Time for another update on the dark-money Super PAC Education Truth Project (ETP) and its New Jersey affiliate, New Jersey Public Education Coalition (NJPEC).  Both organizations were set up to back progressive school board candidates against the wave of parent-activists who ran for school board during the 2022 election cycle and were supported by groups like Moms for Liberty.  ETP is the self-proclaimed funder of NJPEC, but because it is a dark-money Super PAC, we must use circumstantial evidence to determine who funds ETP.

Sunlight has done quite a bit of analysis on ETP (here and here), and multiple arrows pointed to ETP being a NJEA front.  As more circumstantial evidence came in, we started to see ETP as likely a National Education Association (NEA) front.  NEA is the NJEA’s national parent organization, and as one of the most powerful state NEA affiliates, NJEA has a lot of influence on NEA.  So the NEA-NJEA distinction is really a distinction without a difference.

We now see more indications that ETP is a NEA front:

• ETP is a federal Super PAC, so it can operate nationally and is currently pushing a campaign in Florida. Federal elections and national campaigns are the province of the NEA, not the NJEA.  The NJEA sends millions of dollars to the NEA every election cycle to support New Jersey (Democratic) candidates for federal office, but that money is spent by the NEA.
• ETP’s makes clear that its main mission is to support school board candidates to win back or maintain control of school boards in order to effectuate a progressive agenda and defeat so-called “MAGA extremists.” But a recent fund-raising email states: “Teachers deserve competitive salaries, the right to organize, professional development, and adequate numbers of faculty and staff.”  This language could be cut-and-pasted from a NJEA/NEA playbook.
• As if to drive the point home further, a second fund-raising email contains a quote from National Education Association President Kim Anderson: “Parents and community members and voters want candidates who are focused on strengthening our public schools, not abandoning them.”

Sure looks like ETP is doing the bidding of the NEA.

As for ETP’s New Jersey “affiliate” NJPEC, its founder — the mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman — previously maintained that NJPEC was not funded by ETP.  Yet, at the time, NJPEC’s own (newly upgraded) website and press releases stated clearly that they were paid for by ETP. Now NJPEC’s contribution page is ETP’s ActBlue webpage.  Gottesman has also downplayed NJPEC’s ties to the NJEA, and yet we now see that the NJPEC website’s sole source for its “Resources” is a link to the NJEA’s Center for Honesty in Education.  Gottesman’s tenuous relationship with the truth continues.

All of which is to say, the circumstantial evidence points strongly to NEA funding for ETP and to ETP’s funding for NJPEC.  Adding in the NJEA’s role as the sole “resource” for NJPEC’s website makes for a convincing case that NJPEC is ultimately a NJEA/NEA front.  The bomb-throwing, mendacious Gottesman and NJPEC appear to be ideal vehicles for the NJEA to dominate and intimidate New Jersey school boards with plausible deniability about its role.

So beware, New Jersey.  When you see Gottesman and NJPEC coming for your school board, know that all signs point to the NJEA and NEA as the money behind the muscle.