National Education Association-New Hampshire (NEA-New Hampshire)

In recent years, NEA-New Hampshire has used litigation to promote the use of left-wing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) curricula, including the use of critical race theory, in K-12 schools.  ^{3  4}

Background

National Education Association-New Hampshire (NEA-New Hampshire) is the National Education Association’s statewide affiliate in New Hampshire. It is one of the oldest teachers’ unions in the country and was one of the 10 state unions that founded the NEA in 1857.  ²

As of 2025, it was the largest teachers’ union in the state, with roughly 17,000 members. ²

NEA New Hampshire did not receive its tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code, which generally governs labor unions. ⁵ Instead, it is exempt under Section 501(c)(6), which is generally intended for business trade organizations, chambers of commerce, and other “business leagues.” ⁶

NEA-New Hampshire collected $5,935,836 in dues from its members in 2024. ⁷

Activism

National Education Association-New Hampshire (NEA-NH) advocates teachers union policy priorities such as increased public education funding and opposition to charter schools, school vouchers and other educational choice mechanisms in New Hampshire. ⁸

The union publishes an annual legislator scorecard that ranks members of the New Hampshire legislature on their votes on selected legislation. ⁸ In 2024, nine Democratic members of the New Hampshire Senate and one Republican received “100 percent” grades on the NEA-NH scorecard, while none of the other 14 Republican senators received any higher than 17 percent.  ⁸

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

National Education Association-New Hampshire (NEA-NH) has worked with the American Civil Liberties Union and other left-of-center organizations to use litigation to attempt to protect the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) curricula in public schools, including the use of critical race theory in developing K-12 curricula in the state.  ^{3  4}

In 2021, NEA-New Hampshire sued to block a new anti-discrimination law in the state that banned the teaching of “divisive concepts” in areas such as race, gender, or sexuality, including the use of critical race theory in public education. ³ In May 2024, a federal judge ruled in favor of the union, finding that the law’s provisions did not sufficiently provide “either fair warning to educators of what they prohibit or sufficient standards for law enforcement to prevent arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” ⁹

In March 2025, NEA-NH, the national NEA, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of New Hampshire, and ACLU of Massachusetts sued the U.S. Department of Education over the Trump administration’s decision to withhold federal funding from schools that implemented diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) curricula or programs that the department viewed as violating anti-discrimination measures such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. ¹⁰

In August 2025, NEA-NH, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, GLAD Law, and other plaintiffs sued the New Hampshire Department of Education to block a new state law banning “diversity, equity, and inclusion programs pertaining to race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability” in K-12 schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and other public facilities. ^{4  11} In October 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law from going into effect. ¹²