National Education Association members “belong to the most noble professions on the planet,” NEA Executive Director Kim Anderson said in prepared remarks delivered July 5 at the 2026 NEA Representative Assembly in Denver.
“Without you, there is no future full of engineers and artists and musicians and nurses and educators,” Anderson told the 7,000 delegates gathered at the Colorado Convention Center “You are the foundation everything else rests on. So, you’re not just noble. You’re powerful—because you build the future.
“And do you know what your secret sauce is? It’s the love—unbridled, boundless love that no one has to ask you to give... It’s walking kids to school to keep them safe from ICE. It’s educators delivering groceries to people too afraid to leave their house. You’re magical. You’ve been heroes and lifelines—because of your love, your passion, and your unbelievable courage.”
Love, she said, is the “superpower” that belongs to NEA members and the entire union.
Fighting for Democracy
Anderson paid tribute to NEA President Becky Pringle, who is concluding the second of her three-year terms as president. . She noted that during Pringle’s tenure, the union has built a member organizer program that has sparked growth and strengthened locals “from the inside out and worksite up.” Several affiliates have expanded collective bargaining rights and increased density, while 19 states have ongoing advocacy campaigns to fully fund public education.
Anderson said she was proud to be part of a union that speaks out for what is right and fights for democracy, no matter the cost.
“While the White House spends its time—and our taxpayer money—on building gold ballrooms and banning books, NEA continues to stand in our values and fight back.”
Anderson said Pringle had not issued a statement “when they tried to ban the honest teaching of our history,” but “put her own name on the legal declaration” to fight the ban in court. “...And her message to us is that of Harriet Tubman: ‘Keep going.’”
Anderson said NEA members face two fundamental choices: “Do we roll up our sleeves and do the work necessary to rescue our democracy—or do we choose authoritarianism? Do we keep building the coalitions and partnerships to save and strengthen public education—or do we let the tech bros and exploitive billionaires buy our schools and turn our kids into centers for profit?”
Powerful Messengers
Anderson cited the federal voucher program as a clear threat. “This is a corrupt system, bought and paid for by billionaires who see education as a commodity and don’t care whose future they trade away,” she said, emphasizing as well the “social media machine built by the people who are trying to privatize public education, rig the economic rules and shred voting rights.”
She urged NEA members to engage in skill-building during the RA to counter disinformation, combat authoritarianism, and build pro-public education, pro-worker majorities across the political spectrum, and she noted that over 4,000 NEA members have run for and won office.
Ninety million Americans did not vote in 2024, Anderson said, but NEA members can change that as “the most powerful messengers in every precinct in America.”
At the start of her remarks, Anderson held up one of her journals, in which she writes about disappointments, hopes, and uplifting encounters with NEA members. Anderson closed by sharing what she hopes future generations will someday read in the delegates’ journals.
“They’re going to read that you showed up—not just in November, but every day thereafter.
“That you knocked on doors. That you made the calls. That you helped reach some of the 90 million neighbors who never voted...
“They’re going to read that you fought for every student, in every classroom, in every state, in every city, town, and borough...because you never believed any child was someone else’s fight.”
Anderson concluded: “Go write the future—starting today. Start the moment you walk out of this hall and go home. Write the pages that your grandchildren, your students, your students’ students, will someday hold in their hands...This is who saved public education. This is who stood up for me. This is who saved democracy so I could be free.”
