The Idaho legislature is considering Senate Bill 98, a measure designed to end the use of taxpayer funds for teacher unions—and for good reason. Why should hardworking Idahoans, in an overwhelmingly conservative state, be forced to subsidize organizations that actively work against their values?
This isn’t a radical idea. It’s common sense.
Why SB 98 Is Necessary
For years, Idaho taxpayers have unknowingly funded teacher unions that push a leftist political agenda—whether through collective bargaining agreements, dues deductions, or other subsidies. Instead of focusing on education, academic excellence, and supporting students, these unions have prioritized politics, backing radical policies that have no place in Idaho classrooms.
Yet, when the Idaho House Committee on State Affairs was set to discuss SB 98, the room wasn’t just filled with teachers—it was packed with AFL-CIO and Teamsters members, seemingly there to provide cover for their allies in the teacher unions.
Let’s be clear: this is about more than teacher pay and benefits. It’s about what these unions are using their political influence to push into Idaho’s schools.
The NEA’s Radical Agenda in Classrooms
Serious question for those union workers who took time off to defend the National Education Association (NEA) and its Idaho affiliates:
When you get home from a long day of work, which of these NEA-endorsed books do you want to read to your kids?
📌 NEA’s Agenda: Normalizing sexuality discussions in early childhood education through engaging, familiar stories that desensitize kids to activism-based themes.
📌 NEA’s Agenda: Leveraging children’s natural empathy as a gateway to radical DEI ideology, setting up acceptance-based activism from a young age.
📌 NEA’s Agenda: Reinforcing gender fluidity & identity questioning as social norms, while silencing any opposition as ‘intolerance.’
📌 NEA’s Agenda: Positioning LGBTQ+ identity as “liberation” from religious & traditional families, furthering anti-religion and anti-traditional family narratives.
📌 NEA’s Agenda: Dismantling traditional gender norms and embedding gender ideology in storytelling so that opposing it looks cruel.
This is what the NEA actively promotes—and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
- The NEA and its affiliates push gender ideology on young children, normalizing radical ideas about sexuality.
- They support biological males competing in girls’ sports and using girls’ locker rooms.
- They champion divisive racial curriculums, pitting students against one another based on identity politics rather than teaching them history and civics.
And this is what the union bosses in that committee room are defending.
Will they still stand with the NEA when a grown man walks into their daughter’s locker room? Because the NEA aggressively supports policies that allow just that. So why should Idaho taxpayers be forced to bankroll it?
A Union Out of Step with Idaho’s Values
Maybe you’re a sportsman, a hunter, a supporter of the Second Amendment—a common identity for many in Idaho. The next time you and the guys are out at the range, why don’t you trot out this gem from the NEA’s platform:
“The Association (NEA) supports banning assault weapons, limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines, requiring background checks and a waiting period for all gun purchases, creating a national database of gun sales.”
How well do you think that’s going to go over?
The NEA and its affiliates don’t represent Idaho values. In fact, they oppose them at every turn—on guns, on gender issues, on parental rights, and even on who should lead the country.
Follow the Money: Teacher Unions Fund Idaho’s Political Opposition
Idaho is a deep red state—67% of voters cast their ballot for President Donald Trump. But where did teacher unions throw their political weight?
Straight into the campaign of Kamala Harris.
- They poured millions of dollars into her failed presidential run.
- They were among the first national organizations to endorse her—before she even had meaningful voter support.
- And if she ran again tomorrow, they’d jump right back in to fund her campaign—all while using Idaho taxpayer dollars to keep their machine running.
So if you showed up to the Capitol to oppose SB 98, let’s be honest about what you were really doing:
- You didn’t stand with Idaho’s conservative majority.
- You didn’t stand with the President your members likely voted for.
- You stood with the radical, activist teacher unions that have declared war on the very values Idahoans hold dear.
SB 98 Isn’t Radical—The NEA Is
The unions and their defenders will claim that SB 98 is some wild, extreme attack on teachers. But ten minutes of Googling “NEA resolutions” will tell you everything you need to know about who the radicals actually are.
Idaho’s Republican supermajority has a responsibility to its voters. Taxpayers should not be forced to prop up organizations that:
✅ Fund far-left political candidates.
✅ Push divisive, extremist ideologies on children.
✅ Undermine parents and attack traditional values.
The Bottom Line
SB 98 isn’t a partisan stunt. It’s a long-overdue reform to ensure that Idaho’s taxpayers aren’t forced to bankroll left-wing teacher unions that despise their values.It’s time for conservative lawmakers to stand up and pass SB 98. Idaho’s education system should serve students and families—not the radical political interests of the NEA.
