Posted on 04/22/2002 6:53:13 AM PDT by wcdukenfield
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Eric Christensen
April 22, 2002
(703) 689-2370
(703) 689-2373 (fax)
info@landmarklegal.org
http://www.landmarklegal.org
(Herndon, VA)...Landmark Legal Foundation today filed an unprecedented complaint with the U.S. Labor Department charging the National Education Association (NEA) with concealing the union’s use of millions of dollars in tax-exempt teachers’ dues and fees for political activities since at least 1994.
The federal Labor and Management Reporting Act (LMRDA) requires labor unions to report their revenues and expenditures annually to the Department of Labor on a form LM-2. Unions must report their financial activities in sufficient detail to accurately reflect the union’s operations. A union and its leaders may be liable for substantial civil and criminal penalties for violating the LMRDA.
Landmark analyzed thousands of pages of internal union documents, as well as the NEA’s Labor Department and other federal filings since 1994, which show the expenditure of millions of dollars in tax-exempt revenue to recruit and support candidates for local, state and federal elective office. None of these expenditures are specifically reported, thereby making it impossible for NEA members to determine the full extent of the union’s political activities. Landmark’s complaint also details the union’s failure to document its direct participation in a nation-wide coordinated campaign with Democratic Party campaign organizations, the AFL-CIO and Emily’s List during the same period.
“The LMRDA was enacted to ensure that union members could make informed, responsible decisions about their union’s leadership and its activities,” explained Landmark President Mark R. Levin. “The NEA’s leadership spends millions of tax-exempt dollars on political activities every year, in coordination with the Democratic National Committee, yet reports none of it on its Labor Department filings.”
Landmark’s complaint today to the Labor Department follows earlier complaints filed in 2000 and 2001 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on the NEA’s unreported political expenditures and activities, which violate federal tax and election laws.
“The NEA obviously doesn’t want America’s teachers, parents and taxpayers to know how it is using tax-exempt membership dues and fees,” explained Levin. “But federal labor reporting laws require the union to tell truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about its political activities and expenditures.”
Founded in 1976, Landmark Legal Foundation was the first public interest law firm to champion education reform in America’s courts. In 1989, Landmark successfully represented low-income families who wanted to take advantage of school vouchers in Milwaukee, WI. The Foundation also successfully represented the school board in Wilkinsburg, PA, in that state’s first school privatization litigation. Landmark has offices in Herndon, VA, and Kansas City, MO.
(END)
Landmark’s complaint is available online at Landmark’s website at http://www.landmarklegal.org.
Union dues are not used to cover school expenses, they are to cover (by law, SCOTUS decision, and Executive Order... and the NEA still refuses to comply) ONLY collective bargaining, contract administration and grievance adjustment. Under Beck, employees may halt and reclaim all forced union dues used for politics and other activities unrelated to the above 3 purposes. Of course, if this were any corporation, the courts would mandate the refunds to be immediate and in full. Since it is the Left's precious conduit for controlling our schools, the rules get ignored.
These local schools are not the NEA. What direct link is there between the NEA's budget shortfall (if any) from a loss of their exemption status and the school's desire to raise taxes? Further, how will that happen in places like Texas where the NEA has no support?
Yes, that's my assumption, but that doesn't stop the NEA from claiming it wil hurt schools if they are forced to pay back millions of dollars. We will here such phrases as "....undermining the NEA's ability to represent its members" and "......will set the public education system back 20 years and fail our children across the county".
The NEA is a labor union representing teachers and support personnel, and is not part of the public schools. Schools are not responsible in any way for covering fines and paybacks. That money would have to come directly from the NEA (and let's hope it breaks them).
Teachers can actually receive a refund for some of their NEA and state education labor union dues by applying for it. See the following replies for information:
Reply # 39 in the thread Home-Schooling Under Siege,
Reply # 28 in the thread TEACHERS UNION THUGS HAVE TO GIVE BACK MONEY [Free Republic] and
Reply # 19 in the thread Legal Costs Skyrocketing for Defiant Teachers Union
Also, the NEA in not a professional educators association. If teachers are interested in a professional organization the may wish to consider:
Association of American Educators
25201 Paseo de Alicia, Suite 104
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Phone: 949-595-7979 or 1-800-704-7799
Fax: 949-595-7970
Email: info@aaeteachers.org
Website: www.aaeteachers.org
Please note that the AAE is not a union. It is a professional association. Annual dues are $125 per year for teachers (includes $2 Million liability insurance - one of the reasons teachers join the NEA or AFT is for liability insurance). Student, retired educator, and associate/support memberships are $25 per year.
The NEA already have set the education system back 20 years and have failed OUR children long ago ..
Go-MARK-Levin!
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