With the increase of political polar-ization among American citizens, it’s no surprise that political opinions are becoming louder within educational institutions.
Social studies teacher Ana M. Pardo describes herself as a moderate with lib- eral leanings, especially on the issue of wealth redistribution.
“We all owe each other something as members of the same society,” Pardo said. “We should do something to make sure most people, if not everybody, have a minimum, especially when we are talking about children.”
Social studies teacher Frank Castro describes himself as a moderate conservative.
“I’ve been a registered Republican up until six years ago, and I really haven’t voted for a Republican for president since Bush in 2000,” he said. “I have a business degree, so I always tend to go pro-business.”
Physics teacher Charles Schletzbaum calls himself a progressive, with some exceptions for science and foreign poli-cy, explaining that his views align most closely with democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders.
“I think Democrats are conservative,” Schletzbaum said. “Biden’s way too conservative. So is Kamala Harris,” he add- ed.
Social Studies teacher Clarence Wren- cher says he identifies as an independent with very moderate views.
All four teachers said they would be voting for Kamala Harris this election cycle, which aligns with the teacher population at the school, according to a survey conducted by The Union. 86.8% out of 53 teachers said they would be voting Kamala Harris, according to the survey.
Wrencher said Harris is the better candidate for president because she has broad appeal with a good record, specif- ically in criminal justice.
“She was senator from the largest state in the country, so she knows about governing a large amount of people,” Wrencher said.
He disagreed with Harris on her im- migration policies, stating that he didn’t like how the Biden-Harris administra- tion handled the crisis at the border.
“You are supposed to process people and either send them back or grant themasylum,” said Wrencher. “There’s a big backlog and migrants aren’t getting one or the other in a timely manner.”
However, here was an attempt to pass a bi-partisan border bill during Biden’s presidency, Wrencher said.
“It did not get the support it needed from the Republicans,” Wrencher said.
Donald Trump is a threat to the right to American suffrage, Schletz- baum said.
“I want to be able to vote in four years,” Scheltzbaum said in reference to a speech Trump made on July 26, 2024.
“I love you Christians. I’m a Chris- tian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote,” Trump said, according to a Reuters article.
However, he has his reserva-tions about Harris because she is too much of a “cop” and is afraid of stand- ing up to the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Commit- tee (AIPAC), Schletzbaum said.
“She needs to stop sending weapons to the war, especially if there’s war crimes being committed by both sides,” Schletzbaum said. “A lot of peo- ple are too chicken to actually stand up to AIPAC,” he said.
Trump’s presidency is undemocratic because of how the insurrection on January 6th prevented the peaceful transition of power between the presidents, Pardo said.
“People with different political leanings agreeing to give up power is very rare in human history,” Pardo said. “It’s a very important reason not to vote for the former president.”
Trump’s volatility and his ac- tions during the insurrection on Janu- ary 6th are the primary reasons why he is not fit to be president, Castro said.
“It just became four years of every day: What crazy thing did he say? What dumb thing did he do this time?” Castro said.