Category Archives: Federalist

Two days after that ABC interview, Chinese diplomats came to sovereign U.S. territory in Anchorage, Alaska, and brutally dressed down Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. The media did their best to downplay the embarrassing situation, but the disrespect that the Chinese showed the United States was impossible to ignore.

Particularly hurtful was that the Chinese diplomats, like Putin, used the Democratic Partys own talking points about how corrupt, racist, evil, and irredeemably sinister the United States is. The message oft-repeated by the left this past year was that black people are routinely hunted on the streets, are regularly killed by law enforcement, and have no rights. Its not any surprise that the Chinese said they agreed with those points.

Bidens team cant say, politically, that those lines parroted by the highest echelons of their own party are lies, even though they are. Instead, they mumbled something about how America tries to improve itself.

The tongue-lashing against the United States occurred after the U.S. diplomats condemned China for its economic policies and human rights abuses, including against the Uighur ethnic group. China said the United States is in no position to lecture. It was a poorly thought-out effort from the U.S. diplomats.

The Biden team, which has largely maintained the Trump administrations economic policies, including controversial tariffs, against China, went into the meeting thinking they could easily dunk on the prior administration and show how much better they were at diplomacy. They should have thought through their standing and strategy a bit more.

Rather than staying focused on giving China-specific demands and conveying our seriousness, the U.S. team insulted half the Americans who voted for Trump and was glad for his administrations foreign policy approach by saying America is back. America never left. And its the approach from the last administration that returned our focus on China and power and away from merely abstract ideas when we deal with other nations, said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs.

Blinken has said he wants to move from Trumps foreign policy focused on national interest back to the post-World War II familiar ruts and abstractions of enforcing a rules-based order. But the liberal international order has now officially turned its sights on the United States, with the UN Human Rights Council saying it will investigate systemic racism in the United States.

The New York Times, the leading paper of the Democrat Party, says the country was founded when slaves arrived, not when the Declaration of Independence was signed. That helped lead to a summer of murderous riots that destroyed major downtowns across the country.

Hating America is a luxury we can no longer afford, the liberal writer Caitlin Flanagan tweeted this weekend. Well said. The hatred of this fine country would be awful even if foreign adversaries didnt exploit it. But they do.

Putin challenged Biden to a debate about U.S. history and the White House scurried. Xi Jinping had his people yell at U.S. diplomats in their first meeting with the new administration on U.S. soil. Tough words between adversaries are to be expected, but these two big, powerful adversaries have no regard, no esteem, and no respect for the people who lead this country, in part because those people dont seem to respect themselves or the country they lead.

While the liberals in the media and other D.C. establishments arent concerned about it at all, few things express the weakness of the current ruling regime like the fact that the U.S. Capitol is still surrounded by troops, months after a riot that erupted over widespread concerns concerns that those who control the discourse in this country are not allowing to be expressed publicly about the integrity of a U.S. election conducted mostly by mail-in ballots. The United States would be using that as leverage against any adversary if it were happening in their country.

Whats more, it leaves genuine issues of national interest abandoned. Blinken punts on punishing China for coronavirus outbreak, read the headline after an interview this weekend. China hid the origin story and deceived the rest of the world about the attributes of the deadly virus that they unleashed upon the world. Viruses can arise anywhere, but Chinas behavior and lack of transparency was reprehensible and a country that cared about its dead and the carnage this outbreak caused would demand some accountability.

Then, unfortunately, Biden stumbled up the stairs to Air Force One. Three times. Anyone can fall, even three times, but the White House response to the repeated stumbles was not great. They blamed the falls on the single-digit wind speeds in D.C. that day. Our world leader gets knocked over by slight gusts, is not the message you want to send the day after top diplomats are dressed down by our chief adversary.

Whats more, Biden had gone out of his way to mock President Trump for walking gingerly down a slippery ramp last year. Look at how he steps, and look at how I step. Watch how I run up ramps and he stumbles down ramps. OK. Come on! the 78-year-old Biden said.

