OPINION
It’s true. NJEA is one of the most powerful, most influential political entities in New Jersey and also one of the state’s largest political spenders. That should not surprise anyone. With a membership of nearly 200,000, we are the largest single union – and one of the largest organized groups – in the Garden State. Our members work in every public school and live in every community. And the work we do to support, sustain and strengthen our public schools benefits every New Jersey resident.
Our values are clear and consistent. We believe that every student should have access to a great public school in their own community. We believe that public school employees deserve both professional respect and economic security. And we believe that working people everywhere deserve to live with justice, dignity and security. We proudly call ourselves a justice-centered union and that commitment guides all of our work.
We are successful because nearly 200,000 of us have come together to pool our resources and magnify our power. Pooled resources are how we support the Public Education Partnership grants that our local associations use to be good partners with their communities. Pooled resources are how we fund the Families and Schools Together program that helps our members build stronger relationships with parents, for the benefit of students. Pooled resources are how we hire the staff who help members bargain strong contracts and lobby for progressive policies to fund our schools and strengthen our profession. And pooled resources are how we are able to magnify the political voice of those nearly 200,000 education professionals in a landscape where individual working people’s concerns are too often overshadowed by the concerns of billionaires and corporate interests.
Fourteen years ago, the United States Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision on political spending tilted the balance of political power in America away from voters and toward corporations and the ultra-wealthy. As educators, we knew we needed to fight back. So in 2013, we created an entity called Garden State Forward to help level the playing field.
Garden State Forward is NJEA’s Super PAC, and by law it can advocate on issues that affect our members, our students and the communities where we live and work. It can also contribute to, or even run, independent expenditure campaigns that support our members’ endorsed candidates but that do not coordinate with those candidate campaigns. It is bound by the same reporting requirements as similar entities run by billionaires and corporate interests, and we work within those requirements.
Garden State Forward is funded out of NJEA’s annual budget, which is developed, reviewed and approved by members directly elected from every county and every unit of representation in our union. Our political endorsement process is likewise member-driven, with every endorsement decision made by members chosen by their colleagues to represent them. NJEA is a model of open, transparent representative democracy.
And while we are proud of our democratic, member-centered processes, that isn’t where the real magic happens. The money our members invest in political advocacy is essential, but it’s not the most important part of our power as a union. Any billionaire, acting entirely alone, could easily outspend us without breaking a sweat. That’s American capitalism at work. But by combining the energy and passion of nearly 200,000 professional educators, we have a power more potent than money, because people power is American democracy at work. And people power is where we excel.
When we endorse a candidate, we don’t just write a check. We show up. We knock on doors. We make phone calls. We volunteer to get out the vote so that our endorsed candidates can win.
Likewise, when we choose to pursue policies that will make our schools stronger and our profession more stable, we go all in. We write letters. We call legislators. We attend hearings. We hold rallies. We tell our stories. And we keep doing it for as long as it takes to achieve positive change for our students, our schools and our own families, too.
It’s understandable in the current climate why so many people are put off by politics. It’s grown increasingly harsh and divisive in recent years, and that helps no one. But the solution to that is not to disengage or hide. The solution is for people everywhere to follow the lead of NJEA members and get involved. Stand up for your values. Invest in your priorities. Demand that your government work for you, for your community, and for all of us.
Steve Beatty is a high school social studies teacher in the Bridgewater-Raritan school district and currently serves as vice president of NJEA. He is also the chair of the NJEA PAC Operating Committee.