A US House committee has opened a formal investigation into the National Education Association (NEA), following a series of allegations that the nation's largest teachers' union is "contributing to antisemitism among its members and in classrooms across the United States," the Washington Free Beacon reported on Thursday.
The probe, led by the House Committee on Education and Workforce, was revealed in a letter to NEA president Rebecca Pringle from Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI.).
In the letter, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Walberg expressed that he is "gravely concerned about antisemitic content in the NEA's 2025 handbook and the NEA Representative Assembly's vote in July 2025 to ban materials by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)." The investigation comes as a response to a wave of accusations regarding the union's antisemitic actions.
The controversy began in July when the NEA’s Representative Assembly passed a resolution to boycott the ADL's Holocaust education materials, after union delegates complained the ADL’s definition of antisemitism was too strong.
While the NEA leadership later reversed the decision following public backlash, lawmakers have cited the union’s 2025 handbook as further evidence of an extremist agenda.
The handbook's contents are at the heart of the committee's concern. It outlines plans to promote a version of Holocaust remembrance that fails to specifically mention Jews. In stark contrast, the document gives a lengthy description of the NEA's plans to "educate members and the general public about the history of the Palestinian Nakba," which it describes as the "forced, violent displacement and dispossession of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 during the establishment of Israel."
The union also stated its intention to "educate members about the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism" and promote "free speech in defense of Palestine at K-12 schools, colleges, and universities."
Walberg's letter demanded the union turn over all communications, documents, or meeting minutes from NEA officials that included the words "antisemitism," "Israel," "Israeli," "Palestine," or "Palestinian" dating back to October 7, 2023—the day of Hamas’s mass terror attacks in Israel. He also requested all documents related to the changes in the 2025 handbook and the vote to ban ADL materials.
In response to the union's anti-Israel activism and far-left political engagement, lawmakers are considering legislative action, including revoking the NEA's federal charter. Walberg confirmed that the committee is weighing "legislation to specifically address antisemitic discrimination within labor unions and to combat antisemitism in federally funded schools."