The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) is a left-of-center labor union that claims to represent more than 200,000 educators in New Jersey. ¹ The union is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States. ²

NJEA is a political force in New Jersey, spending more than any other special interest group in the state in 2019. ³ Working through its affiliated political action committees (PACs), NJEA PAC and Garden State Forward, NJEA endorses candidates and contributes to their campaigns. Though it claims to be nonpartisan, an overwhelming majority of NJEA endorsements go to Democrats. In 2021, NJEA PAC endorsed 84 Democratic candidates for state office and just 13 Republicans. ⁴ All but two of its nearly 40 endorsements for New Jersey Senate went to Democrats. ⁵

NJEA has supported left-of-center public policies in New Jersey. On education issues, NJEA has called for decreased reliance on standardized testing, increased public school funding, and higher salaries and benefits for educators. ^{6 7 8} NJEA has also adopted a broad left-of-center agenda outside of education, including mandated higher wages for government workers, more stringent environmental regulation, and the creation of a taxpayer-funded child care program in New Jersey. ⁹ NJEA was also active in supporting left-of-center policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting aggressive school closures, mask mandates, and mandatory vaccination for school staff. ^{10 11 12}

NJEA has come under fire for alleged conflicts of interest. In March 2021, NJEA named Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller (D) as president. Spiller has continued to serve as Montclair’s mayor during his tenure with NJEA, sparking conflict of interest allegations, as he appoints the local board of education members who negotiate contracts with NJEA members. ¹³ NJEA PAC heavily supported Mayor Spiller’s election, contributing $41,000 to his PAC, more than 80 percent of the total donations the PAC received. ¹⁴

History

The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) was founded in 1853. The union pushed for many early education initiatives, including the implementation of free public education for all. NJEA received a major boost to its power in 1968 when New Jersey recognized government worker collective bargaining. ¹⁵

NJEA is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States. ¹⁶ The union charges its purported 200,000 full-time professional members $991 per year in union dues. ¹⁷

Political Activity

In addition to its collective bargaining efforts, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) organizes lobbying campaigns through the NJEA Action Center and maintains the NJEA Political Action Committee (NJEA PAC) to advocate for left-of-center policies, including on issues unrelated to education.

Advocacy and Lobbying

NJEA has supported several left-of-center policy positions, including expanding pension and health care benefits for public school employees and keeping a ban on mandatory health insurance premium contributions for public employees. ¹⁸

On education, NJEA opposes the use of state testing for student and teacher evaluations. In 2019, the NJEA board signed a resolution claiming that standardized testing should play a diminished role in student evaluations. ^{19 20} The union has further claimed that standardized testing “reinforces inequity” and argued that successful performance on state tests only indicates “the income levels of the community in which a student resides,” rather than academic performance. ²¹

NJEA has also supported legislation to establish a task force to reevaluate the state’s school funding formula, on the condition that the task force includes educators. ²² NJEA president Sean Spiller endorsed the proposal, claiming that “pervasive systemic racism” prevents low-income communities from raising revenues under the current funding formula. ²³

NJEA frequently advocates for increased salaries and benefits for public school teachers. In March 2020, NJEA reached an agreement with the New Jersey legislature to lower healthcare premiums for teachers. Despite NJEA initially praising the agreement as a “win-win” situation, less than a year later more than 130 school districts reported that their overall health care expenses were rising due to the cuts in teacher premiums. NJEA officials responded by claiming that the agreement was nonetheless “a pretty outstanding success.” ²⁴

NJEA has lobbied in support of several controversial, left-of-center bills to promote liberal social policy in New Jersey. NJEA has supported state legislation which seeks to mandate that “instruction on events of racial discrimination and social justice” be incorporated into all social studies courses for middle school students, supporting so-called critical race theory. ²⁵ NJEA has also supported legislation calling for racial diversity instruction in all health and physical education curriculums. ²⁶

Even on issues outside of education, NJEA has supported left-of-center policy. In 2021, the union endorsed New Jersey Senate Bill 2924, which sought to reduce youth incarceration by implementing lenient “restorative justice” policies, rather than incarcerating youth who commit crimes. ²⁷That same year, NJEA supported bills to mandate higher wages for airport and train station workers, increase environmental regulation, and create a taxpayer-funded child care program in New Jersey. ²⁸

In 2017, NJEA backed the Jersey City Education Association (JCEA) in a lawsuit filed by the Goldwater Institute, which alleged that JCEA had violated the law by paying union officers using public dollars while those officers also received their teaching salaries but only did union-related work. In February 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court found in favor of JCEA, arguing that union members could be paid with public dollars due to “release time provisions” in teaching contracts. ²⁹

Endorsements and Political Donations

In addition to its lobbying efforts, NJEA supports left-of-center candidates for public office through its political action committees, NJEA PAC and Garden State Forward. NJEA aggressively solicits donations to NJEA PAC, encouraging members to enroll in automatic paycheck deductions to contribute and claiming that giving directly to candidates instead of to the PAC “dilutes NJEA’s lobbying efforts.” ³⁰

NJEA and its affiliated PACs donated more than any other special group in New Jersey between 1999 and 2014, with political donations amounting to more than $57 million in that period. NJEA has gotten itself into trouble for using political donations to secure favors, with then-New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) asking state and federal prosecutors to investigate the NJEA for extortion after it vowed to withhold political donations if the Senate did not vote on a bill affecting public workers in 2016. ³¹ In 2019, NJEA spent more than any other special interest organization in New Jersey, pouring $6.2 million into lobbying. ³²

