An investigation by a nonpartisan watchdog group has uncovered millions of dollars in union funds spent by the National Education Association (NEA) on far-left activist groups, social justice organizations, and liberal ballot initiatives across the country. On January 23rd, the NEA is sponsoring an anti-ICE protest in schools.
The North American Values Institute (NAVI) unearthed the contributions based on the group’s annual report. Despite declining student test scores, which indicate more money is needed in classrooms nationwide, and the union’s stated emphasis on workplace issues, NAVI found that the NEA chose to fund ballot initiatives around the country, such as:
- $500,000 to end standardized testing in Massachusetts
- $500,000 to support anti-gerrymandering efforts in Ohio
- Nearly $500,000 in Arizona and Wisconsin to advance progressive policy goals
Along with social justice efforts:
- $350,000 to the Schott Foundation, which labels itself “a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) organization doing the critical work on our nation’s pathway to education justice
- $300,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has previously supported restoring felons’ voting rights in Florida, mandating automatic voter registration in Nevada, redrawing districts in Michigan, and more.
The NEA is a financial behemoth, judging from its report with total net assets of over $315 million as of last year, and more than $152 million in cash on hand.
It is the only federally chartered labor union in the country, established in 1906. Its purposes, as approved by Congress, are:
- to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and
- to promote the cause of education in the United States.
Erika Sanzi of Defending Education suggests the union has strayed significantly from those purposes, and its federal charter should be re-evaluated:
“Their federal charter was granted because they promised to ‘elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.’ Seeing as their leadership — and by extension, the organization itself — has morphed into a far-left insane asylum that is actively destroying the cause of education, that charter is no longer defensible.”
We reached out to the KNEA for comments on the NAVI report and on how the cause of advancing student achievement is promoted by events such as the anti-ICE protest it is advertising. We received no response.
