Rank-and-file teachers speak truth to prog power
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” – Thomas Jefferson
Since my days as a columnist for the Seattle Times, I’ve profiled courageous public school educators who have challenged the compulsory dues racket of their teachers’ unions. Here’s my 1999 column on how public school teachers in Washington state challenged their union over their political dues power grab. Here are your rights as a union worker. Here is a backgrounder on the permissible use of forced dues. As I wrote on Labor Day last year, free speech not only means the freedom to voice your political views, but also the freedom from being forced to pay for someone else’s. U.S. Supreme Court precedent established by the D.C.-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation guarantees the right to full financial disclosure from a union and a right to challenge the figures in court if they disagree.
On Sean Hannity’s Fox News television show last night, one of those brave teachers from the state of Ohio exposed how her union siphoned off her dues ($700 a year) to attack her husband, a GOP state legislative candidate whom the left-wing Ohio Education Association opposed:
You’ll recall that I shared Thompson’s plight last October:
I’m Jade Thompson and my husband, Andy Thompson, is running for the Ohio House of Representatives. I am a teacher at Marietta High School. Imagine my chagrin when my friends and colleagues began showing me the awful attack ads against my husband which they had received in the mail. Now imagine my dismay when I saw that those defamatory mailers were paid for by the Ohio Education Association – my teachers’ union. In effect, they are using my union dues to attack my husband! This is a new low, even for the OEA.
There was a recent letter to the editor about AEP withdrawing its support from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce because the chamber made a political endorsement. The writer found it “inappropriate and shameful” for that organization to ignore its members. I wonder if she would say the same for the OEA, an organization that endorses the most liberal candidates in the field and which month after month promotes progressive causes and programs in its member newsletter. Are Ohio’s teachers that unanimously liberal or does our union simply not represent our views at all? If teachers are representative of the larger voting public then you would expect that our political views would be just as diverse.
Teachers should be free to spend their hard-earned dollars to contribute to the candidates and causes they actually support. The OEA and its parent organization, the NEA, refuse to acquiesce because they have an obvious agenda. After all, as the general counsel for the NEA once said in federal court, “if you take away payroll deduction, you won’t collect a penny from these people, and it has nothing to do with voluntary or involuntary. I think it has to do with the nature of the beast, and the beasts who are our teachers … (They) simply don’t come up with the money regardless of the purpose.” Teachers, this is what your union thinks of you.
Jade Thompson is not alone. Across the country, there are thousands and thousands of teachers disgusted with the monopoly power-tripping of public employee unions whose politics they abhor.
Reader and teacher Mike Bennett of California writes:
Dear Michelle,
I am a public school teacher for the Yucaipa/Calimesa School District in Southern California.
Since November of 2008 I have been trying to get some answers from the California Teachers Association as to how my dues are spent and why they continue to support the Democratic Party and paganistic liberal causes and propositions. I have been promised both responses from the President and Controller of the CTA yet have never received any!
I have continued to complain to my local union president and she keeps forwarding my complaints to the CTA. I have e-mailed the CTA asking what are the salaries of the employees of the CTA?
Again I get no response.
I have just sent a letter of complaint to the state controller (endorsed by the CTA), asking him to investigate the CTA. I don’t know if I will get much help from him either.
I wanted you to know that there are many teachers who do not want their money funneled from their check to support causes they are diametrically opposed to.
Reader and teacher Sondra Barnes shared her letter to Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker:
Dear Gov. Walker:
I am so sorry you are getting pounded by those teachers, students and unions. As a teacher in California, I got into trouble with the unions myself when I only asked a simple question.
I repeatedly tell everybody I know that they are crazy to give any more money to education/teachers/teacher’s unions. Here in Los Angeles, all we do is throw money at education and here we are at the bottom in the country. We only graduate 40% of our high school students and they can’t even read, do not know history or math, and more importantly cannot do any critical thinking.
What I see in the Los Angeles classrooms is pretty much just ideological brainwashing by a huge majority of their teachers– and yes, teaching their students to protest and to march. In my humble opinion, this is child abuse.
Please stand strong and do not let these union thugs beat you down. So many of us stand behind you.
Sondra Barnes, Van Nuys, CA
From the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal, a telling chart on the Wisconsin Education Association Council’s political priorities and clout:
And this:
On top of being one of the state’s most dominant political forces, with an ability to influence legislation and elections, Wisconsin’s teachers unions have a direct effect on teacher quality through the role they play in local contract negotiations and representation of teachers targeted for improvement or dismissal.
By adhering to pay schedules that fail to distinguish between low- and high-performing teachers, protecting ineffective teachers from dismissal and fighting for work rules that provide more benefits for their members than for children, teachers unions stand in the way of improving the profession, critics argue.
…According to figures from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, WEAC’s political action committee has spent more than $9 million in unlimited independent expenditures on behalf of political candidates between 1998 and 2008, with only $17,136 of that amount spent to help a single Republican candidate – one who was challenging a GOP Assembly incumbent.
In the November elections, the WEAC political action committee spent nearly $1.5 million to help Democrats in just four state Senate races, only to see three of them lose.
Higher-ed employee Jason Hart exposes where Ohio teachers’ dues money goes:
Who but a union would insist merit pay is the wrong way to encourage hard work and reward the best educators? That anyone capable of enduring several years as a teacher should have a job for life, with longevity raises on top? That charter schools and vouchers should never be tried? As with AFSCME Council 8 & Local 11, the OEA stands between Ohioans and the services our tax dollars fund.
