Rep. Good Fights Union Propaganda with NEA Charter Repeal Act

Congressman Bob Good | Congressman Bob Good official photo

By Lynchburg Reporter Report

Jul 14, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Bob Good (VA-05) introduced the NEA Charter Repeal Act as of July 14,2023 to repeal the federal charter for the National Education Association (NEA). America’s largest teachers’ union is the only union with a Congressionally-backed charter.

“No union should have a federal charter, and certainly not an organization that failed a generation of children during COVID and is overtly pushing leftist propaganda on our students,” said Rep. Good. “By repealing the NEA's charter, we would send a clear message that we are serious in our fight to protect and develop the young minds in America’s education systems. Our top priority is quality education that prepares students to be successful, the NEA’s is anything but that.”

The NEA was created by Congress in 1906 with the original mission to “elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching.” Instead, the organization has promoted a leftist agenda and put American students last. By promoting critical race theory, pro-abortion content, draconian COVID-19 measures, and sexually explicit gender ideology in classrooms, the NEA has strayed from prioritizing students and its federal charter should be revoked.

"The Institute for Educational Reform recognizes Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) as a champion for kids, families, and teachers with his bill to repeal the National Education Association (NEA) charter. Rep. Good sends a message that the country supports teachers, parents, and kids, not scandalous organizations looking out only for themselves and their political cronies. Government teacher unions steal the paychecks from hard working teachers, horde political power to benefit their own gain by resisting educational options for parents, want to keep sexually explicit books in school libraries, and advocate for teaching destructive gender ideology in our classrooms. The federal charter, meant to advance educational outcomes for parents and kids, has been twisted by the NEA to manipulate the political system for themselves. We endorse Rep. Good's bill to advance our kids interests ahead of the radical NEA." – Matt Buckham, Executive Director for Institute for Educational Reform

“We applaud Congressman Bob Good for introducing the NEA Charter Repeal Act. As we learned over the course of the pandemic, the teachers’ union leadership does not put the interests of parents and students first, which led to documented and catastrophic learning loss for millions of students. Their interest is political power and their federal charter should be repealed.” – John Schilling, Senior Advisor for Invest in Education Coalition

"The National Education Association is a partisan organization that focuses entirely on electing Democrats and pushing woke ideology in schools. The idea of serving teachers and students is a total afterthought to the NEA. There's no reason Congress should continue to grant such an organization a federal charter and various tax exemptions. If the NEA wants to continue to be a political group, it should feel free to do that—without special benefits granted by the federal government." – Terry Schilling, President of American Principles Project

“The National Education Association (NEA) has failed in the mission it originally put forth to prioritize high-quality children's education. Instead, they have replaced this goal with an effort to consistently place the interests of progressive teacher unions over students' learning. The National Education Association Charter Repeal Act not only takes the rightful step of revoking NEA's Charter for such a grave misuse of resources, but it also seeks to disavow the organization's woke indoctrination attempts.” – Dr. Laurie Todd-Smith, Director of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute and Senior Advisor to America First Works

“A small group of teacher union bosses have the government-granted power to negotiate over the terms of employment for nearly the entire education sector, and it should come as no surprise that they’ve used that extraordinary power to promote their own political interests, not those of students and rank-and-file teachers. Congress should dismantle the teacher union monopoly, not sanction it by giving the NEA a federal charter. I applaud Congressman Good’s effort to revoke this union boss special privilege.” – Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Committee

“The union bosses at the NEA stand in the way of giving parents the opportunity to choose the right education for their children. Taxpayers should not have to sanction their actions.” – Former Governor Scott Walker, President of Young America’s Foundation

This legislation is Congressman Good’s 25th bill introduced during the 118th Congress.

Read more exclusively on Fox News.

Cosponsors (8): Norman (R-SC), Wilson (R-SC), Jackson (R-TX), Rouzer (R-NC), Bishop (R-NC), Miller (R-IL), Biggs (R-AZ), Brecheen (R-OK)

Supporting Groups (9): Institute for Educational Reform, Invest in Education, American Principles Project, America First Policy Institute, America First Works, Heritage Action, National Right to Work, Young America’s Foundation, Club for Growth

Background:

The National Education Association (NEA) is the nation’s largest teachers' union and is the only labor union that has a federal charter.
In the 2020 election cycle, nearly all of the candidate campaign contributions by the NEA went to Democrat candidates.
At a 2019 conference, NEA members opposed adding a business item to the agenda that stated: “The National Education Association will re-dedicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America by putting a renewed emphasis on quality education. NEA will make student learning the priority of the association.”
In the same conference, members voted in support of the right to an abortion, supporting illegal immigrant justice, and expanding professional development for educators to help create student Gender Sexuality Alliance clubs.
In July 2021, the NEA adopted measures supporting critical race theory.
The NEA stood in the way of reopening schools in 2020 and 2021 by threatening strikes, and influencing CDC guidance process to make it harder for schools to reopen.
NEA Board Member Mollie Page Mumau wrote on Facebook that shooting people “hiding behind religious exemptions” to vaccine mandates “would be quicker and ultimately safer than putting me and my friends and family at risk”.
The NEA recently partnered with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), who collaborated with the Target Corporation to promote an obscene, radical agenda in their stores.
They NEA provides supporting resources to teachers on how to defy state laws that limit teaching on CRT and sexually explicit content, and actively supports sexualized books for summer reading.