Free Republic

As President Donald Trump pushes to reopen schools in the fall amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, National Education Association (NEA) president Lily Eskelsen Garcia on Wednesday “double-dog” dared the president to “sit in a class of 39 sixth graders and breathe that air.” Eskelsen Garcia on CNN’s “New Day” slammed Trump for not using the term “safely” in his push to reopen, which she said is why the NEA supports his opponent former Vice President Joe Biden in the upcoming 2020 presidential election. Host Alisyn Camerota asked, “Are public schools ready to open in September?” “You can see why we...

When I taught U.S. History to my sixth graders and we discussed the founding of our country, I’m fairly certain I mentioned to these 12-year-olds that it was a pretty big deal at the time that we decided we would have no king.We’d have three co-equal branches of government. Legislative to make the laws. Judicial to interpret the laws.  Executive to enforce the laws. It was on the final test. All my elementary students passed it. It’s a test the Senate is failing.Senate leadership under Mitch McConnell would have us re-teach our students that there are actually only two branches of government left.  Senator McConnell has...

It seems like ancient history now, but in the run-up to the presidential election of 2016, many educators warned that then-candidate Donald Trump did not have the temperament to be president. We listened closely to his words—the constant stream of insults, the belittling, the bullying. We recognized these outbursts. This was adolescent behavior at its worst. We knew then that this man should not be president and we knew he would be a terrible role model for our students.One year in, and it is even worse than many of us imagined it would be.

I have the best job in the whole wide world: I’m a teacher who gets to advocate for kids and for the work NEA members do, no matter what our job titles, to cultivate students’ curiosity and set them off toward fulfilling, successful futures. On September 8 at the National Press Club Headliners Luncheon, I’ll get the chance to speak about all of that, along with the challenges we face and how we uplift public education in the pro-voucher Trump era.I’m humbled by the company I’m in. Past luncheon speakers have included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Garrison Keilor,...

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, NEA President

For those unfamiliar with the NEA, it is the nation’s largest labor union – not just the largest teacher’s union, mind you. But the largest labor union in the country. Period. It has over three million members. Its mission is “to advocate for education professionals” blah, blah, blah. In other words, they are an organization of teachers who unite to demand more money, benefits, better work environments and whatever else they can get their hands on. They also advocate for just about any left-wing liberal cause that enrages conservatives, even if it has nothing to do with teaching. One of...

Speaking to all 3,000 of the assembled "progressive activists" at this year's Netroots Nation conference, National Education Association vice president Lily Eskelsen Garcia boldly declared a "prophecy" about the eternal destiny of NRA and Second Amendment supporters, and of politicians and lobbyists working to promote gun rights: "I'm not an ordained minister; I'm not a theologian, but these guys are going to hell." Wow. Going to hell for supporting the Second Amendment? That type of radical thinking might explain the very high incidence of ridiculous cases involving over-zealous school officials misinterpreting and wrongly enforcing "zero-tolerance" rules--and doing so without exercising...