Friend,

JD Vance is doubling down on the latest unearthed example of his disparaging views about teachers and modern families. And as a new school year begins, we can’t ignore it when he attacks teachers and undermines children, parents and families.

Add your name to demand JD Vance and his allies stop the attacks on educators.

The recently surfaced clip shows Vance ranting about how educators like me want to “brainwash and destroy the minds of children.” To make matters worse, he then says that teachers who do not have biological children should “leave ours the hell alone.”

It sure seems like Vance lacks an empathy gene—thank goodness he’s not a teacher. He doesn’t get that you don’t have to be a parent to care about kids, our neighbors, our communities and our country.

While Vance plays the culture-war card, which is just a corrosive form of politics, AFT educators all across the country are solution-driven, giving books away to children—10 million to date; implementing free breakfast and lunch programs in schools; standing up for community schools and social services to help all children find academic success; and, just this year, creating career and technical education pathways in advanced manufacturing and healthcare to prepare and train students for well-paying jobs and professions.

Donald Trump, JD Vance and their school board allies—backed by billionaire donors like Betsy DeVos—are laser-focused on defunding public education and bullying loving families across America.

Teachers want what children need. I am blessed to be a mom by marriage, but that’s irrelevant to whether I—or any of us—care about children. This week, as teachers are digging into their pockets to pay for school supplies and welcoming kids and parents into their classrooms, we should all be celebrating the hope and promise of a new school year, not trashing it with gross, ridiculous comments like Vance’s.

Tell JD Vance to devote his energy to helping educators and school staff support students, not to making it harder for teachers to teach and children to learn.

Vance’s attacks on families’ private lives and safe, inclusive schools are part of an extreme agenda driven by anger and divisiveness that includes abolishing the Department of Education, undermining the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, cutting funding from Pell Grants for students, and opposing student debt relief for borrowers and their families who are paying a penalty for simply seeking a degree. Oh, and of course Vance is also on the record attacking universities and declaring that professors are the “enemy of the people.”

Trump and Vance’s friends at Project 2025 also call for eliminating funding for Title I schools, which serve the students and communities in greatest need, all while tearing down the separation between church and state, censoring honest history, and punishing educators for their personal lives.

Enough is enough.

Add your name to tell JD Vance and his allies on school boards and in elected positions across the country that you will only vote for pro-public school, pro-family candidates this November.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President