Union accounting shows just 36% of its spending was on representing teachers in 2025, while it spent more than $41 million on politics.

Just 15% to 26% of Illinois teachers union spending was on representing teachers in 2024. But public education employees can opt out of union membership and keep their hard-earned money.

The Illinois state affiliate of the Service Employees International Union collected over $3 million in dues from members in 2024. It spent just $57,000 of that representing them. Politics and overhead were the union’s priorities.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ questionable spending, as revealed in its own federal reporting, could be driving members away from the union.

NEA has lost nearly 400,000 members since its peak in 2009. It could be because just 9% of the union’s spending is on representing teachers – with the rest on politics, administration and other union leader priorities.

The American Federation of Teachers’ recent federal filing showed just 36% of the national union’s spending was on representing teachers. More than two-thirds of its own employees made six-figure salaries.

The Illinois Education Association is the largest statewide teachers union in Illinois. But less than 15% of its in spending in 2024 was on representing its members – which could be why nearly 5,000 education employees have left the union.

Not even 20% of CTU’s spending went to representing its members during its 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to its own federal reporting.

The federal filings of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and its national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, reveal questionable spending, with little spent on representing teachers, millions spent on politics and deficit spending while the big boss got $500K.