The nation’s largest teachers union is under fresh Republican scrutiny after a Senate committee chair highlighted ties to radical groups, alleged advocacy in classrooms, questionable spending and complaints from Jewish members, while also flagging similar concerns about the American Federation of Teachers.
Sen. Bill Cassidy has urged colleagues to revisit the NEA’s congressional charter, saying the organization has drifted from its original mission to elevate the teaching profession. Cassidy’s critique centers on the union’s relationships with left-leaning nonprofits, classroom materials that praise controversial activists, and the way dues money is steered toward political causes.
“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.”
The report from the Senate HELP committee points to collaborations between the NEA and groups like the Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools, warning that some curricular materials justify or praise the Black Panther Party. The committee quoted that “The Marxist and communist ideologies espoused by the Black Panther Party are inconsistent and incompatible with the foundation of the United States Constitution.” It adds that “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.”
Rethinking Schools is singled out for lesson plans that ask students to role-play “queer liberation” activists and to weave LGBTQ history into elementary grades, the report says. Cassidy’s team argues these choices represent ideological instruction rather than neutral education, and that young children have no business being enlisted in activist exercises.
The committee also points to NEA events and conference programming that elevate those nonprofit partners, incorporate their lesson plans into educator handbooks, and promote their materials at national gatherings. Critics say this creates a pipeline from national agendas down to local classrooms, shifting the union’s focus away from basic student achievement.
Federal charter status dates to 1906, when Congress expected the NEA to “elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.” Cassidy and other Republicans argue the union has moved far from that pledge, making charter reconsideration a reputational lever even if it would not shut the union down.
The report highlights the NEA’s role in the 2026 May Day demonstrations and a union webinar that urged educators to “bring activism into the classroom,” with critics claiming organizers targeted very young children. In Chicago, the committee noted reports of students being encouraged to miss class for protests even as the district struggles with low reading and math proficiency.
On the money side, the committee documents hundreds of millions funneled from NEA dues into advocacy groups and political action committees, overwhelmingly left-of-center according to the report. The NEA has also sent sizable sums to groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the Tides Foundation and directed millions to its own PAC, which typically supports Democratic candidates.
The committee raises questions about whether rank-and-file members get full transparency on how dues are spent and whether union leaders have adequate safeguards against conflicts of interest. “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.
The report also says Jewish educators have complained about mistreatment inside union events, citing a letter from the Jewish Affairs Caucus that reported “shunning, harassment and antisemitic comments” at the NEA’s annual assembly. That allegation feeds arguments that the union has not protected all of its members equally or fairly represented their concerns.
Cassidy’s review doesn’t single out the NEA alone; the American Federation of Teachers also draws criticism for political boycotts, public protests and millions in donations to liberal causes. Together, the findings lay out a case that powerful education unions have veered into partisan activism at the expense of classroom priorities.
The NEA is moving into new leadership as Princess R. Moss began a three-year term as president, succeeding Becky Pringle. The transition happens amid increasing calls from Republicans for more scrutiny of how national education groups influence local schools and how they spend members’ money.