Exciting OEA Facts, Fiscal 2009* $22,771,159 paid to union officers and staff — equal to $176.71 per member
* 143 union employees paid more than $70,000
* 117 union employees paid more than $100,000
* 12 union employees paid more than $150,000
* Executive Director Larry Wicks paid $208,469
* Executive Director Dennis Reardon paid $202,997
* $8,151,341 spent on benefits — less than 36% of the amount disbursed to union officers and staff
* $25,000 given to Policy Matters Ohio, a far-left Cleveland think-tank (09/23/2008)
* $10,000 sent to Colorado education union (10/17/2008)
* $10,000 sent to Oregon education union (10/27/2008)The OEA also found $1,614,690 in the couch cushions to donate to Democrat campaigns in the 2010 cycle, according to records from the Secretary of State.
It comes to this: should we buy the OEA’s sales pitch about outsized union influence being the route to effective education? Or should we resist demands to further increase taxes, disassemble the union machine, and allow teachers, parents, and school districts to make their own decisions? This is what an attorney might call a leading question.
More from Jason on Ohio’s Senate Bill 5 here.
***
I’ve linked it before, but it’s well worth revisiting Mike Antonucci’s investigation of where $13 million in NEA dues go:
An Education Intelligence Agency analysis of NEA’s financial disclosure report for the 2009-10 fiscal year reveals the national union contributed more than $13 million to a wide variety of advocacy groups and charities. The total was about half the amount disbursed in the previous year, though more than in 2007-08.
The expenditures fall into broad categories of community outreach grants, charitable contributions, and payments for services rendered. In this list, EIA has deliberately omitted spending such as media buys, or payments to pollsters or consultants that have no obvious ideological component. The grants range from $2.125 million to a California ballot initiative campaign, down to smaller grants to organizations such as People for the American Way, Media Matters and Netroots Nation.
Here is an alphabetic list of the 130 recipients of NEA’s contributions, with relevant web links. All of these were paid for with members’ dues money (the union’s federal PAC is a separate entity funded through voluntary means):
AFL-CIO – $150,000
AFSCME – $90,000
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity – $33,000
America Votes – $300,000
American Constitution Society – $15,000
American Federation of Teachers – $28,365
Arizona State University Office for Research & Sponsored Projects Administration – $325,000
Asian American Justice Center – $7,500
Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund – $5,000
Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies – $5,000
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance – $5,000
Baptist Center for Ethics – $20,000
Campaign for America’s Future – $15,000
Campaign for College Affordability – $25,000
Center for Economic Organizing – $13,200
Center for Independent Media – $5,000
Center for Law and Education – $25,000
Center for Tax and Budget Accountability – $60,000
Center for Teaching Quality – $230,767
Center for U.S. Global Leadership – $10,000
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association – $50,000
Children’s Defense Fund – $5,000
Citizens United for Maine’s Future – $25,000
Citizens Who Support Maine’s Public Schools – $250,000
Coalition for Our Communities – $625,000
Coloradans for Responsible Reform – $400,000
Colorado Deserves Better -$50,000
Committee for Education Funding – $25,000
Committee on States – $6,500
Communities for Quality Education – $1 million
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. – $8,800
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute – $50,000
Council of Chief State School Officers – $50,000
Council of State Governments – $34,500
Democracy Alliance – $85,000
Economic Policy Institute – $250,000
Education Commission of the States – $50,000
Education Law Center – $5,000
Educational Policy Institute – $5,000
Educator Compensation Institute – $25,000
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate – $200,000
Emerge America – $5,000
Employee Benefit Research Institute – $7,500
Everybody Wins DC – $8,000
Excelencia in Education – $47,400
FairDistrictsFlorida.org – $250,000
FairTest – $25,000
Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute – $10,000
Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network – $5,000
Global Institute for Language and Literacy Development – $10,000
Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice – $250,000
Harvard Labor and Worklife Program – $5,000
Health Care for America Now! – $450,000
HEROS, Inc. – $202,835
HOPE (Yes on SQ 744) – $1,758,000
Human Rights Campaign – $15,000
Jobs with Justice – $15,000
Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy – $12,230
KnowledgeWorks Foundation – $75,000
Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State – $5,000
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights – $15,000
Learning First Alliance – $91,199
Lincoln Center Institute – $50,000
Mana – $25,000
MediaMatters – $100,000
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund – $25,000
Midwest Academy – $5,000
Missourians for Early Vote – $41,000
NAACP – $5,000
National Action Network – $10,000
National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans – $5,000
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund – $12,500
National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification – $5,000
National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents – $5,000
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation – $15,000
National Conference of State Legislatures – $64,043
National Congress of American Indians – $10,000
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education – $381,576
National Council of La Raza – $26,500
National Forum on Information Literacy – $5,000
National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts – $10,000
National Indian Education Association – $50,000
National Latino Children’s Institute – $15,000
National Popular Vote – $5,000
National Public Pension Coalition – $90,375
National Staff Development Council – $25,000
National Urban League – $33,700
National Women’s Law Center – $10,000
Netroots Nation – $15,000
New Democratic Network – $25,000
New Organizing Institute – $65,000
New Teacher Center – $325,000
No on 1033 – $328,600
Organizations Concerned About Rural Education – $5,000
Organization of Chinese Americans – $5,000
Partnership for 21st Century Skills – $61,350
People for the American Way – $64,538
Plan!t Now – $25,000
Progress Now – $60,000
Progress Ohio – $50,000
Project New West – $185,000
Protect Colorado’s Communities – $25,000
Rainbow PUSH Coalition – $5,000
Rebuild America’s Schools – $10,000
Republican Main Street Partnership – $25,000
Ripon Society – $10,000
Robert Russa Moton Museum – $50,000
Roosevelt Institute – $5,000
San Diego Public Library Foundation – $5,000
Stop the Gag Law – $350,000
Task Force Foundation – $5,000
Trans Afro Group of Companies – $7,600
Tribal Education Departments National Assembly – $5,000
United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce – $30,000
U.S. Action – $70,000
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition – $35,000
U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute – $26,447
Vote Yes for Oregon – $200,000
Voter Activation Network – $9,500
WAND Education Fund – $15,000
Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation – $166,666
Washington Families Standing Together – $15,000
Wellesley Centers for Women – $6,151
Wellstone Action! – $47,532
Will Steger Foundation – $15,000
Win Minnesota Political Action Fund – $50,000
Women’s Campaign Forum – $10,000
Yes on 100 – $50,000
Yes on 24 – The Tax Fairness Act – $2,125,000
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Might I assume the cushions were actually requisitioned November 3rd 2010?
