For Becky Pringle, outgoing president of the nation’s largest teachers union, education appears to be synonymous with political organizing, at least to one critic, Corey DeAngelis, the founder of the Educational Freedom Institute, and a fellow at the Americans for Fair Treatment and the Heritage Foundation.

At the National Education Association’s 2026 Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly in Denver, Pringle’s nearly 40-minute speech was largely dedicated to highlighting the union’s political and social accomplishments – priorities that critics say diverge from the unions’ original purpose of ensuring fair pay and working conditions and instead diving into the deep-end of the radical left.

DeAngelis, also the author of “The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools,” also argues that Pringle “sounded more like an unhinged cult leader than an educator,” he told Just the News in an interview.

“The teachers union cartel has become an activist breeding ground rather than a professional organization focused on helping teachers teach effectively and students learn,” he said.

“Union power is education power,” Pringle told members. Under her leadership, “the NEA’s mission is summarized by seven action pillars: Educate. Communicate. Organize. Mobilize. Litigate. Legislate. Elect.”

As her statement and the mission statement appear to imply, the NEA devotes significant time and resources to almost exclusively left-wing political causes and social justice-based education initiatives.

DeAngelis, frequently credited with exposing teacher union corruption, outlined what he called “outrageous” business items at this year’s assembly, which took place July 3–7.

“One item proposed spending $5.2 million to organize a march on Washington aimed at removing President Trump from office before the November 2026 elections. They passed another explicitly calling for ‘Educational Reparations.’ Additional items promoted May Day political protests and opposed immigration enforcement,” he said. “None of them had anything to do with improving student achievement.”

Pringle also dedicated a large part of her speech to highlighting the ideological activism of union delegates and members during 2026.

“We have fought for equity, justice, and freedom for all,” she continued.” Advocating for the rights of women, the disabled, and immigrants, the rights of LGBTQ+, AAPI, indigenous black and brown communities, voting rights … .”

DeAngelis also told JTN. “Becky Pringle pulls in roughly half a million dollars a year to push political propaganda on kids instead of delivering real results for educators or improved student outcomes. Less than 10% of the NEA’s budget actually goes toward representing teachers. The rest funds bureaucracy, staff, and relentless political activism. Over 98% of their political contributions go to Democrats every single year.”

“It’s no coincidence,” he also said, “that Becky Pringle herself serves as an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee.”

Pringle commended union members for rallying on ‘No Kings’ Day – protests opposing President Trump – and May Day, a socialist holiday. Pringle has also praised members for passing legislation to tax the rich, reduce student testing, and oppose school choice initiatives.

In Maine and Washington state, NEA members successfully lobbied to put a millionaire’s tax into law, which, according to Pringle, “will require the wealthiest in those states to invest in the communities that need it the most.”

Arizona NEA members led a grassroots campaign to eliminate non-mandatory standardized tests required by the school districts, reducing standardized testing in grades 2-8 by 50%—or, what Pringle referred to as “testing and punishing, blaming and shaming.”

Members in Wyoming, meanwhile, filed and won a lawsuit pausing progress on the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, the state’s universal school choice program, which Pringle alleged was “deliberately designed to destroy [Wyoming’s] public schools.”

Today, union-dominated cities such as Boston, Minneapolis, and Oakland score well below the national average for middle school math proficiency (28%) and hover around the national average for middle school reading proficiency (30%).

“Congress should revoke the NEA’s federal charter,” DeAngelis says. “This organization has devolved into little more than a money-laundering operation for the Democratic Party […] Teachers deserve better than this garbage.” Rather, DeAngelis added, “they deserve unions—or alternatives—that actually prioritize their profession and their students instead of using their dues as a slush fund for radical left-wing causes.

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