NEA business agenda items censored by Twitter
NEA business agenda items censored by Twitter
John Locke Foundation's Dr. Terry Stoops had tweets of the actual agenda items blocked for violating Twitter rules
In case you missed it, this past week Dr. Terry Stoops of the John Locke Foundation tweeted a number of business agenda items of the National Education Association (NEA). After his tweets garnered attention from Twitter users, some of his tweets were censored by Twitter for violating the platform’s rules.
Specifically, a tweet containing the NEA’s intent to force mandatory vaccinations and masking “in schools” was one of the tweets removed by Twitter:
Many may remember that during the pandemic it was uncovered that the other major teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) had influenced Centers for Disease Control guidance for masking and had pushed to keep schools closed to in-person instruction. In fact, emails obtained through records requests showed that suggestions from AFT officials were in some cases taken nearly verbatim.
Pandemic school closures have been determined to have caused catastrophic learning loss among K-12 students nationwide. Nowhere in the NEA’s business items is the term “learning loss” even mentioned.
During the pandemic, Tamika Walker Kelly, the president of the NEA-affiliated N.C. Association of Educators (NCAE), took to Twitter in March of 2021 to announce that learning loss is a “false construct.” She later backtracked as data compiled by the Department of Public Instruction revealed North Carolina students across all grades and courses had seen between three and 15 months of learning loss.
The NCAE’s social justice caucus, Organize2020, recently launched a new coalition specifically designed to push back on parents who have been engaging and protesting their school boards over Critical Race Theory, books deemed pornographic in nature, and other topics.
More To the Twitter Censorship Story
Stoops was interviewed about the Twitter censorship on FOX New’s Ingraham Angle, where he discussed the fact that one of the NEA’s business items suggests replacing the word mother with “birthing person” and father with “non-birthing person.” Watch the Ingraham Angle clip here.
Racism, homophobia, transphobia, climate justice, environmental racism, social justice, racial justice, Biden administration talking points on Russia, gun control, and protesting for abortion rights are pervasive throughout the agenda.
Out of the 84 proposed New Business Items (NBIs), four take an anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian bent.
NBI 47 essentially sets up a push to define personal and national economics as racist in the name of "educational honesty."
NB1 53 suggests creating a “policy task force to develop strategies for placing the intersectionality of climate justice and environmental racism at the center of all relevant conversations and business.”
Multiple NEA NBI items referenced encouraging members to participate in pro-abortion rallies and demonstrations. One of the items went further by directly attacking the U.S. Supreme Court over the recent Dobbs ruling. That agenda item, NBI 6, is all about defending Roe v. Wade, but the cost implications attached to this item show they are only willing to part with $17,000 to do it. In the rationale for NBI 62, the NEA says Supreme Court Justices Kavanaugh, Coney-Barrett, and Gorsuch "constitute a far right-wing coup."
One item parents may want to pay attention to is NBI 15, which states the NEA “shall compile research to create fact sheets about the largest 25 organizations that are actively working to diminish a students' right to honesty in education, freedom of sexual and gender identify[sic], and teacher autonomy.”
The NEA is willing to spend an additional $140,625 over its proposed 2022-24 Strategic Plan and Budget to create was is essentially a list of enemies.
NBI 15 goes on to outline the NEA is targeting any group or person they consider a threat to public education:
“These fact sheets should include, but not be limited to, information about these organizations’ funding sources, their leaders within the organizations, connections to known entities that are seeking to dismantle public education, organization headquarters and chapter locations, characteristics of employed campaign strategies used by these organizations, and connections to known entities that are seeking to dismantle public education. The fact sheets will be made available to state affiliates electronically as needed to help be armed with information to organize against attacks on public education.”
The NEA rationale behind NBI 15 is being able to have “information readily available about organizations that seek to dismantle public education will better prepare affiliates as they organize and mobilize members to stand up against these attacks.” In other words, talking points for media.
Despite wanting to create a list of the top 25 organizations the NEA deems opposed to their arguably radical agenda, the term “Critical Race Theory” does not appear in any of the NBIs - but it comes close.
NB1 55 sounds pro-critical race theory without actually naming it”
NEA will create a task force whose purpose is to elevate existing culturally responsive pedagogical and curricular resources and develop a resource bank across multiple disciplines available on NEA360 and all existing NEA digital platforms.
Rationale/Background: Curriculums designed by standardized testing agencies instead of educators don’t include cultures and histories of marginalized people and people of color. A national task force will empower educators to create learning experiences our students deserve instead of low-quality discriminatory learning.
NB1 68 actually hits on themes of Critical Race Theory through the teacher preparation using Culturally Responsive Teaching methods.
"NEA will convene Aspiring Educators and higher education members in a taskforce to address the issue of inadequate and unconventional approaches to culturally responsive teacher preparation."
One of the goals of the taskforce is to "Advocate for courses that give time and space to learn how to navigate White supremacy culture, and address sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Blackness, colorism, etc." Another is to "Call on colleges and universities to restructure any surface level approaches to teaching around diversity, inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching pedagogies."
NB1 29 takes aim at states the NEA believes are passing "anti-LGBTQ+" legislation. In reality, the legislation being passed by states like Florida and North Carolina prohibit the teaching of sexuality and controversial gender identity theory to young children in elementary schools. Later, in NBI 41, the NEA singles out the Florida law blocking the teaching of these concepts to children in Pre-k through third grade. NBI 41 uses the misleading moniker promoted by the media of "the don't say gay bill."
North Carolina’s bill, the Parental Bill of Rights, has passed the Senate but has not been read and voted on yet by the House. Sources inside the General Assembly had said that the House will likely take that measure up after the November midterm election. The reason for the delay is likely that Republicans expect to gain supermajorities in both chambers and would be able to override the veto that Democratic Governor Roy Cooper has telegraphed he will issue on the bill.
More LGBTQ activism is found in NBI 82, which calls out the "institutional homophobia and transphobia" the NEA insists is rampant across the country.
The NEA is also no longer focusing mainly on social justice and “mental health” in K-12 education with several business items referencing activities in higher education. According to NB1 27, the NEA will "use existing resources to amplify the issue of inadequate and under-resourced mental health resources at higher education institutions, especially for Black, Latinx, Asian American/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and LGBTQ+ communities."
View the full NEA business items agenda.