Young people have to be taught everything, and it is the function of parents and teachers to give them
the instruction and guidance they need, either to find a job right out of high school, or to go to
college. Along the way they are also taught how to wait in line, clean up after themselves,
and play well with others. That's all very nice, but these days you may find that unionized
teachers teach more than academics. Leftist propaganda — earth-worshipping environmentalism,
multiculturalism, and the expectation of a government handout at some point — seeps into
the classroom with the assistance of teachers who believe it is their role to spread socialism
in the schools.
How Teachers Are Poisoning Our Children.
On their official web-site, the NEA is currently promoting the radical anti-establishment doctrines of Saul
Alinsky. The NEA is actively, and openly, advocating the overthrow of capitalism, free enterprise, and
conservative (read that, pro-American) values. The NEA is recommending that teachers familiarize themselves
with Saul Alinsky's books "Reveille for Radicals," and "Rules for Radicals." They then can then pass the
seditious information on to their students — our children.
NEA Website Promotes Communist Guide Books
for the Violent Overthrow of the U.S. Government. The NEA's recommended reading list includes
two books by Brother O mentor and communist community organizer Saul Alinsky that advocate the violent
overthrow of the U.S. government. The Democrat-controlled teachers' union praises Alinsky's Reveille
for Radicals and Rules for Radicals as "an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community!
And to every organizer!"
The Rubber Room:
It's a June morning, and there are fifteen people in the room, four of them fast asleep, their heads lying on
a card table. Three are playing a board game. Most of the others stand around chatting. Two
are arguing over one of the folding chairs. But there are no children here. The inhabitants are all
New York City schoolteachers who have been sent to what is officially called a Temporary Reassignment Center
but which everyone calls the Rubber Room.
Liberal
journalist shocked teacher unions shield incompetence. The Post is too polite to answer
its own question. Steven Brill, however, has figured it out. "Leading Democrats often talk about
the need to reform education," he writes, "but they almost never openly criticize the teachers' unions, which
are perhaps the Party's most powerful support group." In other words, on the issue of D.C. vouchers
Barack Obama and Arne Duncan are doing what their union paymasters want. The union bosses snap their
fingers, and Obama and Duncan jump. It's good for just about everyone involved: the teachers' unions
get taxpayers' money, the Democratic party through the teachers' unions gets taxpayers' money. Just about
everyone, that is, except for the kids.
700 NYC teachers are paid to do
nothing. Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from
insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing
Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do. Because
their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the
school system to its "rubber rooms" — off-campus office space where they wait months, even
years, for their disciplinary hearings.
Teacher tenure must
go. Brandi Scheiner believes she is a political prisoner. Held against her will in what is
euphemistically dubbed a "rubber room," the 56-year-old woman likens her two-year captivity to being imprisoned
at Guantanamo Bay. Alas, it's unlikely the Red Cross will hear her case. She's a New York City
public school teacher who, like about 600 fellow NYC teachers, has been removed from the classroom for alleged
incompetence or other charges that include being drunk in the classroom or molesting students.
The
Myth that Liberals Care About Education: Actually, educating our kids comes last
to the Left — behind indoctrinating students and supporting their political allies in the
teachers' unions. This is why the Left has supported laughable nonsense like teaching
Ebonics and bilingual education programs. It's also why the Left opposes vouchers and
even merit pay for good teachers — because the teachers' unions don't want the sad
sacks in their ranks to look bad by comparison. Liberals love to talk about education, but
education in what? Global warming? Gay marriage? Self-esteem
exercises — or reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and history?
Teachers strikes are
different. [Scroll down] If you're shutting down schools, you'd better have good reason.
A reason that's morally unassailable. "We want fewer meetings" doesn't cut it. The Kent teachers
say they're forced to have too many staff meetings. Fair enough. (One minute of meetings is too
many for me.) The teachers want to limit these staff and training meetings to two 60-minute sessions
per month. The administrators want four per month. Two versus four. Really, Kent teachers
and administrators? You've shut down a district of 27,000 students over this?
Teachers union tries to help Harry Reid —
oops! Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's poll numbers are in the tank, which imperils not only
his political career, but the ultra-progressive agenda the Democratic Party is trying to ram down Americans'
throats. Sensing that Sen. Reid could use a helping hand, the National Education Association has been
airing one-minute radio ads locally, urging voters to support their senior senator and his party's budget-busting,
government-growing health care reforms.
The NEA's Latest Trick. Public school
teachers are supposed to teach kids to read, so it would be nice if their unions could master the same skill. In a
recent letter to Senators, the National Education Association claims Washington, D.C.'s Opportunity Scholarships aren't
working, ignoring a recent evaluation showing the opposite. "The DC voucher pilot program, which is set to expire
this year, has been a failure," the NEA's letter fibs. "Over its five year span, the pilot program has yielded no
evidence of positive impact on student achievement." That must be news to the voucher students who are reading
almost a half-grade level ahead of their peers.
How's that attack on
capitalism working out for teacher unions? A number of reports are making their way into the press
about how various teachers' unions are being hurt by the drop in the stock market. It is realistic to assume
that the leaders and many, though not all, members of the teachers' unions are liberal Democrat Obama supporters.
So, let us see how it is going for them.
'Zero
to Five:' A scam to help teachers union. Next to universal health care, President Obama's top
domestic goal is government financed pre-school for all three- and four-year-olds, regardless of family income.
Obama promised his supporters at the National Education Association that he will spend billions on his "Zero to Five"
early childhood education initiative, while assuring taxpayers of a $10 return for every dollar spent on the
program. ... What "Zero to Five" is likely to do is drive small, privately-owned pre-schools out of business in order to
create more jobs for NEA members — who will be the real beneficiaries of this latest educational scam.
Torture in America's Schools. At
a public school in West Virginia, a 4-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and autism "was 'uncooperative,' so teachers
restrained her in a chair with multiple leather straps that resembled a 'miniature electric chair.'" The girl was
later diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. "At least one of the three teachers responsible" is still at
the school. At a Texas public school, a 230-pound "special education teacher" placed a 129-pound boy of 14 "into a
prone restraint and lay on top of him because he would not stay seated." The student died. The case was
ruled a homicide but no charges were filed. The teacher "currently teaches in Virginia and is licensed to
instruct children with disabilities."
Unions
Trump Students In Arizona. State laws that prohibit school boards from giving money to private
educational institutions are now the reason disabled kids in Arizona can no longer attend specialized classes
that meet their needs. A unanimous Arizona Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday [3/25/2009] held that
vouchers were illegal in their state, and the children who used them to attend private, specialized schools
can no longer do so.
How to
Buy A City Council. Eyebrows shot up last week when teachers-union operatives handed out pre-printed
questions for City Council members to ask at a hearing. But the UFT was merely calling in an IOU. As
Chuck Bennett reported in yesterday's Post, the United Federation of Teachers paid good money for those council
members. And the union expects value for its cash.
