Staff Reports
Ryan Walters put it plainly the other night: teachers’ unions are “a money laundering scheme for the Democrat Party.” That blunt charge is exactly the kind of truth-telling America needs after years of watching our schools become political incubators instead of places of learning. Conservatives should thank Walters for refusing to mince words and for stepping up to fight where too many timid officials have sat on the sidelines.
Walters isn’t just talking tough; he’s taking action by leading the Teacher Freedom Alliance and building an infrastructure to give teachers a real choice outside union control. This is about more than slogans — it’s about empowering patriotic educators who want to teach reading, math, civics, and character without being dragged into left-wing political campaigns. If conservatives expect to win the future, we have to win the classroom first.
Let’s be honest about the mechanics: unions collect mandatory dues, then direct a huge share of that money into partisan campaigns, ballot measures, and Big Education bureaucracy. That money doesn’t go back into kids or classrooms; it fuels political machines that elect officials hostile to traditional values and accountable parents. When public dollars are recycled into political spending, it’s voters who lose and partisan operatives who cash in.
The damage shows up where parents feel it most: woke curricula, glorified grievance politics, and administrative bloat that shields failed schools from accountability. Teachers who signed up to educate are forced into ideologies and agendas that ruin morale and drive good instructors out of the profession. We should be supporting those teachers, not funneling their paychecks into a political industry that betrays them and their students.
Union bosses live large while rank-and-file educators get squeezed, and the priorities of the organizations are obvious when every fundraising drive coincides with a leftist election push. That’s a corrupting influence on a civic institution that ought to be neutral and focused on excellence. It’s not radical to insist that public education serve children and communities, not party donors and political consultants.
This movement to offer an alternative is the kind of grassroots conservatism that wins — private-sector solutions, legal protections for teachers, and networks of support that allow honest educators to keep their jobs and their conscience. Parents must back Walters and any effort that strips the politics out of schooling and restores accountability. Teachers who want to teach, not proselytize, deserve allies in every town and at every school board meeting.
Make no mistake: the left treats our schools as a generational investment in their power. If conservatives cede that ground, we lose everything that made this country great. Now is the time for bold action, not polite objection — to fund alternatives, elect local leaders who put kids first, and refuse to let public dollars be funneled into partisan campaigns.
Patriots, roll up your sleeves and support anyone who’s willing to stand in the gap for our children. Ryan Walters has pointed the spotlight at the problem and offered a path forward; it’s up to us to turn that promise into policy, turnout, and real change in classrooms from sea to shining sea.
