Randi Weingarten fought to keep America's schools locked for two years while American children fell two grade levels behind.
Now a 26-year NEA chapter president has gone on record about where union dues actually go.
What he said will make every parent who fought the unions during COVID furious all over again.
26 Year Union President Exposes Teachers Union Political Spending
Michael Greer spent 26 years inside the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association, serving as a local CTA chapter president and sitting on the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees.
He watched union leadership transform – gradually and unmistakably – from an organization that helped teachers improve classroom instruction into something that looks nothing like a teachers union.
"It's all about power," Greer told Fox News Digital.
"When I first became a union president, it was about the teachers," he explained. "We were focused on helping educators become better at what they do – helping them teach reading, math, and science."
That is gone.
"What it has changed to is teaching teachers how to become union members, how to go on strike, and how to gain social justice power," Greer said. "We got away from teaching teachers how to teach and moved toward teaching them how to change the social system."
He is not some disgruntled new hire – he is a former chapter president who watched this transformation happen from inside rooms most parents never see.
"I've seen it as a school board member, and I've seen it as an NEA-CTA delegate at national conferences," Greer said. "They are no longer focused on children and what they are learning. It's about what teachers can do for political power."
Teachers Union Dues Funded Democrats While Student Test Scores Hit Record Lows
While Greer watched this shift happen from the inside, the numbers were piling up outside.
Records tracked by the North American Values Institute show the NEA directed at least $547 million toward political activity and advocacy over the nine years ending in 2025.
The AFT added another $383 million in political activity and lobbying over the same period.
A separate report from Parents Defending Education put the combined figure at over $1 billion when state and local affiliates are included.
Less than 10% of the NEA's annual budget – which tops $400 million – goes toward representing teachers in the workplace.
The rest flows to the Senate Majority PAC, the House Majority PAC, the State Engagement Fund, and the For Our Future Action Fund – all Democratic political operations.
Meanwhile, public schools spent a record $17,619 per student in fiscal 2024 – and that same year, seniors posted the lowest reading and math scores the Nation's Report Card has ever recorded.
The unions have a ready answer: schools need more money – and they have been saying that since 1979, three trillion federal taxpayer dollars ago.
Today, only three in ten students are proficient in reading and math.
The California Teachers Association alone spent $106 million on political activity over the past decade, and California's test scores didn't budge.
"So the system didn't get any better for the children when it came to their achievement," education policy expert Lance Izumi told The Center Square. "It simply made the unions more powerful and made them kingmakers."
"Teacher unions are an ATM machine for the Democratic Party," Izumi added.
Greer had seen it firsthand: "They aren't helping teachers on the ground floor where instruction actually happens. They are helping themselves gain the power to alter laws and regulations."
Trump and McMahon Are Coming for Teachers Union Dues
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been prying teachers loose from their unions since she took office – and Greer just handed her the crowbar.
Earlier this year, McMahon went directly to teachers with a message the unions hate: teachers are not obligated to pay union dues no matter what state they live in.
"No employee should feel obligated to hand over their salary to a union that is bankrolling political causes with their hard-earned paycheck," McMahon said.
In September 2026, McMahon backed the Let Teachers Teach Coalition – a national movement built to bypass union bureaucracy and return control to actual educators and local school boards.
Trump signed an executive order targeting the Department of Education in March 2025.
The establishment fought it. NEA President Becky Pringle called it "illegal." America Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten scrambled to defend the machinery she built.
A 26-year chapter president – a man who attended national conferences, ran his own local, and sat on a school board – just told America that the country's largest teachers union is using member dues to grab political power while American kids can't read at grade level.
That is not a conservative accusation – that is an insider confession.
And every dollar of that $1 billion in political spending came directly out of teachers' paychecks – paychecks funded by taxpayers who thought the money was going to schools.
Sources:
- Joshua Q. Nelson, "Member of largest teachers union in US claims org is 'no longer focused on children,' only 'political power,'" Fox News Digital, November 7, 2026.
- North American Values Institute, "NEA Political Spending Report: Fiscal Years 2016–2025," NAVI, 2026.
- Parents Defending Education, "Teachers Union Political Spending Report," Parents Defending Education, 2026.
- Corey DeAngelis, "Teachers have a lot to learn from Trump's education secretary," Fox News, February 16, 2026.
- Lance Izumi, quoted in "Critics question unions after $1B in political spending," The Center Square / Columbia Gorge News, 2026.
- Heritage Foundation, "The Pork Barrel Politics of the Department of Education," Heritage.org, 2026.