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

Education

Opinion

Parental Rights in Education

President Trump

Public Schools

Randi Weingarten

Student Loans

Students

Teachers Unions

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)

Donald Trump

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).

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-ECONOMY-CLIMATE-ENERGY

Trump Fires Half Of DOE, Outraging Half Of DOE

Andrew Klavan

Humor

Satire

When I was growing up in Los Angeles, the bumper stickers proclaimed “Work Union, Live Better.”
For more than two decades as an educator, I lived by those words, serving actively in the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), even representing my colleagues in the House of Representatives.
But in January 2022, I made the difficult decision to leave the union I once cherished.
The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles will be deciding a landmark case brought by Jewish teachers — with the support of the Freedom Foundation — challenging UTLA’s legal status as their exclusive representative.
This case isn&#8217;t just about workplace discrimination. It’s about the transformation of a once-proud teachers’ union into a platform for anti-Semitism and radical politics.
The change began about six years ago when a group called Union Power seized control of UTLA’s leadership. Instead of focusing on teacher welfare, fair wages and workplace protections, it began pushing divisive social and political agendas.
The monthly union newspaper, which had long provided transparency into union operations, mysteriously ceased publication. UTLA’s new leadership endorsed the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and voted to demand the immediate cessation of U.S. aid to Israel.
The hostility toward Jewish members became increasingly overt. Jewish teachers have been systematically removed from online meetings for questioning anti-Semitic stances.
During a UTLA ethnic studies meeting, President Cecily Myart-Cruz declared the Museum of Tolerance — a Holocaust museum — the union’s “enemy.” At the same event, protesters shouted “F*** Israel” alongside calls for violence.
A UTLA chapter chair even taught students that life in Palestine was comparable to Holocaust concentration camps — a grotesque distortion of history that minimizes the systematic murder of six million Jews.
This isn’t about choosing sides in global conflicts. It’s about a union betraying its fundamental purpose — protecting and supporting all of its members, regardless of their faith or heritage.
The union’s increasingly toxic culture extends beyond anti-Semitism. The LAUSD headquarters houses what teachers grimly call the “Teachers in Trouble” room — essentially a holding pen where educators under investigation languish for days, weeks or months while UTLA does little to defend them.
It’s a stark example of how far the union has strayed from its mission to protect teachers.
After the election of President Trump, Myart-Cruz stoked racial tensions by warning that, “Parents of black and brown children really need to pay closer attention this week to their kids’ classes. Remember, 55 percent of white women voted for Trump, and they are nearly 80 percent of the teaching profession.”
During board meetings, union members openly maintain databases of parents who dare to speak out against their agenda. They’ve even threatened to visit dissenting parents at their homes.
UTLA collects nearly $120 monthly from each of its 30,000 members, totaling more than $43 million annually. Yet when teachers need real support, the union often fails them.
Its legal department routinely abandons educators facing workplace issues, forcing many to seek costly private representation. The union’s standard response to teachers in trouble has become a cynical question, “How close are you to retirement?”
The Freedom Foundation has been instrumental in exposing these practices and supporting teachers who wish to opt out of UTLA’s discriminatory regime. The ongoing legal challenge represents a crucial effort to hold this union accountable for its systemic failures and discriminatory practices.
While opting out of membership provides some relief, Jewish employees still face a fundamental challenge: Under current labor law, UTLA remains their exclusive bargaining representative regardless of membership status.
This means they continue to be associated with the union’s positions even after leaving.
Teachers unions should unite educators, not divide them. They should fight for better working conditions, not propagate hatred.
They should protect all members, not discriminate based on faith or ethnicity.
The reality is, UTLA has abandoned its core mission of protecting teachers’ rights and dignity in favor of anti-Semitic rhetoric and divisive politics. Until fundamental change occurs in UTLA’s leadership, I’ll keep my $1,440 in annual dues and my conscience clear.
Thanks to the Freedom Foundation, teachers have support in challenging UTLA’s discriminatory practices. This court case offers hope for change.
It’s an opportunity to hold UTLA accountable and remind them of their true purpose: supporting and protecting all educators, regardless of their faith, ethnicity, or political beliefs.
Our schools, our teachers and, most importantly, our students deserve nothing less.
* * *
Barry Blisten is a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

Los Angeles Skyline Palm Trees

I Teach In Los Angeles. Anti-Semitism Has Taken Over Our Union.

