Fresh on the heels of an exclusive report detailing a 7-day Caribbean cruise that National Education Association staffers are currently enjoying, Education Action Group has learned that dozens of teachers unions around the country are running out of money.

According to reports published by the National Staff Organization – a group made up of NEA and state affiliate union staffers:

“Fifteen states are considered to be financially distressed because of membership loss and their very survival is in jeopardy. And because of financial hardship, 41 state executives are on NEA’s payroll instead of being paid by their state. Two states—Indiana and South Carolina—remain under an NEA trusteeship.”

Teachers union accounts are buying red pens by the box these days.

NSO President Chuck Agerstrand called it a lesson in “trickle-down economics.”

Or maybe it’s just “trickle-down karma.”

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Wednesday night, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R.3567; The Welfare Integrity Now for Children and Families Act of 2011; which makes it illegal to use an EBT card in a strip club, liquor store or casino. The concern began, shortly after welfare recipients were issued funds electronically through ATMs, when Welfare Reform passed in 1996. Since then there has been a disturbing trend of welfare not being spent on the things people think welfare should be spent on.

And I don’t understand that concern. It is the theory of most Democrats that giving money to people stimulates the economy. It should be of no concern to anyone whether that money is used to stimulate patrons of a strip club, liquor store owners, or casino magnates (who BTW are often HUGE political contributors).

The bill is almost completely futile. It won’t insure that welfare money is not spent at a strip club; it only means that the ATM at the gas station across the street from the strip club is going to see a lot more traffic.

This is just the kind of government bias, that gives legitimate business a bad name. Certainly those girls are working as hard as any SEIU employee; whose pensions were paid out of stimulus funds, while they protested in Wisconsin. Money spent on bikini wax, cover stick, and glittery lingerie will trickle down through the economy just like any other stimulus package.

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The Big-Labor backed Walker Recall coalition says they’ve turned in a million signatures today, well in excess of the 540,000 necessary to trigger a recall later this year. Our report:

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It’s so reassuring to have the intellectual elites in our nation’s teachers unions, like Sandy Hughes of Tennessee, looking out for us rubes.

Hughes, a local union president, is pitching the idea that school board membership be limited to people who “have worked in the education field,” because the issues at hand are “so complex” and too complicated for average citizens.

In other words, all will be well if taxpayers just get out of the way and let the wise and wonderful union folks run our schools, no questions asked. All we have to do is keep paying the taxes, then mind our own business.

This is a perfect example of the snobbery and arrogance that is so pervasive in the public education establishment.

A stay-at-home mom that wants to be on the board?  Sorry.  Business owners who know how to control labor costs and balance budgets? They don’t have the right skill set, according to Hughes. Public education is too “complex” for them.

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The “education experts” that are giving leadership to the National Education Association have come out in favor of tougher testing measures for prospective teachers. The NEA, the nation’s largest labor union, announced last week that it favors “national standards for teacher preparation and licensing.”

“All teacher candidates should have one full year of teaching residency, and pass a performance-based assessment before entering the classroom,” NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said, according to Education Week.

The news site reports that the “pilot pre-licensure assessment” would take student outcomes into consideration.

While we do not support attempts to nationalize the teacher certification process, assessing prospective teachers on classroom effectiveness sounds reasonable to us. So how about using those same tests to evaluate current teachers?

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In Wisconsin, where Big Labor is circulating petitions to trigger the recall of Republican Governor Scott Walker, the state agency that monitors and administers elections is known as the G.A.B.

The ‘A’ is supposed to stand for accountability. But, in reality, not so much.

Yesterday we reported that the GAB would not comb through the petitions to disqualify duplicate signatures.

Today, we find out it is much worse than that.

[Madison, Wisc…] Duplicate signatures are not the only point of contention in the ongoing recall drives in Wisconsin. The board that oversees the state’s elections admits they will not check the validity of any of the signatures or addresses contained on the recall petitions expected to be submitted in January.

For $625,699 the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board will make sure all the blanks are properly filled out on petitions to recall Governor Scott Walker, but that’s all.

Meanwhile, news reports around the state have raised the questions about ineligible individuals signing the forms. At least one liberal group is encouraging voters to sign multiple times.

The GAB will not be checking for fraud, but will rule on challenges brought forth by the subjects of the recalls, should they find evidence of fraud.

