For the first time in two years, the National Education Association (NEA) held its annual convention, or Representative Assembly (RA) as the union calls it, in person in Chicago over the July 4th weekend. Union president Becky Pringle acknowledged that the NEA moved the RA out of Dallas, Texas where it was originally scheduled to take place, but declined to call it a boycott.

Longtime observer of the NEA's annual shenanigans, education researcher and expert, Mike Antonucci, called this "a half-truth." He tweeted on July 7 that according to an NEA board member speaking about the decision to move the conference: "Several other states had already decided to boycott the [convention] in Texas." Some members argued at the board meeting in November 2021 that "we should show up and support the progressive forces that stand too lonely in the Lone Star state. Others noted the severe repression of reproductive rights, the assault on voting rights, and the astonishing state laws that allow guns at public meetings. But it was the unwillingness of Texas to vaccinate and address the pandemic in a rational, safe fashion that carried the day." Apart from the NEA faithful, many observers applaud the state of Texas for those very reasons.

Concerned parents and citizens owe many thanks to the North Carolina-based John Locke Foundation for posting the (NEA NBIs) and Mike Antonucci's Education Intelligence Agency for exposing the NEA's extreme agenda, which has everything to do with promoting radical leftwing plans and almost nothing to do with teaching academics.

Dr. Terry Stoops, director of the Locke Foundation's Center for Effective Education, told the Washington Examiner: "It is unsurprising that the NEA tried to conceal their meeting documents," adding that "they contain embarrassingly little about overcoming learning loss sustained by children attending schools that adhered to masking and reopening recommendations championed by the NEA leaders during the pandemic."

He added: "NEA leaders claim that they remain focused on the needs of public-school children and educators. Instead, meeting documents show that the NEA is nothing more than a pathetic assemblage of social justice warriors struggling to be relevant in an era of unprecedented parental empowerment."

Stoops' assessment may not be far off. Nationwide, parents have been rising up against progressive school boards and curricula, and some are removing their children from public-school classrooms. Public school teachers are leaving the profession for a variety of reasons, and there is currently a shortage of both full-time teachers and substitutes. The increasingly radical politics of the NEA factor into these developments.

NEA New Business Items (NBIs)

The NBIs considered at the 2022 NEA RA ran the gamut of intrusive, non-academically related topics, and some of the more objectionable NBIs follow here.

NBI 15 vows that the NEA will conduct research "to create fact sheets about the largest 25 organizations actively working to diminish a student's right to honesty in education, freedom of sexual and gender identify [sic], and teacher autonomy." This means the NEA intends to publish and disseminate everything they can about organizations that strive to protect children from inappropriate sex education programs and transgender grooming, including the names of their leaders, their funding sources, and more. According to Mike Antonucci, this NBI "is the latest in a long history of creating enemies lists."

NBI 29 states: "The NEA will publicly denounce current and forthcoming Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation." The national organization "will work with state affiliates to conduct letter-writing campaigns to state legislators, "filing amicus briefs where appropriate," organizing lobbying efforts, and educating its members and state governments "about the harm anti-LGBTQ+ bills have on LGBTQ+ students and members and showcase work [that] affiliates and members are doing to organize around defeating these bills." Evidently, Florida's Parents Rights in Education law and similar acts in other states have struck a nerve with the NEA as they have with leftwing activists across the country.

NBI 34 pledges that NEA "will publicly stand in defense of abortion and reproductive rights and encourage members to participate in activities including rallies and demonstrations, lobbying and political campaigns, educational events, and other actions to support the right to abortion..." The union's "rationale" for this NBI reads verbatim: "NEA is a social justice union that is a majority female and trans and gender non-conforming folx who will fight against these attacks on our members, students, families, and communities. The reproductive rights of all persons who are able to." In commenting on this NBI, the Gateway Pundit observed: "The leftist organization doesn't even seem to recognize its heterosexual male membership..."

NBI 37 calls for "mandatory masking and COVID vaccines in schools, as well as high-quality virtual education for immuno-compromised students and all families who want it by publicizing successful virtual education programs in public schools throughout the nation in existing media outlets." The rationale for this NBI includes: "Mandatory masking, vaccines, and access to virtual education are necessary policy measures to reduce COVID danger." The NEA obviously rejects the many reports that show masking doesn't work, that virtual education was for the most part ineffective and even harmful to students, and that vaccines are unnecessary and potentially risky for children. (See Biden Administration, NEA Push Mandatory Vaccines for Kids.)

NBI 39 reads: "The NEA will demonstrate its support for right to asylum for migrants from Venezuela and Central America now arriving at the U.S. southern border, and demand an end to Title 42 and the Trump 'Remain in Mexico' policies by working with affiliates to publicize the impact of such policies on students and families in their communities."

NBI 40 asserts: "NEA will work with state affiliates to oppose the attempts by school boards and politicians across the country to 'downsize' school districts and close campuses permanently. Specifically, the NEA will use existing media channels to publicize and oppose such school closure plans, support direct community actions to keep them open, and advocate for smaller class sizes and public schools in every neighborhood." This may be difficult even for the NEA to pull off if public-school enrollment continues the decline that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As if NBI 29 weren't enough, NBI 41 attacks Florida's pro-parent law more directly: "The NEA will take all necessary steps to defeat and overturn the 'Don't Say Gay' law in Florida and other homophobic and antitransgender laws and attacks throughout the country. We will demonstrate this by publicizing our support of and participation in mass actions for LGBT rights and Pride. The NEA will publicize our continued commitment to LGBT youth and all young people's right to learn about and develop their own sexual orientation and gender identity. The NEA will demonstrate its support for the independent mass actions of youth to defend their existence, dignity, and rights of the LGBT community by encouraging membership participation in rallies, pickets, etc. The NEA will take action to vigorously defend educators who support LGBT youth and who teach about the existence, dignity, rights, mass actions, history, and pride of LGBT people." Whew! This is in keeping with Becky Pringle's rant during the convention, in which she practically screamed the union's support of LGBT rights and its dedication to promoting them.

