In SLO County classrooms, politics wins while students lose | Opinion

Imagine this.

You drop your child off at school on a Tuesday morning. Backpack slung over one shoulder. Lunch packed. A quiet expectation that, for the next seven hours, the adults in charge will do the job society has entrusted to them. Teach. Supervise. Prepare them for the world ahead.

By noon, one of those adults has walked away from the job. Not because the classroom was unsafe. Not because the school was failing academically. But because they disagreed with federal immigration policy.

This is not a thought experiment. It happened here in San Luis Obispo County when a local teacher, Jehan Mirzaei, publicly resigned in protest from Atascadero Middle School over national political decisions that had nothing to do with the safety or functioning of their classroom.

To its credit, the district intervened. That is leadership. But it also shows how teachers’ ideology intrudes where student outcomes should come first.

Pause for a moment and consider the irony.

I wonder if Mr. Mirzaei would be outraged if a local hospital refused to perform a transgender procedure because of religious beliefs? Or if a science teacher announced they were withdrawing their labor because the curriculum required teaching evolution rather than creationism?

Yet when the ideology is fashionable, walking away from the classroom is treated as virtue rather than dereliction of duty.

Student success — not political ideology — should be top priority

This would be troubling enough on its own. It becomes indefensible when viewed alongside the actual academic performance of the students left behind.

In the SLO County classrooms this teacher walked away from, 55% of students fail to meet or exceed state standards in math. A mere 40% fail to meet or exceed standards in English.

These are not abstract numbers. These are children whose future economic independence, civic competence and personal agency depend on mastering basic skills. Yet their teacher decided that federal immigration policy was the more urgent priority.

This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a broader pattern we are witnessing locally and statewide, where schools increasingly reflect the preoccupations of adults rather than the developmental needs of students.

In a previous column, I wrote about a principal in our county who showed up to work intoxicated. Of allegations of sexual harassment that were handled through quiet resignation rather than visible accountability. The public was assured that processes were followed. Policies were observed, but the schools still paid out millions of dollars in settlements.

The cumulative message to students, parents, and the public is unmistakable. Standards are negotiable. Authority is conditional. Responsibility is optional.

Education cannot function under those conditions.

Where are the superintendents insisting that classrooms remain places of instruction, not political theater? Where are the trustees demanding that adult conduct be subordinated to student outcomes? Where are the elected officials reminding publicly funded institutions that their primary obligation is educational excellence, not political expression?

Teachers unions speak forcefully about political and social issues. The governor regularly uses education as a platform for broader ideological messaging. School boards debate symbolic resolutions. Yet when students fail, leadership goes missing.

Every profession depends on a basic covenant between practitioner and public. Pilots cannot walk off flights because they dislike foreign policy. Surgeons cannot refuse procedures because they object to tax law. Judges cannot abandon cases because they disagree with election outcomes.

The authority entrusted to them requires restraint, discipline and an understanding that their personal beliefs do not supersede their professional obligations.

Teachers have the right to advocate for their beliefs — just not in the classroom

Teaching should be no different.

This is not an argument against political belief. Teachers are citizens. They have every right to hold views. To protest, to advocate and to participate fully in civic life.

But the classroom is not theirs. It belongs, morally and practically, to the students and the parents who entrusted those students to their care.

When a teacher walks away for ideological reasons, the burden does not fall on abstract political actors in Washington. It falls on a 14-year-old struggling with algebra. A 10-year-old learning to read. A teenager whose future opportunities depend on mastering foundational life skills and personal responsibility.

The warning signs are clear. Institutions do not lose public trust through dramatic collapse. They lose it gradually, through small acts of ideological prioritization over professional responsibility. Through administrators who avoid confrontation. Through systems that protect adults from consequences while leaving students to pay the price.

The purpose of education is not to produce activists. Every graduate should leave literate. Numerate. Capable of independent thought. Able to earn a living and participate as an informed citizen. That requires schools to model neutrality, professionalism, and accountability.

When ideology replaces that mission, students learn something unintended but unmistakable. They learn that standards are negotiable, responsibility is optional and performance matters less than politics.

When that happens, students stop being the priority. When students stop being the priority, it’s no longer a school. It’s a stage.

Clive Pinder hosts “CeaseFire” on KVEC 920AM/96.5 FM and writes at https://clivepinder.substack.com. He believes education is too important to be sacrificed to ideology.