The Truth with Lisa Boothe: EXPOSING Teachers Unions, Woke Schools & the Fight for Parents’ Rights

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show: The Truth with Lisa Boothe — Featuring Nikki Neely

Episode Date: June 20, 2026
Guest: Nikki Neely, Founder & President of Defending Education
Host: Lisa Boothe

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Episode Overview

In this episode of "The Truth with Lisa Boothe," Lisa interviews Nikki Neely, president of Defending Education, to delve into the influence of teachers unions (NEA and AFT) on politics, the immense sums directed toward left-leaning political causes, the lack of academic progress despite major educational spending, and the ideological shift in K-12 education. The conversation highlights how parents are fighting for their rights amid "woke" curricula, controversial spending, and advocacy for women's and parental rights in schools.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Teachers Unions Funneled Over $1 Billion to Political Causes

• Scope of Funding:

  • Nikki Neely’s organization released a report showing that the NEA and AFT have directed over $1 billion toward political causes in the last decade ([07:55]).
  • Major contributions include $32 million to the Senate Majority PAC and $25 million to the House Majority PAC – both left-leaning organizations ([08:22]).
  • Tens of millions also went to opposing school choice initiatives and to progressive activist organizations, like Planned Parenthood ([08:22]).

• Quote:

  • “[Teachers unions] are definitely leaning hard into the politics as well as into funding a lot of hard left, progressive activist organizations like Planned Parenthood.”
    — Nikki Neely ([08:22])

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2. Historical Evolution & Escalation of Union Political Activity

• Political Shift:

  • Union politicization is not new, but spiked after the Trump administration started, with unions aligning with progressive groups ([09:19]).
  • The Janus Supreme Court decision (ending forced union dues deductions) led unions to pivot towards aggressive political campaigning ([09:19]).

• Quote:

  • “[The] Trump administration, the first Trump term, was a kick in the pants to a lot of these progressive groups.”
    — Nikki Neely ([09:19])

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3. Union Leadership & Perks

• Salaries & Benefits:

  • Example: AFT President Randi Weingarten reportedly earns close to $600,000 per year ([10:20]).
  • Leaders benefit from perks such as “release time” (doing union work on public sector salary) and expense-paid conferences ([10:41]).

• Quote:

  • “If you can have your office pay for an all-expenses trip to Hawaii, of course you're going to go on stuff like that.”
    — Nikki Neely ([10:41])

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4. Opposition to School Choice

• Reasoning:

  • Public schools are funded per pupil; unions want to maintain enrollment and oppose school choice to avoid losing funding ([12:12]).
  • Disadvantaged children suffer the most, as they’re "trapped in failing schools" while union and political leaders often send their own children to private schools ([12:12]).

• Quote:

  • “They would rather trap children in failing schools where they have clearly betrayed the trust... so those are the kids that are being victimized by these unions more than anything.”
    — Nikki Neely ([12:12])

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5. Academic Decline Despite Massive Spending

• Stark Statistics:

  • 70% of American students cannot read or perform math at grade level benchmarks even as nearly $1 trillion per year is spent on education ([13:17]).
  • The problem predates COVID but worsened during/after school shutdowns ([13:49]).

• COVID’s Impact on Parental Awareness:

  • Parents saw what was taught during remote learning—much of it centered on identity politics and social issues, sometimes even infiltrating math lessons ([14:00]).
  • Teachers unions have lobbied to reduce accountability and lower proficiency standards, masking the crisis ([14:00]).

• Quote:

  • “... there was a huge emphasis on grievances, oppressor-oppressed matrixes, even having things like gender... incorporated into word problems. It was really astonishing to see just how far the education system has fallen.”
    — Nikki Neely ([14:00])

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6. The Spread of “Woke” Curricula and Institutional Capture

• Long-Term Effort:

  • Progressive curricula like "Teaching Tolerance" (Southern Poverty Law Center) have built extensive networks among educators over decades ([19:53]).
  • Professional associations—English, Math Teachers Associations—have also adopted progressive stances ([19:53]).
  • National School Board Association went so far as to label dissenting parents "domestic terrorists" ([19:53]).