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Welcome to Wisconsin. Home of recallmania.

As the unions strike back against the governor who forced them to ask permission to collect dues from public employees, controversy over the ongoing recall process is emerging. One liberal organization is saying people have a right to sign more than one recall petition. The state regulators admit it’s true, they have that right and although only one signature per eligible voter is supposed to be counted as vaild, their temporary workers won’t be accountable for finding duplicates.

Huh?

This MacIver News’ report provides the details.

The state board overseeing the potential recall election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker tells the MacIver News Service that they will rely upon temporary workers to scrutinize recall petitions and those individuals will not be expected to catch any duplicate signatures submitted by recall organizers.

This revelation comes as one statewide liberal group is actively promoting the collection of duplicate signatures, paving the way for a lengthy process wherein Walker supporters will challenge the validity of the recall petitions.

One Wisconsin Now, a liberal non-profit, posted on its website “you can circulate or sign a recall petition even if you have already signed another recall petition.”

This advice, however, will complicate the signature challenge process and runs counter to the advice of nonpartisan state election regulators.

“While it is not illegal to sign more than once, we do not suggest people sign a second time unless they have good reason to believe the first petition they signed was somehow fraudulent,” Reid Magney, GAB Spokesman.

One Wisconsin Now follows their advice with this disclaimer: “[N]ote, however, that only one signature per person will be counted,”

That is not necessarily true.

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In the fight against government union reform in Ohio, the Ohio Education Association (OEA) is the largest donor by a landslide. Ohio’s NEA affiliate charged every member $54 to help kill Senate Bill 5, and they’ve dumped $5.8 million into a $30.5 million campaign whose message is equal parts simple and dishonest:

Vote NO on Issue 2 on November 8th to help repeal Senate Bill 5, the unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety in Ohio.

The unions are too busy beating this drum to offer any evidence reform is an attack on workers that makes them less safe; the only reason to vote against Issue 2 is because the unions demand it. Since OEA has given more to the anti-reform effort than anyone, let’s see if OEA deserves Ohio’s trust!

Government unions have a straightforward business model: using money from members’ paychecks, lobby for endless tax increases and convince workers that only the union cares. From a taxpayer’s perspective this is bad enough, but OEA takes it one step further. The union pays itself big bucks to demonize Ohio’s elected officials and job creators.

These are just the OEA staff & officers paid more than $150,000. In 2010, more than 100 OEA employees were paid six figures! Strange that folks who make a living defending poor, unappreciated educators do so by shaking them down for triple the average Ohio teacher’s salary.

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Union bosses in Ohio and Washington, D.C. are – oddly enough – opposed to the sensible government union reforms in Ohio’s Senate Bill 5. Exactly how opposed? Combine yesterday’s cash and in-kind numbers from the Ohio Secretary of State with the figures from July, and you’ll see that unions have sunk more than $28 million into the campaign against Issue 2.

Out of $30.5 million dollars given to We Are Ohio since the union front group was created this spring, the overwhelming majority is directly from union bosses standing to lose power over Ohio taxpayers when Issue 2 passes. It’s been expensive convincing Ohioans that government union reform will destroy the middle class and return Ohio to the days of Jim Crow laws. Who has contributed the most to “We Are Ohio’s” dishonest smear campaign?

• Ohio Education Association (state NEA affiliate): $5.87 million
• AFSCME (D.C.) $3 million
• National Labor Table (D.C.): $3 million
  
• AFSCME Local 11: $1.94 million
• National Education Association  (D.C.): $2 million
• Communications Workers of America (D.C.): $1.5 million
  
• AFL-CIO (D.C.): $1.5 million
• AFSCME Local 4: $1.46 million
• Ohio Federation of Teachers (state AFT affiliate): $1.26 million
• SEIU 1199 (New York): $1 million
• SEIU 1199 (Ohio): $1 million

It’s also worth noting that more than $100,000 of the non-individual Ohio contributions are from the Ohio Democratic Party, and nearly every individual donor who lists a profession is a union rep. This could prove donors’ selfless dedication to the happiness of Ohio government employees (taxpayers and cruel “mathematics” aside)… but that isn’t what my past few months of Ohio Education Association research would suggest!