Teachers
in Bid to Expel Union. Charter-school teachers to their union: Butt out. The
educators, at two city charter schools, have filed for permission from the state to cut their ties with the
United Federation of Teachers. The action, at KIPP Academy in The Bronx and KIPP Infinity in Manhattan,
came after the UFT recently tried to meddle in the schools' business without consulting the staff first,
teachers at both schools told The [New York] Post.
California's Hefty Union Dues.
Jobs are fleeing the Golden State, where unemployment has spiked well above 10%. Taxes are soaring, and a new
budget shortfall of $8 billion, following the $42 billion gap that was patched up earlier this year,
could hike them even more. But California is still not a bad place to be — that is, as long
as you have a secure job (which most are) on the public payroll. According to the latest salary survey
by the American Federation of Teachers, California teachers are the highest paid in the nation.
Cautionary
tale of card check. One reason so many parents want their children in charter schools is precisely
because they operate free of union contracts, so that when administrators want to try something new, they can
implement it quickly. For this, charter schools are fiercely resented by teachers unions as a competitor
to failing public schools. Charter schools use a merit system, rewarding teachers according to results in the
classroom. They don't have complicated work rules that smother creativity, nor are they burdened with
termination rules that make it almost impossible to dismiss an incompetent teacher.
There is no hope in Obama. In
the last election, unions spent $450 million to elect candidates who favor their agenda. They have succeeded
beyond the dreams of avarice. The federal government is now virtually the empire of Big Labor. Especially
gleeful are the teachers' unions, who helped elect a president explicitly and vociferously opposed to vouchers. Even
as America's students have dropped to their lowest level on standardized tests compared to students internationally, and
even as drop-out rates soar past the 50 percent mark in most of the largest urban school districts, President-elect
Barack Obama has shown contempt for school choice — even as he exercised school choice in enrolling his own
children in the most expensive and exclusive private prep school in Washington, D.C.
On the other hand...
Obama takes on teachers' unions.
After weeks of pleasing Democrats by overturning policies set by the previous administration, President Barack
Obama Tuesday for the first time confronted a powerful constituency in his own party: teachers' unions.
Obama proposed spending additional money on effective teachers in up to 150 additional school districts,
fulfilling a campaign promise that once earned him boos from members of the National Education Association.
Okay for Obamas to Send Their
Kids to Private Schools, Teachers' Union President Says. President-elect Barack Obama and his
wife Michelle "have every right" to send their children to public or private school, and no one should
"criticize" their decision, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said in
an interview with CNSNews.com on Monday [11/17/2008] at the National Press Club.
NEA Teachers Have Become
Re-Educators. NEA resolutions cover the waterfront of all sorts of political issues that
have nothing to do with improving education for schoolchildren, such as supporting statehood for the District
of Columbia, a "single-payer health care plan" (i.e., government run), gun control ... The NEA fiercely opposes
any competition for public schools, such as vouchers, tuition tax credits, parental option plans or public support
of any kind to nonpublic schools. The NEA strongly opposes designating English as our official language even
though such a designation is supported by more than 80% of Americans.
NEA, the labor union
for teachers. Surprisingly and sadly, many parents, perhaps many teachers, are unaware
of the political agenda of the National Education Association, to which some 2.7 million public
school teachers belong. NEA is a labor union despite its self-characterization as a professional
association for teacher training and educational goals.
Education's
union label: Back in February, I wrote in this space about Senate Bill 73. Sponsored
by a freshman Democrat, Sen. Chris Romer, it would have required Colorado public schools to adopt competency
in the English language as a graduation requirement for high school students starting in 2012. The
merits of this are so obvious, it's a sad commentary on our public schools that such legislation would even
be necessary. But remarkably, the knee-jerk reaction to Romer's bill by Democrats who represent the
interests of the teachers' unions in the state legislature was nothing short of scorn.
NEA Dues & Don'ts: It
is not the job of the NEA to issue mandates on social and moral issues. To do so is a misuse of members'
dues and a misrepresentation of teachers' views.
Change Our Public Schools Need.
Democrats are fervent supporters of public education, and the party genuinely wants to help disadvantaged kids
stuck in bad schools. But it resists bold action. It is immobilized. Impotent. The explanation
lies in its longstanding alliance with the teachers' unions — which, with more than three million members,
tons of money and legions of activists, are among the most powerful groups in American politics. The
Democrats benefit enormously from all this firepower, and they know what they need to do to keep it. They
need to stay inside the box.
Extracurricular
Politics: Each year, NEA members pay into a "Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund" that allows
the union to spend tens of millions of dollars on all manner of state and national political issues. Mike
Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency … reports that during the current fiscal year the NEA sent
the Hawaii State Teachers Association $20,000 to conduct polling on a state constitutional convention. It
sent the Massachusetts Teachers Association $60,000 to oppose a state income-tax repeal. And it sent the
Florida Education Association $200,000 to oppose property-tax cuts in the Sunshine State.
Unions
shortchange teachers. In 28 states, a teacher is essentially forced to join a costly union.
A typical teacher in Southern California, where I teach, pays $922 every year to his or her local, which then
sends $611 of that amount to the state affiliate, the California Teachers Assn., or CTA, and $140 to the national
affiliate, the National Education Assn., or NEA. (One has to wonder, if the unions are so beneficial, why do
teachers need to be forced to join and to fork over such hefty dues in most states?) And just what are all
of these forced dues spent on? Untold millions go to political causes, whether a teacher agrees with the
cause or not.
Abolish the Department of Education.
The U.S. Department of Education, created as a political payoff to the National Education Association by former
President Jimmy Carter, is a sewer for taxpayers' money and ought to be abolished outright. Since then,
although a few politicians — notably former President Ronald Reagan — have paid sporadic
lip service to abolishing this useless organization, most have pushed for additions to its
budget in order to curry favor with NEA members at election time.
The Real
Obama: Part III. The education situation in Obama's home base of Chicago is one of the
worst in the nation for the children — and one of the best for the unionized teachers. Fewer
than one-third of Chicago's high-school juniors meet the statewide standards on tests. Only 6 percent
of the youngsters who enter Chicago high schools become college graduates by the time they are 25 years
old. The problem is not money: Chicago spends more than $10,000 per student.
The Real Issues:
Part IV. [Senator Obama] is 100 percent behind the teachers' unions in their fight to
preserve their grip on the public schools and exempt their members from being judged by performance instead
of seniority — which is to say, he is throwing the students, and especially minority students, to
the wolves. … [T]eachers unions are the biggest obstacle to changing the status quo in public schools
that have failed American children in general and minority children in particular.
The IRS Will be Hiring.
[Scroll down] Then there was the creation of the Department of Education, contrary to the Constitution
that excludes federal involvement by not mentioning it. It effectively has nationalized the education
system with a one-size-fits-all policy that totally ignores the fact that different children in different
places learn at different rates. The failure of urban schools has less to do with the enormous amounts
of money spent per pupil than the crime-infested, jobless streets they must walk to get to school. It's
not like their parents don't want better schools. They do. The grip of the teacher's unions
makes that nearly impossible.
