Americans for Fair Treatment is welcoming new members from the Golden State. Teachers have had enough. They are frustrated, embarrassed, and in many cases, afraid to speak up in their own classrooms. And it is not hard to see why.
The unions that once claimed to stand for educators and students now stand only for politics.
Last week, the National Education Association, the same union that represents millions of public school teachers, sent its members a set of “educational resources” about Indigenous Peoples Day. Those materials included a map that erased Israel entirely and linked to groups that defend the atrocities of October 7.
Yes, you read that right. The nation’s biggest teachers’ union circulated classroom content that literally wiped Israel off the map and connected educators to sources that excuse terrorism.
When caught, the NEA quietly deleted the materials. No apology. No accountability. Just silence.
That kind of moral blindness is not confined to Washington. In California, it has become a way of life.
The California Teachers Association (CTA), the state’s most powerful political force and a major arm of the national union, spent the past year fighting a bill designed to curb antisemitism in schools. Rather than support legislation that would protect Jewish students, the CTA lobbied to water it down, insisting that addressing antisemitism might “privilege” one group over others.
This is how far things have gone: a teachers’ union arguing that combating antisemitism is somehow unfair.
Meanwhile, antisemitic harassment is rampant in California’s schools. In districts from Oakland to Berkeley to Los Angeles, Jewish students have been bullied, mocked, and even marched out of class in anti-Israel “protests.” Teachers have been caught on video telling colleagues to “globalize the intifada.” And school boards have hosted meetings where members lecture Jewish parents about their supposed “privilege.”
When parents complain, the unions cry “academic freedom.” When Jewish students feel unsafe, the unions say the real problem is “right-wing extremists.”
And when the public demands accountability, they shift to what they know best: politics, power, and distraction.
The California Teachers Association does not speak for educators. It speaks for itself. For decades, it has spent millions of dollars on political campaigns while student outcomes have plummeted. Despite record spending per student, California ranks near the bottom nationally in reading and math.
But teachers know better. They entered this profession to help kids learn, not to advance an ideological crusade or debate “settler colonialism” in the classroom.
And that is why California teachers are leaving their union and turning to Americans for Fair Treatment.
AFFT supports educators who want to teach, not politicize. We defend their right to opt out of union membership. We offer them community, legal support, and a voice that reflects their values, not the talking points of union activists who think the classroom is their soapbox.
We are seeing a growing wave of California teachers who are done being used. They are standing up for their students, their faith, and their profession.
The teachers’ unions have had decades to prove they care about kids more than politics. They have failed. Now teachers themselves are showing what real leadership looks like.