NEA insider blows whistle on 'toxic' culture and far-left politics inside teachers union: 'It's a cult'
FIRST ON FOX: As the National Education Association, one of the most prominent teachers unions in the country, continues to face criticism over placing far-left agenda items over the needs of children, a whistleblower organization spoke to Fox News Digital about the "toxic" politics inside headquarters.
"It's a very liberal place, there's only a handful of conservatives that work at NEA, and if you are, it's like you just don't say anything, because it's a very toxic environment if you do say something," an NEA employee, who is remaining anonymous due to concerns of retribution, told Fox News Digital. "It's crazy, they'll send out this weekly newsletter of ‘Trump's a fascist’ and blast it to all the states."
The whistleblower described a workplace where staff members are often subject to staff meetings and breakout sessions focused on "social justice and white supremacy and all that nonsense" that feel more like "brainwashing" than they do education.
"It's a cult. It's 100% a cult and if you don't have their mindset, you're the enemy."
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Earlier this month, Fox News Digital exclusively reported on a federal NEA filing showing the union funneled millions of dollars to far-left activist groups, ballot initiatives and social justice organizations.
Among the largest expenditures was more than $3.5 million sent to Education International, a global teachers federation where NEA President Becky Pringle serves as a vice president.
"Why are we sending money internationally?" The whistleblower told Fox News Digital. "They're not American teachers."
In November, Fox News Digital first reported on NEA training sessions instructing members on a variety of far-left causes, including how to go through a gender transition at work, best practices for using gender pronouns and combating transphobia, while also being provided with literature labeling conservative opposition as "villains."
"They don't care about the students, they care about pushing these leftist, liberal Democrat people [politicians] so that they can get more money and just fund all these stupid initiatives," the whistleblower told Fox News Digital.
Additionally, Fox News Digital obtained an email sent on Jan. 16 from NEA Executive Director Kim Anderson that included more heated rhetoric directed at ICE and President Donald Trump.
"Masked ICE agents are operating with impunity in Minneapolis, attacking students on school grounds and abducting neighbors from locations that are considered places of safety and care, including churches and hospitals," the email said. " ICE agents are harassing, frightening, abusing, detaining and killing our neighbors. They abuse power and disregard the rule of law."
The email continued, "Violent ICE raids disproportionately targeting Black and brown students, families, and communities, have forced public schools to close their doors. Keeping students safe from ICE also keeps them from their classrooms, their friends, and the support they deserve."
The email referred to Trump’s actions enforcing immigration law as "Un-American" and an "authoritarian threat."
"People talk about turning down the temperature and how rhetoric is getting people killed, like it is, and they're doing it, they're the ones saying all this crazy nonsense," the whistleblower told Fox News Digital.
Mika Hackner, director of research at the North American Values Institute, told Fox News Digital that a union's purpose is "to advocate for and to represent effectively and fairly its union members" and that it's "difficult to see how the NEA can do this when it ensures that a particular political position and worldview is woven into the fabric of its organization."
Another area the whistleblower flagged is union revenue, claiming NEA leadership is especially focused on protecting dues collection by shifting members to "auto-pay" in states where payroll deductions face pushback. "That’s the biggest thing they’re worried about right now," the whistleblower said, claiming the union is fighting efforts that prevent dues from being "take[n]… directly out of your paycheck."
On the day following Trump’s victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris, endorsed by the NEA, in the 2024 presidential election, the whistleblower told Fox News Digital the NEA offices were filled with distraught employees.
"Everybody in the office had their doors closed. They were crying. It was a whole thing. It was wild, grown-ass people crying over an election."
Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications for Defending Education, told Fox News Digital in November that the union's federal charter should be re-evaluated given the organization has become more of a political operation than a union pushing for better student outcomes.
Sanzi explained, "Their federal charter was granted because they promised to ‘elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.’ Seeing as their leadership — and by extension, the organization itself — has morphed into a far-left insane asylum that is actively destroying the cause of education, that charter is no longer defensible."
Fox News Digital reached out to the NEA for comment.
"Few organizations have done more to erode trust in American public education than the National Education Association," Terry Stoops, director of state affairs at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital this week.
"The National Education Association has little interest in improving the lives of America’s public school educators. Instead, it’s committed to dispensing millions of dollars in membership dues to Democrats, while infiltrating classrooms and corrupting young minds with the grotesqueries of the far Left."