Anti-Semitism

antisemitism

California

Israel

Los Angeles

Pro-Hamas

Teachers

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">report</a> confirms the continuation of a decades-long trend: American workers are rejecting union membership in record numbers. For the first time since the BLS began tracking this data in 1983, less than 10% of the workforce belong to a labor union.
This historic decline isn&#8217;t happening by accident — it’s the direct result of workers having the freedom to choose whether their hard-earned dollars fund unions that consistently prioritize political activism over member interests.
The numbers tell a stark story. While overall union membership sits at 9.9%, Big Labor still maintains a stranglehold over public employees, 32.2% of whom are union members.
Of the 14.3 million union members nationwide, half work in government jobs, with teachers unions alone accounting for nearly one-quarter of all union members.  
The National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers together report around 3.5 million working members — but even this has declined consistently in recent years, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME striking down laws requiring public employees to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
In states like Florida, where recent reforms ended government deduction of union dues from public employees’ paychecks, many workers didn’t feel the need to sign up to pay the union directly. The Florida Education Association alone lost <a href="https://www.freedomfoundation.com/labor/florida-teachers-union-loses-20000-members-after-government-stops-collecting-dues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 20,000 members</a> in just one school year when teachers were given a meaningful choice about whether to fund union activities.
Overall, the percentage of public employees who were union members <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t03.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declined</a> from 32.5% in 2023 to 32.2% last year. That’s down from <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/union2_01182019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">34.4% in 2017</a>, the last year before the Supreme Court made union membership voluntary for government workers, despite government growth.
This exodus speaks volumes about the disconnect between union leadership and rank-and-file members.
Across the country, public employees are waking up to the reality that their unions aren’t fighting for their salaries, their benefits or their working conditions. In fact, government unions have morphed from worker advocacy organizations into political machines more interested in advancing progressive causes than representing their members’ interests.
They collect millions in dues from workers’ paychecks, then funnel that money into political campaigns and causes that many of their own members oppose.
My organization, the Freedom Foundation, has seen firsthand how workers respond when they learn the truth about their union’s political spending via its ongoing education campaign to help public employees understand their rights and make informed decisions about union membership.
The results are clear: When workers know they have a choice and understand how their dues are being spent, huge numbers of them choose to opt out.
This trend isn&#8217;t just about numbers — it’s about fundamental fairness and worker empowerment. Public employees shouldn’t be forced to fund political activities they disagree with just to keep their jobs. The dramatic membership declines indicate that when workers are given the freedom to choose, they often decide their unions no longer represent their best interests.
The success of reforms like Florida’s payroll protection law provides a roadmap for other states. When unions can no longer extract dues directly from workers&#8217; paychecks, individual employees are empowered to make their own decisions about union membership.
This isn&#8217;t union-busting — it’s democracy in action.
As union membership continues its historic decline, union executives face a choice — return to their core mission of representing workers&#8217; interests or continue losing members as they prioritize political activism. The numbers suggest they’re choosing the latter, and workers are voting with their wallets.
The path forward is clear. More states should follow Florida’s lead in implementing reforms that protect worker freedom.
Meanwhile, the Freedom Foundation will continue educating public employees about their rights and options. The era of unions treating worker dues as a blank check for political activism is ending — and the latest BLS numbers prove it.
The decline in union membership isn’t just a number — it&#8217;s a wakeup call. Government unions can no longer take their members for granted or assume their political agenda aligns with their members’ wishes.
Workers are speaking clearly through their actions. They want unions that represent their interests, not unions that see them as ATMs for progressive political causes.
* * *
Aaron Withe is the CEO of the Freedom Foundation, a group dedicated to combatting government unions. He is the author of the book &#8220;Freedom is the Foundation: How We Are Defeating Progressive Tyranny By Taking On The Government Unions.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Side view of worker welding airplane wing at night

Government Unions Are Hemorrhaging Members. Here’s Why.