This is the most important point and why the unions are going to the mat in WI.
Gut the union funding snd you gut the Commun, er Democrat Party.
What was once symbiotic has become parasitic.
Subsidize the lazy and dishonest, the political hack and buffoon and you end up with lots of the lazy and dishonest, the political hack and buffoons.
For generations we have heard “more money for schools” and seen a decline in education. It is a whole industry of teachers, administrators and suppliers reaping what they do not sow.
These bums want for civil service AND union protection; a form of double dipping to say the least. The National Education Association is a Welfare Queen.
Let’s not forget the biggest spender in the 2010 elections according to the Center for Responsive Politics….
AFSCME at $87,500,000
1,600,000 members at about $54 each.
Yes, but the biggest issues for the unions are the provisions to require re-certification votes every year, and to stop the automatic payroll deductions of dues from wages. When members have to cut a check every month for their dues, and vote every year to re-certify their union, it won’t be long before enough of them decide the union just isn’t worth it.
THAT scares the bejeezus out of the unions.
“Here is an alphabetic list of the 130 recipients of NEA’s contributions, with relevant web links.”
Or The Compendium of Sleaze as ‘we’ like to call it? $700 bucks a YEAR! Wow, roughly a week’s pay for most Americans. Yield unto Caesar…
It’s the same mentality everywhere in education: Throw money at the problem and it will go away. This is NOT the solution.
When my son was due to start Kindergarten, we toured our neighborhood school. It was big and modern with brand new computers and the latest technology. However, this was a school in which over 66% of the students qualified for the “reduced lunch” program (mind you, lunch is already only $1.50) and free breakfast was available daily for all students.
Here’s where the money-throwing mentality comes in. This school gets extra money each year because of the surrounding poor neighborhood… and even with that big modern building and all that technology, they could only achieve a “C” grade as a whole (this is in Florida where they grade schools based on FCAT scores).
I understand that teachers can only do so much with the resources they are given. The parents actually have to give a hoot if their kids do well or not. This tells me the parents at this school were uninvolved. I didn’t want my kid there.
I did the footwork and applied to the Magenet Program and got him into one of the best schools in the city (albeit a public school) that has been an “A” school for 10+ years now and doesn’t get that extra money for all the poverty but has solid parent involvement – even a Dad’s group that builds everything on campus. I was lucky. Not everyone gets their first choice.
Anyway, my point is that you CANNOT fix education until you fix the PARENTS. You can’t fix the parents until you get rid of the entitlement programs that keep them from setting a positive example.
Mo money does not equal mo bettah.
The unions are scared to death the cash cow will run dry.
I think I will make myself a new bumper sticker…”If you can read this, thank your parents for home schooling!”
Mark Levin said (sic) last night that he believes the number are as follows:
+50% of teachers are Republican
+90% of political contributions are Democratic
I like Pat Cadell’s outlook on private sector unions is that if the Corporations are the evil ones to the private unions, then the taxpayer must be the evil ones in the public sector unions.
“If the union-instigated protesters had any intellectual honesty, they would have chanted, “Alinsky, Unsustainable Deficits, Greed, Union!”
( Rachel Alexander, Townhall )
And I’m good w/ that.
I thought Jade Thompson handled herself very well.
Screen: WE ARE THE PROG. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. FROM NOW ON, YOU WILL SERVICE US.
Fire all weapons.
Boy, that list sure doesn’t reflect any agenda does it? Thanks for keeping on top of all this Michelle, it’s mind boggling!
“Teachers against Democracy!”
“Elections have Consequences we don’t like!”
“Teachers for Medical Fraud!”
As a citizen of Ohio, none of the teachers’ union excesses are news. But it is good to see the corruption being exposed. As the light shines on things that thrive in the darkness you will see lots of creepy things scurrying.
At the same time that these teacher unions are fighting tooth and nail, I would like to see a new bill and the debate focus once again on school vouchers and the gradual privatization of schools… what have we got to lose? obviously the public school system is a colossal failure, not only in regards to the high costs of teachers and administrators pay and benefits, but also in regards to educating our children.
