National Education Association Archives - The Florida Capital Star

Commentary: The Year in Teacher Union Double Dealing

September 25, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

This has been an egregious year for the country’s teachers unions. Okay, you may be thinking, so what else is new? But 2023 has exposed them as hypocrites par excellence.

The National Education Association convention in July provides myriad examples. While one might think a gathering of teachers would be concerned with the lack of literacy in public school students, he would be dead wrong. This year’s NEA convention in Florida was strictly political, and sex- and gender-obsessed ideas were front and center.

Teachers Union Tells Teachers to Destroy Evidence of Student Gender Identity Surveys: Report

September 4, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

A Colorado affiliate of the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, told its teachers to destroy any evidence of having given students a gender identity survey, according to a recent report.

CBS Colorado notes that while the JeffCo Public Schools district says it is “unclear” whether surveys about “preferred pronouns” are in violation of state law, it advised teachers against using them as lawsuits are ongoing.

America’s Largest Teachers Unions Unveil LGBTQ Toolkit Detailing ‘Ze/Zim’ Pronouns, How to Address ‘Bias’

June 9, 2023June 8, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

The country’s largest teachers union released an LGBTQ toolkit Wednesday for educators, explaining “ze/zim” pronouns and how to address bias around sexual orientation and gender identity within the classroom.

The National Education Association’s (NEA) newest guidance aims to provide resources to educators to help them support LGBTQ students within the classroom by “using inclusive language [and] addressing harmful comments.” The toolkit includes a guide that encourages teachers to introduce themselves with their pronouns and use “gender neutral” pronouns such as “they, them, or their” when they are unsure of someone’s gender.

Commentary: Teachers Don’t Want to Tell Parents What’s Going on in Classrooms

January 3, 2023January 2, 2023 Admin

Do parents have the right to know what their children are being taught in public school?

Parents say yes; teachers say no.

Of course, it’s not quite that simple. The description of the latter party can be tweaked to “teachers unions” — although you don’t hear many individual teachers bucking the union line — but the dichotomy remains: parents want to know what’s going on in their kids’ classrooms, and teachers, administrators, and their union bosses would rather not tell them.

Teachers Flee Unions as Membership Plummets by Almost 60,000

December 8, 2022December 7, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

The nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), declined by at least 59,000 members during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) disclosure reports.

The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, lost 40,107 members while the AFT, the nation’s second largest teachers union, declined by 19,078, according to the DOL reports. The decline comes as public schools added 95,000 educators from September 2021 to 2022.

Commentary: The Systemic Racism of the Teachers Unions

November 15, 2022November 14, 2022 Admin

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could reverse the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision, in which SCOTUS asserted that the use of an applicant’s race as a factor in an admissions policy of a public educational institution does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The current case specifically cites the use of race in the admissions process at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The plaintiffs, Students for Fair Admissions, maintain that Harvard violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, “which bars entities that receive federal funding from discriminating based on race, because Asian American applicants are less likely to be admitted than similarly qualified white, Black, or Hispanic applicants.”

Commentary: Florida Teachers’ Union Bleeding Members

November 2, 2022November 1, 2022 RealClearWire

The Florida Education Association (FEA) lost more than 4,500 members – a 3.3 percent drop – in just the 2020-21 school year.

By comparison, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lost 2.3 and 2.1 percent of their memberships, respectively, in the same single school year.

Teachers’ Union Runs Ad Calling Conservative Parents ‘Extremists’

August 19, 2022August 18, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

The New Jersey chapter of the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), published an ad labeling parents who speak out at school board meetings against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender identity lessons as “extremists.”

Teachers’ Union Suggests Summer Reading About Kneeling for the National Anthem

August 15, 2022August 14, 2022 Admin

The country’s largest teachers’ union suggested a book about kneeling for the national anthem as part of its August 2022 summer reading list, according to its website.

The National Education Association (NEA) listed the book “Why We Fly” by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal, which features marijuana use and tells of two girls on the cheerleading squad who take a knee for the national anthem after being inspired by a football star protesting in the media, according to the website. Discussion questions and related resources on athlete activism are also provided by the NEA to pair with the reading.

Two Studies Raise Concerns About Public School ‘Serious Violence Incidents’

August 7, 2022August 6, 2022 The Center Square

At a time when school shootings are a concern for many Americans, serious violence incidents are also up in schools across the nation, reports two recent studies.

One study, from the National Center for Education Statistics, shows a 35% increase in serious violence incidents in K-12 public schools from the 2015-16 school year to 2019-20. Serious violence incidents include rape, attempted rape, sexual assault other than rape, threatened rape, physical attacks, fights with a weapon, threat of physical attack with a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon.

Largest Teacher’s Union Plans to Compile List of Opposition Groups to Target

July 18, 2022July 17, 2022 Admin

The National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teacher’s union, committed to spending more than $140,000 to research and target opposition groups at a convention July 3-6, according to Education Week.

NEA will research and create fact sheets on at least 25 organizations “that are actively working to diminish a student’s right to honesty in education, freedom of sexual and gender identity, and teacher autonomy,” according to a convention business item seen by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The resolution was approved for $140,625 at the NEA’s convention last week, and the fact sheets that will be distributed to NEA state affiliates, according to Education Week.

Commentary: What I Saw at Teachers Union Convention

July 17, 2022July 16, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

As a teacher, I attended the National Education Association convention last week, and my worst fears were confirmed.

Public schools are no longer a safe place for families who hold traditional values or for families who believe gender (as in male/female binary) is biologically determined.

