Teachers Unions Putting More Dues Money into Politics

While union leadership continues to repeat the myth that union dues cannot be used for politics, the latest newsletter from the Pennsylvania State Education Assocation again reveals, in small print, that 12 percent of members’ dues will be spent on politics next year.

That should not surprise anyone, given the rest of the magazine is chock full of political ads, endorsements, and calls to action.

PSEA 2014 IRS Notice

This is on the heels of increasing political activism out of the national teachers’ unions. In case you missed it, last week the American Federation of Teachers decided to increase their union dues to bolster their political spending.  

To bolster the union’s coffers for the legal and political battles to come, the AFT leadership is asking members to support a two-stage dues hike that would add $5.40 a year to their bills this year and another $6.60 in 2015.

Most of the increase would go toward the “militancy/defense fund” and state and national “solidarity funds,” which support litigation, political activism and lobbying.

The $12 increase (over two years), would mean the AFT will collect almost $19 million more each year that can be used on politics. Last year, the AFT spent more than $28 million on political activity and lobbying, while more than half its spending went to the category “other,” including gifts to other advocacy organizations.

Their sister organization, the NEA, spent $44.8 million on politics last year, not including their list of gifts to other political organizations. And as the Wall Street Journal reports, the recent NEA conference was full of political debate, while eschewing union transparency.

Delegates debated whether the union’s president should write a letter to Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder denouncing the NFL team name’s “institutional racism.” They also discussed a resolution supporting reparations for “the lingering impact of slavery” and “subtle Jim Crow policies and thinking” including “unconscious bias.” These items were referred to a private committee for further discussion.

Some business items approved by the delegates did pertain to teaching. Delegates signed off on drawing up a list of books, for students from pre-K to graduate school, “that have LGBTQ and gender non-conforming themes” ($6,500) and a lobbying campaign for legislation that requires “sensitive and respectful discussions of gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation” ($24,140). They also adopted a resolution to promote “clean energy” in curriculums ($10,760).

The attendees voted down some in-house items: a proposal that would require the NEA’s board to provide written justification for executive officers’ raises, and another that urged the NEA to “bargain in good faith” with its internal union, the Association of Field Service Employees (AFSE), thus exemplifying “the behavior we advocate for in negotiations.”

As for Pennsylvania, many teachers disagree with both the PSEA and NEA’s spending on politics—and the lousy job the union does telling educators about it. As teacher Steve Calabro noted last month, one obscure notice does not make for notified teachers on such a critical issue.

“How much money is the government owed from teachers who don’t take this into account when filing taxes?” Calabro askked. “This information should be a separate mailer that goes out the first week of January, not smothered in the back of a summer issue of a magazine that no one reads.”