The teachers union is strategizing how to fight the Trump administration
The National Education Association held a webinar Wednesday encouraging educators to oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration reforms, saying the goal is to make students in the country illegally “feel less afraid.”
“Right now, there are laws on the books that prevent immigration agents from going on school grounds, so various people in the Trump administration would like to roll that back,” said Jennifer Berkshire, author of The Education Wars.
Trump said he would focus on deporting violent criminals who entered the country illegally, including arresting terrorists and cartels first.
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“There’s a real role for teachers, including aspiring teachers, to have conversations with those groups and find out…what we can do, within the school environment, to try to make those kids feel less afraid,” Berkshire said. .
He also called Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, who said in September that he wanted to put the Bible in all schools in his state.
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“The truth is, like, whether it’s banning books or extremist candidates in the school, the school board, or someone like Ryan Walters, you know, insisting that teachers teach the Bible or lose their certification, uh, they’re increasing, this really sounds like a circus,” Berkshire said. .
The National Education Association is an organization with over 3 million members. Their president, Rebecca S. Pringle, has previously called the Trump administration “tyrannical, deceitful, and corrupt.”
Chelsie Acosta, chairwoman of the NEA Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee and a board director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she “cares” about her community.
“When I started… with the ACLU, it was just as Trump was coming into his first term, so it’s bittersweet that… “I didn’t think we would… be here, but here we are, and I think most of us are concerned about our communities and our students.”
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The webinar was opened by Caitlin Ehlers, a member of the NEA’s Aspiring Educators Program and board director of the Student Washington Education Association, who provided an introduction to the world.
“We begin by acknowledging that we are meeting in the traditional lands of many Native peoples, the land where the participants of this call live and work. I am speaking to all of you on the cultural lands of the Duwamish people, governed by the Point Elliot Treaty,” said Ehlers.
“We honor the first peoples of this country and all of its elders, past, present, and future, and we are asked to learn and share what we learn about tribal history, culture, and contributions that have been suppressed in telling the American story. .”
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