Union Gave $650,000 from Teachers’ Dues to Anti-Republican Group

Remember the shadowy group, Pennsylvanians for Accountability, which ran “shell game” prime time attack ads on Gov. Tom Corbett for “bankrolling big tax cuts for his corporate backers”?  The group also ran mailers targeting several House Republicans.

There was little to identify the origins of the group, which materialized out of nowhere in the spring and had a barely-occupied office in Pittsburgh. But it soon surfaced that labor unions were behind the group’s efforts against the governor and other Republican legislators.

Now it turns out the National Education Association gave a whopping $650,000 to Pennsylvanians for Accountability this year, according to its just-filed annual financial report to the U.S. Department of Labor. This report, called the LM-2, details how several government unions spend their own members’ dues. A portion of all dues that teachers pay to the Pennsylvania State Education Association goes to the National Education Association. 

Previously it was revealed that the SEIU—which represents most government social workers—gave $180,000 to Pennsylvanians for Accountability.  

Anyone who believes teachers’ and state workers’ union dues can’t be used for political purposes, take note.