NBI 47 seeks to turn up the heat on the biased topic of "personal finance standards related to historical reasons that have exacerbated the racial wealth gap in the United States, so that state affiliates may best push for legislation or language in standards that acknowledge this matter." In other words, the NEA wants to increase divisiveness among educators and students according to ethnic origins and skin color, harking back to slavery and "New Deal era policies that segregated lower income people of all races integrating housing projects." The rationale for this NBI is to teach students "about the systemic barriers to wealth" so they can "make fully informed decisions and understand the implications of their personal financial situations." The intent of this NBI is apparently to complement CRT by making white students feel guilty regardless of the financial status of their families, while making non-white students feel victimized, regardless of the financial status of their families.

NBI 53 reads: "NEA shall create a policy task force to develop strategies for placing the intersectionality of climate justice and environmental racism at the center of all relevant conversations and business. We have a moral obligation to model climate engagement and be active visionaries for the future of our planet." The stated rationale is that "if we truly care about our children, their future, and all future generations, we need to center all our work around intersectional justice predicated within the broader context of the health and well-being of our planet."

NBI 62 expands on NEA's radical abortion stance by declaring: "The NEA will use all means at our disposal to defend reproductive freedom and Roe v. Wade, including working with affiliates to organize and support marches and rallies for women's rights and support clinic defense in cities where abortion clinics are under attack by the right wing. The NEA will defend its members and students who need access to abortions and birth control. The NEA will issue a press release calling on the Biden administration to increase the number of Supreme Court justices, and/or to impeach the justices who went against their sworn testimony to not overturn Roe v. Wade. The NEA will issue a press release calling for an end to the Senate filibuster that is being used now, as it has in the past to block progressive legislation. The NEA will also publicize the above actions through our existing media outlets." The rationale predictably condemns "the three Trump appointed Supreme Court justices," charging that they "constitute a far right-wing coup inside the nation's highest judicial body. The new civil rights movement must defeat these attacks through organizing mass actions to defend women and all Americans from this attack."

NBI 63 promises to "inform states and locals of the following sample language that may be put in contracts that is LGBTQIA+ inclusive. The language will be as follows: 'Parental leave' instead of 'maternity leave,' 'parent' instead of 'mother' or 'father,' 'birthing parent' instead of 'mother,' and 'non-birthing parent' instead of 'father.' The rationale for this nonsense: "Using this contract language, members need not worry about how a Board of Education/solicitor defines 'maternity leave,' 'mother,' and/or 'father'; the language is an inclusive reflection of how LGBTQIA+ members build their families."

NBI 65 shows NEA's support for gun control laws. It reads: "NEA, using existing resources, will encourage members and others to wear orange every Tuesday during September and October to show support for common-sense gun safety laws." The rationale: "To show elected lawmakers and other officials the public's support for passing stringent gun safety laws, a position that surveys show is held by 80 percent to 90 percent of U.S. voters." NBI 66 builds on the gun control theme by promising to "post U.S. senators' and representatives' positions on NEA-supported gun safety laws" to ensure that "NEA members know where their federal lawmakers stand" on these laws.

The NEA also saw fit, in its near-total exclusion of anything connected to academic teaching, to voice its support of Ukraine. NBI 72 states: "NEA will use existing digital communication tools to educate members and the general public about the illegal Russian invasion, as determined by the United Nations, of Ukraine, which includes the atrocities that occurred from the bombing of residential areas including schools, hospitals, and major cultural sites, causing over 14,000 civilian deaths. Sources should include but not be limited to Education International and other NGOs such as CARE, Project Hope, and the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund."

Lest the NEA not be clear enough on its positions regarding the LGBTQIA+ community, NBI 82 further clarifies: "The National Education Association shall acknowledge the existence in our country of institutional homophobia and transphobia–the societal patterns and practices that have the net effect of imposing oppressive conditions and denying rights, opportunity, and equality based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. This inequity manifests itself in our schools and in the conditions our students and educators face in their communities.

"In order to address institutional homophobia and transphobia, the National Education Association shall lead by: 1) spotlighting systemic patterns of inequity–homophobia and transphobia–that impact our students and educators; and 2) taking action to enhance access and opportunity for our students and educators. NEA will use our collective voice to bring to light and demand change to policies, programs, and practices that condone or ignore unequal treatment and hinder student and educator success." The NBI continues with a list of ways the union plans to do this. The rationale states that "it is time to acknowledge and address the systemic homophobia and transphobia taking place in our great public schools. NEA has an obligation to be at the forefront of dismantling an oppressive system full of hate, misinformation, and fear mongering."

Other NBIs include an attempt to initiate a merger with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), an effort that has failed in the past, and multiple NBIs calling for more mental health resources and socio-emotional learning (SEL). Most of the proposed NBIs will require additional funding to implement, with an estimated budget of $140,625 needed to fund NBI 15 alone.

While it's unclear how many of these NBIs were actually approved at the conference, the NEA did issue a press release promoting its approval of a new policy on school policing to "ensure safe, just, and equitable schools."

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