Michael Kane Joins American Values 2024

A Health Freedom advocate, Kane founded Teachers for Choice

By Marie Argo

“I have to be able to tell my kids, I voted for Bobby Kennedy,”  said Michael Kane, the founder of Teachers for Choice (TFC), an organization championing medical sovereignty for teachers. A former teacher himself, Kane joined the American Values Super PAC in July.

“You know you're part of something historic,” added Kane. “You know you’re on the right side of history, supporting something that just resonates so strongly within your soul.” 

Kane’s position with the super PAC is a continuation of what he honed during his grassroots activism, only now his message is about more than medical freedom. It is about inspiring that community to help spread Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s medical freedom platform. 

A born and raised New Yorker, Kane was a teacher for fourteen years, dedicated to educating children with disabilities. Prior to that, for nearly five years, Kane worked with adults with disabilities. 

But all that changed in 2019 with the passage of Bill 2994, which eliminated the option for children to provide proof of religious exemption from vaccine requirements. And Kane went from concerned teacher to health freedom advocate.

“We knew that behind the scenes they were talking about vaccine mandates for teachers,” said Kane, who began collecting signatures for a petition against the revocation of children's choice to religious exemption, while rallying support for teachers against vaccine mandates. Teachers For Choice, an organization born just before the era of COVID-19, has endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a candidate for President of the United States.

Kane recalled a fellow teacher at that time asking him what kind of vaccine he thought they would require teachers to get. “I said I don’t know,” said Kane. “Who knew it was going to be the vaccine that didn’t exist yet?” 

In September 2021, then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a COVID-19 mandate that required Department of Education employees and teachers to be vaccinated in order to work in person. 

Kane was subsequently fired from his position as a teacher after refusing to follow the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. “Our concerns were vindicated,” he said, in reference to the pushback he and others received after choosing to forgo the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Because of his work with Teachers For Choice, and advocacy for medical freedom on behalf of children, the Children’s Health Defense, or CHD, brought Kane on as a grassroots organizer. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the former chairman of CHD, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending childhood epidemics. 

Kane has been an outspoken activist, highly visible and vocal about efforts to revoke vaccine mandates. He is currently involved with three active lawsuits, including  Kane v. DeBlasio, challenging the vaccine mandate and the way requests for religious accommodations were denied.

“I break down over what we went through,” said  Kane, while reflecting on his battle against the mandates. Now that he has joined the American Values super PAC and endorsed Kennedy, Kane has even more hope for the medical freedom movement.

“Bobby was there for us when no one else was there,” said Kane. “In 2021, he was on the streets in New York City rallying with us at a New York Freedom rally. There’s no other person running for president that was there for firefighters, teachers, nurses and sanitation workers.” 

“There are millions of people in this country that know what Bobby did for medical freedom and day to day, I’m working on strategies to get those people jumping in to help Bobby become president,” added Kane. “I think the first hundred days of Bobby’s presidency could be mind-blowing.” 

But Kane believes Kennedy will be a president who does more than champion the cause of medical freedom for all Americans. He sees him as a leader who will unify the nation. 

“Biden has so divided this country,” said Kane. “He ran, talking about how divisive Trump was and then he became far more divisive than Trump ever was.”