Is the Vermilion Parish School Board confused by pronouns?
As the Vermilion Parish School Board negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement with the local NEA affiliate, both taxpayers and teachers deserve a clear, honest conversation about priorities. Collective bargaining is not just about salaries and benefits. It is also about what values and programs are implicitly funded and promoted with public dollars.
Recent NEA training materials show that the national union invests significant time and resources in ideological initiatives that go far beyond classroom instruction. One such document, Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy, is designed to train union leaders and members in pronoun usage, gender identity policies, workplace transition plans, and advocacy strategies that extend into contract language and school operations. These materials explicitly encourage revising employment policies, benefits, facilities use, and training requirements to align with a particular social and political worldview.
Do the far-left views of the NEA align with Vermilion Parish residents?
Vermilion Parish is a community with deep family, faith, and cultural roots. Many parents and teachers believe schools should focus first on academic excellence, discipline, teacher pay, classroom resources, and student achievement. When union negotiations are influenced by national agendas that prioritize social activism, it is fair to ask whether local needs are being sidelined.
Taxpayers fund public schools with the expectation that dollars will go toward reading, math, science, teacher support, and safe learning environments. They may reasonably question whether union dues and negotiated benefits are indirectly supporting training programs and advocacy efforts that conflict with their values or stretch school budgets further. Teachers, too, should want transparency. Not every educator agrees that time spent on ideological training sessions or policy rewrites improves classroom outcomes or working conditions.
Contracts should reflect the priorities of Vermilion Parish families, not the political ambitions of a national organization headquartered far from Louisiana. Before renewing any agreement, the school board should insist on clarity. What programs are being promoted. What training is required. What costs are involved. Vermilion Parish taxpayers and teachers deserve to know exactly where their dollars are going, and whether those dollars are truly serving students first.