Why Teachers Unions Trade Algebra for Antisemitism

Politico: “Why Sacramento is fighting over antisemitism in schools”

CPC’s answer: Because the California Teacher Association (CTA) would rather yell about foreign policy than answer for its documented failure to educate California’s students. To paraphrase the old joke, those who can’t do, teach – and those who can’t teach math or writing fall back on teaching controversial political ideologies they learned as college sophomores.

Data just emerging from the most recent national student testing reveals that U.S. students continue to fall behind their global counterparts in math, writing and science. The decline has been steep in California, now ranked among the nation’s worst states for public education. For the union leaders who claim to represent California educators, that’s a crisis — and the solution now (as ever) is distraction. That’s why the California Teacher Association (CTA) stepped in to block a bill to crack down on antisemitism in California’s K-12 classrooms. Along with other “progressive groups — including Indivisible California and various chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America and Jewish Voice for Peace — [the state teacher union] called the legislation ‘dangerous and unnecessary,’” Politico observes. “They argue it’s meant to ‘repress and censor educational content and protect the state of Israel from criticism, rather than address the real problem of antisemitism.’”

It’s time to purge that kind of debate from the classrooms and the state Department of Public Instruction — to stop bashing Jews and then burn sage in every school and government building in the state. Return to teaching math, English and science along with the pedagogical practices that once made California’s public schools the envy of the world.

Will Swaim is president of the California Policy Center and co-host with David Bahnsen of National Review’s “Radio Free California” podcast.