Every two weeks, union dues and voluntary COPE donations come out of the paychecks of more than 100,000 active UFT members. Millions upon millions of dollars of our hard earned money go to maintaining, strengthening, and empowering our union. Union dues are not allowed to be used for political action, although a sizable portion of our dues (over 25%, according to this old Chalkbeat piece) goes to affiliates such as New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), where the distinction between regular union activity and political activity seems less clear cut. To keep things simple, we will not be looking at NYSUT and AFT political donations since there’s no way of knowing exactly how much of our money was used.
For the purpose of this short series of articles, we will only look at UFT COPE contributions, which are used to lobby legislators and political groups, among other things, such as phone banking, political flyers, buses, rallies, etc.
Hopefully, the following breakdown of the recipients of our COPE donations alleviates some of the mystery as to who benefited most from our contributions in 2024 and 2025. This is not meant to be an exposé by any means; it is simply meant to help our membership see where some of our money is going because we deserve to know.
Some of the dollar amounts may not be exact. These are all minimum figures. All research was done through the NYSBOE Public Reporting System and the New York City Campaign Finance Board. The UFT donates money under several names (UFT, United Federation of Teachers, UFT COPE, etc.), making it somewhat difficult to pin down exactly how much (and to whom) they donated.
All that being said, hopefully this information helps clarify where our COPE donations are going. All dollar amounts are for 2024 and 2025, combined.
1. United for NYC’s Future: $250,000
Contributions: 2025 UFT: $250,000
United for NYC’s Future is a UFT-run committee that is also funded by NYSUT and the AFT. United for NYC’s Future has made $1.75 million in political contributions, all of which can be viewed here.
The committee’s largest contributions, just north of $225,000, went to Dermot Smyth, a UFT strategist (and former chapter leader) who made an unsuccessful bid for City Council in 2025.
Speaker Julie Menin raked in $210,000. Menin and UFT leadership have quickly developed a strong bond, as the Speaker has been one of the most vocal supporters of the Paraprofessional RESPECT Check, lambasting City Hall for not getting on board. While the para check has been getting all the headlines lately, Menin has also brought the fight to the DOE over school contracts “related to mandated programming, including related services, assistive technology, and interpretation and transcription services, as well as 352 contracts DOE itself identified as ‘not competitively bid.’” While many believe Speaker Menin is gunning for a 2029 mayoral run, it pays to partner with the City’s second-most powerful politician.
Newcomer Virginia Maloney, who just took office on January 1, received $161K in contributions. Maloney is a city council member out of District 4 who has already advocated on behalf of after-school programming for students in her community.
On the other hand, Maloney wants to expedite the process of foisting AI into public schools, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise considering her past position as a Product Manager at Meta. AI is becoming an increasingly problematic and threatening issue, especially since the UFT “announced a $23 million partnership with Microsoft, Open AI, and Anthropic” last year. Proponents of AI use the same talking points – that it’s here to stay and that it will assist, not replace educators – but I see way more cons than pros. Even if AI supporters are altruistic in what they say, bad actors will always find a way to infiltrate and make things worse, which could be a potential disaster for our profession. But that’s a discussion best left for another day.
Delving into everyone who received contributions from United for NYC’s Future would be quite an endeavor. The vast majority of the money went to City Council members. Borough Presidents Keith Powers and Vanessa L. Gibson and Comptroller Mark Levine are the only non-City Council members who brought in money from the UFT committee. Click on the link in the first paragraph for a complete list of recipients.
2. Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee: $160,700
Contributions: 2024 United Federation of Teachers: $55,700; 2025 UFT Political Education Committee: $80,000; 2025 UFT PEC: $20,000; 2025 UFT COPE: $5,000
In total, the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee received about a quarter of all UFT campaign donations in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. According to their website, the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee “recruits, trains, and supports pro-choice Democratic women to run for state and local office throughout New York.” Their info page provides a bit more specificity, as it mentions that they helped fund then “little-known candidates like Kathy Hochul and Andrea Stewart-Cousins win their first elections.” The committee endorsed over 300 pro-choice female candidates in 2023, 160 of whom were victorious. In 2026, approximately 150 women across New York State received endorsements from the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee, including Kathy Hochul. Adrienne Adams, Letitia James, and Jessica González-Rojas, just to name a few.
