[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
By Elizabeth Troutman
The Daily Signal
The National Education Association has accused Moms for Liberty of being a pawn of “wealthy conservative donors,” even though the teachers union’s revenue is 185 times as great as that of the parental rights group.
The nation’s largest teachers union—which charges its members dues, often totaling $1,000 a year—called Moms for Liberty, which offers free memberships to 130,000, a tool of “ultrawealthy privateers who seek to abolish America’s public school system” in a Friday article.
Moms for Liberty reported $2.1 million in total revenue in 2022. The NEA, on the other hand, reported revenues of about $371 million for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Members of Moms for Liberty provide a greater good than thousands of dollars in dues, group co-founder Tiffany Justice told The Daily Signal.
“They give us something more valuable than money,” Justice said. “They’re giving their time to saving the country.”
“The most important take-away that I get from the NEA talking about us is that they know that we’re a huge threat to the stranglehold that they have on American public education,” she said.
The NEA cited The Heritage Foundation as a wealthy conservative donor, as the conservative think tank donated to Moms for Liberty a $25,000 prize in winning the foundation’s annual Salvatori Prize for Citizenship.
Meanwhile, the far-left, pro-abortion Hewlett Foundation has donated more than $75,000 to the National Education Association Foundation.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation donates millions to expanding abortion and contraception around the world. It’s the second-largest private benefactor of Planned Parenthood, donating $100 million from 2000 to 2023, according to Influence Watch. It donated $55 million in 2023 to “contraception and safe abortion care” for West African women.
Between 2022 and 2023, the Hewlett Foundation granted nearly $17 million to other pro-abortion organizations, including $2.3 million to Population Action International, $800,000 to the Center for Reproductive Rights Africa Regional Office, $900,00 to the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, $2 million to the Guttmacher Institute, and many others.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent millions on programs, partnerships, and collaborations with the NEA. The Gates Foundation also funds far-left education curricula featuring critical race theory and radical gender ideology.
Other NEA Foundation donors of more than $50,000 include Bank of America, the Horace Mann Educators Foundation, the Danaher Foundation, and American Fidelity.
The NEA article also criticized Moms for Liberty for supporting Republicans in the 2024 elections.
“They announced that their group will be spending millions of dollars on campaigns in swing states, which makes it clear that they have wealthy donor support,” the article says.
The parent-led organization has said it plans to spend $3 million on multistate advertising leading up to the elections in November.
The 3 million-member teachers union has donated more than $7 million in the 2024 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.
“They will always try to pin what they’re doing on somebody else,” Justice said of the NEA’s political spending. “All you have to do is see what they’re accusing other people of, and then you know exactly what they’re up to.”
The NEA donated more than $1.5 million to the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic political action committee dedicated to winning a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate.
The Democratic National Committee received $244,528 from the teachers union. More than $200,000 each went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
EMILY’s List, a PAC dedicated to getting pro-abortion female Democratic candidates elected, received a donation of $150,000 from the NEA.
Teachers unions are the largest donor to Democratic campaigns in the United States, with the unions and affiliated political action committees donating $55.3 million to Democratic primary and general election candidates in congressional races in 2022, and $66.5 million to Democratic primary and general election congressional and presidential candidates in 2020.
The NEA spent $66 million on political activities and lobbying in 2021, according to the nonprofit Americans for Fair Treatment.
Many teachers would leave the NEA if they knew what their dues fund, Justice said.
“NEA, do what you want,” Justice implored. “You always have, and you always put kids last. It’s what we expect from you. And we’re going to keep telling the truth and making sure that every teacher knows what you’re up to.”
The NEA did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
“The NEA wants to keep a bloated federal Department of Education because that is how they’ve expanded their power as a national organization,” Justice said, “and Moms for Liberty is interested in making sure that education is handled at the most local level, at that school board level, and at the state level, but certainly with parents driving every decision that’s made.”
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
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