Now we know how much NJEA leadership is contributing to NJEA President Sean Spiller’s personal Super PAC, Protecting Our Democracy.  As shown below in a filing with the Election Law Enforcement Commission, NJEA leadership funneled $2 million to Protecting Our Democracy on January 26, 2024.  Sunlight has long surmised that the NJEA was using its Super PAC, Garden State Forward, to fund Spiller’s PAC, and that the amount was in the “millions.”  Turns out we were right on both counts.

We were also right that NJEA leadership, including President Spiller, is using $2 million of teachers’ regular dues to fund Spiller’s personal political career, in yet another massive conflict of interest for Spiller. Even worse, NJEA leadership hides the existence of Garden State Forward from teachers.  Most teachers have no idea Garden State Forward even exists, let alone that they are funding it.  They certainly don’t know that their dues are funding Spiller’s personal political career.  This means that the conflicted Spiller is using teachers’ regular dues to fund his own political ambitions without their knowledge or consent.  

As we have asked before, where is NJEA leadership on this?  Aren’t they supposed to be looking out for the interests of members?  Yet here they are, looking for all the world like they are complicit in a scheme that covertly uses members’ dues in an obvious conflict of interest.  New Jersey teachers have no say in the matter.

The NJEA likes to claim it’s a “democracy,” but this is positively un-democratic.  NJEA leadership, including President Spiller, have a lot of explaining to do.