A Five-Alarm Fire In American Education

The House Education and Workforce Committee released its report on antisemitism in K-12 schools this week, and it’s a bombshell. The report details structural antisemitism – not merely incidents – in the Philadelphia and Berkeley school districts as well as in the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers’ union in the country. There are horrifying examples in the report of students as young as second grade being indoctrinated to view the world through an oppressor-oppressed lens, units on “resistance” and “decolonization” that glorify violence, and the use of politically radical materials from organizations with long histories of antisemitism.

The report also finds NEA internal documents saying a 2025 push by union members to boycott the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Jewish community’s oldest and best-known antisemitism watchdog, was unnecessary because the NEA was already boycotting them. ADL, it seems, had been critical of Black Lives Matter leaders after the co-founder had called for the destruction of Israel and numerous chapters had defended Hamas’s actions on October 7. Interestingly, the ADL, in late August, put out a report on antisemitism in teachers’ unions that found more than 70% of Jewish teachers reported hostile treatment and a lack of adequate union leadership action. Little did they know how widespread the problem was.

While the report only documents antisemitism in two school districts, the reality is that the problem is a national one. Too many primary and secondary schools around the country are in the grasp of activists masquerading as educators. Some of them are in classrooms. Some are administrators. Some are union leaders. Some are college professors who write curricula. All of them are working together to undermine what America means to our kids.

The report outlines an appalling narrative about the United States. It says we are nothing more than a settler-colonial entity endlessly oppressing everyone around us. Our foreign policy is evil. Our economic policies are evil. Even the principles on which we were founded are evil. And the opportunity to criticize these evils arises because, today, the leading perpetrator of them is the Jewish state. But rest assured, America is the real target.

It is now inescapable that the root of our problem is decay at the core of American self-confidence. Nearly every other dangerous social and political malady traces back to it. We no longer agree on, believe in, or understand our history, our Founding principles, or our mission in the world. For generations now, teaching children to be informed patriots has been confused with indoctrination or jingoism, only to have patriotism replaced entirely with the indoctrination outlined in the House Education and Workforce Committee Report. This is no longer simply another issue requiring our attention. It is a five-alarm fire burning our country to the ground. It requires immediate mass mobilization.

The problem is, frankly, enormous. It defies the short attention spans that have come to characterize our political and civil institutions. It requires the kind of broad agreement — even to admit the existence of the problem, let alone its scope — that proves elusive in virtually every other aspect of American life. Well-organized, well-financed, well-credentialed people will oppose us every step of the way, committed to their narrative and intent on continuing their long march.

Despite these obstacles, we have two very clear advantages. First, Americans still broadly love and respect the country, even if many are hazy as to why they should and increasingly susceptible to arguments that they should not. We have a limited amount of time to capitalize on that still-open door. Second, we’re selling the greatest product ever developed by man: a system of self-government that has resulted in the wealthiest, most powerful, and freest society in human history. Results we can point to.

Patriots on the Left and Right need to accept that our institutions of learning have been corrupted by enemies of our civilization and begin behaving accordingly. But it starts with admitting we have a problem. Chairman Walberg and the House Education and Workforce Committee have given us another round of evidence. Will we have the wisdom to finally see it?

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Jonathan Greenberg is an ordained rabbi and the Director for Combatting Antisemitism at Defending Education.

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