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The Biggest Bully in School: Why Public Education Is Failing in America | PragerU — Transcript

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0:00foreign
0:09it is about money and power they have
0:12nothing to do with advancing education
0:14the kids didn't have a voice at the
0:16table it was all sound bites and lies
0:19they're hiding the answers from parents
0:21like me they would protect teachers they
0:24knew were bad teachers they're sending
0:27millions of dollars to left-leaning
0:29groups or politicians every year I felt
0:32that I didn't have a voice there they
0:33didn't want to listen to us there's real
0:35problems happening with our kids they're
0:37only working for the union they're not
0:39even working for their teachers
0:40[Music]
0:42foreign
0:48I'm a former public school teacher of 15
0:50years and the founder of Exodus
0:53Institute I want America to know how
0:56teachers unions are negatively affecting
0:58public education in our country
1:01I was born to be a teacher I had a lot
1:04of success in my classroom I will still
1:06always be a teacher just not in public
1:08education
1:09personally believe the union never
1:11represented me our schools are supposed
1:14to be politically neutral environments
1:16and that's no longer what they are
1:18America needs to see what's happening in
1:20our classrooms and how our teachers are
1:21being trained to be racist and how a lot
1:24of this is being pushed by the teachers
1:25unions
1:27I know my experience with the teachers
1:29union but I know there's so much more to
1:31the story I reached out to subject
1:34matter experts parents and fellow
1:36teachers to learn more
1:39and as with any story we have to start
1:42from the beginning
1:43[Music]
1:45is actually sprung up in the mid-1800s
1:49they were kind of just a way to
1:51legitimize the role of a teacher and to
1:53standardize how you got that career when
1:56you get to the Great Depression cities
1:59or towns for slashing their budgets just
2:01to sort of pay for General Public Works
2:03one of the first things to go was
2:05teacher salaries so you know the unions
2:08could step in and say this is what we're
2:09fighting for better pay for teachers
2:11better classroom conditions right after
2:14World War II and then going into the 50s
2:17we're in the Red Scare in the country
2:19right if there's any small suspicion
2:21that maybe you were sympathetic to the
2:23Communist party or anything like that
2:25you could be fired and that's how we got
2:27the sort of tenure system that we have
2:30today I was really born out of this
2:32effort to protect teachers from these
2:34unjust and unfair firings of course now
2:37when we think about the 10-year system
2:38we know it's one of the probably
2:40greatest detriments to our public school
2:43system and what is tenure tenure
2:46basically means that teachers can't get
2:48fired for anything barring some sort of
2:51egregious violation unfortunately for
2:54school children poor performance is not
2:56an egregious violation
2:58early in my career I understood how
3:01tenure could protect more senior
3:03teachers but I didn't realize a tenure
3:06also protected teachers who put in
3:08little to no effort
3:10I spoke with John Schilling who started
3:12his career in the Arizona Department of
3:14Education to get a better picture of
3:17just how far unions will go to protect
3:19the worst teachers
3:21do you think the unions protect teachers
3:23that probably shouldn't be in the
3:25classroom oh unquestionably
3:29I mean the process to even get rid of a
3:32teacher that has clearly done something
3:35wrong is very laborious there's no
3:40question that the union goes out of the
3:41way to protect Bad Teachers if a teacher
3:44can no longer be in the classroom
3:45they've done something so egregious they
3:47can't be around students but they can't
3:49be fired yet they're in this limbo
3:51period the teachers unions decided they
3:53would send them to these rubber rooms
3:55which was truly just a room where these
3:57teachers would go and do nothing all day
3:59and the entire time they're still
4:02getting their full pay and their full
4:03benefits and the rubber rooms are a
4:06direct product of teachers unions yes
4:08rubber rooms were fully engineered by
4:10teachers unions the New Yorker did this
4:12huge investigation around rubber rooms
4:14and found that the average teacher could
4:16be in a rubber room for three years or
4:19more
4:19the worst of the worst may end up in
4:22rubber rooms but many subpar teachers
4:24stay in the classroom and even if the
4:27teacher across the hall is 10 times more
4:30effective their paychecks could be the
4:32same or lower
4:35the years educational reform has been
4:37pushing for something called Merit pay
4:39where we wanted to pay our best teachers
4:41more money and we wanted to be able to
4:43reward teachers on how well they were
4:46preparing children to move on to the
4:48next level the unions don't like Merit
4:50pay it doesn't really make any
4:52difference whether you're a really great
4:54teacher or not so good teacher if you've
