Teachers Unions

Teachers unions are anti-democratic, anti-student, anti-parent, and harm the public interest.

November 12, 2023

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Special Privilege Groups and Systemic Oppression

Teachers unions are special privilege self-interest groups that have historically been associated with declining educational outcomes, systemic racism, higher costs, and ideological indoctrination. 

Stanford political science professor Terry Moe wrote in 2011 that teachers unions are "the most powerful force in American education—and it isn’t a force for good."[1] Stanford economist Thomas Sowell’s landmark 1993 book Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas takes a fact-based look at the dysfunction of the American educational system, including the role of teachers unions.

Teachers unions’ pursuit of self-interest and ideological agendas has often been anti-student, anti-parent, anti-freedom, and anti-democracy. Because teachers unions’ special privileges are procured by infringing on others’ rights through governmental force, rather than achievements which benefit broader society, they have been implicated in exploitation and systemic oppression. Corey DeAngelis of the Reason Foundation wrote that “it’s about time we get our priorities right and fund students, not systems.”[2]

Dismantling Success, Suppressing Competition

Teachers unions have been accused of being “dog in the manger” groups which fail to promote educational quality while impeding others. Stanford economist Thomas Sowell observed that teachers unions have opposed and dismantled models associated with educational achievement while supplanting them with ideological agendas. Dr. Sowell’s 2020 book Charter Schools and Their Enemies (Cato Institute review here[3]) details the role of teachers unions in degrading American education and opposing school choice with special harm to minority students. In a 2023 interview, Dr. Sowell stated:

• “I thought the way to figure out the difference between the regular public schools and charter schools is to compare them in the same building…so it's the same group, same neighborhoods, same building. When you do that, what I found was that charter school kids and these low-income black neighborhoods pass the math test at a rate more than six times as high as that of the public school located in the very same building.

• “The main difference between the charter school and the public school is that the public school is run by the teachers unions but the charter schools do not have unions at all in most cases.

• “One of the most extreme examples was a school that I went to when I was in Harlem and in that particular school only seven percent of the regular public school kids passed the math test. In the charter school, 100% passed it… In that particular school ,only two percent of the charter school kids scored as low as proficient. The other 98 percent were in the top bracket above proficient.”[4]

Teachers unions have routinely abused power to stifle competition and suppress dissent. Demands that charter schools be shut downaccompanied California teachers unions requirements to return to school. Notwithstanding that virtual charter schools had fully-developed online curriculum at the start of the covid pandemic whereas conventional public schools did not, Oregon governor Katie Brown shut down public charter schools under pressure from teachers unions in 2021. As the Willamette Week observed, charter schools “represent a threat to teacher unions and have been a hot-button political issue since their creation.”[5] Eva Moskowitz wrote of the dysfunction of education controlled by teachers unions:

• “Monopolies don’t tend to get ‘fixed.’ To the contrary, they tend to get even worse without competition.”[6]

Degrading American Education

A 2012 Fordham Institute report on teachers unions co-sponsored and funded by Democrats for Education Reform (again demonstrating the symbiosis of U.S. education with partisan politics) acknowledged regarding metrics including “state spending on education…there’s no strong evidence to support their link to student performance,”[7] despite axiomatic claims of teachers unions that more money is needed to improve educational quality. The report acknowledged:

• “Union critics (many of them also ardent education reformers) generally assert that unions are the greatest obstacle to needed changes in K–12 schooling.

• “In recent years, debates over school reform have increasingly focused on the role of teacher unions in the changing landscape of American K–12 education. On one hand, critics argue that these unions, using their powerful grip on education politics and policy to great effect, bear primary responsibility for blocking states’ efforts to put into place overdue reforms that will drive major-league gains in our educational system. Such critics contend that the unions generally succeed at preserving teacher job security and other interests, and do so at the expense of improved opportunities for kids.”

Whereas teachers unions have publicly represented themselves as advocates of students’ interests, the Fordham report acknowledged that “both sides agree that, for better or worse, teacher unions look out for teacher interests,”[8] rather than those of students or the public.

