MEGA: Make education great again

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

There was a time in America when the American public school educational system was revered and respected by educators from around the world.  Sadly, this is a thing of the past.  According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s PISA (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), 17 other countries (including Estonia, Hong Kong, Poland, and the Czech Republic to name a few) had better educational results than US students.  PISA Scores by Country 2025 (worldpopulationreview.com)  (PISA) is a global program whereby around 600,000 15-year-old students from different countries are put under a two-hour test to gauge their skills and knowledge, mainly in science, reading, and mathematics. PISA test questions don’t gauge memorization of facts but demand that students draw on real-world problem-solving skills and knowledge.  So what happened?

A large part of this problem involves the extreme shift to the left on the part of public schools and their curriculum.  For decades, the right ignored the gradual shift to the left that involved more social engineering in classrooms and less real-world skills being taught.  As radical leftist professors indoctrinated their students with ideologies that encouraged things like critical race theory, the victim culture, one-sided views of socialist economics, as well as gender dogma, the lowering of standards, things became worse. Many of those students who became brainwashed by their liberal professors with these ridiculous notions went on to become educators or education policy makers.

You would be hard-pressed to find a conservative republican or a Trump supporter in a teacher union. Teacher unions are basically extensions of the democratic party and have greatly contributed to an ideology that has supported DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) over merit, which started as a college “virus” and became a “plague” of progressivism in elementary, middle, and high schools throughout America, especially in the inner city school districts.

How many more YouTube videos of teachers (who I wouldn’t trust to babysit a pet rock) who seem to feel it is their obligation to unburden themselves to 1^st graders regarding their own personal sexual preferences, instead of teaching them how to read, write, and do math?

So how can this be fixed?  The first step has been taken by the Trump Administration:  the dismantling of the completely inept and wasteful federal Department of Education.  However, the second step is far more complex, and it involves the teachers who have been hired.  It is similar to the illegal immigrant problem, where a lot of incompetent teachers were installed in teaching positions in classrooms and in key administrative positions. These teachers must be “deported” from the educational system and replaced with competent individuals who are dedicated to teaching skills instead of indoctrinating students in progressive politics.

This is much more difficult than the task at hand that ICE faces because, technically, these teachers have not violated any laws, and they are supported by higher-ups who have pushed methodologies that have led to dismal results in schools across the country.  The combination of teacher tenure, battling teacher unions, and woke administrators is a challenge, but it must be fought if we are to eradicate the educational system of those who believe that teaching students what to think is more important than teaching necessary critical thinking skills.

At the administrative level, social justice warriors seek to make students front-line troops in their perceived battles that blame everything on sexism, racism, transphobia, etc.  When parents send their kids to school, they do so with the intention of having their children come home with skills, not to be converted into dissidents who have been brainwashed by teachers with political agendas that push Marxist ideologies.

A teacher, Ashlie Crosson, who was awarded the National “Teacher of the Year” award by the Council of Chief State School Officers in May, described the teaching profession as “deeply political.”  Does this mean she believes it is her job to influence her students about her own personal views on social justice?  Too many teachers use their positions as a bully pulpit to advocate one-sided views that stem from their own political affiliations and preferences.

It is obvious that the largest teacher union in the country, the NEA, was extremely perturbed by the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which it ruled that parents have the right to opt their young children out of lessons promoting LGBT concepts, including drag queens and bondage because they couldn’t push the same agenda that has been an important part of the left’s educational agenda.  Most teacher unions believe they are the professionals, and parents should sit idly by as their children are exposed to things that violate their own values.

One needs to look at the statistical numbers of liberals to conservatives on college campuses, elementary, middle, and high schools to realize that one view is being suppressed and the opposite is being represented, which is the main reason why many people are upset that education has obviously become indoctrination.

America spends more money than any other country on education, yet the results don’t merit the expenses.  How much money actually gets into the classroom?  Thus, like DOGE, it is time for accountability on the part of those spending tax dollars when school districts are under performing, schools where kids graduate, and they can’t even read.  Many of the policies that leftists are moaning over that are being employed by the Trump Administration would definitely improve education in America.

Liberals seem to want to focus on everything else but education.  Forget reading, writing, and math skills; let’s eliminate gifted programs because they are unfair, let’s spend our history lessons to make white kids feel guilty because of their “white privilege,” and encourage black kids to feel as if the world is against them.  Let’s buy books for primary and middle school libraries that are pornographic and expose kids to drag queen shows.  Let’s use strict DEI requirements to keep straight, white, conservative teachers out of the schools. It is these policies that will doom American education.

It is time to take back the schools and instead of allowing teacher unions to dominate policies that have proven to be failures, common sense, common values and getting back to basics will make education great again.

Michael Matteo is an educator, produced playwright and screenwriter. He has written or co-written 4 books including one of the first jokebooks to make fun of political correctness.He owned a business for 19 years, and has been teaching for over 30 years.Currently he lives and works as head of the humanities department at private, international school in Chengdu, China.

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