So Education Secretary Rod Paige stirred up a hornet's nest the other day by labeling the National Education Association a "terrorist organization." Of course, the NEA is in high dudgeon, calling Secretary Paige's comments "morally repugnant."
Oh, really?
Terrorism: As defined by the FBI, "the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in the furtherance of political or social objectives".
This definition includes three elements:
(1) Terrorist activities are illegal and involve the use of force.
The National Education Association concealed its use of millions of dollars in tax-exempt teachers' dues and fees for political activities, primarily for Democratic candidates and causes, according to a complaint filed yesterday by the Landmark Legal Foundation.In its complaint to the Labor Department, the foundation claims the NEA - the country's largest labor union -- did not report to its 2.7 million members tax-exempt revenue it spent to recruit and support candidates running for local, state and federal elective office since at least 1994.
Most of the expenditures were coordinated with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic Party campaign organizations, the AFL-CIO and Emily's List, the nationwide network of political donors helping to elect Democratic pro-choice women, the complaint said.
"The NEA obviously doesn't want America's teachers, parents and taxpayers to know how it is using tax-exempt membership dues and fees," said Mark Levin, the foundation's president. "But federal labor reporting laws require the union to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about its political activities and expenditures."
Mr. Levin said the action violates a federal law that requires labor unions to report their revenues and expenditures annually to the Labor Department. Unions must report their financial activities in enough detail to accurately reflect the union's operations, they say. NEA officials called the complaint "completely baseless."
-- Ellen Sorokin, "Complaint: NEA Misusing Funds," Washinton Times, 4 April 2003
...teachers who speak out against any part of the NEA's agenda often find themselves the targets of retaliation. For instance, Cindy Omlin was a speech pathologist at an elementary school in Spokane, Wash., who didn't like what she was reading in the journal of the Washington Education Association (WEA), the state affiliate of the NEA. "I saw what I considered to be an agenda or an ideology that was very much at odds with what I considered to be respectful of human life and human dignity, freedom and what was in the best interest of kids," Omlin recalls to Insight. "Their view of the family concerned me. The way they actively promoted homosexuality as equal to marriage. The way they pushed sexuality education - they tended to push a very broad, contraceptive-based, sexually open lifestyle for kids, and I thought that was harmful. ... I started speaking out against the harmful aspects of the union's agenda.Omlin and Barbara Amidon, a middle-school counselor in Olympia, Wash., started a newsletter in 1995, the WEA Challenger Network News, which took the union to task for spending member dues on political or social issues. The union immediately subjected them to a grueling 17-month lawsuit on grounds of alleged trademark infringement for using the WEA's name, as well as alleged "tortious interference" with "business expectancy" and "unfair competition." Represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Omlin and Amidon agreed to drop the use of the WEA's name after the union dropped its other demands, Omlin recalls. "When they did originally agree to settle, they said, 'Okay, we'll settle if you take WEA out of your name, but you can't share any of this information about the lawsuit and the settlement with anybody, and you can't criticize the union from here on out,'" Omlin says. "And we said, 'We're sorry, but that basically guts our freedom of speech and our citizenship rights,' and we held out a while longer."
This assuredly is not the only instance in which teachers unions have used strong-arm tactics against dissenting teachers, Bailey says. When he held a town meeting in Florida in the mid-1990s about the alternative AAE, union officials filled the street entrances to the building. "Half an hour before the meeting started, these union leaders lined up out on the sidewalk and just kind of made a gauntlet that teachers would have to walk through," Bailey recalls. "I don't want to make it sound like they were linked in arms and forming a human chain, but people would literally have to face them and walk around them if they wanted to get in."
-- John Berlau, "Teachers Discard the Union Label," Insight, 17 September 2003
(2) The actions are intended to intimidate or coerce.
But there is evidence to suggest that the unions' lobbying power relies more on coercion than on popular support. In 1992, after Washington state voters passed an initiative requiring annual written approval for the political use of dues, the number of teachers willing to contribute to their union's political agenda fell from 45,000 to just 8,000. In Michigan, Public Act 117's requirement that unions get annual consent from workers prior to taking political action committee (PAC) payroll deductions lowered the MEA's PAC contributions from over $2.5 million to $1.9 million in 1998.-- Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Forced Unionization is Wrong For Teachers, 2001-2002 Michigan Education ReportAnother problem with forced union membership is that it unequivocally denies workers' freedoms. "Nearly 80 percent of Americans understand that it's just plain wrong to force someone to pay tribute to an unwanted union in order to get or keep a job," says Larson. "[But] few understand the far-reaching consequences of government-authorized forced unionism." Unbelievably, the law contributes to the stronghold of the labor union machines by granting them the power to not only collect billions of dollars every year through forced dues or fees, but also to terminate workers who refuse to contribute to the unions' political agenda.
