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I am in my 33rd year of teaching public school — and my 30th teaching in New Jersey. I have been a member of the New Jersey Education Association, our state’s largest teachers union, for as long as I’ve been teaching in the state. Union officials repeatedly told me that contributions to the union’s political action committee were voluntary and separate from our regular membership dues.

But during the current election cycle, I learned that the NJEA quietly sent more than $40 million from our dues to a political action committee — without the knowledge or consent of members, and without a shred of transparency.

Even worse, union officials used that money — including my money — to serve themselves. Those funds fueled former NJEA President Sean Spiller’s failed gubernatorial run, while he was still president of the union. Even when it was quite clear that Spiller had no chance of winning (he ended up finishing a distant fifth in the Democratic primary), PACs supporting him recklessly burned through piles of our dues money as Spiller was on the campaign trail — all while he somehow also served "full-time" as union president, collecting his enormous salary and benefits package from that job.

I feel betrayed. For years, an FAQ section on the union’s website plainly stated: "By law, dues money cannot be used for partisan political campaigns." But the NJEA seems to have done exactly what it had told members was against the law.

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