Unions Use Teacher Dues to Advance Political Agenda
One “benefit” of the Covid-19 lockdowns was the public’s exposure to what is, or isn’t, going on in our schools. In just a few short years, the public has seen the outsized, and pernicious, influence of public-sector unions — nowhere more dramatically than in our schools.
The damage is nearly incalculable, and the money unions spend on such injury is enormous.
Unions take membership dues from hard-working teachers and use it to finance a slew of politically driven efforts that have nothing to do with educating the nation’s children. Many of those efforts actually harm students. Hard-left activist teachers are empowered to indoctrinate children with propaganda, while good teachers presenting a solid education are subverted.
And it shows: Large numbers of America’s children now loathe American values, and test results for reading and math reveal that about half the nation’s children fail to perform at grade level.
Nevertheless, the unions are doubling down. The National Education Association’s (NEA’s) LM2 expenditures report for fiscal year 2022 - 2023, reveals their troubling agenda. Tens of millions were apportioned back to each state’s union halls to finance political agendas that have little to do with education. Additional millions are used to waylay successful charter schools and the desperate families flocking to them to escape dangerous and failing government schools.
Millions more financed efforts to sexualize children, provide abortions for students, impose transgender ideology onto our children, and introduce biological boys into girls’ sports and locker rooms — in many cases without the knowledge or permission of parents. The unions subsidize suffocating taxes, open borders, and socialized health care too.
That a known left-wing organization would spend millions on leftist causes is not surprising, but NEA claims to be a union labeling itself “the largest democratic deliberative body in the world,” and it takes money from a large percentage of its members who flatly oppose the union’s political spending.
Mishandling teachers' dues money is not democratic. NEA’s claim to be committed to educating all children is deceptive. Their spending speaks louder than their empty words.
Let’s look at some of the organizations receiving big dollars from NEA.
Moveon.org. Civic Action, a longtime campaigner against Republicans and Donald Trump, received $110,000 and says, among other things, that it stands with Black Lives Matter. BLM stated, “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” So, shouldn’t all teachers be shielding kids from BLM?
The National Action Network House of Justice backs criminal justice reform, voting rights, and fair housing. For that, the network received $100,000. Taking principled positions on those issues sounds great until you realize that the cabal championing these issues — many Democrats, ACLU, SPLC, Planned Parenthood, and others — is made up of far-left activists hell-bent on destroying our liberties.
That gang of radicals uses the criminal justice system to persecute its political foes, changes voting rules for its benefit, and pushes for "fair housing" because it means a huge payoff for union partners who rake in cash building those $800,000 homeless units.
Is that “just,” “right,” or “fair?”
Another NEA beneficiary, the Progressive State Leaders Committee, which promotes progressive public policies closely tied to the Democratic Attorneys General Association, received $225,000.
Maybe your child will get a meaningful rendition of the Democratic Attorneys General Association’s top priorities in civics class – if schools bother with civics classes anymore, that is.
What your child will get is a steady dose of woke-style racism, class warfare, sexual “grooming” for young children, efforts to persuade children to “change” genders, and unisex restrooms where young males can victimize unwilling females with no accountability.
Maybe one of the taller boys can “declare” himself a girl and play center for your daughter’s basketball team, and your daughter can watch games from the bench.
These things are actually happening in our schools, and NEA funding helps make it possible. In addition, NEA gave “The Trevor Project” $100,000. The Trevor Project claims to be an online resource to help LGBTQ children, but the truth is that through this resource little children are led directly to complete strangers online. Sam Britton, the former Biden administration employee who stole women’s luggage to access women’s clothing, is the poster child for The Trevor Project.
In California, Shirley Nash-Weber, one of the most powerful union-funded politicians in the legislature, was appointed Secretary of State — her reward for spearheading passage of the absurdly titled Healthy Youth Act that brought sexualization of children into kindergarten.
To be sure, many public-sector employees enjoy huge pensions and salaries far in excess of what similar jobs earn in the private sector. A lot of lawmakers in most states have worked very hard for these union perks, and have netted electoral help from unions in exchange.
But have they considered the enormous cost to children?
Teachers who don’t agree with the NEA’s far-left agenda are tired of funding union principles they find abhorrent. They should withhold dues money and pay unions nothing. True, those teachers will be demonized and stigmatized for rejecting unions, but they’ll be making a moral decision and will no longer be complicit in the devastation of our kids and country.
We hope the virtuous teachers will join the thousands of teachers who have already rejected union subjugation. Teachers can be freed. They merely need to muster up the courage to take a stand.
