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For six consecutive years, the National Education Association (NEA) has been losing members. However, the cause is not a decrease in the student population or funding cuts, as NEA President Becky Pringle suggests. The real reason lies in the NEA’s apparent prioritization of a radical political agenda over member representation, causing a loss of over 12,000 members in 2023 according to the union’s latest financial report.
Union membership has been declining for years. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME (2018), which recognized public employees’ First Amendment right to abandon union membership, hastened this decline.
To maintain its financial stability, the NEA has been keeping its members in the dark about the rights guaranteed by Janus. Its local affiliates, for instance, the California Teachers Association, support laws preventing employers from discussing with union members their freedom of association rights.
In addition, the NEA consistently calls for the repeal of widely supported right-to-work laws, which, if overturned, would either require workers nationwide to stay in the union or face termination.
In the 2023 school year, the NEA diverted a staggering $176 million of dues income directly from teachers’ paychecks to political candidates and causes. This expenditure constituted 34% of the NEA’s 2023 budget, while only 8% subsidized “representational activities.”
Many beneficiaries of the NEA’s substantial political contributions do little to support teachers’ workplace rights. For example, the For Our Future Action Fund received upwards of $3 million from the union to build “progressive power through voter engagement, issue advocacy and community organizing” with an emphasis on social justice and climate change.
NEA president Becky Pringle’s pay rose in 2023 to $495,787, an increase of $46,250 from the previous year. In contrast, the NEA reports that the average starting teacher salary is $42,844.
The NEA, appearing to be just an ideologically polarizing political advocacy group capitalizing on educators’ workplace concerns, is being noticed by teachers. Despite steady hiring in public schools, the 2023 school year saw the NEA’s membership drop by 12,287, resulting in a total loss of over 220,000 members since the Janus decision.
Luckily, the Freedom Foundation, my organization, understands that when teachers are properly informed about their First Amendment rights, they opt out of union membership in the hundreds of thousands, as has occurred with the NEA and other government unions for the past six years.
As the NEA leadership continues to prioritize their power-seeking political agenda over issues in the classroom, it’s only a matter of time before membership losses push the union beyond recovery.
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