Union Facts
The Colorado Springs Education Association (CSEA) is the local arm of the National Education Association (NEA). Each local union is assigned a Uniserve representative, who is a full time employee of the NEA. The Uniserve representative has the job of ensuring that the local unions follow the marching orders of their national daddy. The Uniserve representative also has the duty of ensuring that local dues get forwarded to the state and national level for use in supporting liberal causes across the country. D11 teachers each pay approximately $720 annually to the union. Approximately 60% of these dues are pushed to higher headquarters for political activities. D11 teachers will automatically have their money removed from their paychecks for union purposes unless they order the school district to withhold those funds. Teachers only have a 10 day window to opt out of the union dues. If a teacher accidentally misses the window, the union will not refund their money.
To obtain more information about your local union and its NEA sponsor, visit www.unionfacts.org. This website is full of information about the union and its political activities. This website contains interesting information on the union, such as this quote from an Oregon union leader: "The major purpose of our association is not the education of children, rather it is, or ought to be the extension and/or preservation of our members' rights." While the union purchases school boards across the nation, its leaders readily admit that its mission has nothing to do with educating kids.
One of the issues that the union keeps in the forefront of the public debate on education is the issue of teacher pay. In fact, union bosses have made an agreement with Colorado Governor candidate Bill Ritter that if he is elected, he will attempt to mandate that all teachers in Colorado, no matter their skill level or ability, will make no less than $40,000 annually. What the union does not advertise to its own membership is the wages of the union bosses, who are not in the classrooms and who openly admit that they do not worry about educating kids.
The NEA has 941 full time employees. These are not teachers, these are union employees. (There are 2,731,419 dues paying members of the NEA). Of the 941 union employees, 417 make over $75,000 in annual salary. In fact, the top 10 salaried NEA employees earn over $200,000 per year in compensation. Their compensation is listed as follows:
Name Title Total Compensation
Reg Weaver Nea President $ 438,920
John Wilson Exec Director $ 336,925
Lily Eskelsen Nea Secty/treas $ 329,378
Dennis Van Roekel Nea Vp $ 318,823
Marilyn Rogers Regionaldir $ 225,488
Carmen Quesada Director $ 224,010
Kevin Howell Cio $ 220,719
Andrew Linebaugh Director $ 217,692
Cynthia Swann Project Dir $ 216,544
Nelson Okino Manager D $ 215,599
These top 10 earners live a life of luxury off the backs of hard working teachers all across the country. Even with these salaries, NEA leaders offer nothing of substance to the issue of education in this country. The union spends more on left-wing causes than it does on anything related to education. The list of liberal groups that receive forced union dues monies include:
Human Rights Campaign ($15,000)
National Women's Law Center ($5,000)
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition ($5,000)
Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network ($5,000)
Democratic Leadership Council ($25,000)
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation ($40,000)
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute ($35,000)
Economic Policy Institute ($45,000)
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center ($75,000)
People for the American Way ($51,000)
Fund to Protect Social Security ($400,000)
Rock the Vote Education Fund ($10,000)
Floridians For All ($249,000)
Alliance for Nevada's Working Families ($250,000)
In 2004, the union spent $65.5 million -- nearly 20 percent of its entire budget -- on "contributions, gifts and grants" that largely funded left-wing and non-education-related causes, including drives to raise the minimum wage and campaigns to kill Social Security reform. As a Wall Street Journal editorial noted, its financial disclosure forms "expose the union as a honey pot for left-wing political causes that have nothing to do with teachers, much less students."
Additional facts that can be found on the unionfacts webpage include the following:
And the NEA isn't afraid to align itself with shady organizations to achieve its goal of killing reform. It gave a large grant to a group called ACORN, which has been tied to voter fraud in a dozen states, government-grant fraud, and even union busting. The purpose of the money was simply listed as "NCLB" - No Child Left Behind, the legislative bane of the union's existence.
That the NEA would give money to ACORN -- and nearly $250,000 of its members' money to a 2004 political campaign in Florida run by ACORN and beset by allegations of voter fraud -- makes sense in light of the groups' shared radical philosophy. Both organizations were profoundly influenced by "Rules For Radicals" author and self-avowed Marxist Saul Alinsky, whose teachings advocated that education union organizers not let teachers "fraternize with the enemy" because "distance helps you polarize the issue." The "singleness of purpose" a union organizer must have, wrote Alinsky, is "the ability to build a power base."
