October 31, 2025 • 15 mins
If unions can erase the anthem, rewrite history, and dictate gender politics—are classrooms still about education, or are they political battlegrounds? In today’s episode of the Rant Network, we take aim at the growing influence of teachers’ unions, from removing national symbols to reshaping curriculum. They argue this isn’t about math or science anymore—it’s about power, ideology, and the next generation of voters. Parents, teachers, and leaders: the future of education is on the line.
#EducationCrisis #ParentsFirst
#podcast #therantnetwork #podcasting #opinion #podcaster #podcastshow #live #business #discussion #economics #politics #discussion #sports #racism #socialmedia #education #conservative #education #antiwoke #GoWokeGoBroke #DonaldTrump #PoliticalAnalysis
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
Oh, good morning.
You know, after about five yearsplaying and doing the same
thing, it seems like GroundhogDay yet again, Friday, noon,
somewhere in the world.
You know, welcome everybody tothe Rant Network, it's your
go-to podcast for unfiltered,unapologetic discussions, hosted
(00:33):
by David Solomon today.
Myself, Stuart Briscal.
We tackle a diverse range oftopics, candid conversations,
bold opinions, whether we'rebreaking down the latest
headlines or exploring popculture, debating politics, or
delving into complexities ofmodern life.
This is a platform for everyperspective.
So grab a seat, settle in,because this is gonna seem a
(00:54):
little bit like Groundhog Day.
Why do I say that?
Because, you know, when I wasback in school in the year 1900,
we used to talk about what?
Politics in the classroom,religion in the classroom.
You know, it was normal.
We used to have a flag in ourclassroom.
(01:15):
Sometimes we used to have thenational anthem.
Here in the United States, therehas been some radical changes by
the unions as of late.
Uh as of uh as I think it's asof this month, uh largest
unions, uh USA.
(01:41):
They want to remove the nationalanthem, the American flag, the
pledge of allegiance fromclassrooms in America.
The left would have you believethat the right is attacking
education.
The left would have you believethat it's the end of democracy.
(02:05):
And the left would have you knowthat the conservatives are
taking over Gen Z.
Well, Trump came into power andput federal oversight over the
U.S.
Department of Ed.
It changed its budget andfunding priorities from basket
weaving to math, science, andEnglish.
(02:27):
It decided to start continuingto push school choice and
voucher system to decoupleunions and agenda-based uh
regions and allow people to pickand choose where their kids and
how their kids are educated totry and now curtail the
(02:51):
international student rights uhand the civil rights that they
think should exist from seventhcentury um, I guess Middle East
to the actual school grounds.
It's supposed to empower stateand local authorities.
(03:12):
You know, the United States is arepublic, it's unique.
There are states, and everystate decides what rules and how
it wants to govern its citizens.
The government is elected by itsmembers, right?
The people that live there.
But the federal government wantsto take over education and wants
(03:34):
to plan education to be my wayor the highway.
And Donald Trump sort of endedthat for the most part to return
it back to the Republican, theRepublic standard of which this
country was created.
(03:55):
So they are now going down yetanother road by having the
unions of these educationsystems change the curriculum.
Where in the world did you electa union to decide what your kids
(04:15):
learn in the classroom?
David, you had your kids go toparochial school.
I had my kids go to parochialschool.
The education was bar none,probably better than what the
public system offered.
But the curriculum was whatneutral, not left, not right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Mostly, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Okay, it taught people about right and wrong,
not just what you thought wasright and what you thought was
wrong.
It took a path of education.
Your mother was a teacher, mywife is a teacher, and today
listening and watching my wifebattle or the battles that are
(05:02):
occurring in her Miami DadeCounty school district are be
barred none insane.
The middle school viceprincipal, a big staunch union
representative, because that'swhere she came from, removed the
national anthem from the morningbecause it's too much of a
(05:25):
distraction for the students.
You know, I can't make this shitup, David.
I just can't.
You know, when when my wife gota voucher to vote, you want one
of these four unions or you wantnone?
And normally the teachers thataren't members of the union,
(05:48):
they just throw this in thegarbage.
But not this year.
They're all checking the box.
We don't want this union or anyunion any longer.
David, this wasn't what we wentacross in the green room, and I
kind of threw something totallyoff the right side for you.
But you know, we we discusswhat's bothering me.
(06:10):
You know, what's bothering me isthe fact that the world doesn't
want to acknowledge that badpeople exist, bad people do bad
things, and placating them isn'ta solution.
