The National Education Association (NEA), America’s largest teachers’ union, has morphed into a self-serving behemoth that prioritizes power and profit over education. It’s time to dismantle its influence at the federal level and in every state through decisive legislation—repealing its federal charter, banning dues for political lobbying and campaigning, restricting collective bargaining, ensuring right-to-exit options, and outlawing mandatory dues. This isn’t just reform; it’s a reckoning for an organization that exploits teachers, undermines meritocracy, and leaves students illiterate while its elites rake in millions.
The NEA’s leadership thrives on a corrupt system, collecting $375 million annually enforced dues from over 3 million members—much of it funneled into political war chests ($116.7 million from 2019-2021, 95.7% to Democrats)—while teachers toil under its iron fist.
Meanwhile, American students suffer. Proficiency scores in reading and math have plummeted to historic lows—below even Vietnam, a nation with a fraction of our resources. Honor students now sue school districts upon graduation, discovering they’re functionally illiterate despite glowing report cards. The NEA’s fingerprints are all over this collapse. As its revenues and influence ballooned—$1.6 billion in assets by 2022—student outcomes tanked. Why? Its lobbying muscle shields bloated bureaucracies and resists accountability, ensuring local tax dollars—billions each year—prop up a failing status quo rather than classrooms.
The NEA’s stranglehold on education extends beyond finances into the realm of ideology, aggressively dictating a woke curriculum that poisons young minds. It pushes transgender fluidity policies, endorsing secret transitioning of children without parental consent. Comprehensive sex ed, often age-inappropriate and graphic, is rammed through under the guise of "health," while divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs sow racial resentment over unity. American history is twisted into a revisionist tale of shame, teaching kids to hate their country rather than understand its complexities—think 1619 Project over 1776 facts. Backed by NEA resolutions like those in 2021 supporting critical race theory and gender identity training, this agenda prioritizes indoctrination over education, all enforced through its lobbying muscle and collective bargaining leverage. Parents are sidelined, teachers are coerced, and students are left confused or radicalized by an elite-driven ideology that’s as unaccountable as it is destructive.
In 2025, entry-level teachers earn $44,530 on average, while 20-year veterans make $85,000—nearly double—highlighting a tenure-driven, anti-meritocracy pay gap. Teachers’ unions, like the NEA, decry “teacher poverty” to rally support. They require flat percentage raises for all teachers, rewarding veterans deep in their pockets over merit-based pay increases, and stiffing and discouraging new educators whose earnings potential should be based on their talent and performance. This rigged system prioritizes tenure over talent, while unions siphon mandatory dues for political power, not fair pay.
This isn’t a union empowering teachers; it’s a cartel exploiting them. Mandatory dues trap educators into funding agendas they may not support, while collective bargaining locks districts into rigid contracts that stifle innovation and reward mediocrity. Teachers who dare question this are silenced or squeezed out. Parents, students, and communities? They’re voiceless, footing the bill for a parallel system of unaccountable overlords who answer to no one. The NEA’s federal charter, a relic of 1906, lends it undeserved legitimacy—H.R. 7510 and H.R. 4595 must end that privilege, stripping its symbolic shield and exposing it as the private profiteer it is.
Legislation must go further. Ban dues for political activity—let teachers decide where their money goes. Restrict collective bargaining to essentials, freeing schools to reward excellence over seniority. Enshrine right-to-exit and outlaw mandatory dues, giving educators real choice. States like Texas and North Carolina, with no public-sector bargaining, prove this works—unions persist but lack the stranglehold to dictate terms. Nationally, the NEA’s lobbying clout must be severed; its $66 million in political spending since 1990 has bought influence, not results.
The NEA and Teachers’ Unions, like USAID, are shameless, and unapologetically operating as partisan Democrat political machines, fleecing taxpayers and strong-arming educators into coughing up dues to bankroll political campaigns and policies. Under the cover of education, they intentionally brainwash, corrupt, and dumb down our kids to be future Democrat voters and lifelong dependents who can barely spell their names. They’ve turned America’s education system into the world's most costly and lowest-performing system!
Time to Cure this Rot and Save Education Through Action!
