It’s becoming more obvious by the day that many teachers union activists are on the creepy radical fringe of American politics. They’re proudly on the outside and far to the left of the left-leaning Democratic Party.
How else can one explain the angry reaction of so many union activists when Democratic politicians endorse or accept a few government school reforms?
Take United Federation of Teachers activist Michael Fiorillo. He takes no prisoners when it comes to his analysis of those Democrats, like President Obama and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who call for more accountability for public school teachers. He recently wrote:
“Corey [sic] Booker, neoliberal puppet and certainly one of the most insipid and insufferable politicians who has ever lived. Both he and Obama share many attributes, and seem to have been genetically engineered to divide and negate black political energies in the interests of The Overclass, while making b*llshit white liberals feel good about themselves. An evil, albeit fascinating, dynamic.”
Obama, of course, remains the darling of his party and may very well win a second term in the White House next week. Booker is a rising star in Democratic circles. They are both very liberal, but obviously not loyal enough to Big Labor for some teachers.
An increasing number of mainstream Democrats like Obama and Booker are tiring of the teachers unions and their self-serving ways. They see little political payoff in siding with unions that are willing to sacrifice the best interests of American students to get their way at the collective bargaining table.
That means radicals like Fiorillo are running out of friends in high places. If they continue to turn on everyone who dares to question their motives and agenda, they will soon be largely isolated in the American political scene.
That will be their own fault, and nobody will mourn their demise.
But there is one other concern that parents should be thinking about. Fiorillo and many like him are public school teachers, and have a great deal of influence on impressionable children five days per week.
Does anybody really want their kid to learn from someone who considers Barack Obama too conservative and a traitor to his race? These people are off the chart, and in a perfect world they would be kept as far away from students as possible.