OPINION:
On Nov. 20, just after speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference in Las Vegas, Mike Pompeo was asked what he “viewed as the central issues” for Republicans in 2024.
The former secretary of state answered: “The central ideas of America are timeless — limited government, expanded set of freedoms, protecting the capacity of people to practice their faith. The very things I spoke about tonight.” Then he added, “making sure we don’t teach our kids crap in schools, which we are [currently] doing.”
Mr. Pompeo went on: “I [often] get asked, ’Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten. It’s not a close call. If you ask, ’Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teachers unions and the filth that they’re teaching our kids.” He concluded, “If our kids don’t grow up understanding America is an exceptional nation, we’re done.”
Really? The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten, a seemly harmless woman in her mid-60s who serves as president of the American Federation of Teachers? She is a greater threat to America than the leaders of North Korea, Red China, Iraq, Iran, Syria or Russia? How so?
Let’s look at some of the evidence.
Ms. Weingarten, in her capacity as the titular head of America’s educational elite, is a noted champion of Common Core, critical race theory, intersectionality, LGBTQIA, “drag queen story hours,” diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI), as well as social and emotional learning (SEL) and all else considered in vogue in academia. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find anything but her full embrace of these educational paradigms that have overwhelmed our nation’s entire educational system from kindergarten to graduate school. With this as a fact, wouldn’t it be prudent to consider what Ms. Weingarten’s ideas have wrought? What are the results? What does the data demonstrate? Are there documented consequences of her paradigms for good or for ill?
A quick overview of the educational industry’s own research says yes! The reports coming out of the ivory tower are voluminous, and the pictures these statistics paint look more like Dante’s “Inferno” than the socialist paradise championed by Randi Weingarten and her elitist ilk.
In California, for example, the annual California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) shows that Golden State public schools are, well, awful. The latest data indicates that 63% of California eighth graders and 69% of 11th graders aren’t proficient in math, and 51% and 44% aren’t proficient in basic literacy. Who in their right mind could conclude that such terrible education is good for our kids and our country? But despite the proof that her educational philosophy is an unmitigated disaster, Ms. Weingarten doubles down on making sure California students know more about gender fluidity and bizarre sex acts than they do about how to read, write and count.
Well, that’s just in the crazy land of fruits and nuts, you say. Frankly, it’s not.
This garbage is pervasive from coast to coast and is well entrenched even in America’s heartland. Just one example among dozens comes from a high school in the Akron, Ohio, area where this past year, students were assigned the book “642 Things to Write About.” In this exceptional example of literature, 17-year-old minors were given the following assignment: “Write a sex scene you wouldn’t show your mom,” and another telling the students — who were, and I repeat, minors! — to “describe drink[ing] a beer and how it tastes.” Write a sex scene you wouldn’t show to your mom and describe the taste of alcohol that you are not legally permitted to buy or consume? If this doesn’t fall within the definition of “grooming” students to participate in illicit behavior, what does?
And then there is the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress report from the Department of Education that shows Chinese students blowing their American counterparts out of the water. When evaluated for math, science and reading, China ranks a full 21 spots ahead of the United States on International Student Assessment scores. So, while Ms. Weingarten and her minions of brainwashed pedagogues double down on teaching America’s boys and girls that 2 + 2 = 4 is the “product of white privilege,” China is actually training up its next generation of citizens to be proud of their country and how to do calculus.
Malcolm X once said, “Only a fool allows his enemy to educate his children.” Mr. Pompeo is right. The most dangerous person in the world right now is found in our schools, and we are fools to allow these enemies of the state to educate our children.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.
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