By Mark Tapscott of The Epoch Times, featuring Independent Women’s Voice and EFC Director Ginny Gentles. Read the letter here.
When news broke the National School Board Association (NSBA) urged federal officials to brand as “domestic terrorists” parents protesting far-Left classroom curriculums on race and sex, it sparked a stampede of angry members out the group’s exits.
At last count, nearly half of the NSBA’s state associations have either left the group or are making plans to do so. Six members of the NSBA’s national board of directors have also resigned and more departures may be coming. All of those leaving refuse to be associated with the “protesting-parents-are-terrorists” policy.
Virginia Gentles, Director of the Education Freedom Center for the Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), won’t be surprised if something similar happens to the National Education Association (NEA) if Congress revokes the teachers union’s federal charter.
“Look at what happened with the National School Board Association, that didn’t even take congressional action to dismantle a pretty powerful and influential organization,” Gentles told The Epoch Times on April 19. “That just took parents rising up and saying ‘no, you’re not going to call us domestic terrorists’ and then putting pressure on their local and state associations to pull out from the national organization.”
Gentles was referring to HR 7510, the National Education Association Charter Repeal Act, introduced in the House of Representatives April 14 by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) and co-sponsored by House Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and 16 other House Republicans.
In addition to Gentles’ group, the bill has been endorsed by the American Principles Project, America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Club for Growth, Concerned Women for America LAC, ForAmerica, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, the National Right to Work Committee (NRTW), and Young America’s Foundation (YAF).
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Gentles pointed to an event during a 2019 NEA conference, which is also noted in HR 7510, the defeat by delegates of a resolution calling on the teachers union to “re-dedicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America by putting a renewed emphasis on quality education. NEA will make student learning the priority of the association.’’
Gentles said “there are these alternative professional associations like the Association of American Educators. They are quiet, but they are there—waiting in the wings to welcome teachers who want freedom from a union that does not represent their interests.”
In an April 4 letter to Congress, the IWV endorsed HR 7510, stating that “a federal charter, sometimes known as a congressional charter, recognizes an organization’s authority and purpose. The NEA is a politically-motivated labor union with a budget of over $370 million that gives the vast majority (at least 94 percent) of its political dollars to left-wing candidates and causes.
“It should come as no surprise, then, that the policies adopted by this partisan organization run counter to the views of large shares of the American public, particularly parents of school-aged children. Thus, the NEA does not belong on the list of federal charters.”
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To read the full article on The Epoch Times, click here.