Teachers unions have collectively bargained woke policies into the classroom, report shows

(Daily Caller) – Teachers unions used collective bargaining negotiations to push discrimination and anti-racism efforts, according to a report by the Defense of Freedom Institute (DFI).

Across the county, teachers unions have agreed to contracts with school districts that include hiring practices that protect educators of color and mandatory anti-racism initiatives, according to the DFI report. A contract in Minnesota mandated that school districts fire white educators first, while a contract in Detroit created a “School Equity Lead Supplemental Position” that required candidates complete the anti-racism training.

“Teacher unions no longer resemble the teachers that they supposedly represent but are now political creatures that perpetuate themselves by feeding on teacher salaries and special privileges from states and school systems,” Paul Zimmerman, the author of the report, said in a press release. “Teachers stand to lose, and lose big, from union-imposed straitjackets dictating their teaching style, narrowing the permissible approaches to classroom discipline, and requiring their attendance at tedious trainings that aim to turn them and their students into ‘anti-racist’ social justice warriors.”

In March, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) agreed to a contract with Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) to end a two-week strike that originated over teacher pay and class size. After the school district admitted to past “systemic racism,” the contract included a provision titled “Protections for Educators of Color” which calls for white teachers to be fired before minority teachers.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) settled a contract with Detroit Public Schools Community District that created a “School Equity Lead Supplemental Position” to support and facilitate “culturally responsive teaching strategies for teachers.” Candidates for the position are selected by the district’s office of equity, advocacy and civil rights and must complete anti-racism training at the “Summer Anti-Racist Institute,” the contract showed.

An agreement between Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Education Association (SEA) prioritizes discriminatory hiring practices; the district is to focus on the hiring, supporting and retaining of “educators of color” under the contract. When making teacher layoffs, the district must “retain a workforce that includes racial, gender, linguistic and equity literate educators,” according to the contract.

“Learning conditions are optimized when there is a powerful body of educators that reflect the experiences of students,” Tim Robinson, media relations lead for Seattle Public Schools, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Seattle Public Schools and SEA also have an agreement that required training on “hiring educators of color” through targeted interview strategies and job fairs. The school district’s department of racial equity advancement and the union’s center for racial equity met to address how to handle “microaggressions and other forms of identity-based harm” within the school district, according to the contract.

“Teacher unions know their woke policies are unpopular, so they bury their political wish lists in collective bargaining agreements in the hope that parents won’t notice,” Bob Eitel, DFI President, told the DCNF. “Transparency is the answer: Every parent should be aware of what ridiculous demands their local teacher union has forced on schools. Teachers should also think long and hard about whether they want to continue paying dues to unions that force racist hiring policies on them and limit their ability to maintain order and safety in the classroom.”

The DFI, MPS, MFT, DFT, SEA and the Detroit Public Schools Community District did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.