Teachers Unions, Super PACs, and the 2024 Election

If you had asked me 10 years ago “What is a super PAC?” I would have looked at you with a blank stare and given a vague answer like, “I think they have something to do with funding politicians.” That’s about as informed as I was at the time. I was happily unaware of campaign funding in general, super PACs, where they came from, and how they can influence elections. Focusing on my students and living my dream as a middle school teacher, I just didn’t see the need to be an informed voter, and if you look at my voting record until the past 10 years, that is easily verified.

As the wise King Solomon once said, “With much wisdom comes much sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18). For me, that sorrow was more like outrage when I discovered that my teachers union, which deducted compulsory dues from my paycheck every month, was using super PACs to fund politicians and legislation I’d never support. My hard-earned money was going to causes I disagreed with.

What Is a Super PAC

In case you’re blissfully unaware like I was, here’s a quick overview of super PACs. A super PAC, as they are commonly called, is short for super political action committee. It is technically not a political action committee but rather an independent expenditure-only committee that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose candidates in elections. They are just prohibited from donating directly to political candidates.

Super PACs emerged as major players in political funding in 2010 after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which ruled that limiting corporate and union spending on politics violates the First Amendment. So, in my defense of any past ignorance about political funding, Super PACs didn’t exist before 2010. Before that, only traditional PACs existed, with strict limits on donations and spending, but they could contribute directly to a candidate’s campaign.

Super PACs, however, are supposed to operate independently of the candidates they promote—but I have my doubts. These PACs spend on political ads, mailings, and events that support their chosen candidate and criticize opponents, which makes it hard to believe there’s no coordination. Regardless, Super PACs have undeniably reshaped the political landscape.

Traditional PACs that directly fund a candidate’s campaign have donation limits of $5,000 per individual donor per year, which includes corporations and unions. This spending cap is designed to prevent any single corporation, union, or wealthy individual from having disproportionate influence over the average American voter. With Super PACs, though, we’re now in an era where specific corporate voices and interests can inject millions into a campaign, effectively drowning out grassroots support and smaller donors. To illustrate the irony of our system, conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza was jailed in 2014 by the Obama Administration for donating above the $5,000 spending cap to a candidate (about $20,000), while Bill Gates donated $50 million to a pro-Harris super PAC without any concerns that he’d be locked up. Whether you support the Citizens United decision or not, it has led to a strange situation in America.

Teachers Unions and Super PACs

Teachers unions exploit this hole in our system every election cycle. The National Education Association (NEA), America’s largest teachers union, has donated millions to left-leaning initiatives through super PACs. In the 2020 election cycle alone, the NEA contributed over $6 million, with a little under $1 million going to Democratic candidates’ campaigns and the rest used against Republican candidates. This means that right-leaning teachers paying union dues may inadvertently fund negative campaigns against their preferred Republican candidates.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is just as bad of an offender as its preferred-pronoun-promoting sister organization, the NEA. In the 2020 election, the AFT contributed $1 million to Priorities USA, a Democratic Super PAC, and $650,000 to the House Majority PAC, which exclusively supports Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives—a far cry from the modest $5,000 limit traditional PACs were held to before 2010.

To nobody’s surprise, the NEA and AFT have endorsed current Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. As of October 8, 2024, the NEA Advocacy Fund donated $2.5 million to Future Forward USA Action, a pro-Harris super PAC. Additionally, the NEA Advocacy Fund, a Super PAC created by the NEA, has raised nearly $27 million for the 2024 election cycle, with a significant portion aimed at electing Vice President Harris and other Democrats.

In the post–Citizens United era, in which deep pockets like teachers unions and massive global corporations can spend without limit, the average citizen must clearly take our civic duties more seriously now than ever. We cannot afford to be as blissfully unaware of super PACs’ influence on our republic as I was if we want to keep our American Dream alive.