As families settle into the back-to-school routine, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), is coming out with a new book that uplifts the importance of our public schools. Why Fascists Fear Teachers, released on September 16, illuminates how essential educators have always been to democracy, both here and around the world.
From school district-wide book bans to politicians getting involved in what teachers can and can’t say in the classroom, schools have increasingly been at the center of political battles and culture wars. Alarmingly, as Weingarten demonstrates in Why Fascists Fear Teachers, the current political climate echoes times in history when dictators rose to power and began banning books and controlling curriculum.
As children’s learning gets caught in the political crossfire, parents and families deserve to know what’s really going on. We interviewed Weingarten to understand the urgency of her new book and her work with public schools and educators right now, and what parents need to know this school year.
Tell us about your new book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers. Why this book, and why now?
Public education is the foundation of our republic. The Founding Fathers believed schools were absolutely essential to democracy, and that foundation is starting to crumble. I wrote Why Fascists Fear Teachers to tell the story of the heroism of teachers who stand up to fear with truth, and to hate with hope.
Teachers are not being attacked because of what they do wrong, but because of everything they do right. They help kids learn to think critically, to solve problems together, and to thrive in a diverse world. They welcome every child, create opportunity so all students have a shot at the American Dream, and build unions that fight for fairness. Those are the very things that make democracy strong, and that is why people who fear freedom and opportunity are trying to tear teachers and public schools down.
As a new school year begins, what are families, students, and teachers really facing right now?
Families and teachers are walking into schools that are stretched thin, with too few educators, dwindling resources, and constant political battles. Parents are rightly concerned about safety — from gun violence to the anxiety and loneliness so many kids are experiencing. And too often, instead of helping us solve these real problems, politicians are turning schools into battlegrounds for their own agendas.
And yet, teachers keep showing up. Every single day, they bring their love, their creativity, and their persistence to classrooms so children can learn, grow, and dream. That is the quiet heroism that inspired me to write this book.
The title is provocative. Why did you choose Why Fascists Fear Teachers, and what do you want parents to take away?
Fascists have always feared teachers, from Nazi Germany to Putin’s Russia, because teachers teach kids to think for themselves. The title names the playbook clearly: those who fear democracy target educators first.
What I want parents to take away is this: when teachers are attacked, it is really families who are under attack. Ninety percent of American children go to public schools. They are where kids build the skills and confidence that shape their futures, and the future of every family and community in America.
You write about the Founding Fathers’ view of education. Why did they see public schools as essential to democracy?
Leaders like Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin believed liberty and democracy could not survive without an educated citizenry. They knew schools were not just about reading and math, they were about preparing young people to participate in civic life, to think critically, and to work together across differences.
That is still true today. Public schools remain America’s great opportunity engine. They are where children of every background come together to learn and grow, and where families count on safe, supportive environments. When we strengthen public education, we strengthen the American Dream.
“Public schools remain America’s great opportunity engine. They are where children of every background come together to learn and grow, and where families count on safe, supportive environments. When we strengthen public education, we strengthen the American Dream.”
Your book is full of powerful stories. Can you share some that stood out?
During World War II, Norwegian teachers resisted the Nazis by refusing to join their puppet teacher organization. Even after being beaten and imprisoned, they kept teaching in secret. They wore paperclips on their lapels as a quiet symbol of unity.
In Poland, Janusz Korczak ran a Jewish orphanage as a tiny democracy, with student newspapers and courts. When the Nazis came to deport the children to a concentration camp, Korczak was offered a chance to escape. He refused, choosing instead to stay with his students to the very end.
Closer to home, Barbara Johns was only 16 when she led a walkout in Virginia to protest overcrowded Black schools. Her courage became part of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court case that ended legal segregation.
And in Chicago, Karen Lewis redefined what a teachers’ union could fight for, not just wages, but housing, health care, and safe schools for kids. She won because parents and communities stood with her. These stories, past and present, show us that teachers and students have always been democracy’s first defenders.
What is the American Federation of Teachers, and teachers more broadly, doing to support schools and help kids thrive despite today’s challenges?
At AFT, we are working to make schools places where kids feel safe, loved, and able to dream big. That means creating community schools that wrap children in support with health care, mental health counseling, after-school programs, even food and dental care when families need it. It means expanding career and technical education, like in Peoria, Illinois, where students graduate with skills and internships that connect directly to jobs. It means fighting for smaller class sizes and fair pay so teachers can give kids the attention they deserve.
And it means partnering with parents to push back against distractions like book bans and political stunts. Our kids do not need culture wars, they need safe classrooms, caring teachers, and the chance to thrive.
For parents and students who are worried but do not know where to start, what is one thing they can do?
The most important thing parents can do is be part of the school community. Start by showing up. Attend a school board meeting. Talk to your child’s teachers. Speak out when books are banned or when teachers are vilified. Partner with teachers, because we are on the same side.
And remember that small acts matter. Challenging unfairness or injustice often begins in small ways, like Norwegian families wearing paperclips, or today, like parents choosing to read a banned book with their child. Those acts may feel small, but together they build into real change.
With all the challenges schools face, what gives you hope?
What gives me hope are teachers, who keep showing up and teaching despite the smears and threats. What gives me hope are parents and communities who are rejecting the culture wars and focusing on what kids need. What gives me hope are students, their courage, their hunger to learn, and their insistence on justice.
And what gives me the deepest hope is learning from history and building community. Communities that see the possibility of a better life, a possibility that starts so often with education. Every time teachers have been attacked, communities have fought back. And every time, in the end, we have won.