The Ten Worst Union-Protected Teachers:
Thanks to outmoded, union-defended employment laws and policies, it can be impossible to fire a bad union-protected
teacher. That's why the Center for Union Facts is going to pay the ten worst union-protected teachers in
America $10,000 apiece to get out of the classroom — for good. Dedicated, professional teachers
have nothing to fear from this contest; we're here to showcase the worst of the worst.
Long
Reviled, Merit Pay Gains Among Teachers. For years, the unionized teaching profession opposed
few ideas more vehemently than merit pay, but those objections appear to be eroding as school districts in
dozens of states experiment with plans that compensate teachers partly based on classroom performance.
The
NEA lists its goals and the Democratic Party agrees. Some critics complain that the issue of
education has been conspicuously absent from presidential television debates. But Democratic presidential
candidates did sound off with their pro-federal government, pro-spending policies at the annual convention of
the National Education Association, and the nation's largest teachers union liked what they heard.
American Education Fails Because It
Isn't Education. Every American should understand that these three items:
higher pay, smaller classrooms and more money for schools are the specific agenda of the
National Education Association (NEA). The NEA is not a professional organization for
teachers. It is a labor union and its sole job is to get more money into the education
system, and more pay for its members. It also seeks to make work easier for its
members — smaller classrooms. Clearly the NEA is not about education — it's
about money and a political agenda.
Paige on Unions, and a Primer for
Reporters. Reporters newly assigned to cover an "education beat" are often woefully
unprepared for the job because they do not understand the ins and outs of "the most powerful
[force] in public education today" — teacher unions — or the "single biggest
influence on what happens in schools" — the teachers union contract.
What is the Teacher Unions'
Real Agenda with Your Children? Many non-governmental organizations have been influential in the
orgy of spending tax money to corrupt education, for their selfish interests, while claiming the pure motive
of helping our children acquire quality education. The two most powerful of these are the American
Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.
California: Giving Home-Schoolers
the Shaft. There are still excellent public school teachers out there, but mediocre ones are increasing and so
are the downright terrible ones, thanks to teachers' union protection. They may be happy now, but California's decision
on home-schooling will touch off a firestorm the unions are going to regret.
The Union War on the No Child Left Behind Act. To
the NEA and other change-resistant teachers' unions, accountability and transparency are not worthy goals. They are
nefarious plots to embarrass and shame bad teachers. Union leaders are generally unwilling to admit that not all
teachers are great at what they do. … That isn't true in any other profession, and cannot possibly be true in
education either.
NEA Allies Itself With Far Left Groups. The
National Education Association is getting in bed with far-left groups like MoveOn.org, ACORN, and Campaign for America's
Future to launch a new campaign called "National Mobilization for Great Public Schools." This "coalition certainly
isn't about any new policy directions," says Capital Research Center's David Hogberg in an article in the American Spectator
Online. Rather, the "purpose of the coalition is mobilizing the grassroots to pressure politicians to spend more money
on public education." The NEA seems unconcerned that they are allying themselves with the far left for this campaign.
NEA Gives Liberally ($12 million) to Advocacy Groups.
Groups receiving funding include:
ACORN — $218,452
Amnesty International — $7,500
Citizens for Education — $2,316,000
NAACP — $56,500
National Council of La Raza — $14,700
People for the American Way — $275,000
Sierra Club — $50,000
The Teachers Unions' Fight for Universal Preschool.
The National Education Association (NEA) wants the state to control most or all preschool programs as a boon to public education
and to the union's membership. Universal preschool is part of the NEA's broader strategy to increase public school work
hours at all levels of education, using the dubious argument that more time in school ensures a better education.
Teacher
wins fight on where to donate union dues. Vancouver teacher Susan Wiggs may donate her
union dues to Shared Hope International, after all, the state Public Employment Relations Commission
has ruled. The Vancouver Public Schools teachers union has appealed the decision. Wiggs, a
teacher at Jason Lee Middle School, has been embroiled in a two-year dispute with the teachers union about
where to direct her dues. Two years ago, Wiggs withdrew from the union as a religious objector.
Teachers and EFF Win Unanimous
Victory at U.S. Supreme Court. The cases are the culmination of a decade's worth of work by
concerned teachers and the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), a Washington state think tank. The
Court's ruling could potentially affect millions of union-represented workers nationwide.
NEA Moves Even Further from Mainstream at Annual
Convention. Sissy Jochmann, a second-grade teacher in Pittsburgh, took issue with non-educational
recommendations adopted by the NEA Board of Directors — such as incorporating sexual orientation and
gender identity in teacher education standards; enhancing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT)
partnerships; expanding the union's GLBT Web page; and supporting federal hate crimes legislation. … The
Board of Directors subsequently adopted the GLBT policies in a closed session, literally behind closed doors.
Is the NEA a 'terrorist
organization'? One of the NEA's formative leaders, John Dewey, an avowed humanist socialist, was
made honorary president of the NEA in 1932. In 1933, Dewey was one of the signers of the "Humanist
Manifesto." John Dewey, who traveled to Russia in the 1930s to help organize and implement the Marxist
educational system there, today is known in America as the "Father of Progressive Education."
Union Told
Me to Pay Dues or Change Religion, Teacher Says. Carol Katter, a mathematics and language arts
instructor in the St. Marys district, filed a federal complaint in the U.S. District Court in Columbus this
week over an Ohio law that prevents the lifelong Catholic from diverting her dues from a union she refuses to
fund because it supports abortion on demand.
Teacher Challenges Forced Union Dues. A St.
Marys-area teacher today [1/22/2007] filed a federal complaint challenging the constitutionality of a statewide
law denying public employees the right to a religious objection to paying union dues if they do not belong to
certain state-approved religions.
Judgment day for L.A. teacher union
officials. United Teachers Los Angeles is holding elections, the results of which will affect
not only teachers but also school-reform efforts and city politics. UTLA's members are the 48,000 teachers,
nurses and school psychologists in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The union's endorsements and
street troops help elect city and state politicians, and can carry the most weight in school board elections.
West Virginia Salary Posting Raises Unions' Ire.
A decision to post teacher salaries on the Internet has irked the teachers union in West Virginia, but an experienced
reformer said such policies are needed to expose the current education system's ineffectiveness. In
February, the Kanawha County Schools Board of Education adopted a plan to post all employee salaries on
its official Web site for public inspection.
Report Finds Teachers' Pay Is More than
Adequate Across the Country. The long-lived conventional wisdom is that teachers are underpaid.
That belief is virtually unanimous. But it runs contrary to many respectable research studies that
conclude teacher salaries are at least equal to, if not in excess of, compensation for comparable occupations.
In their article "How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?" researchers Jay P. Greene and Marcus A.
Winters come to some surprising conclusions. According to their findings, "The average public school
teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, and the average public school teacher was paid
36 percent more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11 percent more than
the average professional specialty and technical worker."
$34.06 an Hour. Who,
on average, is better paid — public school teachers or architects? How about teachers or economists?
You might be surprised to learn that public school teachers are better paid than these and many other
professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour
in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average
professional specialty or technical worker.
