Posted on 11/05/2010 6:33:43 PM PDT by rhema
One thing is perfectly clear after Tuesday's midterm elections: The long-and-fruitful relationship between Democrats and teachers unions is no longer mutually beneficial.
Congressional Democrats angered centrist school reformers, MoveOn.org-style progressives, and other party activists in August when they voted to ladle $10 billion in federal subsidies (funded from future cuts to the Food Stamp program) to school districts in order to stave off layoffs of 160,000 teachers (or just 2.6 percent of the nation's 6.2 million school employees). In turn, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers poured more than $40 million of their hefty campaign war chests (including more than $15 million by the NEA in the last weeks of the election season alone) to help the Democrats keep full control of Congress.
It didn't work. Most of the endangered Democrat congressmen backed heavily by the NEA alone -- including Tom Perriello in Virginia and Nevada's Dina Titus -- were still tossed out; only the victories of wishy-washy Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (who was backed with $1.4 million of the NEA's largesse) and soon-to-be-minority leader Harry Reid staved off a full shellacking. The biggest hits came in state races as Republicans captured full control of 19 statehouses -- including those in once-teachers union friendly states such as Indiana and Michigan -- and teachers union-supportive governors in Pennsylvania and other states were replaced with new chief executives less to their liking.
The fact that NEA and AFT efforts yielded little fruit is one more sign to Democrats that their alliance with the unions -- already frayed over President Barack Obama's school reform initiatives -- is no longer of much value.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
I hope both have the Samson Playbook. That way when we take one down, the both go.
I love the smell of all that union money going up in smoke.
Teachers do not have to be slaves on the NEA plantation any more in order to have insurance. Those other organizations provide it also. By leaving the NEA, they can set an example for their students and retain their honor as truly free citizens of America.
Since the NEA ceased being a good professional organization and turned to promoting socialist goals by putting the money it forcibly took from teachers into Far Left policies, it has ceased to be a reputable advocate for the learning performance of children.
That’s cause the SEIU/AFSCME are Bambi’s new darlings.
NEA is so old school, too bad they haven’t figured it out yet.
BINGO!
Land a government job, and join the money-laudering wing of the Democrat Party. You are assured no layoffs, and constant raises, and un-told Benefits, all from the Taxpayer who is defenseless against the continuous handouts at their expense.
There, fixed it.
Yeah, but, I wonder how much of the Department of Education $$$$ dollars go to the teacher’s Unions ? ... a very good reason to defund the Dep. of education.
Single payer doesn’t work, and will never work. There are two and only two things that will save education in America.
1) Parents must pay directly for their children’s education.
2) Fathers must raise their children.
Yeah...Sure! When hell freezes over...
The relationship is as strong as ever in California.
Just so everybody who wants to know is up to speed...
SEIU = Service Employees International Union
AFSCME = American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees
Remarkably, I view myself as aware and informed, consistent with a normal person having a life and the usual household duties and obligations.
Yet I had never heard of AFSCME.
If I were a tax parasite wanting to avoid responsibility for my actions, ineptitude and thugish behavior, or financing same, I suppose I would prefer regular name changes too.
We need to push for open democracy in unions. Right now the leadership of these unions does not reflect the membership and leadership elections are rigged. Most union leaders do not come from the rank and file, but rather like Obama were organizers. We should organize among the rank and file of these unions for their getting control of their unions away from the commie cadres. It would neuter a substantial support base of the dummies.
“I love the smell of all that union money going up in smoke.”
Why? Since it was public employee unions’ money, that means it was yours. I’m glad it didn’t buy them much anyway, but the author has a misunderstanding of the relationship between the two: the Democratic Party works for the teachers unions, not vice versa.
Now we have to find a Consti way to stop Public Employee unions from donating vast amounts of monies. Private sector unions have the right naturally but it is now questionable by many legal scholars whether Public unions should have the right. What can be done here? Reid won because of the Casino unions and NEA funds.
“Right now the leadership of these unions does not reflect the membership and leadership elections are rigged.”
While that is probably true of the private-sector unions (which couldn’t protect their members’ jobs anyway), I assure you that no matter what teachers’ unions members may say, they are quite happy with their tenure deals (especially in light of what they’ve seen happening to any private-sector acquaintances they have over the past decade).
It has come down to fights between teachers’ and police unions over who gets laid off first as money dries up, and in Newark NJ it looks like the teachers have won that battle.
Sounds good to me.
The problem is the culture.
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