Nonetheless, teachers unions have falsely represented themselves as student advocates. For example, the National Education Association, the largest U.S. teachers union, propagandized: “Educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and to thrive.”[9] This and other eloquent yet Orwellian statements claim primacy for teachers unions to control public education while denigrating the role of parents, voters, and the students themselves – all while professing to be motivated by “love [of] their students” rather than cynical self-interest and ideological agenda. No evidence was adduced to support these claims that “Big Brother” – the teachers union – knows best and is unselfishly motivated by others’ interests.

Evading Accountability

US public education is more than twice as costly per capita as the average of other developed countries, despite poor results. Dr. Sowell has noted that teachers unions’ greatest Houdini-like feat has been escaping blame for the retrogressions and failures of the US educational system despite vast evidence. Evading accountability for negative educational outcomes has been a core agenda of teachers unions. In 1999, Hoover Institution media fellow Peter Schweitzer wrote:

• “When America’s children returned to the classroom last fall, many of them were instructed by teachers who are not only incompetent but sometimes actively dangerous. And the teachers’ unions make removing them nearly impossible. In recent years, the unions have gone to bat for felons and for teachers who have had sexual relations with their students, as well as for teachers who demonstrably could not teach. For the unions, apparently no apple is so bad that it need be tossed from the barrel.”[10]

This has included blocking performance-based consequences and obstructing the discipline and firing of bad teachers. Union contracts overwhelmingly privilege seniority over performance, protecting underperforming loyalists while impeding more competent competitors. This evasion of accountability blocks reform and improvement. This is the case even in the face of overwhelming evidence because of the systematic exclusion of the real-world feedback under circumstances in which businesses would have to improve or go out of business.

Because teachers unions have purposefully disconnected any real world feedback regarding results, US education has become a bottomless pit demanding evermore exorbitant financial outlays despite poor educational outcomes. The value taxpayers receive per US educational dollar is among the lowest in the world. Studies have repeatedly found no relationship between US educational funding and student outcomes.

Yet rather than demonstrating appreciation for expansive educational funding, teachers unions have routinely excoriated Americans for “ nickel and diming it with the kids.” They have repeatedly amplified the empirically false claim that more funding is needed to improve educational outcomes - a claim that is rarely challenged by partisan opinion hosts representing themselves as “fact checkers.”

Politics and Corruption

Teachers unions have been empowered largely due to their symbiotic relationship with partisan politicians. Well-funded teachers unions provide donations, propaganda, and ideological indoctrination for political favorites. At the expense of public welfare, politicians procure or protect special privileges and benefits for unions that they would not be able to achieve in free markets.

In his 2023 book Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions, centrist reform advocate and NYT best-selling author Philip Howard argued that “public-sector unions violate the Constitution and are inexorably detrimental to the public good.” Unlike private-sector unions,

• “Government bargaining has few market constraints. Government can’t go out of business, so unions can demand ever more — a kind of one-way ratchet that never stops raising public costs.”

The Washington Examiner observed:

• “The reason is simple: Public-sector unions can leverage voting power and use quasi-mandatory dues for political contributions to make elected officials their vassals. Unlike in the market economy, in which management is answerable to stockholders, in government, elected officials depend on the unions with which they are ‘negotiating.’ There’s no effective counterweight to public-sector union power, so union demands keep getting more exorbitant.”[11]

Teachers unions push their own interests, whereas politicians are incentivized to seek union support. No one at the table represents the interests of taxpayers, students, and the general public. The result, as Howard documents, is the inversion of democratic processes. Rather than serving the interests of the public that pays teacher salaries, teachers unions instead vassalize politicians through large political donations, influential endorsements, and classroom indoctrination. 

The inherent conflicts of interest tend to corruption and harm public interest. For these and other reasons, public sector unions have historically been repudiated even by such union advocates.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that “the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service,” and George Meany, who organized and led the AFL-CIO for 25 years, stated: “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

Yet teachers unions do precisely that at detriment to public interest. Student education suffers through unions’ pursuit of self interest and ideological agenda over quality educational outcomes. The public suffers through inflated costs paid to teachers unions contracts and the disruption to democratic institutions. Teachers unions promote indoctrination and miseducation to transform students into partisan voters and activists,[12]undermining democracy and perpetuating systemic oppression. This exploitative system is tolerated only because of politicians’ self-interest. American Federation for Children fellow Corey DeAngelis stated:

• "Public sector unions shouldn't even exist. Teachers unions certainly shouldn't receive any taxpayer funding, especially when they're an arm of the Democratic Party that fights to trap kids in failing government schools.”[13]

