GOP Senators Call Out NEA for Creating ‘Enemies List’ That May Target Concerned Parents

A group of Republican Senators called out the president of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teacher’s union in the United States, this week over alleged plans to spend thousands of dollars to create a so-called “enemies list.”

Lawmakers James Lankford (R-Okla.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) sent a letter NEA President Becky Pringle on July 13 demanding answers on the NEA’s alleged plan to spend $140,000 to research opposition groups, which may include concerned parents.

According to the lawmakers, the union’s list of “enemies” would consist of individuals who have been identified as “actively working to diminish a student’s right to honesty in education, freedom of sexual and gender identity, and teacher autonomy.”

The measure allowing the teachers union to create such a list was reportedly passed at the NEA 2022 Representative Assembly in Chicago last week, the senators said.

NEA, which has over 3 million members working in public education, approved the resolution for $140,625 and the fact sheets will be distributed to NEA state affiliates, according to Education Week.

Specifically, the NEA will research and create fact sheets on at least 25 organizations, according to a convention business item seen by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The lists will include “information about the organization’s funding sources, their leaders within the organizations and connections to known entities that are seeking to dismantle public education,” according to the business item cited by reports, while the fact sheets to be sent out will help affiliates “be armed with information.”

Advancing a ‘Social Justice Agenda’

In their letter to Pringle, the Senators noted how the COVID-19 pandemic had drastically impacted learning for millions of children, and that the need to focus on children and their education was now more “critical” than ever.

The GOP lawmakers said they were “disturbed” to know that the

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