Posted on 01/09/2002 2:40:02 AM PST by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - The Washington Education Association (WEA), now staring at more than $700,000 in fines and court fees for illegally using teacher union dues for political purposes, remains defiant with the union's spokeswoman promising an appeal and insisting "we've always complied with the law."
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor thought otherwise when he recently ordered the WEA to pay $190,000 in legal fees to the Washington State attorney general's office and reimburse another $143,000 to teachers, whose dues were illegally spent on politics. The WEA, the state branch of the National Education Association, was slapped with a $400,000 fine last July for the same offense.
Critics of the WEA say the union pursues a liberal social agenda and expects teachers to fund that agenda with their dues.
"They support [the] homosexual ... agenda as far as teaching about it in the schools [and] having extra training on how to accommodate open homosexuals," said Olympia public school teacher Forrest Clark in an August, 2001 interview with CNSNews.com. "They also are very pro-choice, pro-abortion, to include birth control available in school clinics without parental notification or approval."
The $773,000 in fines and legal fees are "by far the largest ever imposed in Washington for campaign finance violations, approached only by a previous $430,000 penalty for similar infractions charged to WEA in 1998," according to the Education Intelligence Agency, an education research, analysis and investigation agency.
"We are appealing and saying that we believe that we've always complied with the law and that we will continue to do so and that we were complying with the law in this case," Debra Carnes, communication director for the WEA, said. "We were dealing with unclear statutes in the first place and we believe we were in compliance with those statutes."
Carnes said she believes the case will end up in the Washington Supreme Court.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), an Olympia-based policy research organization and advocate of free speech and fair elections, sued the union along with a group of teachers.
Marsha Richards, communications director for the EFF, said spending fees from unwilling teachers on politics is wrong. "For us, it is a basic issue of free speech ... We don't believe anyone should be compelled to support politics that they don't agree with or haven't explicitly given their permission for," Richards said.
"Voters and citizens are living with the results of elections that are paid for, really, by money taken from unwilling teachers," she added.
Richards said the reason the EFF is involved is to look after the rights of teachers to spend their money on politics as they see fit, not as the union sees fit.
"The reason that we are in this is because teachers came to us asking for help protecting their free speech rights. That is fundamental. It is all about freedom and liberty," Richards said. "That is an American principle that people have the right to spend their resources on the political causes that they choose. The union takes that choice away from teachers."
Carnes insists the WEA only wants to improve public education.
"I think one of the main things that is of grave concern to us is that the total dollars that we are expending are member dues and it is really unfortunate that we have to battle this anti-public education group over and over and use our members' dues dollars when we are trying to do the work that makes public schools the best they can be in this state," Carnes said.
However, Rebecca Haunschild, a Spokane area high school teacher, said the case proves that WEA officials have no respect for the teachers they are supposed to represent. "Not only do they illegally fund their political agenda with teachers' money, they use our money to pay the penalties when they get caught, Haunschild said.
Translation: "It's for the children."
Real translation: "Teachers are supposed to just shut up, pay union dues, and once we have the money, we will spend it whatever way we darn well please."
Even if those goals conflict with the best interest of the membership.
Welcome to post-Clinton politics. The law is whatever your public relations firm can convince people it is. Insist that the statutes are ambiguous. Fake a little sincerity and, hey, it's all just an innocent mistake.
It's interesting to note the tone of defiance in the highlighted section above. Does this indicate their intention to continue breaking the law, in spite of the rulings and fines against them? Sure sounds like it.
Maybe they should STOP trying. It seems they have FAILED miserably!
Reply # 44 in the message thread TEACHERS UNION THUGS HAVE TO GIVE BACK MONEY [Free Republic]
Reply # 16 in the message thread Don't Profile The Kids Or The Educational Levels Of Their Parents [Free Republic]
*Education News bump...
The NEA, in my opinion, doesn't have the interest of the children at heart. Rather, lining their own pockets and promoting a socialistic agenda is paramount.
A-ha! I thought of something else, now that I re-visited that old "THUG" thread! Chad and tdadams are right about their intent to continue breaking the law. President Bush's first executive order reiterated the Supreme Court's 1988 Beck decision, mandating that unions refund that percent of dues that are used illegally (ie, for anything not directly related to collective bargaining and contract negotiation). The ruling reinforced the laws already on the books, passed in the 1940's, IIRC. The NEA STILL refuses to send out refunds, and 'waits for teachers to request them'.
If you want to de-fund the NEA (and I do!), then forcing them to comply with this order/decision/law is the way to go. (Notice ALL 3 branches of Federal government weighing in against the NEA, and they STILL defy the law without any fear of consequences!) IIRC, the NEA contributed about 24% of the dues collected on illegal activities, and is supposed to refund 24% back to the workers... that's a big chunk of their budget total lost this (election) year, just by enforcing the law... and also sends them a BIG message to STOP BREAKING THE %@#$*& LAW!
Another chamber in the ugly heart of the matter: The NEA is JUST like government run amok.... even when they get punished, they do not bear the weight of the penalty... the victims do.
"I think one of the main things that is of grave concern to us is that the total dollars that we are expending are member dues and it is really unfortunate that we have to battle this anti-public education group over and over and use our members' dues dollars when we are trying to do the work that makes public schools the best they can be in this state," Carnes said.
Run through a BS translator: "Pity us, having to illegally grab even more from our members so that we can continue to use their money in violation of federal law... uh, for the children."
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