SPEAKER_00 (06:28):
No, I I don't think it's people, Stuart.
I think you have a segment ofthe population that has that has
got a problem.
Randy Weingarten is thepresident of the American
Federation of Teachers, andshe's screaming and yelling, and
she hasn't stopped screaming andyelling, that anybody who's a
conservative is the enemy to thestate and is enemy to education
(06:49):
because they wanted to pulleducation.
Let's go look back at four yearsof Biden.
I mean, it's not just removingthe national anthem or a flag
out of a classroom, it's genderidentity, it's giving teachers
the power to control the childand not the parent, including
the state of California, whichis tried to pass these
(07:09):
wacky-doodle type of options.
What these people want to do isto empower teachers to be
overlords.
That's what it is.
They get to decide everything.
Now, let's let's let's be very,very careful here, okay?
I'm not my mother, you said,taught for many, many, many
(07:30):
years.
And and I'll tell you, from thetime she started to the time she
ended, she had nothing butcriticism for the union.
The union took her dues, theunion supposedly represented in
some sort of collectivebargaining agreement.
But when a teacher needed helpat the union, no, many of
teachers fell by the wayside.
(07:52):
The union isn't there to helpthe teachers, the union is there
is to for an agenda.
And what we've seen with theagenda both there and in Canada
has been to push progressivepolicies, even worse, woke
policies.
Deciding as a an entity whatcertain that should happen in a
(08:14):
classroom, it's not up to theunion to decide that.
They never got that mandate.
If you do want a department ofeducation, which by the way is
uh it was built by Jimmy Carterin 1979, and it empowered the
teachers to get involved ineducation, which is not a bad
thing, involved, not control,because control is dangerous,
(08:36):
and you see what happens whenthese unions want to control.
They want to tell you that yourchild at the age of eight should
decide their their what theirgender.
Like, what are you talkingabout?
Where did this come from?
The parents should have noright, Stuart.
The parents should have no rightto interfere in the classroom.
(08:57):
Really?
The parents are paying bigdollars to in their taxes for
education and have no right tosay a word.
Interesting.
It's interesting to see that thesame union says, Oh, if you're
the Democrats, you're my friend,and you could say whatever you
want and you can help us controlit.
But if you're a Republican, stayout of the classroom.
(09:20):
I'm sorry, you're supposed to beapolitical, you're not supposed
to teach history with jadedhistory, but apparently, this is
what's going on now in theclassroom story.
And as someone who does teach,and I do teach at McGill
University, and I do have to paymy union dues, that has done
absolutely nothing for me.
I could say what I want in aclassroom practically.
(09:41):
I can influence minds like youcan't imagine.
And the union is gonna back up.
Now, here's the thing whichmakes me sick.
These are also the unions thathave called for the eradication
of Israel.
These are unions that have alsocalled for, let's bring in, you
know, uh drag queens into theclassroom to talk about free
Palestine.
Like you've you've you'vecreated a, and this is just one
(10:04):
ex of many, many examples of howthey want to change the
classroom.
It's not their call, it's nottheir place.
Education, if there is adepartment of education, the
department of education gets todecide the curriculum in the
classroom, not somefunctionnaire sitting there and
deciding, you know what, it's adistraction to have the national
(10:26):
anthem.
Now, do I think we need anational anthem, Stuart?
That's a conversation foranother day.
But understanding the foundationof the United States and it and
how it was created and how whatit was founded on, and whatever,
I could tell you if I walk intothree classrooms, I'll get three
versions.
Because they're not telling youthe version that should be
taught, they're teaching you theversion they want you to be
(10:48):
influenced by, and that iswhat's gone on in classrooms.
And I'm not even trying to talk,Stuart.
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
Yeah, I'm dying to just throw something in there.
Do you know what another thingMia has done?
Nia has decided to removeanything specifically about Jews
and the Holocaust.
SPEAKER_00 (11:08):
Yes, but Stuart, but it's not just it's it's it's but
but wait, it goes a stepfurther.
This is the same group also whowants to revise education on
African Americans.
These are the same people thatwant to rewrite history to teach
in the classroom, and this isthe problem.
This is not about teaching, thisis about influencing, it's about
(11:30):
changing the minds of studentsin 20 years from now or 15 years
from now when they becomevoters.
This has got nothing to do witheducation, it's not one plus
one, Stuart.
It's not, it's not about youknow that you know science, it's
not about anything more than howcan I influence future people to
(11:54):
vote the way I want them tovote?
