As American families begin to think about sending their children and grandchildren back to school in a few weeks, the 3 million-member National Education Association has also been preparing for the new school year.
This month they approved "New Business Item 56"---a resolution expressing---actually demanding full and unlimited support for abortion access.
They'll be ready and waiting in the classroom when your child arrives.
Will you be ready?
Be informed.
Public education deepens its far-Left resolve on moral issues.
The resolution reads,
"The NEA will include an assertion of our defense of a person's right to control their own body, especially for women, youth, and sexually marginalized people. The NEA vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade."
It further says, "Through existing media channels, the NEA will honor leadership of women, non-binary, and trans people...including the #MeToo movement."
And NBI #56 states that the NEA will protect "the most misogynistic forces, under Trump, [who] want to abolish the gains of the women's rights movement...."
The Washington Examiner is asking, "Why is the nation's largest teachers' union voicing support for such a hot button issue that has nothing to do with the profession of teaching?"
The Examiner then answers their own question: "The NEA and other unions are dedicated to vocally championing the full gamut of progressive causes, despite the fact that many teachers they represent hold radically different views."
Indeed they do. Fortunately, many teachers in our government-run school system are conservative, Christian people who are truly dedicated to "educating" our kids.
Unfortunately, they are not in the majority, nor do they lead the far Left so-called progressive NEA. Nor does the NEA have any inclination to support their views.
Some facts about public school teachers.
Just 41% of teachers describe themselves as Democrats, while 30% identify as Independent and 27% as Republican. So 57% are not progressives or Democrats according to a national survey conducted by the Education Week Research Center.
However, the survey found that 29% of those responding to the survey voted for Trump in 2016 and 13% voted for a third-party candidate. Obviously, public school teachers are not all far Left progressives.
However, the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) take the dues of these teachers and almost exclusively support far-Left progressive social causes. And this has been going on for years.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports,
"The NEA is the largest teachers union in the US with more than 3 million members. It collected nearly $400 million from American educators in 2018, according to federal labor filings. The union is also one of the most politically active in the country, spending $70 million on politics and lobbying in 2017 and 2018. Nearly all the union's political action committee spending went to Democrats during the midterm cycle."
Reports also show that of the $70 million spent, only $216,280 went to Republicans.
The Washington Free Beacon quotes Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List:
"For more than three decades the NEA has denied taking a pro-abortion position This vote removes all doubt about where they stand. It is appalling and flies in the face of logic that America's largest educator's union, claiming to speak for more than 3 million members nation wide, would side with the extreme abortion lobby in embracing an explicitly anti-child and anti-family stance. Further more while purporting to be non-partisan, the Assembly went on the record attacking President Trump and his pro-life agenda."
The response.
In 2016, the Supreme Court deadlocked on whether unions can invoke mandatory union fees for public sector workers following the death of Justice Scalia. The case came back to the Supreme Court in 2018---Janus v. AFSCME.
With Trump-appointed Justice Neal Gorsuch, the Court ruled 5-4 that collecting labor union fees from non-members is a violation of the First Amendment because dues are considered political speech.
Teachers can no longer be mandated to pay dues to the NEA,
However, Dr. Michael Brown notes that conservative teachers are under a significant amount of pressure---social and professional.
He writes about one teacher who told him,
"At my last teaching position before I moved to a Charter School , the principal called a staff meeting where he told us that we would teach LGBTQ 'inclusion' beginning in kindergarten, that he believed one of our Pre-K students may be LGBTQ because for 'Dress like a prince or princess day' she wanted to be a prince. Also in this staff meeting he let us know that if a student OR a parent had a problem with us teaching LGBTQ that we should send them to the principal's office so he could tell them 'how they are wrong'. Can you imagine being a Christian Kindergartener being sent to the principal's office to be bullied into LGBTQ submission? This is why I encourage everyone I speak with to home school, or choose an alternative form of schooling if they can."
Brown notes that the NEA even has an LGBTQ+ caucus, which "in order to eliminate institutional discrimination and homophobia, monitors and participates in the development of NEA policies and activities, provides resources and fosters better communication among educators, students, and communities."
Anyone who holds a different belief of human sexuality is automatically branded "homophobic" or "transphobic."
Sex-ed curricula have become destructive, ugly---and pornographic---almost beyond belief.
If you find this hard to believe, take a moment and look at recent developments in California schools.
The Left understands that our government-run schools are the "front line of battle for the future of our nation."
Brown wonders if we Christian parents and grandparents understand that.
We need to continue to come up with alternative solutions---homeschooling, private schools, charter schools, etc. We also need to get involved in the public school system, from administration, to teaching, to parental meetings with educators.
Don't be intimidated. We've got to communicate in no uncertain terms: "You will not use my child as a pawn for your agenda."
The Bible teaches that education begins in the home. Teach your children the ways of the Lord.
And most importantly, pray for your child. Pray in the morning. Pray at noon. Pray in the evening.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.