News

NEA Finances

December 1, 2011

Laura Waters

RiShawn Biddle at Dropout Nation has posted a copy of the National Education Association’s 2010-2011 LM-2 filing. You can peruse all 397 pages at your leisure, but here’s a couple of highlights:

NEA collected $399 million in dues and other revenues this year.

NEA President Dennis Van Roekel made $460,060 (a 16% salary increase from last year) and Vice President Lily Eskelson’s salary was $371,904.

Joyce Powell, NJEA’s former president, makes $285,673 in her new gig as member of NEA’s Executive Committee.

Total compensation for NEA’s officers was $4,719,981.

Total compensation for other employees was about $78 million.

NEA has 3,251,995 members.

Very impressive operation.

Laura Waters

3 Comments

kallikak, December 3, 2011 @ 1:24 pm Reply

Could you ask Mr. Biddle to obtain similar funding records for the various “reform” advocacy groups?

Inquiring minds want to know!
NJ Left Behind, December 3, 2011 @ 4:01 pm Reply

I've never met the gentleman. Maybe you could ask him yourself. I know where you're going: Gates Foundation, right? Probably. No one's spanky clean.
RiShawn, December 4, 2011 @ 3:42 pm Reply

If you want, Gates provides an open database on all of its grants at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/grants/Pages/search.aspx. I have also written about Gates' school reform efforts at http://rishawnbiddle.org/RRB/otherpubs/reform_minded_money_gates_foundation.pdf. And I talk plenty about how reformers dole out cash.

As far as money is concerned: The issue isn't whether anyone gets money, but what is done with it. Also, the way the money is gotten by the those who hand it out is important. Given that the NEA and AFT derive much of their funds from the public coffers (especially agency fees that non-member teachers are forced to pay) — whereas Gates and others derive their dollars from donors who also made their money solely from the private sector — it is important to note how the union uses those dollars to preserve their influence.