FEATURED
Several bills have been introduced in Congress that take aim at the National Education Association’s charter, particularly in light of the union’s support for leftism.
A charter is largely an honor and does not provide specific benefits, according to the Congressional Research Service. Other chartered organizations include the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.
However, some say that this honor should no longer be given to the NEA, due to its recent declarations that President Donald Trump is a fascist as well as what critics say is an unwillingness to address antisemitism.
Others want to see the charter used to effect change from the teachers’ union, which represents K-12 but also some college employees. Around 115,000 of the union’s 3 million members work in higher education, according to data provided by the Missouri affiliate.
One bill, introduced by Representatives Mark Harris (R-NC) in the House and Marsha Blackburn (pictured) (R-TN) in the Senate, will strip the union of its federal charter, which the union has held for more than 100 years.
The other bill – titled the “Stopping Teachers Unions from Damaging Education Needs Today Act” (STUDENT Act) – was introduced by Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) and Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and hopes to alter the charter to address recent allegations of political partisanship.
Corey DeAngelis, who is a senior fellow at the American Culture Project and a vocal critic of the NEA, detailed the reasons behind the current legislative proposals.
“Over 98% of [the NEA’s] political contributions in the most recent election cycle went to the Democrat party. So in a sense, the National Education Association is nothing more than a money laundering operation for the Democrat party,” DeAngelis told The Fix.
Among other similar resolutions and communications, DeAngelis reported that the NEA passed a resolution “to defend against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions.” In the resolution itself, the teachers’ union misspelled fascism.
The Fix also reached out to the Freedom Foundation for comment. The group advocates for political neutrality in education.
Maxford Nelsen, the Freedom Foundation’s government affairs director, shared his insights about the best way to address the situation.
Nelsen commended the efforts of Reps. Fitzgerald and Lummis, who want to amend the NEA’s charter rather than nixing it, saying that “We agree that the NEA should not receive any special congressional recognition,” he said on a phone interview. “Our preference, and I think a more productive approach overall … would be to amend the NEA charters instead of rescinding it.”
The group’s CEO previously criticized the NEA, stating:
At the NEA’s recent Representative Assembly in Portland, the union attacked our democratically elected president as a ‘fascist,’ opposed the enforcement of our immigration laws, and doubled down on its disturbing track record of antisemitism by severing ties with the Anti-Defamation League. Attendees at the conference were told that failure to share their pronouns would make them ‘unsafe’ to be around and were encouraged to report any breaches of social justice rules by their colleagues to the union’s Committee on Equity and Ethnic Harmony.
Some of the changes that the STUDENT Act aims to effect include prohibiting the NEA from engaging in electoral politics and lobbying, requiring it to submit an annual report to Congress and prohibiting the union from incorporating the core tenets of Critical Race Theory into its governance, operations and advocacy.
Although the NEA represents and advocates mostly for elementary and secondary-level educators, “it does represent a number of faculty in higher education and colleges and universities. And so its goals and its ideological agenda exist in the higher ed context as well as in the K-12 context,” Nelsen told The Fix.
“I think, overall, the STUDENT Act provides a more promising and meaningful opportunity to change how the NEA operates and make it less partisan and more focused on its original mission of improving public education in America,” Nelsen said.
The Fix reached out to the NEA for comment by email but has not received a response within three days and by phone but was met multiple times with a busy line.
However, President Becky Pringle previously criticized legislation to remove the charter, specifically referencing the bill introduced by Senator Blackburn. She said Republicans are going after the union because “the billionaires that fund their campaigns don’t want educators to have a voice.”
“Let me be clear—public school educators will never stop advocating for our students and communities, and the National Education Association will never stop lifting up the voice of those educators who dedicate their lives to the success of all of our students,” Pringle said, as reported by Ed Week.
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