What does a Trump administration mean for California schools?
Dear John,
Is President-elect Donald Trump making Randi Weingarten nervous? Probably not. The AFT leader has spent years raising funds off stump speeches railing against him. With Trump’s landslide win, teachers unions now have their ultimate nemesis — and cash cow — for another four years.
But while the unions might relish fundraising off of Trump, the reality is that his administration could pose the strongest challenge yet to the unions’ iron grip on education.
As they brace for battle, President Trump’s campaign to reform America’s education system is already exposing what teachers unions truly value — and it’s certainly not the success of students or hardworking teachers.
If teachers unions really cared about students, they might see Trump’s out-of-the-gate support for reform as an invitation for innovation to do something — anything — to turn around America’s public schools, where in 2022 only 26 percent of 8th graders scored “at or above proficient” in mathematics and just 29 percent were proficient in reading.
If union leaders actually cared about teachers, they’d abandon the unions' teacher pay structure that ignores teacher merit and instead pays educators based on how long they’ve been in the union.
But unions have other priorities. Their mission isn’t centered on educating kids or empowering teachers. Instead, they’re dedicated to amassing political power and advancing an agenda that undermines parental authority and pushes a divisive political ideology.
It may be hard to get our collective heads around why teachers unions would go all-in on telling boys they are girls and girls they are boys, or push curriculum to convince minority students their country hates them. But it makes much more sense when one understands that just as old-school Communists weaponized class, today’s unions use race and gender ideology to drive wedges between kids and their parents.
The unions’ ultimate goal is to drive young people to see older generations, including their parents and families, as the enemy through a steady diet of ideological resentment aimed at dismantling America as we know it.
But something unexpected happened over the last four years. An army of fed-up parents said 'enough is enough,' and they are doing what many thought impossible: winning the PR battle against Weingarten and the unions. Social media has become the grassroots antidote to the unions’ vast political war chest funded by teachers’ union dues, leveling the playing field like never before.
Regardless of what critics say, President Trump doesn’t mince words or play politics as usual. He’s the ultimate heavyweight in this fight that might finally curb the teachers unions’ outsized influence.
So, what can we expect to see from President Trump in the coming months?
For starters, California will be the poster child of what not to do at a national level, from failing math standards and literacy rates — where in 2022 only 31 percent of 4th graders demonstrated reading proficiency and 30 percent achieved math proficiency — to a mandated ethnic studies requirement based on a Marxist oppressor/oppressed foundation that has contributed to a mass exodus from our public schools.
The good news is that Trump has made it clear that he intends to champion policies to address the root problems in America’s failed education system and enact common sense solutions, including:
War on Wokeness
Despite California’s plummeting enrollment, normally thoughtful journalists pressed the panic button after the election. EdSource went all-in on the fear mongering, suggesting that Trump was coming after minority and LGBTQ+ students. But President Trump isn’t targeting students, he’s taking aim at a failed education system that has prioritized wokeness over academics, leaving millions of students — especially low-income and minority students — without the education foundation they need to succeed. To that end, he has pledged to cut federal funding for any school programs teaching CRT and gender ideology to root out Marxism in our schools.
Accountability
The usual suspects are apoplectic about President Trump’s plans to dismantle the Department of Education. But Trump is right in wanting to get federal bureaucrats out of the way so that local school districts can deliver a better, more personalized education to their students. In reality, what’s likely frightening union activists the most is that they’ll finally be held accountable for poor academic results — and unable to blame the federal boogeyman. Trump has also pledged to promote teacher merit pay and patriotism, and ensure teachers understand “their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.”
Parental Rights and Education Choice
President Trump has been unwavering in his support of parental rights, vowing to adopt a Parental Bill of Rights that includes complete curriculum transparency. He’s also been unequivocal in his support of education freedom and school choice.
In California, teachers unions are behind the steady stream of anti-charter school bills in the state legislature. And while more than a dozen states implemented Educational Savings Accounts over the last few years, California Democrats refused to even let an ESA bill out of committee this last session.
With Trump championing education choice, we may see new opportunities in California’s school choice battle. In addition to expanding and strengthening charter schools, a growing number of families are choosing diverse options for homeschooling. An explosion of high-quality curricula, microschools and co-ops offers families previously stuck in failing neighborhood schools workable options that didn’t exist before.
We’ll see if California’s education establishment and teachers unions are going to fight a feckless, losing war against Washington, D.C. or focus on fixing their failures at home, in our local school districts. Our hope would be the latter.
— By Lance Christensen, CPC's Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs
The most powerful way to defund the unions’ misguided battle is for teachers to exercise their constitutional right to opt out of their union. Teachers can learn more and start the opt-out process at mypaymysay.org.
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