How Much Are Teachers Really Paid?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), public school teachers earned, on average, $34.06 per hour
in 2005. That is 36% more than the average white collar worker and 11% more than the average professional
specialty and technical worker, which are the categories in which the BLS places teachers. To give some
examples, public school teachers are paid at a higher rate than architects, mechanical engineers, psychologists,
and chemists.
The $1,470-an-hour
loophole: Retirees work for 13 days to earn lifetime health care. A loophole in Michigan's school
retirement policy allows the 60-year-old grandmother from Remus and hundreds of former school employees like her
to earn lifetime health care at deeply discounted rates — a perk worth an estimated $150,000
per retiree — for returning to work for the equivalent of 13 days.
California teachers
oppose the 2014 deadline of No Child act. As Congress prepares to renew the controversial
No Child Left Behind Education Act, California teachers announced Wednesday their intention to try and
gut its core: the requirement that every student score at grade level by 2014. … They were sponsored
by the California Teachers Association.
Teachers
union sues Ohio. The state's largest teachers union sued the state over its charter school program
on Friday [3/23/2007], saying it lacks proper oversight and takes needed money from traditional public schools.
Court Ruling May Force NEA
Disclosures. State affiliates of the National Education Association may be required to disclose
details of their operations, including financial information such as income and expenses, salaries and
benefits, and election rules, according to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC.
Teachers in
court: Justice Clarence Thomas stayed mum, as usual, but all eight of his colleagues got into the
act two weeks ago when the Supreme Court heard argument in the case of a teachers union. When oral argument
ended at noon, most observers probably thought the union's luck had run out with the clock, but these things are
tough to call.
The NEA Keeps Tilting to the Left.
NEA resolutions promote the gay rights agenda in public school curricula by demanding funds to alleviate
"sexual orientation discrimination," to use multicultural education to reduce "homophobia," and even to
put "diversity-based curricula" and "bias-free screening devices in early childhood education." Another
resolution demands that schools hire "a diverse teaching staff." But the NEA certainly doesn't believe in
diversity when it comes to schools. The NEA is positively paranoid about any kind of competition, passing
resolutions against voucher plans, tuition tax credits, parental option or choice plans, sectarian schools,
for-profit schools, distance learning, and home schooling.
Is Obama Another Elitist Limousine
Leftist? The left in America pretends to care about poor people, but many of them seem more interested
in serving the interests of powerful lobbies such as trial lawyers and teacher unions. The education issue
is a great example. Leftists such as Ted Kennedy and Al Gore have been fierce opponents of school
choice and other proposals to reduce the power of the government education monopoly. Yet they send their
children to private schools.
NEA Seeks Peace Academy,
College, Citizenship for Illegal Aliens. Some of the almost 10,000 members of the National Education
Association (NEA) attending the teachers union's annual conference this week in the nation's capital spoke out on the
issues they hope their lobbyists will fight for during next year's legislative session ... Susie Jablinske, a first
grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Edgewater, Md., said children who are in the country
illegally should have the same educational rights as American children.
Teachers cheer, boo Obama.
Barack Obama got a few boos Saturday [7/5/2008] when he told the National Education Association convention in Washington he
supports merit pay.
Governor
enlists teachers union in fight for his education plan. Trying to convert teachers into a
political force behind his new business tax plan, Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Saturday fired up the Illinois
Education Association for a brutal fight in the Legislature. "It will be Armageddon, but we are on the
side of the Lord and we will prevail," Blagojevich told more than 1,200 cheering delegates at the IEA's annual
meeting in suburban Chicago.
[If a Republican had said that, the Democrats would be howling about
a theocracy.]
The
Wake-Me-Up-When-Class-is-Over Governor. Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, politically in debt
to the teachers' unions, is attempting to eviscerate his state's successful school reforms and its independent
board of education. His drive to ensure that No Teacher-Union Hack Is Left Behind has serious implications
for public-school choice nationally. Can Democrats who are committed to school reform summon the political
will to sustain it in the face of union opposition?
NEA Conventioneers Promote
Gay Agenda. For the past dozen years, NEA resolutions have each year adopted more and more of the
gay rights agenda. Whereas, gay rights goals such as same-sex marriage are steadily losing at the polls
(20 states have passed state constitutional amendments restricting marriage to a man and a woman), the gay
rights agenda is moving ahead full speed in the public schools, with assistance from the NEA.
NEA opposes the use of IDs in order
to vote. The [NEA] convention approved Legislative Amendment 6 to oppose the use of
voter ID in U.S. elections. However, in order to vote in NEA elections held during the convention,
delegates were required to show photo ID. Apparently it's more important to prevent voter fraud in an
election for the NEA Board of Directors than in an election for U.S. President or Members of Congress.
Did
someone mention Voter IDs?
Follies and Failures of the National
Education Association: The largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), held
its annual convention this summer in Los Angeles displaying its usual favoritism toward the gays and the
feminists, hostility to parents, and support of liberal causes. The badges worn by the delegates
included messages bashing President Bush and supporting gays and lesbians.
The
curious case of NEA priorities: The toughest question was undoubtedly the first one: where
do we start, when it comes to fixing America's schools? Well, they figured it out. And, really,
faced with so many incredible challenges, their priority makes sense. This is, after all, the NEA.
They know the classroom. They know the teachers. They know the real challenges of education. Which
is why their elected leaders decided that, before anything else, the first thing our teachers have to do
is win popular support for homosexual "marriage."
When Teachers Flunk, They Sue. By
requiring minority teacher applicants to pass a basic competency test, the Board of Education of New York City
may have discriminated against them, a federal court of appeals has ruled. The test measures their
mastery of basic college material, including science, math, history, and the arts, as well as written
communication skills in an essay. To pass, applicants must answer about 66 percent of the questions
correctly and score at least 60 percent on the essay. The applicants demonstrated their scores on
the examination were consistently lower than white applicants, the court stated. "Between 1993 and 1999,
the average pass rate for white test takers ranged from 91% to 94%, while the average pass rate for African
American candidates ranged from 51% to 62%, and the average pass rates for Latino candidates ranged from 47%
to 55%," the court stated. All of the minority applicants "tended" to do the worst on the essay section
of the test, according to the court.
California Law Changes the Rules for Bad
Teachers. It can take years to fire a bad teacher. So some principals don't even bother
trying. Instead, they make a deal. The principal asks the teacher to look for a job elsewhere in
the district. In exchange, the teacher gets a good evaluation. Now here's the rub. Since
there's plenty of competition for plum jobs at affluent schools, the bad teacher gets funneled to a
struggling school serving a needy population.
Governor
Riley says AEA leader is political. [Alabama Gov. Bob] Riley says Alabama Education Association
Secretary Paul Hubbert is opposing his plan because he is also vice chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party
and not out of concern for the teachers he represents. "You can't be vice chairman of the Democratic Party
and totally support the Democratic agenda and then say it's not political," Riley said Friday [8/4/2006].
Teachers
Union Adopts Positions on Iraq, Lebanon Wars. Just weeks after the National Education Association
came under fire for adopting a controversial resolution that critics said didn't apply to public education,
another teachers union has adopted resolutions opposing the war in Iraq, supporting Israel in its struggle
against Hizballah and opposing Wal-Mart.
