Everyone loves teachers, right?
In the most recent Gallup poll rating professional honesty and ethics, grade-school teachers ranked second only to nurses. And under the aggressive guidance of the leadership of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, that affection has been converted into impressive political support for the union’s agenda: tax hikes to fund school spending, the marginalization of competing educational models like charter schools, and the neutering of MCAS, a key accountability tool.
Up next: the right to strike, a weapon already being illegally deployed by the MTA.
Note that all of the above have been secured through the initiative petition process, by-passing a Legislature that’s been generous with funding but reluctant to endorse other MTA power grabs. Among the reasons why: the failure of all that spending and union power to deliver superior educational results among the low-income students who most need help, and the contempt many legislators hold for the often-abrasive union leadership and their bare-knuckle tactics.
That loathing was not abated by last week’s legislative commission hearing exploring sources of surging antisemitism in our “progressive” state. The focus was the MTA website’s rich catalog of antisemitic “resources for our members to consider in their own intelligent, professional way,” as far-left MTA President Max Page described it.
State Rep. Simon Cataldo (D-Concord) led a sullen Page through a review of the “resources,” the sort of hate-filled garbage once confined to the netherworld of neo-Nazi websites: a poster of a keffiyeh-clad baby-killer…er, freedom fighter wielding an assault weapon with the thoughtful slogan: “What was taken by force can only be returned by force”… a photo of Joe Biden under the headline: “Serial Killer” …and, making a joke of Page’s claim this was all controversial-but-legitimate commentary on the horror show in Gaza and not at all anti-Semitism, an image of a dollar bill folded into a Star of David.
“Is it antisemitic?’ Cataldo asked. Page: “I’m not gonna evaluate that.”
In another telling exchange, Cataldo — a former teacher and father of three — displayed a suggested homework assignment aimed at elementary school kids from a vile little workbook entitled “Handala’s Return.” It featured a map of Israel identified as “Palestine” and a child “explaining” that “a group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people.” Further on, space for a child to “draw a picture of your family’s house” (presumably not yet seized by bloodthirsty Jews); “ask your parents for help if needed,” it urges.
Noted Cataldo: “This is a homework assignment for a child who can probably not tie their shoes yet.” Replied Page, who spent much of their hearing staring at Cataldo in self-righteous silence: “And your point is?”
“I’m sorry if the point’s lost on you Mr. Page,” said Cataldo.
The point being, teachers are not supposed to be immersing themselves or their students in grotesquely one-sided political propaganda, and a union with the word “teachers” in its name has no business disseminating sickening hate speech to its rank and file and calling it a “resource.”
At one point in the hearing, according to the State House News Service, an MTA sympathizer heckled Cataldo by calling him “Senator McCarthy,” a reference to the infamous 1950’s red-baiter. Cataldo said he found it bracing to be “accused of being … McCarthyist simply because you want to make sure that our children are protected and we don’t have antisemitic teaching material in our classrooms without any context.”
That doesn’t seem like much to ask of the MTA in exchange for the billions we invest in their members and highly-paid leadership. But Page picked up an impressive ally for his stance after the hearing: condemnation of “Zionist politicians” for daring to push back on “open discussion on Palestine” — from the state chapter of the American Communist Party.
For Page to “come unprepared to discuss such serious subject matter is really a demonstration of what he thought about the commission itself and everyone affected by the subject matter,” says Cataldo. “What we saw on display there is what is happening to [many] Jewish and non-Jewish teachers – the shaming, the gaslighting.” If the past is prologue, Page and company will find fellow travelers to challenge Cataldo and other “Zionist politicians” for re-election next year.
And that gets to the heart of the MTA’s extremism problem. This would be just another ridiculous spasm of far-left stupidity if it weren’t coming from such a powerful political force, one arguably wielding more control of our educational policymaking than the governor or Legislature. Instead, this contemptible performance was an indication that MTA hubris – fueled by political power – is out of control.
At the very bottom of that Gallup poll – below lawyers, reporters, state legislators and even Members of Congress – were lobbyists like Page, with only four percent rating their honesty and ethics highly.
More performances like last week’s MTA Dance of Unethical Dishonesty and that number will soon be zero.