The NJEA Finally Admits that Its Super PAC, Garden State Forward, Exists but Still Hides the Truth About Its Funding from Teachers’ Dues. Teachers Should Demand the Truth at the NJEA Convention.

Well, well, well, the times they are a-changing just a little bit at the NJEA. NJEA leadership has finally acknowledged for the first time — albeit tacitly — that its Super PAC, Garden State Forward, actually exists and was used to support endorsed candidates in this year’s midterm elections. But of course leadership still could not bring itself to acknowledge that Garden State Forward is funded by teachers’ regular, annual dues, which means that the spending on the midterms was once again done without teachers’ knowledge or consent. All told, Garden State Forward has spent over $120 million of dues on politics, including the $45 million wasted on former-NJEA President Sean Spiller’s vanity run for governor. And then there’s the unprecedented battle for leadership of the NJEA, with current President Steve Beatty running a slate against his own vice president and secretary-treasurer. All of which is why Sunlight decided to send teachers some digital ads at this week’s NJEA Convention, urging them to use the opportunity to ask the candidates questions and demand answers — because, left to their own devices, the post-Spiller leadership of the NJEA will still keep teachers in the dark.

The NJEA tacitly acknowledges that its Super PAC actually exists. For the first time ever, the NJEA has directly revealed to members that its Super PAC, Garden State Forward actually exists. In its recap of the midterm elections on the NJEA website, the NJEA wrote:

On the basis of NJEA members’ overwhelming endorsements of Bennett and Mullock earlier this year, NJEA also financially supported efforts via Garden State Forward and other Super PACs to elect them and other member-endorsed candidates in New Jersey.

But NJEA leadership still hides the truth from its own members. Of course, what the NJEA did not say to its members is even more revealing than what it did say. Note that the NJEA does not say that Garden State Forward is the NJEA’s own Super PAC, and more importantly does not say that Garden State Forward is funded by teachers’ annual dues. As it stands, NJEA leadership has still never directly admitted to its members that over $120 million of their regular, annual dues have been siphoned off to be spent on politics, continuing with this year’s midterms. Which means that, despite the wasting of $45 million of dues on Sean Spiller’s vanity run for governor and the resulting lawsuit, NJEA leadership continues to spend members’ annual dues on politics without their knowledge or consent. So the scandal continues under post-Spiller leadership.

Teachers: ask questions and demand answers! As can be seen in the ad, we urge teachers to take advantage of being at the Convention by asking the candidates about several key issues: the wasting of $45 million of their annual dues on Spiller without their knowledge or consent; the loss of political clout in Trenton whereby the NJEA is not part of Gov. Sherrill’s health benefits working group; and the failure of leadership’s campaign to improve teachers’ inadequate Tier 5 pensions. Here’s the list of 17 questions teachers should ask the candidates and demand answers.

All the candidates want to keep teachers in the dark. The reality is this: Beatty and Robertson were elected officers of the NJEA, and Dare and Beatty’s two running mates were presidents of their locals and delegates to the NJEA Delegate Assembly during the 2022-25 Spiller scandal. All can be presumed to have known the truth about the wasting of $45 million of dues on Spiller without teachers’ knowledge or consent. Left to their own devices, all are likely to keep teachers in the dark. So Sunlight is trying to shine some light and force them to tell the truth.