Government Unions Are Hemorrhaging Members. Here's Why.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Florida

Labor Unions

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/011325zor_5425.pdf">declined</a> to hear a challenge to New York’s “Taylor Law,” which gives unions monopoly bargaining privileges in the public sector. At best, the Court missed an opportunity to protect the First Amendment; at worst, the Court endorsed Marxism.
We are Jewish academics who have been forced to accept the “exclusive representation” of unions that we consider anti-Semitic. One of us, a professor at the City University of New York, <a href="https://www.nrtw.org/goldstein/">brought the eponymous challenge</a>, Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress/CUNY. The other, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, similarly <a href="https://www.nrtw.org/news/jewish-mit-students-eeoc-03212024/">filed federal charges</a> against the MIT Graduate Student Union. Both unions engage in the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement (BDS), which we vehemently oppose.
At CUNY, the faculty union in 2021 <a href="https://2022.psc-cuny.org/sites/default/files/Final_Resolution_in_Support_of_the_Palestinian_People.pdf">condemned Israel</a> “dating back to its establishment as a settler colonial state in 1948.” At MIT, the graduate student union in 2024 <a href="https://mitgsu.org/resolutions/ceasefire">called for</a> “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” without mentioning Hamas or the hostages they still hold. The resolutions compare Israel to apartheid South Africa — ironic, given that the unions treat objectors like us as second-class citizens without voting privileges.
One need not share our opposition to BDS to see that these unions cannot represent us at the bargaining table. Yet that is exactly what is happening. Had the Supreme Court taken up Goldstein, the Justices could have struck down the Taylor Law on the grounds that it violates employees’ freedom of speech and association. Instead, the Court let stand the Second Circuit&#8217;s <a href="https://www.fairnesscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Second-Circuit-Goldstein-v.-PSC-Decision.pdf">ruling</a> that “Designating PSC as Plaintiffs’ exclusive bargaining representative does not impermissibly burden Plaintiffs’ ability to speak with, associate with, or not associate with whom they please, including CUNY and PSC.” In other words, it is permissible to subordinate individual rights to collective interests — classic Marxism.
The Supreme Court knew this when it declined to take the case. An <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-71/323009/20240821101037349_240806a%20AC%20Brief%20for%20efiling.pdf">amicus brief</a> supporting the petitioners, filed by the Upper Midwest Law Center and the Manhattan Institute, cites the MIT Graduate Student Union as an example of the problem: “Jewish students are being compelled to associate with and implicitly endorse these views despite their most sincere religious beliefs, so they filed discrimination charges with the EEOC.”
The outcome of those charges was that religious students at private universities could divert their union dues to charity, but they would still be subject to exclusive representation. Public employees, including CUNY professors, already have the right to opt out of union dues under Janus v. AFSCME, but they too remain subject to exclusive representation by a union they abhor. While the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recognized</a> in Janus that “Designating a union as the employees’ exclusive representative substantially restricts the rights of individual employees,” the validity of exclusive representation was not squarely before the Court — until Goldstein, which the Justices declined to hear.
The result has been predictable. Ten days after the Court denied the petition, the CUNY faculty union adopted a <a href="https://psc-cuny.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PSC-and-NYCERS-Israeli-Investments-Divestment-Resolution-1-23-25.pdf">resolution</a> “expressing its support for complete disinvestment from Israel,” further resolving to “divest its own funds from any investment vehicle that includes in its portfolio stocks and bonds of Israeli companies and Israeli government bonds.” In response, a Jewish civil rights organization <a href="https://x.com/_SAFECAMPUS/status/1884323681675141318">filed a complaint</a> with the New York State Division of Human Rights, arguing that the union “has abandoned their sacrosanct Duty of Fair Representation.” Under Janus, “That duty is a necessary concomitant of the authority that a union seeks when it chooses to serve as the exclusive representative of all the employees in a unit.”
There is another way. New York and other states could amend their labor laws to give employees the right to opt out of union representation. Unions could thus continue to engage in BDS, but not on behalf of those who oppose it. Additionally, the states could adopt laws that give private employees the right to work without paying compulsory dues to unions that they oppose. Twenty-six states already have such a law, which Congress could extend to all fifty states by passing the National Right to Work Act.
The Soviet Union put up a physical wall to keep people in; New York’s labor law puts up a legal one. If unions are as good as they claim to be, they should not need to compel representation or financial support. To borrow a phrase: Governor Hochul, tear down this wall!
* * *
<a href="https://x.com/AvrahamGoldste3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Avraham Goldstein</a> is an assistant professor of mathematics at the City University of New York.
<a href="https://x.com/WillSussmanPhD/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Will Sussman</a> is a collegiate associate at the Manhattan Institute and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

