HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher ripped Democrats, whose party-aligned unions have long dictated policy for public schools, wondered aloud how they have “lost control” of them, as schools continue to devolve into chaos and become more dangerous for teachers and staff.
“I thought a great subject to talk about would be schools, because they’re in the news a lot,” Maher began the panel discussion on Friday, as he kicked off his 21st season on the network. “We live in a prison yard in this country, which is everything is tribal.
“And like anything that has to do with schools or education is something really the Democrats have to answer for because they control it. I mean, when you look at the Democratic Convention, it’s like three-quarters of them are teachers. My sister’s a teacher. I’m a big defender of teachers, but what’s going on in schools is outrageous, and somebody needs to answer for it,” he added.
He went on to discuss a recent incident in Virginia involving a six-year-old who brought his mother’s gun to school and shot his teacher. Maher noted that the school librarian told news outlets that it is “routine” for teachers to be assaulted along with other school staff by unruly students.
“How did we completely lose control?” Maher asked. “How could any kid learn in this atmosphere when you can’t even survive? And these are all schools. This is not just inner-city schools. I hear this anecdotally from people. We’ve completely lost control of our schools.”
Ultimately, he said, the “problem” with how children behave in school is primarily a result of hands-off parenting, but “no one wants to go after” them because they vote.
“One thing we used to tell kids was that there is someone in authority. And at some point, you have to take note of that person in authority,” Substack writer Andrew Sullivan, one of the show’s guests, said.
“Children who are taught there’s no such thing as authority, the most important thing is expressing yourself at all times, are never held responsible for anything or constantly being excused for everything, they’re gonna end up this way. They need direction. People need authority,” he added.
“Especially kids!” Maher exclaimed.
“Why does a four-year-old come in, instead of teaching them the colors, you’re telling them, ‘Pick your pronoun’? Where on earth did that come from? And who told us it was going to be imposed on children?” Sullivan, who is gay, asked. “More and more, when you look at this curriculum, it’s all about that stuff. It’s all about identity, it’s all about being queer or trans. Children can’t understand that stuff, not in kindergarten.”
“And you say that as a queer,” Maher noted with a chuckle.
“I don’t want to teach five-year-olds about being gay. I think wait a little bit, and they’ll pick it up anyway. It’s not like they can’t watch the TV,” Sullivan added.
“They’re not telling them that, they’re telling them something worse. They’re telling that people can choose to be a boy or a girl or neither or both or something else entirely. That is a lie. You can’t. And it’s done in order to placate certain special interests in Washington, mainly the LGBTQIA+ people who’ve also been captured by the far left. We should say no to this,” he said.
“I just don’t understand why this is the hill the Democratic Party wants to die on,” Maher observed.
“Because they’re too scared. Both parties are too scared,” Sullivan said in response, according to Fox News. “They’re bullied by the extreme right, they’re bullied by the extreme left, and no one has the balls to say no.”
