A veteran educator and long-time member of America's largest teachers unions has dropped a bombshell, revealing what many parents and taxpayers have long suspected: these powerful organizations have abandoned their core mission of educating children in favor of amassing political power and bankrolling radical progressive agendas. The cost of this betrayal? A staggering sum exceeding $1 billion, funneled away from classrooms and into the coffers of left-wing political groups.
Michael Greer, a special education teacher with 26 years under the banner of the National Education Association (NEA) and the California Teachers Association (CTA), isn't just a disgruntled observer. He's an insider, a retired educator who once led a local CTA chapter and served on a school board. His testimony to Fox News Digital lays bare the dramatic and disturbing transformation within these institutions.
"It's all about power," Greer stated bluntly, highlighting the CTA's dominance as the most powerful lobbying group in California, a blueprint that extends nationally. He recalls a time when unions focused on practical instruction, equipping teachers to excel in reading, math, and science. "That has changed completely," he said, detailing how conferences once packed with instructional workshops are now focused on political indoctrination.
The shift, according to Greer, is stark: "What it has changed to is teaching teachers how to become union members, how to go on strike, and how to gain social justice power. We got away from teaching teachers how to teach and moved toward teaching them how to change the social system."
This dramatic reorientation isn't just anecdotal. Independent analyses paint a damning picture of massive financial diversions. The North American Values Institute (NAVI), an education watchdog, found that the NEA alone blew at least $547 million on political activity and progressive advocacy between 2016 and 2025. That includes nearly $459 million officially earmarked for lobbying and political expenditures, plus an additional $88.2 million directly lining the pockets of progressive organizations. Not to be outdone, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) reported a colossal $383.2 million in similar political outlays during the same period.
Another alarming report from Parents Defending Education revealed that national teachers unions have funneled over $660 million to left-wing political groups and causes since 2015. When factoring in state and local affiliates, the total union political spending rockets past the $1 billion mark, a sum that should ignite outrage among every taxpayer and parent concerned about the state of American education.
These massive contributions weren't for better textbooks or smaller class sizes. They went straight to Democratic-aligned political action committees like the Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC, alongside progressive groups such as the State Engagement Fund (over $60 million) and the For Our Future Action Fund (over $40 million). Clearly, the priority isn't student success, but partisan political dominance.
The consequences of this radical shift are devastatingly clear, even if ignored by the union bosses. While unions obsess over 'social justice power,' student academic achievement continues its alarming decline. Federal data tragically confirms that a mere three in ten students are proficient in math and reading. This national crisis unfolds despite the U.S. Department of Education having squandered over $3 trillion in taxpayer funds since its inception in 1979. Apparently, common sense needed a permission slip, because the unions certainly aren't providing it.
Greer, who also chairs the Del Norte County Republican Party, acknowledged a peculiar aspect: the CTA's funding of travel for teachers across party lines to attend state political conventions. Yet, this superficial nod to bipartisanship only underscores his ideological isolation. His outspoken opposition to the union's abandonment of instructional focus for political activism has branded him a 'bad boy' within the organization. And somehow, they still expect Americans not to notice.
"They are no longer focused on children and what they are learning. It’s about what teachers can do for political power, and that’s where my problem lies as I watch my union dues being spent," Greer declared. His words serve as a stark warning: America's children are being sacrificed on the altar of progressive political ambition, funded by an empire built on what should be educational excellence. It's a betrayal that demands accountability and a return to the foundational American value of putting our students, not political machines, first.
Fox News Digital reached out to both the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association for comment, but received no immediate response. A telling silence from organizations too busy chasing political power to address the crumbling foundations of American education.