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Biden's Weakness On The World Stage Is Dangerous - The Federalist

The New York Times on Monday characterized former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a partisan combatant who is flouting protocol that former secretaries remain quiet after their exit from public service.

Out of office for more than two months, Mr. Pompeo has not stopped punching, the Times wrote. In a series of speeches, interviews and Twitter posts, he is emerging as the most outspoken critic of President Biden among former top Trump officials. And he is ignoring, much as he did in office, the custom that current and former secretaries of state avoid the appearance of political partisanship.

The criticism glossed over the fact that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who served under President Barack Obamas tenure from 2009 to 2013, later went on to become the Democratic presidential nominee just three years after leaving the State Department. Obamas next secretary of state, former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, remained a critic of Republicans throughout the Trump years and re-entered the White House under President Joe Biden as the climate czar.

While the Times acknowledged the political presence of Clinton and Kerry in their post-diplomatic careers, the paper de-emphasized their frequent criticisms and presented their partisanship as mere pushback from Pompeos allies.

Mr. Pompeos political strategist did not respond to messages seeking comment or an interview, but people close to Mr. Pompeo said Democratic secretaries of state before him, including John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, were openly critical of President Donald J. Trump, the paper wrote. But Mr. Kerry largely held his tongue for the first months of the Trump presidency, growing more openly critical if less relentlessly so after Mr. Trump announced in June 2017 that the United States would pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

On Clinton, the Times merely wrote, By the time Mr. Trump took office earlier that year, Mrs. Clinton, his election opponent, had long shed any nonpartisan diplomatic veneer.

Clinton had announced her bid for president as early as 2015, just two years after leaving the Obama administration. Shortly after she lost in 2016, the former secretary of state went on a book tour where she blamed the Russians and has since continued to spew debunked conspiracies alleging her political opponents are agents of the Kremlin government.

By May 2017, Kerry railed against the new Trump administration in a speech to Harvard graduates telling them they should learn to speak Russian to work in the White House, as a special counsel probe went underway to investigate Trump. Kerry also engaged in shadow diplomacy with Iran in 2018 to undermine the Trump administration and save the Iran deal.

But Pompeo, according to the Times, is breaking protocol to probe presidential ambitions.

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NYT Glosses Over Russia Hoaxer Hillary To Say Pompeo Is Too Partisan - The Federalist

California State Assemblymember Ash Kalra eliminated language in his proposed bill AB 655, the California Law Enforcement Accountability Reform Act, that could have banned conservatives and people of faith from law enforcement. The Democratic lawmaker made the change on Friday.

As reported by The Federalist, the San Jose assemblyman previously sought to define hate speech as advocating or supporting the denial of constitutional rights of, the genocide of, or violence towards, any group of persons based upon race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

By this standard, organizations such as the California Family Council, Pacific Justice Institute, and SacramentoPeace Officers Association said the measure would classify a whole swath of Americans as hateful for dissenting from the left on views such as abortion, marriage, or gender ideology.

Under the guise of addressing police gangs, the bill at the same time launches an inexplicable, unwarranted, and unprecedented attack on peaceable, conscientious officers who happen to hold conservative political and religious views, said Pacific Justice Institute Senior Staff Attorney Matthew McReynolds a few weeks ago. Indeed, this is one of the most undisguised and appalling attempts we have ever seen, in more than 20 years of monitoring such legislation, on the freedom of association and freedom to choose minority viewpoints.

The definitions of a hate group in particular are so broad that it would encompass all sorts of groups that nobody would say would actually constitute some sort of a problematic hate group, argued David Levine, a constitutional law professor at the University of California.

The same day The Federalist published an outline of how the measure could effect Christians and conservatives, Kalra doubled-down on the proposed bill in an interview with an NBC News affiliate.You have a constitutional right to have racist and bigoted views. You dont have a constitutional right to be a police officer, Kalra said, clearly insinuating his arbitrary definition of racism ought to determine who can protect and serve communities.