Testing
teachers: Teacher certification in most states has been a joke for years. In the
District of Columbia, for example, teachers can be certified by scoring barely above the 20th percentile
on the Praxis test, an exam used by 29 states to test who is fit to teach. The other states aren't
much better, granting certification to teachers so long as they score above the bottom third of all test
takers. Yet the National Education Association, the largest union in the nation, has fought tougher
standards all the way.
Union bosses get
in the way of common sense. Taking six years to fire a teacher doesn't do anyone any
good — except bad teachers. So why do it? The short answer is unions.
Washington Teachers Union Scandal:
For years, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) failed to protect the members of its subsidiary, the
Washington (District of Columbia) Teachers Union. And according to a March 2003 AFT publication, WTU
president Barbara Bullock — along with a small group of co-conspirators — bilked
$5 million from the union between 1995 and 2002. That amounts to $1,000 per member stolen,
laundered, or used for the personal expenses of union officials.
NEA
Approves Pro-Homosexual Resolution. The nation's largest teachers' union voted to amend its
resolutions Wednesday [7/5/2006] to include support for homosexual "marriage." The amendment, which
met with harsh criticism from conservative family groups, passed with little resistance from delegates.
Orwell in Orlando, as the NEA Constructs
Fascist, Anti-Child Policies. Child-damaging, teacher-centered discussions and policy formation
transpired at the NEA's annual convention, defying reason, morality and constitutionality. … The word
"tolerance" will be replaced by "acceptance and respect" in current NEA policies, including those covering
"gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered" behaviors, orientations, etc. among students, teachers and
staff. So the concept of cross-dressing third graders must now be "respected."
Union Investments Deliver Poor
Returns, High Fees. Public school teachers might want to recalculate the money they stand
to collect on their 403(b) plans when they retire. That's assuming, of course, the money will be
there. In a lengthy expose in its April 25 edition, the Los Angeles Times revealed
how cozy relationships between teacher union officials and investment companies result in retirement
plans that charge unusually high fees but deliver below-average returns.
The Union Label on the Ballot Box: From
their origins in the 19th century until the present day, school boards have been regarded as shining examples
of local democracy, the keystone that links public education to ordinary citizens. But this is one of
the enduring myths of American folklore. The reality is that, while some 96 percent of school
boards are elected (according to data collected by Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute), these
elections are usually low-turnout, low-interest affairs in which the vast majority of ordinary citizens play
no role at all.
Profile of the National Education
Association. Lavish salaries for union staff, and vast sums of money spent on a radical
political agenda, demonstrate the wide gap between this union's leaders and the teachers they claim to
represent. The American Federation of Teachers reports that the average U.S. teacher's salary was
below $46,000 in 2002-2003. But [NEA president Reg] Weaver's salary was $439,000 last year, and
more than half of the NEA's 600-person staff took home more than $100,000 in compensation, according
to analysis from The Wall Street Journal.
Connecticut Public Employees Live On Easy
Street. Connecticut's teacher-retirement fund has a $5 billion gap between assets and
liabilities. The unfunded liability for all state employees is $7 billion. Unlike
the use-it-or-lose-it policy of the private sector, it is common for unused sick and vacation days
to be "purchased" by Connecticut's government entities when employees retire.
Teachers
union loses its force in storm's wake. When the Orleans Parish School Board gathered last
month and voted to fire virtually the entire work force of 7,500 teachers, custodians, bus drivers and
kitchen staff, union brass might have been expected to clamor loudly in opposition. Instead, but
for one or two nonunion gadflies who spieled and sat down, you could practically hear the crickets.
Unions fight to
protect the nightmare. The unions use their clout to fight against the interests of the best
teachers. Union leaders make sure the teachers who work hardest don't get raises or bonuses.
Everyone with the same seniority and credentials must be paid the same. That guarantees that no
teacher will take home a dime for making extra sure that students learn.
How Republicans Get Teacher Union
Endorsements: When a teachers' union endorses a Republican in a major race, or at
least fails to endorse a Democrat, it is newsworthy. The unions themselves claim otherwise,
cleaving adamantly to the focus-group-tested, talking-point-sanctioned line that they choose
candidates not according to party, but according to their pro-public education track
records. Since this topic arises so often, I thought it prudent to simply list
the four circumstances under which a teachers' union will endorse and/or financially
support a Republican running for major office.
Union Foes
Seek High Court Ruling on Dues for Politics. Numerous conservative groups are asking the U.S.
Supreme Court to reinstate a Washington state law that requires unions to get permission from non-union
employees before spending their mandatory dues on political causes and activities.
Teachers File SCOTUS Arguments Seeking Limits on Union
Officials' Access to Forced Dues. National Right to Work Foundation attorneys took additional
steps today to secure U.S. Supreme Court review of a controversial Washington State Supreme Court ruling
which struck down a state law requirement that union officials obtain the prior consent of nonunion
public employees before spending mandatory union dues for politics.
Fun Facts from AFL-CIO's Disclosure
Report: AFL-CIO took in $189.9 million in total receipts in 2004-05, mostly from
per capita taxes, or dues, from member unions. The bulk of the federation's
expenditures went towards:
* Political activities and lobbying – $49.3 million
* Representational activities – $29.9 million
* General overheard – $22.6 million
* Benefits – $16.9 million
* Union administration – $6 million
* Contributions, gifts and grants – $2.4 million
The federation had a host of conference and meeting expenditures,
including $11,638 for what I'm sure was a lovely staff retreat/dinner cruise.
The Union That Killed
Education: Public schools are run by the National Educational Association. They
are not run by people you can hold accountable, such as teachers, superintendents and school
boards. The NEA opposes merit pay, charter schools and any decision by any school
administrator that has not been determined in advance by collective bargaining. Simply
put, the NEA opposes everything except its own power.
Schools establishment
displays insatiable demand for money. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger … should know by
now that no amount of spending is ever enough for those who believe money can solve every problem in
education. Take the California Teachers Association, for example.
National Education
Association Funds Radical Groups With Union Dues. 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.
Teacher union gives
slush money to left-wing groups. The vast majority of teachers in government schools
are well-meaning professionals. The National Education Association, by contrast, is a virulently
left-wing organization that takes money (coercively in many cases) from these teachers and uses the
money to fund a host of radical groups.
HSTA Union Dues
Go Largely to Union Payroll, Not to Benefit Teachers. After the Hawaii State Teachers'
Association convention in March, when internal election irregularities were revealed, one teacher
asked, "What does the union do for us anyway?" A portion of the answer can be deciphered
from the HSTA's financials.
NEA: 30 Years of Lobbying
Democrats. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the decision by the National Education
Association (NEA) to become a major player in politics. While 1976 was the first year that the
nation's largest teachers union endorsed a presidential candidate (Jimmy Carter, who was promising
to deliver creation of the union's cherished federal Department of Education), it wasn't long
before the NEA's political activity became a major part of its raison d'etre.
