The Left Wing Teachers Union

Does no one see a problem with this?

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.

While not surprising this pisses me off.

This large powerful union gives a huge amount of money to groups whose sole goal is to turn this country into a secular socialist welfare state and we’re all supposed to sit down and be quiet, it’s for the good of the children don’t you see? Bull.

The article continues:

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.

[…]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 sad part of this is that the recent referendum in California that was to change the Opt-Out policy of Union to Opt-In was soundly defeated, in large part due to the NEA. Which leads me to believe that most of the teachers want their money going to these groups. And these people are teaching our kids.

More here.

Other’s Blogging:

The Kellino Zone, Bookworm Room, Neal Boortz, The New Editor,

This large powerful union gives a huge amount of money to groups whose sole goal is to turn this country into a secular socialist welfare state and we’re all supposed to sit down and be quiet, it’s for the good of the children don’t you see? Bull.

Curt

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