It's all about power. This is the same organization that spent $200,000+ to purchase the 3 D11 school board seats in 2005. The union is about protecting its political funding source. While the teachers work hard in the classrooms to educate kids, the union leadership squanders those teachers' hard earned money to finance their own bloated salaries and their left-wing political causes. The union agenda is made clear each year at the annual conventions. Following are some of the union's top priorities, which can be found at www.eiaonline.com.
F-2. Pay Equity/Comparable Worth. The Association supports all efforts to attain accurate and unbiased forms of job evaluation and to raise the pay of those jobs that are presently undervalued. The "market value" means of establishing pay cannot be the final determinant of pay scales since it too frequently reflects the race and sex bias in our society.
-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 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.
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.
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.
* NBI 33 was approved. It creates a committee to explore creating a website to defend public education against negative propaganda in the media. The voice vote produced a significant number of "nays," undoubtedly EIA readers who like negative propaganda in the media.
* NBI 37 passed, after the provision to organize a march on Washington was removed. The same delegate introduces a march on Washington NBI every year, but not always for the same reason. I think she might sell shoes on the side.
* NBI 39 Â The anti-war measure was not considered by the delegates. Two-thirds of the delegates voted not to even bring it up for debate.
The delegates also debated amendments to NEA's legislative program:
* Legislative Amendment 6 was approved. It puts NEA in opposition to the use of voter ID. A delegate was kind enough to point out to me that NEA secret ballot elections, such as the ones that took place yesterday and today, require the delegates to produce photo ID before they can vote. Fraud in a vote for a one-year seat on the NEA Board of Directors is apparently more worrisome than fraud in a vote for President of the United States .
* Legislative Amendment 8 was defeated. It would have required NEA to work to repeal the No Child Left Behind Act, but the NEA Positive Agenda essentially precluded this amendment from passing.
* Legislative Amendment 10, restoring daylight savings time to its original dates, was defeated.
* Legislative Amendment 17 was approved, placing NEA in opposition to "federal legislation giving financial incentives or pay to teachers based solely on the subjects or fields in which they teach." The rationale for the item stated such programs "serve to advocate NCLB's priorities and create a hierarchy, thus breaking the union."
5) Upcoming Business. These new business items are on (the) agenda:
* NBI 46 calls on NEA to publish an article on the implications of patronizing Costco. Well, they can always head on over to Sam's Club.
* NBI 59 directs NEA to investigate the test-handling practices of the Educational Testing Service and other Praxis testing companies.
* NBI 64 is one I love. It calls on NEA to "develop guidelines to assist state affiliates in the resolution of conflicts between state boards of directors, state elected officials, and the executive director." It was submitted by a delegate from South Carolina . It couldn't possibly have anything to do with this, could it?
* NBI 71 indicates some delegates are worried about the recent actions of Warren Buffett. The item directs NEA to solicit the opinion of its members "on the positive and negative impact of large-scale philanthropy as it relates to public education." Start with the Annenberg Challenge.
* NBI 79 requires NEA to form a task force to explore the idea of a U.S. Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing every child in America a free, high-quality, public education. I always thought a Constitutional Amendment that said this would be really, really great: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." But at least I know something like this could never make it into the Constitution.
Other business to be transacted:
* A proposed amendment to NEA's policy statement on charter schools would add a provision requiring a public hearing before a charter application is approved, at which teachers, school employees and the community can testify as to "the positive and negative impact of the charter on the authorizing school district."
* The debate on resolutions will take place tomorrow, including one referencing mayoral takeovers, one opposing the creation of charter schools as a remedy during a state takeover of schools and school districts, one on home schooling that requires passing assessments (not just "taking" them), and, of course, the B-10 resolution that has caused such an uproar over the last few weeks.
Locally, the CSEA fights all efforts to allow the general public (or even the school board) to know what is happening in union negotiations. Even though teacher salaries comprise approximately 2/3 of the district's annual operating budget, the union demands that the negotiations process occur in the dark. Your public funds are being discussed, but you the taxpayer are not welcome at the table. Since this union spent $200,000 to elect their board members in 2005, it is highly unlikely that these board members will disobey the union bosses by advocating for an open contract process.
Since the unions control such a large portion of our public tax dollars and our schools, it is important to understand what they stand for and what they want to do with our schools.
To obtain more information about your local union and its NEA sponsor, visit www.unionfacts.org. This website is full of information about the union and its political activities. This website contains interesting information on the union, such as this quote from an Oregon union leader: "The major purpose of our association is not the education of children, rather it is, or ought to be the extension and/or preservation of our members' rights." While the union purchases school boards across the nation, its leaders readily admit that its mission has nothing to do with educating kids.
