To say that left-wing activists are losing their minds over President-elect Donald Trump is an understatement. Teachers unions are no exception.
When Trump won the 2024 election, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten stated, “the country is more divided than ever, and our democracy is in jeopardy. Last night, we saw fear and anger win.”
“Over the next few weeks, there will be a lot of ‘could have, should have, would have.’ But the bottom line for most people who voted—and we saw many of them as we crisscrossed the country—was ‘who will help us improve our lives, the lives of our families and our communities?’ We believed it was Kamala Harris; more people believed it was Donald Trump,” she added.
This week, another teachers union lost it over Trump’s win.
On Jan. 15, the National Education Association (NEA) hosted a webinar titled “Preparing for a Second Trump Administration.”
According to Parents Defending Education (PDE), the webinar kicked off with a transgender individual leading a “land acknowledgment.” The trans person accused the United States of “settler colonialism” and accused Trump of wanting to carry through with “land grabs.”
Then, the webinar dove into a slew of woke pointers, like illegal immigration and gender ideology (via PDE):
A major discussion from the webinar was supporting students who are illegal immigrants against the Trump administration. The speaker in this part of the webinar said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deporting illegal immigrants will be “shocking to people” and asked what aspiring teachers could do to push back. She said there is a role for teachers to play to make students feel less afraid of immigration enforcement. She also said that schools could increase the number of counselors to help with this issue.
The speakers at one point in the webinar claim that teaching “social and racial justice” is teaching “true history.” A speaker then states that being against teaching these issues in school curricula is an “unpopular” stance. She attacks Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters and claims that pushing against “social and racial Justice” is a “circus.” She claims that the larger goal is to “privatize and dismantle schools.”
It doesn’t stop there. The speaker later said that she believes “we may have come out of the worst part of the school culture wars, at least this round” and called parental rights groups “extremists.”
A different speaker, announced as the “chair of the NEA sexual orientation and gender identity committee and a board director for the American Civil Liberties Union” said that the ACLU will fight legislation in Utah that does not allow schools to fly the pride flag in classrooms (via PDE):
One resource shown in the webinar was titled “Stop the Trump Administration: No Mass Deportations.” The speaker said the ACLU already had a plan in place to fight against Trump before he had won the election with a “Firewall for Freedom” initiative. She states: “We were born for this moment.” She also states that the second Trump administration will be “worse” than the first.
The speaker states that the ACLU has resources for teachers and has a whole department for transgender issues. She explains that the ACLU will bring “legal observers” if teachers want to hold protests. She then talks about pride flags in Utah classrooms again:
“I’m here to tell you the pride flag’s going to be in my classroom. I don’t care what anyone says. The pride flag’s going to be there. So is the trans flag. So is the Black Lives Matter flag. They’re going to be in my room.”
"The NEA was always a hyper-political organization, but it has morphed into a far-left activist group steeped in ideology. Not only is there zero focus on learning but their priorities are barely connected to K-12 education at all —climate change, Palestine, immigration. Their new focus is resisting Trump and based on the absurd commentary during this webinar, they might want to look in the mirror to better understand how and why he won,” Erika Sanzi, the director of outreach for PDE, told Townhall.