4:57been there for 30 years your pay is
5:00going to go up we really aren't
5:01fostering the goodness in some of our
5:04teachers we're actually holding them
5:06back which is crazy yeah they are just
5:08not in the business of wanting to ensure
5:11that every child has a quality education
5:13or to improve academic outcomes for kids
5:17and they've become particularly in the
5:20last 25 years very very political and
5:25with all of their political giving and
5:27all of the grants that they hand out
5:28really going you know to the left side
5:31of the aisle that is not accurately
5:33representing their membership because
5:36not every teacher has views like that
5:38some people are accusing teachers unions
5:40of being more of a political
5:41organization than a teachers
5:44organization what do you have to say
5:46about that teachers unions are
5:48definitely more of a political
5:50organization than an educational
5:51organization you have the National
5:54Education Association and the American
5:56Federation of teachers both of these
5:58unions are political powerhouses in the
6:02last 20 years the Nea has sent over 200
6:05million dollars to politics and the AFT
6:08in the same vein they've sent about 90
6:11million dollars That's not including
6:13some of these left-leaning groups like
6:15Planned Parenthood the Clinton
6:17Foundation that are also getting money
6:19every single year from these groups and
6:22teachers unions where do they get their
6:24funding from
6:25all teachers unions are funded by their
6:27members dues so everything they're
6:29sending to politics is coming from their
6:31members Pockets from their hard-earned
6:33cash
6:35these are political activities and
6:37grants to advance Progressive agenda
6:39they have nothing to do with helping
6:40children learn they have nothing to do
6:42with giving children opportunity they
6:44have nothing to do with improving
6:45outcomes and frankly it doesn't have
6:47anything to do with improving teacher
6:48pay or benefits for the teachers unions
6:51it is about money and power and we got
6:55an honest glimpse into this back in 2009
6:58the top lawyer for the National
7:00Education Association for for decades he
7:03talked about why the union was effective
7:05and he said straight up it is not
7:07because we care about children and it is
7:11not because we have a vision of a great
7:14public school for every child Nea and
7:17its Affiliates are effective Advocates
7:20because we have power
7:24it's not because we care about kids it's
7:26because we have power it's because we
7:28have three and a half million members
7:29who are giving us hundreds of millions
7:31of dollars every year that's what we are
7:33how are teachers and students affected
7:36by the unions and why is this an
7:38important issue to be aware of the
7:40teacher unions are the ones that are
7:42often making the decisions without the
7:45input from a lot of rank and file
7:46teachers is the unions they largely
7:48control most of the school boards in
7:50America I think one of the things that a
7:52lot of people don't realize is the role
7:54that teachers unions played over the
7:55course of the pandemic it became clear
7:58that the teachers unions had seriously
8:00influenced the CDC on school reopening
8:03guidance if you talk to regular Rank and
8:06file teachers I'm guessing that most of
8:08them wanted to be back in the classroom
8:10it wasn't just teachers who wanted to
8:12return to the classroom parents were
8:15desperate for schools to reopen as well
8:16after months of watching their children
8:19struggle many parents were shocked to
8:21realize it was the unions who were
8:23keeping schools closed
8:25you experienced being a parent with
8:28children that had to stay at home for a
8:31long period of time what was it like as
8:33a parent it was a real
8:36disaster from the parent perspective a
8:39lot of kids were struggling I know that
8:41was true in my house you couldn't just
8:43step back and assume that the teachers
8:44union was going to push for something
8:46that was going to be in the best
8:47interest of the kids the unions were
8:49really trying to make a lot of very
8:52unreasonable demands in order to go back
8:54into the classroom things like you know
8:57we wanted to make sure that every
8:58teacher was vaccinated every student had
9:00to be vaccinated and this was at a time
9:02where vaccines hadn't even been approved
9:04for children they wanted a massive
9:07infusion of new federal money the unions
9:10were trying to prevent students from
9:11leaving their traditional public schools
9:13and going into online learning for
9:15online Charter Schools or Online private
9:17schools these are the kinds of things
9:19that again just had a terribly negative
9:22impact on students
9:24teachers knew students were struggling
9:26but as they waited for schools to reopen
9:29their unions began pressuring school
9:31boards to remain closed while they used
9:34the pandemic to try to score political
9:36points
9:37our Union basically controls about half
9:40the school board and so when the union
9:42pushes very very heavily to keep things
9:44close and those board members are more