• Quote:

  • “All of our money, all of our teachers, all these people in all these schools are all working together against us, and we didn't even know that we were involved in this fight.”
    — Nikki Neely ([19:53])

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7. Nikki Neely’s Motivation & Defending Education’s Origin Story

• Personal & Political Motivation:

  • Nikki was first motivated by seeing "anti-racist" messaging ramp up post-George Floyd, and school district leaders making decisions she saw as unconstitutional ([21:32]).
  • The "final straw" was a superintendent reopening schools for students based on race ([21:32]).

• Quote:

  • “That's when I realized K12 was the next battlefront. And that was the fight I wanted to get involved in.”
    — Nikki Neely ([21:32])

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8. School Funding & Accountability

• Where Did COVID Relief Money Go?

  • Billions in federal COVID relief were spent on DEI, anti-racism, and social emotional initiatives—not on safety-focused reopening ([23:17]).
  • Districts spend enormous sums per pupil (NYC at $40,000/child), but still lack essentials—growing "middle management" while teachers crowdfund for classroom supplies ([23:17]).

• Quote:

  • “There's a huge growth in middle management, there's a huge growth in basically everything except... money going to classrooms.”
    — Nikki Neely ([23:17])

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9. Do Union Members Actually Know Where Their Dues Go?

• Transparency Issues:

  • Most teachers are likely unaware their dues are funneled to highly political or controversial groups (e.g., the Trevor Project, SPLC, Media Matters) instead of strictly professional benefits ([24:52]).

• Quote:

  • “I don't think... teachers across America, 100% of NEA or AFT members... are okay with their money going to groups like the Trevor Project... I think they assume it's going to... better professional development opportunities, not towards this hyper political nonsense.”
    — Nikki Neely ([24:52])

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10. Advocacy for Women’s Spaces & Parental Rights

• Fighting for Protections:

  • Defending Education files lawsuits and civil rights complaints to protect sex-segregated spaces and freedom of speech for teachers and students ([26:36]).
  • Current cases include opposition to the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite and protecting compelled speech rights.

• Quote:

  • “That's compelled speech. I don't care if you worship the Spaghetti Monster. You cannot be forced to say somebody else's pronouns if you do not believe in it full stop.”
    — Nikki Neely ([26:36])

• Reaction to the ACLU & Changing Alliances:

  • Traditional defenders of women’s rights, like the ACLU, are now (in Neely’s view) undermining those rights ([27:35]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Union Political Activity:
  “...this was a sort of a perfect storm.” – Nikki Neely ([09:19])
• On Curriculum Ideology:
  “Parents were being gaslit and being told that their kids were doing all right when in reality their children were not doing very well.” – Nikki Neely ([14:00])
• On Transparency:
  “There are affirmative choices being made by our school districts to bring in Ibram Kendi as a speaker, buy all the teachers a copy of his book, et cetera. Not to buy new textbooks, not to get new computers for the learning lab.” – Nikki Neely ([23:17])
• On Parental & Women's Rights:
  “The Constitution's on our side.” – Nikki Neely ([26:36])
• On the Upside Down World:
  “I don't know, we're living an upside down world where all these previous defenders of women's rights are now actively working against women.” – Lisa Booth ([27:35])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro to topic and guest — [03:06]
• How much money is funneled into politics? — [07:55]
• Escalation of political activism — [09:19]
• Union salaries and perks — [10:41]
• Opposition to school choice — [12:12]
• Achievement decline and COVID’s impact — [13:17]
• Curriculum changes/post-COVID monitoring — [14:00]
• How ‘woke’ curricula spread in schools — [19:53]
• Why Nikki Neely founded Defending Education — [21:32]
• Where is education funding going? — [23:17]
• Do union members know where dues are spent? — [24:52]
• Protecting women’s spaces and Title IX — [26:36]
• Commentary on ACLU, SPLC, and changing alliances — [27:35]

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Overall, this episode offers a critical look at the intersection of education, politics, and activism, arguing that many teachers unions have been co-opted for political purposes often at the expense of students, parental rights, and academic fundamentals.