I can’t get my mind past forced membership and forced dues to worry about what gets done with them.
We finally got our son out of public education during a strike here in town at the beginning of the school year. I’m hoping when our youngest gets old enough that we’ll be able to keep them both in private schooling. There are worlds and worlds of difference.
Also, if anyone has thought about putting your child into a private school, try it! It’s expensive, but they were willing to work with us on payments, so it came together.
Man I hope Walker is successful. The public educators have been on a dumb down for awhile, and passing it on to the kids. And like The Great One would say, “Of course there are good teachers! You know what I mean!”
And to think that at one time I wanted to become a teacher. Thankfully I have my son in a charter school.
It is more than just entitlements. There are many systemic issues that feed each other. For instance, if the administration would back the teachers so they could give an “F” and hold children back in school, it would certainly force the parents at least to think a bit about their child(ren)’s education.
If many children are dropping out of school in parts of our country, at least have them do it because it is a challenge which forces them to learn.
On one hand, the parents and the administration have no regard for the teacher, and then the teacher becomes this dull cynic who just goes along to get along. On the other hand, we cannot get rid of the bad teachers that drag good teachers down because of union concessions. It is a big mess.
Most of these problems are not present in parochial & private school systems. This is why the voucher program is so scary for the public system. Most private & parochial schools get by with a quarter of the per child monies and still score generally higher than public schools. What would happen if tuition at a private school went from $2500 to $500 with vouchers? You wouldn’t be able to get in the door, the demand would be so high. Check out Hong Kong, which has NO PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. Competition between private schools forces excellence. / end soapbox
Lets see…
Stop the Gag Law – $350k.
Arizona State University Office for Research & Sponsored Projects Administration – $325k.
New Teacher Center – $325k.
Economic Policy Institute – $250k.
Yes on 24 – The Tax Fairness Act – $2,125k.
Health Care for America Now! – $450k.
HEROS, Inc. – $202k.
HOPE (Yes on SQ 744) – $1,758k.
Have a look at what the mission statements are for some of these places –
it reads like a thrid-graders faked book reporter… a politicians inagural speech.If you look at these top donations it’s pretty easy to see what is important to these bums:
Support the causes that will pay us back as much as possible and empower a racket where we all ride the gravy train at the expense of any moral standards or values of the society at large.
Note that the American public is not so easily hoodwinked. Both of the measures CA Prop 24 and OK SQ 744 were defeated. Now that is a financial misjudgement by those that approved the disbursements to support (well it’s just other peoples money after all…) All this tells me these are the same people who run our government.
The rise of teachers’ unions has coincided with the decline in the quality of the educational system’s product.
Now, that’s an oversimplification, because there are also other factors involved: increased rate of illegitimacy, rising presence of illegal aliens, decreased assimilation of ethnic “minorities”, delocalization of school control, increasing governmental interference, among others.
But the one thing common to all those problems is that they’re a direct reflection and result of liberal ideology, and the failures of liberalism when practiced.
Teaching is a noble profession, or at least it can be. The problem is not primarily with teachers, many of whom are hard working, well qualified, dedicated folk. The problem is that their unions have evolved (along with most government employee unions) boyond any meaningful representation of their members, to become just left-leaning, self-serving political power brokers.
Just heard on CNBC that about 90% of Americans’ income continues to decline or stagnate. The public employee unions are one of the main reasons but they claim to be fighting for the survival of the middle class.
That argument needs to be debunked. I’ve heard it used at least four times this morning (together with “it’s for the children”). They are among the 10% of the “wealthy” pulling away from the “poor”, not the oppressed middle class. They are funding the entrenched criminal class of elected weasels.
Couldn’t agree more. I have two points:
Firstly, if unionized, public education is the paragon of excellence, what have they to fear from private schools? They should welcome the competition so they have the opportunity to demonstrate their clear superiority.
Secondly, my daughter attended private schools in Australia, where there is a fiercely competitive education market. My wife was a nurse in a public (therefore forced-union) school, and also volunteered at my daughter’s (non-union) schools. She was therefore in a position to compare and contrast. The public school classrooms were filthy and could only be described as bedlam, with hapless teachers competing with cell phones, iPods, and students who plainly didn’t give a damn. The private classrooms were clean, orderly, quiet, attentive, and respectful of the teacher. Bad public-school teachers hung on like lingering death, while private-school recruitment errors were corrected quickly and quietly. Public schools had to take all comers, and had no way to deal with disruptive, anti-social children. Private schools did not have to tolerate the bad actors, who would be summarily sent on their way.
We weren’t by any means rich, but the competition among private schools kept the fees affordable, and a surprising number of our daughter’s classmates were the children of public school teachers.
I think that model worked quite well, and can see no reason (apart from the shameful union/politician nexus) why it shouldn’t be adopted here.
Wow…I’m with “Cathy B in AZ:” We all know the NEA is driven by a far-left worldview and ideology, but you don’t really realize the extent of it until you see how their members’ dues are spent. It’s a litany of leftist causes and organizations that they help fund. This unholy alliance between the Democrat party and public-sector unions must be dismantled, and I think the wheels have been set in motion.
We put won WWII and put men on the moon with a generation educated in non-unionized one-room school houses. Our education system is not in decline for lack of money for paying teachers and their solid gold pensions and benefits. The money has mostly been re-directed into the political system.
