New Documentary Exposes How Teachers’ Unions Harm Inner City Children (WATCH)

Sep 12, 2025
Victoria Manning
Big Education | America First

Teachers’ unions and their puppet politicians discard successful schools if they are not the ones in control of them.

Steve Cortes’ powerful documentary, Liberate Families: the School Choice Imperative, highlights the success of Hope Academy, a donor-funded college preparatory school in inner city Chicago. Students who attend Hope have a much higher rate of success than public schools: 90 percent ultimately attend college. Yet Illinois Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker killed a state program that benefited schools like Hope—thanks to pressure from his teachers’ union overlords. WATCH THE FULL DOCUMENTARY AT THE END.

Thanks to generous donors, financial aid covers most of Hope Academy’s tuition, with the average family paying only $3,000 per year to attend. In 2017, Illinois adopted the Invest in Kids Scholarship Tax Credit Program which gave a 75 percent income tax credit to donors who contributed to scholarship organizations for programs like Hope. When this program was up for renewal in 2023, Teachers’ unions fought to prevent it from continuing saying: “Keep the pressure on lawmakers to sunset the harmful Invest in Kids voucher program and keep public funds in public schools.” The union won and Invest in Kids expired in 2023.

The union wants to protect their own interests because programs like Hope Academy prove that school choice programs work, despite the union’s rhetoric. On the West Side of Chicago where Hope Academy is located, public school children have less than a 10 percent chance of graduating college compared with Hope’s 90 percent rate.

Cortes points out that Chicago public schools spend $30,000 per pupil but only one-third of students can read on grade level. One of the reasons their costs are so high is because the union won’t allow them to consolidate schools. Located near Hope Academy is a public school built for 1500 students, but enrollment is only 150. The exorbitant staffing and maintenance costs to keeps schools like this open take away resources that could be used for extra academic support such as tutoring. Yet teachers’ unions don’t want these schools to close because that could eliminate taxpayer funded jobs, which in turn means less money for the union. Teachers’ unions don’t care about children, they care about their own bottom line.

Concerned citizens like the Hope Academy founder Bob Muzikowski have the answer to America’s education problems: Give families a choice of where their kids attend school. Children shouldn’t be stuck in a failing school simply because of their zip code. When public schools have competition, they will be forced to improve. Otherwise, they have no incentive to progress. Under today’s American model of public education, failing schools get rewarded with more money and resources rather than being held accountable for worsening outcomes.

The failure of government schools can no longer be hidden by teachers’ unions. The data across the nation that prove public education is not preparing students to be successful members of society is undeniable. Education Sec. Linda McMahon put out the following statement on Sept. 9:

Today’s NAEP results confirm a devastating trend: American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12 . . . nearly half of America’s high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading. Despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs, the achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading than ever before.

The only hope to reverse these trends is to create more private programs like Hope Academy. Legislators across America must reject the stranglehold of teachers’ unions and pass meaningful school choice legislation in every state. Children shouldn’t be imprisoned in failing schools simply based on their zip code. It’s time families across America are given a choice!

Catch the documentary here:

Victoria Manning is a Senior Investigative Researcher for Restoration News specializing in education freedom, immigration, and military issues. She is the author of Behind the Wall of Government Schools. Victoria served 8 years as an elected school board member and has a master’s degree in law. She also brings the perspective of a military spouse to her reporting.

Email Victoria HERE

Request Victoria for a Speaking Engagement

Related Articles

Get Involved

Join Restoration of America today and receive the latest updates, news, and ways to get involved with our efforts!

By  providing your phone number and checking this box, you are consenting  to receive calls and text messages, including autodialed and automated  calls and texts, to that number from Restoration of America. Message and  data rates may apply. Reply "STOP" to opt-out. Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions apply.