Kingmakers and Vassal Politicians

The Brookings Institution, a Clinton-affiliated think tank, wrote that “teachers unions may be more important than ever in 2020.”[14] Omitted from the title as obvious to readers was that teachers unions’ importance did not refer to educational processes or outcomes, but to national elections. Christine Rosen observed:

• "Today, two national teachers’ unions—the AFT and the National Education Association (NEA)—along with state, regional, and local teachers’ unions (and principals’ unions) form the largest and most powerful bloc of Democratic Party activists…Unions have solidified their alliance with Democratic politicians, whose election coffers they fill with donations and whose campaigns they help to staff."[15]

Teachers unions control a large number of Democratic Party superdelegates through an anti-democratic process that gives party elites special privileges in selecting the party’s presidential candidate.[16]The Pew Research Center describes superdelegates as “the embodiment of the institutional Democratic Party.”[17]

The money trail reflects this. An analysis found that from 2020 to 2021, America’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, spent more money on Democratic party causes than for its own members.[18] Open secrets has documented that from 1990 through 2024, teachers unions have given 94% to 99% of their political donations to Democratsand 0 to 6% to Republicans, including 0% in the 2022 and 2024 election cycle to date.[19] These donations do not represent spontaneous goodwill, but are widely understood as payments for political patronage.

Even the far-left New York Times questioned whether US teachers unions were educators or kingmakers, acknowledging that their conduct had often run contrary to student needs and interests. The author observed that good news for teachers unions might not be good news for education.[20]

Compulsory membership

Non-right to work states including California, New York, Washington, Oregon, and many others, grant special privileges to teachers unions through contracts or regulations forbidding the hire of nonunion teachers. Teachers are thus required to join the local union and to pay union dues. These dues in turn pay the salaries of union officials and fund political activism, overwhelmingly for far left causes. Even when teachers can opt out of contributing to political union activities, fees paid still support the union.

Subverting Democracy

Teachers unions seek to require all teachers to join and oppose free choice. They seek to shut down and prohibit effective competition though charter schools and school choice. They intimidate, harass, and attack those who oppose their agenda. Teachers unions are thus anti-freedom, anti-democracy institutions.

The societal harm does not stop there. Teachers unions further seek to impose their ideological agendas on society, preempting democratic mechanisms through backroom deals with partisan allies. Research conducted by the Defense of Freedom Institute entitled “The Corrupt Bargain: How Unions Use Collective Bargaining to Impose their Political Agenda on Schools” reported of teachers union contracts:

• "The resulting agreements, many of which span hundreds of pages and contain nearly impenetrable jargon, evade electoral accountability and effectively impose leftist policy goals on school systems as a matter of contract."[21]

Many Americans first became aware of the ideologically motivated demands of teachers unions during the Covid school shutdowns of 2020 and 2021. In what the California Globe described as a “labor union power play,” the United Teachers Los Angeles union demanded a far-left social agenda including “defunding the police,” “Medicare for all,” public housing for vagrants, a wealth tax, a moratorium on charter schools, and more as conditions to return to school.[22]

In 2023, the Fresno Teachers Union of California went on strike with demands including that students not be allowed on school campuses unless the homeless were also admitted. The Washington Examiner wrote:

• “The Fresno Teachers Union of California ‘demands that high school parking lots be opened as campsites for homeless families. Seriously. The proposal, costing $500,000 for added security alone, is one of several ‘societal things’ union President Manuel Bonilla has included in his association’s demands. The union, viewing the school system as a catch-all social service provider, also wants it to offer free laundry, 24-hour access to mental healthcare, and free yoga classes on weekends.

This demand made no consideration of student safety or disruption of the education environment from opening the campus to homeless adults, who studies show overwhelmingly suffer from substance abuse and mental illness. The Examiner continued:

• “These demands come on top of astonishingly extravagant ultimatums on salaries and benefits — the normal bones of contention in labor disputes. The school district says its offer would put an average teacher salary above $100,000 annually, but the union says that isn’t enough! The six-figure salary would be for a job entailing only 185 workdays. In other fields, full-time jobs usually entail more than 240 workdays. The median household income in California is some $20,000 below what the school district is offering, and the national average salary is about $40,000 lower.

