Nation’s largest teachers union under fire as controversial agenda puts century-old federal charter at risk

EXCLUSIVE — The head of an influential Senate committee is urging Congress to reconsider the charter of the nation’s largest teachers union, citing its far-left associations and allegedly irresponsible financial activity.

In recent years, the National Education Association, which represents roughly 3 million educators, has come under fire for mobilizing students and teachers to support liberal activist campaigns, been criticized by its Jewish members for failing to address antisemitism, spent millions in membership dues supporting left-wing causes and partnered with organizations that portray political violence and far-left extremism favorably.

Now, Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is calling on his colleagues to take a closer look at the NEA’s congressional charter.

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“Children are struggling to read and to do basic math. Instead of helping students succeed, teachers’ unions are injecting a dangerous, anti-American agenda into our classrooms,” Cassidy told Fox News Digital. “Parents deserve to send their children to school without worrying that they will be indoctrinated with DEI and taught that Americans have ‘misplaced faith’ in our institutions.”

Cassidy, in a report outlining the NEA’s activity obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, puts a spotlight on the Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools — a pair of interlinked educational nonprofits that the top teachers union has collaborated with extensively.

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The Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools, for instance, have published curricular materials that justify the actions of the Black Panther Party — a left-wing militant Black nationalist organization that operated during the Cold War — and praise its members, including those who were involved in acts of political violence, according to the report. 

“The Marxist and communist ideologies espoused by the Black Panther Party are inconsistent and incompatible with the foundation of the United States Constitution,” Cassidy’s report, published by the HELP committee, reads. “The Black Panthers advocated for the use of armed force against police and were involved in the murders of civil servants and members of their own party.”

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Rethinking Schools also published a lesson plan where students are meant to role-play as “queer liberation” activists fighting against the “Religious Right,” according to the report. Another lesson plan, titled “Expanding Intersectional Queer History in the Elementary Grades,” instructs teachers on how to incorporate LGBTQ material into lessons for young students.

The union has worked closely with the duo of nonprofits over the years, giving them prominent space and speaking opportunities at conferences, collaborating with them on curriculum development and nationwide teaching events, and praising and promoting their lessons. The union has also incorporated the groups’ work into educator handbooks and helped distribute their lesson plans to teachers.

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Congress chartered the NEA in 1906 under the expectation that it would “elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States,” a mission Cassidy and some other Republicans argue it has since strayed from. Revoking the NEA’s charter would primarily be a reputational blow to the union, as it would still be able to operate even without it.

As another example of the NEA allegedly failing to live up to its charter, the HELP committee points to its involvement in the left-wing protest movements.

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The labor union promoted and participated in the 2026 May Day protests, which were critical of President Donald Trump and his Republican allies. In one planning webinar the NEA hosted in the lead-up to the demonstrations, educators were advised to “bring activism into the classroom,” targeting children as young as three years old. Students in Chicago were reportedly encouraged by teachers to skip class for the protests, even as Chicago Public Schools see subpar reading and math competency scores.

On the financial side of things, Cassidy points to data showing that, since 2015, the NEA has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to advocacy organizations and political action committees, the vast majority of which are left-of-center. In some cases, political organizations funded by the NEA later provided members of the union’s leadership team with cushy jobs, according to the report.

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“The central issue is not whether every such expenditure is impermissible. Rather, it is whether members receive sufficient transparency about how their dues are used, whether union leadership has adopted adequate safeguards against conflicts of interest and whether these expenditures advance the purposes for which members joined the union in the first place,” the Senate committee report reads.

Organizations funded by the NEA include the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the Tides Foundation, two of the largest Democratic-aligned dark money operations in the country, as well as millions to its own PAC, which almost exclusively supports Democratic candidates.

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The HELP committee report also alleges that the NEA has failed to represent the interests of Jewish educators, citing an August 2025 letter where the union’s Jewish Affairs Caucus claimed its members reported “shunning, harassment and antisemitic comments” at the union’s annual assembly.

While not congressionally chartered like the NEA, the American Federation of Teachers drew flak from Cassidy’s report for many of the same reasons.

The report cites the AFT’s participation in “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump, its boycott of Target over immigration enforcement and its advocacy on LGBTQ+ issues, as well as its routing of tens of millions of dollars to liberal causes, as evidence of alleged mission drift at the union.

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The NEA, AFT, Rethinking Schools and the Zinn Education Project did not respond to requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

The scrutiny comes as the NEA transitions to new leadership. Princess R. Moss, a former NEA vice president and secretary-treasurer, began a three-year term as president on Tuesday, succeeding Becky Pringle, who led the union for six years.