The NEA Strikes Again!
Let's clear up a few ideas about the role the NEA plays in regards to wasted money, overcrowding, teachers,
books and materials. To begin with, every time the NEA is challenged in court with regard to its misguided
and inappropriate policy decisions, it uses money gained through teacher dues to defer the costs of defending
itself … money which is supposed to help the students and teachers in this country achieve excellence in
education. But I digress. The money forced out of teacher paychecks and instead used to support the
union goes to further a union agenda that takes away from parental choice and responsibility.
The teachers unions
are mad at me. [It's] because I hosted an ABC News TV special titled "Stupid in America," which
pointed out:- American fourth graders do well on international tests, but by high school, Americans have
fallen behind kids in most other countries.
- The constant refrain that "public schools need more
money" is nonsense. Many countries that spend significantly
less on education do better than we do.
- Most American parents give their kids' schools an A or B grade,
but that's only because, without market competition, they don't know what they might have had.
Follow-up:
Time to
teach. I was especially surprised by one history lesson [a group of angry
public-school teachers] taught me: "Public schools are what distinguish democracies from
every other system in the world," and a country without strong public schools "lends itself to authoritarian
thinking." Fascinating. I guess the Communists all went to private school.
A tiny
little tidbit of totalitarianism. The Oklahoma Education Association … wants to
silence citizens petitioning to place an initiative on the ballot. … Sure, I know that's too
strong a word. It's just that squelching speech and strong-arming people to prevent the free
exercise of individual rights are the hallmarks of totalitarianism.
Class-Action Lawsuit Pending Against
California Teacher Union. While a class-action lawsuit against the California Teachers
Association (CTA) was pending, a U.S. District Court judge on October 6 refused to temporarily
freeze funds the union seized from teachers statewide without due process in order to fight
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and several measures on the November 8 special-election ballot.
Power Motivates Unions. Some
wonder why the teacher unions, long so fervently opposed to charter schools, are now aggressively trying
to recruit their teachers.
Look for the Union Label. American
workers are forced to fund political activities they disagree with. Like virtually all national labor
unions in America, the NEA devotes a huge portion of its manpower and money to political action. But it
also serves as the collective bargaining representative for a large group of public employees. So its
particular political action is aimed at hand-picking the taxpayers' representatives too — and thus
controlling both sides of the negotiating table.
These are your
teachers? The National Education Association recently concluded its annual meeting in Los
Angeles — and you might be surprised what the largest teachers' union in America talked about
and decided. … The state of public education in American today is not exactly state of the
art. You might think falling test scores, higher drop-out rates, and functional illiteracy of
graduates — despite ever increasing taxpayer commitments — would be causes for
concern and debate at a forum like this. You would be wrong.
Teachers
Union Fights Governor, Wants More Spending and Power. What is the
substance of the schools funding debate? Including all sources of education
spending, the governor has proposed spending $10,084 per student for 2005-2006. …
Mind you, all of this is for a system that, according to the National Education
Association website, pays its teachers the most in America. California teachers
are paid an average of $58,287 a year, 25% above the national average.
The 65 percent
solution: The 65 Percent Solution solves the misallocation of resources, but
there is scant evidence that increasing financial inputs will, by itself, increase a school's
cognitive outputs. Or that a small reduction in class sizes accomplishes much. Or that
adding thousands of new teachers would do as much good as firing thousands of tenured
incompetents. However, firing a bad teacher is, according to a California official,
less a choice than a career — figure two years of struggle and $200,000 in legal
costs. That is why in a recent five-year period only 62 of California's 220,000
tenured teachers were dismissed.
Paying teachers to
teach. Study after study shows the quality of teaching is paramount to student achievement. Next
to parents, teachers are the most important factors in determining a student's academic success. Yet, instead of
rewarding our best teachers and removing the poor ones, we cling to an antiquated, bureaucratic compensation model
that is flawed at its core.
Aha! Where Do Public
School Teachers Send Their Kids to School? Public school teachers in urban areas
are far more likely than city residents in general to send their children to private schools,
according to a new analysis of 2000 Census data by researchers led by Denis P. Doyle, who
previously analyzed 1980 and 1990 Census data. While just 12.2 percent of U.S.
families send their children to private schools, that figure rises to 17.5 percent among
urban families in general and to 21.5 percent among urban public school
teachers, almost twice the national average.
Must This Teacher Teacher
Be Fired? Albert Einstein revolutionized Physics, Alan Turing helped invent
computer science and Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics while maintaining
a reputation as the best science teacher of his generation. … None
of these individuals, according to the state licensing board, would
be qualified to teach in an Oregon public school.
Stop
and think: Part III. No special interest group within the Democratic
party has as much influence — domination might be a better word — as
the teachers' unions. The top priority of the National Education Association and the
American Federation of Teachers is their members' jobs. … Parents may think that public
schools exist to educate their children but, to the teachers' unions, these schools exist
to provide their members with jobs, with iron-class tenure, and with pay increases based
on seniority, not performance. If maintaining that status quo means sacrificing the
education of a whole generation of young blacks, the teachers' unions will do it.
The
NEA's Lobbying Agenda: The NEA's lobbying goals for public
schools include federal funding for public school child care, early childhood
programs that are school-based, before- and after-school programs, big spending
for school counselors, school-based health care for children, and of course
increased federal spending for education. The NEA's non-education-related
lobbying goals include funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, a national
universal health care system, reparations to African Americans, statehood for the
District of Columbia, taxpayer funding of federal elections, and a national
holiday for Cesar Chavez.
Teacher Union
News: Disputed Elections and Missing Funds. The Washington
Teachers Union and United Teachers of Dade (Florida), currently under administration
by the American Federation of Teachers, are enduring accusations of vote fraud by
losing candidates for the office of president in elections designed to allow the
two unions to undertake local self-rule.
Texas Teachers Learn
to Cheat: A loophole in the law allows them to pay as little as $3 in Social
Security taxes and receive Social Security benefits worth about $5,200 a year for the rest
of their lives. How can teachers expect their students to behave honorably if they
intend to cheat the Social Security system to get more benefits than they deserve?
Labor Union Masks Motives Behind Teacher
Facade. Why do top teacher union officials, like NEA President Reg Weaver, describe
themselves as "classroom teachers" rather than union representatives? The annual Harris Poll provides
a ready answer: Teachers are regarded by almost half of the American public as belonging to an occupation
of "very great prestige," whereas only 15 percent regard union leaders that way. The teacher union
has been so successful in downplaying its identity as a labor union that a survey of members of the Alabama
Education Association in 2000 showed only 19 percent regarded the NEA as a union, with an overwhelming
77 percent saying it was "a professional association."
Democrats'
New Slogan: No Teacher Left Behind. The traditional greeting at the Democratic
National Convention is, "Where do you teach?" On rare occasions, the greeting is modified
to, "Where does your husband teach?" or "Where does your gay lover teach?" (Democrats
could save a lot of money by holding the Democratic National Convention and the National
Education Association Convention at the same time.)