• “The teachers also want their job evaluations to be no longer based on student achievement in their classes. They insist on a plethora of other supposedly nonnegotiable ‘working conditions’ involving small class sizes, paid ‘mental health days,’ increased incentives for early retirement, and more.”

• “Such unreasonable demands are standard from education unions nationwide, even as most contracts make it nearly impossible to dismiss incompetent or misbehaving staff. In his book Not Accountable, the famous centrist reform advocate Philip K. Howard notes, for example, that in a recent 18-year period in Illinois, an average of only two teachers a year out of 95,000 statewide were dismissed for poor performance.”[23]

These and other demands are outside the scope of the educational establishment and proper contract negotiations.[24] They demonstrate the inherent conflict of interest and abuse of power by public-sector unions that Franklin D. Roosevelt warned about. That such demands are even entertained is indicative of corruption by political leaders as well as the unions. Courts routinely dismiss cases when there is determined to be a lack of standing of a claimant to bring suit. Teachers unions have no valid standing that would support negotiations regarding public policy issues. Nonetheless, they have exerted strong influence through political vassals.

While failing in educational quality and outcomes, teachers unions have attempted to install themselves as elite decision-makers while pre-empting democratic processes and public input and with no consideration of the inherent costs and tradeoffs. Attempts of special interest teachers unions to dictate public policy mock claims about democracy.

Impeding Learning

Teachers unions pushed extended school shutdowns contrary to evidence and despite vast harm to student learning, even while pushing a broad ideological agenda. Christine Rosen wrote on commentary.org that "the villains of the pandemic are the leaders of America’s teachers’ unions...The public schools that did manage to reopen had one thing in common, however: They were in areas with weaker unions."[25] The Clinton-associated left-leaning Brookings Institution reported:

• “School districts with lengthier collective bargaining agreements were less likely to start the fall 2020 semester with in-person instruction, were less likely to ever open for in-person instruction during the fall semester, and spent more weeks overall in distance learning.”[26]

Left-leaning Bloomberg acknowledge that teachers unions’ “insistence that classrooms be shut down during the pandemic contrary to the science punishes the kids they are supposed to care about.”[27] The California Globe documented:

• “Many private schools and charter schools didn’t miss a beat when Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered schools across the state to close down due to coronavirus. Within one week, most were already up and running with online learning programs, while public schools took as long as 6 weeks to even start to prepare online learning. And private and charter schools have been preparing to reopen for in-class teaching once again.”

Freedom of Information Act releases revealed that, instead of the CDC's guidelines for school reopening being determined on the basis of evidence by competent medical professionals, the American Federation of Teachers heavily influenced the CDC recommendations and policy with some items dictated verbatim.[28] The influence of politicized special interest unions on ostensibly nonpartisan public health agencies belies the claim that “it’s all about the science” and erodes public trust.These improprieties may have fueled skepticism towards legitimate public health directives, resulting in further harm.

Corey DeAngelis noted that teachers union prioritization of special interests over student learning made public demand for school choice inevitable.[29]

Institutionalizing Indoctrination

The Defense of Freedom Institute “Corrupt Bargain” report documents that “union contracts aim to indoctrinate students with ‘leftist’ ideas through curricula in cities such as Detroit, Seattle, New York, Boston, etc.”[30] Institutionalized educational indoctrination has been a core vision of the leftist elite since the eighteenth century, and has been pushed by teachers unions since at least the 1920s. Dr. Thomas Sowell wrote:

• “As in interwar France, the leading teachers’ union—in America, the National Education Association—was a spearhead of pacifism and a fountainhead of ideas of the left in general. At its annual meetings, the NEA passed innumerable resolutions on subjects ranging far beyond education to issues involving migrant workers, voting laws, gun control, abortion, statehood for the District of Columbia, and many others, including issues of war and peace. Its resolutions, speeches and awards over the years have promoted the same combination of pacifism and internationalism that marked the efforts of the French teachers’ unions between the two World Wars. These resolutions have urged ‘disarmament agreements that reduce the possibility of war,’ urged ‘that the United States make every effort to strengthen the United Nations to make it a more effective instrument for world peace,’ called for ‘a halt to the arms race,’ and declared that ‘specific materials need to be developed for use in school classrooms in order to attain goals that focus on the establishment of peace and the understanding of nuclear proliferation.’

