PORTLAND, Ore. — At its annual convention earlier this month, the National Education Association (NEA) — the country’s largest teachers’ union — moved from classroom advocacy to full-blown political warfare, adopting a series of radical resolutions that critics say are designed to attack former President Donald Trump, reshape public education, and bypass parental authority.
From July 3 to July 6, thousands of educators gathered in Portland for what appeared more like a charged political summit than a professional assembly. NEA President Becky Pringle, a staunch Democrat who earned over half a million dollars between September 2020 and August 2021 while advocating for schools to remain closed, wasted no time setting the tone.
“Our country is depending on us, on this community, to lead the way from dogmatism back to decency,” Pringle declared, shouting through much of her keynote speech.
Secret Resolutions, But Leaks Tell All
While the NEA chose not to publicly release the controversial business items passed during the event, education policy watchdog Corey DeAngelis obtained leaked documentation. The revelations, he says, should alarm parents across the country.
“It looks like a declaration of war on the Trump administration,” DeAngelis told Blaze News.
DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Culture Project and visiting fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, emphasized the deep partisan slant.
“We already knew that the NEA was basically an arm of the Democrat Party based on their campaign contributions. Nearly all of their political funding is funneled to Democrats’ campaign coffers every single election cycle, and we knew that the NEA supported Kamala Harris in the presidential election,” he explained. “But these resolutions take it up a notch.”
One particularly eyebrow-raising resolution allegedly instructs the NEA to actively label Trump’s actions and policies as “fascism” in all official materials — although the leaked documents even misspelled the word as “facism.”
The cost for this messaging campaign? A modest but symbolic $3,500.
‘You Really Can’t Make This Stuff Up’
“You really can’t make this stuff up,” DeAngelis said. “You have the nation’s largest teachers’ union, in their attempt to call the president a ‘fascist,’ misspell the word. It’s another bit of free advertising for school choice and homeschooling.”
Another resolution obtained by DeAngelis rails against the notion of eliminating the U.S. Department of Education — branding such efforts as “illegal, anti-democratic, and racist.” The union claims privatization efforts serve only “the interest of the billionaires.”
To that, DeAngelis didn’t mince words: “I don’t know how in the world they can say getting rid of the Department of Education, which has failed at every academic metric for low-income and minority kids, is somehow racist. If anything, keeping that department around has more roots in racism than anything since it has failed to close achievement gaps and to get black kids, in particular, at proficiency levels in reading and math.”
Parental Rights Under Threat?
According to the documents, the NEA is also actively targeting states that restrict collective bargaining or take measures to reduce union power. In its resolutions, the NEA equates states’ rights with Jim Crow and commits to backing affiliates in places like Arkansas and South Carolina states it labeled as being in “extreme need.”
That support will come in many forms: legal assistance, lobbying efforts, and even mobilizing both retired and current NEA members.
“They’re trying to subvert the will of parents,” DeAngelis warned.
Students as Political Foot Soldiers
In a striking example of politicizing education, another resolution commits the NEA to backing student protests against law enforcement and Trump-era immigration policies. One item reads:
“NEA opposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) kidnapping of student leaders and supports students’ right to organize against ICE raids and deportations. We will protect our students’ right to free speech and defend their right to dissent and organize against Trump’s policies, including attacks against LGBTQ+ students, and against racism.”
However, the NEA conceded that implementing the initiative might be delayed due to resource constraints: “This item cannot be accomplished with current staff and resources under the 2025–26 Modified Strategic Plan and Budget.”
Still, the intent is clear. Another resolution expresses full support for anti-government movements, including Los Angeles-based anti-ICE protests and “No Kings” demonstrations.
DeAngelis Issues a Wake-Up Call
“These resolutions are your wake-up call to homeschool your kids,” DeAngelis said bluntly.
“It’s free advertising for school choice.”
He didn’t hold back when asked about the NEA’s top leadership either: “Would you want these lunatics at the National Education Association like Becky Pringle teaching your kids? Do you want them to help you raise your children? Do you want them to push back against everything you’re trying to do in the household?” DeAngelis asked. “They’re trying to subvert the will of parents.”
In his view, the union no longer sees schools as institutions for academics — but as “the means to control the minds of other people’s children” and “churn out more Democrat foot soldiers to push their progressive worldview on the rest of the country.”
A Radical March Forward
Despite mounting criticism, Pringle signaled that the NEA has no intention of backing down. In her impassioned address, she called on educators to take their fight far beyond the school walls.
“We must use our power to take action that leads, action that liberates, action that lasts,” she said, emphasizing the NEA’s five-point plan to “educate, communicate, organize, mobilize, litigate, legislate, elect.”
As the union sharpens its political claws, the battle lines are becoming clearer and the nation’s classrooms may soon find themselves at the heart of an escalating culture war.