CUNY Students Hold Rally In Support Of Palestine

Did The Supreme Court Just Endorse Marxism?

City University of New York (CUNY)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

New York

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Unions

Two teachers union heads in Florida have been indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges, accused of stealing more than $2 million from union members.
The indictment against Terrie Brady, who was president of Duval Teachers United, and Ruby George, who was executive vice president, was unsealed on Monday.
Brady, 69, and George, 81, could face decades in prison if convicted of the charges, which <a href="https://jaxtoday.org/2025/01/13/teachers-union-fraud-indictment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">include</a> conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud, and three counts of aiding and abetting mail fraud.
The indictment accuses the two women of cheating the union out of <a href="https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2025/01/13/florida-teachers-union-execs-terrie-brady-ruby-george-indicted/75914930007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more</a> than $1.2 million each between 2013 and 2022, in part by claiming much more unused vacation time than they had. According to the indictment, they tag-teamed on signing each other&#8217;s union checks for fraudulent vacation time payments and additional bonus payments.
Brady was also charged with two counts of money laundering for allegedly using nearly $44,000 of the money to pay personal American Express credit card debt.
Then, the women filed false documentation to a union auditor, the indictment claimed.
The bombshell charges come after agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service raided the union&#8217;s headquarters in San Marco in September 2023, sparking confusion and speculation. Agents were spotted carrying computers, bags, and boxes of financial documents out of the building.
Brady and George resigned just weeks later after leading the union for 24 years, saying they wanted to spend more time with their families.
Back in 2023, Brady <a href="https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/governor-ron-desantis-takes-aim-teachers-unions/XEPIGBHODZB7PEWRRJNWN2XYCE/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complained</a> about Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis trying to impose new financial transparency requirements on the unions.
“We think we’re pretty transparent in the work that we do,” Brady said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Terrie Brady, President of the Duval Teachers United union, put in a rare appearance at the DCPS school board meeting to discuss…not receiving dues for 12 days because of the new Florida law making teacher dues opt in and not mandatory. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MomsForLiberty?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MomsForLiberty</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Florida?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Florida</a> <a href="https://t.co/71OLVS4MSc">pic.twitter.com/71OLVS4MSc</a>
&mdash; Moms For Liberty &#8211; Duval Co., FL (@DuvalMoms) <a href="https://twitter.com/DuvalMoms/status/1686628447953555456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
DeSantis had accused the unions of being too political and promised better pay for teachers and a cap on the salaries of teachers union officials.
“Having partisan groups basically get special privileges for deductions and all these other stuff, you know, that doesn’t work and so, I think this will be a huge, huge boon for transparency and efficiency in our school system,” DeSantis said at the time.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl%3D1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA..&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1737044249231000&amp;usg=AOvVaw15fpgzSqdekU8AKrqgMU6V">CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</a>
Duval Teachers United represents about 13,000 teachers and other school employees in the Jacksonville area. The local union is affiliated with both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA).
The union <a href="https://jaxtoday.org/2025/01/13/teachers-union-fraud-indictment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brings</a> in about $5 million in revenue a year.
In 2022, Brady received a lifetime achievement award for “a long record of excellent leadership” from the Florida Education Association.
She also chaired the Florida Democratic Party in the 1990s.

