Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
State Senator Melissa Melendez recently called out Gov. Gavin Newsom for being at the beck and call of the California Teachers Association (CTA) at the expense of Californians.
If you want to know why schools in California aren’t reopening, look no further than the CTA. When they say jump, the Governor says how high?
— Senator Melissa Melendez (@senatormelendez) July 20, 2020
She is unfortunately correct in this assessment and, as a result, many Californians are getting short changed while the governor pays his union dues. It’s no secret that unions exert a massive amount of power over the California Democratic Party, but the governor’s conduct and the demands of unions have gone far beyond what was previously tolerable. Newsom isn’t just taking campaign funding while business as usual unfolds, it’s more serious now.
Newsom’s refusal to allow students to return to school is a direct result of the CTA, and according to Democrats themselves, this is a disaster. During the initial months of the lockdown, many predicted a massive loss in student learning due to school closures—up to a year of loss, in fact. While these figures were likely exaggerated to discredit online learning and charter schools while lionizing public schools, the Left’s predictions still stand. If they truly believed this, they would surely want an immediate return to school.
Several months of school were lost this spring and a year of learning was estimated to be lost. If the first half of the upcoming school year is lost, surely that would mean two years or more of learning lost. Which is unacceptable, right? The fact that Democrats like Gov. Newsom still support closures shows that they don’t care about students and only support what the unions tell them to.
A perfect example of the previously mentioned demands of unions is the ridiculous list that the Los Angeles Unified School District allegedly required before going back to teaching. In addition to somewhat understandable demands like weekly coronavirus testing for all students and faculty, they also want defunding of police and new taxes on wealthier families. This is in addition to national Medicare-for-All and a moratorium on charter schools.
The Los Angeles teachers union has said they'll reopen schools under the following conditions:
1) Defund the police
2) Moratorium on charter schools
3) Pass Medicare for All
4) Pass a wealth tax
5) A federal school bailoutMore demands like this please. Use your power.
— Olivia Hill (@machineiv) July 15, 2020
These are the people preventing your child from learning as they accumulate time towards their pension and get paid while not doing their jobs. It has never been more obvious that teachers’ unions don’t care about teachers or students. They’re effectively far-left activist organizations that use taxpayer funds and mandated union dues to lobby Democrats.
Unfortunately, these people aren’t looked at as bullies and criminals, but are often seen as heroes. Heroes for what? By their own logic, denying children an education it seems.
Gov. Newsom could stop this nonsense in a heartbeat, but the simple fact is that he supports this because the unions support him. He’s a union stooge and Senator Melendez is one of the few people in politics to actually acknowledge that. California voters apparently didn’t vote for Newsom, they unknowingly voted for the CTA. And this is the result: supposed educators holding students hostage while using their position as an unelected bully pulpit to virtue signal for the Left.
