How National Education Association disserves its members
by Kenneth L. Marcus · The Washington TimesOPINION:
Americans have grown accustomed to headlines about antisemitism on college campuses. What has received less attention is how rapidly similar dynamics are spreading into K-12 education.
Congressional hearings have begun documenting rising antisemitism in elementary and secondary schools, including cases serious enough to drive Jewish students out of their classrooms.
A recent report concludes that antisemitism in K-12 education is systemic rather than isolated. Another finds that activist networks within teachers unions are playing a role in pushing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish narratives into schools.
The latest example is a federal civil rights complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the nation’s largest union, the National Education Association. The NEA is accused of violating members’ rights by fostering a hostile work environment marked by antisemitism and denying equal opportunities to public school teachers.
At the center of this controversy lies an obvious contradiction: Teachers unions exist to protect the rights of educators, but the NEA has denied equal treatment to some of the very people it is supposed to represent because of their religion, ancestry and national origin.
That is not simply a failure of judgment. It is a failure of representation, a breach of trust and a violation of law.
In addition to a pattern of discrimination, the complaint details how union policies and practices have limited Jewish members’ access to leadership roles, mentorship and full participation in union governance. Specifically, it examines how access to leadership positions, training opportunities and internal influence within the union is shaped by racial and ethnic classifications.
Because Jewish educators are often categorized as “White” under these frameworks, they are excluded from roles reserved for preferred groups. The question is not whether these teachers should properly be described as “White” — which is a separate discussion — but why the union is basing its decisions on racial classifications rather than providing all its members with equal rights.
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Racial classification is not the only barrier preventing Jewish members from participating in union governance. When it was Jewish delegates’ turn to speak at the NEA’s 2025 national assembly, they were harassed, shouted down and physically surrounded by other participants.
When one delegate referenced the murder of a Holocaust survivor in a recent antisemitic attack, parts of the room responded with laughter and cheers of joy.
These were not one-off incidents. The NEA’s continued actions both at the assembly and outside it allow and actively reinforce this pattern of antisemitism and hostility toward Jewish members.
One day after the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, the union circulated materials that omit Jews as the primary victims of the Holocaust and distributed maps that erase the state of Israel. Not only are these materials and the timing offensive, but the clear antisemitism and anti-Israel bias underlying them shape the professional environment for educators and influence what ultimately reaches students.
The implications of such actions and materials extend well beyond union governance. The NEA represents more than 3 million educators and plays a major role in influencing professional norms in public education. When discrimination or ideological bias takes hold at that level, it filters into classrooms, lesson plans and school culture.
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Lawmakers have begun to take notice. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has opened an investigation into antisemitism within the NEA. The chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has raised similar concerns about the treatment of Jewish members and the direction of the union.
These are not routine inquiries. They reflect growing concern that a major national institution is drifting away from basic civil rights principles.
With this latest complaint, the EEOC has an opportunity to set things straight. Still, the broader issue remains: Institutions that claim to stand for fairness should not deny it to their members.
Teachers unions have long argued that they exist to protect educators from discrimination and hostile work environments, but that standard must apply to all teachers, regardless of where they come from or what they practice. If it does not, then the unions have failed in their most basic responsibility.
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Jewish educators — indeed, all educators — are entitled to equal treatment under the law. The organizations that represent them should be the first to uphold that principle, not the ones accused of abandoning it. It is the least our teachers and our schools deserve.
• Kenneth L. Marcus is the chairman and CEO of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and a former assistant secretary for civil rights at the United States Department of Education under two administrations.