E&W Blog

Professional development (PD) programs for teachers have been co-opted by the Left. These programs should help teachers upskill—not bully them into spreading controversial material in the classroom. Unfortunately, too many school districts pay outside consultants handsomely to lecture educators on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender politics.  

School districts and administrators should focus on addressing the learning loss due to prolonged school closures instead of commandeering educators into the Left’s culture war. In the National Review, the American Enterprise Institute’s Director for Education Policy Studies, Frederick M. Hess, explains how entrenched these leftist teacher education programs have become in our schools:

• “In Buffalo, N.Y. … [t]eachers were told they should promote ‘queer-affirming network[s] where heteronormative thinking no longer exists;’”
• “Trainers in Seattle Public Schools taught teachers that … our education system commits ‘spirit murder’ against black children;” and
• “Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia hired trainers from the ‘Equity Collaborative’ to teach educators… that ‘fostering independence,’ ‘individual achievement,’ ‘individual thinking,’ and ‘self-expression’ are racist hallmarks of ‘white individualism.’”

Programs which proselytize wokeness are critical vectors for spreading controversial material in classrooms across the country, and these programs are making a lot of money doing it. Hess notes that, “in 2014, Boston Consulting Group estimated that total spending on teacher PD in the U.S. topped $18 billion annually.” Yet “Unlike teachers and school leaders, who live in their communities… these consultants tend to drop by, do their dance, and then scoot out of town with a bag full of cash.”

According to Hess, many teachers do not even find value in these PD programs—and would instead prefer “pay bumps for educators who do exceptional work, teach hard-to-staff subjects, or… underwrite mentorship programs.” Educators are required to attend these professional development and teacher education programs regardless of whether they believe in the woke orthodoxy being taught, and some programs burden teachers with a whopping 60 to 120 hours of coursework.

“All my non-teacher friends ask me all summer, ‘Are you enjoying your time off?’ As nice as it is to have stretches of availability during the summer months, there’s a lot of PD rolled into there as well,” writes one teacher. “This summer, I’ve already been up to my neck in PD and trainings.”

Teachers who resist these kinds of programs face a gauntlet of disciplinary actions and conceal their dismay as a result. In City Journal, Christopher F. Rufo highlights an Oregon school district’s “hate speech” policy, which is meant to quiet all views that dissent with the Left’s ideology under the guise of preventing discrimination. One veteran teacher told Rufo, “You have to be careful what you say. I’m afraid of speaking up for fear I might lose my job. . . . I mean, what would happen if I said I’m a conservative Republican Christian?” Creating this kind of culture of intimidation is unacceptable. 

School administrators must stop funding far-left teacher consultants and allocate those dollars to focus on student success. Parents across the country are fighting for greater curriculum transparency. Parents should also know who is teaching teachers. This level of transparency will better inform parents and keep administrators accountable and curb the woke education bureaucracy.

The solution is simple: stop cutting checks to political advocacy groups which pose as teacher education programs and finally get teachers the skills they need to help students thrive.