I think that the end goal is the same, is to try and root out that kind activity and nobody wants to get rid of people who shouldnt be cops more than agencies and more than good cops, said Shaun Rundle of The California Peace Officers Association. But there has to be a right way to do it and make sure that the language is clear. And I think that the bill, 655, isnt quite as clear as it could be.

Now that Kalras legislation has garnered national attention, he appears to be changing course. Speaking to KPIX CBS News on Friday, the San Jose assemblymember said, We have put in amendments to remove the specificity regarding denial of constitutional rights. Because, you do have the First Amendment right to be part of groups that may differ in opinion.

Nevertheless, Kalra still has not adequately addressed the persisting ambiguity of the claim that participation in hate group activities, or public expressions of hate, as specified, and as those terms are defined would disqualify a person from employment. The ultimate question remains. What will be defined as a hate group in the far-left stronghold?

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California Democrat Changes Bill That Would Have Prohibited Christians, Conservatives From Serving In Law Enforcement - The Federalist

Republican lawmakers on the Committee on Energy and Commerce House committee are urging Big Tech companies to provide more information about their products effect on childrens mental health.

Google, Facebook, and Twitter CEOs received letters from GOP Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Bob Latta, Gus Bilirakis, and Morgan Griffith on Tuesday requesting that any research and studies on kids mental health after using certain technologies and social media platforms, be turned over to the committee by mid-April.

The information provided, the leaders noted, should include age breakdowns, if applicable, such as measuring the effect these platforms have on those under the of 13 versus those between the ages of 13 and 18. The committee and subcommittee leaders also requested the names of the companies contracted for the studies, the results of that research, and any examination detailing the impact competitors products have on childrens mental health.

Last week, McMorris Rodgers denounced the Silicon Valley giants in a joint big tech hearing for lording their power to to manipulate and harm our children.

Ten years ago when I joined Big Tech platforms I thought they would be a force for good.I thought they would help us build relationships and promote transparency in Congress, McMorris Rodgers said. Today, Big Tech platforms are my biggest fear as a parent.

She continued her condemnation by claiming that Facebook, Twitter, and Google have broken my trust because youve abused your power to manipulate and harm our children.

McMorris Rodgers previously joined House Republicans to create the Big Tech Accountability Program, meant to call attention to how tech oligarchs and their products hurt children, use algorithms to drive addiction, and aid in child grooming and trafficking.

During last weeks hearing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed reports the company is developing an Instagram-like app for children under 13, but that Facebook is early in our thinking in how an app for kids would work.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Lawmakers Press Big Tech Oligarchs On Their Role In Damaging Children's Mental Health - The Federalist

Two Axios headlines from the month of March exemplify how the legacy media frames stories to support preferred narratives and political agendas. Now, the outlet has changed course on its prior claim that the border surge was worse in 2019 than it is now.

A week ago, Axios published an article titled Border crisis not as bad as 2019 for now that acknowledged U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions are on the rise but attempted to whitewash the truth by erroneously framing the dilemma as secondary to Trump administration outcomes. Reporters Stef W. Kight and Jonathan Swan declared, The Biden administration is avoiding 2019s never-before-seen levels of family migration so far.

Whereas the March 23 article covered up the gravity of the crisis, saying nothing has changed at the southern border, the facade fell apart when Axios acknowledged reality in an article on Sunday titled Scoop: Kids border surge expected to last 7+ months, as the curtain has been pulled back on whats really going on at the border.

Under current policies, the government is facing unheard of numbers of migrant kids illegally crossing the border this fiscal year from 159,000 to 184,000, Kight wrote.

Even the low-end estimate is double the total number of kids who tried to cross during the crisis year of 2019. In 2014, the Obama administration struggled to care for just 69,000 kids who crossed illegally, Kight continued. The data obtained by Axios did not include projections for migrant families, but the Department of Homeland Security is expecting from 500,000 to 800,000 migrants crossing the border this fiscal year in family groups, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The numbers would be equal to or greater than in 2019, compounding the growing crisis.

