In this episode of "Try to Control Your Shock and Amazement"...
As if we need yet another example of how the U.S. Department of Education and the country's two largest teachers unions continue to destroy public education in this country, this one's a beaut:
According to a report this week by the nonprofit group, Defending Ed, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have spent a combined $43.5 million since 2022 on contributions to far-left groups, including state and federal political action committees (PACs) and other ideologically left-wing entities, such as D.C. think tanks.
Why? Because of course they did, and will likely continue to do — albeit a bit more clandestinely, perhaps, given this tidy little bit of news.
Incidentally, the smug mug in the feature image is none other than AFT President Randi Weingarten, who has likely never met a left-wing cause she hasn't eagerly embraced — ultimately to the detriment of millions of American school kids. Yeah, let's just call it "trickle-down indoctrination."
Citing disclosures to the Department of Labor, Fox News reported:
Left-wing philanthropic behemoths like the Tides Network, New Venture Fund, Sixteen-Thirty Fund and Future Forward, the last of which was the main Super PAC supporting Kamla Harris' 2024 presidential run after former President Joe Biden dropped out, all received a combined nearly $1.5 million from the unions, according to the report.
The unions also forked over significant amounts of cash for groups that focus on supporting left-wing candidates for public office, such as the Democratic Governors Association, Democrat's House Majority and Senate Majority PACs.
Other groups they have donated to include major left-wing think tanks like the Center for American Progress and its 501(c)(4) arm, which received close to a million dollars since 2022 from the two unions.
You can see a complete list of the organizations here.
It's no surprise that the quality of public education in America has declined over the decades.
From school systems relaxing — or in many cases, eliminating — academic, testing, and graduation standards, to governmental bureaucracy and heavy-handed teachers unions, to focus on identity politics, socially-divisive issues, and the insanity of DEI (diversity, equity, and so-called "inclusion"), so-called "educators" have become indoctrinators. (This is not to suggest that we don't have untold numbers of awesome teachers in our schools.)
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Defending Ed researcher Rhyen Staley opined:
It is clear that the teachers unions’ priorities are advancing far-left politics and radical social justice issues, not the education of children.
This is a slap in the face to families and teachers who want to focus on helping students improve their reading and math skills.
It is time that Congress acts to stop this obscene redistribution of public monies to advance left-wing identity politics.
Is there any doubt?
It Gets Worse
Aaron Withe, an expert on public-sector unions, told Fox that the NEA spends less than 10 percent of its budget on "representational activities," while, at the same time, spending 38 percent of its budget on contributions to left-leaning groups, lobbying, and political gifts.
You’d think in light of the decline in union membership in recent years, that they’d start providing value to members that outweighs the cost of membership.
Instead, they are appeasing the radical base of union members by advocating for men in women’s sports, transitioning minors, antisemitism and other radical ideological stances.
[This is just] the tip when you consider that there are thousands of statewide and city and county teachers unions that are mostly funding the same causes.
Again, zero doubt.
But here's the thing: Logic (as in "You'd think...") seldom — if ever — applies to the left-wing mind. Rational logic, that is. I'd venture a bet that NEA and AFT bigwigs care less about declining membership and more about indoctrinating and radicalizing as many school kids as they can get away with.
A Light at the End of the Education Tunnel?
Easy question, not-so-easy answer.
However, in perhaps a beginning step, as my colleague Streiff reported in late August, the Education Department has "quietly shelved guidance that has governed education services for children with little or no English proficiency for over a decade" and has instead focused more on teaching proficiency in English to foreign students.
The change was in response to President Donald Trump's March 1 Executive Order designating English as the official language of the United States.
READ MORE: Trump Administration Puts Assimilation Over Feelings in New Education Guidance
"Shockingly," [ahem], neither the National Education Association nor the American Federation of Teachers had responded to Fox Digital prior to publication of its article.
