NBC News says schools have become a political battlefield, looks to Randi Weingarten for comment

NBC News has a piece on the culture wars taking place in public schools, animated by former President Trump’s base and advanced by conservative activists.

Schools have become a political 'battlefield' for culture war fights that animated fmr. President Trump's base, and advanced by conservative activists and influencers since he left office. https://t.co/xEbvAmZYtM

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 7, 2021

So to whom does NBC News go for comment? AFT President Randi Weingarten, who says that normally “our” kids have been off-limits. Whose kids?

Allan Smith writes:

Conservative grassroots activists have zeroed in on local education policy with a tea party-esque fervor for months — spanning debates about reopening, how to teach U.S. history and required masking. Now, conservative personalities are urging followers to run for school board seats that have rarely generated much interest, while dozens of activist groups focused on schools have sprouted to advance the fights.

…

Longtime operators in the education world say they’ve never seen anything like it.

“Normally, our kids have been off-limits,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the country’s largest unions. “We had tension over Common Core. There was tension over other issues. But in modern history, since the huge desegregation battles, kids have been off-limits. Now, they are the battlefield.”

Here’s a great thread by Ian McKelvey breaking down the piece:

This morning, and article written by @akarl_smith caught my eye. It’s about a supposed “political battlefield” that Trump and his supporters have “cultivated.” pic.twitter.com/J6d1LcAtNC

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

Bill Ayers, a terrorist and retired professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, once said

“Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at.”

An “educator” said that.

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

I could go on forever with this. In fact, I didn’t even touch on Critical Race Theory. But what I find interesting is that @akarl_smith doesn’t really discuss the leftist agenda that overflows in public schools. Never mentions groups that openly indoctrinate.

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

Instead, he lowers his sights on Trump and his supporters. Almost as if they are evil for pushing back against Marxist ideology. Well, Allan, Trump and his supporters didn’t turn schools into a “battlefield.” Leftists did that when they set out to indoctrinate our children.

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

Finally, Allan, I really don’t care if leftists are upset about that their decades long efforts to indoctrinate school children are finally being forcefully opposed. This is the “new norm.” Get used to it. pic.twitter.com/Ihod1ygf1t

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

Bravo.

Conservatives by nature want to be left alone. Regardless, leftists fail to understand that they can't keep poking the bear for decades and not suffer the backlash.

— Jimmy Smith (@JimmySmithstorm) September 7, 2021

That is exactly right.

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

If anything “good” came out of the last 18 months, it is the exposure on this topic. No, it’s not just Trump and his base, because I know some democrat parents in my neighborhood who are at complete odds with the school board and some teachers. Parents are fed up.

— Kristi (@Kristi_Weaver4) September 7, 2021

Exactly. The days of complacency are over. Education in this country have been mismanaged for decades, and an education rooted in social justice is worthless.

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

Weingarten is trash

— Dr. Judgmental Shoelace, PhD. 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇭🇰 🇹🇼 (@DocKilmer) September 7, 2021

She’s filth, and she sucks at hiding her agenda.

— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) September 7, 2021

It is about damn time conservatives wake up to the war that is happening with their children. They've ignored it for way to long.

— Mark (@AsSeenOnTv55) September 7, 2021

Well we are to blame- we refuse to march to their commie demands.

— Not buying any of it (@GratefulmumNC) September 7, 2021

Cultivated is the new pounced.

— Your Disapproving Dad (@disapprover69) September 7, 2021

Of course, Weingarten gets the last word:

Ultimately, Weingarten said the focus on schools is part of the right’s broader search for wedge issues ahead of the midterm elections next year.

“It’s about constant destabilization, creating anger, exploiting the anxiety that people have right now,” she said. “It is also kind of rooted in the destabilization of the institutions in America that have, you know, long been used to unify the country. Like great neighborhood public schools.”

Great neighborhood public schools where more than 40 percent of high schoolers earned a grade point average of less than 1.0. Maybe focus on the basics and leave the social justice indoctrination outside the classroom.

Related:

‘Reds in Ed’: Teacher says student made uncomfortable by Antifa flag in his classroom should think about why it makes him uncomfortable https://t.co/C6EEDzMleJ

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) September 3, 2021