While the rest of us were celebrating the 4th of July with BBQs and parades and recitations of the Declaration of Independence, teachers’ union “delegates” from the far left were giving Obama the thumbs up. Not coincidentally they also voted to levy a $10 tax on union teachers nationally to help support “messaging” in front of his reelection bid.
And the messaging will largely consist of another call to “crisis” in education because the union goose has stopped laying golden eggs.
“The Representative Assembly recommended that NEA members vote to re-elect President Barack Obama in the 2012 election” wrote Will Potter of the National Education Association. “They also voted for a $10 annual dues increase that will be dedicated to funding NEA's Crisis Fund, a program designed to put money back into the states for pro-public education outreach.”
3.2 million teachers will pay the tax – out of your tax dollars- which is expected to double the amount of money normally put into the “crisis fund.”
Maybe teachers instead should look at why they need an annual “crisis fund” in the first place?
It’s just the latest example of far-left union reps fleecing hard-working teachers by aligning themselves against teachers’, kids’ and parents’ interests, in a quest for power, money and greed.
As former NEA president Bob Chase said “[The NEA has] used our power to block uncomfortable changes, to protect the narrow interest of its members, and not to advance the interests of students and school.”
Yesterday Mike Shedlock detailed how unions were fleecing teachers, schools districts, parents and kids -see How Union Busting Helps Kids (and Everyone Else) In WI- by charging outrageous premiums for teacher health benefits through a union-controlled slush fund called the WEA Trust. The trust was created by the Wisconsin Education Association Council, an affiliate of the NEA, to be the health insurer for union-controlled school districts.
“WEA Trust has grown very fat on public school dollars, with a net worth of $316 million and a team of 12 administrators all receiving compensation packages worth six figures per year,” according to a report prepared by the Education Action Group and the MacIver Institute.
