One of the nation&#8217;s largest teachers unions promoted a “summer of resistance” against the federal government and claimed that students had been kidnapped by federal officers. 
The United Teachers Los Angeles union gave a presentation last year on “Preparing for ICE at your school” that pushed its members to engage in political activism and suggested utilizing school resources to thwart Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, according to <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/united-teachers-of-los-angeles-utla-planning-documents-and-materials-appear-to-advocate-for-use-of-school-resources-as-form-of-resistance-against-ice-promote-engaging-students-in-community-se/">materials obtained</a> by Defending Education. The training came after parts of Los Angeles were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-are-coming-for-you-feds-reveal-more-charges-against-anti-ice-rioters">rocked by violent anti-ICE riots</a> that prompted President Donald Trump to send in the National Guard. 
The presentation pointed educators to how they could fight back against the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and urged parents and teachers to collaborate on &#8220;resistance&#8221; efforts. It appeared to be created as part of the union&#8217;s broader <a href="https://utla.net/app/uploads/2025/08/Immigration-Enforcement-Safety-Review-FINAL.pdf">efforts</a> &#8220;to build a comprehensive to immigration enforcement.&#8221; 
Defending Education director of research Rhyen Staley told The Daily Wire that the training was another example of how teachers&#8217; unions push leftist politics over education. 
“Unfortunately, these documents are another reminder that the teachers&#8217; unions, especially UTLA, are focused on far-left social justice activism and advancing unpopular ideologies over how to improve the academic outcomes of the students they serve,” he told The Daily Wire. “But what is deeply appalling is the willingness of teachers to incentivize minors to engage in radical practices that could potentially put them in harm&#8217;s way.”
The training, which Defending Education noted was created by two members of the union and teachers at the Los Angeles Unified School District, walked educators through legal actions taken to block certain ICE operations in Los Angeles over the summer that culminated in a leftist judge blocking the agency from conducting broad immigration sweeps. 
The training did not appear to mention the violence of the anti-ICE protests, which included setting cop cars on fire, vandalism, and assaults on state and federal law enforcement. 
<div id="attachment_1041161" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1041161" class="size-full wp-image-1041161" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2219241406.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 08: Protesters hold up flags during protests after a series of immigration raids on June 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Tensions in the city remain high after the Trump administration called in the National Guard against the wishes of city leaders. " width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2219241406.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2219241406-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2219241406-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2219241406-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.</div>
“The fight is far from over, we need to keep fighting together!” a slide shared with educators read. Another slide titled &#8220;What can you do?&#8221; instructed educators on how to take action against ICE operations. 
The suggested actions included joining &#8220;court watch and rally calls,” and funding &#8220;community defense work.”
“The government will likely fight back. But the spotlight is now on DHS’s unlawful practices — and our resistance is working!” the slide read. These resources appeared to be pulled from the used materials from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
<div id="attachment_1041165" style="width: 2028px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1041165" class="size-full wp-image-1041165" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-10.58.52-AM.png" alt="" width="2018" height="1104" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-10.58.52-AM.png 2018w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-10.58.52-AM-300x164.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-10.58.52-AM-1024x560.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-10.58.52-AM-768x420.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-10.58.52-AM-1536x840.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 2018px) 100vw, 2018px" />Training obtained by Defending Education.</div>
Another slide highlighted alleged “student kidnappings,” including one that involved a 6-year-old boy with leukemia who was <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/06/30/dhs-debunks-fake-news-media-narratives-june#:~:text=The%20implication%20that%20ICE%20would%20deny%20a,regularly%20by%20medical%20professionals%20while%20in%20custody.">kept</a> with his illegal immigrant parents after an immigration judge ruled against their case. He was not denied or prevented from accessing medical treatment, as was suggested in some reports. 
One slide listed specific actions the United Teachers Los Angeles had taken regarding the ICE raids. This included partnering with “other unions for the summer of resistance” for “20 days of non-violent protest and action.” 
It also noted that the union and the Los Angeles Unified School District had agreed to “bargaining language” that declares that “the buildings and grounds of LAUSD (including pick-up and drop-off sites at all entries and exits) are sanctuary spaces for all students, parents, administrators, bargaining unit members, and community members at the school for school-related business and jointly committed to defend the right to a free and safe learning environment to the extent permitted by law.”
A spokesman for the district told The Daily Wire that it &#8220;follows applicable laws and District policies, which employees are expected to follow during the workday and in their interactions with students.&#8221;
The next slide featured suggested actions for members of the union, including “community patrols,” “age-appropriate rallies,” and in-school student protests.
<div id="attachment_1041173" style="width: 2033px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1041173" class="size-full wp-image-1041173" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-2.21.20-PM.png" alt="" width="2023" height="1226" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-2.21.20-PM.png 2023w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-2.21.20-PM-300x182.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-2.21.20-PM-950x576.png 950w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-2.21.20-PM-768x465.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-09-at-2.21.20-PM-1536x931.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 2023px) 100vw, 2023px" />Training obtained by Defending Education.</div>
The training documents also suggest using Local School Leadership Councils “as a form of resistance.” These are groups of elected parents, community members, and school officials who oversee certain aspects of school policy. 
One of the policy areas this group oversees is discipline and student safety, and suggestions included the LAUSD “revamping tardy policy to get students into building,” pushing “LAUSD for ‘lock down’ if ICE is on/near campus – shelter in place,” “engaging students in community self-defense – offer service learning hours,” keeping “students away from gates at lunch/recess,” and “patroling school sites depending on community.”
<div id="attachment_1041517" style="width: 2040px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1041517" class="size-full wp-image-1041517" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-10-at-8.48.16-AM.png" alt="" width="2030" height="1242" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-10-at-8.48.16-AM.png 2030w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-10-at-8.48.16-AM-300x184.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-10-at-8.48.16-AM-941x576.png 941w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-10-at-8.48.16-AM-768x470.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-10-at-8.48.16-AM-1536x940.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 2030px) 100vw, 2030px" />Defending Education.</div>
Other notes suggested using professional development time to make “immigration kits.”
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schools-arent-off-limits-for-ice-raids-trump-dhs-says">withdrew</a> a Biden-era policy that stipulated that schools were off limits for immigration enforcement operations. 
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said on January 21.

