This isn’t complicated: Sexualized, pornographic material does not belong in school libraries. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. This opinion should be unanimous. Frankly, it’s outrageous that this issue has become the “controversial” issue that it is. This is about good versus evil, common sense versus lunacy, and moral leadership versus complete and utter failure from those who continue bringing this issue to the forefront of our politics: Democrats.
For those asking if explicit, pornographic material in school libraries is still a thing, well, thanks to Democrats in the New Mexico State Senate, the answer is yes. Democratic lawmakers are expected to propose a new bill in the upcoming legislative session called “Protecting The Freedom To Read.” This bill is designed to make it more difficult for sexually explicit books to be removed from school libraries in New Mexico. We are talking about books currently in New Mexico public schools that detail rape, sex acts involving children, drug use, suicidal behaviors, and horrific violent imagery.
Never mind that New Mexico is consistently regarded as having one of the worst education systems in the country, or, according to U.S. News & World Report, the single worst in the country. Instead of focusing on improving student outcomes, fixing teacher recruitment and retention, or tackling the chronic absenteeism that plagues our schools, New Mexico Democrats have made it a top priority to make it more difficult to remove pornographic material from school libraries. What’s worse? This is intentional, and it better wake us up or this will continue to happen across the country.
There is no question that children in America have increasingly been exposed to partisan political rhetoric in recent years, primarily in the classroom. And this partisan rhetoric is not coming from the Right; it is coming directly from the Left. For years, students have been exposed to a woke, progressive agenda where they are taught that America is a racist country, taught to sympathize with terrorist states, and introduced to LGBT ideologies. Meanwhile, any discussion of Christianity or the Bible has been strictly prohibited by the Left. Democrats have effectively dismantled speech that they don’t like in schools and replaced it with speech that they do like.
Their ultimate goal is to begin the political indoctrination of our children when they are away from their parents and around the influence of other children their same age. If you want further evidence that our public education system is slowly becoming a wing of the Democratic Party, look no further than what the teachers unions have been doing. The American Federation of Teachers has given almost exclusively (about 99%) to Democratic candidates over the years. AFT, led by political activist Randi Weingarten, has given more than $60 million to Democratic candidates and causes, while having given less than $470,000 to Republicans. The National Education Association has also given an overwhelming majority of its total political contributions to Democrats and progressive advocacy groups. One watchdog report says in 2022–2024, AFT and NEA combined gave about $43.5 million to left-wing political causes.
EDUCATION NONPROFIT PROMOTING POLITICAL VIOLENCE RECEIVED TAXPAYER FUNDING
NEA leader Becky Pringle has all but endorsed the idea that classrooms are battlegrounds for racial and social justice issues. Weingarten, who has been a Democratic National Committee operative for more than two decades, recently left the DNC because the party wasn’t far enough left for her. Weingarten has a long history of liberal activism and has surrounded herself with controversy by politicizing the teachers union she leads.
Our education system has become rotten to the core, and students are becoming targets in this massive indoctrination effort for which liberals are almost exclusively responsible. It’s no longer up to just the Republican Party to stop this. Parents all over New Mexico and all over this country, longtime voters and those who have not been politically engaged, must stand up together and say, “enough is enough.” Far-left activists in this country will stop at nothing to have their way and implement a Marxist, anti-American agenda, even if it means indoctrinating our children. The next round of this fight is in New Mexico, and for the sake of our state, country, and families, we cannot lose.
Amy Barela is the chairwoman of the Republican Party of New Mexico and a county commissioner in Otero County, New Mexico.
