The Taxpayer-Funded Political Machine

NOW WE KNOW: NJEA LEADERSHIP HAS ALREADY SPENT $5 MILLION OF TEACHERS’ DUES SUPPORTING NJEA PRESIDENT SEAN SPILLER’S PERSONAL SUPER PAC

Is supporting Spiller in the best interests of ALL teachers?

We now know NJEA President/ex-Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller is running for governor and the NJEA is all-in supporting him.  What we didn’t know was that in addition to the $2 million NJEA leadership — including Spiller — gave to Spiller’s personal Super PAC, Protecting Our Democracy, in 2024, they also gave another $3 million in 2022 — contributions that were not reported to New Jersey’s elections watchdog.  All of this came from the NJEA’s Super PAC, Garden State Forward, and thus all of it was funded by New Jersey teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues.

Spiller’s conflict of interest is massive and manifest.  Is it in teachers’ best interest to spend $5 million of their dues on Spiller’s personal political ambitions? And how many more millions will be spent as Spiller runs for governor?

Even worse, NJEA leadership hides the existence of Garden State Forward, so most teachers have no idea it exists, let alone that they are funding it.  They are being forced to support Spiller without their knowledge or consent.

Spiller will run as a progressive Democrat, but what if a teacher is a Republican or an independent? What if a teacher simply doesn’t want her hard-earned dues spent on politics?  Too bad.  She doesn’t have a choice.

On top of this, Spiller is a controversial political figure who did not run for re-election in Montclair because he was so unpopular he would have lost badly.  Spiller also has potential criminal liability for misuse of state health benefits hanging over his head.

We ask if Spiller is the kind of candidate teachers would choose to support.  Not that they have a choice.  What a rotten deal.

THE NJEA v. LOCAL UNIONS: THE LOCAL UNIONS MAKE AND THE NJEA TAKES

The NJEA controls all their dues but today’s teachers have never voted on their local’s relationship with the NJEA.

You read that right.  It’s almost certain that no current New Jersey teacher has ever voted on whether they want the NJEA as their collective bargaining representative.  That’s because the NJEA was elected over 50 years ago and has never had to stand for another vote.

We know from teacher feedback that they like their local unions.  Local union officers are elected by the local teachers and spend most of their time working on behalf of teachers on the local issues that teachers care about.  But in the NJEA system, 85% of dues go to the NJEA and the NEA (its national parent) where it is spent on state and national politics and excessive compensation for top execs.  Only 12% goes to the local.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  Other unions keep most of the money at the local level, giving them the power to spend it as they wish and lower dues.  We ask: If teachers had a choice, would they prefer to control their own dues money?  Would they want to limit extraneous spending in order to reduce their highest-in-the-nation dues?

New Jersey law allows for replacing an existing union like the NJEA.  Teachers do not have to be stuck with a union that was elected over 50 years ago. They do not have to watch helplessly as their hard-earned dollars get automatically siphoned off and used for things they don’t approve of.  They can control their own money.  All they need to do is decertify the NJEA and vote in a new, replacement union.

SCHOOL DISTRICT DATA SHOWS THAT NJEA MEMBERSHIP DECLINED -10% FROM 2018-2023

The Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision gave teachers a choice whether to belong to the NJEA, and many have chosen to leave.

That’s why the Wayne Education Association (WEA) is trying to block Sunlight’s campaign.  Thanks to our campaign, teachers were learning the facts about how NJEA leadership spends their highest-in-the-nation dues and choosing to leave the NJEA.

Sunlight’s analysis of 17 school districts found that what was happening in Wayne was happening all over the state: every district saw a decline, which averaged -10.9%.  Five districts have lost almost a quarter of their members.  We also looked at NJEA members as a percentage of their bargaining unit, where we found a decline from 99% prior to the Janus ruling to 88.9% in 2023, a -10% decline that mirrors the absolute decline in membership.  Five bargaining units had fewer than 80% NJEA members.

The bottom line is that NJEA membership appears to be well below the false 200,000 number advertised on the NJEA website.

All of this is confirmation that when teachers learn they have a choice and the facts about how their dues are spent, many choose to stop paying dues and leave the NJEA.

NJEA LEADERSHIP’S SCHEME TO HIDE THE FACTS FROM TEACHERS

Because when teachers learn the facts about excessive executive compensation and political spending, many choose to leave the NJEA

That’s why the Wayne Education Association is asking the state to force the Wayne School District to block Sunlight’s email campaign.  Too many Wayne teachers were learning the facts about how NJEA leadership spends their highest-in-the-nation dues on excessive executive compensation and political spending and leaving the NJEA.

