National Education Association spends on politics over teachers

Just 10 cents of every dollar the National Education Association spent in 2025 was on representing teachers. Politics and contributions took nearly four times that amount.

Teachers in Illinois aren’t getting what they pay for with union membership.

The National Education Association admitted the following in its recent filing with the U.S. Department of Labor:

• Just 10% of its spending was on representing teachers in 2025.
• It spent nearly 4X more on politics and “contributions” than it did on representing teachers.
• Hundreds of NEA’s own officers and staff pull in six-figure salaries.
• NEA spent millions on hotels, airlines and other expenses for unspecified purposes.

Most teachers in Illinois are represented by the NEA. But NEA clearly doesn’t make teachers its priority.

Just 10% of NEA’s spending was on representing teachers in 2025

NEA spent nearly $450 million in 2025. Yet not even $46 million was on “representational activities” – which should be the core purpose of the union. The rest was spent on politics, administration and other union leadership priorities.

To put this in perspective, the Better Business Bureau states at least 65% of a nonprofit’s total expenses should be on program activities.

While the BBB evaluates spending by charities, it stands to reason NEA’s spending of just 10% on representation should be a cause for concern among members.

NEA spent nearly 4X more on politics and “contributions” than it did on representing teachers

NEA spent over $51.7 million on “political activities and lobbying” in 2025, along with an additional $123.3 million on other “contributions, gifts, and grants,” which are often political in nature. That $175 million encompassed 39% of NEA’s total spending in 2025.

That means the union spent nearly four times more on politics and contributions than it did on representing members.

The largest single recipient of NEA’s political spending was its own super PAC, the NEA Advocacy Fund, which received nearly $8.6 million. From there, the money could be spent on any political cause or candidate the union desired, regardless of members’ own preferences.

NEA also spent $19.9 million on ballot initiatives across the nation.

In addition, NEA’s disbursements for “contributions, gifts, and grants” included many self-proclaimed “progressive” organizations, including but not limited to the following:

• $ 1.8 million to For Our Future Action Fund, which claims to “build progressive power.”
• $460,000 to Midwest Academy, which trains organizers to “turn their passion into actions that build power and result in progressive change.”
• $310,000 to Democracy Alliance, which works to “advance progressive policy reforms.”
• $300,000 to America votes, which dubs itself “the coordination hub of the progressive community.”
• $300,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which focuses on “empowering progressive changemakers.”

And Illinois teachers’ dues didn’t just fund politics and organizations across the nation, they also funded activities across the world. The “contributions, gifts and grants” NEA reported included more than $3.5 million to entities outside the U.S.

Hundreds of NEA’s own officers and staff pull in six-figure salaries

While NEA’s members may not experience any benefits from spending hundreds of dollars on union dues each year, the union’s own officers and employees sure do. At least 481 of NEA’s own employees made over $100,000 in 2025. At least 110 made over $200,000.

NEA President, Rebecca Pringle, pulled in more than $514,000 – a 7% raise over her 2024 salary.

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In total, NEA spent more than $91 million on its own officer and employee salaries – 18% more than it spent the previous year.

To place this in context, the average teacher salary in Illinois is less than $79,000. Yet their money is funding NEA’s very generous salaries.

NEA spent millions on hotels, airlines and other expenses for unspecified purposes

NEA spent more than $17 million on airlines, car rentals, caterers, hotels, housing, rail travel, retailers and other transportation services and travel agencies.

But the union did not specify the purpose of $5.5 million of that amount.

While some spending in the report was listed for “Mbr/staff education,” “Assn policy development” or some other seemingly union-related purpose, no purpose was provided for that $5.5 million. Members have no way of knowing whether it was truly related to union business.

Even some of the purposes the union did list were questionable. For example, the union spent $31,510 on a hotel in Argentina for “Public ed research/analysis” – whatever that means.

NEA was granted a federal charter in 1906. At the time, its purposes were to “elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching” and “promote the cause of education in the United States.”

But according to the union’s own reporting, those are no longer NEA’s focus. It’s a political organization – not a teachers union.