The National Education Association, America’s largest teachers’ union, enjoys a rare privilege: a federal charter, granted by Congress in 1906 — the only labor union to hold that distinction.
But leaked resolutions from its 2025 annual meeting, shared with us by a dismayed union member, reveal an organization that has traded its educational mission for blatant political activism.
Congress must revoke the NEA’s federal charter to signal its disgust at the union’s taxpayer-backed assault on students, parents and common sense.
The NEA’s annual convention in Portland, Ore. last week produced resolutions that read like a progressive battle plan — not a roadmap for better schools.
In a moment of peak parody, one approved resolution committed spending $3,500 of union money on “using the term facism in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions.”
Yes, the teachers union misspelled “fascism” while applying that label to the duly elected president of the United States.
The irony is rich: The NEA accuses others of authoritarianism while pushing for government control over education, fighting tooth and nail against school choice to trap kids in union-controlled, government-run schools.
Historically, real fascists in Italy and elsewhere restricted educational options to brainwash the youth, a tactic the NEA mirrors.
That wasn’t all. Another NEA resolution pledged $1,500 and the work of union staffers to support “the mass democratic movement against Trump’s authoritarianism and violations of human rights” through the “No Kings” movement.
And as The Post has reported, NEA members also voted to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, an organization founded to combat antisemitism.
The union’s 2025 “Teacher of the Year,” Ashlie Crosson, underscored its political bias in her convention speech.
“Once I realized how deeply political our profession has always been, I knew I could no longer stay on the sidelines,” she declared.
No wonder the NEA’s membership in 2019 soundly rejected a proposal to “rededicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America.”
Instead, the union this year embraced resolutions to “defend birthright citizenship” and support students “organizing against Trump’s policies” and “against ICE raids and deportations.”
It claimed them as matters of free expression — but conspicuously omitted any message of support for students who might speak in favor of Trump’s policies.
This selective advocacy reveals the union’s true aim: molding young minds into activists for its progressive vision.
To undercut the Supreme Court’s landmark decision empowering parents to opt their children out of gender-ideology instruction, NEA members voted to spend over $200,000 on documents and conferences coaching teachers on how to embed LGBTQ+ materials in their lessons — without facing consequences.
This resolution subverts parental rights, making the NEA a wedge between families and their children.
Yet another approved resolution labeled President Trump’s plans to eliminate the Department of Education as “illegal, anti-democratic, and racist.”
Yet the department’s track record shows it’s the status quo that’s failing minority students. The NEA’s fight to protect its monopoly prioritizes ineffective adults over vulnerable children, locking poor kids in underperforming schools.
Open Secrets data confirms the NEA’s partisanship: Since 1990, nearly all its political contributions — 98.24% in the 2024 election cycle — have gone to Democrats.
This is a political machine, not an education organization.
Its resolutions, which read like a declaration of war on the Trump administration, have nothing to do with teaching — and everything to do with advancing a socialist agenda.
The NEA’s hypocrisy in labeling others as fascists while stifling educational freedom is glaring.
By fighting to keep kids in failing government schools, the NEA protects itself while limiting families’ options — a hallmark of the authoritarian control it claims to oppose.
Enough. It’s past time for Congress to pass Virginia Rep. Bob Good’s National Education Association Charter Repeal Act.
Revoking the charter would strip the NEA of its congressional endorsement and special status, diminishing its perceived authority.
It wouldn’t dissolve the union, but would remove the federal legitimacy that bolsters its sway over education policy, decisively demonstrating that Congress no longer endorses its agenda.
An organization that traps poor kids in failing schools to protect its power should not have the backing of the federal government.
The NEA has strayed far from its original purpose — and its privileged status must end.
Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Culture Project and a visiting fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