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The National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union, is rolling out its new $350,000 television ad campaign to generate support for President Obama’s American Jobs Act. Thirty billion of Obama’s $450 billion jobs bill has been designated to supposedly save 285,000 teaching jobs.

According to our estimates, the bill would generate $35.4 million in dues revenue for the NEA. In other words, the teachers union is spending $350,000 in hopes of getting over $35 million in “saved” dues payments – a return 100 times greater than the initial investment. These union geniuses belong on Wall Street.

Our estimates also show that the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, would see $13 million in “saved” dues payments.

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As President Obama makes his way around the country to gin up support for his latest stimulus efforts, his underlings can’t seem to stay on the same page.

The two national teachers’ unions – the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers – recently hosted a closed-media conference call with Vice President Biden to rally support for Obama’s “American Jobs Act.”

source: nea.org

According to a recording first revealed at PublicSchoolSpending.com, Biden told the audience:

“Nobody is saying this [plan] isn’t positive for the economy.  We’re ready to compromise with the Republicans.  But only compromise on things if they have a better way. …”

But less than 24 hours later, Campaign Manager David Axelrod appeared on Good Morning America and told host George Stephanopolous that “the package works together.”

“So it’s all or nothing,” Stephanopolous stated, attempting to pin Axelrod down.  Not answering the question (shock!), Axelrod responded, “We want them to act now on this package.  We’re not in a negotiation to break up the package – it’s not an ala carte menu.”

In other words, no, they’re not willing to compromise.  Take it or leave it, America.

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Ridiculously false choices and rhetoric ruled the evening when the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers hosted a closed-media conference call with Vice President Joe Biden to inform their members about the latest government school and teachers’ union bailout.

In a recording obtained exclusively by PublicSchoolSpending.com, Biden explained the administration is seeking to spend $30 billion to create a “Teacher Layoff Prevention Fund.”  He also said that many schools today are “deciding whether or not to heat the school or keep a teacher.”

Like school stimuli-past, Biden said schools would not be able to bank the money, but would be required to spend it.  “It’s to be able to keep you at work and even rehire teachers,” he told the unions.  So the Obama administration – yet again – is setting up a situation where the problem will be the same next year and the administration will have to propose another bailout or the school sky will fall in and even more kids will graduate unable to read.

Obama’s proposal includes $10 billion for the 100 “largest, high need public school districts” to use for renovations.  So just prior to the election, the administration is proposing to spend $100 million in communities that traditionally vote for Democrats.  Coincidence?

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When the White House released its latest plan to stimulate – er, improve – the economy, everybody knew there would be a fresh round of spending to bail out government schools.

But there’s another motive too: dues for the teachers unions.

By my estimates, about three quarters of unionized teachers are represented by the National Education Association.  Every member pays dues, including $166 per year that goes to the national union, according to a secret union document posted on PublicSchoolSpending.com.  The White House says up to 285,000 teaching jobs – that is, dues payers – could be saved.

Given these facts, the NEA would be looking at about $35.4 million in “saved” dues.

Similarly, the American Federation of Teachers, which has annual dues of $184.20, according to financial statements found at AFTexposed.com, would have about 71,250 jobs saved.  The dues ramifications?  A little over $13 million.

It pays to have friends in high places.

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First there was the stimulus.  The $787 billion monstrosity was critical to Big Labor because it would save public school teaching jobs, among other unionized positions.

In fact, upon its passage, the News Journal reported on Joe Biden’s appearance before the Delaware teachers’ union:  Citing about $105 billion that is coming to the U.S. Department of Education from the federal stimulus package, Biden said teachers will finally have the means to improve education.

“We’ve been given all the ammunition.  If we shoot and miss, if we squander the opportunity, tell me how long you think it’s going to take for another American president to go and ask for more dollars to correct the education system.”

“You’ve got a president and vice president absolutely committed to having all the tools you need to finally get it right in American public education.”

Then there was the “public education bailout.”  The White House told us the $23 billion bill – mere peanuts by comparison – would stave off a public school employee calamity.

Is there any proof that any of the money spent so far has done anything for student achievement?  I mean, even raised it one single, solitary point on a standardized test?

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It looks like the National Education Association is not putting its money where its mouth is.

In its mission statement, the nation’s largest teachers union asserts that “we will focus the energy and resources of our 3.2 million members on improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement and making schools safer, better places to learn.”

