(DALLAS) – Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe today released the following statement on legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) to repeal the National Education Association’s federal charter:

“Since the pandemic exposed to the world what conservatives have known for decades — that the National Education Association is both a pillar in the Democratic Party’s political infrastructure and a fanatical advocate for progressive social and economic policy — the teachers union has been under more scrutiny than ever before.

But instead of moderating its views and behavior, the NEA has doubled down on far-left activism and so-called “resistance” actions, condemning our democratically elected president as a “fascist,” attacking law enforcement for finally enforcing our immigration laws, promoting vicious antisemitism while Israel defends itself from terrorists, and clinging to radical LGBTQ+ ideology in public-school classrooms.

If it ever did, the NEA no longer cares about kids or educational excellence. It is wholly unworthy of any special status or federal recognition, and the Freedom Foundation applauds Sen. Blackburn and Rep. Harris for boldly continuing the important conversation about the NEA’s federal charter.

Congressional action on the NEA’s federal charter — whether by removing the union’s perceived government endorsement by stripping it of its federal charter, or by forcing the NEA to change how it operates by rewriting its charter, as Rep. Fitzgerald’s STUDENT Act proposes — is long overdue.”

More information is available in the Freedom Foundation report, “Rethinking the National Education Association’s Federal Charter.”