Anyone who has followed my articles over the years knows that I advocate that parents, especially Christian parents, remove their children from the public school system before they lose them forever.

I recently read an article by a E. Jeffrey Ludwig on the “American Thinker” website from March of 2019. Mr. Ludwig said, in part: “Even in high school I found myself offended by my fellow students who were card-carrying communists in their beliefs and sympathies. In fact, a sizable number of students clung to Marxism as dogma. The high school was Central High School for Boys, a school for gifted boys located in Philadelphia, Pa. Later as I continued my studies in the Ivy League, I saw there was a consistently strong element of intellectuals who were not in the least bit embarrassed to express their interest in communism.”

At some point Ludwig became a Christian and, of all things, became a public school teacher. He commented further in his article: “What irony, then, when I came to teach history at a public high school in New York City, and the teachers, most of whom were atheists, heard I am a conservative and even worse, a born-again believer. I was quietly approached by one of the veterans, who said ‘You know Jeff, communism collapsed in the Soviet Union, but it is alive and well in this high school’.” I thought, what a startling admission! How many public schools does this mindset afflict? Atheistic teachers with communistic beliefs–what chance do students have for a balanced education?

Another article from the “American Thinker” website, this one from back in 2014 by Thoms Lifson, said: “Is it really wise to allow a foreign state propaganda agency to control the content of education about that country in our public schools? That’s what is happening now, thanks to the Confucius Institute, an arm of the Chinese government, funding Chinese language instruction in American schools. David Feith reports in the Wall Street Journal: ‘Hanban–the Chinese state agency that supervises, funds and provides staff to Confucius Institutes–may bully teachers or censor lessons within American classrooms. (snip) In a mere 10 years Hanban has established nearly 1,100 Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in 120 countries, with more than 450 at U.S. grade schools and colleges. Chinese media boast that these programs today reach more than 220,000 American students…With U.S. education dollars so often wasted, it’s no surprise that administrators appreciate Beijing’s offer of money (often $150,000 per year), plus instructors and teaching materials.” Sounds like the Chinese Communists are buying up the right to push their propaganda in public schools in America.

If this bothers you, it should. But sadly, this reflects the situation with public schools in this country. How many school boards across the country voted to allow communist propaganda to be allowed in their school districts? Too many! With things going on such as have been mentioned in the two articles quoted here, I ask again, what chance do American students in public schools have for a balanced education?

You may say “Well, this isn’t going on in the school my kids go to. How do you know? When was the last time you attended a school board meeting? If ever? Most parents don’t really have a clue as to what goes on at school board meetings or in their kid’s classrooms and, sad to say, they are happy with that. So is the public school establishment. If you are ignorant of what goes on you can’t ask questions about it and the establishment likes it that way. If that satisfies you–it shouldn’t.

The thing is–the public school will never be reformed and trying to do that is an exercise in futility. You need to get your kids out of that system before you lose their souls. And the colleges and universities are just as bad in the main.

~ Leftist Teachers Unions ~

It seems that a major part of the educational problem in this country as to what students are taught in public schools lies with the teachers unions that have, in recent years, decided the time has now come to bring their left-wing biases out into the open.

An article by Lance Izumi that appeared on Pacific Research for August 6, 2019 observed: “Recently, the Washington Times published an op-ed that I authored where I describe how the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, to use the newspaper’s headline, ‘Careen Left.’ But the reality is that the political landscape and momentum of teacher unions across the country is even trending further left than the actions of the national unions’..I point out that the NEA approved resolutions on a whole host of liberal social-justice non-education issues which indicated that the union was ‘moving in a more openly progressive direction,’ according to ‘Education Week.’” That’s a nice way of saying the teachers unions are turning openly socialist, as opposed to just being covertly socialist.

Izumi’s article continues: “For her part, AFT boss Randi Weingarten openly advocates building up union political power in order to enact a liberal agenda ranging from universal healthcare to climate change. Yet, the liberal stances of the national teacher unions pale in comparison to the socialist activity of local teacher unions. In Chicago, the city’s teachers union sent a delegation to – I’m not making this up – Venezuela. Why would the Chicago Teachers Union send a delegation of its members to one of the most brutal socialist dictatorships on the planet, which has been a primer on socialism’s failures?”

According to the left-wing publication ‘Fight Back’ the union delegation sought ‘to learn what they could from Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, exchange views on effective education and to show solidarity with the students, teachers and social movements of Venezuela.” In other words, shorn of all the sophistry, the CTU delegates want to learn more about how the communists educate their kids. Why? So they can implement some of their techniques here, that’s why. Oh, they will deny that but what else can be inferred from their actions and their show of “solidarity with students, teachers and social movements” in Venezuela.