National Education Association President: ‘Radicalized Supreme Court Issuing Decisions That Do Not Reflect Views or Values of America’

July 8, 2022July 7, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

The president of the nation’s largest teachers’ union told union delegates at the start of the Representative Assembly (RA) Sunday that 2016 was the year of a “fateful election,” one that made clear the U.S. Supreme Court would become “radicalized.”

In her keynote address Sunday in Chicago, National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle targeted former President Donald Trump for his choices in appointing Supreme Court justices.

More Teachers, Fewer Students Nationwide Despite Claims of Teacher Shortage

June 19, 2022June 18, 2022 The Center Square

The number of teachers in the U.S. has increased from 2013 to 2020 while the number of students has decreased, according to data from the National Education Association, the nation’s largest public-school union.

While total enrollment has dropped 1.4% over those seven years, there has been a 2.3% increase in the number of public-school teachers.

Teachers’ Union Boss Raked In Massive Six-Figure Salary While Fighting to Close Schools

June 13, 2022June 12, 2022 Admin

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was paid nearly half a million dollars during the 2021-2022 school year, a report from Americans for Fair Treatment stated Wednesday. Weingarten raked in six-figures while simultaneously pushing for schools to stay shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With teacher’s union dues, Weingarten is paid $449,562, the Americans for Fair Treatment report stated. Weingarten’s salary is about seven times more than the average high school teacher makes as of 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

Black Lives Matter at School ‘Week of Action’ Teaches Kindergartners to Replace Nuclear Families with ‘Villages’

February 4, 2022February 3, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Elementary and high schools throughout the country this week are having children participate in Black Lives Matter at School’s “Week of Action,” using lesson plan “resources” based on the activist organization’s core principles that seek to disrupt Western family structure, and teach children to affirm the “transgender” and “queer” lifestyles.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) at School has provided a toolkit for schools and teachers with a curriculum that features a movie for different grade bands matched to “the 13 guiding principles of the BLM movement.”

Teachers Unions ‘Hold the Education of Kids Hostage,’ Worker Rights Group Says

February 2, 2022February 1, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

A worker rights group is calling out two powerful teachers unions, claiming that they “hold the education of kids hostage” in a press release.

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF), told the Daily Caller News Foundation that teachers unions like the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are taking advantage of a labor law provision passed in the 1930s for the private sector.

“In several states across the country, union officials, specifically teachers’ union officials, have been granted a really unique privilege called exclusive monopoly bargaining,” Mix said, adding that former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt opposed granting such privileges to public-sector unions while in office.

Teachers Get Raises, Bonuses From Federal COVID Relief Funds Meant to Reopen Schools Safely

December 20, 2021 Admin

This week’s Golden Horseshoe once again goes to the U.S. Department of Education for allowing school districts to use pandemic relief funds for pay raises and bonuses for teachers despite the funds being appropriated to reopen schools safely.

Schools nationwide received $190 billion through three relief packages passed. Of that total, the largest sum, $122 billion, was from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

Report: NEA Boycotting Texas, Cancels Annual Convention

December 10, 2021December 9, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

According to a new report, the National Education Association, which is America’s largest teacher’s union, has canceled its annual convention that was set to be held in Texas in July.

“The union took the unprecedented step of canceling its Texas plans due to its displeasure with a series of bills that came out of a special session of the state legislature having to do with voting, abortion and critical race theory, internal NEA sources say,” according to The 74 million. “Several state affiliates had threatened not to send their delegates to the convention if it were held in Texas.”

Democrats Boast That Their Donors’ Most Common Profession Is Teacher

November 23, 2021November 22, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) tweeted that the most common DNC donor-reported occupation in 2021 is teacher.

The tweet sparked widespread mockery online, with commentators pointing out that teachers’ widespread alignment with Democrats is a root cause of conservatives’ distrust in public education.

Analysis: Woke Teaching Programs Create K-12 ‘Social Justice Educators’

October 20, 2021October 19, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Integrating activism in the K-12 classroom is the trickle-down of liberal bias in higher education. The results are seen as educators mirror anti-racist trainings and social justice workshops, which evolved from college campuses.

For instance, University of California, Los Angeles’ Teacher Education Program (TEP), trains “social justice educators” and follows an “anti-racist and social justice agenda.”

Report: Teachers Unions Bullied the White House, CDC into Changing School Masking Guidelines

September 10, 2021September 9, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

The National Education Association (NEA) teachers union threatened to publicly criticize President Joe Biden’s administration if it did not implement stricter mask guidance, according to internal emails obtained by watchdog group Americans for Public Trust and provided to Fox News.

Following a statement published by the NEA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) specified that regardless of vaccination status, masks should be worn by everyone in schools, Fox News reported. The NEA originally sent a drafted statement to White House officials criticizing the CDC’s guidance, but ended up publishing a statement with a milder tone, according to the emails.

Commentary: Confronting Teacher Union Twaddle

July 20, 2021July 19, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Randi Weingarten, the gaffe-prone president of the American Federation of Teachers has outdone herself, and that isn’t easy. In a series of seven open letters over the years, I have playfully chided the union boss about her trove of inane and bizarre musings. But now she has jumped the proverbial shark.

Parents Fight Critical Race Theory as Teacher’s Union Commits Over $127k to Advance It

July 6, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

The National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor and teachers’ union in the U.S., has voted to spread critical race theory as parents across the nation are fighting against it.

The union is preparing to commit $127,600 to advance critical race theory, according to the Epoch Times.