With all the sophistication and pep of a high school graduation speech, the president of the nation’s largest teachers’ union called on her gathered members “to build our power” to advance the union’s radical left-wing agenda, its “righteous cause.” 

“We will never give up; we will never give in!” National Education Association President Becky Pringle declared in prepared remarks at the NEA’s annual assembly in Chicago. “WE are the NEA … And we WILL prevail! Onward.” 

In just 2,000 words, Pringle managed to denounce the Supreme Court while misconstruing its purpose; champion abortion; attack prayer in schools; oppose gun rights; and scorn laws that curb radical race- and sex-based teaching in schools. 

And she threatens any political candidate who disagrees, “[I]f you get in the way of our progress toward a more just nation, we will get in the way of your election.” 

Pringle opens her speech by touting the union’s commitment to “lifting up our incredible students” in the wake of COVID. She fails to mention that the unions fought to keep schools closed, which left so many of the students she feigns concern for woefully behind academically. 

Then comes the tirade on the Supreme Court for its recent decisions on abortion, prayer and guns. She accuses the “radicalized Supreme Court” of stripping “the rights many of us have spent a lifetime fighting to secure.”  

“We have known since the 2016 election this day would come – we would feel the effects of a radicalized Supreme Court issuing decisions that do not reflect the views or the values of the majority of Americans,” Pringle ranted. 

Not only is the notion absurd that the Supreme Court should consider or reflect “the views or the values of the majority of Americans” – that’s not the job of the justices – but Pringle’s assumption about “the majority” is simply untrue.  

National polls suggest Americans continue to be divided on the issues of abortion and gun rights, which are complex debates with a number of sub-issues. And prayer in schools has enjoyed healthy support for years in America.  

On issues that conservatives around the country are celebrating – the Supreme Court’s recent decision in favor of a coach’s First Amendment right to silently pray on a public football field; the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which returns the legality of abortion back to the states; as well as new school choice opportunities across many states – Pringle can only speak of them collectively in negative terms, as a “gut punch.” 

“From decisions on school prayer that attack religious freedom; to vouchers that threaten the right to a universal public education; to the long-term, devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to highjack the fundamental freedom to decide for ourselves when and how to have a family, and the care we need. Like me,” Pringle went on, “you knew these decisions were coming. That still didn’t change the gut punch it delivered.” 

Alluding to the misleading “Don’t Say Gay” moniker of a Florida law banning sexually explicit instruction for young elementary students, Pringle declares, “We will say gay. We will say trans,” vowing to “fight” for the LGBTQ agenda

The speech also alludes to the national debate over Critical Race Theory-inspired curricula in schools, which parents and policy experts across the country have warned is harmful. But Pringle subtly endorses it as “this nation’s true and complete history,” even suggesting it’s an answer to horrific tragedies such as happened May 14 in Buffalo, New York, when an 18-year-old gunman killed 10 people and wounded three others in a racially motivated attack. 

Pringle evens summons weighty words from President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address, which she only identifies as “timeless words” on the president’s tombstone: “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.” 

Yet Kennedy’s words were primarily directed toward foreign policy concerns, especially of nuclear war. But for Pringle and the Left, a few political setbacks amount to a Cuban Missile Crisis.  

“We are being called to defend freedom during its hour of maximum danger,” Pringle claims. 

And make no mistake, the NEA is prepared to fight, as Pringle promises multiple times.  

“That’s why I know we will act as if it were possible to radically transform the world – every day, all day; in every school, and every community, and every state across this nation,” Pringle asserts. 

Yes, the NEA’s agenda would be a radical transformation because it is a radical agenda, but not one that bears our children in mind.