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Defund the NEA
Townhall.com ^ | July 11, 2021 | Rob Jenkins

Posted on 07/11/2021 5:38:20 AM PDT by Kaslin

America’s big teachers’ unions have essentially declared war on parents—and not just conservative, Christian parents: on all rational, fair-minded parents who are not completely on board with hateful, racist Critical Race Theory and other radical ideologies being pushed by the far-left unions.

And that includes many minority parents.

In a statement last week, the National Education Association declared CRT “reasonable and appropriate” and vowed to “fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric.”

Well, okey-doke. If it’s a fight they want, I say we give it to them.

Meanwhile, the American Federation of Teachers has for months been at the forefront of efforts to keep schools closed and force masks on those children who do attend in person. AFT officials even helped formulate the CDC’s “guidance” on school masking and reopening. Now they’re among the groups pushing experimental vaccines for young children, who are already at lower risk from COVID than vaccinated older adults.

Sadly, these latest salvos from the unions are hardly surprising, nor are they anything particularly new—just a little more brazen than usual. Perhaps union leaders feel emboldened by the spectacle of so many decent people behaving like lemmings for the past 16 months in the face of authoritarian government overreach. Nothing entices incipient totalitarians out of their closets quite like watching their fellow travelers succeed.

Indeed, K-12 education has always been one of those annoying professions where practitioners tend to feel superior and behave arrogantly—kind of like medicine, except physicians can at least lay claim to highly specialized knowledge and skills. Your doctor may actually know more than you—although, in the wake of so much stupid COVID advice, we have to wonder—but your child’s teacher almost certainly does not.

Yet she will probably act like it, if for any reason you have to interact with her. Having seen four children through public school, I can attest to that. Most teachers are utterly convinced they know far more about what’s good for your child than you do—and administrators are even worse.

Not all teachers are like that, of course. Nevertheless, this mindset is endemic within the profession. Collectively, they literally consider your children to be theirs, believing they know better how to raise them and, as representatives of the state, have more right to do so. Unions are merely the embodiment of that attitude.

Again, this is not meant to paint all teachers with a broad brush. The unions do not represent all of them. Many, as I wrote several weeks ago, are our allies in this fight—and that probably includes quite a few who are actually on the unions’ membership rolls.

For that reason, I call on all teachers of good will to prove they are truly allies of parents and students—to join our side, the side of justice and truth, in this war their unions have declared. And there is one key action they can take immediately that will make all the difference: They can resign from the union and stop paying dues—or refuse to join if they haven’t already.

Because the best way to ultimately defeat the teachers’ unions, I’m convinced, is to cut off their funding source. Without the millions they rake in each year from members’ dues, they have no money to carry out their hideous, anti-American, anti-child agenda. Nor, if their membership rolls dwindle sufficiently, can they claim to represent any significant majority of teachers.

I understand that, in many states, teachers are more or less “forced” to join a union. But did you know that’s illegal? In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees that unions could no longer force workers to pay dues. That means, even in non-right-to-work states, teachers don’t have to join the union if they don’t want to. Note, by the way, that this ruling applies specifically to public-sector unions.

Yes, local school systems, individual administrators, and even their peers might exert various forms of pressure on teachers to join. But according to SCOTUS, legally, the choice is still theirs.

For teachers in right-to-work states—which is say, mostly Red states—leaving (or refusing to join) the union should be easier. I know first-hand that a lot of teachers join just for the perks, like insurance and free legal representation in case they’re sued. Fortunately, there are non-partisan alternatives to the NEA and AFT that offer many of the same benefits, such as the Association of American Educators.

The bottom line, teachers, is this: Either you’re for us or you’re against us. Either you agree to teach the truth about America’s history while promoting equality and understanding or you prefer to teach dishonest, divisive CRT. Either you want to see our children’s beautiful, precious faces each morning, or you insist on hiding them behind a filthy piece of cloth. Either you believe in educating kids in core academic subjects, or you wish to see them indoctrinated into a far-left worldview.

There can no longer be any middle ground. You must choose a side. If you continue to support the NEA or the AFT with your dues, then you have made your choice. And we will treat you accordingly.

