Teachers Unions Poured Over $40 Million into Left-Wing Groups, Watchdog Finds

The nation’s two largest teachers unions have poured over $40 million into left-wing groups over the past few years, a pattern consistent with the progressive ideology both unions espouse.

The American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, two powerful unions with outspoken progressive bosses, have doled out $43,524,123 to liberal and far-left organizations since 2022, according to a new report from Defending Education, a right-leaning watchdog organization.

The report lists the organizations each of the unions has donated to and the specific dollar amounts. Some of the recipients listed are political action committees affiliated with the Democratic Party, including the House Majority PAC and Senate Majority PAC, two PACs devoted to supporting Democrats in congressional races.

The American Federation for Teachers donated $1.6 million to the House Majority PAC and $1.25 million to the Senate Majority PAC over the respective time periods combined. Future Forward, the primary PAC for former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed 2024 presidential campaign, received $250,000 from the AFT, Defending Education found.

The unions together gave $9.3 million to the For Our Future Action Fund, a left-wing PAC that primarily operates in swing states. Likewise, the National Education Association poured $9.5 million into the State Engagement Fund, a progressive pass-through entity that dishes out cash to other left-wing organizations.

Both teachers’ unions gave large sums of money to activist groups devoted to causes ranging from gun restrictions and voter registration to racial “equity” and abortion access. They also donated close to $1 million to the Center for American Progress, a prominent liberal think tank, and its sister organization, which is devoted to political activism.

Defending Education’s report is based on union disclosures to the Department of Labor covering the July 2022 to June 2024 time period. Fox News first reported on Defending Education’s investigation.

“Teachers’ unions claim they are about improving education, but their spending says otherwise. The fact that the unions have funneled tens of millions of dollars into left-wing political groups and nonprofits shows they are interested in advancing their own power and very unpopular far-left ideologies and policies,” said Rhyen Staley, research director at Defending Education.

“This is insulting for American families and teachers who want student outcomes to be improved, not used as a tool to fund left-wing politics.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is a well-known Democratic activist who uses her organization for partisan purposes. Weingarten has steered AFT in a progressive activist direction and led the push to extend school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, a policy that resulted in disastrous learning losses for American children.

Not to be outdone, the NEA is hellbent on resisting the Trump administration and has trained teachers to function as political activists. The union fully supports critical race theory, the left-wing ideology that focuses obsessively on race in daily life and argues America’s institutions are irredeemably racist.

As the teachers’ unions have leaned into political activism, they have experienced membership decline because of the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision to allow public sector employees to decline union membership and not have to pay dues.

James Lynch is a news writer for National Review. He previously was a reporter for the Daily Caller. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and based in the Washington, D.C. area.

Reprinted with permission from National Review by James Lynch.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.