The National Education Association (NEA) passed a resolution this week to spend $140,625 on opposition research into 25 organizations that are allegedly attacking the “freedom of sexual and gender identity” in public schools.
“NEA shall compile research to create fact sheets about the largest 25 organizations that are actively working to diminish students’ right to honesty in education, freedom of sexual and gender identify, and teacher autonomy,” the resolution said, according to Fox News.
The research will involve investigating groups’ funding, their leaders and their “connections to known entities that are seeking to dismantle public education, organization headquarters and chapter locations.” The information will be disseminated among NEA state affiliates so they can be “armed with information to organize against attacks on public education.”
Nicole Neily of Parents Defending Education told Fox News Digital that she wasn’t surprised the union would create an “enemies list,” but noted that the move is concerning.
“[The NEA’s] policies are deeply unpopular with average American families – and, I suspect, with many of their rank-and-file membership – which means that they must enforce their ideology through bullying and intimidation,” Neily said. “We will not be bullied, we will not be cowed, and we will not be silenced – we will continue to advocate for our children, because the past two years have made it abundantly clear that children’s welfare is the unions’ absolute last priority.”
The NEA proposed a number of other resolutions, including one that proposed changing the word “mother” in official documents to “birthing parent.”
“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 families,” the resolution said, although it was never brought up for a vote.
“I don’t think we can put anything past the unions at this point. I don’t believe that they represent parents and children and what we need in the future of America.” Moms For Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice told “America Reports.”
Jeralee Smith, a retired union member, told Fox News Digital that the union is incapable of tolerating differing viewpoints.
“They’re not just trying to change culture, they’re trying to change what it means to be human,” Smith said. “They have no ability to tolerate somebody who doesn’t agree with them.”
Another resolution that was passed during the group’s annual meeting is being slammed as “anti-Israel” and “antisemitic” for allocating $9,000 to defending teachers who push the Palestinian narrative “when they are under attack.”
“The NEA will now be establishing protocols to support their teachers who face backlash when using one-sided, factually inaccurate sources that question Israel’s right to exist. The NEA’s singling out and holding to a different standard the sole Jewish country is blatantly antisemitic,” Rebecca Schgallis of United Against Antisemitism in Northern Virginia said.
“This is greatly concerning not only for Jewish NEA members, but also the many Jewish students, and all students, who will have these teachers pushing their antisemitic agenda in their classrooms.”
On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris praised the NEA, calling it “extraordinarily effective as a group advocate for change.”
“[W]e… know, across our country, folks face barriers that have been built up over the years by corporate interests and anti-union politicians and regressive court cases,” she continued. “And so, our administration, together with you, we are all doing a lot to tear down those barriers.”
