The National Education Association is rolling out a new “race, class, gender narrative” training program for teachers—focused heavily on transgender advocacy, ideological messaging, and partisan framing. On Chicago’s Morning Answer, Dan Proft discussed the revelations with Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, who contrasted the union’s cultural agenda with the deteriorating academic performance in American schools and the rapid growth of school choice programs across the country.
The NEA’s upcoming “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice” training instructs members on how to create what it calls “counter-narratives” to fight what it labels “anti-trans attacks,” while urging educators to internalize evolving terminology and avoid asking for “preferred pronouns,” which the union now deems offensive. Training documents accuse Republicans of using “strategic racism and transphobia” and acknowledge that unions are losing public debates on issues like biological males competing in women’s sports. The program will be promoted throughout public school systems, even as new federal test data show historic learning losses—nearly 40 percent of fourth graders reading below basic, and a quarter of high school seniors unable to define the word “decipher.”
Enlow said none of this surprises him. While government-run schools grapple with academic collapse, he explained, the school choice movement is experiencing unprecedented momentum. Nineteen states have now passed universal choice programs, enabling all students to access education savings accounts, vouchers, or tax-credit scholarships. Participation has risen to 1.3 million families and may grow another 25 percent this year. Micro-schools, homeschooling, and teacher-launched private learning pods are proliferating. “K–12 education is more vibrant than ever,” Enlow said. “It’s just not happening inside the government system.”
Enlow also highlighted a new development at the federal level: the Trump administration’s move to shift portions of the Department of Education’s programming into agencies like Labor, Health and Human Services, Interior, and State. He called the restructuring a “smart way to shrink bureaucracy without defunding services,” noting that most Americans support federal funding for special-needs students but reject federal control over curriculum or operations. The shift, he argued, acknowledges that K–12 education is fundamentally a state responsibility—and one that continued unhindered even when the federal government shut down.
Looking ahead, Enlow discussed the 2027 launch of a federal tax-credit scholarship program allowing taxpayers to claim up to $1,700 for donations to non-profits that fund scholarships for public, charter, or private school students. He predicted the program could have transformative potential—if states choose to participate. Illinois will not, due to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s opposition to school choice, but Enlow noted that many Illinois donors may simply direct their funds to neighboring Indiana, where the program will operate.
Amid plunging achievement scores, politicized union messaging, and continuing exodus from traditional public schools, Enlow believes the landscape is shifting decisively. “Parents are voting with their feet,” he said. “The future of education is choice—and it’s already underway.”