Tennessee Education Association Spent Millions on Political Lobbying over Past Decade

The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) has spent millions on political lobbying alone in the state since 2011, having “squandered significant dollars in a lot of losing efforts across our state,” wrote JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association based in Nashville.

In a commentary last week at The Tennessee Star, Bowman cited the recent lawsuit Tennessee Education Association v. Bill Lee, in which Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti noted:

“Since PECCA was enacted in 2011, the Tennessee Education Association (“TEA”) has engaged in extensive political activity. Its public filings show that it has spent approximately $2,000,000-$3,500,000 in Tennessee on lobbying alone. See Smith Decl., Ex. D, TEA Political Expense Reports. And the TEA’s membership applications provide that ‘a portion of [each member’s] dues are allocated to the TEA-FCPE,’ an entity that engages in political activities, ‘including but not limited to, making contributions to and expenditures on behalf of friends of public education who are candidates for office.’ That amount does not include local or national contributions.”

“Teachers unions consistently rank among the top spenders on politics,” Bowman told The Tennessee Star Thursday. “Their goal is not improved public education, but rather power, money, and influence. Most of those dollars go to candidates on the left. It is easy to observe that teacher unions have donated millions to political campaigns, mostly going to Democratic candidates and committees.”

In his commentary, he observed:

According to the organization Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) in 2020-2021, the National Education Association “spent $2 on politics for every $1 it spent on representing its members.” They added: the “NEA spent $374 million overall, 18% of which went to political activities, while another 32% went to “contributions, gifts, and grants,” spending that is also largely political in nature.”

“Unfortunately, the teacher union in Tennessee has squandered significant dollars in a lot of losing efforts across our state,” Bowman told The Tennessee Star. “This is very problematic for all teachers who get painted with the liberal brush of union politics across the state.”

Keith Williams, executive director of the Memphis Shelby County Education Association (MSCEA), explained “the truth” about TEA in a video seven years ago in which he asserted the reasons why MSCEA disaffiliated from the teachers’ union, with emphasis on finances and “misinformation that has been spread” by TEA.

TEA is a state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union.

At the NEA’s annual representative assembly earlier in July, union president Becky Pringle delivered an address that ended with a rant that claimed her union was engaged in a “righteous fight for freedom” and was changing “the world for our students.”

Pringle screamed:

I can hear Chief Seattle crying out to us, urging us to remember: when you know who you are, when your mission is clear and you burn with the inner fire of an unbreakable will, no cold can touch your heart, no deluge can dampen your purpose. NEA, you are the stars in the darkness. Your light will not be dimmed. Your purpose will drive you in our righteous fight for freedom because you know who you are. You know who you are. You are the NEA. Our mission is clear, we will advocate for the rights of education professionals and we will change this world for our students with an inner fire burning.

The closing of Becky Pringle's latest speech to the NEA was a Hitlerian performance. This is not a casual comparison. https://t.co/TuDs8EXW8V pic.twitter.com/B0Ow7uBqZA

— Paul Rossi (@pauldrossi) July 14, 2023

“We will never bend,” Pringle continued her rant. “We will never be broken because we are the NEA and we will always do what we must to be worthy of our students. Thank you NEA for all you do every day for our babies and for our colleagues and for your states and for this country. Onward NEA. Onward.”

Bowman wants to see greater regulation over union political spending.

“We need to look at greater transparency,” he said. “People are free to give what they want, but everyone should know who donated.”

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]