Transcript

[Nikki Neely]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Lisa Booth]

Guaranteed Human Alliance Defending Freedom stands in courtrooms across the country to defend the freedoms our nation has cherished for 250 years. Life, free speech, religious freedom, parental rights. These freedoms aren't inherited. They belong to those who fight for them. ADF is approaching a critical fiscal year and fundraising deadline. Your support helps ADF protect and defend these freedoms so they may endure for years to come. Every dollar you give will be doubled while matching funds last visit joinadf.com Lisa or you can text Lisa to 83848 to give today. Sponsored by Alliance Defending Freedom.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hi, it's Karen and Georgia from my favorite murder.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ionic 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamar.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Want the full story? Take, Take a listen.

[Georgia Hardstark]

She starts dating Howard Hughes and in fact she helps him design a faster plane. So she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamar and Billie Jean King.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

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[Amy Erich]

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[Levar Arrington]

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[Lisa Booth]

Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth where we get to the heart of the issues that matter to you. Today. We've got Nikki Neely on the show. She's the founder and president of Defending Education. We're going to talk about a new report looking at how some of these teachers unions like NEA and aft, how they funneled over a billion dollars into political causes in the last decade alone. So what are they funding? Why are they funding it? Do we even think these teachers know what the money is being spent on? I don't know. And we spend all this money on kids education. Almost a trillion dollars per year, yet you've got something like 70% of kids can't read or do math at grade level. So what's up with that? We'll talk to Nikki about that. And then meanwhile, you look at union bosses like Randy Wad Garden. She's making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. So we're going to dig in to how these unions have become partisan machines at the expense of kids. So stay tuned for nikki Neely. For 250 years, America has been a bastion of freedom. And as we look ahead to the next 250, we're reminded that freedom is ours to defend. Today, Alliance Defending Freedom stands in courtrooms across the country to protect those freedoms we cherish. Life, free speech, religious freedom, parental rights. These freedoms are at the core of who we are as a nation and they must be preserved. ADF is approaching a critical fiscal year end fundraising deadline. Your support today helps ADF defend these freedoms through so they may endure for many years to come. Every dollar you give will be doubled thanks to a special matching grant while funds last. Visit joinadf.com Lisa or text Lisa to 83848 to give today, sponsored by Alliance Defending Freedom.

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[Karen Kilgariff]

and Georgia from my favorite Murder.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Want the full story? Take a listen.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Hedy. She starts dating Howard Hughes, the aviation tycoon. Do you know a lot about him?

[Karen Kilgariff]

I mean, I watch the Aviator, so I know everything Leonardo DiCaprio has allowed me to know about him. But incredible innovator, right?

[Georgia Hardstark]

She says he's a, quote, very strange man. But they do get along really well.

[Nikki Neely]

Give us examples.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I know they get along intellectually and in fact, she helps him design a faster plane. She takes a look at what he's designed. It's got these square wings and she's like, that doesn't make sense. And so she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of like what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamarr and Billie Jean King.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Goodbye.

[Amy Erich]

Hello, beautiful. I'm Amy Eric, founder of Madison Reed, a hair color company I named after my daughter. Forget everything you know about hair color. The mess, the smell, the hassle, the damage. We're female founded and female led. We've transformed the hair color experience with ingredients that care for your hair and award winning color on your terms at home or at our hair color bars. The future of hair color is here at Madison Reef.

[Nikki Neely]

A burst pipe, a dead water heater. The AC calling it quits. Who do you call? HomeServe is an easy way to handle unexpected home repairs with plans covering stuff basic homeowners insurance usually won't. Instead of scrambling for a contractor, you make one call to get the repair process started. Join the millions of customers who trust HomeServe right now. Go to HomeServe.com podcast for 50% less your first year. That's HomeServe.com podcast savings compared to renewal price void in Florida.

[Lisa Booth]

Well, Nick and Neely, it's great to have you on the show. Got a lot to talk about, so appreciate you making the Time.

[Nikki Neely]

Thank you for having me.

[Lisa Booth]

So you are the founder and president of Defending Education. You guys have a report where you look at, you know, the National Education association and American Federation of Teachers, these teachers unions, and They've directed over $1 billion toward political causes in the last decade. You know, walk us through that. Walk us through some of the political causes or political, you know, some of the causes that they put this money towards.

