Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy, says the North American Values Institute report on the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) reveals "more of the same."
"If you zoom into the data from the National Education Association, for example, their own federal filings that go to the Department of Labor show that less than 10% of their total funding goes towards representing teachers," DeAngelis relays. "Most of it goes towards politics, and about 98% of their political contributions go to Democrat politicians."
He points out that much of this political spending is funded by member dues — even though many rank-and-file teachers do not share the ideological goals associated with LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, DEI initiatives, climate policies, expanded immigration protections, government-funded healthcare and stronger labor-union powers.
"A lot of conservative public-school teachers … join the union thinking that they need protection," DeAngelis says. "People want legal help. They want to reduce risk. They want to be able to do their job."
He believes many good teachers want to do the right thing and focus on the basics; "they are not really thinking about all these political pet projects that the union bosses are funneling money towards."
DeAngelis notes that, because of a landmark legal precedent — particularly the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — educators who disagree with union political spending no longer have to pay into the union.
"The Janus decision says that no public school teacher or employee can be compelled to pay union dues as a condition of employment," he references.
As a result, many teachers are leaving the unions and opting to keep their money.
Efforts are now underway in Congress to restrict federal backing for unions involved in political activity, and alternative nonpartisan teacher associations continue to grow nationwide.
