While America’s children are struggling, the nation’s largest teachers’ unions are busy advancing a political agenda.
That is the disturbing conclusion of a new report released by U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The report, Corrupting Our Classrooms: How America’s Teachers’ Unions Are Failing Our Students, details how the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have prioritized political activism, radical ideology, and partisan influence over the education of America’s children.
For parents across the country, these findings are not surprising. Families have watched academic standards decline while schools devote more time and resources to divisive political causes. They have seen powerful unions resist transparency, attack parental rights, and attempt to place themselves between parents and their children.
Now, a congressional report is documenting just how far these unions have strayed from their stated mission.
Children Are Falling Behind While Teachers Unions Play Politics
The academic crisis is undeniable. According to the report, one in three eighth-grade students scored below the basic achievement level in reading in 2024. Reading performance among 13-year-olds remains below pre-pandemic levels, and student reading habits have deteriorated dramatically.
Yet instead of making literacy, math, and classroom excellence their highest priorities, the NEA and AFT have poured enormous resources into politics and ideological advocacy. The HELP Committee found that the two unions have spent nearly $670 million on political and social advocacy since 2015.
That tells parents everything they need to know about their priorities.
Children need schools focused on teaching them how to read, write, calculate, reason, and become responsible citizens. They do not need classrooms turned into training grounds for political activists.
Undermining Parents Is Part of the Agenda
Perhaps most alarming is the report’s evidence that the NEA has encouraged educators to work around protections for parental rights.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor that parents must be given notice and the opportunity to opt their children out of certain instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs, the NEA published guidance CRITICIZING the decision and advising schools on how to respond.
This reflects a dangerous belief at the heart of the education establishment: that government institutions and union activists know better than parents.
They do not.
Parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. Schools should never hide information from families, circumvent parental safeguards, or treat parents as obstacles to a political agenda.
Ideology Has Infiltrated Every Subject
The report also describes union-supported materials that promote gender ideology to children as young as four and inject immigration, deportation, race, and other political issues into math instruction. It documents materials that characterize political opponents as racist and transphobic and offer strategies to “mobilize” progressive constituencies and “marginalize” opposition.
This is not education. It is political organizing conducted with access to other people’s children.
The report also raises grave concerns about antisemitic classroom materials, including resources that deny or distort the atrocities of October 7, erase Israel from maps, and portray Jews and Americans through hostile political propaganda. No Jewish student, teacher, or family should encounter antisemitism promoted under the banner of education.
It Is Time for Accountability
Senator Cassidy is calling for greater transparency into union finances and political activity, along with congressional review of whether the NEA’s activities remain consistent with the federal charter it received to “promote the cause of education.” Those are necessary steps.
But parents cannot wait for Washington to solve this crisis.
Start by helping us repeal the NEA charter. You can add your name to the effort below.
Click here to become a Citizen Co-Sponsor of the NEA Charter Repeal Act
We must continue attending school board meetings, examining curricula, demanding transparency, supporting courageous teachers, and electing leaders who understand that parents—not unions, bureaucrats, or political organizations—have the primary authority over their children.
Moms for Liberty will continue exposing indoctrination, defending parental rights, and fighting for schools that educate rather than politicize.
The message from parents is clear: Teach our children the fundamentals. Respect our rights as parents. Keep political activism out of the classroom.
Read the HELP Committee announcement and the full committee report.