Money

Teachers Union Heads Indicted For Fraud, Stealing More Than $2M From Union

Teachers Union Heads Indicted For Fraud, Stealing Millions From Union

Crime

DeSantis

Fraud

Ron DeSantis

U.S.

Opponents of school choice can’t be happy. The past three years have seen a flood of school-choice victories – and, ironically, we can thank two very “progressive” groups.
Two thirds of all states now have some form of private school-choice policies. Notably, 11 states have universal education choice, a policy no state had just three years ago. Even in states where school choice is still elusive, the dam is breaking. In Texas, opponents of education freedom were roundly defeated in the primaries this past spring.
What has transpired in these 36 months? As scholars who have closely studied and chronicled these developments, the only response we can give is that American parents rebelled against what happened four years ago.
So as people who fully welcome policies that liberate American families and leave them free to educate their children as they see fit, and not remain shackled to bad public schools set on indoctrinating their young children, we’d like to thank Black Lives Matter.
Yes, BLM.
If it weren’t for all the damage they have inflicted on society, we would consider sending handwritten thank-you notes to founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and the rest.
Without the chaos and violence created in 2020 by the BLM organizations — founded by these Marxists with the express goal of achieving systemic-wide societal change — combined with the radical gender ideology infecting local schools, parents maybe have been slower to demand an escape hatch to let them opt out of the indoctrination meted out in public schools.
They did, and the progress speaks for itself.
Of course, we don’t want to leave out the teachers&#8217; unions. Bless them, they also did their part.
The shutdowns they demanded were the first instance of public schools breaking faith with families; failing to reopen their doors long after we knew it was safe for them to do so. In rapid succession, parents saw the second instance: emergency remote learning gave them a window into what their children were being taught, raising red flags in school board meetings across the country.
States responded, giving parents the ability to vote with their feet. And vote they did. The number of children exercising school choice – using a voucher, tax credit scholarship, or education savings account – has roughly doubled from the 2019 pre-pandemic level to nearly 1 million students.
Today, 19 states have Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) or ESA-style policies enabling families to choose schools and learning options that are right for their children. ESAs are accounts into which the state deposits a portion—usually 90 percent—of the money that would have been spent on a child in their district school.
The parents can use the money in the account to pay for private school tuition, online learning, special education services and therapies, tutoring, textbooks, and a host of other education-related services, products, and providers. And unused funds can be rolled over from year to year, and even rolled into a college savings account.
This year alone four states established ESA options: Wyoming, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. Louisiana went all-in with universal ESAs, opening up eligibility to every family in the state, regardless of income.
In Texas, up until this year, state legislators who call themselves Republicans had stood in the way of school choice programs out of concern for what it might mean for the district public school.
Well, this year the Lone Star State had elections. Six out of eight incumbent Republican lawmakers who had stood in the way of school choice lost their primaries or the runoffs.
This was a big win for Gov. Greg Abbott, who made school choice a hill to die on, and now more than ever looks like a reality in the Lone Star State.
If Texas finally adopts school choice, some 40% of all kids in the country would be eligible to choose a school other than their assigned district school. At that point, we can reasonably say that Milton Friedman’s vision of breaking the public schooling monopoly – some 70 years in the making – has come to fruition.
Which brings us back to how we got here. Four years ago, this country was caught up in one of its biggest political convulsions in decades, after BLM manipulated the tragic death of George Floyd to carry out their plan. We had weeks of rioting, burning, and looting.
As if the physical damage didn’t take enough of a toll, the stewards of our cultural institutions — our schools and universities, our libraries and museums, our theaters and movie studios, everyone involved in industries that create meaning and content — then capitulated and accepted as facts a number of falsehoods they should have had the confidence to dismiss.
America is systemically racist; white supremacy is the operating system of our society; the founding of America took place in 1619, when a group of Africans arrived in Jamestown, not 1776, when America’s founders signed the Declaration of Independence. These and other fabrications were accepted as facts.
The idea was to stain and destroy the idea of America. Rather than being conceived in liberty, everyone was told to believe that ugly racism and oppression was the post-partum reality.
Then there were the sexual delusions. Among these were that a man could become a woman or vice versa, or that children could be born in the “wrong body.” America circa 2020 thus fell into what can only be described as a moment of mass hysteria.
These ideas swarmed into our classrooms and children began to be indoctrinated into these hallucinations. Their purveyors intentionally targeted our schools, fully cognizant of the fact that if you capture a generation of children, if you interrupt the transmission of culture and facts and you change the narrative, you have created a new hegemony.
This movement had the wind fully at its back in 2020. The world was going its way.
But then something happened: parents and grandparents, especially mothers and grandmothers, started to fight back, a counterrevolution that gathered force in early 2021. They organized, went to school board meetings, and voted. They demanded the freedom to opt out of the frenzy. School choice was the way out.
They put pressure on politicians in states like Texas. And they voted out recalcitrant politicians standing in their way.
If you ask us, that is the reason why education choice has met the success it has.
So special thanks go to Randi Weingarten, Nicole Hannah-Jones, Ibram Kendi, and Robin DiAngelo. The school choice movement couldn’t have done it without you.
###
Lindsey M. Burke is the Mark A. Kolokotrones Fellow and Director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, <a href="http://www.heritage.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.Heritage.org</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Back to school. View from the back of a happy dad escorts his sons schoolchildren to school. Parental care for children

