A tweet by the union on Nov 12. emphasized that message

Spencer Pauley
The Center Square

A recent tweet by the National Education Association was deemed inappropriate and “creepy” by the Washington-based think tank, the Freedom Foundation.

The national teachers union bases its current ad campaign around creating a more just and inclusive society through public education. When visiting the NEA’s website, a message to educators states, “our best hope for student success is YOU,” followed by steps to ensure students of all backgrounds succeed in learning.

A tweet by the union on Nov 12. emphasized that message.

“Educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and to thrive,” the union wrote on Twitter.

That message did not sit well with Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe, who found the tweet to be “downright creepy.”

“While most individual teachers care very much for their students, the union’s tweet displayed an appalling level of arrogance that elevates itself above the parents in the students’ lives,” Withe said in a statement.

Withe referred to a reported incident from the union in which it provided teachers in Hilliard, Ohio, QR code-enabled badges. The codes directed users to the union’s LGBTQ caucus website that provided sex education resources. 

Resources included an educator’s guide to implementing LGBTQ inclusive sex education created by the University of Vermont, a call for action to have inclusive sex education for LGBTQ youth and “Queering Sex Education” from Teen Health Source.

“Perhaps [The National Education Association] should rethink tweeting that ‘educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and thrive,’” Withe said.

The website has since been archived.

In the wake of the 2022 election results, National Education Association President Becky Pringle said that students, parents and teachers were winners of the outcomes. She added that teachers’ love for their students along with their understanding of student needs was more persuasive to parents than “race-baiting rhetoric designed to distract voters.”

“Parents and voters explicitly rejected extreme politicians who engaged in the politics of division, politicizing our classrooms, banning books, dragging their culture wars into our public schools and pushing failed privatization schemes,” Pringle said in a statement.

This story was first reported by The Center Square.