Watchdog Report: Teachers’ Unions Pour More Than $1 Billion into Left-Wing Causes

A watchdog group released a pair of reports exposing how teachers’ unions across the United States have funneled more than $1 billion into left-wing political causes over the past decade. 

Research from Defending Education reveals that national teachers’ unions alone appear to have poured approximately $669 million toward left-wing causes, PACs, organizations, and campaigns since 2015, Fox News first reported. When including state and local affiliates, the figure skyrockets to more than $1 billion in total political spending. 

The report tracks political spending from the two largest teachers’ unions in the U.S., the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), as well as their state-level affiliates. The report draws its findings from federal filings and campaign finance records.

Rhyen Staley, Defending Education’s research director, told the outlet that these teachers’ unions “are a political machine.” 

“Show me your budget and I will show you what you value; and what the teachers unions value is political power and advancing a left wing, social justice agenda,” Staley said. “Parents, families, and communities have little to no counter to the influence that teachers union dollars have on state and local campaigns. Gone are the days of unions just advocating for higher wages, better working conditions, and good health insurance; they are a political machine focused on fomenting a ‘political revolution.’”

The report shows the unions’ spending “stretches across a vast network of progressive organizations and political committees,” including the State Engagement Fund ($60 million) and the For Our Future Action Fund and its affiliates ($40 million).

The report also indicates that the unions dumped tens of millions into Democrat-aligned PACs, like the Senate Majority PAC and the House Majority PAC.

The report found that more than $85 million went right to Democratic Party entities at the local, state, and federal levels, not accounting for individual candidate contributions.

Additionally, unions funded various left-wing causes, like climate change initiatives and ballot campaigns against school choice.

According to Defending Education, the unions have directed money toward left-wing groups like Color of Change + PAC, Indivisible, National Center for Transgender Equality, Planned Parenthood, Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

Defending Education President Nicole Neily said the findings show that educators across America are being used to prop up destructive causes.

“It’s time to dispense with the myth that unions care whatsoever about teachers’ best interests. Educators are victims of a bait-and-switch: instead of their dues going to advocate for increased pay or improved working environments, they’re being spent advancing a hard-left political agenda, underwriting causes such as climate change, gender activism, and abortion (as well as supporting progressive politicians at all levels),” Neily said.

“Given the outsized role that unions have played in the education system over the past fifty years, greater transparency on union spending is absolutely critical so that policymakers and teachers themselves can make informed decisions about the role that these entities should — or should not — play in the future,” she continued. 

The outlet reached out to the NEA and AFT for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.