9:47than happy to go ahead and push to
9:48maintain the status quo of keeping
9:50schools closed your local union was
9:52calling to defund the police weren't
9:54they leveraging that against opening up
9:56the schools I remember hearing about
9:57this in the news they wanted to push for
10:00all sorts of social changes and then
10:02using the The Cloud of having the
10:04teachers not come back in covid was one
10:06of their mechanisms what were they
10:08calling for I mean that's the abolition
10:10of police wow
10:12with schools closed many parents saw for
10:15the first time just how political
10:17classrooms have gotten but when parents
10:20begin to dig into the curriculum to see
10:21what exactly was being taught the unions
10:24became desperate to shut them out
10:27what we see is very scary for our
10:29children how did you start getting
10:32concerned about the curriculum that was
10:33being taught to your five-year-old
10:35daughter my school district sent out a
10:38message to the community saying that
10:41they had declared my school district to
10:42be systemically racist they were using
10:45highly politicized language but if you
10:48go on the Nea website you'll see that
10:49they have black lives matter curriculum
10:51social justice curriculum they're called
10:54the teachers in United students union so
10:56why are they proposing curriculum for
10:58students there's a lot of information
11:01out there that's where people are
11:04fighting against critical race Theory
11:05and they're saying you're trying to ban
11:07history you're trying to ban the
11:09teaching of slavery or teaching about
11:11Jim Crow laws you know how would you
11:13respond to that we need to teach The
11:15Good the Bad and the Ugly and and we
11:18have been teaching The Good the Bad and
11:19the Ugly critical race Theory says that
11:22the entire system in America whether
11:25it's the judicial system bureaucracies
11:28are racist the teachers unions want to
11:32teach history through lens critical race
11:34theory that makes it seem like America
11:37is not the country that it actually is
11:38we actually live in a country with a
11:40judicial system and a government that
11:43tries to fight racism that's why we have
11:46anti-discrimination laws you are being
11:50legally bullied by the teachers union
11:53can you share what's happening with that
11:56so the teachers union is suing me for
11:59submitting public records requests about
12:02what my kids would be learning in school
12:04before that happened actually my school
12:06district they had a full five-hour
12:09school board meeting where my school
12:10board had people speak against me as if
12:13they were Witnesses speaking against me
12:14at trial they put all of my public
12:16records requests on a big screen as if
12:19they were admitting evidence against me
12:20it was a real show trial and to know
12:23that this was me that was on trial was
12:26like an out of body experience and they
12:28were really just trying to publicly
12:30humiliate me in a school board meeting
12:31but then two months later the Nea which
12:35is the largest teachers union in America
12:38did Sue me not only are they trying to
12:41carve out a new law for themselves to
12:43interfere in the public records request
12:45process I think they were primarily
12:47trying to bully me harass me and send a
12:49message to other parents that they will
12:51come after them with frivolous
12:53litigation if they advocate for their
12:56children in the same way that I did
12:58teachers unions have a lot of power but
13:01it is possible for teachers to fight
13:03back my view has always been that the
13:05role of a union is to cover wages hours
13:08and working conditions for the workers
13:10and that all these other social agendas
13:12are a distraction from they're
13:14representing the employees in the event
13:17that you would pose a different view
13:19than what was being presented than you
13:22would be brow beaten and intimidated and
13:25some of the union members were verbally
13:28abusive to anybody who didn't tow their
13:30specific line what happened when you
13:32asked to get out of it and app no longer
13:34Paid Dues what did they do I explored
13:37every option I could to go through the
13:39union and to go through the district and
13:40I've been denied at every step of the
13:42way so then I connected with the freedom
13:44foundation and then on my behalf they
13:47went ahead and then filed a lawsuit for
13:48me so you basically came out as against
13:51the defund the police movement what do
13:53you think should happen to protect our
13:55children and to protect our teachers
13:56step number one is a lot less brushing
13:59things under the carpet what the school
14:01district did is because they didn't want
14:02to have the school the prison pipeline
14:04so now you could have a kid that could
14:06stab somebody slash somebody and hit
14:08somebody with a rock and they would have
14:10no accountability do you have hope for
14:13the teachers unions and what do you
14:14think needs to change in order for the
14:16system to actually get back all of the
