Staff Reports
Erika Donalds did not couch her message in the polite, hedged language Beltway insiders prefer — she told listeners plainly that teachers’ unions “should not exist,” and she meant it. As a founder of multiple charter schools and a leading education reform voice, Donalds argued that unions have become an entrenched interest that protects adults at the expense of children’s learning and safety.
This is not a fringe talking point; Donalds made the same case across national outlets, explaining that unions too often fight accountability, block innovation, and push curricula that reflect political agendas rather than basics like reading and math. Parents who saw their kids lose ground during pandemic closures have every right to be furious that powerful union bosses prioritized politics over reopening classrooms.
As someone who actually runs schools, Donalds knows where the bottlenecks are — bureaucracy, tenure protections, and union contracts that make firing failing teachers nearly impossible. Conservative reforms like paycheck protection, school choice expansion, and decertification mechanisms have proven they can loosen union chokeholds and give parents real options. The evidence is plain: when families get to choose, outcomes improve and accountability follows.
Donalds has also pushed a bold policy agenda that many Americans should get behind — shifting power back to parents, expanding charters, and even asking whether a centralized Department of Education belongs in a free republic. Those proposals sound radical only to the political class that benefits from the status quo; to hardworking parents they are common-sense measures to rescue a system that has failed a generation of kids.
Of course the left and the union bosses will scream “protect teachers” as if the livelihoods of adult special interests matter more than a child’s right to learn. Donalds recognizes that teachers deserve respect and support, but that must not translate into political fiefdoms that shield incompetence and weaponize the classroom. Real conservative policy backs teachers who teach, not unions that politicize.
This fight is about results, not rhetoric. Conservatives need to stop apologizing for insisting that schools teach the basics and that parents have the final say. If America is going to reclaim its future, we must dismantle the union stranglehold on education, expand high-quality alternatives, and reward schools that put children first.
Erika Donalds is sounding the alarm and offering solutions, and patriots should respond in kind: organize locally, elect school board members who believe in accountability, and pressure lawmakers to remove taxpayer-funded mechanisms that prop up union power. Our children’s future is worth the fight, and it’s time conservatives stop being timid and start finishing the job.