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, it was a billion between the national organizations and then a handful of state ones as well. But, I mean, huge amounts of money. $32 million to Senate Majority PAC. That's Chuck Schumer's package that just endorse grand planners. So good people getting Good Senators elected. $25 million to House Majority PAC. Also left of center. I mean, tens of millions of dollars to. To oppose school choice efforts in states like Kentucky, Nebraska and Maine. But then even looking through to $106 million through the California Teachers Association PACS. And so they're definitely leaning hard into the politics as well as into funding a lot of hard left, progressive activist organizations like Planned Parenthood.

[Lisa Booth]

When you look at these teachers unions, you know, started to obviously represent the interests of teachers. But so how long has it been this political, you know, has it gotten a lot worse under the Trump administration, first and second terms, or kind of walk us through that. The genesis of it.

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, I mean, my gut, without having gone back much farther, is that this has been going on for a really long time. I mean, certainly Randy Weingarten is a political beast. Becky Pringle is a political beast as well. But, yeah, I think a lot of this, you know, the Trump administration, the first Trump term was a kick in the pants to a lot of these progressive groups. That was when we saw organizations like the ACLU that used to actually believe in things like a colorblind Constitution, leaning hard into immigration and opposing the Trump administration instead of defending all speech, all elements of the Bill of Rights, et cetera. So I think that that's probably where things took a sharp spike up. But that being said, I mean, there also were things like in the wake of the Janus decision, the Supreme Court decision that said that unions couldn't automatically deduct dues from. From teacher salaries, we saw a conscious decision by unions to, okay, well, we'll just run candidates, we'll just fund candidates who will do our bidding, who will rubber stamp the collective bargaining agreements or the kinds of state laws that we want. And so I think this was a sort of a perfect storm.

[Lisa Booth]

But you look at, you know, Randy Weingarten, for instance. And, you know, I think she's making something like close to $600,000 per year.

[Nikki Neely]

Walk us, I mean, like, clearly, clearly,

[Lisa Booth]

like she's taken care of, you know, you know, walk us through some of these leaders of these organizations like her.

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, I mean, you know, Becky Pringle is the head of the National Education association, which actually is bigger by numbers than aft, and she escapes scrutiny. You know, Brandy is much more out front, is on TV all the time, has this book out calling us all, you know, horrible, horrible people. But yeah, I mean, I think a lot of these union leaders are. Not only are there the salaries they're drawing, but then there also are the kind of perks that they've negotiated for themselves and their leaders at the state level, at the local level, things like release time where they get to go and do union work while still drawing a public sector salary. And so that's how, I mean, I'm from Chicago originally. That's how we have teachers that are doing things like get out the vote for now. Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former Chicago Teachers Union activist. So it's like it is sort of a cumulative thing as well as, I mean, looking at some of these conferences they go to. A few months ago, the NEA just had a lovely event in Hawaii where I'm sure many of us would love to go to. But if you can have your office pay for an all expenses trip to Hawaii, of course you're going to go on stuff like that. And so I think there are also the perks that are built into that as well as, you know, the access to politicians, et cetera, which is frustrating.

[Lisa Booth]

Well, and then two, some of them send their own kids to private schools. And we see this with a lot of the politicians too, who scrutinize, you know, school choice. They, they fight it. But then, you know, their kids go to private schools and they don't award that same opportunity to kids in need. Why do you think they're so opposed to school choice?

[Nikki Neely]

I opposed the school choice because they have a captive audience. Public schools get per pupil funding, which means the more students that are enrolled, the more butts and seats, the greater the money they have. And so they want. They would rather trap children in failing schools where they have clearly betrayed the trust. Not taught children what kids need to know, but they have for those kids when they're trapped there, they then have a captive audience. I think about families like mine. I have an 11 year old and a 12 year old. They're in a Catholic school, but I had the means to be able to pay for that out of pocket. So what is sad to me is that the children most in need of interventions support tutoring. They are trapped in some of these schools that are unsafe, that don't have proper facilities, that the books, the curriculum, et cetera, is highly ideologically motivated. And then those also often are children whose parents cannot be paying as close attention as maybe you and I would be to the kinds of materials that are coming home. Emailing the teacher, staying in touch, say, I'm a little concerned about this XYZ lesson plan. And so those are the kids that are being victimized by these unions more than anything.