14:17Great things that it was originally for
14:19there's gonna have to be an epiphany
14:22moment brought about by the lack of
14:24discipline and the lack of safety of
14:26both the students and the staff and
14:28people may think hey Union maybe we need
14:30to go ahead in and focus more on
14:32traditional Union objectives versus a
14:36social engineering agenda of eliminating
14:38consequences for misbehavior
14:41[Music]
14:42parents have also proven that they are a
14:44powerful force to counter the teachers
14:46unions I want to know what other parents
14:49can do to join in that fight
14:51so in a sense you became a community
14:53organizer through this we we call
14:55ourselves accidental activists we
14:57started providing a lot of advocacy
14:59information for parents who are starving
15:02for it how you contact the school board
15:04members and what you should ask them and
15:05what you can say because parents felt
15:07very helpless in Fairfax County when it
15:10came to getting the schools open it's
15:12okay to reach out to your school board
15:13member and ask questions and express
15:15concern and I think most parents never
15:19knew until they got into the middle of
15:21this problem that the kids didn't have a
15:25voice at the table the teachers you know
15:27has done a really good job in convincing
15:28teachers that you need them and and also
15:31don't challenge us because you know
15:33we'll retaliate against you but if a
15:35little bit of organization starts
15:36happening around the scenes I'm hopeful
15:38that that tide can turn they don't know
15:40what to do when you fight back they
15:42don't have a plan B so fight back people
15:45assume that because a teachers union
15:47supports something that it's actually
15:50something that's good for students and
15:52good for teachers and so we need to
15:54really spread the word that teachers
15:56unions and what's right for teachers and
15:59students are very very separate things
16:01what would you say to someone who
16:03doesn't have a child in the educational
16:04system right now should they be worried
16:06about teachers unions everybody pays
16:09taxes and your taxes are going to pay
16:12teachers their salaries and a portion of
16:15those salaries are going right to
16:17teachers unions so without really
16:19thinking about it you are supporting the
16:22very political organizations that
16:23teachers unions are sending their
16:25members dues to
16:27their political action committees
16:29they're not pro-education they're just
16:30pro-union they're only working for the
16:33union they're not even working for their
16:35teachers
16:36the teachers unions are failing us what
16:39can we do to fix the system there have
16:41been a lot of reforms over the last 25
16:42years but unquestionably the most
16:45important of those reforms has been
16:47school choice and I think the more we
16:49can Empower parents to be able to choose
16:51the right educational environment for
16:53their child that's going to shake up the
16:55system I think if we have more
16:56competition in education we're going to
16:58see more empowered teachers and we're
17:00going to see better and improved
17:02educational outcomes for all children
17:04the biggest reason I think that they are
17:06opposed to things like school choice
17:09it's because there's no union dues in
17:11that the average voter if they heard
17:13about school choice they would be like
17:14wow this is amazing I get to choose the
17:16school that I want my child to go to yet
17:18it's so polarized no this should be
17:20bipartisan what's going on yeah sadly it
17:23really does boil down to politics you
17:25know the Union money really just goes to
17:27one side of the aisle on the left and as
17:30a result you find a lot of folks who are
17:32sort of reluctant to cross the unions
17:34and that's really unfortunate because
17:35when you look at the polling data today
17:37if you were a politician and you saw
17:39numbers like this you would think that
17:41you would be rushing to go file bills to
17:43expand this but sadly that is just not
17:46the case if we really want to empower
17:48parents to make choices for their own
17:49kids money must follow children our K-12
17:52system despite 25 years of some pretty
17:55significant reforms remains largely an
17:59Antiquated 19th century system
18:01[Music]
18:02in 2022 we got our first glimpse into
18:05the damage caused by the teacher
18:07union-led shutdowns more than two
18:10decades of growth in math and reading
18:12vanished during the shutdowns minority
18:15and low-income students suffered the
18:17most
18:18now more than ever we need the best
18:20teachers possible to help our students
18:22regain ground
18:24we cannot let the unions drive for more
18:27money and power destroy another
18:29generation our future depends on it
18:36thanks for watching our documentary the
18:39teachers unions are the biggest bullies
18:41in school but you can stand up against
18:43them by standing with us sign up for
18:45prep prageru's resources for educators
18:48and parents and take action today

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