Teachers Paid the Dues - Now Congress Wants to Know Who Got Randi Weingarten’s Royalties.

Randi Weingarten used her members' dues to bankroll her book. Now Congress wants the receipts.

House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (MI-05) and Rep. Rick Allen (GA-12) sent the American Federation of Teachers president a July 7 letter seeking documents connected to “Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.” The request covers AFT spending, staff work, outside contracts, promotion, travel, royalties, speaking fees, and the Delaware LLC that allegedly received book money.

In May, the Freedom Foundation released a report in which they had dug through AFT's federal labor disclosures and found more than $1.4 million in union expenses tied to the book, money pulled straight from the paychecks of 1.8 million dues-paying teachers.

Walberg and Allen told Weingarten the committee is investigating “allegations concerning the American Federation of Teachers’ use of workers’ dues” connected to the book’s “production, promotion, and publication.”

The committee letter stated:

The prospect that rank-and-file educators’ dues may have financed a project that generated private financial gain raises serious questions about transparency, accountability, and fiduciary responsibility within one of the nation’s largest labor organizations.

The committee posted the letter on Tuesday.

Teachers paid the dues.
Who got the royalties?

Chairman @RepWalberg and @RepRickAllen are demanding answers after reports that American Federation of Teachers resources may have helped finance and promote a book from which Randi Weingarten personally benefited.

Read the letter.… pic.twitter.com/4NzgN5Xu3o
— House Committee on Education & Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) July 8, 2026

The earlier review said AFT paid Sally Kohn, a progressive TV commentator and CNN contributor who lists ghostwriting among her services, more than $400,000 while Weingarten's book was being developed, more than triple what Kohn had received from the union in all prior years combined. Weingarten thanked Kohn as an "indispensable" collaborator.

Then there's the law firm. AFT paid Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP $977,275. Charles Moerdler, an attorney at the firm, was thanked by name in the book for reviewing the manuscript, supposedly pro bono. Somehow, a firm billing nearly a million dollars in union money also found time to do that for free.

The union also cut checks for fact-checkers, photographers, and a literary agency. Nearly 30 AFT staff were credited in the book's acknowledgments, all on the members' dime.

From Paychecks to Slush Fund: How Teachers’ Unions Moved $1B Into Democrat Politics

Congress is now demanding a full accounting: every dollar the union spent on the book, every deal struck with outside vendors, every hour union staff put in, and every penny the book brought in. They want a complete breakdown of where that money ended up, whether it went to the union, its affiliated charities, Weingarten personally, or the mystery company.

Teachers Want What Kids Need was incorporated in Delaware in June 2024, right as the book was getting started, with no website and no public presence of any kind. Two "royalty payments" totaling $125,000 went to it. AFT claims the payments were for Weingarten. Meanwhile, the charities she publicly promised would benefit, the AFT Educational Foundation and the AFT Disaster Relief Fund, received $125,000 combined. Weingarten had publicly stated proceeds would be split equally among herself, the union, and those charities. By that math, the charities were owed roughly $375,000. They got one-third of that. The shell company got the rest.

Walberg and Allen are demanding the records on the LLC itself:

"All documents concerning the formation, ownership, governance, and purpose of Teachers Want What Kids Need, LLC, including documents sufficient to show any ownership interests held by you or your immediate family members."

The committee also wants every expense the union picked up for the book tour: hotels, travel, security, events. And every communication between union leadership and the publisher, agents, and anyone else involved in making or selling the book.

Weingarten has called the allegations a "desperate fishing expedition by a far-right group" and insisted proceeds were "shared equally." Her attorney, Michael Bromwich, called the committee letter baseless and demanded it be withdrawn, pointing to five prior Republican-led investigations of AFT that produced no negative findings. The committee sent the letter anyway.

Shared equally. Through a mystery company with no website, routed away from the charities she publicly promised would benefit, bankrolled entirely by 1.8 million dues-paying teachers who had no idea their money was going toward their president's personal literary career.

Congress is now asking her to prove it.

Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.

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