Teachers' Unions Falling Out of Favor With Americans. Is It Any Wonder?

The debate over schools reopening has affected how Americans view teachers’ unions. It has been well-publicized that the unions in many districts have submitted political demands that have little to do with pandemic safety as a condition of returning to the classroom.

None of the political demands have anything to do with educating children, either. One of the requirements, defunding the police, has actually been getting children killed in cities like New York City, Chicago, and Atlanta. Perhaps the most annoying displays were members of the teachers’ unions protesting school openings in large groups while maintaining that returning to the classroom is too dangerous.

Of course, these protests were done side by side with groups like the Democratic Socialists of America and the Center for Popular Democracy. Hyperbole was on full display, especially considering that over 20 other industrialized countries have opened schools with no significant COVID-19 outbreaks. The coffins were a nice touch, especially for a virus that has a 99.8% recovery rate and where fatalities are most common above the age of 70. Nationally the average age of school teachers is about 40.

All of this insanity is affecting how Americans view teachers’ unions. According to a new poll from Rasmussen, only 39% of Americans think it is a good idea that most teachers belong to public unions. That number is down from 45% a year ago. More than a third of respondents say it is a bad thing that so many teachers are in a union. The remainder either believe it has no impact or they aren’t sure.

FDR warned about the fundamental flaw of public unions. They essentially negotiate against the taxpayers who pay their salaries. In this case, they are negotiating a service that is part of the social contract. It is no different than if police unions had made unreasonable demands to continue to serve the public when the pandemic hit our shores. That would have been unacceptable.

The political leverage done by the teachers’ unions is just as despicable. Especially when the mental health costs of continued isolation and lockdown on our children are becoming more evident.  Unheard of numbers of those between 18 and 24 have reported contemplating suicide in recent months. Even CDC Director Robert Redfield said we’re seeing more suicides and drug overdoses in those under 45 than deaths from COVID-19.

The threat FDR did not see was how politicized public unions would become. The teachers’ unions are no exception. They engage in the political process through donations and lobbying to get their preferred policies in place. The American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association overwhelmingly donate to and support Democrats.

Both unions have donated to Joe Biden this cycle and are getting some bang for their buck. Biden has explicitly said he does not support federal funding for charter schools and will ban for-profit ones altogether. The platform also calls for bringing remaining charters under the same onerous and unsuccessful regulations as the public schools. These include reinstating Title IX protections for transgender students and the awful restorative justice policies of the Obama administration.

The pandemic may have disrupted their plans to shove all children into a state-run education monopoly. Record numbers of families are looking to homeschool as they’ve become familiar with the curriculum and frustrated with continued closings. Some experts are projecting that homeschooling will go from 3-4% of school-age children to 13-14%. Nebraska alone has seen a 21% increase in applications, while Vermont has seen a 75% surge.

Perhaps things will not go exactly as planned with the teachers’ union throwing in with the radical left. If projections are correct, they will be losing more children to homeschooling and small-group programs run by parents. In a way, they have proved themselves to be something less than essential by playing political games. Their decrease in approval is only the beginning. An increasing number of parents taking control of their children’s education might be the best thing to happen to K-12 ever. And one of the few bright spots in the pandemic.


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Is the Collegiate Death Spiral Coming Soon? Our nation's colleges and universities are long overdue for a fiscal reckoning.

For those of us on the Right, it’s about time. Our colleges and universities have for years grown unchecked by free-market principles, fully enabled by a corrupt deal between spiraling tuition costs and endless government subsidies. And all this while serving as leftist indoctrination camps for our children.

It’s a noxious bubble that can’t burst soon enough.

“Colleges and universities were already facing mounting financial pressure,” writes columnist, scholar, and university professor Steven Hayward, “because enrollment is steadily declining and certain to get much worse in the coming decade (the result of falling birthrates back at the time of the housing crash in 2008-09). Add to this the financial hit they are taking right now because of the virus, on top of the huge loss this year of foreign students who typically pay full tuition rates and subsidize other students, and a large number of colleges and universities face a serious risk of insolvency.”

Add to these pressures the reduction in enrollment of foreign students (they pay top dollar for an American college education), the cancellation of this year’s fall sports season (football, with its ticket sales, lucrative TV contracts, and licensing deals, is the meal ticket for nearly every other university sport), and the decision by many students to put off college at least temporarily, but perhaps permanently, and we can see why even Stanford has found it necessary to cut 11 of its sports programs altogether.

Last week, we also learned that 20% of Harvard freshmen are deferring their enrollment for a year. King Crimson, of course, with its massive $40 billion endowment, can weather just about any storm. But Harvard is Harvard, and every other school isn’t. Elsewhere, a recent survey found that 40% of students say they’re probably not attending any four-year college this fall, and 28% of returning students who have the option to return to their campus say they’re not going back or haven’t yet decided.

As Hayward mused, perhaps the coronavirus is actually a five-dimensional chess plot orchestrated by Donald Trump to destroy universities, unionized K-12 public education, and Hollywood in one fell swoop. If only.

Historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson saw the higher-ed reckoning coming a while back. “What,” he asked last October, “do widely diverse crises such as declining demography, increasing indebtedness, Generation Z’s indifference to religion and patriotism, static rates of home ownership, and a national epidemic of ignorance about American history and traditions all have in common? In a word, 21st-century higher education.”

In part two of Hayward’s essay, he delves into the deeply flawed business models of our colleges and universities, including a funny lesson in Austrian school economics: “Markets set values depending on the subjective and always changing preferences of consumers in the marketplace. Who today would spend $5.99 for a Pet Rock? It may have been worth $5.99 in 1978, but it’s worth zero today, no matter how much labor you put into the rock.”

Higher ed as the modern-day version of the faddish Pet Rock?

Hayward expects this colossal correction to occur in relatively short order — perhaps as soon as spring 2021. But he also expects a Harris-Biden administration to come riding to the rescue with a big bailout, which Democrats would sell to the rest of us like they always do — as an “investment” in education and, therefore, an investment in our children’s future.

Which is just one more consideration on November 3.

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Colleges are asking students to sign waivers and consent agreements if they want to return to campus

College students who want to step foot on campus this fall will have to first sign a form acknowledging they understand the dangers of COVID-19 and in some cases relinquish their right to take legal action if they get sick.

Along with the code of conduct manuals and reminders to wear masks, colleges across the country are also including unprecedented agreements, waivers, and risk acknowledgement forms in their back-to-school packets this year.

Higher education institutions say these documents are a way to address life during an extraordinary pandemic and ensure that students understand the public health risks of the coronavirus and take the necessary precautions to protect themselves.

But critics argue that even as colleges invite thousands of students back this fall and try to reassure families that their campuses are safe, the institutions are also trying to protect themselves if something goes wrong.

“The universities are trying to cloud their responsibilities,” said Heidi Li Feldman, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Feldman has warned students against signing the waivers and argues that colleges are attempting to squelch potential negligence lawsuits and make any legal claims more difficult to win. “What the universities are saying is that students, faculty, and people in the community should bear the risk.”

The language of the waivers can vary — some are vague and others are explicit about what legal protections students are signing away. Many institutions said they are not specifically asking students to waive any legal rights.

At Bates College in Maine, students must sign an “acknowledgement of shared responsibility and risk” to return to campus and live in the dorms that reminds them that they are “assuming any and all risks that notwithstanding the college’s best effort to implement and require compliance with these prevention and mitigation measures.”

The state university system of New Hampshire has asked students coming to campus to sign an informed consent form. The system, which enrolls 32,000 students, plans to offer in-person classes at three of its institutions this fall and wants students to understand that it cannot guarantee they will not contract the coronavirus, officials there said.

And at Stonehill College, a private Catholic college west of Brockton, undergraduates must sign an enrollment waiver that specifically states students “agree not to hold Stonehill legally responsible if they are exposed to or contract COVID-19 unless it is the result of the College’s willful misconduct.” In the footnotes of the form in bold print, Stonehill reminds students that by signing off they are giving up certain legal rights.

Northeastern University, which has invited its more than 22,000 students to return to campus, is asking students to sign an agreement to wear masks, practice social distancing, and take coronavirus tests. Those consent agreements do not contain language about students taking on risk.

Boston University, the largest campus in the region, is asking students to sign off on a health commitment, agreeing to wear masks, report any symptoms, and abide by the school’s testing and quarantining requirements. BU is not requiring students to fill out risk or liability waiver forms or agreements, a spokeswoman said.

However, BU on Friday asked faculty and staff to sign off on a similar health agreement and those who fail to follow the rules could lose their jobs or be suspended from work. Graduate students and some faculty are protesting the penalties as too severe.

The forms don’t need to specifically waive legal rights to deter students and their families from holding the school responsible, Feldman said.

If universities wanted to be transparent and avoid confusion, they would explicitly state that these forms are meant to be a legal defense, Feldman said.

“The universities are trying to avoid having anybody question if they’re acting reasonably,” she said.

Bates officials said their risk acknowledgement forms do not ask students to waive any legal rights and while it doesn’t specifically say so, the text should be self-evident. Students and families with questions about the forms have opportunities to ask the college questions, Bates officials said.

“Because a pandemic is a shared public health problem, we need collective action by all members of the community to mitigate risk,” said Sean Findlen, a spokesman for Bates. “Our plan for the fall, including inviting students back for on-campus learning, has emphasized student choice. … That choice lies squarely with students and their families, depending on their personal circumstance and their own sense of whether they feel safe living in a campus setting.”

The forms have reminded some students of the potential risks and even deterred some from coming to campus over safety concerns. But for the most part, universities said, most students have signed and agreed to come.

The consent forms and waivers come as higher education lobbyists are pushing state and federal legislators for broader COVID-related liability protection as they reopen their campuses. Late last month, the American Council on Education on behalf of nearly 80 other higher education trade groups sent a letter to Congress asking for targeted and temporary liability protections to ward off “excessive and speculative lawsuits.”