[Lisa Booth]

Then you look at something like 70% of kids cannot read or do math at grade levels, level benchmarks, despite the fact that we spend, you know, trillion dollars per year and in education. So I mean, how much? I mean, a lot of that, you know, has gone a lot worse since COVID But talk about some of these outputs that we're seeing both, you know, nationwide, but also, you know, Chicago, for instance, is, you know, one of the worst offenders there in terms of kids not being at grade level and, you know, pretty much anything.

[Compassion International Announcer]

Right.

[Nikki Neely]

I mean, you know, this clearly came on the public radar as a result of COVID Parents had a window into what their kids were learning and were not learning and were frustrated and disappointed.

[Amy Erich]

And so.

[Nikki Neely]

But even before the pandemic, you know, America's achievement scores on the NAEP scores, the nation's report card, those were nothing to write home about. And so children had not been thriving before the pandemic. As a mother, you know, my kids are in school for seven or eight hours a day. When they are in school, I expect them to be learning core curriculum, reading, writing, math, science, Spanish, things like that. I do not want my kids to be spending five hours of their eight hour school day on things like identity politics. Unfortunately, that was one of the things that Covid showed us, is that there was a huge emphasis on grievances, oppressor, oppressed matrixes, even having things like gender putting put into classes like math class, where you think it doesn't belong, but that's incorporated into word problems. I mean, it was really astonishing to see just how far the education system has fallen. And I think many parents had no idea that it had gotten this bad because teachers don't like teacher unions, don't like accountability. And so they have lobbied for years to decrease the amount of testing that was taking place because a test score can show when Kids are not doing as well in some states. We actually saw what count, what used to count for proficient at a state level actually was lower than what the federal government was counting as proficient. And so parents were being gaslit and being told that their kids were doing all right when in reality their children were not doing very well. And I think that was also a really sobering wake up call.

[Lisa Booth]

Gotta take a quick commercial break. More with Nikki on the other side. Alliance Defending Freedom stands in courtrooms across the country to defend the freedoms our nation has cherished for 250 years. Life, free speech, religious freedom, parental rights. These freedoms aren't inherited. They belong to those who fight for them. ADF is approaching a critical fiscal year end fundraising deadline. Your support helps ADF protect and defend these freedoms so they may endure for years to come. Every dollar you give will be doubled while matching funds last visit joinadf.com Lisa or you can text Lisa to 83848 to give today, sponsored by Alliance Defending Freedom.

[Ben Ferguson]

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[Karen Kilgariff]

in Georgia from my favorite murder.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ionic 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamar.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Want the full story? Take a listen.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Hetty. She starts dating Howard Hughes, the aviation tycoon. Do you know a lot about him?

[Karen Kilgariff]

I mean, I watch the Aviator so I know everything Leonardo DiCaprio has allowed me to know about him. But incredible innovator, right?

[Georgia Hardstark]

She says he's a quote, very strange man. But they do get along really well.

[Nikki Neely]

Give us examples.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I know they do get along intellectually. And in fact, she helps him design a faster plane. She takes a look at what he's designed. It's got these square wings and she's like, that doesn't make sense. And so she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of like what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode, spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamarr and Billie Jean King.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Goodbye.

[Amy Erich]

Hello, beautiful. I'm Amy Ehrich, founder of Madison Reed, a hair color company I named after my daughter. Forget everything you know about hair color. The mess, the smell, the hassle, the damage. We're female founded and female led. We've transformed the hair color experience with ingredients that care for your hair and award winning color on your terms at home or at our hair color bars. The future of hair color is here at Madison Reef.

[Levar Arrington]

This is levar Arrington from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe and my dog, Mr. Sticks. And I can't wait to try Chewy. Chewy has over 100,000 products from all the brands pets love food, treats, beds, toys and everything. Ships in one to two days. They also make the healthy stuff simple with prescriptions, pet insurance, vet visits and new vet clinics rolling out nationwide. Their 247 customer service is top tier and with the one year satisfaction guarantee, anything that doesn't work can be returned for life. With pets, the answer is chewy. Say $20 on your first order with free shipping at chupanions.chewy.com/two pros.

