Teacher Unions

The WSJ has an editorial today that does some reporting on what political donations the NEA is making. Apparently, there's a new Federal law that requires unions to disclose where their taxpayer dues are going when it relates to political donations. The NEA seems to be funding some pretty left-wing causes that have very little to do with teachers and schools:

Many of the organization's disbursements -- $30,000 to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, $122,000 to the Center for Teaching Quality -- at least target groups that ostensibly have a direct educational mission. But many others are a stretch, to say the least. The NEA gave $15,000 to the Human Rights Campaign, which lobbies for "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights." The National Women's Law Center, whose Web site currently features a "pocket guide" to opposing Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito, received $5,000. And something called the Fund to Protect Social Security got $400,000, presumably to defeat personal investment accounts.
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There's been a lot in the news recently about published opinion that parallels donor politics. Well, last year the NEA gave $45,000 to the Economic Policy Institute, which regularly issues reports that claim education is underfunded and teachers are underpaid. The partisans at People for the American Way got a $51,000 NEA contribution; PFAW happens to be vehemently anti-voucher.

The extent to which the NEA sends money to states for political agitation is also revealing. For example, Protect Our Public Schools, an anti-charter school group backed by the NEA's Washington State affiliate, received $500,000 toward its efforts to block school choice for underprivileged children. (Never mind that charter schools are public schools). And the Floridians for All Committee, which focuses on "the construction of a permanent progressive infrastructure that will help redirect Florida politics in a more progressive, Democratic direction," received a $249,000 donation from NEA headquarters.

If you want to check what your favorite union is doing you can go to the Department of Labor website and check out that union's report. Warning: This is a government website and much like the Bureau of Labor Statistics website is not very intuitive and very difficult to find what you're looking for. I'm sure there's some enterprising young soul out there that could research these things and report on them. I'm not that person.