1024px-Chicago Teachers Union_Rally_10-14-19_3712_(48906579622) wikicommons
Every year we check in on what the National Education Association is doing at its annual convention — and every year the picture gets a little harder to explain to parents who still think the teachers' union is focused on teaching.
This year's NEA Representative Assembly was held in early July, and watchdog groups sent observers to document what was adopted, debated, and pushed on the floor. The results are worth knowing about.
Let’s start with the finances. The convention approved a ten-dollar-per-year dues increase for all active members, to be directed into what the NEA calls its Ballot Measure and Legislative Crises Media Campaign Fund. With nearly three million active members, that is more than twenty million additional dollars per year flowing into political campaigns and ballot measure fights. Since 2016, the NEA has spent over three hundred million dollars on ballot measures, school board races, and left-wing activist organizations. This increase makes sure that spending keeps climbing, all of it on the backs of teachers who in many states have no choice but to pay union dues.
Among other items formally adopted by the convention: a resolution directing the NEA to publish resources helping members identify local law enforcement agencies that cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and pressure them to end that cooperation. Another adopted item expands the NEA's See Educators Run program, which trains union members to run for school board, city council, and state office — complete with campaign planning, messaging, and fundraising support. The NEA isn’t just a union, it is a political machine that feeds candidates directly into the system.
The convention also saw proposals to publish anti-military recruitment materials for school use, to add curricula from organizations with documented anti-Israel advocacy to the NEA website, and a push to formally call for the impeachment and removal of President Trump. All of this is wrapped up in a bow with a march on Washington before the midterms. Those last two were voted down or blocked, but the fact that they were on the floor at all tells you everything about the culture of of the so-called National Education Association.
Your children's teachers are being trained by this political organization, and their dues are funding its agenda. Parents deserve to know, and in turn to ask questions of their school officials.
Stay informed on education issues at PhyllisSchlafly.com, again PhyllisSchlafly.com, and join us next time for the Phyllis Schlafly Report.