• “The idea so much in vogue in the 1920s and 1930s, that war itself was the enemy, not other nations, reappeared in an NEA resolution that declared nuclear war ‘the common enemy of all nations and peoples.’ Trophies were awarded at the NEA’s meetings for schools that created programs to promote pacifism and internationalism, in the name of ‘peace.’ In 1982, for example, the National Education Association at its annual meeting awarded a peace trophy to its affiliate in the city of St. Albans, Vermont, because its teachers had organized all sorts of pacifist activities, including having their students send letters to Senators on hunger and peace. In 1985, the West Virginia Education Association was awarded a prize for developing an ‘educational’ project on nuclear issues that had children contacting the White House and the Kremlin. The people-to-people theme of the years between the two World Wars, when the French teachers’ union established joint activities with German teachers, was repeated by having school children making and sending symbolic gifts to Japan. In 1982, the Representative Assembly of the National Education Association called for a ‘freeze’ on the development, testing or deployment of nuclear weapons. That same year, NEA president Willard H. McGuire addressed a special session on disarmament held at United Nations headquarters in New York.”[31]

Dr. Sowell observed in other works that the results of this ideological agenda were at odds with its public claims, and that the disarmament and appeasement approach has actually emboldened adversaries and precipitated mass conflict. He noted that teachers unions were associated with pacifist and appeasement movements in France that emboldened Hitler’s aggression and then contributed to the country’s rapid capitulation to Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Critical Race Theory

Next was the introduction of Critical Race Theory, a divisive neo-Marxist theory substituting race for Marx’s obsession with social class as the defining factor in societal conflict. Among numerous criticisms, African-American scholar Coleman Hughes exposed CRT as anti-intellectual and unsubstantiated by data and empirical analysis.[32] Yet teachers unions enthusiastically pushed for the adoption of CRT by numerous U.S. school districts, teaching it to students as fact instead of as an unsubstantiated fringe theory pushed by ideological extremists.

Intimidation and Suppression by Teachers Unions

When concerned parents protested the blatant ideological indoctrination, the National School Boards Association wrote to the Biden Department of Justice to attempt to silence and intimidate protesting parents, comparing them to domestic terrorists and demanding that government use all necessary tools including the Patriot Act.[33]The Heritage Foundation wrote of the “massive chilling effect on those who want to exercise their First Amendment rights.”

Teachers unions have a long record of intimidation and suppression against parents and the public. Dr. Sowell observed in the 1980s that teachers unions routinely attempted to smear those who disagree with their policies as “extremists,” when in fact the teachers unions have been pushing extremist agendas. This demonstrates the Marxist tactic of falsely accusing others of doing what they themselves are doing.

In 2022, the National Education Association allocated six figures for opposition research on an “enemies list.”[34] A NEA member told the press that the union has “'no ability to tolerate somebody who doesn't agree with them.” Nicole Nealy of Parents Defending Education stated:

• "[The NEA's] policies are deeply unpopular with average American families - and, I suspect, with many of their rank-and-file membership - which means that they must enforce their ideology through bullying and intimidation.”

Echoing her earlier statements, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten in 2023 accused parents who seek or even talk about “school choice” or “parental rights” of being racist.[35]This despite the fact that black parents choose charter schools for their children at higher rates than other groups.

Teachers Union Racism

Commentator Liz Peek wrote:

• “Almost never in this conversation do any of the Democratic activists or politicians so publicly concerned about the welfare of African Americans talk about our inner-city schools, which are routinely failing minority children. It is an outrage. In Baltimore, for instance, a city that spends over $16,000 per student each year, among the highest in the country, a group called Project Baltimore discovered that in one-third of the city’s high schools in 2016, there were zero students proficient in math. Imagine: Zero.”[36]

African-American economist Dr. Thomas Sowell stated:

• “It is very doubtful if all that racism in the country today has half the negative effect on blacks as the teachers unions have because the teachers unions keep the schools lousy.”[37]

Antisemitic Indoctrination

Indoctrination by far-left teachers has been implicated in the wave of antisemitic hate and pro-genocide student protests after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.[38]Observers have long noted teachers unions’ antisemitic incitement. In July 2022, Rebecca Schgallis of United Against Antisemitism in Northern Virginia stated:

• "The NEA will now be establishing protocols to support their teachers who face backlash when using one-sided, factually inaccurate sources that question Israel’s right to exist. The NEA's singling out and holding to a different standard the sole Jewish country is blatantly antisemitic. This is greatly concerning not only for Jewish NEA members, but also the many Jewish students, and all students, who will have these teachers pushing their antisemitic agenda in their classrooms.”

