$65 million in donations
This from The Wall Street Journal
If we told you that an organization gave away more than $65 million last year to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Amnesty International, AIDS Walk Washington and dozens of other such advocacy groups, you’d probably assume we were describing a liberal philanthropy. In fact, those expenditures have all turned up on the financial disclosure report of the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union.
We already knew that the NEA’s top brass lives large. Reg Weaver, the union’s president, makes $439,000 a year. The NEA has a $58 million payroll for just over 600 employees, more than half of whom draw six-figure salaries. Last year the average teacher made only $48,000, so it seems you’re better off working as a union rep than in the classroom.
When George Soros does this sort of thing, at least he’s spending his own money. The NEA is spending the mandatory dues paid by members who are told their money will be used to gain better wages, benefits and working conditions. According to the latest filing, member dues accounted for $295 million of the NEA’s $341 million in total receipts last year. But the union spent $25 million of that on “political activities and lobbying” and another $65.5 million on “contributions, gifts and grants” that seemed designed to further those hyper-liberal political goals.
The good news is that for the first time members can find out how their union chieftains did their political thinking for them, by going to this site, where the Labor Department has posted the details.
Wouldn’t $65 million go a long way in education costs to keep teachers up to par with teaching standards?
January 3, 2006 - 02:06 PM on January 3rd, 2006
Until unions have to ask members for political contribution money instead of taking it from their paychecks without permission, nothing is going to change for the teachers.
January 3, 2006 - 05:58 PM on January 3rd, 2006
You anti-intellectual piece of sanctimonious shit! Your buddies in the GOP just gave Exxon Mobil (who already has $29 billion in cash) another $2 billion of your tax dollars as part of the energy bill! They just gave an outrageous tax break to the super wealthy and paid for it by cutting your grandmother’s health insurance. And you’re worrying about what the NEA does with it’s money? Wake up, you pathetic nitwit!
Hope that wasn’t too harsh. Have a nice day!
January 3, 2006 - 06:37 PM on January 3rd, 2006
You anti-intellectual piece of sanctimonious shit! I guess you’ve been called that before haven’t you phil? Obviously you can’t read, or you chose not to..It was pointed out already that an individual making donations such as these are one thing, but we are talking about a union here and the salaries and donations etc. Please try to keep up.
As for the enerygy bill, what of it? The government is investing in alternative fuel sources that benefit all americans. Did yopu just realize that many companies across the board receive these grants and tax breaks? As for grandmas health insurance, you obviously don’t know what you are talking about or your grandmother is on medicaid which should be cut even more. As for medicare,which most grandmothers receive, that was not cut. Nope, they didn’t cut benefits.
January 3, 2006 - 11:56 PM on January 3rd, 2006
Is it any wonder that the teachers’ union came out against Arnold’s propositions? One of them was to require public employee unions to request permission from the members before spending money on political activities. The unions screamed that it was an attack on free speech. When you consider that the union has been telling union members who they are going to HAVE to contribute to instead of giving them the choice of who to support, who was really restricting free speech?
January 4, 2006 - 07:58 AM on January 4th, 2006
phil, you are beyond stuck on stupid. If you could reach up, you’d still be below gutter level. That, and you are a complete idiot. You are one of the few people too stupid to own a computer.
January 4, 2006 - 08:23 AM on January 4th, 2006
FAO- I think in light of some of these revelations coming out about how much money there is in the coffers, as well as how much is not spent on the actual employee, people will be hard pressed to support a bailout of any union shop.
January 4, 2006 - 10:17 AM on January 4th, 2006
Phil,
I would rather see Exxon get money than the 300lb lazy fucking fat ass in front of me at the save-a-lot giving herself and her 13 kids diabetes and cholesterol poisoning with the strawberry soda, ho-hos and rind dings…at least Exxon EMPLOYS people.
Have a nice day…..a-hole.
January 4, 2006 - 10:45 AM on January 4th, 2006
Happy New Year Mike!:grin:
January 4, 2006 - 11:37 AM on January 4th, 2006
Leave it to the Nazi Educators Association to donate to some of the nations most far left orgaizations especialy like RAINBOW/PUSH run by JESSIE JACKASSON:roll:
January 4, 2006 - 03:53 PM on January 4th, 2006
Happy New Year to you Peejz!!!
Welcome to ‘06……. yikes.
that means I’ll be thirty….oh…..something in 3 weeks!