It’s no secret that the biggest impediment to achieving school choice in Pennsylvania and across the country is the power of teacher unions.
Throughout the fight for the Lifeline Scholarship Program, known as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) in the current state budget impasse, teacher unions have stood firmly opposed to the measure, as it provides kids a gateway out of failing schools. These unions pour millions of dollars into the coffers of lawmakers who consistently vote to keep students trapped in violent, underperforming schools.
That’s why the Commonwealth Foundation released new research
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that shines a light on how teacher unions influence our government through political donations. The research is so revealing that Fox News featured the findings on the front page of the network’s website
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.
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Some key takeaways from the research:
The four largest government unions, the National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), spent $708.8 million on politics during the 2021–22 election cycle.
Government union-connected political action committee (PAC) contributions were heavily one-sided, with 95.7 percent of contributions going to Democratic candidates and organizations across state and federal elections.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro was the top recipient of government union money nationwide, taking in over $4.5 million.
Teacher unions are one of the most powerful political lobbies in the country. They consistently spend big—and for one side—to preserve the broken education status quo. Through their political donations, teacher unions became one of the biggest obstacles to implementing transformative school choice.
Our research highlights their influence
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by showing how much money they spend in Harrisburg—and nationwide—to thwart efforts to save kids from failing, unsafe schools. Fox News knows this is a crucial issue. But so does the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The paper’s Editorial Board also ran an entire article highlighting its findings
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.
The Board writes: “The alliance between Democrats and public unions is a dominant feature of modern politics, and the mutual love is growing. That’s the message of a new report by the Commonwealth Foundation, which dug into how government unions fund politics through direct campaign spending and political action committees.”
The WSJ laments about the teacher unions’ stranglehold over education reform and the corrupt dynamic of “politicians…determining the salaries and benefits of the union members who help to elect them.”
You can read the entire editorial to see just how influential a force the teacher unions are
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.
And be sure to check out the WSJ’s podcast, which covered the research as well.
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Our policy experts have long known the extent to which teacher unions impede education reform. But since the COVID-19 pandemic and prolonged school closures, more and more parents are realizing that these unions don’t have their students’ best interests in mind. Now, they can see just how teacher unions spend millions to preserve their power, thanks to our latest research
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.
But despite how much teacher unions spend to stop educational freedom, they are losing the messaging war. Case in point: Pennsylvania’s Shapiro.
During his campaign, Shapiro was one of the biggest recipients of teacher union money. Yet, he still endorsed Lifeline Scholarships/PASS, giving kids a chance to escape failing schools. In fact, he just repeated his support for Lifeline Scholarships/PASS during an interview
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earlier this week.
These endorsements prove that, despite all the money teacher unions spend, they can’t stop sensible and moral policy—precisely what the Lifeline Scholarship/PASS Program is. That’s why we remain confident that we can beat the unions and give Pennsylvania students a chance at a better education.
Please be sure to check out the Fox News report
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on our latest union spending research, as well as the WSJ editorial
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.
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