ICE Immigration Protest

‘Summer of Resistance’: Docs Reveal How California Teachers Were Trained To Fight Back Against ICE

‘Summer of Resistance’: Docs Reveal How Teachers Were Trained To Fight Back Against ICE

California

Education

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Los Angeles

Teachers Unions

As tensions in Minnesota continue to flare up over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions and allegations of rampant fraud, far-Left actors and activists have decided that it would be expedient to inflame the issues further. So, it shouldn&#8217;t come as a shock that the teachers unions and their activist allies have chosen to join in and provoke further unrest and strife.
In fact, a recent <a href="https://x.com/BGOnTheScene/status/2011524444905435353">video</a> posted on X claims to show K-12 students and teachers in Saint Paul, Minnesota walking out of school in protest over ICE. Days later the Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) put out a <a href="https://x.com/JennaReports/status/2011493535812338109?s=20">statement</a> calling for its members to engage in a “Day of Action” and stating that there would be “no work, no school, and no shopping.” Unsurprisingly, the communiqué comes with a list of demands such as the removal of ICE from the state and the defunding of the federal agency.
The organization of “educators” then publicly proclaimed that it was “on the side” of the students, while simultaneously shutting down schools in a district where roughly 70% of all elementary students are not <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/minnesota/districts/saint-paul-public-schools-104201">proficient</a> in math and reading. However, SPFE and its members are sending a clear message that their top priority is not the education of the children and families they serve, but far-Left social justice activism.
Unfortunately, this is a feature, not a bug, of the dominant ideology permeating the Gopher State’s education system writ large. Social justice activism is now the primary ethos of a system corrupted by Left-wing political actors who have been turning classrooms into street activist training programs in service to a Revolutionary Industrial Complex.
In the Colleges of Education, for instance, teacher candidates are conditioned into far-Left political ideas that are often sold to budding educators as “best practices.” Future K-12 instructors are then expected to incorporate these ideas into their own methodologies.
For example, Minnesota State University Mankato’s College of Education <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/minnesota-state-university-mankato-corrupted/">states</a> in its “Conceptual Framework” that the teacher training program’s vision is to “inspire lifelong learning and professional engagement through racial consciousness, social justice, and inclusion.” The program aims to prepare “anti-racist practitioners” by using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a foundational framework focusing on privilege, oppression, systemic racism, and social justice activism. In fact, future elementary school teachers are required to take a course titled “ED 101 – Introduction to Critical Race Theory in Education.”
But it is not just the training of teachers that is problematic. Some university programs are offering free lesson plans and resources to K-12 teachers that promote Left-wing biases and agendas.
Such is the case with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender &amp; Sexuality Studies (RIDGS) program, which has <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/liberated-university-of-minnesota-twin-cities/">created</a> and made publicly available ethnic studies lesson plans for K-12 schools that are riddled with far-Left ideologies promoting youth activism. For instance, a sixth-grade lesson titled “Protest Art &amp; the Movement for Black Life” focuses on the Black Lives Matter movement and how to “create their own protest art for a cause of their choice.” The multi-day plan reads like a revolutionary training program meant to prepare eleven-year-olds for some yet to be determined protest.
However, if there is any doubt about these ideologies trickling out of the universities and into K-12, look no further than Saint Paul Public Schools’ (SPPS) <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/liberated-saint-paul-public-schools/">critical ethnic studies</a> curriculum. A 2023 RIDGS report on the deeply divisive course highlights the “seven principles” students are taught throughout the year, including “critical consciousness” and “resistance.” According to statements included in the document, students learned about “protests” and “civil disobedience” and were inspired by the Third World Liberation Front.
Like SPPS, Minneapolis Public Schools’ (MPS) <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/minneapolis-public-schools-ethnic-studies-course-teaches-students-that-capitalism-and-western-culture-is-exploitative-and-leads-to-slavery-colonialism-genocide-and-white-supremacy/">ethnic studies</a> courses are also saturated with revolutionary dogmas. In one of the classes, students learn to “challenge the ‘white savior’ narrative” and that slavery, genocide, and white supremacy all stem from capitalism and Western culture. Naturally, the course in question also includes student activism.
So, it should come as little surprise that K-12 students from both SPPS and MPS appear to be <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2026_Twin-Cities-Student-ICE-protest-chat.pdf">planning</a> their own mass &#8220;strike” and “walkout” over ICE. Of course, it is highly probable that they are getting “guidance” from parents, teachers, and local activists.
While Minnesota’s streets heat up during the dead of winter, parents and the public need to be aware that far-Left actors inside and outside the education system have been preparing teachers and students for years to be street activists and protestors.
Local and national leaders, first and foremost, need to ensure that the youth and their teachers can peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights safely. But there also needs to be investigations into the Revolutionary Industrial Complex that has taken over Minnesota’s entire education system. Families, students, and communities deserve better from their education system.
 * * * 
Rhyen Staley is a researcher for Defending Education. He holds a master&#8217;s degree in elementary education and has over a decade of classroom experience in both public and private schools. He has over 25 years of volleyball coaching experience from Women’s Division I down to junior high.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

St. Paul, Minnesota student anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) demonstrations, January 2026

