Defense of Freedom Institute sounds off on teachers unions' 'summer of woke'

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The Defense of Freedom Institute's (DFI) study of the nation's two largest teachers unions concluded that their "summer of woke" was a "disaster" for the next generation.

In its "Summer of Woke" study, a product of DFI’s Teacher Union Accountability Project, Robert S. Eitel and Paul Zimmerman wrote that students suffered at the hands of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) because the pair of unions were preoccupied with political agendas.

Nowhere was this more prevalent, the authors said, than at the unions' 2022 annual conventions. At the assemblies, the unions voted on measures relating to gender ideology, abortion, climate, race, and more.

The AFT unanimously passed a resolution at its leadership conference last month committing the union to lobby for federal and state legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization so that "all women, girls and others who can become pregnant" can obtain abortions. The AFT also introduced a resolution to call on states and schools to adopt nondiscrimination policies "that would force women and girls to compete against biological men who identify as women."

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the National Education Association 2022 annual meeting and representative assembly in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. Photographer: Tannen Maury/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)  (Tannen Maury/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

DFI argued that the unions also promoted "radicalized school policies." At its assembly in July, the NEA debated a policy statement asserting that schools must be made more racially "equitable" by banning metal detectors, ending random searches, and halting the general "policing of students on school campuses." The NEA, DFI said, also adopted an item which pushes for the inclusion of critical race theory (CRT) in curricula by promoting the concept that "systemic racism" accounts for much of the wealth gap in the U.S.

"The NEA and AFT want you to believe that they defend the interests of the majority of classroom teachers and students, but their conventions instead reveal that union bosses are obsessed with what they deem ‘systemic’ racism, gender ideology, abortion rights, and fossil fuels issues," the DFI authors wrote. "They are not interested in fixing what is broken in America’s public schools for the sake of students. The massive learning loss stemming from union-led school closures has proved to be a disaster for a generation of young Americans. During their recent conventions, the AFT and the NEA exhibited for the world that they are cruelly uninterested in taking responsibility for the suffering faced by students during the pandemic."

AFT President Randi Weingarten, who was reelected to her eighth term at last month's conference, introduced a campaign called "What Kids and Communities Need." Critics like USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques blasted the union head for the initiative as "gaslighting," recalling how Weingarten previously encouraged teachers to "scream bloody murder" if they felt schools could not reopen safely in the spring of 2020. And her union and NEA were discovered to have influenced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its school reopening guidance at the eleventh hour last year. The guidance included a phased reopening approach for K-12 schools based on COVID-19 cases in the area.

A sign outside of Columbus Elementary School lets visitors know that the playground has been closed on January 25, 2021, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

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"There will never be a culture change at the AFT and the NEA with its current leadership, which has become highly radicalized over the years and exists in a world far outside the mainstream of American life experienced by their members," Eitel, president and co-founder of DFI, told Fox News Digital. "These unions will continue to use the AFT and the NEA to fight education freedom and push far left cultural values like CRT and gender ideology in the classroom rather than focus on failing schools and the academic needs of students."

Teachers unions across the country affiliated with NEA and AFT have enforced their own controversial policies. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, for instance, recently sparked an uproar by introducing and doubling down on an agreement that exempts teachers from "underrepresented" populations from seniority-based layoffs. Critics of the policy, among them activists and lawyers, referred to the policy as "constitutionally suspect" and "illegal."

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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, along with members of Congress, parents and caregiving advocates hold a press conference supporting Build Back Better investments in home care, childcare, paid leave and expanded CTC payments in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on October 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MomsRising Together) (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MomsRising Together)

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Despite more and more parents speaking out at local school board meetings about progressive policies or curricula, Eitel predicted it will be business as usual at the AFT and NEA.

"The evidence during and after the pandemic shows that the AFT and the NEA will continue to dig in against the parental rights movement," Eitel said. "Like Attorney General Merrick Garland and the leadership of the National School Boards Association, the union bosses see many parents as an obstacle to enacting their agenda and a threat to their position, status, and influence. And, they’re right—they are. The irony is that many teachers disagree with what the AFT and the NEA and their affiliates are doing. The real answer to this problem is for teachers to exercise their legal right to leave their unions." 

Fox News Digital has reached out to AFT and NEA for comment.