The better of the articles is the second one which was found at First Things, but the first is for any teachers who wish to get some money back from the NEA that spent their money against their moral and political will. I will split the two articles by today’s Dennis Prager Show that turned me on to a couple of my posts today. If unions want to get support for their workers... they should leave behind the radical agendas and spending of money (their workers money who a majority disagree with some of the positions taken by the unions) that has nothing to do with educational ends.
... the California Teachers Association’s recently [donated] $1 million to oppose Proposition 8. For an organization that complains about the unsatisfactory compensation of schoolteachers, the CTA is certainly carefree in spending its members’ dues.
What makes the spending particularly galling is that the CTA gets its money through coercion. Even teachers who refuse to join the union are compelled to contribute to it. Union contracts typically require school districts to automatically deduct a “service fee” for the union as a condition of employment. State law upholds this profound violation of First Amendment rights.
I find this repugnant. As Thomas Jefferson said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
Many teachers are deeply troubled by the expenditure of their hard-earned money to undermine traditional marriage. Thanks to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, they may obtain a refund of at least $300. NRTW explains the details:
- In recent years, the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association admitted that about 45% of their expenses are not chargeable under Supreme Court precedents. This means that nonmembers who apply for the rebate end up paying only about 55% of dues instead of 100% of dues. Although the amount of unified dues varies for members of the California Teachers Association, the amount of the savings is at least $300 per year. (If you do this during the middle of the school year, you will receive a pro-rated refund for the rest of that school year.)
How To Save Hundreds of Dollars: You must follow these simple procedures to stop the California Teachers union from using your money to support its politics. These procedures come from the settlement agreement in Apple v. CTA, Case no. 96 1904 K JFS (SD Cal. 1997) and prior U.S. Supreme Court precedent. ...
The Wall Street Journal offers the following pop quiz:
Who’s donated the most money to an effort in California to defeat Proposition 8, an initiative on the November 4 ballot that would define marriage as between a man and a woman in the state?
A) Gay-advocacy organizations
B) Civil-rights groups
C) The California Teachers Association
If you guessed “C,” you understand the nature of modern liberal politics. And if you didn’t, perhaps you’re wondering what exactly gay marriage has to do with K-12 public education. The high school dropout rate is 1-in-4 in California and 1-in-3 in the Los Angeles public school system, odds that worsen considerably among black and Hispanic children. So you might think the CTA, the state’s largest teachers’ union, would have other priorities.
Yet last week the union donated $1 million to the “No on Proposition 8″ campaign. Of the roughly $3 million raised by opponents of the measure so far, $1.25 million has come from the teachers’ union. “What does this cause have to do with education?” said Randy Peart, a public school teacher in San Juan who was contacted by a local television station. “Why not put that money into classrooms, into making a better place for these kids?”
In fact, the CTA and its parent organization, the National Education Association, have used tens of millions of dollars in mandatory teachers’ dues to advance all manner of left-wing political causes. And members like Ms. Peart are right to ask questions. In some years barely a third of the NEA’s budget has gone toward improving the lot of teachers themselves.
In addition to vigorously fighting school choice and other reforms that benefit underprivileged children but threaten the public education monopoly, the NEA has directly (or via state affiliates) bankrolled Acorn, the Democratic Leadership Council, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and, naturally, the Human Rights Campaign, which lobbies for “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights.”
Public school teachers of America, take note. This is your dues money at work.
