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CAT Tracks for July 14, 2011
THERE ARE LIES |
...and then there are out-and-out whoppers!
I don't have a problem with the "headline" of the article below. The NEA may well have spent $20 million "electing Dems". The NEA also spent a lesser amount "electing Reps".
However, the lead sentence of the article that states that the National Education Association "receives taxpayer funds"...well bull stuff!
Yes...
...the NEA collects money from its members - SEPARATE FROM UNION DUES - to try to elect political candidates who support issues beneficial to its members.
Yes, the NEA does that...just like the AARP, the NRA, the Farm Bureau, etc. ALL of these organizations ask their members to dig into their pockets and donate...to further their local, state, and/or national agendas.
And, yes, most of these members who donate THEIR hard-earned dollars are "taxpayers"...they work for a living, they get paid, and taxes were withheld from their paychecks. After that, some of them decide (THEIR CHOICE) to make a donation toward political activity...a little less to be "donated" to the local gas station, mom and pop stores, or Walmart.
I mean...
...using the reasoning invoked by the "EIA" (Education Intelligence Agency?), every business and organization and CHURCH in the United States "receives taxpayer funds".
So, why single out the NEA?
Then, again...why give any credence to an organization that chooses the name "Education Intelligence Agency"? What are they, the "education arm" of the CIA???
Hmmm...
Wonder where the EIA gets its funding?
BTW: You want proof beyond "Ron's Rhetoric" that the NEA does NOT "receive taxpayer funds"?
Have you been following the game of chicken (Russian Roulette?) being played by Democrats and Republicans over debt-reduction and the possibility of shutting down the federal government?
In all of those discussions, have you heard any mention of cutting funding for the National Education Association?
The answer is "NO!"
Trust me on this...if there were such a thing, the Republicans would have put it at the top of their debt-reduction list. I mean...it's only $20 million, BUT it's the damned teachers' union...AND it reportedly goes to "electing Dems!"
Bears repeating...
BULL STUFF!!!
From Education News...
Biggest Teachers Union Spent $20 Million Electing Dems
The National Education Association, which receives taxpayer funds, spent roughly $20 million contributing to political campaigns in 2010-2011
The Education Intelligence Agency is reporting this week that the largest teachers’ union in the country spent millions of dollars in political campaigns this past year.
If you were following the NEA news last week, you already know that the delegates approved a $10 per member increase to the national union’s Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund. What you might not know is NEA just about exhausted that fund in 2010-11.
EIA explains that the BM/LC Fund distributes funds to NEA state affiliates to supplement their own spending on ballot initiatives and bills working their way through various state legislatures. The NEA no longer reveals which states received what amounts, but so many states received funding it hardly matters. In 2010-2011, the NEA took in about $13.3 million in dues money for the slush fund, and retained a carryover of more than $8 million from 2009-10. That bumps the total to about $21.3 million. The union spent or promised that entire amount in response to the myriad of collective bargaining laws that were introduced.
NEA sent almost $9.4 million to 12 state affiliates for ballot measure campaigns, and another $10.2 million to 19 state affiliates for legislative crises. Additionally, the union spent $2.5 million on “national lobby-campaign efforts related to ESEA reauthorization.” That adds up to $22.1 million.
NEA will continue to fund litigation and organizing efforts in Wisconsin, and will be a major player in the SB 5 referendum in Ohio. Other states will be clamoring for money to support their battles to preserve collective bargaining and pensions, and there is still the possibility a new state or two will go to war over these issues. Taxpayer dollars end up in the hands of the NEA and these are then used to advance a very clear political agenda.