But a secret union document reveals that the NEA’s commitment to “improv(ing) teaching and learning” works out to a paltry $7.44 per member every year. This is according to a document obtained from an internal source of the Indiana State Teachers Association, one of the NEA’s state affiliates. All dollar amounts refer to the NEA’s 2010-11 budget, and are the most recent numbers available.

While the majority of a teacher’s dues dollars stay with the state union, $166 is sent to the NEA every year, which is the parent union. As already stated, the NEA only spent $7.44 of that amount on efforts to improve teaching and learning.

To put that into perspective, the NEA spent four times as much ($31.05 of the $166) on “legislative and ballot initiatives” and “partnerships and public relations.” The union spent $68.69 of the $166 on administrative support, governance, legal support, and leadership development and constituency support.

That explains why the NEA could afford to pay its top three leaders more than $1 million in salary in 2009, the most recent year those figures were available.

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They spent well in excess of $15 million and did not win the majority in the State Senate.  Here’s the updated Money Matrix Graphic we produced at the MacIver Institute, which tracked Big Labor’s fund transfers.

As I write in today’s Washington Examiner:

Wisconsin Democrats’ inability to defeat three Republican incumbent state senators in the recent recall elections here in Wisconsin is a devastating loss for Big Labor. These recalls were Big Labor’s last stand and will have national ramifications for years to come…

…The early results have been staggering. Ninety-three school districts have restructured benefit costs, saving taxpayers more than $150 million. If each of Wisconsin’s school districts achieve this level of savings, statewide savings would cross the $500 million mark.

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National and state liberal groups, led primarily by public employee labor unions, have pumped well in excess of $14,000,000 into the Wisconsin state senate recall elections, six of which will take place tomorrow.

-Click to Enlarge-

MacIver News’ staff complied this graphic of this unprecedented spending using official reports on file with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board(Totals are accurate as of 8/8/11).

These figures include direct contributions from political action committee to candidates, coordinated independent expenditure campaigns, and individual third party expenditures.

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Think the Wisconsin Teachers’ union is worried that Wisconsin’s new labor law will lead to a dramatic decline in union membership? They’re going all in on the August recall campaigns, spending nearly a half million dollars in just one day. For radio ads only. In Wisconsin. Clearly, for now, they have a lot of money to burn. They’re not going to go down without a fight.

[Madison, Wisc...] WEAC, Wisconsin’s largest teachers’union, spent nearly a half million dollars in one day on behalf of Democratic candidates through their political aciton committee, the MacIver News Service has learned.

According to records on file at the Wisconsin Governement Accountability Board, on July 22 WEAC PAC spent  $424,000 on a radio ad buy to support two Democrat State Senators being recalled, and five Democrat candidates who are challenging Republican incumbent Senators.

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What happened when a CITIZEN EXAMINER was given an all out press pass, and allowed to observe the NEA in their own element? This is just part of what he saw. Parents and all taxpaying citizens, though unfulfilled with the promises of transparency, should at the very least get a a peek behind the curtains of the educators of their children. I’d say don’t be surprised by what you see, but there are plenty more videos on the way. So enjoy as this as much as you can, and feel free to leave a comment if you so desire.

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For some strange reason, some union activists prefer their organizations be referred to as “associations,” as opposed to unions.  That’s odd, given that the National Education Association has grabbed the union mantle with both hands, and the American Federation of Teachers adopted the slogan “A union of professionals.”  That seems like an oxymoron, but I suppose it makes them feel good when they run the letterhead through their laser printer.

So color me humored when Marc Severson, blogging as the “Tired Tucson Teacher” (that inspires parents to request him for their kids, I’m sure…) attempted to explain, “It’s an association, not a union.”

“Let me start by saying I have been a member of AEA/NEA and my local association since the first hour of my student teaching. I refused to walk into the classroom without being a member. You might say I bleed association red.

“My reasons for belonging are numerous but suffice to say, the most important one is that as a professional I believe it is concomitant upon me to belong to my professional organization.”

It goes on from there.  Strangely, he never actually defines the difference between a union and an association, and I hate to break it to Marc, but he belongs to a brass-tacks, take-no-prisoners union.  He can put as much lipstick and perfume on that pig as he wants, but the thing still oinks and jumps in the mud.

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