Little To Do With Education

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION….(little to do with education)

from Focus On the Family CITIZEN 9/88 by Bill Sidebottom

THE NEA HAS BECOME A LOBBYING GROUP FOR LIBERAL CAUSES…..

School teachers Tom Wessels, David Reany and Bob Glavich are not anti-union. But when they discovered the National Education Association was using their membership dues to support causes that had nothing to do with education, they protested by refusing to pay.

They claimed the NEA was forcing them to violate their religious beliefs by supporting pro-abortion causes and a Marxist regime in Nicaragua.

To retaliate, the NEA urged the Almont, Michigan school board to fire them–but later withdrew the demand–and insisted on a ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

After a three-year battle against the NEA, these three teachers won a victory that may well have national repercussions.

The EEOC ruled that the three do not have to pay union NEA dues because of their religious convictions.

VIOLATING THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

This victory was a long time coming, but they were persistent in their efforts.

Wessels, an Assemblies of God member, Reany, a fundamentalist and Glavich, a Catholic first joined forces in 1984 to protest the paying of NEA dues.

According to Weesels, “we are not anti-union. We believe in collective bargaining. We do not believe in the benevolence of the employer. But what they (the NEA) are doing is not collective bargaining.”

All three oppose what they believe are anti-christian activities of the liberal teachers union.

“What business does the union have being involved with abortion and homosexual rights and legalizing marijuana and supporting a Marxist government in Nicaragua,” asked Reany.

Wessels believes it’s okay for NEA officials to promote these causes as individuals, but “they should not be in the battle collectively as a union.”

Under the EEOC ruling, these men have been granted a “religious exemption,” they are free to give the money they would have paid to NEA to a charity of their choice; the union is prevented from taking “retaliatory conduct” against them and also requires the union to eliminate factors that brought about the suit in the first place.

NEA MEMBERS DUES SPENT ON LOBBYING

According to Eugene Methvin, writing in Readers Digest, May 1984, “The NEA has already become the nations most powerful political machine. From it’s 1.7 million (in 1988 that figure is is 1.8 million) members, including 71 percent of American public school teachers, it collects an average of $261 each in dues, giving it and its affiliates an estimated $375 million war chest annually.”

Where does the NEA spend that money? A good deal of the money goes to hire “field organizers.” The NEA enjoys the services of “legislative contact teams” in every congressional district, which are immediately responsive to orders from their network of over 14,000 local affiliates.

With an annual budget of close to $400 million (this includes local, state and national income), the NEA has become the most powerful group in the U.S. outside of the political parties themselves.

At a Democratic convention, for example, the NEA will normally control about 10 percent of the total delegates–more than any state.

Pundits credit the NEA with having secured Jimmy Carter’s nomination in 1976, and attribute the establishment of the Department of Education to the political “price” Carter latter paid. Certainly no other labor union can boast cabinet-level representation.

Eugene Methvin rightly called the NEA, “the largest grassroots political army ever deployed in the United States.”

The majority of funds coming to the NEA through membership dues is spent on political action and union organizing–not on educational reform measures.

In fact, less than five percent of a typical annual NEA national budget will be applied to instruction and professional development.

Mary H. Futrell, has boasted, “Instruction and professional development have been set on the back burner to us, compared with the political action.”

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE NEA?

Conservative teachers who belong to the NEA are concerned about the liberal agenda being pursued by the union. some of the goals are as follows:

• Total control of textbooks and curriculum content by the NEA, not by school boards.
• No merit pay for teachers
• Laws permanently preventing tuition tax credits
• Sex education without parental choice or review
• Control over all teachers’ colleges and accreditation.
• Laws against “voucher” systems that would allow parents to choose among public schools.

Ever the power brokering union, the NEA is more philosophically aligned with the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, and other labor advocates than with the educational establishment.

NEA AN OBSTACLE TO EDUCATION

Former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, has been a long time critic of the NEA.

In the spring of this year at a White House ceremony introducing a new Department of Education study, “AMerican Education: Making It Work,” Bennett charged that the NEA is ” the greatest single obstacle to education reform in the country.”

According to Bennett, “Almost without fail, wherever a worthwhile school proposal or legislative initiative is under consideration, those with a vested interest in the educational status quo will use political muscle to block reform.”

SUPPORTING LIBERAL CAUSES

Although 75% of American teachers view themselves as ” moderate or conservative,” the NEA publicly espouses and lobbies for the following left of center positions:

• Unilateral nuclear freeze. White House advisor Gary Bauer has noted the NEA’s anti-nuclear materials are “..leftist indoctrination aimed at turning today’s elementary students into tomorrow’s campus radicals.”
  • Opposes voluntary prayer in any form, whether voluntary, silent, after hours, or simple silent meditation.

*FAvors homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, not a sexual perversion. The NEA believes school boards should be required to hire practicing homosexuals to teach all grades.

• Favors abortion on demand and the right of a student to have an abortion without parental consent or knowledge. It also supports the federal funding of abortions for those who can’t afford them.

MISREPRESENTING THE MEMBERSHIP

When the NEA wanted to throw its considerable weight behind federal funding for abortion, for example, it sent the following telegram to every member of the US Senate: “ON BEHALF OF NEA’S 1.7 MILLION MEMBERS, I URGE YOU TO OPPOSE RES.3 A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO BAN ABORTIONS”

While union lobbyists purported to speak for their membership on this issue, a poll indicated that 40 percent of the NEA rank-and-file were in favor of pro-abortion legislation, and a full a full 75 percent were not in favor of the union using funds to lobby for abortion rights.

The opinion poll was taken of 1,007 randomly-selected teachers in June 1985. The difference between the NEA’s official position on social issues was dramatically different from the rank-and-file. For example:

• The NEA leadership supports the decriminalization of marijuana, while 76 percent of NEA members do not.
• The NEA leaders promote preferential treatment for homosexuals, while 69 percent of the memberships do not.
• The NEA opposes public schools teaching the biblical account of creation, while 60 percent of the members support it.
• The NEA favors busing to achieve “racial balance”, while nearly 70 percent of its members oppose busing.

Clearly, the NEA national leadership does not represent the opinions of the membership–those who are forced to pay union dues for activities at odds with their personal beliefs.

The decision by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission giving three Michigan school teachers the right to opt out of paying NEA membership dues is a step in the right direction!