We Should All Be Free From the Clutches of the Teachers Unions!

John Stossel on May 7, 2025

I have a conflict. I don't much like Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's new Education Secretary. I sued her once. She and her sleazy husband, Vince, owned a circus called World Wrestling Entertainment. When I did a silly ABC news video on how the matches are staged, one of their 280-pound actors beat me up. A wrestler said Vince told him to do it. But now, I like what Linda's doing! As Education Secretary, she's telling students to pay back their loans, saying, "There's no such thing as loan forgiveness. It just gets transferred to someone else. That's just not fair!" It's not. Yet students got used to not paying. Today, most don't pay their loans back. The Biden administration encouraged that. Even after the Supreme Court struck down his student loan forgiveness program, Biden tweeted, "They didn't stop me," and kept cancelling student debt. But why should college students, who are, on average, richer than other Americans, get free money? Truck drivers don't get loan forgiveness for buying their trucks.

Government-backed student loans are welfare for the better off. Colleges abused the handouts by raising tuition about three times faster than the rate of inflation. Students and parents rarely complained, or even asked, "Why is tuition (at some schools) $60,000!?" They didn't push back because taxpayers pay so much of the bill. Colleges chase that taxpayer money by offering kids ridiculous perks like the "jungle retreat" and "in-house day spa" at the University of Missouri. A university official even bragged to my producer, "It used to be 'reading, writing and arithmetic. We're now the fourth 'R' -- recreation."

Other schools chase taxpayer money by offering courses like surfing (UC Santa Barbara), Lady Gaga (University of South Carolina), zombies (Columbia College Chicago), taco literacy (University of Kentucky) and How to Watch TV (Montclair State University). Fun! But why should taxpayers pay for that!? It raises a more basic question: Why is there a federal Education Department? There shouldn't be. It's largely useless. More people realize that today.

During Trump's last term, I asked his first Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, if she would abolish the department. "No," she replied. "There are important roles to play to ensure students are not discriminated against." How times have changed. In The Free Press, she writes, "Shut down the department ... (It) no longer needs to exist."

Trump says he wants to shut it, but Congress probably won't give him the votes, and teachers unions fight to keep the federal money flowing, shouting that closing the department "will destroy families, communities and students!" Gullible media agree. A CBS news anchor claims, "The department helps 26 million kids in poverty and 7.5 million kids with disabilities."

"It's not doing any of those things," says education policy researcher Corey DeAngelis in my new video. "The department was created with the express purpose to close achievement gaps and improve student outcomes. ... It hasn't done either!" In fact, outcomes got worse. Despite more than $3 trillion spent by the department, test scores are stagnant. Reading scores fell. Still, unions hold demonstrations, claiming that America needs the department. "Our students, our babies, are depending on us!" shouts teachers union president Becky Pringle.

"They're not your kids, Becky!" responds DeAngelis. "They're the parents' children. Becky is just worried about her gravy train coming to an end." Pringle does make almost half a million dollars a year. The head of the other big teachers union, Randi Weingarten, makes even more. As I write this, Trump has fired 1,000 Education Department workers.

"They had to be doing something," I suggest to DeAngelis.

"No!" he replies. "They weren't! They were pushing paper. Taking six-figure salaries. That's why things haven't really changed much since half the department's gone."

Maybe those laid-off Education Department workers will find something more useful to do. Students and parents won't miss them. Funds will be freed to give kids more choices. "It's time to set the children free," says DeAngelis. "We should all be free from the clutches of the teachers unions."

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Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom.