School choice a GOP weapon as voters reject teachers unions

Last month, Republicans running for office, who were either supported by teachers unions or had come out against school choice, lost big in their primary elections in Idaho, Kentucky and Texas.

This is part of a broader trend happening across the United States, and it should serve as a wake-up call to candidates running for office: Support for teachers unions is the political kiss of death for the Republicans.

Power-hungry teacher unions are the enemies of parents and children.

Our public school systems have been hijacked by extremists who want to impose their radical ideology on other people's children.

They have essentially ruined education in America and have made it clear that they are more focused on trapping children in failing public schools than giving them the quality education they deserve.

During the pandemic, unions have been at the forefront of scrapping schools and crippling learning losses.

While Becky Pringle of the National Education Association and Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers fought tooth and nail to keep schools closed, they filled their own wallets and pocketed more than $500,000, nearly nine times the average salary of a teacher in the United States.

As if that weren't bad enough, while public schools dominated by teachers' unions continue to fail their students in nearly every major city, Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union sent her own son to private school after called school choice racist.

But the parents wake up.

Families know that unions are attacking their right to raise their children and that their children are not getting the education they need.

From school board meetings to voting booths, parents and their advocates are taking matters into their own hands – supporting candidates and policies that promote educational freedom.

For too long, politicians from both union-controlled parties have kowtowed to teachers unions and spoken out against school choice, despite the wishes of the local communities they were elected to serve.

But this year's Republican primary elections in Idaho, Kentucky and Texas proved that parents are united behind school-chosen candidates and intent on defeating politicians who don't support their rights.

The three Idaho House Republicans with the most support from teachers unions all lost their primary elections to pro-school choice candidates.

Anti-school choice Republicans in Texas have seen even more opposition from frustrated families.

Twenty-one of them voted with all Democrats to block school choice in the Texas House last year. Fourteen of them have now disappeared.

Parents now have the right to vote on school choice in Texas for the first time in history.

Nine of the 13 anti-school choice Republicans in the Texas House targeted by the AFC Victory Fund, my organization's school choice super PAC, lost their races this year.

These victories translate into a 69% win rate against incumbents – the hardest thing to do in politics: Incumbents typically win re-election 95% of the time.

It was no different in Kentucky. In an absolute bloodbath, the two Republican Party members of the House of Representatives who received the most money from teachers unions lost their elections by 44 and 48 points to their opponents who support educational freedom for students and parents.

These victories are not unique to this year. In 2022, 40 of the 69 legislators challenged by my organization and our state affiliates nationwide lost their seats.

That year in Tennessee, 10 of the Republicans running for the House of Representatives were supported by the teachers union. Nine of them lost.

School choice has become a make-or-break issue for the GOP and a political winner because parents hold politicians accountable.

The hard truth is that these public sector unions aren't just trying to take control of education and trap parents and students in failing schools.

They also want to involve unions in every aspect of American life, increasing their progressive influence and control over the American people.

But if recent primary elections across the country teach us anything, it's that parents, families, and everyday Americans are fed up with union overreach and the control they're trying to take over our major institutions.

Let this electoral trend serve as a warning to them: enough is enough.

Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and author of “The Parent Revolution: Saving Your Children From the Radicals Who Are Ruining Our Schools.”