Members of the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), voted for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump by a roughly 5 to 1 margin in 2024.  At the same time, the two unions’ political giving is so overwhelmingly Democratic it borders on the absurd.

The NEA political fund gave $2.265 million to Democrats and $22,000 to Republicans during the 2024–26 cycles—more than 100 to 1—while the AFT gave approximately $3.1 million to Democrats and $10,700 to Republicans, roughly 290 to 1. But it doesn’t end there.

The unions also spend millions through PACs, independent expenditures, advocacy organizations and other political activities.  And based on union disclosures the NEA and AFT directed another $43.5 million to liberal advocacy organizations and Democratic-aligned PACs during the 2022–24 period.

Meanwhile, the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly called the Nation’s Report Card, found that only 31% of fourth graders and 30% of eighth graders performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level in reading.  Additionally, the average reading scores at both grades were lower than in 2019.  In mathematics, fourth-grade scores remained below their 2019 level, while eighth-grade scores were eight points below 2019.  These data do not establish why scores declined, but they do establish that greater political donations and spending are not coincident with improving student results.

So, what’s the democratic solution moving forward?  Neither the Democratic nor the Democratic Socialists of America’s platforms call for anything resembling a turnaround plan such as enforceable reading and math targets, curriculum reform, teacher-performance consequences, or broader parental choice.  Instead, both platforms call for more equity, staffing, funding, and expanding the power of the labor unions. ( 2024 Democratic Party platform · DSA’s stated platform positions)– Go Figure!

~ Men in Women’s Sports ~

Polling consistently shows that a substantial majority of Americans believe biological males should not compete in women’s sports.  Gallup, for example, found roughly seven in ten Americans taking that position.  Meanwhile, please recall that it was the Democratic Party that campaigned on the claim that Donald Trump posed an existential threat to democracy – the same Democratic Party that today continues to advocate a position on women’s sports that’s rejected by 70% of the American people.

So, here we have the democrats proclaiming themselves as defenders of democracy while treating the will of the people and the institutions of democracy as obstacles whenever they produce outcomes they don’t like.

When roughly seven in ten Americans say biological males should not compete in women’s sports, Democrats are free to disagree.  But they cannot simultaneously portray themselves as the great defenders of the people’s will while dismissing 70% of the public consensus as unenlightened, prejudiced or simply wrong.

The same contradiction appears in their treatment of the Supreme Court.  When the Court produced decisions favorable to the left, liberals celebrated and there was little enthusiasm for packing the Court, imposing term limits or fundamentally restructuring it. Now that it has produced a decision on the matter the democrats don’t agree with, proposals to change the institution itself have moved into the Democratic mainstream.

Democrats have every right to advocate those changes. But spare us the sanctimonious lectures about respecting democratic institutions while simultaneously proposing to remake those institutions when they stand in the way of their agenda.

The Democrat Party has generally opposed federal restrictions on transgender participation in girls’ and women’s sports.  But the DSA goes even further and treats exclusion based on biological sex as anti-trans discrimination and supports participation according to gender identity – the will of the people and the courts be damned.  Yup, democrat hypocrisy is hard to miss.