John Kerry sells out to big
education. The National Education Association, the nation's largest professional employee
organization, is fundamentally opposed to any education reform that seeks to hold public schools accountable
for their failures. On July 3, it will hold its national convention in Washington, D.C. That's
when the association is expected to endorse John Kerry for president. Along with the endorsement will
come thousands of votes from teachers across the country.
Political activism takes
center stage for NEA. To no one's surprise, delegates to the annual National Education
Association convention voted 7,390 to 1,153 to endorse U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for president.
Reds at
NEA. The District of Columbia cell of the Communist Party USA has been revealed
as holding a monthly luncheon in the cafeteria of the National Education Association (NEA),
without the sponsorship but not with the disapproval of the huge, politically powerful
schoolteachers union.
Teacher
unions get active. School's out, but the nation's teacher unions will be
working overtime this summer to help elect John Kerry president.
Other Teacher Union
News: In March [2004], more than half of Philadelphia's middle school teachers
failed their content exams for certification as "highly qualified" teachers. Nearly
two of every three teachers who took the math exam failed it, though one teacher who
achieved a perfect score said the test "mostly included seventh- and eighth-grade math
and touched on high school math."
Called to the
Principal's Office: The nation's largest teachers' union may soon
come to regret the educational-policy buzzwords "accountability" and "testing."
Captive
Democrats: About 28 percent of the delegates and alternates to the
Democratic convention were members of the AFL-CIO or the National Education
Association. This is unrepresentative of the population of the whole — only
about 15 percent of the work force belongs to unions. Nor is it representative
of union members themselves, many of whom have been forced to join unions against
their will to hold a job. While the labor leadership is almost unanimously
Democratic, 40 percent of union voters supported the GOP in 1994.
The Gathering: You
may be under the impression that teachers teach because they are "called in life" to help
build a better society. Hearing this suggestion, one union representative said, "That
is only for public distribution." They put up with these undisciplined,
uncontrollable [illegitimates] for the money.
Oklahoma Teacher Salaries Compare Favorably to
Other States: In May 2003 the National Education Association reported Oklahoma is "47th in the
nation in public school teacher pay." Unfortunately, Oklahoma's efforts on behalf of elementary and
secondary school teachers are rarely put into proper perspective. When differences in tax burden, living
costs, employee benefits, and working conditions are taken into account, Oklahoma teacher salaries actually
compare favorably to teacher salaries in other states, as well as to salaries of other workers in Oklahoma.
The Education Costa
Nostra: Since the job of unions is to accumulate leverage and money, they've fought President
Bush and Rod Paige on every meaningful education reform they've proposed.
ACLJ Letter to
the National Education Association: The purpose of this letter is to
formally object to your recommendations to parents and teachers regarding the anniversary
of the terrorist attacks of one year ago included on your "Remember September 11th"
website. In particular, we take issue with your advice for parents and
teachers: "Do not suggest any group is responsible." The problem with this
advice is that there is a group responsible, and we know who that group is - an
organization of radical Islamic terrorists called al-Qaeda. By advising
teachers not to suggest that any group is responsible, you both shortchange our children's
education and risk undermining our nation's effort to eradicate terrorists and prevent
further terrorist attacks.
Reforming
education against all odds: Teachers unions recoil from accountability and
resent evidence that all is not well, or that whatever is wrong cannot be cured by
increased funding of current practices. But per-pupil spending, adjusted for
inflation, is three times what it was 40 years ago, and the pupil-teacher ratio is
40 percent lower, yet reading scores are essentially unchanged.
NEA
confirms spending audits: The National Education Association has confirmed
that the Labor Department as well as the Internal Revenue Service are investigating whether
the 2.7 million-member school union properly reported millions of dollars in political
spending.
Teachers
Unions: Are the Schools Run for Them? Public education is the most
expensive "gift" that most Americans will ever receive. Government school
systems are increasingly coercive and abusive both of parents and students. Government
schools in hundreds of cities, towns, and counties have been effectively taken over by
unions, and children are increasingly exploited, thwarted, and stymied for the
benefit of organized labor.
Let unions pay for their own
business. We could buy a stack of textbooks three times higher than the
tallest building in Denver with what we're paying teachers for union leave days.
IRS Audits Nation's Top Teachers'
Union. The IRS is auditing the nation's largest teachers union, scrutinizing an organization
that works energetically to elect candidates but files tax returns reporting zero political expenditures
from member dues.
Smash
the NEA. The Internal Revenue Service is auditing the nation's largest
teachers union — one that works energetically to elect candidates, lobbies the Congress
on legislation, but files tax returns reporting zero political expenditures from member dues.
Complaint: Teacher's
union evading taxes. Alleges NEA failed to report properly on
money spent for political activity.
Hopefully
WEA is next in line for an IRS audit. Headlines around the
nation announced today that the National Education Association is being audited
by the IRS for reporting "zero" political expenditures on its tax forms, even
though the union spends millions each election cycle to elect candidates
and influence policy.
Teacher
Unions Crush Philanthropy and Volunteerism. In October [2003], the
Mayor of Detroit and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm turned away
a $200 million gift offered to create 15 small charter high schools in Detroit.
Activists Rally Against
NEA. The resolution culminates years of pro-homosexual actions by the NEA, an
association for public school teachers that unwaveringly lobbies for liberal causes, which
ultimately reach our children in the classroom.
NEA Backs Away from "Gay History
Month". While they repealed their overt support for recognizing a "Lesbian and
Gay History Month" and "sexual orientation education," the resolutions they passed in their
place use different words to say exactly the same thing!
NEA Wastes Money on
Washington PR Firm. Instead of paying a big PR firm to tell NEA leadership that
a Gay and Lesbian History Month is a bad idea, the NEA leadership could have listened to the
over 20,000 letters and phone calls that inundated the organization's national office after
Concerned Women for America launched a massive campaign to alert the public of NEA's
passage of the controversial resolution.
Teachers
Union Scandal in the Nation's Capital: Once again we find
that a vocal critic of Enron is embarrassed by scandal in her own ranks.
Washington
State Think Tank Takes on the NEA: This past April, [2002], the Evergreen
Freedom Foundation sued the National Education Association (NEA) for illegally using
member dues to influence state electoral politics.
The
looters liberals ignore: Peter Jennings and the New York Times couldn't
get enough of the looting stories out of Iraq. But they couldn't care less about
a massive, systematic looting scheme here at home that is robbing America's schoolchildren
and rank-and-file teachers blind.
Reactionary
unions: [I]t is insufficient that the public schools should
be public. More to the point is that they should teach.
Education Lobby Cited as Primary
Cause of Teacher Shortage: NEA gives more
weight to "Education" degree than to professional qualifications.
Gary, Indiana, cancels
school amid strike. Officials on Thursday [8/24/2006] indefinitely canceled classes citywide
after teachers, striking for a fourth day, blocked streets and swarmed a car attempting to park at an
elementary school. Two picketers were slightly hurt as the car rolled through the crowd.
Teacher strikes are illegal and poorly
timed: Even if teacher strikes were legal (they are not), the timing of the union's latest demands
(cost-of-living increases plus ten percent and expanded health benefits) is poor and unprofessional.