And that's what should not be inthe classroom.
You want to know where you wantto learn political science,
people in university when it's acourse taught there.
When we teach history, historyis not about oh, the bad guys
and the good guys.
When we talk about World War II,Stuart, are you gonna suddenly
(12:15):
say, Well, you know, Hitlerwasn't so bad?
Like, oh, you know, Hitler,Hitler had some good traits.
You can't do that, you can't gointo a classroom, and I've seen
this by the way.
Okay, tell your parents whenthey go to vote that they should
vote this way.
You can't do that, but that'swhat's gone into the classroom,
(12:36):
and that's what Randy Weingartenand her minions all want to do
is they want to control, theywant to create a gen, they want
to influence future voters, theywant to influence.
I mean, I'm sorry, I and I'llI'll end with this.
Friend of mine is uh one of theheads of the local, one of the
local school boards store, andwe were sitting and talking,
(12:59):
having lunch a while back, andhe said to me, He goes, You know
what?
I have a problem.
I have parents who want certainthings done in the classroom,
but worse is I have teachers whowant certain things done in the
classroom.
That is just not their mandate.
You don't go there, but theythink now, based on what they've
seen from union leaders likeRandy Weingarten and others,
(13:22):
that they should do that andthey can do that, and no one
should take that right away fromthem.
There's no right, Stuart.
That's like you going into a jobas an as an auto mechanic and
deciding tomorrow, you knowwhat, I'm gonna do the
bookkeeping.
It doesn't work like that,people.
You have a job description, youhave a policy that's laid down
(13:43):
by the government, follow it,stop screwing with our children.
SPEAKER_01 (13:48):
You know, David, thank you for jumping in.
My Mystery Friday start.
But I think it's just amazinghow we've been doing this thing
called the Rant Network for fiveyears.
And every day when we go to jumpon the mic, we look at each
other and going, we talk aboutthis every single day.
And the stories change, but theconcept of where they're all
(14:12):
born from doesn't.
SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
No, it's it's actually getting worse, Stuart.
It's not getting better.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
Uh, I I agree, it has not gotten better.
SPEAKER_00 (14:21):
And you know what's good.
You know, I'm gonna put I'mgonna ask parents the following
question.
If you're a parent right now ofa child in elementary and high
school, ask your children whatyour teacher said about your
country, about other religions,about gender, about sexuality.
Ask your children.
If you haven't had thisconversation, it's a problem,
(14:43):
but go ask your children whatare you hearing in the
classroom?
You will be scared, shocked, andmortified by what is permitted
in a classroom today.
SPEAKER_01 (14:56):
You know, David, on that note, I'm gonna say.
Oh, good morning.
You know, after about five yearsplaying and doing the same
thing, it seems like GroundhogDay yet again, Friday, noon,
somewhere in the world.
You know, welcome everybody tothe Rant Network, it's your
go-to podcast for unfiltered,unapologetic discussions, hosted
(00:33):
by David Solomon today.
Myself, Stuart Briscal.
We tackle a diverse range oftopics, candid conversations,
bold opinions, whether we'rebreaking down the latest
headlines or exploring popculture, debating politics, or
delving into complexities ofmodern life.
This is a platform for everyperspective.
So grab a seat, settle in,because this is gonna seem a
(00:54):
little bit like Groundhog Day.
Why do I say that?
Because, you know, when I wasback in school in the year 1900,
we used to talk about what?
Politics in the classroom,religion in the classroom.
You know, it was normal.
We used to have a flag in ourclassroom.
(01:15):
Sometimes we used to have thenational anthem.
Here in the United States, therehas been some radical changes by
the unions as of late.
Uh as of uh as I think it's asof this month, uh largest
unions, uh USA.
(01:41):
They want to remove the nationalanthem, the American flag, the
pledge of allegiance fromclassrooms in America.
The left would have you believethat the right is attacking
education.
The left would have you believethat it's the end of democracy.
(02:05):
And the left would have you knowthat the conservatives are
taking over Gen Z.
Well, Trump came into power andput federal oversight over the
U.S.
Department of Ed.
It changed its budget andfunding priorities from basket
weaving to math, science, andEnglish.
(02:27):
It decided to start continuingto push school choice and
voucher system to decoupleunions and agenda-based uh
regions and allow people to pickand choose where their kids and
how their kids are educated totry and now curtail the
(02:51):
international student rights uhand the civil rights that they
think should exist from seventhcentury um, I guess Middle East
to the actual school grounds.
It's supposed to empower stateand local authorities.
