Teacher's unions protest Trump’s executive orders on education while school choice advocates cheer
President Donald Trump's recent executive orders on education have caused celebration among school choice advocates, while teacher unions are shouting in protest.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on education, one to support school choice, and another to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT).
Fox News Digital reached out to the National Educators Association, the nation's largest teachers union, for comment, but were referred to the union’s press releases.Becky Pringle, president of the NEA, said in the press release that "educators won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities across America."
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers, said in a press release on Wednesday that "vouchers go mostly to wealthy families whose kids are already in private school."
"This order hijacks federal money used to level the playing field for poor and disadvantaged kids and hands it directly to unaccountable private operators—a tax cut for the rich. It diminishes community schools and the services they provide," Weingarten added. "It dilutes crucial literacy and arts education grants. It takes an ax to the Department of Defense schools that are a global model for student success. It weakens Bureau of Indian Education schools already struggling due to underfunding and neglect." However, school choice groups and advocates were celebrating Trump's executive orders.
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, told Fox News Digital that schools shouldn't try to "rebrand" DEI.
"Schools better comply with this order, and let's be clear, moms are going to be watching closely to make sure teachers don’t try to rebrand DEI and sneak it back into the curriculum under another name," Justice said. "The enforcement and interpretation of what constitutes 'teaching critical race theory' will lead to different responses across districts."