[Lisa Booth]

You mentioned that parents, you know, like you people, woke up during COVID and saw some of the things their kids were being taught in schools. How did it get so bad? You know, you know, how. How did the curriculum get so bad with sort of injecting, you know, a lot of this left wing political stuff into it?

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, I think this was a multi year journey. I mean this is kind of the intent of taking over the schools. Unfortunately, when you look at organizations like the Southern Poverty Law center which had a curriculum they have been putting into schools for years. It used to be called teaching tolerance. Now it's called learning for justice. Sounds very noble. Years ago, I think during kind of the George Floyd era, they were talking about how they had hundreds of thousands of educators within their network. You don't build up those numbers just in the wake of George Floyd turning on a dime. You build those relationships over Years, over decades. And there are a variety of other organizations, the Zen Education Project, et cetera, that have all been working hand in glove with each other. That was something that really surprised me when I launched this organization, is I kind of grew up under the rubric of school choice. Good teachers union's bad. But I didn't realize that the education industrial complex is so big and so captured. I mean, I think back to a couple years ago when the National School Boards association, the federal trade or the trade association that's supposed to help school board members be more efficient. They were the ones that authored that letter to the Biden administration calling parents domestic terrorists, asking the Biden administration to invoke the Patriot act against US Entities like the English Teachers association, the Math Teachers association, they've all gone woke. And that to me was just the most kind of sickening thing, is all of our money, all of our teachers, all these people in all these schools are all working together against us. And we didn't even know that we were involved in this fight.

[Lisa Booth]

Why did you start. You're the founder and president of Defending Education. What was it? Walk us through sort of your origin story and why you started it.

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, I used to run a campus free speech organization called Speech First. And when the pandemic hit, I was unable to sue universities because there were no humans on college campuses. But I had little kids. They were at home. I didn't actually have any problems. They were just in kindergarten and preschool. But I remember hearing from all of my friends who were all Chicago Democrats, you know, asking, how do I reopen my elementary school? What do I tell my principal? And I remember thinking to myself, bless your heart, you think they care? And that was just an interesting data point for me. Fast forward a few months. George Floyd happens. Schools around the country start sending out these old district notes saying, we're so. We're so systemically racist, we commit to being anti racist. I get another flurry of messages that said, did my school just call me a name? And I thought when I was growing up, schools didn't used to reach out to us about everything. The Challenger explosion, the Gulf War. School used to not be involved in political issues or news of the day. So that was interesting to me. The thing that flipped the switch was actually a superintendent in Chicago, near where I grew up in Evanston, Illinois, said he was going to reopen schools for, in person education for black and brown children before white children because of anti racism. I remember screaming at my computer saying, you can't do that. That's unconstitutional. And that's when I realized K12 was the next battlefront. And that was the fight that I wanted to get involved in. So I can thank that superintendent for his unconstitutional acts. For getting me red pilled.

[Lisa Booth]

Exactly. You know, and we saw during COVID I mean, we gave K through 12 schools something like 192 billion for reopening and learning loss. And a lot of school districts remain closed for two years. You know, that was enough money to give every teacher in America a $60,000 bonus. Where does some of this money go? Because, I mean, we spent a lot of money on education, so where's the money going?

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, that was such a. I mean, it was criminal how some of that money was spent. Surprise, surprise. There was not a ton of oversight that was put in place. And the blue states like California and Illinois pissed it away on things like DEI initiatives, on anti racism programming, on social emotional learning, not on. I mean, I remember when that bill was going through Congress, I assumed it would be used for air purifiers, Clorox wipes, things to actually get our schools reopened so our children could learn again. And it turns out that that wasn't the case at all. But yeah, I mean, you look at the amount of money right now that sudden certain school districts are spending. New York City, $40,000 a child. I mean, Chicago, I think it's in like the mid-30s. Los Angeles, same thing. Our kids are not learning. There's a huge growth in middle management. There's a huge growth in basically everything except, you know, money going to classrooms. I still see solicitations online all the time from teachers, you know, through GoFundMe and stuff like that. Oh, we need crayons for our classroom. I think you have so much money. There are affirmative choices being made by our school districts to bring in Ibram Kendi as a speaker, buy all the teachers a copy of his book, et cetera. Not to buy new textbooks, not to get new computers for the learning lab. So the fact that we have elected officials and administrators making those decisions and then realizing, you know what? Actually, you know, you and I have to live on a budget, but they can always go take on another nine, nine figure bond initiative. There has to be accountability brought back to the system because we are failing our children and our country is going to suffer as a result.

