The Left’s Education Industrial Complex

But now, they are emboldened to say the quiet part out loud. So loudly, in fact, that Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) opened their recent Las Vegas rally with an English teacher who proudly bragged that she became a teacher because she “saw education for what it really was: the greatest instrument of social justice in this country.” Really?

Middle school math and reading test scores just hit historic lows, two-thirds of our nation’s fourth-graders lag behind grade level in math, and eighth-grade history scores hit the lowest ever recorded since the inception of the “Nation’s Report Card” by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Considering the compounding effects of damaging COVID-19 policies, our nation truly has an education crisis that is now a major election issue.

I suspect that’s why Harris selected Walz, a former teacher, as her running mate. Unfortunately for our nation, they are catering to the powerful education complex and not focusing on quality educational instruction for American children.

I spent more than a decade as a teacher and administrator and have dedicated my career to expanding alternative educational access to lift America’s students out of education deprivation. That’s why I’m horrified by reports of entire classes in dozens of Minnesota schools “failing to meet minimum state standards.” The National Center for Education Statistics reports that less than 31% of eighth-graders in Minnesota can pass a grade-level math or reading exam. With over $15,000 spent per student, one has to ask where is all that money going?

And it’s not just Minnesota. It’s happening across the nation, with dozens of Baltimore schools reporting “zero students proficient in math,” dozens of Chicago schools that “claim no students are proficient in either math or reading,” and reports that “just 30 percent of California eighth-graders are proficient in reading,” to name but a few.

These shocking failures come despite education-related organizations gaining more power and bills being signed to increase taxpayer spending on each student. So where is all that power and money going if not to provide our children with quality education?

Unfortunately, it’s going to activism. Education-related bills across the nation, like the $2.2 billion behemoth signed by Walz, tout “equity” and “diversifying our workforce” as major priorities, earmarking much of the funding for non-educational mandates and radical ideological agendas. And recent years have proven powerful teachers unions to be some of the most corrupt and damaging institutions in our society.

The harsh reality is that these unions don’t care about teachers or students. They care about power and activism. That much was made clear during and after the COVID-19 lockdowns, as teachers union bosses and their political counterparts caused untold educational harm that UNICEF called “nearly insurmountable.”

Beyond the classroom, the social, mental, and emotional damage inflicted on millions of children through prolonged and unnecessary school closures will be seen for years to come and will surely have a profound effect on the future of our society. And yet it was done by those who profess to be champions of children and education.

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who called Walz an “Inspired Choice!!!” successfully lobbied to keep schools closed despite science-supported options to return to more productive in-person learning. And National Education Association president Becky Pringle, who called Walz an “exceptional choice,” joined Weingarten in the crusade to shutter schools, impose draconian mandates, and prioritize DEI in every facet of education.

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Pringle also recently went viral for what’s being called a “totally unhinged” rant in which she demanded transformative social justice and equity changes to “all the things” in the education system. Our nation’s powerful leaders and politicians have been clear about what their priorities are, and they aren’t math, reading, or critical thinking.

Our nation’s current education system is an example of what parents don’t want for their children—a crushing weight of radical activism overshadowing substantive scholastic instruction. As happens far too often, the students seem to be only a prop used by politicians and activists to further their ideological agendas. For our children and our nation, let’s find leaders who have a proven track record of putting our children first.

Marissa Streit is a former educator and administrator who has served as the CEO of PragerU over the past 13 years, but most importantly, she is the mother of three elementary-aged children.