The nation's two largest teachers unions have funneled roughly $669 million to left-wing political groups, advocacy organizations, and campaigns since 2015, and that figure climbs past $1 billion when state and local affiliates are counted. That is the central finding of a pair of research reports from Defending Education, the education watchdog, first reported by Fox News Digital.
The reports track spending by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, and their sprawling network of affiliates, using federal filings and campaign finance records. The picture that emerges is not of organizations primarily concerned with teacher pay or classroom conditions. It is of a billion-dollar political operation wired directly into the Democratic Party's infrastructure.
Rhyen Staley, Defending Education's research director, did not mince words.
"These entities are a political machine. Show me your budget and I will show you what you value; and what the teachers unions value is political power and advancing a left wing, social justice agenda."
The reports detail a long list of recipients that have little to do with teacher salaries or school supplies. More than $85 million flowed directly to Democratic Party entities at the federal, state, and local levels, and that total does not include contributions to individual candidates. The State Engagement Fund received more than $60 million. For Our Future Action Fund and its affiliates collected more than $40 million.
Democratic-aligned political committees such as the Senate Majority PAC and the House Majority PAC also received tens of millions, according to the findings. The money did not stop at party organs. Progressive advocacy groups ranging from Planned Parenthood to the National Center for Transgender Equality to the Sixteen Thirty Fund all took union dollars.
Other recipients named in the reports include Color of Change and its PAC, Indivisible, the New Venture Fund, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Whatever one thinks of those organizations, none of them exist to negotiate better health insurance for a fourth-grade teacher in Ohio.
The pattern fits a broader trend of opaque money networks fueling Democratic political efforts across the country, operations that rarely face the scrutiny directed at conservative donors.
Nicole Neily, Defending Education's president, framed the findings as a betrayal of the rank-and-file teachers whose dues fund the machine. Fox News Digital reported her argument that the spending pattern amounts to a bait-and-switch.
"It's time to dispense with the myth that unions care whatsoever about teachers' best interests. Educators are victims of a bait-and-switch: instead of their dues going to advocate for increased pay or improved working environments, they're being spent advancing a hard-left political agenda, underwriting causes such as climate change, gender activism, and abortion (as well as supporting progressive politicians at all levels)."
Neily called for greater transparency, noting the unions' half-century role in the education system.
"Greater transparency on union spending is absolutely critical so that policymakers and teachers themselves can make informed decisions about the role that these entities should, or should not, play in the future."
That call for transparency is worth pausing on. Teachers in many states have dues automatically deducted from their paychecks. In practical terms, a public-school teacher may have little say over whether her money ends up supporting the Senate Majority PAC or the National Center for Transgender Equality. The union leadership makes those choices. The teacher writes the check.
Meanwhile, Democratic officials who benefit from this spending rarely face hard questions about where the money originates or what strings come attached.
The timing of the reports matters. Fox News Digital noted that unions and allied organizations are ramping up mobilization efforts ahead of May Day protests. The NEA's Becky Pringle was photographed speaking at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on February 12, 2025, defending public education ahead of Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon's confirmation hearing. AFT president Randi Weingarten appeared alongside her.
The optics are instructive. Union leaders position themselves as defenders of public schools. But the spending data tells a different story, one in which the defense of public education doubles as a vehicle for bankrolling progressive causes that have nothing to do with reading scores or teacher retention.
Ryan Walters, CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, offered a sharper assessment. He told Fox News Digital earlier this year:
"It's very clear that teachers unions seek to destroy our country by turning our students against it."
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to both the NEA and the AFT for comment. Neither union's response appeared in the reporting.
Consider the raw numbers again. Roughly $669 million from the national unions alone since 2015. More than $1 billion when affiliates are included. That is not a modest side project. That is a political infrastructure rivaling the spending of major party committees, funded largely by mandatory or quasi-mandatory dues from public employees.
The reports relied on federal filings and campaign finance records, meaning the figures represent what is publicly disclosed. The actual scope of union political influence, through in-kind support, get-out-the-vote operations, and staff time, could be larger still.
The recipients tell their own story. More than $85 million to Democratic Party entities. Tens of millions to Democratic super PACs. Millions more to progressive advocacy groups focused on gender activism, climate policy, and racial politics. This is not collective bargaining. This is a political machine, as Staley put it, "focused on fomenting a 'political revolution.'"
The scale of this operation mirrors the kind of dark-money flows that have reshaped Democratic electoral strategy in recent years, often with little public accountability.
The question the reports raise is straightforward: Should teachers be compelled to fund a billion-dollar political operation they may not support? And should taxpayers, who fund the salaries from which those dues are drawn, have any say in how that money is spent once it leaves the classroom?
Neily's call for transparency is the bare minimum. Parents who send their children to public schools deserve to know that the organizations claiming to speak for their kids' teachers are spending more on the Senate Majority PAC than on professional development. Teachers who joined a union expecting advocacy for better pay deserve to know their dues are underwriting Planned Parenthood and the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The internal tensions within the Democratic coalition, where factional power struggles over funding and influence are increasingly visible, only sharpen the question of who these unions truly serve.
None of this is hidden, exactly. The filings are public. The campaign finance records exist. But it took a watchdog organization to compile the picture and put a number on it. A billion dollars. That is what the teachers unions value, and it is not your child's education.
When an organization spends a billion dollars on politics and calls itself an education group, the label is the lie.