[Lisa Booth]

Do you think these union members even know what this money is being spent on and where their dues are going?

[Nikki Neely]

I don't think so at all. I mean, you know, teachers are like us. Certainly there are a few bad apples that are activists, but they're not all bad. But I very highly doubt that there are teachers across America, 100% of NEA or AFT members that are okay with their money going to groups like the Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the one that has been pushing the parental exclusion policies that say parents don't have a right to know their child's gender at school. There have been a number of lawsuits brought by teachers against school districts saying, I don't want to keep secrets. I am not comfortable with this. Southern Poverty Law center is another one that got money from the unions, Media Matters, the Clintons, both through the Clinton Global Initiative and the Bill and Hillary Clinton foundation, as well as the Hillary Victory Fund. I mean, she lost that election. Why were they spending a million and a half dollars, you know, propping up this Clinton edifice? Naacp, Color of Change, the organization that called us all racist because we wanted a colorblind education system. And so I just, I don't think that many teachers realize that that's where their money's going to. I think they assume it's going to go towards, you know, better. Better, more time off, better professional development opportunities, not towards this hyper political nonsense.

[Lisa Booth]

And I know that you guys have also been a part of, you know, fighting some of this, you know, with University of Washington of, you know, allowing facilities and restrooms, allowing men and women's, you know, restrooms and in private spaces or even at. I think there was all an all woman's Smith or what is it all that all women Smith College admitting men. Yes, women's college. So talk just a little bit about the work you guys are doing and trying to, you know, protect women's spaces from men.

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, this has been a tremendously fun fight because it is something where you look at where the American public is. 80% of people across the board, it's kind of the low end, believe that women, you know, sex segregated spaces, bathrooms, locker rooms, et cetera, sports should be separate. And so we have filed civil rights complaints. We were involved in a number of lawsuits, including, we still have an open one against the Biden administration, funny enough for their unconstitutional Title IX rewrite. But filing civil rights complaints and EEOC complaints to try and protect those students, to protect those teachers that are being forced into things. Being forced to use students or their peers preferred pronouns when they don't want to, that's compelled speech. I don't care if you worship the Spaghetti Monster. You cannot be forced to say somebody else's pronouns if you do not Believe in it full stop. And so that is a hill I will die on. But it's been fun to pursue these things both in the court of public opinion as well as in the court of law, because, you know, the Constitution's on our side.

[Lisa Booth]

Well, it's also been pretty wild to see groups like aclu, which has, like, defended women's protections and, you know, Title nine for forever now supporting men and women's sports. And, you know, like, it's kind of, it's like, I don't know, we're living an upside down world where all these previous defenders of women's rights are now actively working against women. But I guess that's the bizarro world we live in these days.

[Nikki Neely]

Yeah, no, it's really disappointing. But it's fun to call them out on things like that. Just like with the Southern Poverty Law center stuff last week, I mean, we were named a hate group in 2023, which has been. Was a horrifying thing to go through, but it turns out. Okay, well, who was actually the racist? Who was the one literally giving money to the kkk? It wasn't me. It was you guys. And so, yeah, I think, you know, the truth comes out at the end and there's egg on all these liberal group spaces.

[Lisa Booth]

Absolutely. Nikki Neely, appreciate you, founder and president of Defending Education. Appreciate your time.

[Nikki Neely]

Thank you.

[Lisa Booth]

That was Nikki Neely. Appreciate her for coming on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. Also want to thank John Cassio, my producer, for putting the show together. Until next time.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hi, it's Karen in Georgia from my favorite Murder.

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We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ionic 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamar.

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Want the full story? Take a listen.

[Georgia Hardstark]

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