Betsy McCaughey: Teachers Union Thuggery

If someone was hurting your child, you’d do anything to stop them. The harm inflicted by teachers unions is legalized thuggery. But what can you do about it?

The tragic consequences of union strong-arming will be on display Wednesday when a House subcommittee grills American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on how the unions muscled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February 2021 into setting impossible-to-meet requirements for reopening schools during COVID.

Closing schools in the spring of 2020, when no one understood COVID, was understandable. But once science showed negligible risk to students in returning to the classroom, prolonging closures became child abuse. Yet on orders from the Biden White House, the CDC followed the unions’ dictates instead of the science.

School closures led to severe learning loss, setting back many kids for years, possibly the rest of their lives. A staggering 37% of high school students reported suffering mental health struggles during the lockdowns, according to a CDC survey. Protecting your kids from the unions requires waging political warfare, state by state.

What Can You Do?

• Push for reform in red and purple states
• Ban unions from deducting dues from teachers’ paychecks
• Limit union power and put kids first

Laws in 38 states guarantee collective bargaining, not just over pay but often over every aspect of the school day, even curriculum. Unions use these powers to block school reform, opposing standardized testing, merit pay, and teacher accountability. And to stuff the curriculum with political indoctrination — what the AFT calls “social justice.”

The unions also buy political influence outright. The National Education Association and the AFT — the nation’s two biggest teachers unions — are among the largest donors to politicians, and at least 94% of that money goes to Democrats, according to Open Secrets. No wonder Biden’s White House ordered the CDC to grovel to Weingarten and the teachers unions.

It’s a racket, explains Philip Howard, author of “Not Accountable,” a riveting expose about public unions. They support Democrats handsomely, and in return, they get what they want at the bargaining table.

Parents, join the fight to limit union power and put kids first. Protect your children from the legalized thuggery of teachers unions.

Listen up, parents. Protecting your kids from the unions requires waging political warfare, state by state.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: WOKANDAPIX at Pixabay