Legacy media outlets have adjusted their positions on the border after it has become clearer that the Biden administration is dealing with a full-on crisis like the United States has never seen before. Last week, the Washington Post corrected a headline about there being no migrant surge and subsequently claimed that the White House is seeing a rush with no precedent of unaccompanied minors and teens.

Among other revocations, Biden has canceled the border wall construction, as well as repealed Trumps Remain in Mexico policy and reinstated the Asylum Cooperative Agreement that was organized by the Obama administration to let Central American minors stay in the United States through a parole program.

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Axios Undermines Its Own Reporting On The Border Crisis - The Federalist

Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington rebuked Big Tech companies for using their power to manipulate and harm our children, in a joint hearing with CEOs from Facebook, Twitter, and Google on Thursday.

10 years ago when I joined Big Tech platforms I thought they would be a force for good.I thought they would help us build relationships and promote transparency in Congress, McMorris Rodgers said. Today, Big Tech platforms are my biggest fear as a parent.

Youve broken my trust. Yes, because youve failed to promote the battle of ideas and free speech.Yes, because you censor political viewpoints you disagree with.Those polarizing actions matter for democracy, she said. But, do you know what has convinced me Big Tech is a destructive force?Its how youve abused your power to manipulate and harm our children.

Rodgers shared the difficulties she encountered as a parent trying to monitor her kids activity on the internet. She referenced the rising suicide rates among youth and attributed technology addiction as a driving factor.

Remember,our kids the users are the product.YouBig Techare not advocates for children. You exploit and profit off them, she said. Big Tech needs to be exposed and completely transparent for what you are doing to our children so parents like me can make informed decisions.

One study from 2017 found that a rise in teen suicide was linked to desires to obtain social media popularity. About 500,000 participants who are in the age range of 13 to 18 were found to have increased depression and feelings of hopelessness.

Rodgers and House Republicans developed a Big Tech Accountability Program at the beginning of the year in-part aimed at addressing how Big Tech hurts children and uses algorithms to drive addiction, as well as the role the companies play in child grooming and trafficking.

What will it take for your business model to stop harming children? Rodgers said at the hearing.

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GOP Rep. Blasts Big Tech Oligarchs For Exploiting Children: 'Your Platforms Are My Biggest Fear As A Parent' - The Federalist

I hope you enjoyed your popcorn, folks. 78-year-old President Joe Biden temporarily left the basement, and it sure wasnt pretty.

On Thursday, Biden delivered the first press conference in all of the 64 days of his presidency. In one hour, the president spoke to a 25 reporter-capped press pool about the ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border, gun control in the wake of the Atlanta and Colorado shootings, relations with China, the filibuster, running for president in 2024, and other topics.

The president side-stepped on nearly every topic, more focused on concluding the presser as soon as possible than providing substantive answers. It was predominantly a Democratic lovefest, with PBS White House reporter Yamiche Alcindor asking Biden at one point if he is too moral and decent.

The 64-day mark makes Biden the first president since 1932 to not hold a solo press conference in the first 43 days of his presidency. Donald Trump held a conference 27 days in, and Barack Obama did so only 20 days in.

Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki appeared particularly unaware of how historically significant this is. Psaki claimed in January that the administration was bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room and rebuilding trust with the American people. Breaking a 100-year precedent was a funny way of doing so.

The president did not call on any conservative reporters. Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocywho frequently questions Psakiwas not provided the opportunity to probe. Reporters from Associated Press, PBS, The Washington Post, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and Univision all got their turn to pander.

On March 19, Biden fell three consecutive times walking up the stairs of Air Force One. It was sad. Truly, one can only feel bad for the elderly and frail man we now have to call the president. Nonetheless, this notable eventalong with a whole other swath of topicssuch as the bombshellPolitico story published on Hunter Biden, or the failed reopening of schools and the country, were not even broached. Biden was not challenged, but caressed and fondled by the morally bankrupt media.

Bidens fall makes perfect sense in light of his gobbledygook performance in the presser. At one point, the president refused to answer a question from CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins on whether he will eliminate the filibuster.

