In 2024 the liberal Brookings Institute did a national poll of students and adults to determine how they perceived the possible presence of political bias in our schools. Both groups were asked whether, in their view “public schools tend to promote: 1. Liberal political viewpoints, 2. Politically neutral and/or balanced viewpoints, or 3. Politically conservative viewpoints.”

The results indicated most adults believe our public schools present neutral or balanced viewpoints. However, adult views on school political leanings are heavily influenced by party affiliation. Republicans are more likely to perceive a liberal bias, whereas Democrats and Independents tend to view schools as more balanced. High school students generally report a balanced environment, with 67% perceiving balanced political messaging in their classrooms.

In a national survey that included K-12 teachers by the conservative think tank “The Heritage Foundation,” which compared their attitude on several issues with those of other professionals to determine if the activism in higher education is also prevalent in K-12 education.

More than half the teachers agreed with the statement that “white supremacy is a major problem in the United States and has been ingrained in America since the Founding.” However overall teacher responses were consistently slightly left of center and more moderate than that of other self-identified liberals in the sample. The Heritage Foundation’s conclusion was that there was “little evidence that a large percentage of teachers are systemically imposing a radical agenda in K-12 classrooms.”

A 2017 Education Week survey of K-12 teachers found that 43% described themselves as moderate compared to 29% who saw themselves as liberal or very liberal and 27% who described themselves as conservative or very conservative. It also found that in the 2016 presidential election 50% voted for Hilary Clinton versus 29% who voted for Donald Trump.

The same poll found that two-thirds of respondents felt the teachers unions in their school district represented their political position and likely reinforced it. Teachers’ unions such as the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are major players in Democratic politics and have historically provided an overwhelming majority of their campaign funds to Democratic candidates averaging over 94 percent since 1990. The leadership of these unions are liberal and neither have ever endorsed a Republican for president.

These liberal tendencies are reinforced by schools of education. For instance Dr. Greg Foster, Friedman Fellow at the school choice organization EdChoice, claims that a perusal of the catalog of any major education school will show that the objective is to indoctrinate teachers in left wing ideology. It should come as no surprise that Bill Ayers who co-founded the far-left militant organization the Weather Underground, a revolutionary group that sought to overthrow the United States later became a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles, questioned by many, of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar.

While polls and studies indicate there is little indoctrination in liberalism in our schools there is enough anecdotal evidence to indicate that some degree of student indoctrination could be taking place in some K-12 school systems. For instance, the Advanced Placement teacher in a Sacramento, Calif., district was videotaped professing support for Antifa and admitting his goal was to indoctrinate students, so they turn into revolutionaries.

Then there was the case of leaked e-mails in St Louis in which school administrators conspired to hide controversial lesson plans from parents and the case of the Virginia teacher who released a video describing his school district’s discipline policy as one of white supremacy.

After Trump was shot and injured in western Pennsylvania’s Butler County, Cassandra Olson, a Sioux Falls, Iowa School District behavior specialist, wrote, “If only he would’ve had his scope sighted correctly” on Facebook. Eighteen months later in reacting to an Iranian report of that nation’s threat to kill President Trump two employees of a Pittsburgh-based charter school, posted a video on line that shows them smiling at the report before giggling and crossing their fingers, and suggesting their hope that Iran would not miss the target.

After the shooting death of Charlie Kirk, Education Week reported that teachers in California, Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas were either fired or placed on leave ahead of investigations into social media comments celebrating or implying their approval of Kirk’s death.

To be fair some anecdotal evidence and a report by the National Education Policy Center at the School of Education, University of Colorado does, suggest instances of conservative bias or “indoctrination” primarily in certain charter schools utilizing   ”classical” or “traditional” curriculums  who have ties to right-wing advocacy groups. 

Here is what I think. In my view no indoctrination be it from the left or right should be occurring in any of our public, private or charter schools. Our young people are there to learn the reading, writing and math skills necessary to succeed in life. They should be given a healthy dose of American history, world history, and civics so they understand our basic documents — the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. That allows them to know and understand our history, place in the world, how our government works, and their duties as citizens.

While anecdotal evidence indicates that when political indoctrination occurs it is more likely from the left, based on my research I am hopeful that it is not yet as serious a problem as some think and that most teachers are professionals who see their job as education and not indoctrination. Finally, I believe that it is incumbent on all of us to be vigilant to ensure it does not occur from either the left or the right.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com