The National Education Association is peddling radical leftist propaganda to America’s youngest students.
Parents trusted teachers to educate their children about reading, writing, and arithmetic.
But the nation’s largest teachers union teamed up with a 1960s radical’s organization to push anti-American lessons on children as young as pre-K.
The National Education Association partnered with an organization named after Howard Zinn that registered more than 176,000 teachers who downloaded over 765,000 lessons promoting radical social justice activism to students.¹
Zinn was a self-described anarchist and "democratic socialist" who wrote "A People’s History of the United States" — a book historians across the political spectrum condemned as historically inaccurate propaganda.²
The Zinn Education Project offers lesson plans to teachers of students as young as pre-Kindergarten that push radical leftist views on American history.
The propaganda machine targeting America’s children
Zinn’s book portrays American history as an uninterrupted story of oppression and genocide from Columbus through the present day.
The book sold over 2.6 million copies despite being denounced by prominent historians as "distorted, manipulative, and plain dishonest."³
Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels called it "a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation" after Zinn’s death in 2010.⁴
Conservative scholars weren’t the only ones criticizing Zinn’s work.
Even liberal historians like Martin Duberman admitted the book presents "a partial and thereby distorted account" that "has been justly criticized as leaving out too much."⁵
Stanford education professor Sam Wineburg noted the book appeals to teenagers’ "inner Holden Caulfield" by portraying America’s heroes as "shameless frauds" and parents and teachers as "conniving liars."⁶
But the NEA doesn’t care about accuracy or balance.
The union partnered with the Zinn Education Project to host an annual "Teach Truth Day of Action" that promotes lessons on "voting rights, climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s issues, labor rights, and more."⁷
Notice what’s missing from that list — reading, writing, math, or science.
Radical leftist lessons for elementary school children
The propaganda starts young with the Zinn Education Project.
For third through fifth graders, the organization recommends an openly anti-white book called "Borderlands and the Mexican American Story."
The book’s description claims "white colonizers and settlers" engaged in "relentless attempts" to erase Mexican culture in the Southwest.⁸
Another lesson for young elementary students features a seven-minute video produced by The Intercept and narrated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, pushing her "Green New Deal" and universal healthcare.⁹
In the video, Ocasio-Cortez claims "the world’s top climate scientist" warned that humanity had "12 years left to cut our emissions in half, or hundreds of millions of people would be more likely to face food and water shortages, poverty and death."
The video then pivots to a utopian fantasy about how embracing socialism saved the planet.
"We became a society that was not only modern and wealthy, but dignified and humane too," Ocasio-Cortez says in the video. "By committing to universal rights like healthcare and meaningful work for all, we stop being so scared of the future."¹⁰
That’s political indoctrination, not education.
Teachers boast about using radical curriculum exclusively
The Zinn Education Project proudly displays testimonials from teachers who admit they’ve abandoned traditional curriculum entirely.
"The Zinn Education Project is my compass in a sea of corporate textbooks, packaged common core curriculum and standardized testing," says Chris Buehler, described as a high school social studies teacher in Portland, Ore. "My entire curriculum is based on lessons that can be found on the Zinn Education Project."¹¹
Another teacher from Evanston, Illinois, explained how he uses the curriculum to teach social justice activism.
"Nine years later, my students can speak to the power of deconstructing the narratives of Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln’s efforts that have replicated white supremacy and marginalization of people of color in historical discourse," Corey Winchester said.¹²
These aren’t isolated cases.
The Zinn Education Project claims teachers "in every state and territory" download lessons from its website.¹³
That means radical leftist propaganda is reaching students in classrooms across America.
The NEA chose politics over students
The NEA’s partnership with the Zinn Education Project is just the latest example of the union putting radical politics ahead of students.
At its July 2025 convention, the NEA voted to fight against President Trump’s "embrace of fascism," promote LGBTQ events in schools, and sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League.¹⁴
The union’s 2025 Teacher of the Year declared her job is "deeply political" and bragged that she "could no longer stay on the sidelines."¹⁵
In the 2024 election cycle, 98% of NEA political donations went to Democrats.¹⁶
The union spent twice as much money on political activities as it did on actually representing teachers, according to IRS records.¹⁷
Parents sent their children to school to learn skills they need to succeed in life.
Instead, the NEA is using classrooms as indoctrination centers for radical leftist ideology.
Republican lawmakers introduced legislation to revoke the NEA’s federal charter over its transformation into a "partisan advocacy group."¹⁸
The union abandoned its mission of supporting teachers and students in favor of pushing a radical agenda that has nothing to do with education.
And the NEA’s partnership with the Zinn Education Project proves the union cares more about churning out young activists than educated citizens.
¹ Peter D’Abrosca, "Largest teachers union teams up with ’60s radical professor’s namesake org peddling anti-American curriculum," Fox News, October 23, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Mary Grabar, "The Disgraceful Howard Zinn," Claremont Review of Books.
⁴ Howard Zinn’s "A People’s History of the United States," Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog.
⁵ "Howard Zinn’s Influential Mutilations of American History," The New Republic, May 11, 2021.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Peter D’Abrosca, "Largest teachers union teams up with ’60s radical professor’s namesake org peddling anti-American curriculum," Fox News, October 23, 2025.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ "FAQ," Zinn Education Project, September 17, 2025.
¹⁴ "Blackburn, Harris Lead Fight to Hold National Education Association Accountable for Putting Politics Over Students," Senator Blackburn Press Release, July 18, 2025.
¹⁵ "NEA teachers union puts leftist politics over education priorities at convention," Fox News, July 10, 2025.
¹⁶ "Blackburn Introduces Legislation to Ban the National Education Association from Influencing Congress," Senator Blackburn Press Release, July 31, 2025.
¹⁷ "Never mind its lies — the NEA is nothing but the Left’s piggy bank," Freedom Foundation, April 21, 2022.
¹⁸ "Congress Considers Stripping Top Teachers Union of Federal Charter," Governing, July 21, 2025.