Teachers and teacher unions are becoming increasingly political, sharing more and more partisan rhetoric with kids on the taxpayer’s dime.

From Capital Research Center. On December 6, 2023, teachers in Oakland, California, held a pro-Palestine teach-in for their students—with the support of the Oakland Education Association, the local teachers union. More than 100 teachers signed up to participate, but it’s unclear how many actually did.

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Have you taken your place on the wall?

Teach-in materials included an animated introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict produced by Jewish Voice for Peace, which criticizes Israel’s actions against Palestinians, and then a YouTube video that labels Israel as an apartheid state due to its systemic oppression. “Curricular resources” from the teach-in advocated using the term “genocide” for the situation in Gaza and teaching students from kindergarten to high school that imperialism and capitalism influence global leaders’ decisions, creating oppressive conditions.

Teachers took time away from regular instruction to complete this “teach-in.” This is the same school district where only 36 percent of students can read at grade level and only 25 percent of the black and Latino students can read at grade level. What is happening in the current state of American public education when students can’t read but they know how to color a Palestinian flag? …

Radical Role-Play

I took a deep dive into one of the lessons taught by teachers in Portland, Oregon. At Grant High School, in a 9th grade class, students were asked to participate in a role-play mixer, in which they were assigned to play various historical figures in the Zionist movement along with roles as Palestinian peasants. …

These students were asked to play 17 different roles that included Theodor Herzl, the Viennese “father of Zionism”; British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour; Joseph Baratz, an idealistic young Zionist; Elias Sursuq, who “owned” and sold vast tracts of Palestinian peasants’ land to Zionist settlers; and Mahmoud Khatib and Ahmed Sharabi, who were Palestinian peasants. …

After the mixer, the students were asked to debrief, including asking the students who or what in Palestine’s early history was “guilty” of laying the groundwork or somehow contributing to today’s violence. …

Teachers Unions as Political Machines

And it is not just fringe local unions and small groups of blue state teachers waving their Palestinian flags in the classroom. State and national teachers unions with millions of members have gone full-steam ahead on political propaganda in lieu of academics and skills-based education. Teachers unions have become political machines, reflecting the biased agendas they push on our nation’s children.

For example, Maine’s teachers union is calling on the state pension system to withdraw investments from companies they consider “complicit” with Israel. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union, Massachusetts Teachers Union, and the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers have all passed official cease-fire resolutions. What does this have to do with the three Rs? …

Taxpayer-Funded Indoctrination

I will not pretend that I understand the complexities of this decades-long conflict, but I will say that this conflict and so rabidly taking one side is inappropriate in our public schools. Just like the Black Lives Matter Movement did not belong in our schools. Teachers using their captive classroom audience to convince their students to support a movement like BLM or “free Palestine” is not in their job description. And in a taxpayer-funded public school with compulsory education laws, it’s unethical, regardless of your views on the conflict. …

What do you think of this? Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments below.

(Excerpt from Capital Research Center. Photo Credit: shavnya.com on Unsplash)