Teachers Union Summer Trainings Continue to Focus on Harmful Ideologies: Report

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the National Education Association 2022 Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago on July 5, 2022. Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images

The nation’s two largest teachers unions continue to prioritize trainings that will indoctrinate students with transgender ideology and racial equity, according to a recent report by the Defense of Freedom Institute (DFI).

DFI, a conservative think tank, criticized the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) summer conferences in a report titled “Summer of Woke, The Sequel,” authored by DFI policy counsel Paul Zimmerman and spokeswoman Angela Morabito (pdf).

“The NEA and AFT have shown, yet again, that they do not represent the interests of the average teacher and will never serve as responsible stewards of an effective public K–12 education system,” states the DFI report.

The DFI report criticizes the NEA Representative Assembly and the AFT for voting on their July meeting items in secret.

“This shameful commitment to secrecy reveals that the NEA is out of step with the public regarding its policy goals, as well as the organization’s hypersensitivity to criticism of its stances,” states the report, especially because the unions receive “perks” like some tax exemptions from the government.

“Just as Americans have the right to demand transparency from Congress and presidents, we have every right to know what the NEA decides at its annual meetings and in other settings,” the report said.

Training Red Flags

The DFI report flagged three main types of trainings conducted at the AFT’s Together Educating America’s Children (TEACH) conference in July, which promoted gender ideology in schools, race-based classroom lessons, and changes to student discipline procedures.

Among the summer sessions at the TEACH conference was a training called “Affirming LGBTQIA+ Identities in and out of the Classroom,” which focused on navigating state and local government policies that “prevent the wider acceptance and celebration of all individuals, especially those in the LGBTQIA+ community.”

In another of the training sessions, the description states that “cisnormativity,” an ideological term used to describe the assumption that sex and gender are inextricably linked, “can be limiting for [transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary] … and cisgender folks alike.”

The NEA also gave its members a “pronoun guide” that listed “ze” “zim” and “zir” on a list of “most common pronouns.”

Becky Pringle, president of the NEA, spoke at the NEA Representative Assembly in July, held in Florida, and criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Legislature’s Republican majority for the 2022 Parental Rights in Education bill, characterizing the law and Florida overall as “ground zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric and dangerous actions.”

The Parental Rights in Education bill aims to prevent transgender discussions with, or indoctrination of, the youngest and most impressionable students with regard to gender and sexual orientation.

Restorative Justice

“Days before its TEACH Conference in July, the AFT adopted a resolution on LGBTQ+ issues which favors ‘age-appropriate and inclusive’ bathroom and locker room policies,” states the DFI report.

Another key focus area for the union trainings was racial justice and countering the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. Both the ATF and NEA slammed the court’s decision to outlaw race-based admissions.

According to the DFI report, “the NEA is so perturbed by this ruling that one of the ‘New Business Items’ at its Representative Assembly called for court packing, stating that the union will call on President Biden to expand the Supreme Court and calling the court in its present form ’an illegitimate Court, shaped by Trump.'”

A session at the TEACH Conference titled “Education for Liberation: The Role of the Racially Conscious Educator in Combating Oppression,” was designed to help participants “improve their racial-equity leadership.” Another training was based on the premise that everyone is racist and urges teachers to take the training to undo their own “unconscious racial bias.”

The DFI report also highlighted a third area of concern: classroom discipline, the lack of authority for teachers, and the absence of meaningful consequences for student misbehavior and violence. Instead, teachers unions advocate and train administrators to use strategies that are nonpunitive.

The TEACH Conference included a session on “Youth Justice in Practice: Moving from Restorative Circles to Restorative Systems,” advertising “restorative justice” practices that emphasize dialogue and empathy over “traditional disciplinary principles that are necessary to prevent misbehavior and violence in the classrooms and hallways of K–12 schools,” the DFI report said.

While proponents of restorative justice say it respects individuals, including the perpetrator, critics say the method does not stop violence and does little to hold the perpetrator of the harm accountable.

The AFT and NEA did not respond to a request for comment.