One of the issues that the union keeps in the forefront of the public debate on education is the issue of teacher pay. In fact, union bosses have made an agreement with Colorado Governor candidate Bill Ritter that if he is elected, he will attempt to mandate that all teachers in Colorado, no matter their skill level or ability, will make no less than $40,000 annually. What the union does not advertise to its own membership is the wages of the union bosses, who are not in the classrooms and who openly admit that they do not worry about educating kids.
The NEA has 941 full time employees. These are not teachers, these are union employees. (There are 2,731,419 dues paying members of the NEA). Of the 941 union employees, 417 make over $75,000 in annual salary. In fact, the top 10 salaried NEA employees earn over $200,000 per year in compensation. Their compensation is listed as follows:
Name Title Total Compensation
Reg Weaver Nea President $ 438,920
John Wilson Exec Director $ 336,925
Lily Eskelsen Nea Secty/treas $ 329,378
Dennis Van Roekel Nea Vp $ 318,823
Marilyn Rogers Regionaldir $ 225,488
Carmen Quesada Director $ 224,010
Kevin Howell Cio $ 220,719
Andrew Linebaugh Director $ 217,692
Cynthia Swann Project Dir $ 216,544
Nelson Okino Manager D $ 215,599
These top 10 earners live a life of luxury off the backs of hard working teachers all across the country. Even with these salaries, NEA leaders offer nothing of substance to the issue of education in this country. The union spends more on left-wing causes than it does on anything related to education. The list of liberal groups that receive forced union dues monies include:
Human Rights Campaign ($15,000)
National Women's Law Center ($5,000)
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition ($5,000)
Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network ($5,000)
Democratic Leadership Council ($25,000)
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation ($40,000)
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute ($35,000)
Economic Policy Institute ($45,000)
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center ($75,000)
People for the American Way ($51,000)
Fund to Protect Social Security ($400,000)
Rock the Vote Education Fund ($10,000)
Floridians For All ($249,000)
Alliance for Nevada's Working Families ($250,000)
In 2004, the union spent $65.5 million -- nearly 20 percent of its entire budget -- on "contributions, gifts and grants" that largely funded left-wing and non-education-related causes, including drives to raise the minimum wage and campaigns to kill Social Security reform. As a Wall Street Journal editorial noted, its financial disclosure forms "expose the union as a honey pot for left-wing political causes that have nothing to do with teachers, much less students."
Additional facts that can be found on the unionfacts webpage include the following:
And the NEA isn't afraid to align itself with shady organizations to achieve its goal of killing reform. It gave a large grant to a group called ACORN, which has been tied to voter fraud in a dozen states, government-grant fraud, and even union busting. The purpose of the money was simply listed as "NCLB" - No Child Left Behind, the legislative bane of the union's existence.
That the NEA would give money to ACORN -- and nearly $250,000 of its members' money to a 2004 political campaign in Florida run by ACORN and beset by allegations of voter fraud -- makes sense in light of the groups' shared radical philosophy. Both organizations were profoundly influenced by "Rules For Radicals" author and self-avowed Marxist Saul Alinsky, whose teachings advocated that education union organizers not let teachers "fraternize with the enemy" because "distance helps you polarize the issue." The "singleness of purpose" a union organizer must have, wrote Alinsky, is "the ability to build a power base."
It's all about power. This is the same organization that spent $200,000+ to purchase the 3 D11 school board seats in 2005. The union is about protecting its political funding source. While the teachers work hard in the classrooms to educate kids, the union leadership squanders those teachers' hard earned money to finance their own bloated salaries and their left-wing political causes. The union agenda is made clear each year at the annual conventions. Following are some of the union's top priorities, which can be found at www.eiaonline.com.
F-2. Pay Equity/Comparable Worth. The Association supports all efforts to attain accurate and unbiased forms of job evaluation and to raise the pay of those jobs that are presently undervalued. The "market value" means of establishing pay cannot be the final determinant of pay scales since it too frequently reflects the race and sex bias in our society.
-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 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.
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.
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.
* NBI 33 was approved. It creates a committee to explore creating a website to defend public education against negative propaganda in the media. The voice vote produced a significant number of "nays," undoubtedly EIA readers who like negative propaganda in the media.
* NBI 37 passed, after the provision to organize a march on Washington was removed. The same delegate introduces a march on Washington NBI every year, but not always for the same reason. I think she might sell shoes on the side.
* NBI 39 Â The anti-war measure was not considered by the delegates. Two-thirds of the delegates voted not to even bring it up for debate.
