NJEA Leadership Spent $45 Million of Dues on Sean Spiller’s Vanity Run and Just Hiked Teachers’ Dues Another 4.2% — the Highest in the Nation By Far

It’s a new school year and things certainly have changed at NJEA Review, the NJEA’s monthly magazine for teachers. After months of issues full of “Spiller for Governor” ads and messages, the current issue has exactly ZERO mentions of now-former-NJEA President Sean Spiller.  Looks like current NJEA leadership wants to pretend like Spiller’s $45 million vanity run for governor never happened. And no wonder: two if the three current officers, President Steve Beatty and Vice President Petal Robertson, were senior officers all during Spiller’s dues-funded campaign.  No doubt they’d like everyone — especially teachers — to forget.

The 12.8% “Spiller vanity tax” on teachers. But teachers are still feeling the after-effects of Spiller’s run.  $45 million is a great deal of money and over one-third of the NJEA’s annual dues revenues, so it comes as little surprise that the NJEA has just raised teachers’ dues again to $1,127 from last year’s $1,082, a 4.2% hike. That makes for a total increase of 8.6% over the past two years, and 12.8% over the last three.  Three years also happens to coincide with the timing of Spiller’s three-year campaign for governor, so there you have it, teachers: your dues went from $999 in the fall of 2022 to $1,127 now, up 12.8%.  Call it the “Spiller vanity tax.”

NJEA dues are still the highest in the nation by far.  As in the past, we compare the NJEA with California Teachers Association, NEA-Alaska, and Michigan Education Association, all of which have long been among the top five highest dues in the nation. We added Massachusetts because it is a state to which the NJEA often compares New Jersey’s public education system. Incredibly, NJEA dues are almost double what a Massachusetts teacher pays.

• NJEA 2025-26 dues: $1,127
• California Teachers Association 2025-26 dues: $858. NJEA dues remain 31% higher than CTA dues.
• NEA-Alaska 2025-26 dues*: $817. NJEA dues are 38% higher.
• Michigan Education Association 2025-26 dues*: $711. NJEA dues are 59% higher.
• Massachusetts Education Association 2025-26 dues*: $579. NJEA dues are 95% higher.

Total dues burden for a New Jersey teacher: $1,585. $1,585 is $60 higher than last year and a lot of money for a New Jersey teacher, who on average earns $81,102 a year.  It’s even more for a beginning teacher who earns less than $60,000 a year.

• NJEA dues: $1,127
• NEA dues $219 (up 2.8% from $213)
• Local Association dues**: $191
• County Association dues**: $48
• Total: $1,585

It doesn’t seem fair.  NJEA leadership spends $45 million on Spiller’s vanity run for governor and forces New Jersey teachers to pay for it ALL with their highest-in-the-nation (by far) dues — all while hiding the truth from teachers. And then they jack up teachers dues another 4.2% to $1,127 a year to help pay for it.  NJEA leadership desperately wants everyone to forget about the whole Spiller debacle but New Jersey teachers are still feeling — and paying for — the after-effects.

What a scam.

*For 2023-24, NEA-Alaska’s dues were $753 and Michigan Education Association dues were $655.  We applied the same 8.6% increase as the NJEA’s to arrive at the 2025-26 amounts for the sake of comparison, although it’s likely their actual increases were less than 8.6%. For 2024-25, Massachusetts Education Association dues were $556, and we increased them the same 4.2% as the NJEA to get the 2025-26 amount, although the actual increase was likely less.

** NJEA dues have historically comprised 70% of total dues; NEA 15%; local 12%; and county 3%.  We used the 12% figure to back into the $185 amount for local dues and the 3% figure for county dues, both of which vary across the state.