Teachers Unions Shut Down Minnesota Schools For Activism

Children

Critical Race Theory

Ethnic Studies

K-12

Leftists

Liberals

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Progressivism

Public Schools

Woke Culture

During the summer months, educators across the country flock to professional development conferences, often on the taxpayers’ dime. These events are supposed to sharpen the instructional skills of teachers and equip them with new methods for helping students succeed, addressing real challenges of education, such as declining test scores, reading comprehension, and math proficiency.
But as Defending Education’s analysis of the programming shows, what actually dominates these conferences is not literacy strategies or math interventions.
Instead, the recurring themes are race, social justice, gender, activism, and equity. From English to math, and from history to science, the same ideological buzzwords surface again and again. It’s little wonder parents are concerned, or that the nation has grown more politically divided.
Take the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teachers union. At its <a href="https://web.cvent.com/event/555fe259-c382-4f14-87b0-319c288f9e68/websitePage:83a0a9c7-c495-4fe0-ad95-5eb99de3dbc2">Conference on Racial and Social Justice</a> in Portland this summer, activism, not academics, took center stage.
Unions like the NEA make no effort to hide their contempt for Donald Trump and the values of his supporters. At its annual Representative Assembly, the union <a href="https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/20250706-ratoday-issue-5.pdf">approved business items</a> labeling Trump’s agenda as “fascist” and opposing efforts to eliminate the Department of Education, which it called racist and anti-democratic. In direct response to a Supreme Court decision (Mahmoud v. Taylor) affirming religious parents’ rights to opt their children out of LGBTQ curricula, the NEA allocated $209,000 to push back and expand LGBTQ advocacy in schools. In total, the NEA committed more than $340,000 <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/national-education-association-approves-business-items-accusing-president-trump-of-fascism-and-authoritarianism-opposing-supreme-court-ruling-and-not-using-adl-materials/">toward initiatives</a> designed to counter conservative policies.
This union-driven activism is not confined to Portland. Across the country, teachers are being coached to use classrooms as platforms for reshaping opinions on society’s most sensitive issues. Students are not simply taught about history or literature; they are encouraged to become activists themselves. The worldview behind this approach borrows heavily from Marxist theory, framing society as an endless struggle between oppressors and the oppressed. That lens is being embedded into lesson plans, teacher training, and classroom culture, gradually shifting education away from its original purpose — academic instruction — toward political reeducation.
The sessions at NEA’s conference illustrate this shift. One workshop, “Building Narrative Power for Education Justice,” trained teachers to use storytelling to fight “anti-truth” and anti-LGBTQ legislation. Another warned about “White Christian nationalist forces” allegedly exploiting pan-Asian communities. Additional sessions covered “racial battle fatigue,” blurred lines between racism and ableism, and framed climate change as disproportionately harming communities of color, women, and students with disabilities. One even linked the MAGA movement to Jim Crow and Native land theft. Teachers were urged to affirm transgender student identities, disrupt curriculum challenges, and fight political opponents under the banner of education justice.
The conference also promoted the <a href="https://custom.cvent.com/820B5689CD804AEAA83FC39F9FBC8CD3/files/0a702792cebf4a3ea1c9b294c6c985b5.pdf">NEA’s pronoun guide</a>, which encourages teachers to adopt nontraditional pronouns such as ze, zir, zirs, and zirself, and to display their own pronouns as a sign of being a “safe person.” Misgendering, teachers were told, is itself a form of marginalization.
While parents worry about declining math and reading scores, union-sponsored trainings are focused on dismantling ableism, confronting White Christian nationalism, and embedding queer theory into K–12 classrooms. These are not the priorities of most American families, but within the union bubble, they are treated as urgent and non-negotiable. 
And it’s not just the NEA. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) filled its 2024 <a href="https://s1.goeshow.com/ncte/annual/2024/conference_program_sessions.cfm">conference with sessions</a> such as “Disrupting the Canon with LGBTQIA+ Themes,” “Queer and Trans-Affirming Education,” and “Antiracist Pedagogy Workshop.”
In a perfect example encapsulating how this ideology makes its way into the classroom, one teacher at a school district in New York <a href="https://www.jecsd.org/districtpage.cfm?pageid=3211">reframed Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”</a> as a “cli-fi,” or climate fiction text, using the play as a vehicle to teach climate change.
Math education has not been spared either. <a href="https://www.nctm.org/atlanta2025/">The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’</a> (NCTM) <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/the-national-council-of-teachers-of-mathematics-2025-annual-meeting-features-sessions-on-black-feminist-mathematics-pedagogy-antiracist-math-equitable-grading-social-justice-and-whiteness/">2024 conference</a> features sessions on antiracist math, whiteness, and social justice.
One session, <a href="https://www.aievolution.com/ntm2501/index.cfm?do=ev.viewEv&amp;ev=1951">Reflecting on My Whiteness</a>, describes math itself as a “white, patriarchal space” and offers strategies to “confront the oppressive forces of whiteness” and “dismantle inequitable practices” in the classroom. <a href="https://www.aievolution.com/ntm2501/index.cfm?do=ev.viewEv&amp;ev=2046">Another highlights</a> how black women in math education “disrupt systems of oppression” and center “Black Girl Joy.” A third, <a href="https://www.aievolution.com/ntm2501/index.cfm?do=ev.viewEv&amp;ev=1930">Democracy and Data</a>, claims math should be used to advance democratic participation through a social justice lens.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) follows the same script. At its <a href="https://web.cvent.com/event/b256b940-7874-4081-a4af-34edc50fd735/summary">July conference</a>, sessions focused on “racial harm,” “LGBTQIA+ allyship,” climate activism, and “mass mobilization training.” Teachers were also told to resist curriculum oversight as a political attack. In one session, the AFT admitted the obvious: the pandemic had a “devastating effect” on student literacy.
Yet, the same union that now bemoans literacy loss was a key player in lobbying to keep schools closed during COVID, a decision that fueled the very learning setbacks reflected in the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. Despite <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Elementary_and_Secondary_School_Emergency_Relief_%28ESSER%29_funding_by_state?utm_">$190 billion</a> in federal COVID-19 relief funds, the data indicate a failing K–12 education system.
Meanwhile, many educators are turning to <a href="https://defendinged.org/ethnicstudies/">ethnic studies</a>, often presented through a victim–oppressor lens. The radical ethnic studies group, Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO), held a <a href="https://www.xicanxinstitute.org/summer-2025">2024 Summer Institute</a> that <a href="https://www.instagram.com/xitotucson/p/DKk82TWSPMe/">promoted</a> “decolonial popular education” and urged educators to view teaching as a political weapon. Its sessions featured activists tied to <a href="https://www.ethnicstudiespedagogies.org/gallery/07%20-%20TIAHUI%20-%20A%20Decolonial%20Framework.pdf">anti-Western and antisemitic rhetoric</a>, with the explicit goal of uniting street activism and classroom instruction. And yes, school districts are footing the bill with taxpayer dollars for teachers to attend.
The common thread across these trainings is the glorification of victimhood and activism, with teachers encouraged to turn students into activists for leftist causes. Rather than instilling confidence and agency, this mindset risks fostering learned helplessness, where students believe success is unattainable without intervention.
Summer training conferences are less about improving learning outcomes and more about transforming classrooms into engines of political activism — serving unions and activist groups, but leaving behind the very students schools are meant to serve.
* * *
Kendall Tietz is an investigative reporter for Defending Education.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-18-Sep-2025-09-53-AM-6641

