America’s hyperpoliticized teachers unions

About 70 percent of the nation’s public school teachers belong to a union or employees’ association. The two largest teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), together represent about 4.7 million members. Politically, according to a study by Pew Research, about 58 percent of public school K-12 teachers identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with about 35 percent who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.

Last year, NEA President Rebecca Pringle told a Philadelphia public radio station that her organization’s membership is “nearly evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and independents.” But the union’s leadership does not reflect the diversity of its membership; it donates the vast majority of the organization’s money to liberal, progressive and Democratic causes and candidates. A new compilation of data shows just how much.

Defending Education is a group that says it seeks to free schools “from activists imposing harmful agendas” and to “fight indoctrination in classrooms and on campus to promote the re-establishment of a quality, non-political education for all students.” Recently, it released an accounting of $43,524,125 donated to left-wing causes by the NEA and AFT in two years, from July 1, 2022, to July 30, 2024.

Starting with the biggest numbers, the NEA contributed $9.5 million to State Engagement Fund, an organization that in turn parcels out the money among progressive groups. NEA also contributed $6.95 million to the For Our Future Action Fund, a liberal political action committee focused on electing Democrats in the key states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida. AFT contributed an additional $2.35 million to the fund.

The money, of course, came from the dues of teachers belonging to the unions.

The NEA gave $2.415 million to a group called Protect Our Schools KY, an organization that fights Republican education reforms in the Bluegrass State. NEA gave $620,000 to the Democracy Alliance, another left-wing pass-through that distributes money to progressive groups.

The NEA gave $500,000 to the Hopewell Fund, $500,000 to the Color of Change.org Education Fund (AFT gave another $100,000); $500,000 to Defend Our Constitution (AFT gave another $150,000); $500,000 to the Center for American Progress (AFT gave another $200,000); and $500,000 to Future Forward USA Action (AFT gave another $250,000).

To take one example, if you haven’t heard of the Hopewell Fund, it is a nonprofit associated with Arabella Advisors, a notorious “dark money” network for Democratic causes. (The nation’s largest charity, the Gates Foundation, recently cut ties with Arabella Advisors.) The Hopewell Fund, according to the monitoring group Influence Watch, “primarily exists to sponsor a number of ‘fake’ groups: websites designed to look like standalone nonprofits … (that) typically exist to effect an issue advocacy campaign pushing left-wing policies and may disappear after the campaign is finished.”

If you did not recognize Future Forward, it was the biggest political action committee for the Joe Biden presidential re-election campaign, and after Biden withdrew, the Kamala Harris presidential campaign.

Defend Our Constitution is actually an Alaska group dedicated to stopping Republican initiatives in that state. According to Influence Watch, its top three contributors are the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which the New York Times called a “cryptically named entity that has served as a clearinghouse of undisclosed cash for the left”; the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the National Education Association.

AFT gave $1.6 million to the House Majority PAC, which seeks Democratic control of the House, and $1.25 million to the Senate Majority PAC, which seeks Democratic control of the Senate.

NEA gave $30,000 to GLSEN, which used to be known as the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. NEA gave $60,000 to the LGBT organization Human Rights Campaign, and $29,250 to something called Gender Inclusivity LLC, which appears to refer to a company called Gender Inc., which says it seeks to “create a gender-sensitive and inclusive environment supportive of the transgender community.”

The Defending Education report includes many other lefty organizations to which the nation’s top two teachers unions have contributed. And the $43,524,125 listed in the report is not the entire amount the unions spent on political and ideological causes. But you get the idea. The report is not a surprise, and this kind of spending has been going on for years. Still, it is stunning to confront the hyperpoliticized priorities of unions that are supposedly devoted to education.

Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. Email him at byork@washingtonexaminer.com.