An analysis of recent federal labor filings reveals a familiar pattern in the priorities of the largest teachers’ union in the United States: the allocation of millions of dollars from union funds to advocacy groups, social justice organizations, ballot initiatives, and other political causes.
The North American Values Institute (NAVI) reviewed the National Education Association’s (NEA) November L-2 financial disclosure form and found that, during its 2024 fiscal year, the union made substantial payments to groups outside of traditional collective bargaining activities.
The union sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations supporting state ballot initiatives and political campaigns unrelated to core workplace issues, including efforts to end standardized testing in Massachusetts ($500,000), to push an anti-gerrymandering measure in Ohio ($500,000), and to advance broadly progressive electoral policy goals in states like Arizona and Wisconsin (nearly $500,000). It also sent $350,000 to the Schott Foundation for Public Education — a group described as “fuel[ing] racial and education justice movements” — and $300,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal dark-money vehicle. Tens of thousands of additional dollars went to organizations promoting social justice education, including curriculum resources centered on gender identity and activism in K-12 classrooms.
While the NEA has publicly signaled its support for liberal education and social policies for years, the newly disclosed financial data provide additional evidence of how far the union’s priorities have shifted.
“This is the upshot of social justice unionism,” NAVI Director of Research Mika Hackner told Fox News Digital. “Instead of focusing on member[s’] working conditions, unions spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on pet political projects completely divorced from the needs and wants of most teachers but perfectly in line with the political agenda the union has been co-opted to serve.”
Beyond these financial disclosures, internal union materials recently obtained by Defending Education further illustrate the NEA’s embrace of social justice unionism. The report states that the union instructed members beyond basic professional development, with topics including navigating a gender transition in the workplace. It also provided training materials that framed opposition in explicitly political terms, labeling conservative viewpoints and those who oppose gender ideology as “villains.”
Together, financial records and internal guidance documents underscore the extent of the NEA’s shift away from its traditional role as a labor organization representing teachers’ professional interests.
The NEA is the only labor union with a federal charter, and the political behemoth it is today is vastly different from the professional association that received this congressional charter in the 20th century. Here are its purposes, as established in its charter issued by the U.S. Congress in 1906:
- to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and
- to promote the cause of education in the United States.
By channeling member dues into political campaigns, social justice initiatives, and activism unrelated to classroom instruction, the union has strayed from the mission Congress envisioned for far too long, raising serious questions about whether its charter should continue in its current form.
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Minnesota teacher members pay dues each year to the NEA, along with its national affiliate the American Federation of Teachers. Teachers are no longer required to bankroll these unions’ efforts and can opt out of funding their political and ideological activism. The next opportunity for Minnesota teachers to stop subsidizing union activism they may not support will be in September 2026. Learn more here.