That’s why the NJEA created the “Member Protection Center” — aimed squarely at Sunlight — to “protect” teachers from these inconvenient facts.

That’s why NJEA leadership hides their one-percenter compensation, the highest in the nation by far.

And that’s why NJEA leadership hides the existence of the NJEA’ Super PAC, Garden State Forward, which has spent over $68 million of teachers’ regular dues on politics.  Most teachers have no idea Garden State Forward exists, let alone that they are paying for it.

The NJEA knows that when teachers learn these facts, many decide they have better uses for the $1,500 in dues withheld from their paychecks every year.  The NJEA’s self-serving actions don’t benefit teachers, who deserve to know the facts, they benefit NJEA leadership.

POST-PANDEMIC, TEACHERS ARE STRETCHED AND STRESSED. WHY IS NJEA LEADERSHIP PUSHING THEM TO FIGHT THE CULTURE WARS?

Against the vast majority of New Jersey citizens and parents, according to a recent Monmouth poll.

Post-pandemic learning loss and increased student misbehavior are making it harder for teachers to teach and causing many to leave the profession altogether.  What is their union leadership, the NJEA leadership, doing about it?  Nothing.

Rather than helping teachers teach, the NJEA is adding to their burdens by pushing teachers to fight local culture wars against the vast majority of citizens and parents across the state.  When it comes to parental notification, the teaching of gender identity to grades 1-5, allowing gender-birth boys to play girls sports, and allowing bathroom use by gender identity, the Monmouth poll shows that NJEA-promoted policies are far out of step with the rest of New Jersey.  And yet NJEA leadership is pushing teachers to becomes local advocates for these deeply unpopular policies.

All of this is being paid for by New Jersey teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues.  Sunlight asks: how is it in teachers’ best interest for them and their dues to be used to fight the culture wars?  It’s not.  Yet teachers have no say in the matter.  What a raw deal.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: NJEA PRESIDENT SEAN SPILLER USES MILLIONS OF TEACHERS’ DUES FOR HIS PERSONAL POLITICAL CAREER

NJEA President Sean Spiller has boundless political ambition.  He’s run for office in Montclair since 2012 and is now reportedly eyeing a gubernatorial run in 2025.

Throughout Spiller’s personal political career in Montclair, the NJEA has been his largest supporter, primarily using the NJEA’s Super PAC, Garden State Forward.  Now Garden State Forward is spending millions on Spiller’s dark-money Super PAC “Protecting Our Democracy,” widely viewed as a platform for a Spiller run for governor in 2025.

Here’s the rub: Unlike the NJEA’s traditional PAC, NJEA PAC, Garden State Forward is funded by New Jersey teachers’ regular dues.  Teachers have no say in the matter.  NJEA leadership — including Spiller — simply appropriates their dues as they see fit.  Most teachers don’t know they are funding Garden State Forward — or Spiller’s personal political career.

Herein lies another massive conflict of interest for Spiller: He has a duty to protect his members’ best interests, but is supporting Spiller’s personal political career in their best interests?

Read The Full Report 

NJEA LEADERSHIP: HIGHEST PAY IN THE NATION BY FAR

The NJEA is not the biggest teachers union but leadership pays themselves the most compensation.  By far.

More than the leadership of its parent, National Education Association and more than the leadership of the other large state teachers unions in California, New York and Pennsylvania.

From 2018-20, the average pay for the top ten NJEA execs was $752,726, well within the New Jersey top one percent and over ten times what the average teacher is paid.  During his career as an NJEA exec, former-Executive Director Ed Richardson amassed an astounding $9.3 million, which must be some sort of record for a teachers union boss.

ALL paid for by New Jersey teachers, whose annual dues are the highest in the nation.  By far.  NJEA leadership has made themselves one-percenters on the backs of teachers.  If teachers knew these facts, they would be outraged.

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TEACHERS WANT TO TEACH, NOT PLAY POLITICS

So the NJEA outsources GOTV and forces teachers to pay for it.

Almost none of today’s teachers give to NJEA PAC and few participate in NJEA efforts to get out the vote in support of NJEA-endorsed candidates.  So the NJEA has outsourced GOTV to outside vendors – most from out of state.

As a result, NJEA political action increasingly reflects the agenda of NJEA leadership, not the will of teachers.

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IS THE EDUCATION TRUTH PROJECT A NJEA-FUNDED, DARK MONEY SUPER PAC?

It sure looks like the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) is funding another dark money Super PAC, this time aimed squarely at parents running for their local school boards this fall.

So, parents, beware!  The NJEA is coming after you with TV ads, opposition research, union-friendly candidates trained and supported by the NJEA, and now with piles of dark money.

Read The Full Report