In Assembly and Senate Education committee hearings yesterday it was revealed that the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers support a bill that allows communist teachers in classrooms and opposed a bill that would have prevented homosexual curriculum in schools.
SB 1322 (Lowenthal) will repeal laws that give schools the authority to dismiss a teacher for being a member of the communist party and prevent communists from using government property for their meetings. During the Senate Education Committee hearing, CRFI’s legislative liaison Meredith Turney introduced Alex Pop, a Romanian immigrant who was imprisoned by communists for speaking out against his oppressive government and trying to bringing Bibles into his country.
Yesterday was Mr. Pop’s nineteenth anniversary of escaping from his communist oppressors. However, Mr. Pop’s moving testimony about his horrific experience fell on deaf ears in the committee hearing. The bill passed the committee on a party-line vote, 5-3. The only two listed supporters of the bill were the CTA and CFT.
“It is frightening and appalling that the largest associations of teachers in California actually advocate for communists in our classrooms,” stated Turney. “These unions want Lenin, Stalin, Castro and their followers indoctrinating the impressionable captive audience of young students. The CTA and CFT want the government to employ people who advocate for the violent overthrow of our government.”
In the Assembly Education Committee, CRFI sponsored two bills that will protect parental rights in their children’s education. AB 2085 (Huff) would return the education code to its state prior to the passage of SB 777 (Kuehl), last session’s highly controversial law that will allow the promotion of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenders to children as young as five. AB 2086 would require that if controversial topics will be discussed under SB 777, parents should at least be notified. CRFI’s executive director, Karen England, testified on the bills.
Again, the CTA and CFT opposed these bills. The CFT lobbyist, Jeff Freitas, testified that AB 2086 would be bad for children and schools because “We [teachers] couldn’t have a discussion on Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman [and other historic figures] without speaking about their sexual orientation.”
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These teachers unions and other homosexual advocacy groups all supported SB 777 under the guise it would have “made schools safer.” But when given the opportunity to support a measure that would truly make school safer, their true motivation was unmasked by their lack of support for or opposition to another bill heard in the Assembly Education Committee yesterday. AB 2362 (Keene), would have allowed students to transfer from an unsafe school to another, safer school in their area. The bill was voted down.
“If the teachers unions and homosexual groups are really concerned about student safety, and not about pushing a social agenda in schools, they would support bills that give parents options in their children’s education,” stated England. “All of the bills defeated yesterday would protect parental rights, students from indoctrination, and student safety. Obviously these groups have other agendas to advance, not true education and safety.”
Karen England is the executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute
