Authoritarian movements target schools because democracy is learned there.
Anti-trans rhetoric is a tool to dismantle public education itself.
Fascism thrives by dehumanizing difference and eroding civic trust.
Protecting teachers means defending the front line of pluralism.
When a society stops defending its teachers, it starts surrendering its future. Public education is the last functioning muscle of democratic life, the place where children practice equality before they ever vote. The campaign to dismantle that space, fueled by fear of trans students and resentment toward educators, is a war against the idea of pluralism itself. What’s being defunded, banned, and harassed out of existence is not curriculum — it’s empathy, critical thinking, and civic imagination. To stand with teachers and students is to stand against the machinery of authoritarianism that thrives on ignorance and division. The question isn’t whether we can afford to protect public education — it’s whether we can survive without it.
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Why Fascists Fear Teachers | AFT President Randi Weingarten Joins Susan Demas
“The creation of universal public school distrust” is how AFT President Randi Weingarten describes the right-wing endgame of voucher politics. That line captures why attacks on teachers have moved beyond ordinary debate into efforts to dismantle schools themselves. The Trump administration’s goal is not improvement but failure, stripping billions from b…