Meanwhile, if you choose correctly, and it doesn’t seem to work out—if you lose your job or get forced out of your school—well, take courage. I have a feeling there will be a great need for good teachers in the hundreds of small, private schools and home-study groups that will soon be springing up across the land as parents do THEIR part to defund the NEA—by removing their children from the public schools.

After all, fewer students equals fewer dues-paying teachers.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: aft; communists; crt; education; nea; teachersunions; unions
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1 posted on 07/11/2021 5:38:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Eliminate both NEAs.


2 posted on 07/11/2021 5:45:16 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Kaslin

While you are at it, we must defund the AFT. They are a Marxist sub group that are fighting for the overthrow of the US Constitution and must be stopped. Mark Levin suggests that we have Patriot Committees at every University in order to make sure that our country is preserved. Time is short.


3 posted on 07/11/2021 5:49:12 AM PDT by silent majority rising
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To: Kaslin

Indict, try and convict the NEA kakistocracy.


4 posted on 07/11/2021 5:54:15 AM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: Kaslin

Education has to be de-monopolized.

They decry the shortage of good teachers, while some forego the profession entirely because they know, or have been directly told, they would be required to teach what they are told to teach, regardless to weather it is the truth or not.

Vouchers, Private Schools, Online, Open (to the parents) Curriculums, many other options.

Is it right parents have more choices for pizza than their children’s education?


5 posted on 07/11/2021 5:54:45 AM PDT by Hiryusan
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To: Kaslin
Over 5,000 Teachers Sign Pledge To Defy Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws (Vow To Break The Law)
6 posted on 07/11/2021 6:01:03 AM PDT by blam
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To: Kaslin

Abolish teachers unions then, fire abut half of them.


7 posted on 07/11/2021 6:01:49 AM PDT by blam
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To: Kaslin
They can resign from the union and stop paying dues—or refuse to join if they haven’t already.

In most states there is no choice to either join or not join the union, nor to stop paying dues. Union dues are withdrawn directly from paychecks.

The solution is to bust the unions. There are two primary ways to do this. 1.) Conservatives take over school boards and never negotiate a contract with a union. 2.) Codify in law that public service unions are illegal.

8 posted on 07/11/2021 6:04:10 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” ― Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Kaslin

Defund the NEA and PBS / NPR too. We have been talking about it for over thirty years.


9 posted on 07/11/2021 6:12:37 AM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.d)
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To: Kaslin

Gee, I remember when teaching was all about reading, writing and ‘rithmatic.

How quaint!

Those things don’t matter any longer since there are no standards - only CRT and forcing kids to wear masks.


10 posted on 07/11/2021 6:14:20 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (Rigged Elections have Consequences)
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To: Kaslin
Having seen four children through public school, I can attest to that. Most teachers are utterly convinced they know far more about what’s good for your child than you do—and administrators are even worse.

Most teachers are utterly convinced they know far more about what’s good for your child than you do—and administrators are even worse.

Not all teachers are like that, of course. Nevertheless, this mindset is endemic within the profession. Collectively, they literally consider your children to be theirs, believing they know better how to raise them and, as representatives of the state, have more right to do so. Unions are merely the embodiment of that attitude.

If you really want to see how we got to this point in our nation’s history, just read this part of the article again in the context of the author's overall message.

The guy seems to mean well, but under close scrutiny he is totally incoherent, and his actions are completely inconsistent with the message he is trying to convey. I’d make two points here:

1. If he really believes he knows more than these public school teachers and administrators, then why the hell did he send four kids to those public schools?

2. If he was willing to surrender his primary responsibility as a parent by turning his kids over to these fools and misfits, then why WOULDN’T these fools and misfits presume that he’s a moron and consider his kids “theirs?”

11 posted on 07/11/2021 6:16:40 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And once in a night I dreamed you were there; I canceled my flight from going nowhere.")
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To: Kaslin

The History of NEA | NEA

The Birth of NEA (1857-1865) On a summer afternoon in 1857, 43 educators gathered in Philadelphia, answering a national call to unite as one voice in the cause of public education. At the time, learning to read and write was a luxury for most children—and for many children of color, it was actually a crime.

************************************************************

The NEA has done more harm to America than all the wars since 1857. It needs to be abolished and buried DEEP into the earth where it is REAL HOT!