Unions used to be good, then they became necessary evils, now they are just worthless. Thank God Florida is a right to work state!
Big unions (I will NOT use the word “Labor” – it doesn’t even come close to describing their activities) made a big mistake overplaying their hand and are now finally going to pay for it big time. If they had just kept quiet, they could have kept the lion’s share of their racket going even as everybody else had to tighten their belt. Now they have forfeited the sympathy, the respect and the support of even the most ardent honest union supporters and they will be lucky – lucky indeed, if they keep their abdicated careers
Hmm, looks to me like the union dues are way too high, if the unions have enough left over to waste so much on political causes.
Not to mention that the union leadership are making way more than the average dues-payer.
Public HS science teacher here in a little rural ND town.
Our school is better than most & I attribute that only to the fact that the community is very religious & for the most part ride their kids’ butts to do well in school.
But we are experiencing an influx of ‘outsiders’ who do not share our way of life.
Couple that with extremely incompetent admin. (suptd + principal), a few worthless teachers (we actually have some very good ones here overall) & federal mandates & we are declining.
ND is a right to work state, as I have said here at MM the other day.
Our school is aged & falling apart, is filthy bcs the school cannot keep janitors employed, wasteful in spending, etc.
I have often been pressured to ‘pass’ students. I refuse.
I also refuse to dumb down my curriculum.
In ND we are relatively free to plan our instruction around loose state standards. This gives us a lot of flexibility.
I think the big city schools here in ND are under a lot more pressure bcs that is where you get these kids who simply refuse to learn.
NCLB is a complete waste of time bcs you cannot expect everybody to be proficient in everything. It isn’t possible.
Parents, as well as teachers, communities, & admin need to do their jobs better.
We stopped feeding breakfast bcs there were not enough kids eating.
So there is some saved $$.
I spend $$ in my dept like it was my own. And since I am a landowner & taxpayer in this county, it sorta is like my own.
I do not need fancy things to teach science.
I do not need cutting edge DNA technology to isolate DNA particles or study the electromagnetic spectrum, etc.
I do not even really need textbooks with the internet.
There is SO MUCH $$ to be saved. And no one tries.
Saw this yesterday on a site (can’t remember which one).
You might be a member of a public union if you pay more in union dues than you pay for your own health insurance.
Oh so true!!!
Maybe with the extra time the Democrats are giving the WI legislature, they could add a clause to prohibit the use of union dues for political causes without consent of each member. One solution would be to give each member the voice of empowering the union to spend X dollars per member or for each member to receive X dollars to spend on their own. Or just have a separate fund based on member donations for political spending.
And BTW-VOUCHERS & a SPECIFICALLY define merit pay.
This is the only way to set bad schools apart from the good ones.
We already have kids moving around in ND from school A to B in search of better conditions.
It is harder here bcs of the rural landscape, but parents are doing it.
There is no enterprise, no service, no industry, no undertaking, no public profession that has not had its core values undermined and or its purpose hijacked once unionised. Political funding by unions of leftist organisations and Democrat politicians who in turn repay the unions with your tax dollars through collective bargaining and sweetheart deals has been destroying this great republic. The ordinary people are at last starting to awake to the fraud that has been perpetrated upon them since JFK permitted the unionisation of public servants. One need look no further than the Obamacare waivers to the unions that were instrumental in its passing. All citizens are equal but union citizens are more equal than others.
darthmore,
“what have we got to lose? obviously the public school system is a colossal failure”
Agreed. I’ll propose an experiment: Pick random students out of public schools and place them head-to-head w/ children that have never set FOOT in a school. No ed. whatsoever.
Then see how they test against those that have attended Pub. While I’ve no doubt the one group would fare better, I’m willing to bet the differences wouldn’t be all that dramatic?
Kids learn most of what they know from other kids. Hanging out etc. The disparity between the two would be a measure of ‘success’ of the Public School System. Prepare to be underwhelmed.
***
Good job, Michelle–you must not get a lot of sleep these days. This is really a “target rich” environment.
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The list of what union member’s dues are spent for is truly obscene. MALDEF, Jessie Jackson’s shakedown organizations, etc.
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This money should be invested in safe investments to provide better retirement money for the teachers. Not wasted to support liberal / socialist / statist / marxist / communist agendas and groups.
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Jimmy Hoffa (deceased) would be proud of these crooks. Community organizing (aka theft) at it’s finest.
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John Bibb
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This is so funny. Socialists rob other people with abandon yet cling tenaciously to the booty when the owners come to claim it. The party is over Che lovers. The real workers are wise to your scam. It was a nice run though.
The American Left don’t understand it yet, but they soon will.
My oldest child has spent a total of 3 years in the normal public school system. He was the top student in his grade. After a miserable experience with a poor teacher at the elementary level, we transferred him to a magnet back-to-basics school. He struggled for a year and then took the challenge and again became the best. Now he and the rest of my kids are going to charter or private schools. We find the sacrifice of luxuries to be worthy.
Teachers unions are like the so called Department of Education. Both are filthy money pits that have nothing to do with a child’s learning to be a productive member of society.
Badger40: We are with you and all other other conscientious teachers like you. Keep fighting the good fight. A good outcome (mentioned above) would be universal education vouchers. They would give parents the power to choose the best education for their children. They would give teachers like you the power to choose the best career path in the form of increased opportunities outside public education. THe only losers would be the incompetent malcontents that are draining the system.