(03:12):
You know, the United States is arepublic, it's unique.
There are states, and everystate decides what rules and how
it wants to govern its citizens.
The government is elected by itsmembers, right?
The people that live there.
But the federal government wantsto take over education and wants
(03:34):
to plan education to be my wayor the highway.
And Donald Trump sort of endedthat for the most part to return
it back to the Republican, theRepublic standard of which this
country was created.
(03:55):
So they are now going down yetanother road by having the
unions of these educationsystems change the curriculum.
Where in the world did you electa union to decide what your kids
(04:15):
learn in the classroom?
David, you had your kids go toparochial school.
I had my kids go to parochialschool.
The education was bar none,probably better than what the
public system offered.
But the curriculum was whatneutral, not left, not right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Mostly, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Okay, it taught people about right and wrong,
not just what you thought wasright and what you thought was
wrong.
It took a path of education.
Your mother was a teacher, mywife is a teacher, and today
listening and watching my wifebattle or the battles that are
(05:02):
occurring in her Miami DadeCounty school district are be
barred none insane.
The middle school viceprincipal, a big staunch union
representative, because that'swhere she came from, removed the
national anthem from the morningbecause it's too much of a
(05:25):
distraction for the students.
You know, I can't make this shitup, David.
I just can't.
You know, when when my wife gota voucher to vote, you want one
of these four unions or you wantnone?
And normally the teachers thataren't members of the union,
(05:48):
they just throw this in thegarbage.
But not this year.
They're all checking the box.
We don't want this union or anyunion any longer.
David, this wasn't what we wentacross in the green room, and I
kind of threw something totallyoff the right side for you.
But you know, we we discusswhat's bothering me.
(06:10):
You know, what's bothering me isthe fact that the world doesn't
want to acknowledge that badpeople exist, bad people do bad
things, and placating them isn'ta solution.
SPEAKER_00 (06:28):
No, I I don't think it's people, Stuart.
I think you have a segment ofthe population that has that has
got a problem.
Randy Weingarten is thepresident of the American
Federation of Teachers, andshe's screaming and yelling, and
she hasn't stopped screaming andyelling, that anybody who's a
conservative is the enemy to thestate and is enemy to education
(06:49):
because they wanted to pulleducation.
Let's go look back at four yearsof Biden.
I mean, it's not just removingthe national anthem or a flag
out of a classroom, it's genderidentity, it's giving teachers
the power to control the childand not the parent, including
the state of California, whichis tried to pass these
(07:09):
wacky-doodle type of options.
What these people want to do isto empower teachers to be
overlords.
That's what it is.
They get to decide everything.
Now, let's let's let's be very,very careful here, okay?
I'm not my mother, you said,taught for many, many, many
(07:30):
years.
And and I'll tell you, from thetime she started to the time she
ended, she had nothing butcriticism for the union.
The union took her dues, theunion supposedly represented in
some sort of collectivebargaining agreement.
But when a teacher needed helpat the union, no, many of
teachers fell by the wayside.
(07:52):
The union isn't there to helpthe teachers, the union is there
is to for an agenda.
And what we've seen with theagenda both there and in Canada
has been to push progressivepolicies, even worse, woke
policies.
Deciding as a an entity whatcertain that should happen in a
(08:14):
classroom, it's not up to theunion to decide that.
They never got that mandate.
If you do want a department ofeducation, which by the way is
uh it was built by Jimmy Carterin 1979, and it empowered the
teachers to get involved ineducation, which is not a bad
thing, involved, not control,because control is dangerous,
(08:36):
and you see what happens whenthese unions want to control.
They want to tell you that yourchild at the age of eight should
decide their their what theirgender.
Like, what are you talkingabout?
Where did this come from?
The parents should have noright, Stuart.
The parents should have no rightto interfere in the classroom.
(08:57):
Really?
The parents are paying bigdollars to in their taxes for
education and have no right tosay a word.
Interesting.
It's interesting to see that thesame union says, Oh, if you're
the Democrats, you're my friend,and you could say whatever you
want and you can help us controlit.
But if you're a Republican, stayout of the classroom.
(09:20):
I'm sorry, you're supposed to beapolitical, you're not supposed
to teach history with jadedhistory, but apparently, this is
what's going on now in theclassroom story.
And as someone who does teach,and I do teach at McGill
University, and I do have to paymy union dues, that has done
absolutely nothing for me.
I could say what I want in aclassroom practically.
(09:41):
I can influence minds like youcan't imagine.