12 posted on 07/11/2021 6:17:07 AM PDT by Cen-Tejas
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To: blam

1980 - The U.S. Dept. of Education began operating, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.

1969 - The National Education Association (N.E.A.) union ended publication of The American Citizens Handbook; there were claims the last 10,000 copies were dumped in a NY landfill.

1953 - The United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, a cabinet-level department of the United States government, began.

1945 - The United Nations began, as well as The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (UN’s World Health Organization began in 1948.)

1941 - The N.E.A. purchased rights to the book The American Citizens Handbook, and began distributing it to schools and new (legal) immigrants (to help them know America and its values). Info link:

http://www.shipofstate.com/books/AmericanCitizensHandbook/AmericanCitizensHandbook.htm
American education has “progressed” as leftists (John Dewey, Frankfurt School adherents) wanted.


13 posted on 07/11/2021 6:27:28 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.d)
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To: Cen-Tejas

Teachers took in and grew the NEA to what it is today — huge and leftist.
(Gimmedat raise, days off and gold health insurance.)

Teachers stood silent when God was taken out of pubic schools.
(Gimmedat raise, days off and gold health insurance.)

Teachers allowed the NEA to turn leftist, feminist, queer and now CRT pushers.
(Gimmedat raise, days off and gold health insurance.)

Teachers’ union dues and NEA support leftist Democrat and their policies.
(Gimmedat raise, days off and gold health insurance.)

Teachers’ unions join with other unions to push votes for D’rats and union-preferred school board members.
(Gimmedat raise, days off and gold health insurance.)

Teachers’ role in swinging America left is undeniable and indefensible.


14 posted on 07/11/2021 6:28:58 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.d)
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To: Rummyfan

Defunding PBS and NPR never happens even when Republicans are in control of the House, Senate, and Presidency.

It’s proof that the Republican Party sucks beyond all suckage.


15 posted on 07/11/2021 6:44:10 AM PDT by Bishop_Malachi (Liberal Socialism - A philosophy which advocates spreading a low standard of living equally.)
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To: Kaslin

“Defund the NEA”

You can’t do that as long as the Biden administration, who was bought and is owned by the teachers unions, is in power.


16 posted on 07/11/2021 6:52:41 AM PDT by antidemoncrat (somRead more at: https://economicti)
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To: Rummyfan

Defund the NEA and PBS / NPR too. We have been talking about it for over thirty years.

those too and PP (preplanned extermination)


17 posted on 07/11/2021 7:00:16 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Kaslin

And for God’s sake defund PBS!!!

I made the mistake of landing on FM Radio broadcast of PBS and I could not believe the liberal propaganda hour after hour. I mean there was entire hour~long show devoted to why Republicans are so evil.

It had been years since I listened to PBS, I stuck around just to hear what was going on. I mean, every time they said the word “republican” you could almost hear Russian Pravda spitting out “Capitalist pig”


18 posted on 07/11/2021 7:02:49 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself)
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To: Kaslin

Freedom of choice...home schools or good religious schools. some guidance is required YMMV.


19 posted on 07/11/2021 7:09:50 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: PGalt
The children are the cultural Marxists’ future. Have been for many decades.

Our children have been specifically targeted a century by our pubic schools, news, media, churches and now social media.

We had John Dewey’s early 1900’s Progressive (Marxist) anti-home schooling influence, followed by The Frankfurt School’s mid-1900’s social Marxist plan for children, then Hollywood’s 1950’s communist influences, then NEA’s No God push in our schools.

Then, the 1960’s CPUSA push of college youts for war protests, drug use and wanton fornication, PBS and NPR went big, then the 1980’s sitcoms ridiculing parents, then the 1990’s sensitivity training, consensus building and the queer push in MSM and NEA, then the 2000’s pubic school/NEA self-esteem facade. In the 2010's, socialism is good.

Now, MSM, NEA, SJW groups and social media are pushing "social justice" and stirring them to riot and destroy -- the anarchy needed before stepping in as heros to "save America" (by electing Biden-Harris). Now, they're demonizing America-loving patriots as insurrectionists, to silence and isolate us.

20 posted on 07/11/2021 7:24:29 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.d)
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