✪ America’s Biggest Teachers Union Fuels Its Marxist Political Machine

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Cecily Myart-Cruz, the immediate past president of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), carried almost 70% of the vote, a signal that the NEA is likely to double down on its leftwing political power play and far-left, marxist social justice activism.

Cecily Myart-Cruz

This is hardly breaking news. It reflects the union’s longstanding trajectory and echoes outgoing NEA President Becky Pringle’s recent call for a “political revolution.”

For decades, the teachers unions have built a political machine which channels members’ dues into political campaigns, activist organizations and ballot initiatives. Since 2016 alone, the NEA, AFT and their affiliates have directed more than $1 billion to leftist political groups & activist organizations.

Despite the unions’ constant drumming on about protecting “democracy” from “fascists,” the virtue signaling is nothing more than cover for their Machiavellian-light tactics.

It should not come as any surprise the NEA’s Representative Assembly (RA) just adopted a bylaw to increase yearly member dues by $10 to be directly “allocated to the Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises and Media Campaign Fund.” That means an additional $20 million per year will be injected into state and local politics to advance the NEA’s leftist agenda.

To understand how this functions in practice, look to the current school choice fight in Arizona over the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. Through astroturf proxies, the NEA is attempting to stop or handicap Arizona families’ ability to choose the best school for their children.

Leading the current anti-school choice movement in The Grand Canyon State is Protect Education, Accountability Now, a recently registered Political Action Committee (PAC) that took in almost $4.5 million from the NEA in the first three months of 2026.

It is more than a union-funded PAC — it’s run directly by union leadership. In fact, the chairman of the PAC, Delia Lynding, is the President of the Kyrene Education Association and a highly active union member. At a No Kings rally this past March, Lynding parroted national leadership rhetoric by declaring by declaring the “unions are the antidote to fascism.” Apparently, we do not share the same understanding or definition of “fascism.”

However, this is not an isolated case of the unions wielding their collective power and resources to influence and control state and local policy and legislation. Over the last few years, the teachers unions have dumped tens of millions of dollars into activist nonprofits to stop or challenge school choice measures in states like Colorado, Kentucky, Maine and Nebraska.

Expanding this political hydra, the NEA has partnered with Public School Strong, an “organizing and visibility campaign of Race Forward’s HEAL Together initiative” which is headed up by a lead organizer with a lengthy history of antisemitic posts and statements. The initiative’s expressed purpose is to support “equity” and protect schools from the “rising tide of extremist attacks against public education” by training up students, parents, and community members as local activists for the union’s interests. In 2024, the NEA gave Race Forward over $300,0000.

At this year’s NEA annual meeting and assembly, the Representative Assembly has reaffirmed the future direction of the organization; the nation’s largest teachers union wants more power and control over schools and culture, and they are willing to use the education system to achieve it.

In order to thwart these efforts, we need to continue to expose their tactics and agenda to the public, offer up alternatives like the Teacher Freedom Alliance, and promote legislation that neuters and defunds this far-left political monstrosity.

It is way past time that we end the teachers unions’ professional activist funding pipeline. ✪