From encouraging teachers to facilitate student gender transitions to national conferences focused on progressive talking points rather than education, teachers’ unions continue to subordinate the workplace concerns of members and the wellbeing of students to their more important goal of advancing a radical political agenda.
Case in point, the Pennsylvania State Education Association’s (PSEA) recent opposition to legislation that would ensure the removal of sexually explicit content from the classroom is indicative of this trend and should raise red flags for parents and teachers across the state.
Senate Bill 7, introduced by State Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Reading), addresses a concern that has become prevalent throughout the United States in recent years, namely, “…inappropriate content in…children’s school curriculum and library books.”
To mitigate this concern, the measure ensures parents will be “…aware of the mature content their child may be provided in school and give them the ability to deny their own child access to such content.”
Predictably, during a public hearing on Oct. 17, the PSEA expressed its opposition to the legislation, identifying three main concerns:
“To be clear, PSEA opposes Senate Bill 7 because it: 1.) threatens students’ rights by imposing restrictions on all students and families based on the objections of a small group of parents who are seeking to limit free speech and promote censorship; 2.) undermines local control; and, 3.) mandates an arduous process that is unclear and unnecessary.”
PSEA expressed concern about several additional issues with the bill, including:
- the process for identification of sexually explicit material would require teachers to “place principle over personal opinion”;
- because some parents are not “…willing to engage in meaningful and supportive dialogue around sexual subjects with their kids,” it is the school’s responsibility to give children access to sexually “formative information”;
- the bill would prevent students from attending field trips to the Pennsylvania State Capitol due to the presence of nude statues; and,
- the task of reviewing content in existing school resources would be “enormous and take significant time.”
Despite its grudging concession that parents and family members are the “best resource for young people seeking information about sexual subjects,” PSEA dismisses parent and teacher objections to the introduction of age-inappropriate, sexually explicit material to the classroom.
That the union’s arguments against the legislation deal more with convenience and procedure than right and wrong clearly undercut its credibility. Children should be protected from exposure to sexual material based on a collective obligation to moral principle, regardless of how much time this process takes.
Without Senate Bill 7 more books like “Gender Queer, It’s Perfectly Normal,” and “Flamer” will continue to be available to children around the state.
As teachers’ unions across the United States continue to reveal their true priorities, members need to remember that union membership is a choice.
By opting out of unions such as PSEA, teachers have the opportunity to defeat a radical political agenda that, in this case, would prioritize saving time over the protection of children.