I have a 10th grade student & she was homeschooled by her parents until the 8th grade year.
She started HS here (he father is a pastor at a church here in town).
I have asked her about ehr experiences & she says she liked homeschooling much better bcs it gave her to opportunity to learn much more, plus she said ‘we were always done with school by 11am’.
I can see this.
If I was not forced to parent other people’s children here at public school, & was actually able to spend ALL my time with them requiring learning, I could definitely get some great results.
Of course, this means that the students would be held accountable. There would be none of this blaming the school &/or teachers for not turning in HW or refusing to learn.
Watch for a new mantra called ‘core standards’.
It is the new dumbing down fad coming down the public school pike.
We all hate it.
Even the liberal teachers.
It is nothing but lowering the bar so low that no one will learn anything.
Remember that Wisconsin law mandates that Big Labor be lionized in any discussion of American or Wisconsin State history. Mandated propaganda – consider that. This is how our kids minds are manipulated early on by the Marxian Socialist machine. They place a strong emphasis on shaping our children into their image, for obvious reasons. Pure evil.
Public education reform cannot come soon enough.
Badger40
That is what I did with my kids. My only regret is that it cost my oldest child those 3 years of substandard lessons.
Michelle, your cogent point…
Free POLITICAL SPEECH is the most important kind of speech.
The TEA Party: Collective bargaining for the Tax Payer’s “union”…
Thank you. It’s nice to know there is support for us out there.
I have no fear of a voucher system.
I know I can prove my worth.
I have many parents & former students (later after graduation!) who have come to me & said they were glad they were challenged in my classes.
Children should be FAILED every time they refuse to perform.
Children who REALLY need help should be given just enough, but no more.
Special ed has turned into a huge joke.
I have kids on IEPs who are given the answers & are getting special treatment they do not deserve.
Diplomas mean very little bcs for a special ed kid, you could graduate with a 1st grade reading level through special IEPs! This is grossly unfair.
A diploma, like a college diploma, should have struict criteria.
If you cannot pass the criteria, you cannot graduate.
Simple.
Not everyone will get a diploma.
SO!?
I should be able to fail students without any problems when it can be seen that the child refuses to learn.
Ugh I get so disgusted.
I’ve only been teaching for 8 or 9 years, am 41yo, & am thinking of leaving it. If I wasn’t a ranch wife & we could afford a hired hand, I WOULD quit teaching.
You cannot imagine all of the obstacles they throw in our way.
By the way. In my experience homeschooled kids are more socially and culturally savvy than most of their public school counterparts. They are exposed to the larger world and learn, but due to the protection of friends and family, tend not to be contaminated and manipulated by it nearly as much.
LOL. No wonder the hard Left hate Tim Tebow so much.
A union using member dues to attack political candidates? say it ain’t so…
ALL public sector unions must be scrapped. Unions spending cash to elect the very politicians that will be negotiating the contracts with said unions is insane, and can no longer stand.
Well said Badger. I am 58, and this is how I was taught. What is a HS diploma worth now compared to 70 years ago?
Basic education is not rocket science and we don’t need self-important academics reinventing it every five years. Real life is full blown combat and school should be a form of boot camp for kids. Protect and nurture them but don’t coddle….
That’s funny. None of this was reported at the nyt, wapo or messnbc. As pro America as those organizations are.
Yes.
Badger,
Keep strong, girl! You have an apt moniker. I am always praying for the teachers like you.
Missouri has something like right to work also, but my friend who teaches HS History and opts out of the union says that he gets a lot of flack for not being a part of it.
Moreover, he has almost given up on the textbooks.
Interesting note: He found that the “normal” Am. History textbook has the Mayflower Compact in its entirety BUT the AP version removes the references to God. That difference has interesting implications, does it not?
Thank you for the list-Michelle-
C-CS
Agreed. I often say I wish Tim’s mom would write a book…I feel there is much I could learn from her. What a great example her son is!
I received a great lesson from my dad at a very young age. He sent me (and my siblings) to a parochial school. I attended grades 1-8 (during the ‘70’s). Once I was old enough; we talked about taxes and the reasons why we need them. He mentioned a portion of the taxes went to schooling and I asked why didn’t other kids in our neighborhood go to St. _______? Of course, he explained that the tuition for me was in addition to the taxes paid. Thought that was insane – still do.
I had to attend a public high school (I played sports and mom didn’t have a license – high school close enough to walk/ride bike); I was not allowed to take any jr. or sr. courses and got lumped in with the rest of the incoming freshmen’s curriculum. I coasted through 1-2 years of high school reviewing what I had already learned in elementary / jr high school. I felt that those years of my schooling in high school were wasted (along with my dad’s taxes).
I’d like to reiterate other’s comments about how important the parents are in education. Any homework assignment related to essays, papers, etc… had to be reviewed by mom & dad before submission. My dad would send me to the library for related book(s) to research, and to submit a re-write for his review. More often than not, the paper took on a different perspective than what was being “taught” via the ‘approved’ texts. I’m very happy for my parents’ involvement in this area and I still examine multiple sources before expressing any opinion on matters.
I am absolutely convinced that we must not waver on breaking the death grip of these unions. Once the money stops flowing like water the whole progressive cabal starts to unravel.
Michelle, your reporting on this issue is truly awesome. Every time the roaches try to scurry they run into another wall of fact. Thank you!
