Congress wants largest teachers union to pick kids over politics

A bill in Congress would hold the National Education Association accountable, forcing it to once more put students and educators first or risk losing its special status as a chartered organization.

The National Education Association was given a federal charter to be a professional advocate for teachers and public education, but it has morphed into a hyper-partisan advocacy group.

Spending tens of millions of dollars on campaigns, lobbying and ideology-driven resolutions that have little to do with students has real consequences. It hurts teachers. It politicizes the classroom. It undermines trust in public education. And it’s happening under the recognition of a federal charter, a rare privilege possessed by fewer than 100 national-interest groups, such as the American Legion.

Congress is considering fixing that. The Stopping Teachers Unions from Damaging Education Needs Today Act, would hold the NEA to the same standards of neutrality, transparency and public service expected of any nationally chartered nonprofit. The STUDENT Act is intended to refocus the NEA on education.

NEA is more focused on power than education

In 2024, the NEA spent $23 million on political campaigns and another $3 million lobbying Congress. That same year, just 9% of the NEA’s spending was on representing its members, while the rest went to political causes and other union leadership priorities.

Its ideological drift isn’t hidden; it’s celebrated. At its 2025 Representative Assembly, the NEA passed a series of extremely partisan resolutions:

• Praised anti-ICE and “No Kings” protests as models for “mass democratic demonstrations.”
• Declared Trump’s political platform to be a form of “fascism” that the union must resist.
• Denounced a Supreme Court ruling that supported parental opt-out rights from LGBT instruction.

This isn’t normal union advocacy for teachers. It’s a highly politicized agenda.

Educators join unions to advocate for better pay, safer classrooms and professional dignity, not to fund politically divisive causes. The results speak for themselves: the NEA has lost nearly 400,000 members since its peak in 2009. Teachers are walking away, and public trust is eroding.

The STUDENT Act would serve as a course correction

The STUDENT Act, introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-WI, would bring accountability to the NEA and restore its focus on education.

Key reforms include:

• Making the NEA pay property taxes to the District of Columbia.
• Prohibiting the NEA from calling for strikes or work stoppages.
• Stopping hiring discrimination or quotas.
• Banning partisan political activity, including campaign donations or lobbying.
• Requiring annual audits and transparency reports.
• Mandating affirmative consent for dues collection, which would end automatic paycheck deductions.
• Blocking compelled ideological affirmations, especially on race, gender or political content.
• Empowering the U.S. attorney general to intervene if the union violates its charter.

This is common-sense accountability. The NEA would still exist. It could still represent teachers. But to keep its charter it would have to act like what it claims to be: a nonprofit focused on education, not a political party in disguise.

The status of the NEA as a federally chartered organization makes this worse

Most people don’t realize the NEA isn’t just a union, it’s also a federally chartered organization, granted that national legal status and Congress’ stamp of approval in 1906. That’s an elite distinction shared with relatively few groups such as the American Legion, National Academy of Sciences and Scouting America. These organizations are meant to serve the nation, not divide it.

NEA is the only federally chartered union, and it has no oversight. Unlike other groups with federal charters that include restrictions, its charter is just 517 words with no audit requirements, no governance rules and no real accountability. That legal vacuum has allowed the NEA to act with prestige and power, without any public checks.

It uses that privilege to amplify partisan messages while shielding itself from scrutiny. The STUDENT Act would close that loophole.

It is time to fix the NEA

The NEA’s unchecked partisanship is not just a problem for concerned teachers or frustrated parents, it’s a problem for every American who believes public education should be about learning, not lobbying.

When the nation’s largest teachers union is more focused on political warfare than student welfare, the system is broken. The STUDENT Act offers a way to fix it, not by destroying the union, but by restoring balance, accountability and integrity.

Congress should pass the STUDENT Act and send a clear message: If you claim to work in the nation’s interest, education comes first.