New federal labor filings are shedding fresh light on how one of the country’s largest teachers unions is spending member dues, revealing millions of dollars directed toward left-wing activist groups, ballot initiatives, and social justice organizations.
According to Fox News, a Form L-2 disclosure filed in November by the National Education Association (NEA) outlines its financial activity for the 2024 fiscal year.
The filing, obtained by the North American Values Institute (NAVI), details substantial expenditures tied to progressive political advocacy and social justice causes rather than traditional labor priorities.
The NEA, which represents more than 3 million educators nationwide, reported sending $300,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal dark-money group. The filing also lists tens of thousands of dollars in payments to entities within the Tides Foundation network, which has previously been linked to far-left activism.
One of the single largest expenditures totaled more than $3.5 million, sent to Education International, a global teachers’ federation. NEA President Becky Pringle serves as a vice president of that organization, according to the filing.
The disclosure also shows hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled into state-level ballot initiatives aimed at reshaping education policy and election laws.
Among those expenditures were $500,000 to support a campaign to eliminate standardized testing in Massachusetts and another $500,000 to back an anti-gerrymandering amendment in Ohio.
Nearly $500,000 more went to a progressive political consulting firm specializing in ballot initiatives and canvassing efforts.
Beyond electoral politics, the union spent more than $166,000 on Imagine Us LLC, a consulting firm focused on racial equity training. Additional payments were made to organizations promoting what they describe as “social justice education,” including curriculum materials centered on race, gender identity, and activism in K-12 classrooms.
The filing also shows a $350,000 contribution to the Schott Foundation, which describes itself as “a BIPOC-led public fund that pools philanthropic funding and fuels racial and education justice movements.”
“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.”
The NEA has faced ongoing criticism over its emphasis on political advocacy rather than classroom outcomes.
In November, previously uncovered documents showed the union distributing guidance on workplace gender transitions, pronoun usage, and materials that labeled conservative opposition as “villains.”
Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications for Defending Education, argued at the time that the union’s federal charter should be reconsidered.
“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,’” Sanzi said. “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.”
