover.” Kids may be resilient, but using this cheap statement as an excuse to prioritize her own wealth and power at the expense of so many of our kids’ development and well-being is unacceptable.

Extending school lockdowns was never about the safety of teachers or students – it was always about powerful unions exerting their influence to gain even more power. And it was our children who suffered, as reflected in the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ recent release of the Nation’s Report Card.

How do unions use this power? It’s certainly not to make life better for America’s public school teachers. Unions routinely prioritize protecting bad teachers instead of promoting and rewarding those who deserve it. Teachers know this – that’s why a recent poll found that over 60 percent of teachers, both unionized and non-unionized, agree that unions make it more difficult to fire bad teachers. In New York City, low-performing teachers – even those accused of misconduct – are sent to “rubber rooms” where they draw a salary while doing no work whatsoever. The reason? Because AFT and people like Weingarten say that’s what the city must do to avoid a strike. This political craziness does not provide good teachers with resources and opportunities to prosper – it puts them at the same level as teachers who underperform.

These kinds of un-American policies are what’s really detrimental to our public education system; and if we care about our students and teachers, we must eliminate it.

Unions like AFT also use their political power for overtly political goals, especially through pushing toxic political ideology into our classrooms and supporting it elsewhere. If you visit the AFT’s webpage and navigate to “ Resolutions,” you will find policy statements such as “DEI and Racial Justice in Investments” and “Divest from Fossil Fuels and Reinvest in Workers and Communities.” What exactly does woke investing or green energy madness have to do with AFT’s stated purpose to serve teachers and students? Absolutely nothing. AFT is not a union primarily interested in advancing the agenda of America’s many teachers; it is a political organization that uses the hard work of teachers to advance its own radical, far-Left political agenda.

I’ve called Randi Weingarten one of the most dangerous people in the world precisely because of the power she holds over our children’s education and the already-high costs our children have paid because of her actions and those of her union. Weingarten attempted to undermine this claim in her remarks, falsely claiming that I and other parents who have criticized her union are attacking teachers, but nothing could be further from the truth.

There are so many incredible teachers across America who only want to do the job they love, and what we should all want is to reward these excellent teachers by cultivating a system in which they can prosper. What’s standing in the way of this necessary and fundamental change?  Powerful unions like AFT – and if we want to fix our education system, we need to confront them.

Weingarten, along with the entrenched bureaucracy at the Department of Education, have spent decades forcing a radical, progressive agenda into the education of our children. I know America will figure out how to handle the likes of Putin and Xi Jinping, but if we don’t confront the entities within our own country that seek to poison future generations’ love and passion for America – as well as their ability to read, write, do math, and ultimately compete in an increasingly competitive global marketplace – it won’t matter how we respond to threats abroad.

If we fail to conserve and honor the American miracle at home, we will lose it. In order to do this, we must stand up.

HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?

In the article, “Today, Children Are Being Inundated With The Counterfeit Truths,” Decision Magazine underscored the spiritual battle surrounding children’s education:

Our children bear the responsibility to carry on and advance the efforts we have begun for the cause of Christ. 

Therefore, it is no wonder that Satan has launched a cleverly designed but diabolically ruinous attack to deceive the hearts and minds of our children. Lucifer has always targeted children because he knows their potential for good or evil. 

The edicts of Pharaoh and Herod to slaughter baby boys in their day and the horrific practice of sacrificing children to Molech, the false god of the Canaanites and Ammonites throughout the Old Testament, as well as the common practice of abortion in our society illustrates that the devil understands the ultimate potential and capability of even a small child.  

However, if Satan cannot take the lives of children, he will do his best to capture their minds. Today, children are being inundated with the counterfeit truths of this world through a multiplicity of technological devices and media. Indoctrination campaigns with vain ideologies in our educational institutions prey on impressionable children who are often beleaguered by their own dysfunctional families.

Increasingly, parents are failing to bring up their children in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” as taught in Scripture (Ephesians 6:4, KJV). 

God says in Isaiah 61:8, “I, the Lord, love justice.” But Satan wants children to become obedient “social justice warriors” in the way the progressive Left would define the term, that is, accepting and promoting any lifestyle, even those that are contrary to God’s Word. But Christian parents and grandparents should want their families to become faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkley, avowed, “Learning begins literally from the time babies are born; and there’s even some evidence there’s learning inside of the womb.”

Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Russian Communist Party, stated, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” He also proclaimed, “Give me just one generation of youth, and I will transform the whole world.”

God calls parents to be the primary teachers for their children. Solomon wrote, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Moses specified, “You shall teach [God’s commandments] to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 11:19).

Children must be taught to have a Biblical worldview from the beginning of their lives. The world has its permeating syncretism, its vain philosophies, false ideologies and spurious theologies, but a Biblical worldview is based on God’s unchanging Word, which provides the perfect path for helping all of us to shape our decisions and actions.