Congressional Republicans have renewed calls to revoke the federal charter for the nation’s largest teachers union on the grounds that the association has strayed from its original mission.
The National Education Association (NEA) has maintained its federal charter since 1906, at which time the group was given a unique position among labor unions to “elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.”
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), federal charters do not confer special rights or privileges onto groups, but such recognition has often been perceived to carry weight “tantamount to a congressional seal of approval.”
Historically, Congress was responsible for incorporating both for-profit and nonprofit organizations within the District of Columbia, but lawmakers ceded this power to the D.C. government in the early 1900s.
Even after this, however, “private charitable, patriotic, and fraternal nonprofit organizations, particularly those with a national reach,” continued to seek Congressional approval, leading lawmakers to grant more than 80 additional federal charters over the years, including one to the NEA.
Because the NEA was already incorporated in the District of Columbia prior to receiving this federal recognition, revocation of its federal charter would not dissolve the union.
A 2023 post from the Freedom Foundation, a group opposed to public-sector unions like the NEA, suggested that this move “would do little more than signal congressional disapproval of the organization.”
Co-sponsor of the effort to revoke the NEA’s federal charter, Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC), argued during a press conference Wednesday morning that there is “zero justification” for Congress to continue giving the union its “stamp of approval.”
“The NEA was created to champion America’s teachers and serve our schools, but it has spiraled into a partisan machine that’s more about radical ideology than education,” Rep. Harris said.
“From branding President Trump a fascist to embracing divisive gender ideology and walking away from efforts to fight antisemitism, the NEA has become nothing more than a partisan advocacy group,” Harris told The Daily Caller. “Since the NEA is clearly not prioritizing students, parents or even teachers, it’s time to remove Congress’ seal of approval from this rogue organization.”
“Time and again, teachers’ unions have shown they’ll put their political agenda ahead of students’ needs,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a co-sponsor of the bill. “The National Education Association has made it crystal clear it’s a partisan organization, and it shouldn’t be rewarded with a federal charter that platforms woke gender ideology, antisemitism, and left-wing propaganda. Our students deserve better.”
“It’s incredibly sad that the nation‘s largest teachers union has put woke politics before America’s children,” Sen. Blackburn added. “The NEA’s embrace of radical left policies and antisemitism combined with their rejection of parental rights has forced moms and dads across America to condemn this organization.”
According to InfluenceWatch, 97 percent of the $143.5 million donated by the NEA to political candidates and committees between 1990 and February 2019 went toward Democrats and liberal organizations.
The move to revoke the NEA’s federal charter comes shortly after the union adopted several resolutions aimed at opposing President Donald Trump (R), according to reporting from Fox News.
For example, the union agreed to “defend against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term…in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions.”
Another resolution sought to label any effort to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) as “illegal, anti-democratic, and racist attempt to destroy public education and privatize it in the interests of the billionaires.”
[RELATED: Donald Trump Signs Executive Order to Begin Dismantling the Department of Education]
“There is no way I can come to the largest labor union of the country and act like we are in normal times. We are not,” NEA President Becky Pringle said to delegates at an NEA meeting earlier this month, according to EdWeek.
“We cannot allow Trump or anyone else to reduce these sacred values [diversity, equity, and inclusion] to a simple three-letter slur,” Pringle said later in her speech, referring to the Trump Administration’s opposition to DEI policies.
EdWeek also reported that the delegates discussed partnering with others to oppose ICE action in schools and to support teachers who have legal status in the United States under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), as well as those who have Temporary Protected Status.
Other issues discussed and voted on during the meeting included improving teacher safety and the role of artificial intelligence in education.
“Rather than supporting students and educators, some anti-public education politicians are now introducing legislation to repeal the National Education Association charter because the billionaires that fund their campaigns don’t want educators to have a voice,” Pringle said in a statement responding to the recently introduced bill.
Efforts to revoke the NEA’s federal charter have been pursued twice before unsuccessfully in recent years by Congressional Republicans, once in 2021-22 and again in 2023-24.
The Washington Examiner reports that this newest bill would require support from all but three Senate Republicans in order to advance, as no Democrats are expected to vote in favor of revoking the NEA’s federal charter.
