Republican Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) is calling on the president of the nation’s largest teachers union to resign.
Miller accused National Education Association (NEA) president Becky Pringle of “blatant partisanship” in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News following a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, where Republicans announced the introduction of a bill that would strip the union of its federal charter.
“Becky Pringle has weaponized the nation’s largest teachers’ union to push a radical political agenda, funneling millions to Democrats while abandoning students, parents, and teachers,” said Miller, who is a cosponsor of the National Education Association Charter Repeal Act, led by Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
“Under her failed leadership, the NEA has become a vehicle for indoctrination, not education,” Miller continued. “Becky Pringle should resign in disgrace for her blatant partisanship and utter incompetence. Our children deserve better.”
Pringle was “elected in 2020 as COVID-19 ravaged Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities nationwide,” according to the NEA’s website. She previously served as the union’s vice president and secretary-treasurer.
The NEA website additionally describes Pringle as a “fierce social justice warrior, defender of educator rights, an unrelenting advocate for all students and communities of color, and a valued and respected voice in the education arena.” It also claims she has led the NEA’s “work to transform the education professions and improve student learning,” even as the most recent Nation’s Report Card reflected continued learning losses since the pandemic.
The NEA did not respond to Breitbart’s request for comment by time of publication.
The NEA was founded in 1857 and received its charter from Congress in 1906, but Republicans argue the nation’s largest labor union has abandoned its original mission to support America’s educators in favor of a radical left-wing agenda.
The federal charter established the union’s status as a nonprofit organization under federal law and acknowledged its mission and purpose.
Sen. Blackburn said ahead of the bill’s introduction that the union has shown repeatedly that they will “put their political agenda ahead of students’ needs.”
“The National Education Association has made it crystal clear it’s a partisan organization, and it shouldn’t be rewarded with a federal charter that platforms woke gender ideology, antisemitism, and left-wing propaganda. Our students deserve better,” Blackburn said.
Rep. Harris told the Daily Caller the NEA has a “long list of egregious violations of public trust,” and pointed to an Open Secrets report revealing that 98 percent of NEA political donations went to Democrat candidates during the 2024 election cycle.
The NEA has also been in hot water for recently passing a resolution that “pledges to defend democracy against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using term facism [sic] in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions,” according to documents obtained by conservative education expert Corey A. DeAngelis.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” DeAngelis said at the press conference on Wednesday. “I mean, this is the union that—supposedly representing educators—can’t even correctly spell what they’re calling the president of the United States.”
According to Influence Watch, the NEA relies mostly on member dues rather than federal dollars. However, the bill would eliminate the NEA’s congressional ties, as well as certain property tax exemptions, per the Daily Caller report.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said at the press conference that while the bill would not dismantle the union, it would “send a strong message.”
“The federal government …no longer endorses the extremist politics or the damage they’re doing to our nation and to our education system,” Norman said, calling the bill “just the first step.”
The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Miller, Norman, David Rouzer (R-NC), Randy Fine (R-FL), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Chip Roy (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Bob Onder (R-MO). Moms for Liberty, Heritage Action, Young America’s Foundation, American Principles Project, and the National Right to Work Committee have endorsed the bill.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
