This month, the nation’s largest teacher union proved, yet again, the need to reform the public education system.
One of the most troubling developments since the barbaric October 7th terror attack has been the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses. The administration has rightfully gone after these schools, forcing Columbia and Harvard to amend their policies and address the numerous civil rights violations against Jewish students that have occurred on their campuses. However, many of these students were not radicalized once they got to campus; for many, the seeds of antisemitism were planted years before during their K-12 education. From California to Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools across the country have been promoting antisemitic material in their elementary school lessons.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been combatting this issue by creating free, widely used materials appropriate for K-12 classrooms that present an accurate history of the Holocaust and the dangers of ethnicity-based hatred. These gold-standard lessons are well-respected and have been used in public schools for nearly 40 years.
But as the war in the Middle East drags on, a growing contingent of educators has no interest in teaching what truly happened during the Holocaust or presenting both sides of the current conflict. On July 5, the National Education Association’s (NEA) Representative Assembly voted to move forward on a proposed boycott of the ADL and any of its publications and materials. The vote came as a result of the Drop the ADL campaign, championed by the group Educators for Palestine and supported by over 7,000 NEA members. They claim that the ADL has an anti-Palestinian bias and that, because the ADL believes students should not be taught to hate Jews or any other racial group, they oppose free speech in schools. The vote ironically came just a few months after the ADL released their latest stats on antisemitic incidents in K-12, which have gone up 434% since 2020.
On July 18, after backlash from almost 400 Jewish groups, conservative organizations, and lawmakers, the NEA board, which must approve all motions passed by the Assembly, ultimately rejected the proposal, citing that the proposal did not support the NEA’s goal of “academic freedom.” But the progressives who supported the vote in the first place still cheer this as a victory that “signals a sea change in the rank and file wanting a new position in support of Palestinians.” Unfortunately, they’re right; this vote passed because a majority of elected NEA representatives supported it, showing just how far this radical ideology has captured the union.
Although the Board caved to public pressure on the proposal to cut ties with the ADL, the NEA is still pushing forward on an anti-Israel agenda. This week, they released their handbook for the 2025-2026 school year. The new version deliberately omits the fact that Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust, referencing the twelve million “victims of the Holocaust from different faiths.” The handbook also teaches that Israel was founded through “forced, violent displacement and dispossession,” rather than as a necessity after centuries of anti-Jewish persecution throughout Europe, leading ultimately to the Holocaust.
Not requiring a public vote or approval, the handbook is a more insidious way to promote these ideas among educators. The NEA publishes the handbook every year as a guide on the organization’s priorities and goals for the year. This coming school year, doubling down on criticisms of Israel and revising 20th century history is apparently on the agenda.
This kind of political activism is nothing new for the NEA. Established by Congress in 1906 with the goal of supporting teachers and strengthening schools, over the last few decades, they have instead focused their energy on pushing Leftist political ideologies and supporting Democrat political candidates. In 2024 alone, just 9% of the NEA’s spending was on teacher representation. The rest was on its various political activities, of which these antisemitic actions are just the latest.
Fortunately, Congress has finally had enough. Two bills have been introduced in Congress as a direct response to these latest antisemitic moves by the NEA. One is a bill introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) to repeal the NEA’s charter, removing Congress’s seal of approval from the now-rogue organization. This is the third time that this legislation has been proposed, emphasizing that this is a longstanding issue.
A second bill, introduced by Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) seeks to amend, rather than repeal, the NEA’s charter. While she supports repealing it, the Senator believes that maintaining the charter forces the NEA to remain accountable to Congress. The STUDENT Act would rewrite the charter to prohibit the NEA from promoting antisemitic beliefs or critical race theory, end their tax exempt status, and establish oversight by requiring the union to file annual reports to Congress.
While repealing or amending the NEA’s charter to condemn their radicalism is an important step for Congress to take, this latest episode points to the need for greater school choice. What the NEA prioritizes filters down into the public schools where their members teach and interact with the next generation. The ultimate solution is to give parents the freedom to choose schools where their kids will not be indoctrinated into antisemitism or any of the other radical policies championed by organizations like the NEA.
