Confirmed: NJEA Dues Are the Highest in the Nation — by 32% — and NJEA Membership Below 193,000

We have independent confirmation of our blog post on Tuesday, where we reported that the NJEA raised teachers’ dues to $1,038 a year, the highest in the nation by far and that NJEA membership had fallen to 193,000 in 2021-22.  Looks like we were right on both counts.

As the graph below shows, at $1,038 a year, New Jersey teachers’s dues do indeed remain the highest in the nation.  By far.  At $1,038, NJEA annual dues are a whopping 32% higher than the next-highest $786 for the California Teachers Association  (CTA). We also looked at the NEA affiliates in Alaska ($745 for 2022-23) and Michigan ($655), which were among the top five in 2020-21 (see our previous blog on the subject).  It’s not even close.

We also note that since our last compilation, Alaska and Michigan dues have remained unchanged, whereas NJEA and CTA dues increased by 6%.

Likewise, the ever-valuable Education Intelligence Agency provided their most recent update on NEA state affiliate membership levels for 2020-21.  So rather than guess at the progressive decline in membership since 2018-19, we now have an actual NJEA membership level for 2020-21: 194,723.

As we reported previously and as shown in the chart below, NJEA dues revenues actually decreased from 2020-21 to 2021-22 and dues were raised slightly, so the implied loss in membership was -1.4%.

Taken against the 2020-21 membership level of 194,723, a -1.4% decline would result in a NJEA 2021-22 membership level of 191,996.  We had estimated 193,000, so our methodology looks pretty good and we will reduce our estimate to 192,000.

So we can say with added confidence that New Jersey teachers currently pay the highest dues in the nation by far, and that NJEA membership has declined to approximately 192,000, far below the 200,000 the NJEA reports on its website.