I see that the Indiana House Dems have followed the WI State Sen and left the state to avoid a vote
I heard in response to the Tebows, Michael Moore & his mom were going to do a Superbowl ad this year for the value of abortion.
Guess it didn’t work out.
Watching history unfold in WI, has me chuckling… The MORONS who run public sector unions in WI passed a huge opportunity to seal forever their bargaining rights… When the GOV first put forth the proposal that union members should contribute more to their health care and retirement plans, their response should have been, WHATEVER THE STATE NEEDS TO HELP GET OUT OF THIS FINANCIAL FIRESTORM IT IS IMMERSED IN!!! The increases were minute, and would not have placed a huge burden on the members, and would have saved the state MILLIONS… Thus a PR coup de’tat… However the officials chose to set this up as a killer to the “LITTLE MAN”, and have portrayed the GOV as a dictator… As history unfolds, I believe the union bosses really screwed the pooch on this one, and the results in WI will undoubtedly ring the DEATH KNELL for public employee unions across this GREAT NATION… RIP!!!
Video: The NEA’s General Counsel admitting they don’t give a rat’s behind about better schools or children’s achievement, it’s all about money and power. Note the teachers in the audience give him a standing O.
The public union salary/benefits/pension system is the biggest scam in American history. Much of the leverage , hedge fund and bubble economics of the past 12 years was funded by pension funds, that could only stay solvent by chasing returns on investment that were unrealistic, based on historical averages.
Time to put my feet up and watch the whole house of cards collapse.
Just as they gave us a 22% increase in taxes on the rich (which costs us businesses and jobs) I will work to rid Oregon of the NEA. Union Busting, busting, busting, Union Busting, busting, busting.
Agreed. They jumped the shark at Madison. From here it’s all downhill. Unions represent only 12% of American workers. Solidarity and sympathy for them is gone.
I check the nutroot planet just to see what they’re wee wee’d up about. PMSNBC/Huffy/NYT etc…Madison is already off the radar/old news. The teacher/doctor scam is going to bounce back hard, AWOL senators will have to come back and answer for contempt and malfeasance – and when the dust settles, Walker wins without giving an inch. SWEET!
I’m with you. Pop the popcorn – pull up a chair – it’s showtime!
HotAir has a story on how the Obama Administration wasted $535 Million on a Green-energy Porkulus Project. Obama and Biden promised 1,000 new jobs from the
stimuluspayoff. Now the company is closing plants and laying off employees.Imagine if that money were used to support teachers? Better yet, imagine if we didn’t need to raise taxes to support these federal scams.
Maybe Teachers, Police and Firefighters wouldn’t have to take pay cuts or have benefits increased if State and Federal governments stopped wasting taxpayer money.
Exactly!
I just explained this to my 14 year old yesterday. I used the example of how the unions really got their start in the 19th century because the “robber barons” were treating their employees poorly. I pointed out that the teachers’ union, and all public employee unions, have the taxpayers as the “robber barons.”
I’d like to have some representative from these public unions try to support the position that the taxpayers are not the “robber barons.” Of course, you’d have to get him to stay on point, then you’d have to wade through all the “civility” of being called retarded, racists, fascists, etc.
Nice to know what the teachers think of you, huh?
The REAL question that taxpayers should be asking themselves is, “How much government do I really need and what can I cut?”
The ugly truth is most taxpayers, those actually paying taxes, do not need much government. Those who are tax consumers need alot. So who needs who and who ultimately has the upper hand? (or should)
$1.5 million for lobbying? How could that money have made their lives better instead of fattening up political hogs?
Time to cast that union vote again.
This was another topic I discussed with my 14 year old. I explained that all the democrat state senators in WI fled the state so there wouldn’t be a quorum for a vote. I asked him, “How can that be considered democracy? And how dare the democrats call themselves that when they are obviously doing everything they can to avoid the democratic process?”
He wondered if the governor could call them into session as the US Constitution allows the President to do. He got it.
The problem here is that we allow people that are paid from public treasuries to vote. They should not. They will always vote to keep the pork.
I don’t have a problem with the police, fire, and military voting; they put their lives on the line for us every day. They should be entitled to vote. But all others, whether it is a paid public salary or if you just take gov’t assistance, you don’t vote.
That would solve the problem. If they want to vote, go get real job. If they want the gov’t job, they have no say in how much taxes and spending.
southpaw,
“Much of the leverage , hedge fund and bubble economics of the past 12 years was funded by pension funds, that could only stay solvent by chasing returns on investment that were unrealistic, based on historical averages”
Yahtzee! It became fashionable for the HF mgrs. to simply ask ( “What do you need to see to make your ‘plan’ pencil out?” ) 12% ? So BE it!
Nope, no chance ‘that’ could end badly huh? Great take, thanks.
Our schools are in the dumper because unions prevent competition and merit raises. The unions are against charter schools, school vouchers and home schooling. That creates a monopoly. Then the public schools get tax money without having to be accountable for the money spent or the education delivered. It is like going to the grocery store and forking over money and getting a bag of groceries chosen by the store. We have no input into the public schools, while the taxpayer has to contribute more and more money under the threat of constant education cuts.
I know 2 young pups who graduated for colleges with degrees in education. After working in the public schools for a short period, one went to a private school and the other got out of teaching. They couldn’t stand the attitudes from the administration and they tenured lazy teachers in the system.
“We want the money, not the responsibility”.
I worked for a union at one time. I got out of that as fast as I could.
