NEA: Where Do Your Union Dues Go?

The National Education Association’s (NEA) political and charitable spending in 2020-2021 makes the NEA look more like a political organization than a membership organization. The union spent $2 on politics for every $1 it spent on representing its members.

Last year, the NEA spent $374 million overall, 18% of which went to political activities, while another 32% went to “contributions, gifts, and grants,” spending that is also largely political in nature. Only 9% of the union’s spending was on “representational activities,” or money that is spent directly to assist its members.

The NEA donates members’ dues to a long list of progressive political organizations that support Democratic candidates and causes. The NEA’s political spending increased by 32% from the year before, from $51 million up to $66 million, which does not include the money the union collected for its political action committee (PAC) or the political spending listed in other categories.

For example, the NEA gave $1 million last year to Future Forward USA Action, a liberal super PAC that supported Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. The NEA did not list this donation under political spending, but rather under “contributions, gifts, and grants.”

During the 2020-2021 school year, the NEA collected $377 million in dues from school employees, about $2 million higher than last year, despite having 65,416 fewer members. This is due in part to higher dues.

The NEA has 510 employees who earned an average salary of $134,000. Of those employees, 50 received salaries over $200,000, including NEA President Becky Pringle, who earned $431,317, and Executive Director Kimberly Anderson who earned $406,951.