I am in my 33rd year as a public school teacher – and my 30th as a teacher in New Jersey. I have been a member of the New Jersey Education Association, our state’s largest teachers union, for as long as I have been teaching in the state. Union officials repeatedly told me that contributions to the union’s political action committee were voluntary and separate from our regular membership dues.
But during the current election cycle, I learned that the NJEA quietly sent more than $40 million of our dues to a political action committee – without the knowledge or consent of the members, and without an ounce of transparency.
Worse, union officials used that money – including my money – to serve themselves. These funds fueled former NJEA President Sean Spiller’s failed gubernatorial election while he was still president of the union. Even when it was very clear that Spiller had no chance of winning (he ultimately finished a distant fifth in the Democratic primaries), the PACs supporting him recklessly burned piles of our dues money while Spiller was on the campaign trail—all while also somehow serving “full-time” as a union president and receiving his enormous salary and benefits package from that job.
I feel betrayed. For years, a frequently asked questions section on the union’s website clearly stated: “Contribution money may not be used by law for partisan political campaigns.” But the NJEA appears to have done exactly what its members told it was against the law.
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Schools count on teachers who are politically neutral. That’s not how it works in New Jersey. (istock)
Over the past dozen years, a staggering $114 million in teacher dues has flowed into Garden State Forward, a super PAC controlled by the union. according to state and tax authorities documents.
Over the past two years, Garden State Forward sent more than $40 million to another insider-run union super PAC, Working New Jersey, and to a now-defunct group called Protecting Our Democracy, which appointed Spiller chairman. Both groups used teachers’ contributions to promote his gubernatorial campaign.
I only learned of these PACs through various news reports in the middle of Spiller’s campaign, when the mailers promoting his campaign (which I apparently funded) started piling up at my door.
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Now I am suing the NJEA, along with another New Jersey teacher, with the help of the nonprofit law firm Fairness Center. We believe that union officials misled us about how our dues funds would be used, thereby breaching our membership contracts, which meant that PAC contributions were voluntary. We also allege that the NJEA breached its fiduciary duty to prioritize the interests of its members over those of union insiders.
At the same time, the nonprofit New Jersey Policy Institute warned the IRS and the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission of potential problems with the NJEA’s handling of its political spending.
They say the union has failed to declare its multimillion-dollar donations to the Garden State Forward PAC as political activity, skirting tax rules. In an official request for an investigation, they also question whether the union exceeded New Jersey’s limit on direct political donations — $5,800 per candidate in the race for governor — by using affiliate groups to donate twice the legal amount to Spiller’s campaign.
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When questioned about my lawsuit and these files, a union spokesman hid behind carefully worded answers, citing “representative democracy” and “the right of our members to hold power together.”
To be fair, here’s the entire quote from the New Jersey Monitor: “‘NJEA is a member-led union that operates as a representative democracy. Our members’ decisions about which candidates to endorse and what resources to use in support of those endorsed candidates are made by our elected bodies,’ said Steve Baker, the spokesman. ‘We will defend our members’ right to hold power together and advocate for our profession and our students.’
We believe that union officials misled us about how our dues funds would be used, thereby breaching our membership contracts, which meant that PAC contributions were voluntary.
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Sorry, but true democracy depends on transparency and accountability. The NJEA’s version is more like a con game designed to fool members while union insiders spend their money supporting a lost cause.
How do NJEA officials think they can get away with this? Quite simply, I have seen them act unapologetically by hiding the truth from teachers while instilling a culture of disrespect, fear, and intimidation among members.
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Does that sound like a healthy democracy to you?
My co-plaintiff and I believe that the NJEA’s dues-funded PAC expenditures breached its contract with teachers and breached its legal duty to represent our interests. We hope that through legal action we can ensure that the union respects the voice of teachers and returns its focus to negotiating fair contracts and high workplace standards – exactly the reasons why I joined a union more than thirty years ago.