I answered your question, Biden mumbled, after verifiably not doing so, slumping off into an all-too-familiar gaffe. Prior to Collins standing up to ask one of her two questions, Biden said, that counts as a question, laughing awkwardly and thus demonstrating he was taking all steps possible to avoid being held accountable.

The president chuckled at uncomfortable questions. Cmon! he said to Cecelia Vega of ABC News, smirking when pushed on the surge in minors being held near the border. Biden likewise chuckled when NBCs Kristen Welker asked about both Bidens repealing of Trump policies to deter illegal immigration and North Koreas launching of two ballistic missiles into the sea of Japan.

His voice rose and fell at the drop of a hat. He started talking about computer chips when CBSs Nancy Cordes asked him about his fractured relationship with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentuckybut soon after moved on to rambling about God knows what.

I have never been particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the United States Senate. So the best way to get something done, if you, if you hold near and dear to you that you like to be able to, anyway, Biden sputtered to Yamiche Alcindor on the filibuster.

Biden operated in an awkward hostility all throughout. He seemed shocked that the presshis leftist comradeswould have the nerve to ask him any questions at all, even if they were by no means challenging. They were soft-balls. But for a president in apparent cognitive decline, they did not appear so. The pauses between his answers were only worsened by the fact that the questions were so very straightforward and easy for him if he could only remember what the questions were.

By the end of the cringe-worthy hour, it was time for Biden to pack up ship and be shuttered away in the basement again by his top aides. Psaki eyed him in the corner, taking notes on a pad. Biden checked his $9,650 Rolex near the end to ensure things were wrapping up nicely.

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A Sleepy Joe Biden Hosts The Most Awkward Press Conference Of All Time - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Josh Jones, a senior fellow in border security for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, joins Political Editor John Daniel Davidson to discuss the role smugglers, traffickers, and drug cartels play in profiting off of the surge of illegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Its loud and clear that unaccompanied minors that are coming to the U.S. are not being turned away, Jones said, noting that people will pay to be escorted across the border and that cartels will take advantage of large groups and caravans as a way to smuggle drugs across the border.

They can guarantee a 100 percent success rate, essentially, to folks who are wanting to send their children up into the US or who were coming into the US and sending for their children to come up, he said.

Solutions for the growing influx of migrants, Jones said, lie in their home countries. We must also eliminate the open border messaging that President Joe Biden and his administration continue to peddle.

If were talking about Mexico, the big issue there is corruption. The transnational criminal organizations, the cartels, are so powerful, and Mexicos corrupt government protects them, he said.

When were talking about long-term solutions to immigration from Central America, you have to look at the living conditions in Central America and try to come up with ways to provide security for families that live down there, to provide jobs resources down there, Jones said. Short term, its a messaging game. We need to send a clear message that the borders are not open, and we need to follow through on that.

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How Criminal Organizations Are Profiting Off Of Biden's Border Crisis - The Federalist

For the first time in 50 years, the Academy Awards ceremony will not be aired in Hong Kong. TVB, the citys largest free-to-air broadcaster which has carried the Oscars telecast since 1969, told Hong Kong media outlets, It was purely a commercial decision to pull the awards show.

The cancellation comes after the film Do Not Split, about the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong was nominated for best documentary. The nomination raises suspicion that TVBs decision was not purely commercial, but a response to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party.

TVB is also suspected of censorship because of a recently resurfaced decade-old quote from Chinese filmmaker Chlo Zhao, who is nominated in the best director category for Nomadland. Zhao allegedly described China as a place where there are lies everywhere, which has angered Chinese regulators who are threatening to not air the film in China.

Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Tsangs youth drama Better Days was also nominated in the category of best international film the first time a Hong Kong filmmaker has had a shot at an Academy Award since 1993. At this time, no other Hong Kong broadcaster or pay-TV channel has announced plans to pick up the rights to air the Oscars in TVBs place.

