Perhaps the most interesting thing about the NEA’s annual Representative Assembly (RA) over the July 4 holiday was that the union actually held the meeting in Orlando, Florida, despite its aversion to the state’s governor and the pro-parent education laws enacted by the legislature. In her keynote address, NEA President Becky Pringle labeled Florida “our nation’s Ground Zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric and dangerous actions.” The union staged its own protest on July 5, using the laughable themes of “Freedom to Learn” and “Teach Truth,” which prompted some observers to question whether the NEA is capable of grasping the meaning of either.

According to Mike Antonucci’s Education Intelligence Agency (EIA), which makes a valiant annual effort to penetrate the wall of secrecy surrounding the RA and report on its proceedings, this year’s event was no less scripted and “stage-managed” to ensure that “no shadows were cast across its self-image as the progressive defender of democracy.”

But as Antonucci reported, the RA itself was hardly conducted in a democratic manner. The delegates “spent most of their time at the four-day convention introducing, debating and voting on ‘new business items’ (NBIs),” but neither the bulk of NEA’s members (who don’t attend the conference) nor the public were permitted to know which ones passed and which did not. “The union put the proposals and actions behind a firewall,” Antonucci noted, and attending members weren’t disclosing much.

Only Education Week covers RA

However, Education Week did report on some of NEA’s RA activities. While in the past the NEA issued a limited number of press passes to various media outlets, that practice has changed over the past couple of decades. The public-school friendly Education Week, currently the only media outlet permitted to cover the convention, reported on July 6 that RA delegates approved a substantive measure to fight anti-LGBTQ+ policies in the form of a new business item with a price tag of $580,000.

While not the only item to pass, “this one was the most expensive by far.” Education Week described the NBI as “a measure for the NEA to mobilize against legislative attacks on the LGBTQ+ community; providing professional development on using pronouns and supporting transgender students, among other areas; and strengthening contract protections for LGBTQ+ educators.”

Evidently still apoplectic over Florida’s parents’ rights in education law and the similar laws that have passed or are pending in nearly 20 other states, the NEA focused heavily on LGBT issues during the RA. Delegates even wore shirts with the phrase “We Say Gay” in defiance of the Florida law that contains no mention of the word “gay.”

One teacher who attended the convention whined that [given the current legislative climate in many states] he was afraid he might not be able to “live authentically, or I can’t do some teaching around different family structures.” But what the NEA and some of its members likely fear is being prevented by law from indoctrinating students about deviant lifestyles and being forced to teach actual academics, the dire need for which is proven by the recently released dismal NAEP scores in reading, math, history, and civics. (See The Costly Failure of Public Schools in this issue of Education Reporter.)

A public-school administrative staffer attending the convention claimed LGBT teachers “are leaving in droves,” allegedly out of fear of current laws requiring that the teaching of sexual topics be relegated to parents. But anecdotal evidence shows teachers are leaving for more compelling reasons, including working conditions and the increasing threat of student violence. Despite the popular belief that most if not all teachers agree with the union’s far-left agenda, many struggle with free speech restrictions and the burden of wokeness they are forced to bear every day in their classrooms. (See Education Reporter's review of Standing Up to Goliath by Rebecca Friedrichs, April 2022.)

Mike Antonucci reported that the NEA’s staff union “placed a petition on ActionNetwork.org that accuses some NEA leaders of prejudice and racism. ‘At NEA Headquarters there is a persisting culture of mistreatment and disrespect of our Black staff that has continued to go unchallenged,’ the post reads.”

He concluded: “There are legitimate concerns about [the NEA] whitewashing history, covering up errors and misdeeds, and promoting only a positive, glowing image.”

It sounds like the same old NEA Education Reporter has been reporting on for decades.

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