America’s teachers union just revealed in damning federal filings that it has been funneling millions of dollars away from classrooms and into partisan activism — and hardworking parents should be furious. A November Form L-2 disclosure shows the National Education Association redirected taxpayer-adjacent funds in the 2024 fiscal year to a raft of left-wing organizations instead of prioritizing teacher pay and classroom needs.
One of the most troubling line items: a payment of more than $3.5 million to Education International, a global teachers federation where NEA President Becky Pringle holds a leadership role. That raises obvious questions about conflicts of interest and whether union dues are being used to reward allies rather than defend rank-and-file teachers.
The filings also show the NEA sent $300,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and tens of thousands to entities tied to the Tides Foundation network — groups long associated with left-wing political campaigns and “dark money” operations. Rather than focusing on classroom resources, the union’s leadership appears to be financing national political infrastructure that pushes radical agendas in and out of schools.
State-level meddling was on full display: the NEA disclosed half-million dollar checks backing a campaign to end standardized testing in Massachusetts and another $500,000 aimed at an anti-gerrymandering amendment in Ohio. These are political interventions, not collective-bargaining actions, and they betray a union that has strayed far from protecting teachers’ workplaces and student learning.
The union even paid more than $166,000 to a consulting firm that provides racial-equity training and spent additional sums on curriculum materials centered on race and gender identity. For parents who want basics taught well — reading, writing, math, civics — this is a furious betrayal: union leadership is exporting leftist cultural battles into classrooms while average teachers and taxpayers shoulder the bill.
Enough is enough. If the NEA willfully spends members’ dues to bankroll ideological organizations and ballot fights, there must be full transparency and accountability from its leadership, and legislators should seriously consider whether a federally chartered institution that behaves like a partisan pressure group deserves its special status. The promise of public education should not be hijacked by a union’s political machine.
Patriotic Americans who care about good schools and honest stewardship of union dues should demand answers, support local teachers who want less politics in classrooms, and push for reforms that return focus to academic excellence. This is about saving our schools from being turned into laboratories for left-wing social engineering, and the time to act is now.