Thanks To BLM And The Teachers’ Unions, School Choice Keeps Winning

Thanks To BLM And The Teachers' Unions, School Choice Keeps Winning

Charter Schools

Heritage Foundation

School Choice

Schools

Texas

Anti-Semitism doesn’t belong in the workplace.
But in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), a group of Jewish teachers are forced to fund the anti-Semitic habits of their workplace representative, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA).
Beginning in 2020, UTLA’s support for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments in and outside of the classroom raised red flags among Jewish educators.
During “Teach Palestine” gatherings, for example, the union offered members curriculum to <a href="https://teachpalestine.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">help</a> “educators bring Palestine into their classrooms.” A project of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, similar union-sponsored strategizing sessions across the state of California <a href="https://mynbc15.com/news/nation-world/anti-israel-org-training-teachers-on-silencing-of-palestinians-amid-israel-hamas-war-california-oakland-palestine-middle-east-childrens-alliance-teach-palestine-project-terrorism-education-crisis-in-the-classroom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">represent</a> “a coordinated effort to brainwash children.”
One union official made use of this curriculum in the classroom, likening life in Gaza to imprisonment in Holocaust concentration camps.
Outside of the classroom, anti-Semitism began to permeate union ideology. During a 2021 UTLA meeting regarding ethnic studies, union President Cecily Myart-Cruz dubbed the Museum of Tolerance, a Holocaust museum, the “enemy,” while another speaker’s profanity-riddled remarks attacked Israel directly.
And, despite its name, UTLA’s standing “Human Rights Committee” continues to spew similar anti-Jewish rhetoric to this effect.
UTLA’s flirtation with anti-Semitism quickly devolved into outright discrimination against Jewish teachers.
As members challenged UTLA’s ideology, union officers began to forcibly remove teachers questioning the anti-Semitic status-quo from Facebook forums and in-person meetings.
During Zoom meetings, teachers were booted for displaying backgrounds with nonpolitical Jewish imagery, while other members and guests were encouraged to display politically charged backdrops, so long as they were the right kind of politics.
The last straw for many Jewish teachers represented by UTLA, however, followed the horrific terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Instead of issuing a statement of solidarity following the massacres, UTLA remained silent, speaking up only to label Israel an “apartheid state” and “occupier.”
Further, UTLA’s Executive Board permitted multiple re-introductions of a motion criticizing Israel while advocating for protection of the Hamas attackers without concern for the victims and hostages lost on October 7th.
Doubling down again on its anti-Semitic tendencies, UTLA endorsed Kahllid Al-Alim for election to the LAUSD school board. Al-Alim’s social media accounts, fraught with vulgar anti-Semitic rhetoric, featured blood-libel and conspiracy theories, including blanket accusations against the Jewish people for “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-21/lausd-school-board-kahllid-al-alim-social-media-posts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collaborating</a> with and even financing such racial terrorists as the Ku Klux Klan.”
After intense backlash, UTLA pulled support for Al-Alim after contributing more than $700,000 worth of membership dues towards his campaign.
<h4><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a></h4>
Per the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME (2018), public employees cannot be forced to pay union dues, especially those that support a hateful political ideology like UTLA’s.
Regardless, the requests of eight Jewish teachers to cancel UTLA membership and fees were ignored.
Left with no option to defend themselves from a union hostile to their identity and value system, several Jewish members reached out to the Freedom Foundation, a government union watchdog that provides pro-bono legal assistance to those held hostage within dues-paying membership.
“The Employees no longer wish to support UTLA as members, or financially through deductions from their lawfully earned wages,” our demand letter read. “Hence, they are withdrawing affirmative consent to affiliation with UTLA and demand that UTLA immediately release them from membership and further dues deductions.”
Despite its promise to “uphold educators’ rights,” UTLA disregarded its members’ demands, ignored the letter, and sent a lawyer to inform teachers of their inability to cancel dues payments.
The Freedom Foundation’s effort to liberate LAUSD’s marginalized Jewish teachers doesn’t end here. The union’s resounding commitment to anti-Semitism at the expense of its members begs the question of whether UTLA is capable of responsibly representing educators at all.
Until UTLA releases those Jewish teachers desperate to cease involuntary support for a union that hates them, the answer will remain “no.”
* * *
Shella Alcabes is litigation counsel for the <a href="https://www.freedomfoundation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freedom Foundation</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Downtown Los Angeles Skyline and Snow Capped Mountains

