PatsWickedPissah

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editor...l?id=110007761

If we told you that an organization gave away more than $65 million last year to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Amnesty International, AIDS Walk Washington and dozens of other such advocacy groups, you'd probably assume we were describing a liberal philanthropy. In fact, those expenditures have all turned up on the financial disclosure report of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union.

Under new federal rules pushed through by Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, large unions must now disclose in much more detail how they spend members' dues money. Big Labor fought hard (if unsuccessfully) against the new accountability standards, and even a cursory glance at the NEA's recent filings--the first under the new rules--helps explain why. They expose the union as a honey pot for left-wing political causes that have nothing to do with teachers, much less students.

We already knew that the NEA's top brass lives large. Reg Weaver, the union's president, makes $439,000 a year. The NEA has a $58 million payroll for just over 600 employees, more than half of whom draw six-figure salaries. Last year the average teacher made only $48,000, so it seems you're better off working as a union rep than in the classroom.
Many of the organization's disbursements--$30,000 to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, $122,000 to the Center for Teaching Quality--at least target groups that ostensibly have a direct educational mission. But many others are a stretch, to say the least. The NEA gave $15,000 to the Human Rights Campaign, which lobbies for "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights." The National Women's Law Center, whose Web site currently features a "pocket guide" to opposing Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito, received $5,000. And something called the Fund to Protect Social Security got $400,000, presumably to defeat personal investment accounts.

The extent to which the NEA sends money to states for political agitation is also revealing. For example, Protect Our Public Schools, an anti-charter-school group backed by the NEA's Washington state affiliate, received $500,000 toward its efforts to block school choice for underprivileged children. (Never mind that charter schools are public schools.) And the Floridians for All Committee, which focuses on "the construction of a permanent progressive infrastructure that will help redirect Florida politics in a more progressive, Democratic direction," received a $249,000 donation from NEA headquarters.

When George Soros does this sort of thing, at least he's spending his own money. The NEA is spending the mandatory dues paid by members who are told their money will be used to gain better wages, benefits and working conditions. According to the latest filing, member dues accounted for $295 million of the NEA's $341 million in total receipts last year. But the union spent $25 million of that on "political activities and lobbying" and another $65.5 million on "contributions, gifts and grants" that seemed designed to further those hyper-liberal political goals.
The good news is that for the first time members can find out how their union chieftains did their political thinking for them, by going to www.union-reports.dol.gov, where the Labor Department has posted the details.

Patters

Good for them. Someone needs to balance out big business and conservative special interest groups that often support candidates who oppose many of the values that most teachers share or causes that are detrimental to students and teachers. Gay rights issues are a major issue not only for young students, but for teachers as well. Liberal and Democratic groups tend to support education much more than conservatives do, but the NEA has clearly learned that politics has a price. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. The only question I have is why were they supporting Amnesty International? While it's a wonderful group that I too support, I don't know of what relation it would have to teachers, students, and educational issues. Possibly, Amnesty International offers some sort of program to help schools make students aware of various human rights issues, but that's only a guess.

PatsWickedPissah

Those left wing issues have tangential relevance at best to the fundamental goals of educating students and improving the employment quality of life for teachers. The NEA owns the DNC. Talk about total lack of balance.

As to balance from others did you miss George Soros' record breaking contributions to the leftist orgs enabled by the Campaign Financing loopholes?

Pujo

This is almost a complete thought. Only thing missing is a discussion about police unions that heavily support Republicans, or corporations that spend their shareholders' money on political activity.

Harry Boy

How in the hell will giving money to that "Crooked Racist Con Man" Jessie Jackoff be of any help to students.

Isn't it discriminatory to shell out money to homosexuals but give none to straight-sexuals. (But of course the nicey nicey Neo Libs wouldn't even think of that), "bad old sraight people".

Jessie, his women and his home boys must laugh their rectums off when the money comes rolling in. "Great to be black in America eh Jess"

I'm a sissy, I sleep with girls.

Patters

Campaign financing is a mess. Whether the a mess beause of regulation or lack of regulation is another matter. I think we need a constitutional amendment if we're to have effective campaign financing, but since the people who benefit from the mess would have to approve such an amendment, I doubt if we'll ever see one.

As far as the NEA goes, the article is obviously biased and makes it sound like the NEA gave $65 million to left wing groups. Of course, we don't know that. It's possible they gave $2,000 to PUSH and $1,000 to Amnesty International. The government website provides no easy help -- I couldn't find a breakdown of the NEA's contributions. As far as the NEA owning the DNC, I don't think that's true, but it is true that teachers tend to be liberal or moderate as a result of their firsthand experience teaching kids from various backgrounds, and as result of the fact that the quality of education is somewhat controlled by taxpayers.

PatsWickedPissah

The vast majority of corps give equally to both parties.
And if you're a dissatisfied shareholder you can sell your shares, unlike unions like the NEA, police union et. al. where you MUST pay the dues regardless of your personal opinion.
I don't see police unions donating big bucks to far right orgs. Maybe you do.

Patters

You can't sell individual shares in a mutual fund.

Pujo

I call complete and total BS! I'm not going to spend the time to do the research just to argue with you, but I've seen over and over that corporations spend much more on Republican candidates than Democrats. This is especially true now that the Republicans control the executive and congress.

If you're a dissatisfied contributor you can find another job. That's called free-market. I'll say the same thing about Police unions that I said about corps.

DarrylS

As a former union member and official, the issue is you don't like everything they do all the time, but when you get into a beef or if your rights are violated, love for them to be by your side. Most of the times they win, because management are an arrogant bunch of dumb f..cks who don't dot their i's or cross their t's.

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