American Children Deserve Better Than The NEA, A Far-Left Outfit Run By Lunatics | Erika Sanzi

This NEA is unrecognizable. I would know.

I was a dues-paying member of the National Education Association (NEA) in two different states from 1998–2003. I was never under the illusion that the NEA was politically neutral.

I remember the glossy campaign mailers telling me to vote for Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic primary. I remember thinking the union was partisan, but I don’t remember thinking it was certifiably insane. It at least felt tethered to reality.

Left-leaning? Yes. A far-left activist organization run by lunatics? Definitely not.

But it is now.

The NEA’s new Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice training materials for an upcoming event in early December provide a window into the madness. The NEA is explicitly instructing educators to adopt a sweeping ideological framework, interpret disagreement as bigotry, and engage in activism under the banner of "justice."

The message: neutrality is weakness, dissent is oppression, and anyone who pushes back — especially Republicans — is acting in bad faith rooted in racism and transphobia. Parental rights and local control are characterized as "racist dogwhistles." 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, right, waves with Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, at the National Education Association 2022 annual meeting and representative assembly in Chicago, Illinois on July 5, 2022. Photographer: Tannen Maury/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The NEA’s Activist Shift

Let’s start with the "Race, Class, Gender Narratives" section — the ideological spine of the entire training. Educators are instructed to "explicitly name race, class, and gender" in all communications, regardless of context. The materials go on to characterize all opposition to the NEA’s positions as "strategic racism" and "transphobia." The opponents themselves? They’re called "villains."

Let’s remember: this isn’t some obscure activist group with no money and no power. It’s the largest labor union in the United States and has direct influence over children, teachers, school districts, and education policy. In Rhode Island (where I live), the Senate President and the NEA President are the same person.

Pronouns, Policies, And Ideological Policing

The pronoun and identity directives in the training are completely bonkers. The NEA instructs educators to include pronouns everywhere — email signatures, badges, documents, internal systems. If your ID badge can’t be changed? Buy pronoun pins and wear them at all times.

"Misgendering" is presented as a disciplinary issue requiring "consequences." And educators are told to stop using the singular word "gender" altogether and replace it with "genders" or "our genders," because grammar itself must be tortured to death to be sufficiently inclusive.

Then there are the transition templates. These are scripted workplace transition plans for adults complete with timelines, HR talking points, supervisor directives, and sample transition announcement emails. These materials read less like guidance and more like ideological waterboarding — ahem, onboarding.

First Lady Jill Biden addresses the National Education Association's Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on July 2, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Political Campaigning Masquerading As ‘Training’

Perhaps the most revealing section is the NEA’s "Campaign Lab," where the union tells educators that every campaign must "center race, class, and gender justice." This is political organizing, plain and simple — packaged as professional development for millions of employees whose salaries are paid by taxpayers (half of whom the NEA seems to consider "villains").

The NEA has morphed into an organization that prioritizes identity, politics, and vilification. It is more concerned with ideological loyalty tests than student learning or teachers thriving.

Congress granted the NEA a federal charter in 1906, giving it a special legal status no other labor union has. The charter’s purpose was simple: "Elevate the teaching profession" and "promote education."

We can debate whether it ever served that original mission, but it certainly doesn’t now. The Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice documents represent just one of countless examples of why the federal charter should be revoked.

The NEA I once belonged to was political, yes. It wanted me to support Democrats — sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. But I don’t remember it being deranged and unhinged. It certainly wasn’t fond of Republicans, but the messaging did not paint everyone who disagreed as "villains" trafficking in racism and transphobia.

At the very least, America’s families deserve some semblance of sanity and respect from the organizations influencing their children’s schools.

The NEA is offering neither.