The Public School Activist Pipeline: ‘A Joyous Rebellion’

Anti-Racism

Equity

LGBTQ

National Education Association

Students

Teachers

Woke ideas, by definition, are fundamentally flawed. These include policies that can either be written off as unworkable — think high taxes, free health care, and open borders — or ridiculous impulses like gender confusion, environmental extremism, defunding the police, and critical race theory.
Over the past two years, the woke left has increasingly taken up a particularly alarming cause — antisemitism. Disturbingly, one of the most vocal proponents of this toxic ideology is perhaps the one best positioned to disseminate it where it does the most damage — in our children’s ears.
With astonishing regularity, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association (NEA), finds itself embroiled in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/antisemitism-and-the-teachers-union-education-students-k-12-44cd1fa7?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAio3c5Mt0_L59ZPcvOPJickL051h1PbFLp_tScFw0mRoqrmcVgMIOsA6nnyibM%3D&amp;gaa_ts=688aa84c&amp;gaa_sig=LzMqnMYY5GorvJeQbZTzYtBBy9PjR6F0UEtTrKy5NvNssT-_RRcxOWjxtSm_an-HMy0mXn6s6GiAbh0Hv5M_hQ%3D%3D">controversy</a> around its attitude towards Jews and the conflict in Israel.
In late July, the leaders of the 3-million-member union were forced to walk back a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/08/gaza-war-adl-teachers-union-nea-vote">decision</a> made earlier in the month when its 7,000-member Representative Assembly voted to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that has fought antisemitism and other forms of intolerance for over a century.
The body approved a measure stating that the NEA “will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics.”
It reasoned: “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.”
The hypocrisy is palpable.
A week after its July 6th gathering in Portland, Oregon, members of the union’s Jewish Affairs Caucus penned a <a href="https://www.neajacaucus.org/post/letter-to-nea-leadership">letter</a> to NEA President Becky Pringle, noting that individual Jewish delegates to the event were “vocally mocked, harassed, and threatened in ways that dishonor our union.”
The letter continued, “Most unfortunate of all was how the NEA’s official statement framed the situation, as if U.S. classrooms were an extension of the battleground in Gaza … Presenting human dignity as a zero-sum game is perilous for all minorities. History teaches us that when one minority is deprived of its humanity without comment, others will be, too.”
“Allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change,” countered NEA delegate <a href="https://labornotes.org/blogs/2025/07/educators-union-rejects-anti-defamation-league-cuts-ties">Stephen Siegel</a> from the assembly floor.
Publicly, Pringle acknowledged the Representative Assembly’s action went too far, <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-education/2025/07/21/nea-halts-bid-to-cut-ties-with-jewish-organization-00465130">stating</a>, “After consideration, it was determined that this proposal would not further NEA’s commitment to academic freedom, our membership, or our goals.”
Within days, however, the union’s true feelings came to light again when it announced plans to promote a version of Holocaust remembrance that does not even mention Jews, instead referencing, “…victims of the Holocaust from different faiths” and teaching that Israel was founded through “forced, violent displacement and dispossession.”
This wording comes directly from the priorities outlined in NEA’s <a href="https://www.nea.org/">2025 handbook</a>, which the union publishes each year as a guide on the group&#8217;s priorities and strategic goals for its national and state leaders, staff, and members. It includes the NEA&#8217;s bylaws and is updated with any new resolutions and policy positions the union has endorsed.
These aren’t isolated incidents. As ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/antisemitism-and-the-teachers-union-education-students-k-12-44cd1fa7?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAjStdmE5Sn12J-E4JPH8q2Os8fljrQpHJrtRWhjqSbFGcFj3jvZuqRKWEX9bFM%3D&amp;gaa_ts=6890e11f&amp;gaa_sig=U7kbLb2MFLOViXFevR2KtAoLAxq3KPM9ZMb_XqIVIbO7hNpInieKcl1KH8QJS1WpqwlpKvfhq2REB_oFm2qzbQ%3D%3D">wrote</a> in the Wall Street Journal:
<blockquote>Local teachers’ unions in California have provided teachers with an anti-Israel script; in Minneapolis, they’ve labeled Israel as “apartheid.” In Chicago, the teachers’ union voted on anti-Israel resolutions and posted on social media that, “Zionists are not welcome.” In New York, the union representing City University of New York professors voted to divest from Israel. Others have gone so far as to prevent teachers from participating in mandatory antisemitism training. When the San Francisco Unified School District scheduled four such trainings for high school teachers, their union said they would support any educator who decided to skip the sessions.</blockquote>
Against this backdrop, Los Angeles District Court Judge Stephen Wilson, on July 21st, <a href="https://www.dailynews.com/2025/07/30/forced-representation-allows-haters-to-speak-on-behalf-of-their-victims/">dismissed a lawsuit</a> filed by seven Jewish teachers represented by United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) — an affiliate of NEA — alleging the union had engaged in a pattern of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist activity for years.
The Freedom Foundation, which is representing the teachers, plans to appeal Wilson’s ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sadly, it isn’t likely to be the last time the teachers&#8217; union’s politics of hatred are on display for a public that’s already had a bellyful of it.
* * *
Aaron Withe is the CEO of the Freedom Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

