New president of nation’s largest teachers’ union promises offensive action, ‘equity’ in public education despite falling membership

The newly elected president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, said its members must “go on the offense” to fight for equity in public education and become “the most powerful force in America.”

“Together, we will continue fighting for the resources, respect and professional voice educators deserve because when we invest in public education, we invest in the future of every student,” Princess Moss said at the NEA’s 105th Representative Assembly, held July 3-7 in Denver. “I look forward to building on our union’s proud legacy and working alongside our members to ensure every student, in every ZIP code, has access to a high-quality public education.”

Her comments come despite the NEA’s membership declining to 2.8 million from 3.2 million in 2009 and the documented decrease in teachers’ unions’ influence nationwide, as previously reported by Heartlander News.

Moss, 65, currently serves as NEA vice president. She was NEA secretary-treasurer from 2014 to 2020, where she managed the union’s multimillion-dollar budget.

The union has faced criticism for spending heavily on political campaigns – almost exclusively supporting Democrats – and doing little to represent teachers. Some critics have accused the union of fraud and funding dark-money groups affiliated with liberal causes and billionaire George Soros.

Moss’ election also comes as public education test scores have fallen to a 30-year low, with only one-third of high school students reaching reading proficiency during the 2024-25 academic year.

Critics argue that “racial relativism and identity politics” have politicized schools “from BLM to transgenderism to Gaza” while failing to improve student achievement, said Daniel Greenfield, CEO of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

“The kids don’t belong to the NEA and for a group of people to have professional authority, they must demonstrate that they have some idea of what they’re doing and that they’re getting good results,” he wrote. “Any other profession that produced the kind of outcomes that the NEA’s members do would lose all its customers, face lawsuits and government interventions.”

But Moss, who was born and raised in rural Virginia and is a former Virginia Education Association president, advocates for the “historically marginalized,” including “Black, Brown and indigenous communities, LGBTQ+ communities,” according to the NEA, frequently speaking on “racial and social justice in education.”

“We are not only educators, not only organizers. We are advocates,” Moss said. “We are the ones to know what our students need, and we are willing to fight for all of them.”

Offense or defense?

Moss narrowly secured a majority of the nearly 6,000-member delegate assembly’s votes, receiving 50.3% and defeating Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, who received 31.2%, and Sean Spiller, former New Jersey Education Association president and former gubernatorial candidate, who received 17.4%. She will replace Becky Pringle, who served the maximum two three-year terms and will step down in September.

Moss said her focus will be launching the NEA into offensive action – something one critic quickly refuted.

“We have been on defense for too long,” Moss said in a speech to delegates July 4. “We have been defending funding, defending rights, defending the very existence of public education. We must go on the offense. It’s time to move from resistance to renaissance.”

But Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the union “is freaking out because they can feel they’re on the defensive.”

“They’re trying to keep teachers in the dark rather than fix what’s broken by focusing on what members actually need,” he told Heartlander News in a message.

“One of the resolutions they’re considering this week even goes after groups like the Freedom Foundation and Americans for Fair Treatment – where I serve as a senior fellow – for simply informing teachers about their legal right to leave these abusive unions.”

DeAngelis pointed to the growth of school choice, noting that 31 states have opted into the new federal school choice program, which begins in January, and 18 states have enacted universal school choice in the past five years.

“Parents are finally getting real options and teachers are realizing they don’t have to stay trapped in failing systems,” he said. “The NEA is bleeding members because teachers aren’t seeing the value anymore – and the union bosses keep embarrassing the entire profession with their political stunts.

“Thanks to the Janus decision, teachers can no longer be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Instead of doing some honest introspection about why they’re losing support, the NEA is doubling down on their insidious plan to use the government school system to indoctrinate other people’s kids and siphon teachers’ paychecks to push their political agenda.”

(Image credit: Instagram / princess_moss)