That lobbying effort has made some students more skeptical of the individual school consent forms.

Ashley Kemker, 28, a graduate student in the University of New Hampshire’s fine arts program, still hasn’t signed her consent forms. She said the university initially gave students only a week in July to review and agree to the university’s statement. But after students raised concerns, the university decided to keep the online link open for students to sign through August.

The forms go too far, Kemker said, especially the acknowledgement that students “assume the risks associated with being at the University of New Hampshire including the risk of exposure to COVID-19.”

“I have no problems wearing a mask, I take no issue with constantly sanitizing,” Kemker said. “To me, they are showing a blatant disregard for students.”

Lisa Thorne, a spokeswoman for the university system of New Hampshire, said the informed consent forms are specifically not a liability waiver, and students aren’t giving up any legal rights to sue if they think that the public university system failed to protect them. The courts also generally require documents that shift liability be clearly outlined, Thorne said.

Students who sign “no” on the New Hampshire public university’s informed consent forms will not be able to come to campus.

“The university system could have included a legal liability waiver,” Thorne said in a statement, “but chose not to include any provisions that lessened the university system’s legal responsibilities.”

Thorne said instead the university system is trying to be transparent with students and their families that there are risks associated with being on campus in the midst of a pandemic.

The system could have done more if it wanted to ease student concerns, said Joshua Marshall, 24, a University of New Hampshire law student at the Franklin Pierce School of Law. For example, it could have removed the assumption of risk language and just asked students to follow proper public health rules, he said.

“If it’s just about informing us about the requirement to wear masks, I’d go ahead and sign it,” Marshall said. “It’s the other implications that are a problem.”

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I’m a Former Teacher. Here’s How Your Children Are Getting Indoctrinated by Leftist Ideology

Your children are being indoctrinated. The education system designed to teach them how to think critically has been weaponized by the radical left to push an anti-American agenda.

As someone who has worked in education for four years, I have seen firsthand how your children are being ensnared by the left and their teachers.

I worked with kids from ages 3 to 13 and saw the brainwashing that exists at all levels of education. The left uses a combination of propaganda and suppression to push kids into the ensnaring grip of socialism and anti-patriotism.

First is the propaganda. Teachers will assign work instilling the idea that the pillars of Western civilization were evil, and their memories deserve to be thrown in the trash.

Here’s an example. I was helping one of my elementary school students with a homework assignment about listing famous Britons throughout history. She already had some of the more obvious ones: Shakespeare, Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth.

“Well, how about Winston Churchill?” I recommended.

“Oh no, not him,” she replied. “He was a racist and didn’t think women should have rights. He wasn’t a good guy.”

I was floored. It clearly wasn’t something she came up with on her own. She was just regurgitating propaganda her teacher had taught her. All sense of nuance and critical thinking about the man who saved Europe from the Nazis was gone. Churchill committed “wrongthink,” so in the bin he goes.

Another way the left propagandizes is through the normalization of its views and positions as nonpolitical.

The Black Lives Matter organization is a prime example of this. Many of my colleagues wore Black Lives Matter pins and apparel to school in blatant violation of school rules forbidding political statements on clothing.

When I asked for a justification of the behavior, I was told it wasn’t political to support the group, it was a matter of human rights. The children would see these pins and clothes and connect radical leftist groups with basic human dignity. “How dare you question Black Lives Matter? I was taught this is a matter of human rights!”

But it isn’t just a matter of actively teaching that America and the West are evil. Suppression of “wrongthink” is equally as important to the brainwashing process. The lessons I was allowed to teach also were censored.

I was preparing a lesson on Thanksgiving involving Pilgrims and American Indians, with an activity centered on making paper teepees for arts and crafts. Cue the progressive panic.

Other teachers at the school were incensed that a non-Indian was “appropriating” Native American culture for an activity. Of course, these teachers weren’t Indians either, they just wanted to virtue signal.

The whole thing culminated in a hilarious incident where my colleagues tracked down the one teacher on staff who was one-sixty-fourths Native American and asked her if it was cultural appropriation. In her esteemed authority, it most certainly was. The school administrators pulled me aside and promptly nixed the project.

The suppression extends to American religious values as well. I would try to engage my students with folk stories from around the globe to teach them world history and other cultures.

Story time went on without a hitch until I decided to tell stories from the Bible. Other teachers began to complain I was preaching Christian values to the children and attempting to convert them.

Keep in mind, this wasn’t a problem when I was sharing stories from other ancient cultures throughout history. Stories about ancient India and China were fine and encouraged as “sharing unheard voices.” After sharing the story of the Tower of Babel, I was told to switch back to non-Christian stories or face consequences.

The young adults who today gleefully tear down statues of the Founding Fathers were incubated in our very own schools, groomed to burst from the education system and burn America down.

The left argues the great men and women who built this nation are problematic and must be destroyed. Conservatives must demand an end to the indoctrination of our youth or face a new American public taught since childhood that the country shouldn’t exist.

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