In response to state legislatures across the country limiting the power of public sector unions, the National Education Association (NEA) is fighting back in the only way it knows how – by tapping members’ wallets to buy more political influence. In February the NEA, the country’s largest union with 3.2 million members, enacted a two-fold increase in members’ dues earmarked for political campaigning. This $10 increase will add another $40M to the union’s already massive political war chest further bolstering the union’s position as the single largest donor in American politics. (And yet we still wonder why Johnny can’t read.) Meanwhile, state NEA chapters are charging their members one time increases to finance efforts to regain union control over their state governments. The NEA is also soliciting donations from the usual progressive suspects for its new “51 Fund” to “help feed volunteers, organize rallies, and get the message out to people everywhere that the right to collective bargaining ensures a strong middle-class.” Historically contented to simply buy and control local school boards, the NEA now appears to be entering a new era of fiscal militancy.