Washington's
education establishment: According to The Washington Times
and D.C. Watch, the FBI, IRS,
Department of Labor and the D.C. Inspector General's Office have been looking into
suspected criminal conduct by officers of the Washington Teachers Union.
Teachers Union
Being Prosecuted for Illegally Spending Fees: The nation's largest teachers union is being
prosecuted for illegally using fees paid by non-members for political purposes.
Hawaii Teacher Union Sued for Violating Professors' Civil
Rights: University of Hawaii employee files case to stop the illegal seizure of dues
spent for politics.
Christian Educator Perturbed by NEA's
Post-Sept. 11 Stance: Dr. Robert Simonds, president of the National Association of Christian
Educators, says American schoolchildren should be warned about the severe threat that Islam poses to their
country. "We are at war with the Muslims. We are at war with right and wrong. We are at war
with evil. And we are war with that Islamic religion because that's the religion that specifically names
the Jew and the Christians to be destroyed," Simonds says. "So how can anybody say that it's not going
to harm our children?"
No-fault
Terrorism? NEA-linked article says not to "suggest any group is responsible"
for 9-11 attacks.
Moral
disarmament: The National Education Association has weighed in with
suggestions to guide teachers on the first anniversary of the terror attacks. "Do not
suggest," the NEA advises, "that any group is responsible. Do not repeat the speculations
of others, including newscasters. Blaming … is especially difficult in terrorist
situations because someone is at fault." Well, yes, someone is always at fault. And
unless those "someones" are right-wing radio hosts, liberals just hate to see them
blamed for anything.
NEA execs
collect 8 times teacher pay: A public-policy think tank says the leadership
of the National Education Association, the country's top teachers' union, is so far
removed from ordinary classroom environments they can no longer relate to the tasks
facing working-class teachers.
The
NEA: Let the Indoctrination Begin! The one-year anniversary of the
September 11 attacks is only weeks away, and the National Education Association
is all revved up and ready to help public school teachers indoctrinate
malleable young minds.
Some of the NEA Resolutions Passed at 2002 Convention in Dallas:
[The NEA] "believes that closed public school buildings should be sold or leased only to those organizations
that do not provide direct educational services to students and/or are not in direct competition with
public schools." [This shows that the NEA is protecting its education monopoly and
suppressing competition.]
Decoding the (1999) NEA
Resolutions: Because so many NEA resolutions are written in a jargon that obscures
their real purpose, here is a glossary to explain what some terms really mean.
NEA
Slapped With $800,000 Fine for Misappropriating Union Dues: The
National Education Association is crying foul play after a Washington state
judge slapped the country's largest teachers union with an $800,000 fine for failing
to show up for court on charges that it was illegally spending members' dues on politics.
Evergreen Freedom Foundation President Bob Williams testified June 20 in front of
Congress that the NEA's treatment of members "may be the last institutionalized
civil rights violation remaining in our nation."
Union
Called the Shots on Democrats' Agenda: A complaint, filed with the
Internal Revenue Service on July 20, [2001] alleges not only that the NEA extensively
coordinated campaign activities with the Democratic National Committee but also — despite
reporting zero spending for political activities — that the teacher union used millions of
dollars of tax-exempt funds for political purposes.
Union Hid
Political Spending, Suit Charges: The 2.7 million members of the
National Education Association apparently get a terrific bargain for their membership
dues: Political clout at no expense.
North
Carolina Concerned About Teacher's Union: The more-than-cozy
relationship between the North Carolina Association of Educators
and the Democratic Party should be a matter of concern for the
parents of this state's youngsters. One problem, of course, is
that the NCAE and the National Education Association have consistently
adopted positions on social and political issues which
are far to the left of mainstream.
Pro-Family Leaders Continue to Rip National
Educators' Union: The NEA's guidelines for commemorating the September 11 terrorist attacks have
been called "outrageous," "un-American," "pro-terrorist," and "treasonist" by critics. The suggestions
that no individual or group be blamed for the attack — and that America is to blame — have
been subjected to harsh criticism.
Local
schools? Don't make me laugh! As parents prepare to send their children
back to school, more and more of them at some point discover that their local school board has
no control whatever over what is taught in their schools. They discover that the schools
are controlled by a combination of the teacher's unions and the federal government.
Socrates
and the School Fraud: Over two thousand years ago, Socrates told us
that if someone started charging money for teaching the youth things that are well
known to virtually every adult in the society, it would be fraud. Today, that fraud is
well established in our country. Schooling has been taken over and adulterated by
government for political purposes and enforced by laws of compulsion. It has been
corrupted by teacher unions that keep well educated people out of the public schools
by requiring the teachers to be not only "certified" but union members. Those
requirements guarantee that only mediocre caliber people will work in
the government-run schools.
In Search of… the "Certified"
Teacher: It is a farce and a fraud when teachers' unions talk about a need for "certified"
teachers, when certification has such low requirements and when uncertified teachers often have
higher qualifications.
WEA orders teachers and their representatives
to be quiet, or else… After an annual arbitration hearing last week, the Washington
Education Association (WEA) drafted a retroactive "gag order" for staff of the Evergreen Freedom
Foundation (EFF) and several other individuals. The order, signed by attorneys from the WEA and an
American Arbitration Association arbitrator, attempts to prohibit teachers and their representatives from
ever talking about what took place at the union's hearing.
Complaint accuses NEA of misusing
funds to aid DNC: The National Education Association concealed its use of millions of dollars in
tax-exempt teachers' dues and fees for political activities, primarily for Democratic candidates and causes,
according to a complaint filed yesterday [4/22/2002] by the Landmark Legal Foundation.
School
Boards: Tainted By Liberal, Union Bias? Eighty percent of school board members in a recent
survey describe themselves as either moderate or conservative, with only 15.9 percent owning up to a
liberal philosophy. Yet many conservatives believe school boards have lost sight of their
mission -- to serve the interests of kids, parents and the public. The National School Boards
Association (NSBA), which conducted the nationwide survey, and many of the nation's school boards
individually, have fought school choice reforms like charter schools and vouchers.
Time
for outrage! In exchange for NEA money and votes, Democrat
politicians will not allow consequential school reforms to take place. Only
an informed and outraged people can change this.
NEA: Warping
young minds. Between them, the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers
(NEA's ideological twin) represent upward of 85 percent of the nation's public school
teachers. In terms of shaping the content of public education, the NEA is more powerful
than all the school committees and education boards in the land.
NEA
"Will Not Back Away" From Homosexuality Issue: The
head of the nation's biggest teachers union Thursday denied the union had backed away
from a proposal to seek a greater emphasis on teaching about homosexuality in public schools.
Pro-Family
Groups Attack NEA's Alleged Homosexual Agenda: Conservatives
are stepping up their efforts to thwart the National Education Association's
expected push to teach homosexuality in public schools.
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"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the
weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage
payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of many by encouraging class hatred. You
cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending
more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative
and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should
do for themselves."
- Abraham Lincoln
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