Teachers unions could be blocked from receiving federal funding under new legislation

A Texas congressman Wednesday introduced legislation which would prohibit federal funding of teachers' unions.

The No Federal Funding for Teachers’ Unions Act, introduced by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, stipulates "no Federal funds may be provided to a labor organization the members of which are education professionals."

It defines an education professional as someone who is employed by an elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education.

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"Corrupt teachers’ unions sold out our kids when they lined Democrat politicians’ pockets with campaign contributions to keep students out of the classroom, and later to force masking, despite clear evidence that these decisions were harmful to kids’ educational and developmental growth. They have even pushed a radical and inappropriate curriculum which seeks to indoctrinate our students with a woke, racist, and anti-American worldview," Rep. Jackson said.

Reacting to the bill, education policy expert and American Federation For Children senior fellow Corey DeAngelis told Fox News Digital that "the move would be a good first step."

"Public sector unions shouldn't even exist. Teachers unions certainly shouldn't receive any taxpayer funding, especially when they're an arm of the Democratic Party that fights to trap kids in failing government schools. House Republicans should take it a step further and pass a bill to abolish the federal Department of Education. They should also pass a bill to revoke the National Education Association’s federal charter – and to empower families with school choice," he said.

Jackson also said that the legislation would be an "important first step" in holding teachers unions accountable.

"Teachers’ unions have a disturbing history of choosing self-interest over students and indoctrination over education," he told Fox News Digital. "Promoting racist curriculums and gender confusion certainly doesn’t represent my values or the values of the parents, students, and teachers in my district. The federal government should not give one cent to organizations that use their influence to empower Democrat politicians instead of students and parents. My legislation is an important first step to holding greedy teachers’ union bosses accountable and to restoring parental rights in education."

Recently, the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the United States, tweeted that teachers know better than anyone else when students need "to learn and to thrive." 

"Educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and to thrive," read the tweet from NEA’s official Twitter.

Reactions were mixed, with some Twitter users largely agreeing, while others criticizing the notion, saying, in so many words, that parents ought to be involved in a child’s education as well. 

Relations between teachers unions and parents have soured in recent years, particularly in response to academic slowdowns across the U.S. in the wake of COVID-19-related school closures. 

A recent national report card showed the impact that forced at-home learning may have had on schoolchildren, finding the largest decrease in reading scores in three decades. Math scores, meanwhile, saw their first decrease in the history of the testing regimen done by the National Center for Education Statistics. 

The NEA, along with the American Federation of Teachers, was caught up in controversial emails last year with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Correspondence obtained by Americans for Public Trust found that the nation's two largest teachers unions appeared to influence last-minute changes to school reopening guidance and a slow walking of getting kids back to school.

Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.