UTLA protest in Los Angeles, CA

When Unions Teach Hate: Inside The NEA’s Descent Into Antisemitism

When Unions Teach Hate: Inside NEA’s Antisemitism Problem

Anti-Semitism

Jewish

The largest teachers union in the United States has demanded that $3500 be set aside so that it can officially refer to President Donald Trump and his &#8220;programs and actions&#8221; as &#8220;fascist.&#8221;
Members of the National Education Association, during its annual convention, adopted a resolution that would have the group put up the cash so that all official NEA materials would &#8220;correctly characterize&#8221; the agenda of the Trump administration as &#8220;fascist.&#8221;
Corey DeAngelis shared several of the resolutions that were adopted by the NEA, saying in a Monday X post, &#8220;I just received a copy of the National Education Association&#8217;s resolutions that they passed at their annual convention. They kept them private this year.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The nation&#8217;s largest teachers union adopted a business item &#8220;to defend against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials correctly characterize Donald Trump&#8217;s program and actions.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/xNdksH3nQZ">pic.twitter.com/xNdksH3nQZ</a>
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1942277260154921437?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The nation&#8217;s largest teachers union adopted a business item &#8216;to defend against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials correctly characterize Donald Trump&#8217;s program and actions,'&#8221; he added.
Just below that, under the heading of &#8220;Cost Implications,&#8221; the union asserted that it would cost $3500 for materials to be printed reflecting that change.
Other resolutions included one &#8220;to oppose any move to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education as an illegal, anti-democratic, and racist attempt to destroy public education and privatize it in the interests of the billionaires&#8221;; another that said the NEA would &#8220;defend birthright citizenship and oppose the attempt to revert to pre-civil rights movement – Jim Crow – legal concepts of &#8216;states rights&#8217; in order to deny citizenship to the children of immigrants&#8221;; and one that said the NEA would support students &#8220;dissenting and organizing against Trump’s policies,&#8221; specifically with regard to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities.
The price tags on those resolutions were $2000, $34,500, and $32,500, respectively.

2024 Democratic National Convention TW

Teachers Union Resolves To Call Trump ‘Fascist,’ Support Student Protests Over ICE Raids

Teachers Union Resolves To Call Trump 'Fascist,' Support Student Protests Over ICE Raids

Donald Trump

Fascism

Politics

The nation&#8217;s largest teachers union imposes racial quotas for its board and leadership, designating a portion of its roles for those who qualify as an “ethnic minority,” a report from Defending Education, exclusively obtained by The Daily Wire, reveals.
The National Education Association (NEA), which <a href="https://www.nea.org/">calls itself</a> “the nation&#8217;s largest professional employee organization,” stipulates in its constitution that various boards and committees are required to have a specific proportion of “ethnic minority” members, and that elections can be held for certain positions with the specific intent “to elect a member of an ethnic-minority group.” The NEA’s <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/teachers-unions-bylaws-bipoc-delegates-and-reps/">bylaws</a> spell out those who qualify as ethnic minorities, listing all racial categories other than whites.
“Ethnic minorities shall comprise at least twenty (20) percent of the Board,” the NEA constitution reads, adding that the “Representative Assembly shall elect additional directors as appropriate to assure such ethnic-minority representation.”
“There shall be a minimum of twenty percent ethnic minority representation on each committee,” the NEA constitution goes on to say. The organization’s constitution also stipulates that, if the NEA has had white presidents for eleven consecutive years, then “the Association shall take such steps as may be legally permissible to elect a member of an ethnic-minority group.”
While the NEA focuses on imposing its racial agenda, it has presided over a decline in educational outcomes, Defending Education Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;The NEA has become a race-obsessed organization, and these racial quotas written into their constitutions and bylaws provide further evidence of how far they&#8217;ve fallen,” Sanzi charged. “It has become an ideological project for them, and it&#8217;s no surprise that educational outcomes continue to decline as the largest teachers union in the country become more and more extreme.”
This focus on DEI isn’t relegated to NEA itself, however. The organization’s affiliate groups across the country similarly maintain specific positions that can only be held by members of certain racial and ethnic groups.
The California Teachers Association, an affiliate of the NEA, limits certain elected representative positions within the organization to those who identify as “BIPOC,” an acronym that stands for “black, indigenous, people of color.” Those running for the organization’s at-large position “must be BIPOC,” the group’s <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/teachers-unions-bylaws-bipoc-delegates-and-reps/">election manual</a> states.
“NEA policy requires that each state include BIPOC delegates in numbers commensurate with the population of the state,” the manual adds.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association, another NEA affiliate, similarly disqualifies white people from holding certain elected positions on account of their race. The organization’s board of directors <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/teachers-unions-bylaws-bipoc-delegates-and-reps/">reserves a spot</a> for an “At-Large Director for Ethnic Minority Membership,” noting that the term is used to refer to those who are “American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, and Cape Verdean.”
There’s also the Michigan Education Association, which <a href="https://mea.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/M-3-MEA-PAC-Policies-May-2024-pending-RA-and-Board-approval.pdf">stipulates</a> that the governing board of its political action council must include “two (2) members who identify as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color (BIPOC).”
Defending Education points out that these race-based policies have become commonplace in other organizations across the country, noting that at least 36 teachers union organizations, from Wyoming to Mississippi, reserve positions on boards or committees for those who qualify as &#8220;BIPOC.&#8221;
The NEA and its state affiliates did not return requests for comment.

