In her final keynote as president of the National Education Association, Becky Pringle began with love. She read aloud a letter her late husband wrote on her birthday the year he died.
He wrote that her “wisdom and strength speak to my soul” and that “so often it is your words that fuel and instruct my quixotic pursuits, my dreams.”
“I share Nate’s words with you, in this, my final keynote to the delegates of the highest governing body of the largest labor union in this country, because everything is about relationships,” Pringle said. “And love is a way in the darkness, strength for the fight, energy for the liberation movement, joy for the journey, and fuel for the spirit. Love is everything.”
Pringle’s husband of 38 years was a lawyer who told her they had a “quantum entanglement”—a phenomenon in physics where two or more particles become inextricably linked.
It is that very definition that Pringle said helps her understand what motivates and inspires the members and leaders of the NEA.
“It’s the power of the collective, focused on a compelling vision of what the world should be: Standing as one; holding our heads high, believing, knowing we can bring that world into being,” she said.
The heartbeat of democracy
Even in this season of cruelty and chaos, division, and despair, Pringle told the nearly 7,000 delegates of NEA’s 2026 Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA), in Denver, Colo., that they are the defenders of public education and the heartbeat of democracy.
At the close of her six years as NEA president—she looked back to the day she joined the union, in 1981, as a middle school science teacher. She was a young mother trying to find time to raise her children, hone her practice, and capture the curiosity of eighth graders, all while finding a place to grow her racial justice activism.
She gave thanks to the Pennsylvania State Education Association’s local and state leaders who showed her the role the union could play in helping her finding her voice and she urged them to consider their your own origin story, and how intersects with the story of NEA.
History rooted in justice
That story began in 1857, when 43 educators gathered in Philadelphia to form the National Teachers Association, which became the NEA in 1870. NEA held its first RA in 1920 and merged with the American Teachers Association in 1966— joining with the union that represented Black educators in the South,..
“Ever since, we have fought for equity, justice, and freedom for all: advocating for the rights of women, people with disabilities, and immigrants; the rights of LGBTQ+, AAPI, Indigenous, and Black and brown communities; and voting rights,” Pringle said.
That fight for equity and justice continued in NEA’s effort to dismantle the “test and punish” scheme of No Child Left Behind. It continued when the Great Recession threatened to gut public education, and NEA saved more than 138,000 jobs. When a global pandemic shut down the world, NEA became the backbone of the nation, feeding students, teaching through trauma, demanding safety, and ultimately securing the largest public education investment in U.S. history.
“And over the last 18 months—as educators, unions, students, and entire communities have been attacked—you have stood in your power,” Pringle told the delegates. “You have faced an administration determined to turn diversity, equity, and inclusion into a slur, … to gut Medicaid, SNAP, and Social Security, and to defund our schools to fund billionaires.”
“The current administration—which is determined to obliterate the disability, civil rights, and Title I work of the Department of Education; terrorize immigrants and mock LGBTQ+ Americans for living as their authentic selves; and stack courts with judges who have eviscerated the Voting Rights Act—wants NEA members to be afraid,” she warned.
They want public education advocates to think they are powerless.
Organizing for power
“But NEA delegates, clearly they did not do their homework! This year’s theme says it all: We are organizing for power, for our educators, our students, our democracy,” Pringle said, going on to list some of the victories of NEA around the country:
In Minnesota, when the administration sent militarized agents to invade their communities, scare families so badly that they wouldn’t leave home,and murder innocent people in broad daylight, educators fought back with compassion, courage, and truth. They defended and fed students and families, and demanded ICE end their occupation.
“And our educators made sure students never stopped learning,” she said.
In New Mexico, educators grew their power by transforming individual voices into collective action. They formed the New Mexico State University–NEA union, now recognized by the state labor board as the official bargaining representative for hundreds of faculty across the state system.
In Arizona, educators fed up with the harm caused by the “testing and punishing, blaming and shaming,” led a successful grassroots campaign to eliminate non-mandatory standardized tests required by the school district.
In Wyoming, educators filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s $50 million universal voucher program. Their action led the court to indefinitely halt this program, which was deliberately designed to destroy public schools.
In Maine and Washington state, outraged by an unfair and unjust tax system, educators fought to put a millionaires tax into law—a measure that will require the wealthy in those states to invest in the communities that need it the most.
In Wisconsin, educators campaigned for—and won—a pro-education state Supreme Court, paving the way to turn their state’s constitutionalpromises into enforceable policy.
In New Hampshire and Tennessee, educators, who were very clear that “union power is educator power,” organized and pushed back their states’ anti-union bills.
And on May 1, 2026, NEA members and leaders in communities across the country stood on the front lines for the historic "Workers Over Billionaires" day of action. Of the 5,000 documented events across this country, 1,000 of them—20 percent—were organized by NEA affiliates.
Educators make a declaration
“I have never been more proud to call myself an educator,” Pringle told the delegates. “You are fighting back. You are fighting forward when others have given in. You continue to uphold our vow to advance racial and social justice, and to create inclusive, safe, just, and joyous public schools. You are demanding the respect of professional pay and high-quality working conditions,and supporting professional excellence and student learning. You are continuing to build our affiliates’ capacity to organize to fight for public education!”
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Pringle asked delegates to make a declaration of their own by using seven action words: Educate. Communicate. Organize. Mobilize. Litigate. Legislate. Elect.
- Educate and communicate—Declare that you will tell the truth, even when opponents of public education try to silence it; and that you will cut through every lie with clarity and courage.
- Organize and mobilize—Declare that you will build power in every school, every district, every state; and that you will show up wherever our students’ futures are on the line!
- Litigate and legislate—Declare that you will give us the stories we need to use every legal tool to defend rights and challenge injustice; and that you will demand laws that honor students and respect educators.
But the most important action word in this moment, she said, is elect.
“The November elections are just four months away. I need you to declare that you will work like hell to elect leaders who will protect public education and pass legislation to strengthen it. This year’s election must lay the foundation for what must come: winning governors' races and state legislatures, school board races and the White House.
“So you know what that means: We have to win! All of the things! We have to!”
Democracy doesn’t just exist, Pringle said. It is a vibrant, thriving, beautiful reflection of our highest ideals.
“That is the promise we must defend. That is the future we must fight to see,” she urged. “And as we fight, I ask that you ground yourselves in this undeniable truth: When educators stand together, there is no force in this nation that can silence us. There is no enemy who can diminish us. There is no wanna-be dictator who can stop us.
“The time is now!” she exclaimed, as delegates jumped to their feet in applause.
“Leading this union has been the honor of mylife,” she said. "But the future, the power, and the responsibility rests with you. ..I need you to move forward, in union together. … You are my heroes. You are my heart.”