References

[1] Moe, Terry M. "The Staggering Power of the Teachers' Unions." Hoover Digest, July 13, 2011. https://www.hoover.org/research/staggering-power-teachers-unions

[2] DeAngelis, Corey. "COVID-19 Pandemic Continues to Show the Need for Funding Students, Not Systems." Reason Foundation, March 2, 2021. https://reason.org/commentary/extended-school-closures-make-the-case-for-school-choice/

[3] Carden, Art. "Charter Schools and Their Enemies." Cato Institute, Fall 2020. https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2020/charter-schools-their-enemies

[4] “Consequences Matter: Thomas Sowell on “Social Justice Fallacies.” Uncommon Knowledge series, Hoover Institution, September 7, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn2gda_phAA Lightly edited for clarity.

[5] Monahan, Rachel and Nigel Jaquiss. Oregon’s Virtual Charter Schools Are the Definition of Social Distancing. The State Shut Them Down Anyway.” Willamette Week, March 26, 2021. https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2020/03/26/oregons-virtual-charter-schools-are-the-definition-of-social-distancing-the-state-shut-them-down-anyway/

[6] Moskowitz, Eva. "Union boss Weingarten thinks you’re a racist if you want good schools for your kids." New York Post, September 15, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/09/15/union-boss-weingarten-thinks-youre-a-racist-if-you-want-good-schools-for-your-kids/

[7] Winkler, Amber M., Janie Scull, and Dara Zeehandelaar. “How Strong Are Teachers Unions?” Fordham Institute, October 2012. https://fordhaminstitute.org/sites/default/files/publication/pdfs/20121029-union-strength-full-report70.pdf

[8] Winkler, Amber M., Janie Scull, and Dara Zeehandelaar. “How Strong Are Teachers Unions?” Fordham Institute, October 2012. https://fordhaminstitute.org/sites/default/files/publication/pdfs/20121029-union-strength-full-report70.pdf

[9] National Education Association. @NEAToday, Twitter, November 12, 2022. https://twitter.com/NEAToday/status/1591587398109929473

[10] Schweitzer, Peter. "The Dance of the Lemons." Hoover Institution, January 30, 1999. https://www.hoover.org/research/dance-lemons

[11] “Union says if homeless can't come to campus, neither can the children.” Washington Examiner, October 9, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/union-says-if-homeless-cant-come-to-campus-neither-can-the-children

[12] Poff, Jeremiah. “Oklahoma schools chief says teachers unions aim to convert students to 'Democratic voters.'” Washington Examiner, September 19, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/education/oklahoma-superintendent-rips-teachers-unions

[13] Nelson, Joshua Q. "Teachers unions could be blocked from receiving federal funding under new legislation." Fox News, November 18, 2022. https://www.foxnews.com/media/teachers-unions-blocked-receiving-federal-funding-legislation

[14] Harris, Douglas N. “Teachers unions may be more important than ever in 2020.” Brookings Institution, June 5, 2019. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/teacher-unions-may-be-more-important-than-ever-in-2020/

[15] Rosen, Christine. "Union Busted." Commentary.org, July/August 2021.

https://www.commentary.org/articles/christine-rosen/teachers-unions-villains-of-pandemic/

[16] Jacobs, Ben. “Who are the Democratic superdelegates and where did they come from?” The Guardian (UK), April 19, 2016. https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/19/democratic-party-superdelegates-history-rules-changes

[17] Desilver, Drew. “Who are the Democratic superdelegates?” Pew Research Center, May 5, 2016. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/05/05/who-are-the-democratic-superdelegates/

[18] Blitzer, Ronn. “Teachers union spends more on Dem causes than its own members, analysis finds.” Fox News, April 7, 2022. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/teachers-union-spending-democratic-causes-its-own-members-analysis

[19] “Teachers Unions - Long Term Contribution Trends.” OpenSecrets.org. https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?ind=L1300 [accessed November 10, 2023].

