LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas educators paying dues to the state’s largest teachers union may be surprised by what the union’s own financial records reveal.
A new analysis from Americans for Fair Treatment finds that the Arkansas Education Association spent $2.22 million in FY 2025, with nearly 64%—$1.42 million—going to staff and officer compensation, employee benefits and related payroll costs.
Meanwhile, AEA ended the year with $3.4 million in net assets, more than double the $1.57 million it held in FY 2017.
During that same period, the number of AEA employees fell from 22 to 14—a 36% reduction in the workforce serving members.
But there is one number AEA members cannot find in the union’s federal tax filing: how much AEA actually spends on representing them.
AEA leaves blank the Form 990 functional-expense columns that would separate program services from management and overhead. As a result, its filing does not separately disclose how much of its spending went toward bargaining, grievance handling or individual workplace representation.
“What are they getting for their dues?” said Chip Rogers, CEO of Americans for Fair Treatment. “AEA can tell members how much it spends paying its staff, funding employee pensions and benefits, traveling and maintaining a multimillion-dollar reserve. But its own federal filing doesn’t separately tell them how much goes to the basic job teachers expect a union to perform—representing them. Arkansas educators deserve to know that before they write another dues check.”
Your dues don’t stop in Arkansas
The money trail extends beyond AEA.
Under AEA’s unified membership structure, someone who joins AEA also becomes a member of the National Education Association, with a portion of dues remitted to the national union.
Across the five federal election cycles examined in AFFT’s report, the NEA Advocacy Fund—the union’s federal super PAC—spent $49.5 million, including $41.36 million in contributions to other political committees.
The partisan split of those committee contributions was absolute:
100% of the $41.36 million went to Democratic-aligned groups.
Not one dollar of those committee contributions went to a Republican-aligned committee during the period reviewed.
The report also found that the NEA’s separate candidate PAC, the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, directed 96.7% of its $11.74 million in federal candidate and party contributions to Democrats. That PAC is funded through voluntary member contributions rather than dues.
“Teachers join a union because they expect representation—not to become an ATM for an organization they may know very little about,” Rogers said. “Workers deserve transparency, they deserve choice, and they deserve to know where their money ultimately goes.”
AEA by the numbers
64% — FY 2025 spending on staff/officer compensation, benefits and related costs
$3.4 million — Net assets at the end of FY 2025
+117% — Increase in net assets since FY 2017
-36% — Decline in staff since FY 2017
$337,307 — Staff retirement and employee benefits in FY 2025
$7,262 — FY 2025 operating surplus
Representation spending — Not separately disclosed on AEA’s Form 990
$41.36 million — NEA super PAC committee contributions across the federal cycles reviewed
100% — Share of those committee contributions going to Democratic-aligned groups
Know Your Rights
Arkansas is a right-to-work state. No educator can be required to join or pay the Arkansas Education Association as a condition of employment.
Americans for Fair Treatment provides free, confidential assistance to workers who want to better understand their rights or their options regarding union membership.
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