The NJEA Website Pivots from Politics to Students, But Is This Just Optics?
October 25, 2021
Setting the Record Straight: This Election, the NJEA is BY FAR the Biggest Special Interest Spender
October 29, 2021Kudos to Jeff Pillets and NJSpotlight for their excellent, balanced report on the NJEA’s massive, taxpayer-funded support for Gov. Murphy’s re-election. Pillets gets quotes from all sides of the debate, including from Sunlight and NJEA President Sean Spiller. Sunlight particularly liked this quote from Ben Dworkin of Rowan University:
“In the NJEA, the governor has a built-in get-out-the-vote organization in all the places he needs to win. And there’s no doubt the NJEA is going to use that advantage. They’ve got a track record.”
This is in addition to the $15.5 million that the NJEA has pumped into Murphy-supporting Super PACs.
As Sunlight’s quote in the piece reflects, this is all paid for by taxpayers dollars:
“Taxpayers pay the teachers and the union deducts dues right off the top of their paychecks. Then they turn around and use the money to buy politicians who work against the taxpayers.”
The NJEA buys politicians like Murphy who do the NJEA’s bidding by raising taxes even more to fund the NJEA’s priorities like increased education spending and $7 billion pension payments into a broken, unreformed pension system.
As Pillets’ report details, under Gov. Murphy, New Jersey is run by and for the special interests.