Anti-Semitic California Union Prohibits Jewish Teacher Exodus

Jewish

school district

Massachusetts’ largest teachers union is threatening to sue a group of Republican state lawmakers who condemned the group for tapping an anti-Israel activist to create learning materials about the Gaza war.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) said this month that it “will not hesitate to take legal action if warranted” against the Massachusetts House and Senate Republican Caucuses for a July letter objecting to the union tasking Ricardo Rosa with developing model curricula about Israel and “Occupied Palestine.”
The Republicans objected to Rosa — who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/turning-classrooms-into-arenas-of-radicalism-teachers-union-tasks-anti-israel-activist-to-create-curriculum-about-israel">has a record</a> of anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric — developing the materials. The lawmakers observed that Rosa advocated for a “Free Palestine” in the days following October 7, called the United States a “settler colony,” glorified terrorist and plane hijacker Leila Khaled, and voiced his support for a professor who called Zionists “swine” and encouraged protests in Jewish neighborhoods.
In response, the MTA board of directors called the Republicans’ letter “reprehensible,” defended Rosa from the lawmakers’ criticism, and threatened legal action.
<div id="attachment_756447" style="width: 375px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-756447" class="size-large wp-image-756447" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-27-at-4.26.08%E2%80%AFPM-365x576.png" alt="" width="365" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-27-at-4.26.08%E2%80%AFPM-365x576.png 365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-27-at-4.26.08%E2%80%AFPM-190x300.png 190w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-27-at-4.26.08%E2%80%AFPM-768x1211.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-27-at-4.26.08%E2%80%AFPM.png 880w" sizes="(max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px" />Ricardo Rosa&#8217;s posts of pro-Palestine protests.</div>
“Ricardo Rosa, MTA’s Director of Training and Professional Learning, has been reprehensibly attacked for simply performing his job at the MTA,” the MTA <a href="https://icanaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BOD-Letter-to-MA-House-and-Senate-Republican-Caucus-Members-080524_COPY.pdf">wrote</a>,  in response to Republican lawmakers’ claim that Rosa’s inflammatory statements “demonstrate a clear commitment to a political agenda rather than educational integrity.”
The union, which represents 117,000 educators, came under fire for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/massachusetts-teachers-union-says-u-s-is-complicit-in-genocidal-assault-in-gaza">condemning</a> the United States for being complicit in a “genocidal assault” in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
The lawmakers called for Rosa’s appointment to be revoked, lest his influence undermine the safety of Jewish and Israeli students and risk “turning classrooms into arenas of radicalism.” They pushed the MTA to instead focus on creating a healthy work environment for teachers and providing a quality education to students.
The union in response called Rosa a “respected scholar” and said they are “privileged to have him on staff.”
Rep. Steven Howitt, who organized the Republican letter, told The Daily Wire that he stands by the statement.
“Our office mobilized members of the Republican Caucus to issue a joint statement condemning the decision and called on the MTA to revoke Dr. Rosa’s appointment and pause the development of these educational materials,” Howitt said. “In response, the MTA issued a statement containing inconsistencies and have chosen to defend Dr. Rosa and the development of these materials. I stand by the original statement issued by our caucus.”
