Extracurricular Politics

The Wall Street Journal ^ | August 5, 2008 | WSJ Editorial Board

[Amelia]

Teachers' unions are expert at presenting the interests of their members and of public school students as one and the same. Which is why it's always illuminating to see how the nation's largest teachers' union, the National Education Association, spends its political money.

[snip]

It's a shame the NEA doesn't spend as much money and effort trying to improve lousy schools as it does trying to keep taxes high.

[Amelia]

It's a shame that more states don't allow teachers to opt-out of union membership -- I believe at last count, only 16 states give teachers that option (I am personally fortunate enough to be in one of them).

Many conservative teachers are forced to contribute to this monstrosity, although some have found legal methods to keep their money from being used for political causes -- and others are still fighting.

[Amelia]

Public Education Ping

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[SECURE AMERICA]

(Teachers’ unions are expert at presenting the interests of their members and of public school students as one and the same. )

Expert? Who doesn’t know that the union is first and foremost for itself?

[brytlea]

They are indeed expert at presenting themselves that way. It insures continued public support.
susie

[caseinpoint]

THE NEA has always puts its members first. Yet they believe that what is good for the teachers is, ipso factor, good for the kids. That is the very same mentality of the Democratic Party which believes that whatever slash and burn politics are needed to get and keep itself in power is automatically good for the country. Both groups fairly beam with virtue, loveliness and nobility as they claw their ways. They really believe this, which is why they are so “hurt” by criticism from others.

When I lived in another state, the education budget was as always on the legislative mind when the local unit of the NEA and its toadies in the education bureaucracy stated that if the state education budget were not increased as it wanted, it would decrease its costs by dropping kindergarten. (So much for only caring about the kiddies.) The budget came through unscathed.

In my current state, millions of dollars of teachers’ “contributions” have been spent to oppose ballot measures which have little or nothing to do with education. I have little doubt they are helping finance opposition to the gay marriage measure. The education unionists spent, IIRC, about $17 million opposing a ballot measure to deny benefits to illegal immigrants. Naturally all kind of money goes into foisting more and bigger bonds to finance education. In my state, when education talks, the Assembly listens very carefully.

The slush fund for politics is nothing new or unique to the labor unions. I used to belong to the American Bar Association until it seemed to be spending all its time on gay rights, abortion rights and other liberal causes. I understand the American Medical Association is similar in political bent. My suspicions is that this is the hippie generation gone underground. I read that many hippies or anti-war activists did what they could to avoid going to Vietnam by entering divinity schools or prolonging their education to get graduate degrees. For some it was a time to hide out until the war was over but apparently, along the lines of Alinsky and other gurus, the war refugees discovered that they might be able to exercise political power through groups such as labor unions, professional associations, even religious groups. And so they stayed, turning what was a neutral group into a politically activist organ of power and money.

As an example of another group foisting political views on its unwilling members through funds hidden quite far from the public’s view, look at the California Bar Association. Every law firm in California that maintains a trust fund to hold client money while cases are being settled must keep it in a bar association-approved, interest-bearing account. Fair enough. But the interest doesn’t go to the client, or the law firm. The banks must pay, monthly, all the interest directly to the bar association. Now, if a law firm cheats a client of his or her trust funds, then the bar will sometimes step in and pay the money and that is the rationale behind the bar’s involvement. In reality, a tremendous amount of money comes into the association and the association uses those funds to support causes and groups it could not openly support and which might horrify the owners of the funds which generated that interest income. (I have worked with a small, two-person penny-ante firm that generated more than $100 monthly in interest going to the bar. I suspect the state-wide income is in the millions every month.)

It would not surprise me to find many other little devices by which liberals funnel money to each other through involuntary “contributions”. When you are a liberal, politics is everything, it seems.

[rhema]

According to the National Right to Work Legal Foundation, these (the blue-colored states on the map) are the current right to work states.

One of our local talk show hosts, Jason Lewis, will be talking today (4-7 P.M. Central) with a representative of NRTW. The program's available online.

[Amelia]

Thanks, rhema! Very interesting!!

[rhema]

This is rather enlightening, too:

OpenSecrets.org has chronicled the top 100 political givers from 1989-2008. The top 16 appear below, the two teacher unions being #7 and 16. After the group's name and cumulative dollars donated, the first percentage is donations to Democrats, the second percentage to Republicans.

1 American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $39,392,153 98% 1%
2 AT&T Inc $39,065,076 43% 56%
3 National Assn of Realtors $32,336,506 47% 52%
4 American Assn for Justice $28,727,389 90% 9%
5 Goldman Sachs $28,701,957 62% 36%
6 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $27,898,934 97% 2%
7 National Education Assn $27,713,779 93% 6%
8 Laborers Union $26,503,339 91% 7%
9 Service Employees International Union $25,931,093 95% 3%
10 Carpenters & Joiners Union $25,627,582 89% 9%
11 Teamsters Union $24,992,064 92% 7%
12 Communications Workers of America $24,871,179 99% 0%
13 American Medical Assn $24,728,871 38% 61%
14 United Auto Workers $24,343,620 98% 0%
15 Citigroup Inc $24,271,821 49% 50%
16 American Federation of Teachers $24,113,243 98% 0%

If you're keeping score at home, that's $49,887,057 to Democrats, $1,662,827 to Republicans.