Sen. Cruz Sends Letter to Dept. of Education After Activist Teachers' Union 'Teach-In' Celebrating Hamas Terrorism

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and State Superintendent of Public Instruction of California Tony Thurmond expressing deep concern following a “teach-in” conducted on December 6, 2023 by an activist faction within the Oakland Education Association Teachers’ Union. At least seventy K-12 public school teachers employed by the Oakland school district participated in this unauthorized effort to disseminate “educational resources on Palestine” that celebrated Hamas as a “resistance movement” and valorized “intifada.”

In the letter Sen. Cruz wrote, “It’s difficult to imagine a more reckless message to send to K-12ers in the aftermath of the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust than this seething anti-Israel propaganda. During a time when American Jews and Israelis are being subjected to an incredible amount of harassment and hate crimes, it’s profoundly irresponsible to tolerate such blatant anti-Israel indoctrination. … By allowing impressionable K-12 students to be subjected to a one-sided activist-driven narrative downplaying the depravity of Hamas’s terrorism and tacitly endorsing antisemitism, you are complicit in endangering lives.”

Read the full text of the letter here.

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