NEA Gave More Than $13 Million to Advocacy Groups

An Education Intelligence Agency analysis of NEA’s financial disclosure report for the 2009-10 fiscal year reveals the national union contributed more than $13 million to a wide variety of advocacy groups and charities. The total was about half the amount disbursed in the previous year, though more than in 2007-08.

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The expenditures fall into broad categories of community outreach grants, charitable contributions, and payments for services rendered. In this list, EIA has deliberately omitted spending such as media buys, or payments to pollsters or consultants that have no obvious ideological component. The grants range from $2.125 million to a California ballot initiative campaign, down to smaller grants to organizations such as People for the American Way, Media Matters and Netroots Nation.

Here is an alphabetic list of the 130 recipients of NEA’s contributions, with relevant web links. All of these were paid for with members’ dues money (the union’s federal PAC is a separate entity funded through voluntary means):

AFL-CIO – $150,000

AFSCME – $90,000

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity – $33,000

America Votes – $300,000

American Constitution Society – $15,000

American Federation of Teachers – $28,365

Arizona State University Office for Research & Sponsored Projects Administration – $325,000

Asian American Justice Center – $7,500

Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund – $5,000

Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies – $5,000

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance – $5,000

Baptist Center for Ethics – $20,000

Campaign for America’s Future – $15,000

Campaign for College Affordability – $25,000

Center for Economic Organizing – $13,200

Center for Independent Media – $5,000

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Center for Law and Education – $25,000

Center for Tax and Budget Accountability – $60,000

Center for Teaching Quality – $230,767

Center for U.S. Global Leadership – $10,000

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association – $50,000

Children’s Defense Fund – $5,000

Citizens United for Maine’s Future – $25,000

Citizens Who Support Maine’s Public Schools – $250,000

Coalition for Our Communities – $625,000

Coloradans for Responsible Reform – $400,000

Colorado Deserves Better -$50,000

Committee for Education Funding – $25,000

Committee on States – $6,500

Communities for Quality Education – $1 million

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. – $8,800

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute – $50,000

Council of Chief State School Officers – $50,000

Council of State Governments – $34,500

Democracy Alliance – $85,000

Economic Policy Institute – $250,000

Education Commission of the States – $50,000

Education Law Center – $5,000

Educational Policy Institute – $5,000

Educator Compensation Institute – $25,000

Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate – $200,000

Emerge America – $5,000

Employee Benefit Research Institute – $7,500

Everybody Wins DC – $8,000

Excelencia in Education – $47,400

FairDistrictsFlorida.org – $250,000

FairTest – $25,000

Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute – $10,000

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Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network – $5,000

Global Institute for Language and Literacy Development – $10,000

Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice – $250,000

Harvard Labor and Worklife Program – $5,000

Health Care for America Now! – $450,000

HEROS, Inc. – $202,835

HOPE (Yes on SQ 744) – $1,758,000

Human Rights Campaign – $15,000

Jobs with Justice – $15,000

Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy – $12,230

KnowledgeWorks Foundation – $75,000

Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State – $5,000

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights – $15,000

Learning First Alliance – $91,199

Lincoln Center Institute – $50,000

Mana – $25,000

MediaMatters – $100,000

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund – $25,000

Midwest Academy – $5,000

Missourians for Early Vote – $41,000

NAACP – $5,000

National Action Network – $10,000

National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans – $5,000

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund – $12,500

National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification – $5,000

National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents – $5,000

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation – $15,000

National Conference of State Legislatures – $64,043

National Congress of American Indians – $10,000

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National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education – $381,576

National Council of La Raza – $26,500

National Forum on Information Literacy – $5,000

National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts – $10,000

National Indian Education Association – $50,000

National Latino Children’s Institute – $15,000

National Popular Vote – $5,000

National Public Pension Coalition – $90,375

National Staff Development Council – $25,000

National Urban League – $33,700

National Women’s Law Center – $10,000

Netroots Nation – $15,000

New Democratic Network – $25,000

New Organizing Institute – $65,000

New Teacher Center – $325,000

No on 1033 – $328,600

Organizations Concerned About Rural Education – $5,000

Organization of Chinese Americans – $5,000

Partnership for 21st Century Skills – $61,350

People for the American Way – $64,538

Plan!t Now – $25,000

Progress Now – $60,000

Progress Ohio – $50,000

Project New West – $185,000

Protect Colorado’s Communities – $25,000

Rainbow PUSH Coalition – $5,000

Rebuild America’s Schools – $10,000

Republican Main Street Partnership – $25,000

Ripon Society – $10,000

Robert Russa Moton Museum – $50,000

Roosevelt Institute – $5,000

San Diego Public Library Foundation – $5,000

Stop the Gag Law – $350,000

Task Force Foundation – $5,000

Trans Afro Group of Companies – $7,600

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Tribal Education Departments National Assembly – $5,000

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce – $30,000

U.S. Action – $70,000

U.S. Global Leadership Coalition – $35,000

U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute – $26,447

Vote Yes for Oregon – $200,000

Voter Activation Network – $9,500

WAND Education Fund – $15,000

Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation – $166,666

Washington Families Standing Together – $15,000

Wellesley Centers for Women – $6,151

Wellstone Action! – $47,532

Will Steger Foundation – $15,000

Win Minnesota Political Action Fund – $50,000

Women’s Campaign Forum – $10,000

Yes on 100 – $50,000

Yes on 24 – The Tax Fairness Act – $2,125,000

Many of the largest donations from NEA headquarters went to state ballot initiative groups, but these do not constitute the sum total of the national union’s spending on state political measures. In fiscal year 2009-10, NEA sent an additional $3 million to several state affiliates for the specific purpose of passing or defeating ballot initiatives or legislative measures. These grants went to:

Alabama Education Association – $215,000

Arizona Education Association – $70,980

Colorado Fund for Children and Public Education – $350,000

Florida Education Association – $203,500

Florida Education Association Advocacy Fund – $66,400

Georgia Association of Educators – $84,160

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Idaho Education Association – $35,252

Indiana State Teachers Association – $213,500

Louisiana Association of Educators – $225,000

NEA New Hampshire – $35,000

Nevada State Education Association – $187,550

North Carolina Association of Educators – $250,000

Oregon Education Association – $1 million

Vermont NEA – $50,000

In some cases, this spending was augmented by funds raised within the state affiliates.

For further information about the extent and purpose of this spending, you are best directed to my article last year for Education Next, titled “The Long Reach of Teachers Unions.”

All of these figures were culled from NEA’s disclosure report for the U.S. Department of Labor, which also includes confirmation of the existence and $14.9 million in expenditures of NEA Properties, Inc., first revealed here in August 2009 and September 2010.

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