Courageous Roselle Teacher Launches a Petition To Hold NJEA Leadership Accountable for Wasting $45 million of Dues and Hiding the Truth from Teachers

Dr. Marie Dupont, the courageous Roselle teacher who dared to challenge NJEA leadership’s profligate waste of $45 million of teachers’ dues on then-NJEA President Sean Spiller’s vanity run for governor, hasn’t given up her fight.  Finding her concerns unaddressed by leadership and suffering what she sees as retaliation from them, Dr. Dupont has launched a petition to hold NJEA leadership accountable for their egregious waste of teachers’ dues, for hiding the truth from teachers, and for suppressing any views that challenge their conduct.  Sunlight is proud to amplify her voice by sponsoring her petition and give teachers an unprecedented opportunity to have their voices heard by NJEA leadership.

Back in May 2025, at the very end of the gubernatorial primary campaign, NJEA leadership was finally forced to admit that they had spent $45 million of teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues on Sean Spiller’s vanity run for governor.  After learning the truth, Dr. Dupont took it upon herself to write an open letter to then-President Spiller in NJToday News asking why the NJEA was spending $45 million on Spiller’s run when Roselle teachers had been working without a contract for the entire school year.  She questioned NJEA leadership’s priorities and lack of focus on the issues that matter to teachers.  At the time, Sunlight publicly amplified Dr. Dupont’s courageous challenge.

Dr. Dupont then reached out to Sunlight about her effort to expose what she believed was retaliation against her for daring to speak out against NJEA leadership. Having spoken with dozens of teachers and knowing of their anger and frustration over the waste of dues on Spiller’s run and NJEA leadership’s efforts to hide the truth from teachers, Sunlight suggested the idea of a petition, which Dr. Dupont readily agreed to launch.

The resulting petition contains Dr. Dupont’s personal statement as well as four demands for NJEA leadership:

1. Tell Us How $45 Million of Our Dues Were Spent: The NJEA must hire an independent auditor to report back during this year’s NJEA Convention on how every dollar of the $45 million of our dues was spent on Sean Spiller’s campaign for governor.
2. NJEA Leadership Must Apologize for Spending Our Dues and Hiding the Truth from Us: Sean Spiller and current NJEA leadership must publicly apologize to members during this year’s NJEA Convention for spending our dues while hiding the truth from members.
3. NJEA Leadership Should Never Be Allowed To Do This Again: NJEA leadership must publicly commit during this year’s NJEA Convention to a new policy that member dues cannot be spent on politics without explicit approval from members.
4. NJEA Leadership Must Allow Members to Express Themselves without Fear of Retaliation: NJEA leadership must publicly commit to maintaining a climate where members can question and even dissent from NJEA leadership without fear of retaliation.

At Sunlight, we know that many teachers are intimidated and afraid to express their very real dissatisfaction with NJEA leadership for fear of the same retaliation that Dr. Dupont says she suffered. We hope that they can find the courage to give voice to their discontent, as Dr. Dupont has. And we hope that the current NJEA leadership — including President Steve Beatty and Vice President Petal Robertson, both of whom were part of the leadership that covertly spent $45 million of dues to fund Spiller’s run — will finally be forced to respond to teachers’ legitimate concerns.