NJEA does not make all its endorsements available to the public, but those that are public go overwhelmingly to Democratic candidates. In 2021, NJEA PAC endorsed 84 Democrats for state office and just 13 Republican candidates. ³³ All but two of its nearly 40 endorsements for New Jersey Senate went to Democrats. ³⁴

The union has been noted for its close relationship with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D). ³⁵ In 2019 and 2020, Garden State Forward, another PAC formed and solely funded by NJEA, gave $6 million to New Direction New Jersey, a political advocacy group founded to advance Murphy’s agenda. NJEA donations made up more than 92 percent of the organization’s total $6.5 million in contributions as of December 2020. ³⁶

NJEA PAC has donated to other left-of-center PACs as well. In January 2021, through Garden State Forward, NJEA donated $1.25 million to American Democratic Majority (ADM), an independent expenditure organization linked to controversial Democratic powerbroker George Norcross. The donation was ADM’s only significant donation as of May 2021. ³⁷ NJEA PAC also funded Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller’s campaign, giving 81 percent of all donations to his PAC. Mayor Spiller is also the president of NJEA. ³⁸

COVID-19 Activism

The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) was active in promoting school closures and vaccine and mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. NJEA engaged in aggressive lobbying during the pandemic, ranking among the top three organizations with the most lobbying contacts in the state during the pandemic. ³⁹

Throughout the pandemic, NJEA pushed for schools to remained closed. In August 2020, NJEA urged schools to remain closed for in-person classes, arguing that they should continue to operate remotely. ⁴⁰

In January 2021, NJEA led an online letter-writing campaign encouraging parents to write to the Montclair School District to urge the district to keep remote learning in place, rather than beginning in-person classes as planned. ⁴¹ In response to the proposed reopening, NJEA members boycotted in-person preparatory sessions, forcing the district to postpone the opening for lack of staff. ⁴²

After teachers refused to return to classrooms, the school district sued the Montclair Education Association (MEA), a local affiliate of NJEA, claiming that the educators were conducting an illegal strike by teaching remotely rather than returning to classrooms. ⁴³ In February 2021, a judge denied the district’s request for a temporary injunction to force teachers to return to school, and NJEA praised the decision, claiming that it “vindicated” teachers who refused to come to work. ⁴⁴

NJEA also supported the statewide vaccination campaign, arguing that teachers and school district employees should receive priority in vaccine distribution. ⁴⁵ In August 2021, NJEA endorsed mandatory vaccines or regular COVID-19 testing for educators. ^{46 47} NJEA officials also supported mask mandates for all students, staff, and visitors to schools. ⁵⁰

NJEA supported cancellation of all state standardized testing during the pandemic, arguing that the tests—which are also used to evaluate teacher performance—should be cancelled in both 2020 and 2021. ⁵¹

Conflict of Interest Allegations

In March 2021, the New Jersey Education Association named Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller as its president. Mayor Spiller has continued to serve as mayor during his tenure with NJEA, sparking conflict of interest allegations. ⁵²

Even before Mayor Spiller became NJEA president, his roles in public office and the union prompted complaints. In 2015, a group called Montclair Kids First sued to have then-Councilman Spiller removed from the Board of School Estimate for conflicts of interest. ⁵³ In 2016, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Thomas Moore ruled that Councilman Spiller should be removed from the board, claiming that his joint position with NJEA violated conflict of interest provisions and the Montclair ethics code. ⁵⁴

In early 2021, before Mayor Spiller became NJEA president, the center-right Sunlight Policy Center accused Mayor Spiller of “siding with his union, not his town” during a lawsuit in which the Montclair School District sued Montclair Education Association (MEA) members, who were backed by NJEA, for refusing to return to work. ⁵⁵

As Mayor Spiller campaigned for mayor, he dismissed conflict of interest allegations, calling the Sunlight Policy Center a “right-wing, neoconservative group” due to its affiliation with the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and its support for school choice programs. ⁵⁶ During his campaign, Mayor Spiller received $7,900 directly from NJEA PAC, $5,500 from the former NJEA president and her husband, and $8,000 from a local NJEA affiliate. ⁵⁷ A PAC affiliated with Mayor Spiller received $41,000 from NJEA PAC, 81 percent of the total donations the PAC received during the campaigns. ⁵⁸

Following Mayor Spiller’s election, the citizens’ group VoteMontclair and one Montclair Board of Education member circulated a petition for a ballot referendum to remove the city’s mayor-appointed school board in favor of elected school board members. VoteMontclair founder Erik D’Amato claimed that Mayor Spiller’s position with the NJEA provided its own compelling case for an independently elected board, while some parent activists claimed that Mayor Spiller’s position was an “intense conflict of interest” after he appointed three new board members following his election. ⁵⁹

Funding and Leadership

In 2018,  the New Jersey Education Association reported more than $149 million in revenue, $116 million in expenses, and -$35 million in net assets. ⁶⁰ Over $132 million of its revenue came from union dues, though NJEA received an additional $6.3 million in outside grants and contributions, $5.8 million of which came from the National Education Association (NEA), its national affiliate. ⁶¹

Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller is president of NJEA. Mayor Spiller previously worked as president of the Wayne Education Association and as an executive board member of the Passaic County Education Association, local unions affiliated with NJEA. Prior to becoming NJEA president, Mayor Spiller chaired the Congressional Contact Committee for the union, sat on the Urban Education Committee, and was an ethnic minority-at-large delegate to the NJEA Assembly. ⁶²

Mayor Spiller is a Democrat who has been affiliated with a number of left-of-center organizations, including the Montclair chapter of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters. ⁶³ Mayor Spiller has supported NEA as well, giving $500 to NEA’s PAC in 2021. ⁶⁴

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