The Kansas National Education Association (Kansas NEA) is a left-of-center teachers’ union representing public school teachers in Kansas. ¹ It is the Kansas state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA) and is the largest labor union in the state.

The KNEA was founded in 1863 as the Kansas State Teachers’ Association, changing its name to Kansas National Education Association in 1969. ²

While the Kansas NEA bargains with school districts on behalf of its members, it is unable to legally call strikes as a negotiating tactic as such strikes are illegal under Kansas law. ³ The last teachers’ strike in Kansas was in 1973, when teachers represented by the now-defunct Seaman District Teachers’ Association engaged in an illegal strike and courts upheld the district’s authority to discipline or fire them. ³

Union Decertification

Beginning in the mid-2010s, the Kansas National Education Association has seen teachers in multiple school districts vote to decertify the Kansas NEA as their union. ^{4 5}  Dissatisfaction with the KNEA’s results at the bargaining table and unhappiness with the state and national unions’ positions on social issues and political activism are widely cited as reasons for these decisions. ⁶

The Kansas NEA has placed obstacles in the way of teachers attempting to leave it, engaging in various efforts to keep the Kansas Department of Labor from holding formal decertification elections. ⁷

Some of these decertification efforts have been supported by the Kansas affiliate of the Association of American Educators (AAE), a non-union membership organization for educators. ⁸

Policy and Political Activism

The Kansas National Education Association engages in policy advocacy in support of its perceived interests and works to promote left-of-center policies in general. It is closely aligned with the Democratic Party and regularly endorses Democratic candidates for public office. ^{9 10}

The Kansas NEA supports common teachers’ union public policy priorities such opposing vouchers and other educational choice options, increasing funding for public schools, expanding pensions and other retirement benefits, enforcing teacher licensure requirements, adopting college debt forgiveness for teachers, and expanding teacher tenure protections. ¹¹

Gannon School Funding Litigation

The Kansas National Education Association supported a series of lawsuits in the 2010s colloquially known as the “Gannon case” in which school districts and students challenged the state’s school funding policies. ^{12 13  14} The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state government had violated its state constitutional requirement to make “suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state,” and in a series of rulings the court forced the state legislature and governor to meet education spending targets over the course of multiple years. ¹⁵ The Kansas Supreme Court finally ended its oversight of Kansas’s annual education budget in 2024. ¹⁶

Statutory Due Process

Public school teachers in Kansas are employed on automatically renewing one-year contracts, and before 2014, Kansas law gave tenured teachers the ability to challenge a decision not to renew their contract for the next school year. ¹⁷ This “statutory due process” provision let teachers request a formal explanation for their non-renewal and dispute that decision in a formal hearing that could lead to their reinstatement. ¹⁷

In 2014, a new Kansas law effectively eliminated that process for K-12 teachers by redefining “teacher” in the statutory due process law to include only teachers and instructors at community colleges and technical colleges. ¹⁷

The KNEA represented two Butler County, Kansas K-12 teachers who had lost their jobs and filed a challenge to the new law, arguing that their due process rights had been violated. In 2018, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected that argument, ruling that the state legislature’s passage of the law in accordance with the state’s constitution satisfied due process. ¹⁸

Since 2018, restoration of those statutory due process provisions for K-12 public school teachers has been a major public policy priority for the KNEA. ¹¹

Historical Advocacy

The National Education Association was widely criticized by civil rights activists in the 1950s for its unwillingness to alienate its members in southern states by endorsing and promoting school desegregation. ¹⁹

This silence was notable in Kansas, as the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision eliminating “separate but equal” segregated schools, Brown v. Board of Education, centered on the education being provided to students in Topeka, Kansas. ¹⁹ While the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the plaintiffs’ efforts to desegregate Topeka’s schools, the National Education Association did not take a position on the case at the time and did not formally endorse it until seven years later. ^{20 21}

