The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest (and most radical) labor union, represents three million educators and has some pretty wild ideas about who should be in charge of a student’s education.
In a recent tweet, the NEA, which effectively controls public education, said “[e]ducators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and to thrive [emphasis added].”
Voters may recall that a similar statement from Terry McAuliffe ("I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach") last year arguably cost him the Virginia governorship. It is apparent that these progressive political talking points do not sit well with parents.
The argument that educators are “professionals” and therefore better understand a child’s brain development, does not justify leaving the parents out of the equation. A child’s education is ultimately the parent’s responsibility. Even if they choose to put their children into the public education system, they still have the right to be closely involved in deciding what their kids are taught.
Also, public schools heavily rely on a one-size-fits-all style of education. All students move at the same pace, which may be too slow for some or unfeasible for others. Parents know their kids better than anyone. They know their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, this makes a parent’s insights of critical importance to any school that genuinely wants the best for its students.
Worst of all–and perhaps the real reason politicians are trying so hard to keep parents out of education–the NEA has embraced a radical political agenda.
As I reported last week, “[a]t its 2019 Representative Assembly, the NEA officially embraced a number of problematic and distinctly partisan resolutions, including, for example, that it “vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.” It also promised to “incorporate the concept of ‘White Fragility’ into NEA trainings/staff development, literature, and other existing communications on social, gender, LGBTQIA, and racial justice.’”
When the NEA says it “know better than anyone what [students] need to learn and to thrive,” it means students “need” to learn about the “right to choose” and “fundamental right to abortion” and “White Fragility” and radical sex theory. Parents may object wholly, but the NEA apparently knows better.
Former Education Secretary, the pro-homeschooling Betsy DeVos fired back at the NEA’s claim that “educators… know better than anyone what [students] need,” tweeting simply: “You misspelled parents.”
You misspelled parents. https://t.co/uMc9ozCUS7
— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVos) November 14, 2022
Of course, she is right. Parents love their kids and know better than anyone what they need to learn and to thrive. As a self-governing citizenry, we have a deep responsibility to ensure that this right is never taken from our parents and to push the federal government out of education. The future of the nation depends on it.
