NEWNow you can hearken to Fox Information articles!
Amid a pattern of declining membership for the reason that Supreme Court docket struck down obligatory union dues, the nation’s two largest academics’ unions have poured tens of hundreds of thousands into left-wing causes, a brand new report from a conservative watchdog group finds.
The nationwide nonprofit group, Defending Ed, launched a report this week after combing by means of the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation and American Federation of Academics’ contributions to left-wing and far-left teams. The nonprofit discovered that the 2 unions spent a mixed $43.5 million since 2022 to assist fund state and federal political motion committees and different ideologically left-wing entities, similar to D.C. assume tanks.
“It’s clear that the academics unions’ priorities are advancing far-left politics and radical social justice points, not the training of youngsters,” Defending Ed researcher Rhyen Staley instructed Fox Information Digital. “It is a slap within the face to households and academics who wish to concentrate on serving to college students enhance their studying and math abilities. It’s time that Congress acts to cease this obscene redistribution of public monies to advance left-wing id politics.”
NEW GROUP OFFERS TEACHERS A WAY TO ESCAPE THE PROGRESSIVE UNION ‘MONOPOLY’
Presidents of the nation’s two largest academics’ unions, Becky Pringle, left, of the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation (NEA), and Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Academics (AFT). (Leigh Vogel/Getty Photos for March For Our Lives)
Left-wing philanthropic behemoths just like the Tides Community, New Enterprise Fund, Sixteen-Thirty Fund and Future Ahead, the final of which was the primary Tremendous PAC supporting Kamla Harris’ 2024 presidential run after former President Joe Biden dropped out, all obtained a mixed almost $1.5 million from the unions, based on the report.
The unions additionally forked over vital quantities of money for teams that target supporting left-wing candidates for public workplace, such because the Democratic Governors Affiliation, Democrat’s Home Majority and Senate Majority PACs.
Different teams they’ve donated to incorporate main left-wing assume tanks just like the Heart for American Progress and its 501(c)(4) arm, which obtained near 1,000,000 {dollars} since 2022 from the 2 unions.
Randi Weingarten and Becky Pringle communicate through the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2024. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)
TEACHING HATE, HIDING TRUTH: NEA’S REAL AGENDA REVEALED IN LEAKED HANDBOOK
Aaron Withe, an professional on public-sector unions, identified that the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation spends lower than 10% of its finances on what he known as “representational actions,” whereas, on the similar time, the union spends 38% of its finances on contributions to left-leaning teams, lobbying and political items.
“You’d assume in gentle of the decline in union membership in recent times, that they’d begin offering worth to members that outweighs the price of membership,” Withe instructed Fox Information Digital. “As a substitute, they’re appeasing the novel base of union members by advocating for males in girls’s sports activities, transitioning minors, antisemitism and different radical ideological stances.”
He added that that is simply “the tip of the iceberg” too “when you think about that there are literally thousands of statewide and metropolis and county academics unions which might be largely funding the identical causes.”
Schooling activists alongside elected officers attend a rally exterior the U.S. Capitol forward of Secretary of Schooling nominee Linda McMahon’s affirmation listening to on Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi/Getty Photos for Nationwide Schooling Affiliation)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Neither the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation nor the American Federation of Academics responded to Fox Information Digital’s repeated requests for remark.
