IRS Audits Nation's Top Teachers' Union

NewsDay ^ | 11/24/2003 | LARRY MARGASAK

[PeteFromMontana]

WASHINGTON -- The IRS has begun auditing the National Education Association, which has allocated millions of dollars to elect pro-education candidates while reporting on tax forms that it does not spend union dues on politics.

While promising cooperation, the president of the nation's largest teachers' union is also pledging to "vigorously defend our constitutional right to speak to our members about the role of politics in public education."

[PeteFromMontana]

Cross your fingers something will be done

[EggsAckley]

Very exciting news! Long over-due. Let's hope it sets a precedent and other unions get investigated.

BTW, paragraphs are your friends.~</;o)

[JohnnyZ]

The IRS has begun auditing the National Education Association, which has allocated millions of dollars to elect pro-education candidates

Pro-education? I don't think so . . .

[Pro-Bush]

Hah! BUMP!

[NEPA]

pro-education candidates?

Is there such a thing as an anti-education candidate?

It would seem that the logic here is that anyone who doesn't suck up to the NEA is against education.

[fishtank]

Should be "pro-teachers union candidates"....

[PeteFromMontana]

Thanks for fixing those, I do not know what I am doing wrong on these, I am learning :)

[Texas_Jarhead]

I like this, "The NEA has tax-exempt status as a union..." followed by, "The tax agency is prohibited from publicly discussing audits of taxpayers [re:NEA]."

[Joe Boucher]

When the hell are they going to audit Jessee Jackson?????
Oh that's right, he's black and you don't want to pick on some one who is black.

[StriperSniper]

I just tried to go to Mark's website and got this:

The file or directory is corrupt and non-readable.

Hmmmmm....Union cyber-thugs?

http://www.landmarklegal.org

That was after I got a Mozilla error of 'connection refused' then some kind of '404 error'(I think it was 404).

[StriperSniper]

P.S. - Here is Google's cashed page:

Google Cashed Page

[bert]

.....Pro-education? I don't think so . . .


How about pro educator candidates

[FreePaul]

Is there such a thing as an anti-education candidate?

Any candidate supported by the NEA can be considered anti-education. The NEA and their candidates strive to perpetuate massive worthless administrations and inferior teachers to the detriment of students.

[mc5cents]

...the National Education Association, which has allocated millions of dollars to elect pro-education candidates

LOL!!! pro-education candidates!!?? Yea right. Pro-democrat, pro-socialist, pro-dumb-em-down canditates, is more like it!

[cpst12]

>>The IRS has begun auditing the National Education Association, which has allocated millions of dollars to elect pro-education candidates

Nothing the teachers unions do is for the best interest of the students...its for the best interest of the teachers...which NEA leader was quoted as saying that "when students start paying union dues, thats when I'll start worrying about whats best for the students" (paraphrase)

Need anymore be said?

[Old Professer]

Cached?

[perfect stranger]

"But Reg Weaver, the union's president, said the "NEA will not be silenced" by the audit or complaints from a conservative foundation that it has wrongly engaged in political activities without disclosing them."

So now the IRS is conservative?

[daddypatriot]

Allowing teachers to be unionized did one thing: it paved the way for the death of education. Over a century we were able to develop great cities, vast transportation sytems, industrial development on a mind=boggling scale, medical miracles, space flight, a moon voyage and everything else in between by demanding that students learn the basics of education. Enter the unions and new generations of intellectually malnourished teachers and all we have today is show-and-tell, field trips and exercises in social intercourse. That has spelled death for education and death for the American system. Where else but in America can students name the leader singer or drummer in rock group but cannot define the separation of powers in a democratic system. To hell with all the bastards in the teacher unions. They are nothing more than a den of thieves, uneducated but just smart enough to beat the system while students suffer. I am so tired of politicians running for office on education platforms. They are like ships' captains standing at the helm saying all is well while water is pouring into the holds.

[Michael.SF.]

The article is poorly written. Later they mention that the Landmark Legal Foundation was involved in some preliminary investigations, along with AP. I would then infer the "Conservative Organization" comment is in reference is to that.

[Michael.SF.]

From the article:

internal NEA documents reviewed by AP showed the 2.7 million-member union spent millions of dollars to help elect pro-education candidates, produce political training guides and gather teachers' voting records.

Gathering voting records? No secret ballots at the union hall, huh?

And they feel the IRS is violating their rights to line their pockets, and the pockets of their Democrat friends.