Earlier this month, the National Education Association (NEA) held its annual meeting and Representative Assembly “to debate the vital issues that impact American public education and set National Education Association policy and activities for the year ahead.” 

As expected, the teachers union failed to address many crucial issues facing American students and instead focused on its activist agenda. Here are five business items the NEA discussed and three quotes demonstrating its agenda. 

Business Items 

  1. The NEA adopted a measure that continues to push LGBTQ+ ideology on teachers and students. The amendment enables the NEA to advance LGBTQ+ school curriculum and policies that align with groups such as Human Rights Campaign, Trevor Project, and GLSEN. It also allows the union to include LGBTQ+ rights in its 2024 political strategy. 

    Specifically, the NEA will work with other organizations to start “updating, distributing, and facilitating programs aimed at improving school climate and culture, particularly addressing LGBTQ+ youth homelessness, suicide, and the need for access to gender-affirming care, and include specific LGBTQ+ cultural competency training for NEA and UniServ staff in those programs.” 

    Additionally, the amendment allows the NEA to provide grant opportunities for training on using pronouns, transitioning students, and other LGBTQ+ policies. Furthermore, the NEA steps way beyond its educational mission into medical guidance by updating its “bargaining guidance around LGBTQ+ issues, including access to gender-affirming care, and circulating to state and local affiliates.” 

    This measure will cost $580,000—the most expensive of all the new measures. 

    According to EducationWeek, Emilly Osterling, who introduced the item, said, The NEA’s goal is to provide state and local affiliates with the resources they need to be able to combat anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and policies from both state legislatures and school boards. 
  1. Another business item introduced advocated for state and local affiliates of the union to use more “inclusive” contract language like “birthing parent” and “non-birthing parent” as well as “mother” and “father.” This item was included in the main measure. 
  1. A main theme of this year’s meeting was allowing “banned” books into schools. The union even led a “Freedom to Learn” rally that attacked Governor Ron DeSantis and others, “who are banning books, silencing educators, and taking away the freedom to learn from students.” In response, the NEA has created a recommended summer reading list. On that list is Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” which includes graphic depictions of oral sex, dildos, and sexting—what can only be considered pornography. Another book on the list is “Ready Player One,” which was taken out of Florida middle schools for including profanity and a sex robot. 
  1. NEA delegates also voted on whether the union should endorse President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election. Around 84% voted in a secret ballot to endorse him. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden even made an appearance at the meeting and were called “the most pro-public education, pro-union administration in modern history.”  
  1. Lastly, the NEA discussed adding language about holding meetings in states that disagree with NEA efforts. Already, the NEA prohibits holding meetings in places where delegates “are likely to experience discriminatory treatment.” The proposed bylaw amendment would have added: “which shall include the denial of medical services due to a delegate’s ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, and/or reproductive status.” The amendment did not pass. 

Quotes 

  1. During the “Freedom to Learn” rally, NEA President Becky Pringle said,

    “We will not allow Ron DeSantis—or any other politician—to destroy our public schools for their own political gain. We will continue to remind him—and everyone who stands against us—that our students do not need protection from drag queens. … What they need is protection from gun violence. Every student deserves the freedom to read books that teach them the history, beauty, and diversity of their world.” 
  1. She also called Florida “our ground zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric and dangerous actions.” 
  1. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona claimed that “so-called leaders …  complain about public education but sleep well at night knowing their teachers are making less than $40,000 a year.” And yet, NEA itself estimates that the national average teacher salary for the 2022-23 school year was $68,469. 

These business items and quotes reveal the true intentions of the NEA—advancing its ideology and political agenda.