The nation’s largest teachers’ union voted at its recent annual assembly to spend over half a million dollars to train its members to combat alleged “discrimination and violence” against LGBT individuals in the public school system.
Costing a whopping $580,000, the measure—the most expensive on the National Education Association’s business agenda so far—aims to convert teachers into gender-identity activists. It orders “member mobilization” against state legislation restricting the teaching of such radical themes. Under the measure, teachers will learn how to impose far-left gender ideology policies in the classroom, such as by supporting children’s gender transition and using their preferred pronouns.
The teachers’ unions have still not been held accountable for their Covid record. A recent study indicated that the staggering learning loss caused by school shutdowns, which the teachers’ unions conspired with the CDC to extend, is worsening. Despite the federal government dishing out a boatload of aid for academic recovery—$190 billion to be exact—students in most grades have stagnated in math and reading proficiency.
“We are actually seeing evidence of backsliding,” Karyn Lewis, a lead researcher on academic assessment nonprofit NWEA’s recent study, told the New York Times.
Rather than try to redeem government-run schools and get kids back on track, the NEA is prioritizing politics. The union’s summer reading list for educators includes radically progressive choices such as Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Emmanuel Acho’s “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” which peddle divisive critical race theory, and the sexually explicit “Gender Queer.”
C. Scott Miller, a California 5th-grade teacher who chairs the NEA’s LGBTQ+ caucus that introduced the measure, said the union will be dedicated to fending off supposed attacks on LGBT individuals in the 2024 election cycle.
“This helps give NEA a roadmap on how we maneuver through those attacks and how we’re coordinated and making sure we’re one voice rather than fragmented or not on the same page,” he told Ed Week.
Progressive legacy media has spread union misinformation that laws aiming to protect children from sexualized material and inappropriate concepts represent a threat to LGBT existence. The View co-host Ana Navarro recently bragged on the show that she barks “We say gay!” in protest anytime she is “anywhere near Ron DeSantis or any of his people.”
“I go around like a dog in Florida with my head outside of my car,” she said. “‘We say gay, we say gay, we say gay!’”
The anchor was alluding to the Parental Rights in Education law, dubiously nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics. Despite the false reporting of its detractors, the law is wildly popular in Florida and nationally. It includes common-sense limitations on teaching gender identity and sexual orientation to children.
Education is on the ballot in 2024. The public school monopoly and teachers’ unions have fallen out of favor with Americans. Instead of foisting their political paranoias onto children, the unions should recommit to providing a rigorous education that emphasizes essential subjects.