NEA Speaker

EXCLUSIVE: Teachers Unions Across America Have Racial Quotas For Leadership Roles

DEIA

school

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten resigned from the board of the Democratic National Committee after more than 23 years, citing disagreements with new leadership.
“I appear to be out of step with the leadership you are forging, and I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent and actively trying to engage more of our communities,” Weingarten wrote in her June 5 <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000197-75eb-da2a-a9bf-7feba2f90000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resignation letter</a>.
Weingarten, who leads the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, opposed DNC Chairman Ken Martin in February’s election. Upon becoming chair, Martin removed Weingarten from her longstanding position on the Rules and Bylaws Committee.
Weeks before Weingarten resigned, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders also stepped down from the DNC. On May 27, Saunders wrote that “public service workers are facing unprecedented attacks,” a challenge which “demands unwavering focus.”
“In that spirit, and with deep respect, I must decline your nomination to the DNC,” Saunders wrote, according to The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/06/15/randi-weingarten-democratic-national-committee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Post.</a>
Saunders further <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/us/politics/randi-weingarten-dnc-ken-martin.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> his decision to resign in a statement to The New York Times, saying, “We must evolve to meet the urgency of this moment. This is not a time to close ranks or turn inward.”
“This amounts to the exit of two of the highest-profile union leaders aligned with the Democratic Party,” The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher <a href="https://x.com/ShaneGoldmacher/status/1934441042016645243" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X.
The two resignations are the latest signs of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dei-claims-another-scalp-dnc-diversity-rules-oust-david-hogg?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=DEI+Claims+Another+Scalp%3A+DNC+Diversity+Rules+Oust+David+Hogg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">internal conflict</a> at the DNC. Two vice chairs were voted out last week, including 25-year-old activist David Hogg, whose controversial $20 million project to back younger Democratic candidates over their “out-of-touch, ineffective” incumbent seniors was supported by Weingarten.
This caused tension between Hogg and the chairman, who told the Gen Z activist he would have to leave if he wanted to continue with the project.
“If you want to challenge incumbents, you’re more than free to do that, but just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be neutral arbiters,” Martin said. “We can’t be both the referee and also the player at the same time. You have to make a decision.”
In leaked video footage of a Zoom meeting, Martin told Hogg, &#8220;The other night I said to myself for the first time, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this anymore&#8217;&#8230;you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to.”
This feud led to Hogg’s removal, though the DNC claimed the vote was occasioned by a failure to adhere to gender diversity protocols in the previous election.
“I ran to be DNC Vice Chair to help make the Democratic Party better, not to defend an indefensible status quo that has caused voters in almost every demographic group to move away from us,” Hogg said.
Saunders and Weingarten aren’t the only ones souring on the Democratic Party. According to a recent <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN poll</a>, more than half of “Democratic-aligned adults” say the party is heading “in the wrong direction.” When asked which Democratic leader best represents the values of the party, “More than 30% didn’t offer a name in response.&#8221;
“No one,” one respondent answered. “That’s the problem.”

Randi Weingarten

Teachers’ Union President Randi Weingarten Resigns From DNC

David Hogg

Democratic National Committee

Unsurprisingly, there is tremendous fearmongering marked by falsehoods from the opposition regarding President Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Public school personnel are already claiming that special education funding has been cut and that closing the department will devastate their ability to educate students. These claims are unfounded.
Amongst the loudest clamoring are the teachers union bosses. Randi Weingarten, head of the second largest teachers union, the American Federation for Teachers, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/randi-weingarten-spitting-mad-about-evisceration-education-department" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in her own words</a>, is “spitting mad.” Note this is the Weingarten who leveraged her political power to <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/biden-believes-in-science-so-long-as-the-teachers-unions-approve/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directly influence the CDC</a> to keep public schools closed to children outrageously far longer than necessary.
Following the signing of the executive order, the American Federation for Teachers issued a <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/educators-professors-school-districts-unions-unite-challenge-trump-attempt-dismantle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> announcing the filing of a lawsuit by a coalition of educators, school districts, and unions against the Trump administration. Regarding the recent cutting of the massive bureaucracy bloat within the federal department and those responsible for woke DEI initiatives, the press release <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/educators-professors-school-districts-unions-unite-challenge-trump-attempt-dismantle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read</a>: “Mass firings of these hardworking people planned by the Trump administration will harm students and schools.”
Clearly overlooking the reality that public education is failing to effectively educate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-national-test-scores-make-undeniable-case-for-school-choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seven out of ten</a> schoolchildren in the basics of reading and math, the teacher union is rushing to legal action in an attempt to maintain the status quo, which is a death sentence for children’s futures.
John B. King Jr, who was the U.S. Secretary of Education for a stint during the Obama administration, is another Democrat working overtime to dispense fear to Americans over the plan to dismantle the disastrous Department of Education. In a recent short <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/28/nx-s1-5341462/trump-education-department-financial-aid-layoffs-arrests-international-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview with NPR</a>, King kept his main talking point on repeat, asserting that “People are very worried.” Continuing, he commented about the things he’s “most worried about.” King went on, “…I’m very worried…” The painful and brief interview concluded with a final question to which King tripled down on his anxiety-spreading effort. “I’m really worried….I’m worried…I’m worried…”
The fearmongering is unfounded. President Trump, in his address prior to signing the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities</a>” executive order into law, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnoGgEJvLs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">communicated</a> that “Pell Grants, Title I funding, resources for children with disabilities and special needs will be preserved — fully preserved.” He explained that those programs would be “redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them.”
More specifically, special education programs will <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-and-defense-secretary-hegseth-deliver-remarks-on-f-47-fighter-jet/657517" target="_blank" rel="noopener">move to</a> the Department of Health and Human Services. Student loans will <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-and-defense-secretary-hegseth-deliver-remarks-on-f-47-fighter-jet/657517" target="_blank" rel="noopener">head to</a> the Small Business Administration (SBA), which is a commonsense change from education policy personnel managing the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article/40-18-trillion-student-loans-late-payments-trump-seeks-abolish-dept-ed/27711" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.8 trillion loan portfolio</a>. And, importantly, states will be freed from the red tape of Washington D.C., empowering them to make decisions concerning how best to educate the children of their state.
So, what is being cut? Simply put, the billions of dollars spent fueling the promotion of radical ideologies to children, such as gender ideology, Critical Race Theory, and an anti-American worldview. As one example, on January 23, the U.S. Department of Education, under the president&#8217;s direction, <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-takes-action-eliminate-dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began taking action</a> to “eliminate harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.” That <a href="https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_89d2f95a-da74-11ef-881f-c31173f69a5c.html?seyid=48320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> placing personnel who lead DEI initiatives on administrative leave, the deletion of more than 200 webpages of DEI resources that “promote or endorse” the “harmful ideological programs,” and ending DEI contracts totaling over $2.5 million.
Then, on January 29, President Trump signed the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling</a>” executive order. It <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that “In recent years…parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.” Specifically, the Secretary of Education, Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services must consult with the Attorney General to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">create a plan</a> within 90 days to end indoctrination and protect parental rights.
Additionally, federal bureaucrats pushing paper in Washington D.C. have been cut. Already, <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-initiates-reduction-force" target="_blank" rel="noopener">half of the positions</a> within the U.S. Department of Education have been eliminated as education rightfully returns to the states. Big government control of K-12 education has been a massive failure and has not increased student learning. Block granting the money back to the states will enhance efficiency and effectiveness while also providing increased accountability for student academic learning.
Don’t listen to the lies or anxiety-induced talking points. Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education is a win for America and a much-needed step forward toward the goal of successfully educating our future generation.
Hats off to President Trump for taking this longtime-coming, much needed action to ensure that gone will be the days of only three out of ten public school children learning to read or do math proficiently.
* * *
Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rally Held In Support Of Department Of Education And Schools