3. NYS Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee (NYS DACC): $101,000
Contributions: 2024 United Federation of Teachers: $101,000
The NYS DACC is yet another committee of democratic candidates. The DACC totals 100 members, including Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, Philip Ramos, Erik M. Dilan, Brian Cunningham, Jaime R. Williams, David Weprin, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Andrew Hevesi, Yudelka Tapia, Al Stirpe, Angelo Santabarbara, Nader J. Sayegh, and Nily Rozic, all of whom received $5,000 or more in campaign donations from the UFT, NYSUT, and/or AFT back in 2022-2023. To do a deep dive into every member would be arduous, but Carl E. Heastie, the Speaker of the New York State Assembly, deserves a quick look.
Heastie is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to educational policy. According to this New York Times article from 2017, Heastie supported an extension of mayoral control, but refused “to bend to the Senate’s demands to increase the number of charter schools in the state as a condition to extend mayoral control of the city’s schools.” Heastie continues to support mayoral control, confirming another two year extension earlier this year.
On the other hand, Heastie was supportive of the class size reduction act, which serves as a benefit to schools, students, educators, and our livelihoods in general.
On other issues, Heastie seems to play the fence. When asked about Hochul’s proposed changes to the Foundation Aid formula back in 2024, Heastie said, “We would, of course, make sure the districts are whole, but we are open to re-examining the Foundation Aid formula. But we want to make sure that our rural and suburban districts aren’t harmed by any proposal.” Hochul intended to disrupt the formula for calculating Foundation Aid. Instead of using rate of inflation on a year-by-year basis, Hochul preferred to determine funding by using the average rate of inflation over a ten-year period. Given our soaring inflation since COVID, changing the funding formula to use a 10-year average would have decreased the amount of funding our schools receive.
The second change was just as subversive as the first. Hochul sought to essentially put an end to the “Save Harmless” contingency that ensures that schools will not lose funding if their enrollment drops. “Save Harmless” (also called “Hold Harmless”) has been enforced for decades. Liz Rozenberg of City & State New York explains that if Hochul were to get rid of this provision that has served as a lifeline for many schools, “50% of the 673 districts that receive foundation aid will lose funds” Funnily enough, Hochul received so much pushback from both sides of the aisle on this issue that she removed her proposal to end “Save Harmless” years ago (more info here), so it did not appear in the FY 2025 budget.
Any type of concession that would have favored Hochul’s agenda would have been a tragic mistake that would’ve removed major funding from our public schools.
4. Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club: $30,000
Contributions: 2024 United Federation of Teachers: $10,000; 2024 UFT: $10,000; 2025 United Federation of Teachers – COPE: $10,000
The Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club is a citywide political club that advocates for LGBTQ rights and endorses candidates who champion their cause. As such, the group routinely supports democratic candidates in local and national elections, many of whom receive sizable contributions from the UFT, AFT, and NYSUT. Their extensive board of governors includes the likes of NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, NYC Comptroller Mark Levine, AOC, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Speaker Julie Menin, Assemblymember Grace Lee, State Senator Gustavo Rivera, and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
5. Tenants Political Action Committee Inc.: $25,000
Contributions: 2024 United Federation of Teachers: $25,000
The Tenants Political Action Committee is exactly what it sounds like. Founded in 1997, the Tenants PAC organizes, lobbies, and fights for tenant protections, pro-tenant legislation, the expansion of rent control, and other similar issues. The UFT contributed the money right around the same time Zohran Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor. It was the first time the UFT contributed money to the Tenants PAC since 2020.
Part 2 coming soon.
New Action - UFT 