Salt Lake City — The Freedom Foundation, together with Utah public school teacher and member of the Utah State Board of Education Cole Kelley, today filed a lawsuit against the Utah Education Association (UEA) for falsely claiming its members’ dues are not used to fund political activities.
The suit, filed in Utah’s 3rd District Court, alleges at least six written statements by UEA on its website and social media accounts since late 2024 claiming members’ dues are “never” used for politics were knowingly false and constitute deceptive trade practices in violation of Utah’s Truth In Advertising Act.
In notices provided to the UEA last year, Kelley and the Freedom Foundation explained that the teachers’ union’s statements that members’ dues are not used for “political activities” were flagrantly false.
“Unions like the UEA often operate a political action committee funded by voluntary contributions solicited from members and use these highly visible funds to deflect questions about whether members’ dues are used for politics,” said Maxford Nelsen, the Freedom Foundation’s director of research and government affairs. “Unbeknownst to most teachers, the vast majority of teachers unions’ political spending is financed with member dues, and the UEA is no different.”
While the UEA raised about $40,000 for its PAC in 2024, the union and its parent affiliate, the Washington, D.C.-based National Education Association (NEA), together contributed more than $2 million in members’ dues to other Utah political committees from June 2024 through April 2025.
Although UEA responded to the notices by quietly deleting one statement and narrowing the others to claim that members’ dues are “never used for political parties or candidates,” it failed to issue any public retractions or corrections.
The lawsuit alleges even the revised statements remain false because the NEA uses the more than $200 in dues it annually receives from each UEA member to help finance the tens of millions of dollars it spends each year supporting and opposing candidates for office.
For example, in recent years the NEA contributed nearly $1.4 million in members’ dues to the host committee for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, gave $150,000 to pro-abortion PAC Emily’s List, contributed nearly $1.1 million to the Democratic Governors Association, and spent almost $60,000 on advertisements backing Kamala Harris’ failed presidential bid.
“The NEA, UEA and local affiliates continue to misrepresent the truth,” said Kelley, a career educator who teaches financial literacy and business for the Alpine School District. “It is time for teachers to hold the UEA accountable for its misleading information. I’m grateful for the Freedom Foundation’s willingness to stand with me and call out the false and misleading statements put out by the teachers’ union. The truth matters.”
The lawsuit asks the court to find that UEA’s claims were false, order the union to issue public corrections and bar the union from continuing to falsely claim that UEA members’ dues are not used for political activities, parties, candidates, or campaigns.
It also seeks statutory damages of $2,000 for each plaintiff plus attorney fees.
Kelley and the Freedom Foundation are represented by Vogeler, PLLC, in Salt Lake City.
