Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), the chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released an important report investigating the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and called for an investigation into the NEA’s finances.
Cassidy is right, and it is high time that Congress looked into the finances and partisan political activities of some of our country’s largest and most powerful unions.
The NEA, in particular, is America’s only labor union with a congressional charter. It received its charter in 1906 by an act of Congress. The other organizations with congressional charters are “patriotic and national organizations,” such as the Boy Scouts and U.S. Olympic Committee — not unions with a war chest worth around $450 million, of which more than $50 million was used for lobbying and political activities in 2025 alone. Meanwhile, a paltry $46 million was directed toward employee-related issues such as wages and benefits.
Typically, a congressional charter gives the NEA a federal stamp of recognition of sorts. Investigating the organization and potentially revoking its federal charter would not shut down the NEA, but it would be a critical step in holding the organization accountable for living up to its stated mission “to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching” and “to promote the cause of education in the United States.”
However, over the past several years, the NEA has supported divisive partisan politics and extremist ideologies.
By way of example, the NEA Advocacy Fund, a super PAC, and the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education have directed much of their political spending toward Democratic candidates and aligned political organizations. According to filings, the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education has historically contributed more than 90 percent of its candidate-directed funds to Democrats, while independent expenditures by the NEA Advocacy Fund have similarly supported Democratic candidates and causes — a far cry from “promot[ing] the cause of education in the United States.”
In addition to partisan political activities, the NEA directs funding to divisive, ideological curricula. For example, the NEA has a partnership categorized under “partnerships to advance social justice” with the Advancement Project. The Advancement Project describes itself as an organization dedicated to “supporting grassroots power” to “fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive, and just democracy.”
The Advancement Project’s 2024 annual report highlights its national Police Free Schools campaign, which it claims resulted in removing police entirely from schools in four school districts and defunding school police budgets by nearly $50 million in additional districts between 2020 and 2021. One has to wonder why the NEA, which, again, has a charter “to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching,” is funding such efforts.
And it goes beyond that. The NEA also funds Rethinking Schools Ltd. and Teaching for Change — two organizations responsible for the Zinn Education Project, which has published curricular materials that justify the actions of the Black Panther Party, a left-wing militant Black nationalist organization, as reported by Fox News.
The NEA started in 1906 as an organization dedicated to advancing education in the United States. But over the years, it has given in to partisan politics and ideological indoctrination. America’s teachers, administrators, taxpayers and, most importantly, students deserve better.
Congress has the power to investigate the NEA and potentially remove its charter. While this may not stop the NEA from its nefarious actions and misuse of union member dues, it is a step in the right direction toward holding the union accountable for living up to its stated mission and using member dues to actually advance workers’ rights.
Brigette Herbst is the Executive Director of Gevura.
