NEA President Becky Pringle and AFT President Randi Weingarten
The two largest “teachers” unions in America funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into far left causes and candidates, while supporting initiatives to indoctrinate students.
Keeping children, and teachers, on the reservation is lucrative business.
Their political power is contingent upon maintaining a large body of educators under their thumbs. That leverage is contingent upon maintaining as many students as possible in a system that fails broad swaths of students.
Between the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), all fifty states contain active affiliates. Yes, including Mississippi. There are also other organizations that operate like de facto unions for school administrators.
At some point, teachers might begin to question whether the organizations that purport to represent them really do.
Teachers’ Unions Partisan Giving
The NEA boasts over 3 million members and revenue north of $370 million annually. AFT claims 1.7 million members and a budget over $205 million.
Looking at AFT’s and NEA’s political giving, a critic might conclude all teacher members sign a pledge to only support Democrats. The charts below reflect the unions’ federal contributions since 2014.
First, AFT‘s political generosity:
| Election Year | Amount Contributed | Percent Donated to Democrats |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $16.049 million | 99.90% |
| 2022 | $24.514 million | 99.97% |
| 2020 | $20.396 million | 99.63% |
| 2018 | $13.172 million | 99.80% |
| 2016 | $16.525 million | 99.66% |
| 2014 | $8.840 million | 99.03% |
And for the more bipartisan giving of the NEA:
| Election Year | Amount Contributed | Percent Donated to Democrats |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $22.346 million | 98.17% |
| 2022 | $26.324 million | 99.23% |
| 2020 | $14.731 million | 95.60% |
| 2018 | $5.354 million | 93.19% |
| 2016 | $10.985 million | 87.15% |
| 2014 | $8.050 million | 91.77% |
De-Emphasizing Education
Both AFT and NEA spend considerable time and resources supporting a progressive wish list of economic, social, and foreign policy completely untethered from education achievement. In recent years, AFT has taken up fights, including:
- Calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the creation of a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians
- Support for males playing female sports, and opposition to state efforts to prohibit transgender surgery for minors
- Advocating for the banning of self-checkouts in restaurants, grocery stores and retailers
- Denouncing Vladimir Putin for the transport of Ukrainian minors into Russia
- Support for the appointment of Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson and opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court in religious liberty cases
- Declaring a “climate emergency” and support for Green New Deal
Similarly, the NEA featured action items include a ceasefire in the Middle East, support for abortion access, and calls to confirm Biden’s judicial nominees. Additional NEA calls to action include:
- Restrictions on gun owners’ rights
- Advocacy for increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations
- Efforts to normalize illegal immigration
- Support for new federal election laws
- Calls to strengthen the “social safety net” and expand welfare programs
However a person thinks about any of these issues, the two largest teachers’ unions in the country collecting money from teachers to advocate for deeply contentious political causes — unrelated to the provision of education — represents dramatic mission creep, at best, and exploitation, at worst.
Reading, Writing and Social Justice
Both AFT and NEA dedicate a substantial portion of their energy and resources to promoting ‘social justice’ in public schools, a once benign term that has come to represent a grab bag of Marxist thought centered around radical identity politics.
The NEA’s mission statement says its purpose is “championing justice and excellence in public education.” That “championing justice” comes before “excellence in public education” is telling.
In a now infamous 2023 speech at NEA’s annual conference, NEA President Becky Pringle took aim at their host state, Florida. Pringle called the Sunshine State “ground zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric.” That’s a lot of -ics. She also lobbed bombs at the U.S. Supreme Court and extolled the virtues of LGBTQ rights, abortion, affirmative action, and social justice.
Not once in the 30-minute talk did she mention reading, writing, or arithmetic. If you have half an hour, and don’t mind being yelled at for half an hour, it’s worth a watch. (Towards the end she invokes the spirit of Chief Seattle).
AFT has also advocated for social justice curriculum in public schools. Among its resolutions are calls to create ‘anti-racism’ coursework. At a conference hosted by AFT in 2023, teachers received lessons that included:
- “Affirming LGBTQIA+ Identities in and out of the Classroom,”
- “Education for Liberation: The Role of the Racially Conscious Educator in Combating Oppression,” and
- “Strategies for Integrating Climate Change into Your Teaching.”
People deserve respect and to be treated with dignity. History matters, warts and all. But teaching educators and students to wallow in an ‘oppressor-oppressed’ framework, or to fixate on identity, is a tool meant to indoctrinate the amenable and marginalize political opponents. It’s also a distraction from practical education.
A couple of years ago, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo identified AFT President Randi Weingarten as “the most dangerous person in the world.” When probed, Pompeo made clear he was not joking. Weingarten has been at the center of numerous controversies, including accusations that she influenced the CDC to go against the science and stop schools from reopening during COVID.
Failing Our Kids (and Teachers)
Taxpayers continue to invest in public education. Since 1980, adjusted for inflation, per student spending has increased 77 percent. In that same span, American fourth graders’ reading scores dropped by a point on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP).
Even in Mississippi, where our students and teachers have seen better gains than the rest of the nation, 68 percent of fourth graders aren’t proficient in reading and 62 percent aren’t proficient in math.
But it’s not just students struggling. Every single survey of teacher satisfaction shows declining levels of happiness with the profession, levels much lower than those found on general work satisfaction surveys. That is to say the very people who pay teachers’ unions to represent them are not feeling the fruit of their investment.
The Close
People who like NEA’s and AFT’s politics will inevitably read this and claim it is an attack on teachers. Nothing could be further from the truth. I can name half a dozen public school teachers who had real impact on my life. And I can tell you both of my kids in Mississippi public schools love their teachers.
This is not criticism of teachers. In fact, it is a recognition of how important teachers are and the real danger of turning the act of educating a child into a divisive political act. There are plenty of members of both the NEA and AFT who feed the beast unwittingly. There are plenty of non-members that over time, absent meaningful push back, will be influenced by the agendas of these unions.
The teaching profession is uniquely collaborative. Divisive ideas introduced at the top have a way of trickling down. Our children, teachers, and schools should not be treated as political pawns or social experiments.
