Trump should champion education reform against pro-Democrat teachers unions

President Donald Trump is driving clueless Democrats to embrace the losing side of many issues, like opposing his efforts to drive down crime, favoring open borders and encouraging biological men to compete in women’s sports.  

There is another critical cause Trump should champion that will put Democrats even more on the defensive — our failing public schools. The time is right; parents are unhappy with their children’s schools and AI promises huge improvements, if we can get the teachers unions out of the way.  

In the coming days, America’s children will head back to the classroom. Many families will look forward with excitement to a new academic year of achievement and progress. For others, and especially those trapped in the failing schools of Democrat-run cities like New York and Chicago, the new year will bring defeat and disappointment.  

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Far too many of our nation’s children — disproportionately Black and brown kids — will again be left behind. Excuses will be made, standards will be lowered and parents will wonder whether their children have any shot at the American dream.  

Democratic politicians pretend to care about children, but every year that goes by confirms they care more about the tens of millions of dollars they harvest from the teachers’ unions.  

In this year’s annual Mood of the Nation survey, Gallup found only 24% of Americans satisfied with public education, a record low and one of the least favorable readings posted on any issue. During the pandemic, when unions demanded that schools close and classes went online, parents saw firsthand the woke garbage being taught to their kids. Something broke. 

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With AI rocketing into reality and infusing every industry with the possibility of enormous productivity gains, the time has come to combat the rigid authoritarianism of the teachers unions. Trump should lead that charge. 

In New York City, the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission estimates that the Department of Education will spend more than $42,000 per child this year, more than any other big city in the country and one-third more than was spent just five years ago.   

And what do families in the Big Apple get for that outrageous sum, which accounts for nearly one third of the city’s budget? As reported recently in the New York Post, just 33% of Big Apple fourth graders scored proficiency in math and 28% in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress last year. Older students’ results were worse – 23% of city eighth graders met the national standards in math and 29% in reading.”  

Imagine, taxpayers are spending private-school-level sums and getting results that should shame the country and the city. To repeat, only 23 of 100 kids in eighth grade can do math at grade level and 29 can read, and those results benefit from ever-shifting goal posts. What about the other kids? Does anybody care? 

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In Chicago, spending per student is nearly $20,000, which does not include some items thrown into the NYC totals, like debt service. Chicago’s school outlays have nearly doubled over the past decade, while scores and standards have fallen, as in New York. Last year, only some 29% of Chicago kids could read at grade level, and 18% — less than one in five — of kids were proficient at math.   

As in New York, the failure rate among minorities is especially worrisome. While 29% of all Chicago eighth-grade students passed algebra, for instance, fewer than 17% of Black kids succeeded in doing so.   

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson received strong support from teachers unions. FILE: Johnson responds to a question during a news conference where he introduced six of his nominees to the Chicago Board of Education on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The poor performance of Chicago’s schools is not surprising, considering that, according to the Illinois Report Card, the system suffered chronic absenteeism of 41% in 2024. Worse, the chronic absenteeism rate for the city’s teachers was also about 41%. 

Who is speaking up for those Black kids who are falling behind? It certainly isn’t the teachers unions. Recent contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union started out with union bosses making 700 demands, estimated to cost $10 billion. Some of the demands had nothing to do with educating students, but focused on adding a “restorative justice coordinator in every school,” more holidays for teachers, establishing a “scratch kitchen, so students can eat culturally relevant, nourishing lunches,” less accountability, gender-affirming care and “queer competent trained service providers.”  

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The union was feeling entitled after it and national teachers organizations funded about half of Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign and delivered victory through a massive effort to turn out voters, prompting the Chicago Tribune to dub the CTU Chicago’s new political “machine.”   

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Teachers unions across the nation work to plump up their own salaries and benefits, which is their job, but they also spend millions electing politicians like Johnson that do their bidding, which has little to do with making sure our kids can compete in the 21st century.  

Trump has taken a good first step in boosting our education system by dismantling much of the Department of Education and sending more authority over our schools back to the states. He also issued an executive order overturning the disastrous Obama-Biden guidance mandating that disciplining of students must consider race and equity, which reduced safety in schools. And, he has encouraged widespread instruction in the use of AI.  

But more can be done. For instance, the president must encourage the continued expansion of school choice. Since 2021, 11 GOP-led states controlled by Republican legislatures have adopted policies giving parents a choice of schooling, including public, private, charter or home-based education options. Increased competition will raise standards; public schools will no longer get a free pass. 

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The president can also defend parental rights, including the right to know what is going on in the classroom, which some unions are trying to prevent.  

Randi Weingarten, the powerful head of the American Federation of Teachers, was recently spotted wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Protect our Kids.” That’s where she’s wrong; they are not her kids, they are ours. 

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