Minnesota’s primary teachers’ union, Education Minnesota, backed by the nation’s biggest teachers’ union, the NEA, is out with the latest version of their “Social Justice Newsletter.”
The newsletter outlines their plans to increasingly inculcate Minnesota’s children with leftwing ideology. This includes partnering with childcare provider groups that are dependent on state funds and have lobbied for minimal oversight, even in the face of massive childcare fraud.
It also includes partnering with groups like the leftwing ISAIAH, a Democrat-linked political action group, to lobby for statewide taxpayer funded pre-K, which would further-empower Education Minnesota’s union.
This follows a long line of union-backed pushes to bring leftwing ideology into the classroom. For example, just several weeks ago, the nation’s other large teachers’ union, which also backs Education Minnesota, published documents about how teachers can indoctrinate children to become radical environmentalists (worship the environment versus take care of it).
These efforts have a common thread. They just happen to increase union power. And the already-powerful Education Minnesota, along with its national union backers, has a record of fighting options that help children succeed—such as charters.
Why? Because these other options threaten union power. Right now, Education Minnesota is working to crack down on St. Paul charters, despite the overwhelming support of charters among St. Paul parents and students.
Education Minnesota’s talk of “social justice” is especially laughable, given that the children helped most by these charters are overwhelmingly black and poor American kids. These same kids are overwhelmingly and disproportionately harmed by the union-run inner city public schools. For example, Minnesota has the worst outcome for minority students in the nation.
Thankfully, if charters and other options keep expanding, Minnesota students and parents in bad schools will continue to be able to vote with their feet—and enrollment in bad union-run schools will continue to decline. Even better, the union-run schools would face more competition, and would increasingly have to do a better job.
Sadder still than Education Minnesota’s hypocrisy, are the effects of liberal schools’ social justice efforts in the past. This included a policy that capped schools’ ability to discipline misbehaving black students, which severely harmed the black students who wanted to learn. A teacher, Aaron Benner, who is a black man, fought for his students but was pushed out by the powers that be. His story is worth reading. It’s a good reminder of where the education-industrial complex’s priorities are, despite all the talk of social justice.
Willis Krumholz
Willis L. Krumholz is a fellow at Defense Priorities. He holds a JD and MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas, and works in the financial services industry. The views expressed are those of the author only. You can follow Willis on Twitter @WillKrumholz.
