Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is calling on Congress to review the century-old federal charter of the National Education Association (NEA), the United States' largest teachers union, citing its ties to far-left causes and alleged financial mismanagement. The move follows years of criticism of the NEA over its mobilisation of students and staff for liberal activist campaigns, accusations from Jewish members that it has failed to tackle antisemitism, and its spending of membership dues on left-wing causes, raising questions about whether the union still fulfils the purpose for which Congress originally chartered it.

A report from Cassidy's committee highlights the NEA's extensive links with the Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools, two allied nonprofits accused of producing curriculum materials that favourably portray the Black Panther Party and lesson plans on "queer liberation" activism and LGBTQ history for young pupils. The NEA, which represents around three million educators, has given the groups prominent roles at conferences and incorporated their material into handbooks and lesson plans distributed to teachers. Congress chartered the NEA in 1906 to "elevate the character" of teaching and promote education nationally; losing that charter would be largely symbolic, damaging the union's reputation without stopping it from operating.