TEACHERS

PAGE ONE

Panel 1 

A rally of teachers in a park. Most are silhouetted, but four full-color figures of various genders and races fill the center of the panel. Three of them hold signs, and Teacher 3 is speaking. Teacher 4 stands next to a chalkboard propped up on an easel.

SIGN 1: Project 2025 is extremely hostile to American workers. 

SIGN 2: Day One proposals would make it harder for workers to unionize and easier for employers to retaliate against whistleblowers and organizers. [2025, p. 601-602]

SIGN 3: States would be able to “opt out” of labor laws around workplace safety and child labor, too! [2025, p. 606-607]

TEACHER 3: Being anti-union is a pretty typical posture for American conservative groups.  They call it being pro-business.

TEACHER 3: But you know which unions the Heritage Foundation and their friends hate the most?

Panel 2 

This panel focuses on the four teachers. Above them hangs a banner with the words “National Education Association” and “American Federation of Teachers.”

TEACHER 1: Like every other labor union, my local negotiates with employers for the best contract it can get and represents individual members should they need it.

TEACHER 2: Like every other professional organization, my union advocates at the local, state and national level for policies we care about.

TEACHER 3: Like every other group of skilled workers, we speak up if our training, expertise, or years of service to our communities are being undervalued.

Panel 3

This panel zooms in on Teacher 4, who has written “2025 p. 342” on her chalkboard.

TEACHER 4: So, can anyone tell me why Project 2025 singles out the teachers’ unions for congressional investigations and having their charters revoked?    

Panel 4

Over Teacher 4’s shoulder, across the park, we see various citizens—a young mother with a baby, a person on a bicycle, a nurse in scrubs, and a grandfather in flannel.

MOM: Teachers’ unions resist book bans and legislation that mandates they lie to their students about scientific and historical facts!

CYCLIST: Wait, haven’t teachers advocated for classroom safety where guns and pandemics are concerned?

NURSE: I think teachers also fight efforts to divert public dollars to private programs that segregate and weaken our communities.

GRANDPA: Pretty sure teachers try to protect the Establishment clause of the First Amendment and keep religious ideology out of publicly-funded American classrooms. [2025, p. 341]

PAGE TWO

Panel 1

Teacher 4 beams at the reader.  Her chalkboard now reads, “‘I touch the future, I teach.’ – Christa McAuliffe”

TEACHER 4: You’re all right!  Gold stars for everyone!

TEACHER 4: And there’s lots more besides. I know it’s a huge book, but if you just skim the sections on Education, Head Start, and Public Health, you’ll get a picture of the country they want…

Panel 2

An iconic, simple one-room schoolhouse with a bell at the top sits in the background of the panel. In the foreground are a rich woman holding a lit match, a businessman toting an oil can, a minister holding a candle and a Bible, and a mother holding a sparkler. They are all white, and they are all approaching the schoolhouse.

RICH WOMAN: I’m so glad all my tax dollars stay in my nice neighborhood and aren’t educating poor children anymore. [2025, p. 482]

BUSINESSMAN: My SKOOLCORP franchises are raking in the public funds, and with no pesky obligation to hire credentialed teachers or enroll kids with accommodation needs, I can keep overhead way low. [2025, p. 322]

MINISTER: Public schools in my state can make all the kids pray in the classroom, and there’s no federal authority to stop it! [2025, p. 319]

MOM: Finally, my right to decide how you parent your child has been written into federal law! [2025, p. 345]

Panel 3 

The businessman pours his oil can onto the front steps of the one-room schoolhouse.  The rich woman and minister hold up their flames, eager to set the oil alight. The mom scratches her chin, more uncertain, but is still holding her sparkler.

RICH WOMAN: Without those teachers in the way, this all turns out to be much easier.

BUSINESSMAN: I mean, there’s more than four million of them, and they’re pretty smart. When they organized and spoke up, people listened.

MINISTER: And with this gone, future generations will be a lot easier to control.

MOM: Guys? Is this arson?

Panel 4

A close up of the businessman, who winks and points at the flames filling the panel behind him.

BUSINESSMAN: No worries! The International Association of Fire Fighters has seen what we’ll do to unions that stand in our way.