1. “Kansas Nea.” Kansas NEA. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://knea.org/.
2. Farr, Mark. “Labor Day Greetings from Kansas Teachers: ‘We Love Someone Else’s Child.’” Kansas Reflector, September 4, 2020. https://kansasreflector.com/2020/09/04/labor-day-greetings-from-kansas-teachers-we-love-someone-elses-child/.
3. Lee, Yu Kyung. “Teachers Can’t Strike in Kansas but Retain Strong Voice.” The Budget, October 8, 2012. https://lhsbudget.com/news/2012/10/08/teachers-cant-strike-in-kansas-but-retain-strong-voice/.
4. Llopis-Jepsen, Celia. “Teachers from Fifth School District Decertify from Knea.” The Topeka Capital-Journal, January 23, 2014. https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/state/2014/01/23/teachers-fifth-school-district-decertify-knea/16682284007/.
5. Clarkin, Mary. “Fairfield USD Teachers to Decertify from Knea.” The Hutchinson News, July 30, 2015. https://www.hutchnews.com/story/news/local/2015/07/30/fairfield-usd-teachers-to-decertify/20936985007/.
6. Herbert, Danedri. “Blue Valley Teachers Vote to Abandon the Knea.” The Sentinel, May 31, 2019. https://sentinelksmo.org/blue-valley-teachers-vote-to-abandon-the-knea/.
7. Gunn, Steve. “Teachers in Kansas District Working through Roadblocks to Dump Their Nea Affiliation.” EAGnews.org, June 2, 2020. https://www.eagnews.org/2013/04/teachers-in-kansas-school-district-patiently-working-through-frustrating-roadblocks-to-dump-their-nea-affiliation/.
8. James Sherk, Michael Cirrotti. “Kansas Teachers Vote to Decertify Their Union.” The Daily Signal, May 19, 2014. https://www.dailysignal.com/2013/06/18/kansas-teachers-split-with-nea/.
9. “Search: Kansas National Education Association.” OpenSecrets. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=asc&q=kansas%2Bnational%2Beducation%2Bassociation&sort=A&type=donors.
10. Lowry, Bryan. “Dark-Money Group, KNEA-Funded Group Attack Kansas Conservatives.” Wichita Eagle, July 29, 2016. https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article92614452.html.
11. “Legislative.” Kansas NEA. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://knea.org/legislative.
12. “Gannon v State.” Right to Education Initiative. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://www.right-to-education.org/resource/gannon-v-state.
13. Schwanz, Susan. “Kansas Nea President’s Statement on Gannon Case.” Under The Dome KS, February 7, 2024. https://underthedomeks.org/kansas-nea-presidents-statement-on-gannon-case/.
14. Llopis-Jepsen, Celia. “5 Themes at the Heart of Kansas’ School Finance Lawsuit.” KCUR, April 12, 2018. https://www.kcur.org/education/2017-07-10/5-themes-at-the-heart-of-kansas-school-finance-lawsuit.
15. “Kansas Supreme Court Rules in Gannon.” Under The Dome KS, June 25, 2018. https://underthedomeks.org/kansas-supreme-court-rules-in-gannon/.
16. Carpenter, Tim. “Kansas Supreme Court Ends 5-Year Hold on Jurisdiction of Public School Funding Case.” Lawrence Journal-World, February 6, 2024. https://www2.ljworld.com/news/schools/2024/feb/06/kansas-supreme-court-ends-five-year-hold-on-jurisdiction-of-public-school-funding-case/.
17. Byers, Boyd A. “Kansas Legislature Sends Teachers’ Due Process Rights out for Recess.” Lexology, May 15, 2014. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=1817bad0-f018-4e74-93c7-0b001bc892f8.
18. “Case 116818: Scribner v. U.S.D. No. 492.” Kansas Supreme Court, June 15, 2018. https://kscourts.gov/Cases-Decisions/Decisions/Published/Scribner-v-U-S-D-No-492.
19. Dewing, Rolland. “The National Education Association and Desegregation.” Phylon (1960-) 30, no. 2 (1969): 109–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/273881.
20. Ligtenberg, John. “Brief of the American Federation of Teachers as Amicus Curiae.” U.S. Supreme Court, October 13, 1952. https://briefs2.lonedissent.org/1952/brown-v-board-of-education-i/Brief%20of%20the%20American%20Federation%20of%20Teachers%20as%20Amicus%20Curiae.pdf.
21. Bindas, Michael. “The NEA’s Hypocrisy on Race.” Washington Examiner, September 5, 2024. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/3143288/nea-hypocrisy-race/.