Princess Moss centers student needs in her NEA strategy

Fordham Institute’s Petrilli calls the plan a huge departure

Princess Moss is taking on a three-year term as president of the National Education Association with a pledge to make the nation’s largest labor union its own political authority rather than a party-aligned organization. In an interview with NPR, Moss said union members should ask what their students need instead of treating public education as a Democratic or Republican issue. She has run this playbook before: “I know this can work because I’ve done it before.”

The National Education Association includes 3 million teachers and public workers from every state, and NPR describes it as the nation’s largest labor union. Moss’s route into the job started in rural Virginia, where she grew up in Spotsylvania County, the daughter of two school bus drivers.

Her second-grade teacher, Lucy T. Lewis, stands out in her memory. Moss also recalls many teachers from her childhood who inspired her to pursue a career in schools. Moss recalls Lewis telling her she was smart in 1968, even after she misspelled the word refrigerator in front of the entire class. “I wanted to be just like Mrs. Lewis,” Moss said. “Where you could help students learn and help students be the best that they could be even if they made a mistake every now and then.”

Moss worked as an elementary school music teacher for more than 20 years in a neighboring county before rising through state union leadership. She presided over the Virginia Education Association from 2004 to 2008 and eventually moved up the ladder at the NEA. Her platform for the union, which she calls “resistance to renaissance,” has some markings of past leadership. It puts professional autonomy and community organizing front and center.

The sharp departure she wants concerns political alignment. “I want us to become our own political authority,” Moss said. “Meaning that we’re not aligning ourselves with a political party.”

Moss frames the stakes in stark terms. “Public education is under attack,” Moss said. “Our students are under attack. The very foundation of this democracy is public education — that is under attack.” NPR reported that inflation is blowing up school budgets, that a new education tax credit will direct federal tax dollars into private schools when it takes effect in January, and that the Trump administration is dismantling the Department of Education.

The lesson Moss draws from Virginia is that allies appear in unexpected places when the focus stays on issues. At the time, Virginia had a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled general assembly. She worked on building coalitions across the aisle and emphasized that public education is for everyone. With the midterms rapidly approaching, Moss said she is bringing that mentality to the NEA. The instruction to members is direct: Moss said the union is telling them, “Talk about your students. What do your students need?” and, “Don’t make it a Democrat or Republican issue.”

Even with Democrats favored to win some races and with continued criticism of the union from some Republicans, Moss said she is focused on building a broad coalition of support for public schools. “The bottom line is that we will work with those who want to put public education first,” Moss said. “No matter what the political party, no matter what your inclination.”

Michael Petrilli, the president of the Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank, is not convinced the union can hold that course. “Look, that would be a huge departure for the NEA,” Petrilli said. “They have been stalwart supporters of the Democratic Party and vice versa.” The National Education Association recommended Joe Biden for president in 2020 and issued a formal endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

Petrilli has long held reservations about the nation’s teachers unions, saying their positions often block meaningful changes to teaching and perpetuate strict salary rules that can make it hard to recruit and fill certain jobs. He said he is open to seeing where things go this year, especially with many state-level races leaning in the direction of the union’s longtime allies — Democrats.

His question for the union’s new leadership is about leverage rather than alignment. “This is going to put the unions in a very good position to be able to drive education policy,” Petrilli said. “I think this is the question: What are they going to do with that power? What are they going to push these Democratic governors to get done?”

Moss’s account of the role she wants the union to play rests on professional authority rather than party partnership. “We are the experts,” Moss said. “We want to be at the decision-making tables.”