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The NEA has for decades waged a wasteful and costly war on online education and charter schools in particular, and if their campaigns had been wholly successful, millions of children would right now, amidst the Covid pandemic, be unable to continue their education, their futures suspended indefinitely. Not only did these schools work for students and families before the pandemic, but they are providing a full service, full time education. Contrast that with the many school districts the NEA union represents, like Fairfax County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland, where lack of focus and bad decision-making has resulted in massive failures in remote education.  Schools in these counties remain closed because of union demands, even as officials press for reopening amidst data demonstrating the safety of in-person schooling.

Perhaps the most absurd NEA action of late that should concern even the staunchest anti-choice Biden reps is the group’s opposition to micro-schools and pandemic pods which desperate parents created to educate their children during the pandemic. The NEA has published a series of “Opposition Reports” spewing a litany of alleged offenses by microschool and pod providers, which they argue are looking to “exploit opportunities” presented by Covid. In reality, parent-led schools threaten the lock the unions have on public education. The union has indicated it will work in the next administration to put the kibosh on these parent-led schools, by ensuring that they fall under the regulatory framework that is at the core of why traditional schools do not work for most students.

The most recent indication of our national education inadequacy comes from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study which assesses the math and science skills of students from dozens of countries. As has become an all too familiar refrain, lower-performing U.S. fourth- and eighth-graders saw huge declines. “Between 2011 and 2019, the nation’s bottom-performing eighth graders saw scores decline 24 points in math and 27 points in science,” and even top performers, while increasing are behind other countries, including Russia and Japan.

“TIMSS also tells us that this gap between high- and low-performing students in the U.S. is consistently wider than in many other education systems — including most of the systems that outperform the U.S. on average,’ said Lynn Woodworth, the center’s commissioner.”

That data comes on the heels of research finding that a majority of students have lost ground in reading and math.

It is precisely these kinds of assessments and tests that can guide sound policymaking, but the 30-year union veteran says testing is corrupting education. It’s an irresponsible thing to say or promote, but it’s at the heart of why Eskelsen García also called on former Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan to resign amidst demands that states test as a condition for new competitive grant monies. While debates abound about the right level and application of testing and measurement, there is little disagreement – outside the unions – that accountability for results and data to guide improvements are critical to correcting how schools operate and how students are instructed.

The reality is Lily Eskelsen García’s agenda is not about good education. As she told Salon when she first became NEA president,

“People in the progressive movement have to realize that regardless of the particular fight they are engaged in, it starts with education. Whether you’re fighting for environmental causes, women’s rights, voting rights, all of these causes – and the very foundations of democracy and how our society makes decisions – start at a schoolhouse door.”

It might come as a surprise to Lily that most parents are not sending their kids off to school to become progressives, but to be educated, with the basics and then some. Perhaps that explains in part why schools are not succeeding in delivering on that promise  – they are being dominated by a school of thought that has nothing to with the most basic of educational principles – that knowledge is the foundation of civilized society. Eskelsen García’s agenda is far more problematic than even saying thoughtless things about children. Her goal – and that of the union interests in the U.S. – is about power and ideology, not about education. That is why she is lobbying so hard, and it is the key to why she should not find favor with any sitting Senator, let alone President-elect Joe Biden.