Politics: NEA Members Are 'Evenly Split' Between Parties and Independents, But Union Gives 98% Of Donations To Dems
Two-thirds of NEA members are not Democrats. However, the NEA gives nearly all its political expenditures to Democrats.
Peter List, Editor | August 26, 2024
If National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle is to be believed, two-thirds of NEA members are not members of the Democratic party. Despite this, however, the union donates roughly 95% of its political donations to Democrats.
In a Philadelphia Tribune article published on Monday, “Pringle said the NEA tries to remain non-partisan, and its membership is nearly evenly split between Democrats, Republicans, and independents.” [Emphasis added.]
If this is true, it would mean that two-thirds of NEA’s members are not members of the Democratic Party.
Nevertheless, the NEA spends nearly all of its political money on Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org.
So far, in 2024, the NEA has given a whopping 97.77 percent of its political contributions to Democrat candidates and less than three percent to Republicans. In fact, the last time the NEA gave less than 90 percent of its money to Democrats was inn 2016.
Despite partisanship, student scores plummet.
One might wonder why the NEA spends so much on a single political party and whether this results in better student results.
Democrats are “simply better on education, the issue of the NEA’s focus,” Pringle told to the Philadelphia Tribune.
However, a study by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) released in July found that the “gap between pre-COVID and COVID test score averages widened in 2023–24 in nearly all grades, by an average of 36% in reading and 18% in math.”
In addition, despite the dominance of money toward Democrats, illiteracy rates remain high in several of the states where more money is devoted toward education, teachers are mostly unionized and teacher salaries are among the highest in the country, like California and New York.
Total expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools in the United States were $927 billion in 2020–21 (in constant 2022–23 dollars), according to National Center for Education Statistics.
This amounts to an average of $18,614 per public school pupil enrolled in the fall of that school year, with salaries and benefits combined “accounting for 79 to 80 percent of current expenditures.”
Nevertheless, Pringle and her NEA are pushing the Harris-Walz ticket for November.
“We must invest in our schools, in our students, and in the men and women who have dedicated their lives to educating American students,” Pringle stated last week. “With Vice President Harris, not only does she have a proven track record, but she also has a vision of how we continue to move forward and making sure that every single one of our students has what they need when they need it, including having a qualified teacher and support staff in their schools.”
To that end, and despite two-thirds of its members not being part of the Democratic Party, the NEA has millions to spend on Democrats for November’s elections.