Izumi noted that the Chicago Teachers Union was not just the odd man out there. He also noted inhis article that “Last year, in a piece I wrote for ‘Education Week’ I noted that leaders of the union-supported teachers movement in Arizona were leftist radicals.”

Another article on WORLD for December 15, 2021 noted that some teachers are discontinuing their memberships in the NEA due to some of its left-wing positions. The article observed: “As NEA membership has declined, some alternative organizations have reported strong growth. The Ohio-based Christian Educators Association International, a professional organization that provides liability coverage, has seen a membership growth surge of 25 percent this year, executive director David Schmus said’”

I don’t know anything about this Christian group at this point, whether they just represent Christian teachers in public schools or what, but it would seem that many view it as something they’d rather be part of than being stuck in the NEA.

Remember one thing from the authors of these articles. Sometimes the local teachers unions are even more leftist than the national bodies are – which fact does not bode well for parents in some of these school districts. Again, as I have said in the past, you will never reform the public school system and you will never reform the teachers unions to any meaningful extent. Parents still need to remove their children from these leftist groups and educate them privately. Education should be a private matter and not a part of government at any level. That’s what we need to get back to and until we do the educational problems in this country will only multiply–and the solutions offered up to us will be nothing more than regurgitated leftism.

~ Who Decides What Is Taught In The Classroom? ~

I think the title of this article is a question that needs to be answered. Who decides what goes down in a public school classroom? Is it the individual teacher, the school board, or just who?

I just read an article on The Bluestate Conservative November 15, 2021 that was quite revelatory. It said, in part, “During a meeting of the Left Forum, two public school teachers were caught on video discussing how to slip communist dogma into classrooms. Wearing a ‘Tax the Rich’ shirt, Sarah Knopp, a Los Angeles high school teacher and teachers union activist who contributes to ‘The Socialist Review,’ and Megan Behrent a New York City public school teacher affiliated with the International Socialist Organization, participated in a panel discussion about injecting Marxism into classroom instruction. Across America, actvist teachers, nearly all of whom vote Democrat, are pushing Communist doctrine on captive young minds, often with the tacit approval of Democrat school administrators, Democrat-controlled schoolboards, and the Democratic Party.”

These are shocking statements, but they raise questions. Who is behind this leftist campaign in schools to indoctrinate rather than educate students? Is it the teachers unions? Individual teachers? The school boards? And it seems we now have lots of socialist teachers in public school classrooms. Is this reflective of the makeup of the teachers unions? And if we now have lots of socialist teachers is this reflective of what the schools that train teachers are turning out?

I don’t have the answers to a lot of these questions but maybe some of my readers have some of them they’d be willing to share with us. I know one thing–the early public school system in this country was the product of Unitarians who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, and socialists who had visions of government-controlled education.at the expense of Christian education, which they wanted done away with. They couldn’t do it all at once as that would have given the game away–so they did it gradually, over the decades. Most people never had a clue what was going on, but what the anti-Christs did to public education has brought us to where we are now.

So how do you deal with socialist teachers unions and socialist school boards and socialist designers of curriculum? Reformation of this system is impossible because what can you “reform” an anti-Christian school system back to when its beginnings were dubious starting out? I have asked that question for years. No one has ever given me an answer. They just ignore the question or try to change the subject like good political operatives will do when confronted with something they don’t want to address.

Redress of grievances over what public schools have done to generations of kids are an exercise in futility because they feel they have done no wrong. If you don’t want your kids indoctrinated in socialism then it is you who are wrong and not the socialists. They have no plans to recant, only to advance their agenda–which is to propagandize your kids whether you like it or not! The only thing you can do with such a system is to separate from it. Get your kids out of it and keep them out. There are plenty of other educational options available. I have noted some of them over the years. Do some homework on your own and see what you come up with.

April 11-13, 2022

~ The Author ~
Al Benson Jr. is the editor and publisher of The Copperhead Chronicle, a quarterly newsletter that presents history from a pro-Southern and Christian perspective. He has written for several publications over the years. His articles have appeared in “The National Educator,” “The Free Magnolia,” and the “Southern Patriot.” I addition to that he was the editor of, and wrote for, “The Christian Educator” for several years. In addition to The Copperhead Chronicles, Al also maintains Revised History.

He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Confederate Society of America and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and has, in the past, been a member of the John Birch Society. He is the co-author, along with Walter D. Kennedy, of the book “Lincoln’s Marxists” and he has written for several Internet sites as well as authoring a series of booklets, with tests, dealing with the War of Northern Aggression, for home school students.

Mr. Benson is a highly respected scholar and writer and has graciously allowed Metropolis Café to publish his works. We are proud to have his involvement with this project.

He and his wife now live in northern Louisiana.