Fearmongering And Falsehoods Over Education Dept. Shutdown

Department of Education

Opinion

Parental Rights in Education

President Trump

Student Loans

The L.A. teachers union is defying President Trump by championing DEI policies while demanding pay increases of more than 26 times higher than the current annual pay raise for some teachers.
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) has called for support of “new educators, with targeted investment in the recruitment and retention of BIPOC, multilingual and immigrant educators and service providers” and “strengthened policies to support LGBTQIA+ students, educators and staff,”  The Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-26/l-a-teachers-union-pursues-salary-hike-progressive-goals-amid-trump-agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>.
Last week, the White House issued a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-empowers-parents-states-and-communities-to-improve-education-outcomes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fact sheet</a> regarding an executive order targeting DEI policies. The fact sheet stated, “The Order also directs that programs or activities receiving any remaining Department of Education funds will not advance DEI or gender ideology. &#8230; Mathematics and reading scores are down in public schools, despite per-pupil spending having increased by more than 245% since the 1970s, indicating that more spending does not mean better education.”
“The district’s DEI initiatives and self-declared sanctuary status make it a potential subject of investigation by the federal government,” Will Swaim, president of California Policy Center, stated. On March 3, Swaim’s group joined others to file a <a href="https://californiapolicycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DFI-CJC-Title-IX-Complaint-CDE-and-Districts.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complaint </a>against the California Department of Education (CDE), Los Angeles Unified School District, San Francisco Unified School District, and Capistrano Unified School District “arising from ‘gender identity’ policies and practices in violation of Title IX.&#8221;
The complaint notes that on February 4, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights issued a letter stating it would “enforce Title IX under the provisions of the 2020 Title IX rule, rather than the 2024 Title IX rule,” which had prohibited “gender identity” discrimination. “CED responded to OCR’s guidance with public statements indicating that it plans to change nothing about its ‘gender-identity’-related lodging or intimate facility access policies,” the complaint points out.
“President Cecily Myart-Cruz said her members are fully cognizant of Trump’s hostility to union priorities but are determined to stick with theirs,” The Times reports.
Additionally, the union is demanding automatic annual salary increases at a rate of 3.25% a year for the first 10 years of a teacher’s career, “more than 26 times the current annual bump in some cases and the higher annual raises would be built in, without having to bargain for them in every contract cycle,” the Times notes. Additionally, the union wants to reduce the number of education credits required to qualify for salary bonuses by roughly 30%.
“LAUSD has the money to fund these contract proposals, but you will hear that they don’t,” Myart-Cruz claimed. “Don’t believe it.”
“School district leaders, including Supt. Alberto Carvalho, have said LAUSD is spending at a pace that would nearly wipe out its reserves over the next three years,” the Times reports.

