Radical Teachers' Union - National Education Association
Sherry Sylvester | Texas Public Policy Foundation | July 18, 2025
LOSER: National Teachers Union President Screaming in Philadelphia
It’s been all over the Internet, but in case you missed the YouTube video of National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle screaming like a crazy person at the group’s convention in Philadelphia, you can watch it here. Her performance has been widely described in the media as “unhinged,” so I went to the thesaurus to find a similar term—deranged was suggested, along with unbalanced, mad and “crackers.” I’m going with “crackers.”
A lengthy report in the Free Press provides a detailed narrative of the latest agenda from the NEA which includes vows to stop President Trump’s fascism, eliminate ICE and resist the Supreme Court ruling that allows parents to opt their children out of “gender ideology” classes.
The NEA has also pledged millions for local political campaigns and says it will support the “No Kings,” movement, which nobody knows exactly what is, but apparently isn’t over. The NEA doesn’t seem to be pretending anymore that they care about what happens to our children.
A Texas teacher is quoted in the Free Press story saying she was told there was no time to discuss ways to improve reading and math skills (which continue to be in the tank across the country) because they had to “fight Trump.”
Texas parents finally defeated the teachers’ unions in the last legislative session after fighting for over three decades to pass school choice and establish the largest Educational Savings Account program in the country. But the screaming coming out of Philadelphia makes it clear that as long as the teachers unions can collect dues—and in most states teachers have no choice but to pay them—their wars against a good education aren’t over. To review NEA’s record, only 26% of American high school seniors are proficient in math and only about 40% of fourth graders are reading at grade level. Taxpaying parents are the ones who should be screaming.