The MTA board of directors said it decided to respond to the lawmakers after ignoring other public criticism because the letter “encouraged unprovoked threats against our staff and our public schools and have forced us to report the most serious threats to the FBI and the Massachusetts Attorney General.”
The MTA  attempted to refute the lawmakers by noting that it held workshops about anti-Semitism and allowed for a “broad range of presenters” to speak in its workshops.
In March, the MTA faced criticism after Rosa’s department hosted a “The Struggle Against Anti-Palestinian Racism,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/massachusetts-teachers-union-hosts-webinar-by-professor-who-praised-hamas-enraging-membership">webinar</a>, featuring a presenter who once praised Hamas terrorists for their “courage” on October 7. The webinar aimed to persuade attendees that there was no connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
“Holding such forums does not suggest MTA endorsement of each and every idea presented. Rather, it models the highest democratic value and exchange of diverse and at times competing ideas that is a hallmark of our labor union,” the group wrote.
It added that the MTA “does not develop curriculum” but instead “provide[s] research and resources” for its members to “critically review and utilize as they see fit in their professional development.”
After October 7, the MTA rejected an anti-Semitism workshop proposal from Jany Finkielsztein, a retired instructional coach for the Waltham Public Schools who has created many teacher training programs throughout her 17-year career.
“I believe my workshop proposal, titled ‘Jewish Ethnic and Cultural Diversity at a Time of Rising Anti-Semitism’ was likely declined due to a potential conflict with the narrative promoted by certain members of the MTA, including Rosa, who advocate for portraying Israel as a settler colonial enterprise and Jews as white oppressors,” Finkielsztein told The Daily Wire.
<div id="attachment_756437" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-756437" class="size-large wp-image-756437" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-26-1024x576.png" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-26-1024x576.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-26-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-26-768x432.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-26.png 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Ricardo Rosa&#8217;s posts about Aaron Bushnell, a Houthi-run rally, and terrorist and plane hijacker Leila Khaled. (Photo: Instagram)</div>
In recent years, Rosa has taken to social media to <a href="https://archive.is/s2yvO">declare</a> that “Western humanity is a lie,” <a href="https://archive.is/u7Sxc">accuse</a> Israel of committing genocide, and post “Free Palestine” with an image of a <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240308-thousands-of-yemenis-rally-in-support-of-gaza-in-houthi-held-sanaa/">Houthi-run</a> rally calling for supporting Gaza and increasing attacks.
Rosa also <a href="https://archive.is/9XVeY">advocated for</a> the reinstatement of Danny Shaw, a former John Jay College professor, who he described as a “good brother.” Shaw was dismissed after calling Zionists “Babylon swine,” encouraging protests in “their neighborhoods,” and pushing other anti-Semitic tropes, <a href="https://x.com/canarymission/status/1775897208895967331">according to Canary Mission</a>. Rosa also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C30_1xTvJYp/">praised</a> Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., in February.
The MTA has not responded to a request for comment.

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