Mainland Chinese interests own a large stake of TVB. In 2015, China Media Capital, the state-backed equity fund, bought an undisclosed stake in the Hong Kong holding company Young Lion, which is TVBs largest shareholder.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, earlier this month, Beijings media regulators instructed mainland Chinese press outlets not to broadcast the Oscars ceremony and to play down their reporting of the event.

Ever since the implementation of a new National Security Law, imposed last June on Hong Kong by the National Peoples Congress (widely known to be a Chinese Communist Party puppet), freedoms Hong Kong once enjoyed have been severely limited. The extension of Chinese Hollywood censorship to Hong Kong is a sad reminder that the once autonomous citys fight for liberty has been crushed and it is now beholden to the CCP.

Evita Duffy is an intern at The Federalist and a junior at the University of Chicago, where she studies American History. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, & her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1

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Oscars Will Not Air In Hong Kong After Film On Pro-democracy Protests Is Nominated - The Federalist

In February 2018, public school teachers brought West Virginia to its knees. Seeking pay raises and better health plans, unions had declared a work stoppage in all 55 counties, shuttering every public school in the state. The stoppage which was in fact an unlawful strike dragged on for nine school days, costing children nearly two weeks of instruction. Under pressure, the Republican legislature rushed through a pay raise to pacify the unions.

The victorious teachers of West Virginia quickly became the darlings of the socialist left. Jacobin magazine, which had extensively covered the strike, ran a victory-lap interview entitled What the Teachers Won. News coverage touched off copycat strikes, beginning in Arizona and spreading to other states. The Red for Ed movement was born, uniting unions, socialists, and other far-left radicals in dreams of an American labor renaissance.

Flush with victory, West Virginia teachers unions got bolder. The next year, they went on strike again, taking aim at broader education policy. The Republican Senate had passed a bill granting teachers their second pay raise in two years, but they tied it to something for parents: school choice.

It wasnt muchopen enrollment, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) for special-needs students, and permission for three charter schools statewide. But West Virginia was one of the last remaining states without school choice, and Red for Ed wasnt letting that go without a fight.

The 2019 strike lasted only two days. The West Virginia House of Delegates quickly caved, scuttling school choice and passing a clean pay raise for teachers. But 18 Republicans in the state Senate stood firm. No school choice, no second pay raise, they said. Their stand forced the governors hand. A special session in June resulted in the passage of modest school choice measures. Open enrollment survived; so did the three charter schools. ESAs did not.

For Republicans, it seemed a small win in exchange for two costly, bruising strikes. Unions were confident that the vast majority of West Virginians were on their side.

Educators across the state are livid at these developments and dead-set against school privatization, wrote the Trotskyist World Socialist Web Site. In this, they are joined by virtually all of the states workers and youth. . . . Eighty-eight percent of West Virginians support their public schools and oppose charters. Leftists vowed a reckoning in the 2020 election for those 18 villainous Senate Republicans.

That was then; this is now. Last week, with very little noise or fanfare, the West Virginia legislature passed the most expansive Education Savings Account program in America. While ESAs in most states are only open to a small percentage of children, the new West Virginia Hope Scholarship will be available to 90 percent of schoolchildren in the state. Every child currently enrolled in public school is eligible, plus those newly aging in.

Its a game-changer, says Garrett Ballengee of the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy, a conservative think tank and proponent of the bill. If you add up every single ESA utilizer in the rest of the country, there are only about 20,000 of them. The Hope Scholarship will automatically open it up to ten times that many children in West Virginia alone.

Applicants for the Hope Scholarship will receive 100 percent of their state education dollars $4,600 annually in lieu of public schooling. (County and federal funds will remain in the system.) The scholarship is usable for private school tuition, homeschool curriculum, or other education expenses. Gov. Jim Justice, a vocal opponent of ESAs as recently as 2019, has signaled hes likely to sign.

For a state that couldnt pass a far more modest measure just two years ago, its a breathtaking turnaround. What changed?