The delegates also debated amendments to NEA's legislative program:
* Legislative Amendment 6 was approved. It puts NEA in opposition to the use of voter ID. A delegate was kind enough to point out to me that NEA secret ballot elections, such as the ones that took place yesterday and today, require the delegates to produce photo ID before they can vote. Fraud in a vote for a one-year seat on the NEA Board of Directors is apparently more worrisome than fraud in a vote for President of the United States .
* Legislative Amendment 8 was defeated. It would have required NEA to work to repeal the No Child Left Behind Act, but the NEA Positive Agenda essentially precluded this amendment from passing.
* Legislative Amendment 10, restoring daylight savings time to its original dates, was defeated.
* Legislative Amendment 17 was approved, placing NEA in opposition to "federal legislation giving financial incentives or pay to teachers based solely on the subjects or fields in which they teach." The rationale for the item stated such programs "serve to advocate NCLB's priorities and create a hierarchy, thus breaking the union."
5) Upcoming Business. These new business items are on (the) agenda:
* NBI 46 calls on NEA to publish an article on the implications of patronizing Costco. Well, they can always head on over to Sam's Club.
* NBI 59 directs NEA to investigate the test-handling practices of the Educational Testing Service and other Praxis testing companies.
* NBI 64 is one I love. It calls on NEA to "develop guidelines to assist state affiliates in the resolution of conflicts between state boards of directors, state elected officials, and the executive director." It was submitted by a delegate from South Carolina . It couldn't possibly have anything to do with this, could it?
* NBI 71 indicates some delegates are worried about the recent actions of Warren Buffett. The item directs NEA to solicit the opinion of its members "on the positive and negative impact of large-scale philanthropy as it relates to public education." Start with the Annenberg Challenge.
* NBI 79 requires NEA to form a task force to explore the idea of a U.S. Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing every child in America a free, high-quality, public education. I always thought a Constitutional Amendment that said this would be really, really great: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." But at least I know something like this could never make it into the Constitution.
Other business to be transacted:
* A proposed amendment to NEA's policy statement on charter schools would add a provision requiring a public hearing before a charter application is approved, at which teachers, school employees and the community can testify as to "the positive and negative impact of the charter on the authorizing school district."
* The debate on resolutions will take place tomorrow, including one referencing mayoral takeovers, one opposing the creation of charter schools as a remedy during a state takeover of schools and school districts, one on home schooling that requires passing assessments (not just "taking" them), and, of course, the B-10 resolution that has caused such an uproar over the last few weeks.
Locally, the CSEA fights all efforts to allow the general public (or even the school board) to know what is happening in union negotiations. Even though teacher salaries comprise approximately 2/3 of the district's annual operating budget, the union demands that the negotiations process occur in the dark. Your public funds are being discussed, but you the taxpayer are not welcome at the table. Since this union spent $200,000 to elect their board members in 2005, it is highly unlikely that these board members will disobey the union bosses by advocating for an open contract process.
Since the unions control such a large portion of our public tax dollars and our schools, it is important to understand what they stand for and what they want to do with our schools.
posted by Craig Cox | 12:09 PM
2 Comments:
This is ridiculous... teachers make crap for a wage and all you guys can do is talk bad about the union who supports them and keeps them making at least a somewhat decent wage? Teachers teach your children... dont you want a teacher who is happy about what they do and can come to school with a better attitude? Or would you rather pay them even less then they make now to teach so that they will barely survive paycheck to paycheck and be more worried about surviving then teaching? This is the future people, wake up and stop fighting the unions, they are not the problem, its the greedy corporations who want to pay you less but yet they bring in higher and higher profit every year. I believe union and non union can work together here, we all are really for the same cause you know? As far as the dues going to political stuff really that is not fully true... yes dues go to some political support but if you attend your union meetings you have a vote as to where the money is spent, and yes the political support is typically democratic but thats only because why would you vote for someone who is against you? I know plenty of union people who are republicans but vote democratic because the republican candidates are anti union. All I'm saying here is please talk to someone who is a part of a union and gets the facts straight before you start judging.
Jeremy, you don’t seem to understand facts. Unions don’t ensure good pay for teachers and they certainly don’t ensure quality. In fact, the opposite is true. Unions fight for poor teachers and they fight against decent pay for the good teachers. In Colorado Springs, D11 is the only district with NEA representation. That being the case, D11’s teachers are not the highest paid in the city. A quality teacher should be able to demand higher wages than poor teachers. The union is adamantly opposed to this reasonable and logical way to pay good teachers. And no, teachers have no say about where their union dues end up. The NEA is one of the largest contributors in the country to the Democrat Party. They don’t provide contributions to pro-education, pro-parent, pro-student candidates or conservative causes. They are a funding source for liberalism. Based on the sorry state of public education today, that certainly isn’t money well spent.
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