This Woman?
Someone please tell me she isn’t a teacher.
I’m amazed the NRA isn’t on the list of the NEA’s donations list. Of course, it could be nothing more than self-preservation
Yep, you people are still repulsive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7e4bj5rrd8
Looking in the mirror again?
Let’s see now…the unionized teachers are (over)paid by us, the taxpayers. Their benefits and pensions are subsidized by us, they are fighting to keep the privelege of being paid by the taxpayers for brainwashing our kids, lying to them about the correct history of our country, and spending hours in the classrooms teaching them how to speak arabic and put condoms on cucumbers. Do I have that right, folks? And now they are screaming obscenties, displaying disgusting signs and committing fraud with fake dr. slips. These people are lowlifes and these are who have been in contact with our children day after day after day. I am sick at what we have allowed these regressives to do to our kids! This WILL.NOT.END.WELL. FOR THEM! I have never been more tempted to starve the beast than I am right now.
Break the unions, you break the regressive movement. GO Walker!!!
Thank you Michelle for giving us the infomation you do. I have been asking my teacher friends to give their side – the commonsensical one – to their union representatives. By now, the unions should be aware of what a great desservice they are doing the whole country by instigating this strike!
If these protesters had just acted “classy” (pardon the pun) they might have had a chance. But no, they had to revert to their basic nature. Now, they have turned a huge portion of the population against them. They just couldn’t help themselves.
They am’s what they am’s, and that’s all whats they am’s!
TooMuchTime said: I can’t support withholding constitutionally guaranteed rights. The individual has rights, the union does not. That includes the business owner who has the right to use non-union labor (in this case the state, taxpayers). If workers do not want to work under those conditions they have the right to find another job- not to keep the business owner from hiring someone who does.
Probably an english teacher. You remember english, don’t you? It’s the tertiary language behind spanish and arabic.
Think public unions are bad….check into federal govt unions which are (hard to believe) worse.
…as he was giving himself a tussle!
“I have been asking my teacher friends to give their side – the commonsensical one – to their union representatives. By now, the unions should be aware of what a great desservice”
Tuesday,
As evidenced in Michelle’s original Post, a good many decent teachers HAVE tried to get a prompt, courteous, oh HELL, ‘any’ response from their Union only to be completely ignored.
While I wish them luck, it’s hardly just the Unions tuning people out. You really should try being a Repub. in a Blue State.
I think they feed your number into a datbase from the caller ID and say… “Oh it’s a GOP’er, give him/her the run-around”. Just getting my Rep’s attention to have my wife’s Passport renewed has yielded nothing but a hassle. This is how they operate now.
Heh. Because that tactic is working out so well for the WI Dems?
Good. The more the merrier. Show the American people their (continued) contempt for the democratic process.
Forgive me if someone else already mentioned this, but did you see what they’re doing in Indiana? It’s headlined over at Drudge.
And our rising star, Mitch Daniels, is already tarnished in my eyes, if this comment is true:
The present bill in Indiana limits the collective bargaining rights of union members but it is written that it also protects NON-UNION members from having to pay for representation that they don’t want. Who could be against that???
If this plays out favorably, the commies will purge themselves out of the public employee teacher union racket. I think it’s great. Let them find out what it’s like to actually “pay their fair share” and “spread the wealth”. All the while maybe enough of them will become independent and actually create jobs to pay off some of the public debt they are in large part responsible for racking up.
Guess what progs, this is simple math and you lose, this is what your utopia looks like. You useful idiots shouting slogans right and left cannot apply any logic to the situation right now.
The only thing that can derail this much needed correction is violence, most likely fomented by the Trumka crowd who are trained in such tactics. Then their friends in the Government Media Complex will come to their rescue and blame talk radio and the Taxed Enough Already party again like they did in Arizona. Another situation where logic cannont be applied, only the useful idiot’s daranged and warped emotions define the dialogue.
Right now is a good time to pray to God if your into that sort of thing.
OT: Saw this headline on Drudge:
Reid: ‘The time has come to outlaw prostitution’…’
Well, there goes Congress!
Whoah there, friend.
This is tyranny.
Just bcs I’m a state employee doesn’t mean my Const rights should be usurped.
I don’t vote to extend the gravy train.
I try & be a responsible citizen all of the time.
Are you saying, that unless I am physically risking my life, then as a state employee I should have no vote?
This is terrible.
Not all teachers are as you describe.
Give some of us the credit we deserve.
Unless you can get rid of public education altogether, someone still has to educate your kids.
Reason #1,785,497 why I homeschool.
Back in the day, before the NEA, the States did it, and more betterer!
Guess putting on those funky step shows in the quad cost more than I thought.
The federal govt has absolutely no role in education Const-wise.
This is not their business.
Each state should be free to educate its citizens in whatever manner it so chooses.
This should scare you.
It sounds like a great idea. Teaching the same things, during the same times so that kids who are moving around in the US don’t get an interrupted education & all students will also be prepared for college.
Except that it usurps the right of the states.
And it will result in lowering of the bar.
I am afraid of this stuff.
Bcs it amounts to letting a kid get an A if they can test out proficient on a standardized test over core standards.
But the important thing is that she tried and still has her self esteem.
jrgdds
That woman is probably a teacher who either doesn’t know how to spell or doesn’t know how to put a sentence together. Either one is scary. Imagine her students.
I think this is pretty clear what we have with the Public Sector Unions.