Education Workers In L.A. Go On Strike After Failing To Make A Deal

LA Teachers Union Defies Trump On DEI, Demands Huge Pay Raise

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Los Angeles Schools

As an educator and parent, I’ve long wondered if America’s education system can ever recover from the ever-expanding, costly bureaucratic machine it has become. A machine that inhales taxpayer dollars and exhales nothing — not literacy, not educated children, not competence. Unfortunately just a steady stream of bloated budgets, federal grants, and equity initiatives.
This machine is called the Department of Education. Founded in 1980 under President Jimmy Carter, it was designed not to improve schools but to buy political favor with the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teachers’ union. From the beginning, its function was clear: funnel billions of dollars into a federal stronghold for progressive priorities while granting the unions unchecked influence over education policy. It was never meant to make our children smarter; it was meant to make Washington more powerful.
After 45 years of unmitigated failure, President Trump has officially signed an executive order to begin eliminating the Department of Education once and for all and I had the incredible honor of witnessing this historic event first hand. The president assured all of us in the room who are at the forefront of the fight for our country’s educational future that the department’s useful functions will be fully preserved such as Pell Grants and resources for special needs by being redistributed to various agencies and departments as he returns education back to the states.
In total, the DOE employed over 4,400 bureaucrats, until the new administration recently reduced this number by close to 50% as the president shared this afternoon, and it has spent<a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/11/us-news/doge-ends-nearly-1b-in-federal-education-contracts-to-nix-waste-and-dei/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $881 million</a> on ineffective or purely progressive initiatives — including a mind-boggling $1.5 million just to “observe mailing and clerical operations.” <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/11/us-news/doge-ends-nearly-1b-in-federal-education-contracts-to-nix-waste-and-dei/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$268 billion a year</a> disappears into this bottomless pit, yet reading and math scores have either stagnated or dropped for the past five decades. The <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/29/us-news/heartbreaking-test-score-shows-us-children-falling-behind-on-reading-math-and-some-gop-members-are-blaming-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">latest data</a> from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows eighth-grade reading scores at historic lows, with nearly one-third of students unable to demonstrate basic literacy. The same trends appear in math. Meanwhile, taxpayer spending continues its relentless climb — now exceeding $18,000 per public school student per year—while private schools achieve superior results at half the cost.
The money, of course, never reaches the students. Instead, it vanishes into an expanding black hole of consultants, bureaucrats, and initiatives designed to push political agendas rather than academic excellence. Social–Emotional Learning programs turn classrooms into “gender affirming care” sessions. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives send teachers on racial reeducation retreats instead of training them to teach reading. Federal grants reward states that adopt Critical Race Theory under innocent-sounding names like “culturally responsive teaching.” In Oregon, taxpayer dollars fund “Equitable Math” programs that argue showing your work is an act of white supremacy.
But here’s the secret the teachers unions and their political friends don’t want you to know: We never needed a federal Department of Education to teach kids. We simply need to go back to basics and return education to the states. Structured phonics-based reading instruction. Math that prioritizes logic and computation over activism. History grounded in facts rather than ideology. And the data bears this out: private schools and homeschools, selected by the parents, outperform public schools across the board. Private school students outscore their public peers by an average of 20 points in reading, while homeschoolers surpass public school kids by 15–25 percentile points in virtually every subject. They do it at a fraction of the cost, with some homeschooling families spending as little as $700 per year.
So how will American students be impacted by the historic shutdown of the DOE? They will escape ideological indoctrination and regain the liberty they need to actually learn. The Treasury Department can handle fund disbursement. The Justice Department can oversee Title VI legal matters. Special education funding can be transferred to the Department of Health &amp; Human Services — an agency that actually understands disabilities. There is no function the DOE performs that couldn’t be more efficiently handled by other existing departments or, better yet, by state and local governments accountable to parents.
Critics will continue to claim President Trump is abandoning children, that he’s gutting education. But they will never explain why, after decades of DOE oversight, so many American kids still can’t read. They will never explain why taxpayer money meant for students instead funds activist bureaucrats and political unions. They will never explain to us where or why $268 billion disappears every single year. And they certainly won’t explain why they’re so terrified of letting parents make the choices that are best for their children.
This shutdown is not a crisis. It is long-overdue justice for America’s students.
* * *
Marissa Streit is CEO of Prager University and Host of Real Talk.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Trump Signs Executive Order Intending To Abolish Education Department

Why The DOE Shutdown Is A Win For America’s Students

Why The DOE Shutdown Is A Win For America's Students

Federal Government

PragerU

Trump Signs Executive Order To Begin Dismantling Education Department

All The Reasons Why Abolishing The DOE Is A Great Move By Trump

Matt Walsh

Republicans

Donald Trump has fired nearly 50% of the staff of the Department of Education, sending waves of shock and outrage through 50% of the staff of the Department of Education. And maybe a few other people; I’m not sure.
The president took the drastic step of canning 13-thousand DOE employees after finding out that — one — the DOE has been spending more than $250 billion a year which is some 4%of all federal spending and — two — American students’ math and reading skills have plummeted into an abyss of mental darkness and — three — there is not really a clause in the Constitution that allows the president to have DOE employees executed, but only in the make-believe Constitution that Elon Musk doodled on a stall in a White House restroom as a joke. So firing these people turned out to be the best Trump could do.
Outraged Democrats held a protest in a broom closet in the Capitol, and spoke with a reporter from the Associated Press who was hiding there from Karoline Leavitt lest she strike again. Democrat congressman Fidel Mohammed Jihad Mao Mohammed Jihad told the reporter, “This assault on our beloved education department has angered every single American in this broom closet. Trump is trying to ruin our schools and trap our children in ignorance and poverty — and that’s the job of the Teachers Unions, so not only is he a tyrant, he’s actually a scab as well. Democrats should take to the streets to protest this action just as soon as they finish protesting the disempowerment of sexual psychopaths and drastic cuts to a vast network of waste and fraud that has taken us years of work to build. Trump is destroying America or, anyway, our version of America which, okay, isn’t “America” America, but we still call it America, so when we say Trump is destroying America, that is technically something that almost sounds true.”
Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten also protested the job cuts. Appearing in an interview on CNN after rising from a flaming crevice in the earth in a yellow cloud of sulfurous smoke, Ms. Weingarten said “The Department of Education has spent literally hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars doing the all-important work of buying union support for Democrats. This money is carefully doled out to ensure that every child in America has a teacher whose union representative is driving a Mercedes after doing an hour of paperwork to prove their schools are following a federal recipe for success that has already raised the reading skills of eighth graders to a third grade level. Trump’s secret plan is evil, and believe me, I know something about evil. I mean, just look at me. Look at my golden eyes. Trump’s plan is to allow poor minority students to choose their own schools. That’s insane! These children are languishing in a seething hell of illiteracy, damning them to a jobless future in which their only consolation will be the false comfort of drugs and children born out of wedlock ultimately leading to yet another generation of crushing poverty. They’re not educated enough to choose their own schools. We need to keep spending taxpayer’s money until they’re completely ignorant. Then at least when they have school choice, they might choose public schools.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
As if Trump’s cuts to the DOE weren’t bad enough, the president further outraged educators by arresting and threatening to deport a Palestinian Columbia student who led illegal demonstrations on college campuses in support of Hamas and who belongs to an organization dedicated to “the total eradication of western civilization.”
CNN Anchorwoman Shapely Nudnick objected to the move, saying, “Just because a man shuts down a university and persecutes Jewish students to support mass-murdering terrorists, that doesn’t make him a bad person. I’m afraid by having him arrested, this administration is distracting federal law enforcement officers from their important work of investigating parents who want to keep pornography out of elementary schools and spying on Catholics who attend Latin Mass.”
With that, the anchorwoman was surrounded by a sulfurous cloud of yellow smoke and dragged down into a flaming crevice in the earth, where she joined the Teacher’s Union.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Woman Underground.</a>” His most recent nonfiction release is “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=nMYjR&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_r=133-8344803-2786917&amp;pd_rd_wg=7a8J3&amp;pd_rd_r=5791ea0f-6d96-4732-9d6a-3a4e6b348bb5&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness.</a>” (May 2025, Zondervan/HarperCollins).

Menu