Report > Teacher Unions, Title VI and Equal Protection, Title IX and Equal Protection
Summer of Woke III: The Empire Strikes Back
By Angela Morabito and Paul Zimmerman | October 8, 2024
Key findings
- Teacher union bosses Randi Weingarten and Becky Pringle railed against the Trump administration and campaigned for the Democratic presidential ticket, but they failed to address abysmal test scores, student discipline, and chronic absenteeism.
- Both the NEA and the AFT quickly endorsed the Harris-Walz presidential ticket and were rewarded with the opportunity to speak on the main stage of the Democratic National Convention.
- The AFT adopted resolutions opposing school choice and promoting policies that allow boys in girls’ sports and spaces, in violation of Title IX.
Introduction
Each summer, when school doors shut, the nation’s largest teacher unions remain at work charting their radical policy agenda for the next year. As a service to parents, students, and teachers who are the main subjects—and victims—of the unions’ extreme policies, DFI monitors the summer meetings of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to keep the public informed about the true priorities of these labor behemoths. If you aren’t alarmed about what the NEA and AFT have planned for your school system, then you aren’t paying close enough attention.
As we outline below, this year’s NEA and AFT summer meetings saw no shortage of policy demands and resolutions that have nothing to do with ensuring that children receive a quality education. Along with these extreme measures, faced with the imminent presidential election, the leadership of each union showed no hesitation in throwing its support—and millions upon millions of dollars in dues money—behind whichever candidate the Democratic Party puts forward, spurning the millions of their teacher members whose views don’t match those of the Biden-Harris administration.
But the wrinkle that made its mark on this year’s union meetings was clearly the NEA’s civil war with its own staff. This labor battle, a self-indulgent sideshow that ignores the interests of rank-and-file teachers, serves as an important reminder to many school districts and states that they can use similar tactics to deal with strikes encouraged and funded by the NEA and AFT.
