Posts tagged NEA
Fringe benefits boost average Kentucky teacher’s compensation to nearly $100,000
May 7, 2025 // Though teacher compensation has grown, the much-larger increase in school funding indicates that a great deal of funding is going elsewhere. Moreover, student academic performance hasn’t come close to keeping pace with increases in either funding or teachers’ compensation. “Public education should be about preparing students for future success, not propping up an overfunded mediocre system,” said Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters. "Large increases in school funding – including nearly $2 billion in fringe-benefit payments for teachers – have not translated into better student outcomes.”
Commentary: Groomed by the System: How a Colorado School Betrayed a Family’s Trust
April 24, 2025 // A child, driven by an inappropriate relationship with a teacher, felt compelled to falsely declare herself homeless. Yet not a single adult entrusted with her safety — not the counselor, not the teachers, not the principal — acted responsibly. When the child’s mother confronted the principal about the inappropriate relationship, the principal defended the teacher, saying, “Ms Kearney takes interest in helping kids navigate their sexuality.”
Commentary: Teachers Need to Ditch Their Union
April 16, 2025 // 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).
Labor leaders make final push to get repeal of anti-union bill on Utahns’ ballots
April 14, 2025 // UEA, AFL-CIO, Utah Public Employees Association, Utah Professional Firefighters, AFSCME and others have banded together in an attempt to repeal HB267, which bans collective bargaining with government employers — meaning those public employee unions cannot represent members in contract negotiations.
Fighting Hunger on the Picket Line: Bold New Bill Stands with Striking Workers and Their Families
April 2, 2025 // Under current rules, households with striking members are excluded from SNAP eligibility unless already qualified before the strike. The proposed legislation would eliminate this restriction, allowing striking workers to access critical nutrition assistance. Additionally, the bill would affirm eligibility protections for public sector workers fired for striking and ensure income-eligible households with striking members can still receive SNAP benefits.
Pay for Play: Al Sharpton Books Labor Bosses Who Pour Millions Into His Nonprofit on MSNBC Show
March 30, 2025 // In the past year alone, Sharpton, who hosts PoliticsNation on the weekends, has interviewed the presidents of five unions that have given his nonprofit a total of $6.3 million: American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association (NEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Federation of Government Employees, and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In all, labor unions have given nearly $8 million earmarked as "gifts," "grants," or payments for "political activities" to the National Action Network, which in some years has paid Sharpton a $1 million salary and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for private jets and limo services.
Idaho teachers union plots campaign to target conservatives in 2026 primaries
March 29, 2025 // But while the IEA may be nonpartisan in the sense that it doesn’t care about party labels per se and will happily back candidates running as Republicans if they support the IEA, there’s no disputing that the union’s ideology places it on the far-left flank of Idaho politics. As a Freedom Foundation analysis of the IEA’s political activity in 2024 previously documented: “The IEA behaves exactly as one would expect of a far-left advocacy group in a conservative state. The union attempts to curry favor by endorsing Republicans running in safe elections when the outcome isn’t in doubt, though rarely do such endorsements come with meaningful financial support. In GOP primary elections, the IEA focuses its resources on defeating select ideological adversaries and, as soon as the general election rolls around, it switches gears to prioritize electing Democrats in competitive races. Overall, 93 percent of IEA-connected PAC spending in the 2024 general election supported Democrats.” Also, as the Freedom Foundation reported last year, the IEA paid $25,000 in members’ dues to the Idaho Progressive Investor Network in the 2021-22 tax year.
Complaints allege Idaho school districts’ collection of union dues violates state law
March 23, 2025 // According to Freedom Foundation research, Idaho school districts collected at least $4.4 million in union dues from the paychecks of about 5,000 teachers’ paychecks in 2023 alone. The funds are divided among the district affiliate, the statewide IEA, and the Washington, D.C.-based NEA, which received about $1.1 million of the dues collected that year. Using government records, the complaints document how the NEA spends tens of millions of dollars on political activity and lobbying each year, including $1.8 million spent on Idaho since 2018 including, most recently, a $20,000 contribution to Idaho Students First, a political committee focused on backing the union’s preferred state legislative candidates in the 6th District in the 2024 general election. Bonneville, Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Falls, Kuna, Lake Pend Oreille, Marsing, Middleton, Mullan, New Plymouth, Post Falls, Shelley
Opinion: Congress Must Oppose Big Labor’s “PRO Act” Power Grab
March 14, 2025 // In the 2024 election cycle, labor unions gave nearly 90 percent of their political donations to Democratic Party candidates. For large unions like the National Education Association (NEA), as much as 99 percent of political donations went to Democrats. The PRO Act is a return on investment for the hundreds of millions of dollars that union bosses continue to pour into Democrat coffers.
Study shows how Missouri taxpayers are subsidizing teachers’ unions
March 13, 2025 // While it may not sound controversial, Straka explains the reality is that “union participation in NEOs [new employee orientations] is designed to pressure employees into joining the union, contributing to union political funds, and inculcating pro-union sentiment among employees.” “All of these meetings take place during work hours at the taxpayers’ expense,” he continues. “Missouri lawmakers should ensure that no teacher or public school employee is required by their employer to attend union events, listen to a union sales pitch, or otherwise interact with a union against their will.