As May Day protests unfold across the country, an education watchdog is warning that student walkouts are just the beginning of a broader push to normalize ongoing activism in schools.
Defending Education says teachers unions and allied activist groups are helping train and mobilize students for political activism, particularly as the 2028 election approaches.
“This is the starting point for the next two and a half years of agitation leading up to the ’28 election,” Rhyen Staley, Director of Research at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital.
Staley said many students participating in walkouts may simply be looking to skip class and are not focused on politics, but argued that doesn’t prevent them from being used to amplify broader messaging.
“They’re going to use this propaganda to show, ‘Hey, look at our ideas are popular,’” he said. “What this programming has done within the school — Sunrise Movement, the teachers unions, et cetera — is that they’re training the next generation of protest left-wing leaders.”
Since 2015, teachers unions nationwide have directed more than $1 billion to political groups and PACs, some of which are linked to organizations behind protest training guides, according to Defending Education.
The watchdog group also pointed out that the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teachers union, gave more than $1.7 million to Midwest Academy, an organization focused on training progressive organizers. Midwest Academy is also tied to some of the May Day training materials obtained by Defending Education, the watchdog group said.
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The May Day 2026 Host Toolkit includes information for a “coordinated day of action” and calls for taxing the rich, removing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and expanding democracy. The guide states that the purpose of a “No School, No Work, No Shopping” day is “to disrupt the violent billionaire takeover of our country and to put working families first.”
Separate May Day materials from groups including the American Association of University Professors, the Sunrise Movement, the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers call on “hundreds of colleges to drop their contracts with ICE’s key enablers,” including Target, Hilton and Enterprise. The Sunrise Movement also put out a document in which it states that one of its “symbolic demands” is to “abolish billionaires.”
However, Defending Education warns that these tactics have unintended consequences for students and low-income families who cannot afford last-minute childcare.
“Not enough people are talking about the fact that these schools are putting parents and families in a really, really bad spot,” Rhyen Staley, Director of Research at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital. He noted that business owners forced to close may be home with their children, but are still losing a day’s pay.
“Let’s say that you do go to work. Who’s watching your five-and six-year-olds? And in some cases, by the way, it’s the eight-and nine-year-olds who are left to watch the six and the seven-year-old,” he added.
Fox News Digital reached out to the NEA for comment.
