The Department of Education marked Teacher Appreciation Week with a “SpongeBob SquarePants”-themed post on X that quickly drew mockery and backlash online.“Teachers are dedicated,” the department — which President Donald Trump has long sought to dismantle — wrote on Wednesday alongside an image of the character Mrs. Puff reading a book titled “MAGA.”Critics quickly pointed to what they saw as hypocrisy from Republicans who frequently complain about children being “indoctrinated by Democrats” in schools while putting a “Make America Great Again” spin on a cartoon character.Others noted that Mrs. Puff is perhaps best known in the show for SpongeBob SquarePants’ repeated failure to pass his driving exam, despite her lessons.Republicans: the children are being indoctrinated by Democrats in schools!Republicans running the Department of Education: https://t.co/l6TqKhE0mp— Joshua Rush (@JoshuaRush) May 6, 2026It's a perfect tweet because, between the right-wing hatred of teachers and the graphic having the character reading a book called MAGA somehow, there are zero people happy about it. https://t.co/7d5u4hkJEn— Damin Toell (@damintoell) May 6, 2026Mrs. Puff was so dedicated that after SpongeBob failed his driving test, she just said “f it” and gave him a 10-word test, which he didn’t even complete, and still passed himShe is the literal worst example you could’ve used for this https://t.co/BAhUvi30C7— JaguarGator9 (@JaguarGator9NFL) May 7, 2026Close