[20] White, David. “Educators or Kingmakers?” New York Times, March 10, 2008. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/opinion/10white.html

[21] Zimmerman, Paul. "The Corrupt Bargain: How Unions Use Collective Bargaining to Impose their Political Agenda on Schools." Defense of Freedom Institute, January 2023. https://dfipolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Corrupt-Bargain.pdf

[22] Grimes, Katy. “L.A. Teachers Union: Schools Can’t Reopen Unless Charter Schools Shut Down, Police Defunded.” California Globe, 2020.

https://californiaglobe.com/articles/l-a-teachers-union-says-schools-cant-reopen-unless-charter-schools-shut-down-and-police-are-defunded/amp/

[23] “Union says if homeless can't come to campus, neither can the children.” Washington Examiner, October 9, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/union-says-if-homeless-cant-come-to-campus-neither-can-the-children

[24] Ohanian, Lee. "Teacher Union Demands Far-Left Economic Policies Before Reopening Classrooms." Hoover Institution, July 22, 2020. https://www.hoover.org/research/teachers-union-demands-far-left-policies-returning-classrooms

[25] Rosen, Christine. "Union Busted." Commentary.org, July/August 2021.

https://www.commentary.org/articles/christine-rosen/teachers-unions-villains-of-pandemic/

[26] Marianno, Bradley. "Teachers’ unions: Scapegoats or bad-faith actors in COVID-19 school reopening decisions?" Brookings Institution, March 25, 2021. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/teachers-unions-scapegoats-or-bad-faith-actors-in-covid-19-school-reopening-decisions/

[27] Nocera, Joe. "Schools Don’t Spread Covid. Teachers' Unions Don’t Care." Bloomberg, November 20, 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-11-20/covid-19-school-closings-prove-teachers-unions-put-students-second

[28] Levine, Jon. "Powerful teachers union influenced CDC on school reopenings, emails show." New York Post, May 1, 2021. https://nypost.com/2021/05/01/teachers-union-collaborated-with-cdc-on-school-reopening-emails/

[29] Gillespie, Nick. "Corey DeAngelis: COVID Lockdowns Made School Choice Inevitable." Reason.com, September 2, 2022. https://reason.com/podcast/2022/09/02/corey-deangelis-covid-lockdowns-made-school-choice-inevitable/

[30] Nelson, Joshua Q. "Teacher union contracts aimed to indoctrinate students in 'leftist ideas,' promoted race-based hiring: report." Fox News, January 18, 2023. https://www.foxnews.com/media/teacher-union-contracts-aimed-indoctrinate-students-leftist-ideas-promoted-race-based-hiring-report

[31] Sowell, Thomas. Intellectuals and Society. New York: Basic Books, 2010.

[32] Hughes, Coleman. "How to Be an Anti-Intellectual." City Journal, October 27, 2019. https://www.city-journal.org/article/how-to-be-an-anti-intellectual

[33] Malcolm, John. "Are Parents Being Tagged as “Domestic Terrorists” by the FBI? Justice Department Needs to Show Its Cards." Heritage Foundation, November 18, 2021. https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/are-parents-being-tagged-domestic-terrorists-the-fbi-justice

[34] Grossman, Hannah. "NEA teachers union spending $140K for 'enemies list' opposition research of groups turning up heat on schools." Fox News, July 7, 2023. https://www.foxnews.com/media/nea-teachers-union-spending-140k-enemies-list-opposition-research-groups-turning-heat-schools

[35] Moskowitz, Eva. "Union boss Weingarten thinks you’re a racist if you want good schools for your kids." New York Post, September 15, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/09/15/union-boss-weingarten-thinks-youre-a-racist-if-you-want-good-schools-for-your-kids/

[36] Peek, Liz. "Teachers’ unions balk at reopening schools, hurting country and Trump." The Hill, July 16, 2020. https://thehill.com/opinion/education/507576-teachers-unions-balk-at-reopening-schools-hurting-country-and-trump/

[37] “Consequences Matter: Thomas Sowell on “Social Justice Fallacies.” Uncommon Knowledge series, Hoover Institution, September 7, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn2gda_phAA Lightly edited for clarity.

[38] Chin, Wai Wah. "What’s really at the root of anti-Jewish hate on college campuses." New York Post, November 9, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/11/09/opinion/whats-really-at-the-root-of-anti-jewish-hate-on-college-campuses/