(3) The actions are committed in support of political or social objectives.
Selected Resolutions Passed by the NEA's 2003 Annual Convention:
A-11. Use of Closed Public School Buildings. The Association believes that closed public school buildings should be sold or leased only to those organizations that do not provide direct educational services to students and/or are not in direct competition with public schools.A-14. Financial Support of Public Education. Tax revision favorable to public education should be encouraged and continually reviewed at every governmental level. Funds must be provided for programs to alleviate race, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination and to eliminate portrayal of race, gender, and sexual orientation stereotypes in the public schools. The Association opposes providing any public revenues to sectarian pre-K through 12 schools.
A-24. Voucher Plans and Tuition Tax Credits. The National Education Association believes that voucher plans, tuition tax credits, or other funding arrangements that use tax monies to subsidize pre-K through 12 private school education can undermine public education, reduce the support needed to fund public education adequately, weaken the wall of separation between church and state, and cause racial, economic, and social segregation of students. The Association opposes voucher plans, tuition tax credits, or other such funding arrangements that pay for students to attend sectarian schools.
A-31. Federally or State-Mandated Choice/Parental Option Plans. The National Education Association believes that [these] plans compromise free, equitable, universal, and quality public education for every student. Therefore, the Association opposes such federally or state-mandated choice or parental option plans.
B-8. Racial Diversity Within Student Populations. The Association believes that to achieve or maintain racial diversity, it may be necessary for elementary/secondary schools, colleges, and universities to take race into account in making decisions as to student admissions, assignments, and/or transfers.
B-17. Education of Refugee Children and Children of Undocumented Immigrants. The National Education Association believes that, regardless of the immigration status of students or their parents, every student has the right to a free public education in an environment free from harassment.
B-31. Multicultural Education. The National Education Association believes that multiculturalism is the process of valuing differences and incorporating the values identified into behavior for the goal of achieving the common good. Multi-cultural education should promote the recognition of individual and group differences and similarities in order to reduce racism, homophobia, ethnic and all other forms of prejudice and to develop self-esteem as well as respect for others.
B-43. Environmental Education. The Association supports educational programs that promote -
-- An awareness of the effects of past, present, and future population growth patterns on world civilization, human survival, and the environment
--Solutions to such problems as pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, and acid precipitation and deposition
--The recognition of and participation in such activities as Earth DayB-49. Education on Peace and International Understanding. The National Education Association believes that educational strategies for teaching peace and justice issues should include the role of individuals, social movements, international and nongovernmental organizations. The Association also believes that educational materials should include activities dealing with the effects of nuclear weaponry and other weapons of mass destruction, strategies for disarmament, and methods to achieve peace. Such materials should also cover major contributing factors to conflict, such as economic disparity, demographic variables, unequal political power and resource distribution, and the indebtedness of the developing world.
B-57. Standardized Testing of Students. The National Education Association believes that standardized tests should only be used to improve the quality of education and instruction for students. The Association opposes the use of standardized tests when —
--Used as the criterion for the reduction or withholding of any educational funding
--Results are used to compare students, teachers, programs, schools, communities, and states.B-69. Home Schooling. The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state requirements. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used. The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.
H-7. National Health Care Policy. The National Education Association believes that affordable, comprehensive health care, including prescription drug coverage, is the right of every resident. The Association supports the adoption of a single-payer health care plan for all residents of the United States, its territories, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
I-1. Peace and International Relations. The Association urges all nations to develop treaties and disarmament agreements that reduce the possibility of war. The Association also believes that such treaties and agreements should prevent the placement of weapons in outer space. The Association further believes that the United Nations (UN) furthers world peace and promotes the rights of all people by preventing war, racism, and genocide. The Association supports the U.S. Institute of Peace, which provides publications, information, programs, training, and research data in developing peacemaking and conflict resolution skills.I-12. Family Planning. The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom. The Association also urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel.
I-26. Freedom of Religion. The Association opposes any federal legislation or mandate that would require school districts to schedule a moment of silence.
I-27. Gun-free Schools and the Regulation of Deadly Weapons. The Association believes that strict proscriptive regulations are necessary for the manufacture, importation, distribution, sale and resale of handguns and ammunition magazines. A mandatory background check and a mandatory waiting period should occur prior to the sale of all firearms.
I-47. English as the Official Language. The Association believes that efforts to legislate English as the official language disregard cultural pluralism; deprive those in need of education, social services, and employment; and must be challenged/
To the NEA, the teachers unions, and the assortment of moonbats, bureaucrats and thugs who are single-handedly turning American public education into a laughing stock (and would have done the same to my own education were it not for the dedication of my parents), I only have this to say:
IF THE SHOE FITS, WEAR IT.
Posted by Thief at February 24, 2004 06:58 PM