TEACHERS’ UNIONS: UNDERMINING EDUCATION WITH POLITICAL AGENDAS
America’s largest teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) push radical political agendas that undermine education fundamentals and parental rights. Contrary to their missions of “excellence in public school education” and “high quality education,” they divert resources from classrooms, override parents, and prioritize left-wing ideologies over kids’ learning, well-being, and academic success.
Not only do the unions openly and loudly prioritize political activism like climate agendas, but, both teachers’ unions have also endorsed left-wing candidates and causes, funneling more than $43 million to politically-aligned groups since 2022.
NEA and AFT also spend heavily on elections and policy influence. One AFT PAC, for example, raised more than $13 million for the 2024 election cycle with more than 98% of contributions going to Democratic candidates, including $1.5 million to federal congressional candidates.
Source: AFT Facebook Page
ASSAULT ON PARENTAL RIGHTS AND EDUCATION REFORMS
In 2025, the NEA and AFT launched aggressive legal and activist campaigns against the Trump Administration’s attempts to reform the U.S. education system and put parents back in control of their children’s development. The unions filed lawsuits to halt the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and federal funding cuts. They framed these reforms as threats to DEI and LGBTQ+ initiatives, obscuring the reality that the Trump Administration’s education initiatives aim to restore parental oversight of curricula, and to de-politicize education.
NEA President Becky Pringle also denounced the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which enabled parents to opt their children out of age inappropriate and one-sided LGBTQ+ content. Pringle argued that the Supreme Court’s decision to allow parents to have a say in their children’s education was a “threat to democracy,” that erodes educators’ authority. Parents deserve more. Education organizations should prioritize parental authority and provide resources to ensure the curriculum focuses on core competencies.
Source: New York Post
The prioritization of leftwing ideology continues to be at the forefront of education policy for the teacher’s unions. This year, at the NEA’s annual meeting, a member who asked union members about the best ways to teach reading and writing was allegedly told “we don’t have time for that. We’ve got to fight Trump.” AFT’s Randi Weingarten has similarly shown a commitment to far-left agendas, joining boycotts against commonsense DEI rollbacks at retailers like Target, and promoting tools for student activism.
Source: WPDE
The NEA also urges school districts to defy federal guidelines intended to protect female athletes and students. For example, the NEA endorses biological men competing in women’s sports. The organization also pushes discriminatory ideologies through their “Schools in Transition” guide, which promotes transgender topics in classrooms without parental consent. NEA and AFT publish explicit resource libraries, training programs, and resolutions that promote racial justice, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and social justice classroom practice. These tactics highlight how unions impose ideology, sidelining parents’ role in safeguarding their children.
Source: NEA Schools in Transition Guide
UNION ACTIVISM’S TOLL: DECLINING STUDENT PERFORMANCE
These unions are doubling down on radical activism while ignoring teacher shortages and misusing dues that could fund classroom essentials like training and supplies.
During the COVID pandemic, NEA and AFT pushed to keep schools closed longer by delaying reopening, and influenced guidelines for remote learning, exploiting their union power to resist in-person returns at the expense of children’s mental health and education. This led to widespread learning loss that is still impacting children.
The Nation’s Report Card, released September 2025, revealed that students are falling behind in core subjects. The results showed that 45% of 12th graders scored below the basic achievement level in math (5% more than 2019), and almost a third of 12th graders scored below the basic achievement level in reading (2% more than 2019). Similarly, nearly 40% of 8th-graders scored below the ‘basic achievement level’ (5% more than 2019).
These prolonged closures, remote learning dissatisfaction, and learning loss prompted families nationwide to flee public schools for homeschooling.
NEA 2025 HANDBOOK
A leaked NEA 2025 Handbook additionally exposed the organization’s radical beliefs, which undermine the educational goals they were established to achieve.
The NEA’s 434-page 2025 Handbook promotes divisive content that sidelines parental input and prioritizes politics over education. For example, it downplays the Holocaust by framing it as affecting “more than 12 million victims from different faiths” without mentioning Jewish people. The Handbook material was so controversial that it prompted a U.S. House Education Committee investigation into the NEA’s antisemitic positions, including the handbook’s content and a vote to reject Anti-Defamation League materials within.
The handbook also attacks homeschooling claiming that it “cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience.” It also attacked school choice programs, which many argue are essential for allowing parents more control over their children’s educational outcomes, and enhancing education nationwide through healthy competition, are “governmental attempts to resegregate public schools.” The handbook touted the use of preferred names and pronouns as of the “utmost importance” while blaming “white supremacy culture” as the “primary root cause of institutional racism.”
Source: NEA Handbook 2025
Source: NEA Handbook 2025
Source: NEA Handbook 2025
Parents have the right to know what their children are taught, approve sensitive content, see who influences the classroom, and hold decision-makers accountable. It’s time to reclaim parental authority, and to demand teachers’ unions focus on academic success and not divisive ideologies.
TIPS FOR PARENTS
OTHER NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Thanks for reading the latest edition of the American Parents Coalition’s The Lookout. If you have a troubling story to share about a school, doctor, company, or other institution working to usurp parents’ rights, please let us know by emailing us at outreach@americanparentscoalition.org.
