An unrepentant terrorist heads a key division of a leading U.S. education research association that has immense influence over what our children's teachers study in education school.

William Ayers, the unrepentant former SDS Weather Underground bomber of the 1960s, was recently elected by the American Education Research Association (AERA) as vice president and head of its division of curriculum studies.

Apparently, AERA members have no qualms about selecting Ayers, a man who to this day remains dedicated to destroying America, to lead one of their organization's most important divisions.

Perhaps they think Ayers is merely a "professor of English," as Democratic presidential contender and Ayers friend Sen. Barack Obama would have us believe. Or maybe AERA members don't know Ayers simply transferred his revolutionary fervor from the streets to the classroom where he indoctrinates our nation's teachers.

Possibly Ayers' influence is an aberration in an organization that bills itself as "the most prominent international professional organization, with the primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application."

Wrong. Sadly, Ayers' radical worldview permeates AERA. I know, because I am a former AERA employee. I worked in AERA's national office in Washington, D.C. from 2002-2004.

Among my duties were managing production of AERA publications, including its flagship journal Educational Researcher. Educational Researcher published deep scholarly work like UCLA education professor Peter McLaren's love song to totalitarianism, Reconsidering Marx in post-Marxist Times: A Requiem for Post Modernism. McLaren's webpage is a sick testimonial to murderous thug Ché Guevera, and a totalitarian communist ideology responsible for the murder of more than 90 million people.

I had the arduous task of editing manuscripts with titles like "So When It Comes Out, They Aren't That Surprised That It Is There": Using Critical Race Theory as a Tool of Analysis of Race and Racism in Education, and Critical Social Theory and Transformative Knowledge: The Functions of Criticism in Quality Education.

Forget for a moment the unwieldy titles, copyediting their manuscripts revealed that the authors showed a disturbingly low grasp of the English language, and its rules of grammar and punctuation. Furthermore, the manuscripts contained so much pseudo-academic jargon that after every sentence I had stop and ask myself, "What the hell did that mean?"

This leftwing radicalism is not strictly limited to AERA publications. Its annual meetings, which draw tens of thousands, offer participants such fare as: "Resisting Resistance: Using Eco-Justice and Eco-Racism to Awaken Mindfulness, Compassion, and Wisdom in Preservice Teachers."

Then, of course, there is Ayers' own 2005 presentation "Shut Up and March: Patriotism and the Threat to Democracy in America's Schools."

The "scholars" who generate such mediocrity may seem like a joke to the general public however, their ersatz scholarship perniciously affects our culture. Their kitschy Marxism, which paints America as the main source of the world's racism and oppression, is rampant in our schools of education.

Our teachers' colleges are becoming indoctrination camps for fringe left wing radicalism, which is in turn passed on to our elementary, middle and high school students.

One would think that election of a terrorist who said of his violent past "I don't regret setting bombs, I feel we didn't do enough," plus the rank ideological bent of its publications and conference offerings, would spark some concern or at least a response from AERA leadership.

It hasn't. Where are AERA's president and executive director? Are they silent because they sub rosa approve Ayers' agenda for his new position, and the indoctrination of American teachers and students in radical left wing ideology?

The truth is that Ayers has been a leading light in AERA for years. In fact, radical AERA members specifically requested that Ayers present their objections to AERA's governing council's refusal to oppose the National Council for Accreditation for Teacher Certification's elimination of "social justice" from its list of standards in 2007.

Now in his new perch as a divisional vice president, Ayers can continue his long march through academia further radicalizing our teachers and our students.

Mark Newgent is the Baltimore History Examiner and blogs for Red Maryland. He can be reached at marknewgent@comcast.net