State Sen. Patricia Rucker, the Republican chair of the Senate Education Committee and chief architect of the ESA effort, has a few theories about what made the difference.First, she believes the majority of West Virginians never opposed school choice in the first place; they were simply afraid to say so.

During the strikes, I saved a folder of all the people who wrote to me in support of the education reform. I kept all of their emails, Rucker told me in an interview. The vast majority of them said something like, Please dont use my name. Dont tell anyone I wrote to you. They were so scared and intimidated by the teachers unions.

In 2019, I wrote about the climate of union intimidation that was silencing the states parents and teachers. When Justice commissioned a listening tour to gauge public opinion, the West Virginia Department of Education co-opted the effort and manipulated its findings. This led to the much-repeated assertion that 88 percent of West Virginians opposed charter schools. But when the 2020 elections came around, voters finally spoke for themselves.

I knocked on thousands of doors during my 2020 reelection campaign, Rucker said. Out of all those people, I only spoke to about five educators who were opposed to our education reform thats it. Most of the people who spoke to me about education were in favor of choice. Even the vast majority of educators I spoke to said, I didnt have any problems with charter schools. I think it would be good for us to have that opportunity.

The proof was in the poll returns. Despite fierce opposition from unions and their moneyed interests, all but two of those 18 education reformers returned to the Senate in 2020, and several more were added to their number. It was an affirmation that educational choice can be a winning political issue, even in states with a strong union presence. Contrary to their tightly controlled narrative, teachers unions hadnt been speaking for the people. They had been shouting the people down.

The COVID-19 lockdowns undoubtedly played a major role in further widening the rift between teachers unions and the people. As parents suddenly faced a public school system that refused to open its doors, it became harder to understand why that system should retain exclusive control over tax dollars meant to educate children.

Public opinion polls confirm a major surge last year in support for measures to fund students directly. Remarkably, although these bills are almost exclusively advanced by Republican lawmakers, public support for school choice appears to be evenly distributed across the political spectrum. Last week, one Democrat lawmaker in Kentucky reluctantly crossed the aisle to vote against union interests on school choice, citing overwhelming support from his constituents.

In light of COVID, people are beginning to see that different children thrive in different environments, Ballengee said. Some kids have done really well in virtual schooling, some have done really well in hybrid, and for some these have been an absolute disaster. Its brought home what weve been saying for so long: kids need different environments.

Rucker believes the unions unyielding stance against school reopening has eroded their support among teachers as well as parents. The media has really overplayed the unions voice about school reopening, as opposed to average teachers voices, she said. The vast majority of teachers Ive heard from wanted to go back to school. They recognized that they werent reaching their kids through these virtual options. I would venture to say that there is a lot less union membership among West Virginia teachers these days. You can sense it.

One indicator of this lack of union energy: after the riotous education showdowns of 2018 and 2019, the Hope Scholarship bill sailed through the West Virginia legislature with hardly a whimper of protest.

This year when we pushed real reform, much more substantial than two years ago. Its been very quiet, Rucker said. The unions dont like the bill, but our phones arent ringing. We arent getting emails. Its nothing like last time.

The West Virginia United Caucus, a far-left teachers coalition, was active throughout the strikes and well into 2020, pushing hard against school reopening and advancing a left-leaning slate of educators to head the states largest teachers union. They havent published a tweet since Election Day.

West Virginia now has the broadest-based ESA in the entire United States, Rucker says. Its not the most money, but its the most inclusive and in most areas, its enough to send a child to private school. This really is a game-changer for students and families. Were focused on funding kids now, not institutions. Were funding each student to get the best possible education they can get.

Rucker is gratified by West Virginias 180-degree turnaround: an erstwhile union stronghold suddenly leading the way toward educational freedom. Legislatures in 29 states have considered education choice bills this year. It remains to be seen whether Republican lawmakers elsewhere will be emboldened by the Mountain States success.

Jayme Metzgar is a Senior Contributor at The Federalist.

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Once Held Hostage By Teachers' Unions, West Virginia Just Passed The Nation's Broadest School Choice Law - The Federalist