And the union is gonna back up.
Now, here's the thing whichmakes me sick.
These are also the unions thathave called for the eradication
of Israel.
These are unions that have alsocalled for, let's bring in, you
know, uh drag queens into theclassroom to talk about free
Palestine.
Like you've you've you'vecreated a, and this is just one
(10:04):
ex of many, many examples of howthey want to change the
classroom.
It's not their call, it's nottheir place.
Education, if there is adepartment of education, the
department of education gets todecide the curriculum in the
classroom, not somefunctionnaire sitting there and
deciding, you know what, it's adistraction to have the national
(10:26):
anthem.
Now, do I think we need anational anthem, Stuart?
That's a conversation foranother day.
But understanding the foundationof the United States and it and
how it was created and how whatit was founded on, and whatever,
I could tell you if I walk intothree classrooms, I'll get three
versions.
Because they're not telling youthe version that should be
taught, they're teaching you theversion they want you to be
(10:48):
influenced by, and that iswhat's gone on in classrooms.
And I'm not even trying to talk,Stuart.
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
Yeah, I'm dying to just throw something in there.
Do you know what another thingMia has done?
Nia has decided to removeanything specifically about Jews
and the Holocaust.
SPEAKER_00 (11:08):
Yes, but Stuart, but it's not just it's it's it's but
but wait, it goes a stepfurther.
This is the same group also whowants to revise education on
African Americans.
These are the same people thatwant to rewrite history to teach
in the classroom, and this isthe problem.
This is not about teaching, thisis about influencing, it's about
(11:30):
changing the minds of studentsin 20 years from now or 15 years
from now when they becomevoters.
This has got nothing to do witheducation, it's not one plus
one, Stuart.
It's not, it's not about youknow that you know science, it's
not about anything more than howcan I influence future people to
(11:54):
vote the way I want them tovote?
And that's what should not be inthe classroom.
You want to know where you wantto learn political science,
people in university when it's acourse taught there.
When we teach history, historyis not about oh, the bad guys
and the good guys.
When we talk about World War II,Stuart, are you gonna suddenly
(12:15):
say, Well, you know, Hitlerwasn't so bad?
Like, oh, you know, Hitler,Hitler had some good traits.
You can't do that, you can't gointo a classroom, and I've seen
this by the way.
Okay, tell your parents whenthey go to vote that they should
vote this way.
You can't do that, but that'swhat's gone into the classroom,
(12:36):
and that's what Randy Weingartenand her minions all want to do
is they want to control, theywant to create a gen, they want
to influence future voters, theywant to influence.
I mean, I'm sorry, I and I'llI'll end with this.
Friend of mine is uh one of theheads of the local, one of the
local school boards store, andwe were sitting and talking,
(12:59):
having lunch a while back, andhe said to me, He goes, You know
what?
I have a problem.
I have parents who want certainthings done in the classroom,
but worse is I have teachers whowant certain things done in the
classroom.
That is just not their mandate.
You don't go there, but theythink now, based on what they've
seen from union leaders likeRandy Weingarten and others,
(13:22):
that they should do that andthey can do that, and no one
should take that right away fromthem.
There's no right, Stuart.
That's like you going into a jobas an as an auto mechanic and
deciding tomorrow, you knowwhat, I'm gonna do the
bookkeeping.
It doesn't work like that,people.
You have a job description, youhave a policy that's laid down
(13:43):
by the government, follow it,stop screwing with our children.
SPEAKER_01 (13:48):
You know, David, thank you for jumping in.
My Mystery Friday start.
But I think it's just amazinghow we've been doing this thing
called the Rant Network for fiveyears.
And every day when we go to jumpon the mic, we look at each
other and going, we talk aboutthis every single day.
And the stories change, but theconcept of where they're all
(14:12):
born from doesn't.
SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
No, it's it's actually getting worse, Stuart.
It's not getting better.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
Uh, I I agree, it has not gotten better.
SPEAKER_00 (14:21):
And you know what's good.
You know, I'm gonna put I'mgonna ask parents the following
question.
If you're a parent right now ofa child in elementary and high
school, ask your children whatyour teacher said about your
country, about other religions,about gender, about sexuality.
Ask your children.
If you haven't had thisconversation, it's a problem,
(14:43):
but go ask your children whatare you hearing in the
classroom?
You will be scared, shocked, andmortified by what is permitted
in a classroom today.
SPEAKER_01 (14:56):
You know, David, on that note, I'm gonna say.
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