Complete Colorado reports that Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, has endorsed Sean Spiller, the former New Jersey Education Association president, for the top job at the National Education Association. The article says Spiller’s candidacy is under scrutiny from New Jersey teachers involved in a lawsuit alleging union dues were routed through opaque political organizations to support Spiller’s 2025 campaign for governor while he was still NJEA president.
That is the Colorado education-union machine trying to play national kingmaker while actual teachers look at the candidate and say, “Hold the hell up.” The issue is not whether union leaders are allowed to have favorites. Of course they are. The issue is the arrogance of the insider club acting like an endorsement from the leadership suite should settle everything while classroom teachers, the people supposedly represented here, are raising serious questions about transparency and accountability.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Complete Colorado says Vick is backing Spiller as NEA delegates prepare to gather in Denver to choose the next leader of America’s largest teachers’ union. Nice local touch: Colorado gets to host the national union drama while teachers wonder who is actually watching the classroom.
- New Jersey teacher Dr. Marie Dupont sued Spiller and the NJEA, alleging they broke the law by routing tens of millions of dollars in mandatory teacher dues through union-tied political organizations to support Spiller’s gubernatorial campaign. Those are allegations, not proven findings. But they are exactly the kind of allegations that should make every dues-paying teacher sit up straight.
- The lawsuit alleges NJEA covertly funded Garden State Forward with $114 million in teacher dues over about a decade, including money from teachers who had chosen not to fund NJEA PACs. If union leadership wants trust, “don’t worry, the money took the scenic route” is not going to cut it.
- The article says Spiller and NJEA tried to end the case using New Jersey’s anti-SLAPP law and sought to make the teachers pay legal bills. A judge denied that effort and allowed the lawsuit to proceed, though Spiller and NJEA appealed. That is a spicy little civics lesson from the people always lecturing everyone else about democracy.
- Vick says the NEA “must be a union of action” that “aligns every resource with our mission.” Teachers may reasonably ask whether “every resource” includes their dues, their trust, and their patience after years of being used as extras in the union’s political theater.
My Bottom Line
The crack in the stained-glass window is the scrutiny.
Union chiefs love saying they speak for educators. But the whole room gets twitchy when actual educators speak back. Classroom teachers carry the chaos: kids behind grade level, discipline problems, paperwork, politics, parents, testing, staffing shortages, and the daily grind of trying to teach while the education establishment keeps staging national morality plays.
Meanwhile, the leadership class collects titles, influence, endorsements, convention power, political leverage, and another round of “for the children” branding. Parents are told the union is all about kids. Taxpayers are told public education needs more money. Teachers are told the union speaks for them. Then the machine spends its energy on insider politics and acts offended when anyone asks where the money went.
This is not a generic “unions bad” rant. It is about a specific pattern: leadership class protects leadership class, blesses leadership class, promotes leadership class, then expects rank-and-file teachers to clap like the meeting is already adjourned.
If Spiller’s defenders have answers, give them. If the lawsuit allegations are wrong, prove it. If the money was handled properly, show the receipts. But do not expect Colorado teachers to treat an insider endorsement like a laminated hall pass from the principal’s office.
Teachers deserve transparency. Parents deserve accountability. Taxpayers deserve honesty. And the education-union machine deserves every ounce of scrutiny it gets when it tells everyone else to trust the process while standing knee-deep in political swamp water.
Source: Complete Colorado
