Teachers Unions Spend Big Bucks on Leftist Causes and Candidates

It may come as no surprise that teachers unions tend to lean to the left – and perhaps it’s fairer to say lunge than lean. Yet the sheer volume of money funneled into left-wing causes and candidates revealed by financial disclosures and reports by watchdog groups this year remains mind-boggling.

Teachers Unions – The Progressive Collection Plate?

First reported by Fox News Digital on October 28, a pair of recent investigations by the North American Values Institute (NAVI) reveal nearly a billion dollars’ worth of combined dues from the nation’s two largest teachers unions was spent on political activity, lobbying, and advocacy between 2016 and 2025. The nation’s largest, the National Education Association (NEA), spent at least $547 million on such causes, and the second-largest union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), spent about $383.2 million as well.

Where did the money go? Glad you asked!

According to the NEA NAVI report, about $80 million was split among a list of intermediary political groups, including the State Engagement Fund, Strategic Victory Fund, and State Victory Fund LLC. These aren’t causes in and of themselves, but they all champion various progressive groups and causes at the state level around the nation. A look into the spending of each shows recipients like Progress Michigan Political Action Fund, George Soros’ Open Society Action Fund, and EMILYs List, a PAC that calls itself “the nation’s largest resource dedicated to electing Democratic pro-choice women to office.”

Another $116.9 million from the NEA went to its own PAC, the NEA Advocacy Fund, over that decade. This PAC specifically backs Democratic and left-of-center congressional and state candidates who oppose school choice and vouchers. But at least the spending for this PAC may be a bit easier to track for union members than the aforementioned dark money groups.

Another $30 million or so went to Education International, a federation of teachers unions around the world that includes the General Union of Palestinian Teachers. According to the NAVI report, the Palestinian teachers union is affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and its secretary-general has praised members of terror groups.

But wait, there’s more. In the “Key Findings at a Glance” summary, the NAVI report on the NEA states: “Among recipients with both 501(c)(3) charity and 501(c)(4) advocacy arms, 48% of NEA spending went to the advocacy arm – and 90% of that money was reported as ordinary contributions rather than political spending.”

So what about the AFT spending? Well, according to the report, the union spent a million each on Democrat-friendly redistricting efforts in Ohio and a proposed tax in Oregon, just over a million across Wisconsin Supreme Court election cycles, and another million for California’s failed Proposition 15, which would have removed decades-long tax protections for commercial properties and sent billions of dollars into the Golden State’s public schools and community colleges, according to CalMatters.

And these aren’t the only reports to show it. Back in the spring, the watchdog group Defending Education revealed its own study over that same period. It found that, when you add in some local unions, that amount goes over a billion. It also named recipients of contributions from the national teachers unions, including the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, Planned Parenthood Votes, and the Trevor Project, among others. The Trevor Project, for those not familiar, is a self-described support and advocacy group for LGBTQ+ youth.

Midterm Matters

If we step away from the big national teachers unions and focus on the state and local folks, we find plenty of direct political spending in this very midterm cycle. On Tuesday, October 27, EdSource, which calls itself “California’s largest journalism organization focused on education,” published a report on the California Teachers Association (CTA).

“The California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union and one of the largest funders of California political campaigns, has spent more than $65.5 million this election cycle, campaign finance records show,” reads the opening line of the EdSource article.

Most of it went to support Proposition 3, a ballot issue that would make a temporary tax on high earners permanent. It’s expected to help fund public schools and community colleges, much like the failed Proposition 15 of 2020. The CTA dropped $58.3 million in backing for Proposition 3, which accounts for about 87% of the “Yes” funding so far. The “No” campaign has only raised $5,500, according to EdSource’s investigation, meaning the CTA has spent more than $10,000 for every dollar in opposition.

The union is also the biggest supporter of Richard Barrera in his bid for the office of state superintendent of public instruction. About 96% of independent spending to support Barrera came from the CTA, which spent $8.4 million as of Oct. 27 on both support for Barrera directly and ads in opposition to his opponent, Sonja Shaw. That’s yet another high-paid government job in education – according to the California Department of Human Resources, the position pays $213,617 a year.

The CTA also spent $1.5 million to defeat Proposition 39, which would add stronger voter ID requirements, and another $500,000 against Proposition 43, which would require voter-proposed tax increases to meet the same two-thirds majority required for legislative tax increases.

According to a recent report from Illinois Policy, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) devoted less than 19% of its annual spending on “representational activities.” It spent nearly $2.6 million on politics, and even spent more running its internal operations than representing teachers. Stacy Davis Gates, president of the union, also gave herself a raise. She now makes more than $310,000 a year in combined salaries from the CTU and the Illinois Federation of Teachers. That’s almost as much as Illinois Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders, who makes $323,400 a year as a statewide official, and ranks eighth on Ballotpedia’s top ten highest-paid state officials in the nation! The union spent more than $39 million in fiscal year 2026, and just $7.4 million went to representing teachers. So what does it cost Chicago educators to be in this union? More than $1,500 a year.

That’s an awful lot of moolah headed into Democratic Party campaign funds and progressive causes across the nation over the years – including as recently as this midterm cycle. Like the tax funding for education nationwide that isn’t going to educational materials or programs for kids or even teacher salaries, the money funneled through these unions seems to be representing the politicians and the bureaucracy far more than the teachers paying it in dues.