Two of the top teachers unions in the unions have spent more than $900 million over the last decade on far-left groups, political activism, and lobbying, according to a new education watchdog report.
North American Values Institute (NAVI), a nonprofit watchdog that tracks ideological activism in education, released an investigation showing that the National Education Association (NEA) dumped $547 million on political activism between 2016 and 2025, Fox News reported.
“That total includes $458.9 million filed officially as political activity and lobbying, along with an additional $88.2 million in direct funding to progressive advocacy organizations,” according to the report.
In order to raise a massive amount of funds, NEA delegates reportedly increased dues by $10 for a ballot measure and a media fund expected to generate $20 million-plus annually, per the report. NEA is the biggest teachers’ union in the country with more than three million members.
“During a May 2026 curriculum-building webinar, NEA national education campaign manager Kyle Serrette described his work as ‘movement building.’ The event included classroom activities involving strikes, unionization and comparisons between the Constitution and the Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program,” a NAVI spokesperson told the outlet.
NAVI alleges the NEA primarily funds “intermediary political groups like State Engagement Fund, Strategic Victory Fund, and State Victory Fund LLC. Those three groups received a combined $80.2 million over the decade, according to the report. NAVI said funneling money into those kinds of groups makes it difficult for dues-paying union members to know where their money is going.”
The NEA has its own super PAC, called the NEA Advocacy Fund. The fund has received $116.9 million over the last ten years, NAVI said in its report, which also found spending on international labor organizations.
Per the report, $30.1 million went to Education International, a global federation of teachers’ unions. The federation includes the General Union of Palestinian Teachers, which NAVI described as being connected to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
NAVI found that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest teachers union in the U.S., reported $383.2 million in political activity and lobbying expenditures between the fiscal years of 2016 and 2025, according to the outlet.
The NAVI spokesperson told the outlet that “of $331.95 million in itemized political payments, $123.35 million went to outside political organizations and committees, $179.99 million to affiliates and internal accounts, and $28.6 million to vendors and consultants,” a NAVI spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
According to the watchdog, $47.5 million from AFT went to four U.S. partisan political committees, accounting for more than one-third of the union’s payments to outside political committees and organizations, according to the report.
“The AFT spent heavily on political causes unrelated to traditional education bargaining, including $1 million on an Ohio redistricting measure, $1 million on Oregon’s Measure 97, $1 million on California’s Proposition 15 and $1.125 million across Wisconsin Supreme Court election cycles,” the NAVI spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the union also gave more than $2 million in identifiable payments to Education International.
NAVI concluded in its report that AFT and NEA political activities reach far beyond education to elections, redistricting, tax policy, foreign relations, and ideological advocacy, the outlet detailed.
Neither teachers union responded to the outlet’s request for comment by the time of publication.
