by Greg Piper
Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin’s victory for governor in Virginia in November 2021, widely attributed to his promise to restore parental rights in public schools in the Democratic-leaning state, caused panic in the nation’s education establishment.
Newly released records reveal that the American Federation of Teachers hired a prominent Democratic pollster the following month to survey parents and craft messages designed to highlight the AFT’s weaknesses—particularly by branding opposing parents as racists—and shared them with a senior Department of Education official.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Montserrat Garibaywho came to the feds from the Texas branch AFL-CIO, of which AFT is an affiliatetakes up the entire first two-thirds 416-page production under the Freedom of Information Act.
It was obtained by the government watchdog’s Functional Government Initiative following a lawsuit filed against the department almost two years ago.
“FYI,” Garibay wrote in a Dec. 13, 2021, email from an AFT government affairs officer about the group’s New Hampshire subsidiary’s lawsuit against the state over its “divisive concepts” law to faculty colleagues, in including Office of Civil Rights Director Catherine Lhamona.
The AFT email said that “Koch-funded Moms for Liberty teacher ‘rewards’ and the right-wing hate chamber are creating a terrifying environment for teachers” who are “receiving an unprecedented amount of threats and unpleasant messages.”
FGI, which he had previously revealed electoral cooperation at the federal level and Twitter, influence of “dark money” in the Department of the Interior AND President Biden’s former coronavirus adviser scolds the CDC for overstating mask protection, it was looking for “emails (with attachments), calendar entries, text messages, notes, and virtual meeting logs” that contain “critical race theory” or “CRT.”
said FGI Communications Director Pete McGinnis Only News the group received the batch in December 2023, but it took until this week for full analysis.
In a statement, he wrote that “the gap between education and parents has never been greater, as evidenced by the antagonistic language contained in these documents,” which illustrate that “the Department of Education appears to be in a bunker with like-minded teachers,” unions and scientists.”
Court records show the feds continued to dump documents, including 165 pages from the Feb. 26 joint status report, according to the most recent page update on April 26. McGinnis said FGI is currently reviewing the batch.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing several cases with national implications for free speech, Big Tech and federalism, ordered the parties to submit another joint report by June 25.
Lake Research Partners, founded by Democratic Party pollster Celinda Lake, conducted online focus groups with five demographic groups on December 1-2, 2021, “prior to the current Omicron surge and its implications for potential school closures,” AFT told interview from January 7: 2022, note.
These were “non-college-educated suburban white mothers, Democratic, moderate, or conservative white suburban fathers, suburban white college mothers, Latino parents, and Black parents” — no more than 2 participants in any group from the same state” – with children in K-12 public schools.
The company then conducted a nationwide online survey of “1,308 registered voters who are parents of K-12 public school students” from December 15-22, 2021.
The purpose of the focus groups was to “show[ing] parents that teachers and teachers’ unions have the same goal” and “are accountable.”[ing] to the emerging ‘parents’ rights’ narrative that the right has begun to deploy for the 2022 elections.” – we read in the note.
Garibay submitted the note and “survey deck” on January 13, 2022 to Donna Harris-Aikensdeputy chief of staff for strategy to Secretary Miguel Cardona and Cardona’s then-senior adviser, Christian Rhodes.
“Beth [Antunez, AFT deputy director] said they could also give us severance pay,” Garibay wrote.
The survey highlighted that respondents were “very satisfied” with the way their schools had handled the Covid-19 pandemic, “and rejected the claim that schools had waited too long to resume face-to-face teaching”, with a majority saying that schools achieved a “good balance”.
“Teachers unions are seen as a more positive force in education than before the pandemic,” it said. “Parents are pursuing a progressive education agenda that focuses on inadequate school funding, student delays academically and socially, low teacher pay, and staff shortages.”
AFT faces red flags about concerns that teachers are politicizing their classrooms, especially “the way issues of race and gender (as they perceive them) are currently taught” and parents wanting “a vote on what their children learn” , with “many of them rejecting it[ing] the idea that educators’ knowledge should always outweigh parents’ perspectives,” the deck reads.
“Parents do not believe that teachers should bring politics into the classroom, and many believe that talking about race, racism and gender identity is inherently political,” which is “the strongest statement from the other side,” it says.
About a quarter of parents responded “somewhat” or “not very satisfied” to questions about politicized classrooms and parental voice in the curriculum.
In other words, 72 percent of Donald Trump voters said they were “very” or “somewhat concerned” about teachers meddling in their politics, followed by Latinos (67 percent), whites (61 percent) and blacks (57 percent), compared to 50 percent for Joe Biden voters.
According to parents, the gap between minorities and Biden voters was even wider. Latinos were as concerned as Trump voters (69%), followed by blacks (59%) and whites (57%), compared to 48%. Biden voters.
Focus groups found that parents differed little in their concerns based on race, and many agreed that “teachers bring their own political views into the classroom” in inappropriate ways. Deck said the “desire for greater parental involvement… has been exacerbated by the physical restrictions caused by Covid-19,” particularly among the black group.
Minorities again outperformed Biden voters in concerns about “white students being shamed for racism and racism” – 50 percent of blacks, 57 percent of Latinos, Biden voters 47 percent – and “teaching students that America is a racist country” (48 percent , 57 percent, 42 percent). The deck highlighted that white parents felt these fears most strongly.
The “Key Message Recommendations” section may raise the most eyebrows. “Our opponents have successfully defined ‘critical race theory,’ and many parents also dislike the idea of teaching about ‘systemic racism’ or ‘white privilege,'” it says.
Therefore, the AFT should go on the attack: “Reveal and define its opponents’ true agenda,” which is to “prevent[ing] students learning all of American history, both good and bad,” keeping “students of color and their families…invisible in history,” and “trying to divide our community to further their political agendas.”
A section titled “Dealing with Right Wing Attacks” tells the AFT to proceed with caution. When CRT appears, the conversations “arouse strong feelings in many of these parents who… add racism to topics that should be avoided in polite conversation (religion, politics… and racism),” although Black and Latino parents prefer to introduce their children more history.
While “most people pay little attention to laws targeting transgender young people, such as bathroom bans and sports bans,” according to the report, the topic is a minefield for the AFT, even though it describes parents with concerns as showing “varying degrees transphobia.” “
“Black parents want their child’s teachers to ask their permission before engaging in conversations with their children about these topics” because teachers “may have different perspectives and motivations than themselves,” the document says. “Parents feel that some of these topics are not ‘age appropriate’ for their children and should be taught at home.”
“My daughter has a transgender teacher for the first time,” a black parent complained. “And then she came home and told me about the different transgender flags.” A Latino parent was even more emphatic: “They should definitely separate transgender students from all regular students because they will ask for special treatment.”
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Greg Piper has been covering law and policy for almost two decades, with a focus on technology companies, civil liberties, and higher education. He joined Just the News from The College Fix, where he trained journalism students and covered the biggest controversies on campus, from fights over free speech and academic freedom to sexual misconduct proceedings and litigation.
American Federation of Teachers photo by American Federation of Teachers.
