A new report from Roll Call shows that as Congress considered legislation on school reopenings, teachers unions political donations to Democrats spiked.
The American Federation of Teachers gave $1.6 million to Democrats in the first part of 2021, as compared to just $45,000 during the same period in 2019. The National Education Association similarly increased its giving to Democrats by 38 percent over the same period.
Conveniently, the corrupt political cash came during the same period Congress was debating legislation over whether to help reopen schools. On March 6, every Democratic Senator opposed a common-sense measure to give schools that reopened to at least 50% capacity for in-person instruction a larger share of COVID funding. On March 11 – only five days later – the NEA’s PAC donated thousands to Maggie Hassan, Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Kelly, Raphael Warnock, and many other Democratic Senators up for reelection. On March 24, AFT made similar contributions to Hassan, Kelly, Chuck Schumer’s PAC, and the Democratic Senate campaign arm.
There’s no question this quid pro quo is political payback for keeping schools shut down and kids away from classrooms – which is what teachers unions have wanted all along. This out in the open corruption will come back to bite Democratic Senators who will have to answer for it in 2022.