The Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision asserted that no teacher or any public employee has to pay a penny to a union as a condition of employment. While the unions have made it very difficult for teachers to leave, it is certainly doable.
So how many teachers have left their union?
According to a U.S. Department of Labor report filed in December, which includes data from the 2023-24 school year, the National Education Association has 2,839,808 total members, including educators, student teachers, retirees, NEA staff, and other miscellaneous categories. That’s down from 2,857,703 the year before. The number of working members—such as active teachers and support staff—was 2,471,782, a decline of 12,558 or about .005%.
While many observers are happy to see that the union is losing members, I am not joining the party. Instead, I wonder why so many still belong.
When teachers join a union, they are joining three—their local, state, and national affiliates. And the bulk of their dues money is not going where they think it goes. The NEA currently siphons off $213 yearly, but most of the money goes to the state affiliate. In the Golden State, the California Teachers Association, the NEA’s state partner, grabs $816 yearly. There is no set amount for the local union; however, it is typically about $200 per annum.
How does the union spend the dues?
As explained by Mailee Smith, Illinois Policy Institute’s senior director of labor policy, the NEA’s spending on politics and other contributions is more than four times higher than its spending on representation, with just 9% of its expenditures on teacher representation, which should be its core focus.
And just who benefits from the political spending?
As Open Secrets discloses, in 2024, NEA spent $22,744,023 on politics, with 98.24% going to Democrats and a paltry 1.76% going to Republicans.
The California Teachers Association, which considers itself “the co-equal fourth branch of government,” per former Democratic State Senate leader Dom Perata, is no better. As the Freedom Foundation notes, the union reports its political expenditures under three separate filings:
- The Issues Political Action Committee (PAC);
- The Association for Better Citizenship (ABC); and,
- The Independent Expenditure Committee (IEC).
From January to October 2024, union filings show more than $12 million in political contributions. The Issues PAC alone made an $830,000 contribution to the Democratic Party, while the ABC gave $287,000 to Democrats compared to just $21,425 to Republicans.
The CTA is hardly the only union led by left-leaning leadership. The Colorado Education Association has adopted a resolution opposing capitalism. This NEA affiliate, which represents about 40,000 educators and staff, has issued a statement saying it believes “capitalism inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor, and resources.
Some local unions, especially in big cities, also get into the act. In California, after the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel in 2023, leaders of the Oakland Education Association called on school leaders to stand in solidarity with Palestinians. “We, the members of OEA, express our unequivocal support for Palestinian liberation and self-determination. We condemn the genocidal and apartheid state of Israel,” a now-deleted post on Instagram read.
But aren’t teachers invariably on the left?
Well, no.