Nothing to do with labor: Largest union in US adopts radical abortion stance

The National Education Association, a labor union which claims a membership of over 3 million, has for years avoided scaring off or offending Christian members by claiming that it doesn’t have an official position on abortion. But it can’t make that claim any more.

NEA’s newest “business item,” adopted this past weekend, states that “The NEA vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.”

This is not the only example of profound liberal bias in the nation’s largest labor union. The NEA has long defended itself from supposedly spurious right-wing attacks. Its classic and frequently updated tract, “The Truth about the NEA: The NEA response to its critics,” had tried for years to persuade readers that the union is not just an ideological hothouse embracing leftist positions on nearly everything: guns, babies, taxes, you name it. These assertions were never very persuasive, but the pretenses are now gone.

On education policy, the NEA has long claimed it “support[s] pro-education candidates without regard to their political affiliation.” But what exactly does “pro-education” mean? According to the NEA, it only means pro-public school education. “Parents should be free to choose, supplement, or substitute education in privately supported, nonpublic schools — but at their own expense. Public funding should only be used to support public schools,” the NEA says.

In other words, only wealthy people should have any choice in what school their children go to. If you’re poor, you get whatever school the government sticks you with, no matter how terrible it is. What’s “pro-education” about that?

The union denies the claim that it only supports Democrats, but 94% of the union’s donations to political candidates in 2018 went to Democrats. Meanwhile, the union has spent $70 million on politics and lobbying in the last two years.

The far-left politics of the NEA only strengthen the Supreme Court’s affirmation that no employee should be forced to join and support union political causes or become members against their will. Freedom of association is a fundamental right, and anyone who isn’t far left of center should avoid the NEA.

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