Tuesday, July 05, 2011

It's Always A Crisis

At the national level, we get this:
While the rest of us were celebrating the 4th of July with BBQs and parades and recitations of the Declaration of Independence, teachers’ union “delegates” from the far left were giving Obama the thumbs up. Not coincidentally they also voted to levy a $10 tax on union teachers nationally to help support “messaging” in front of his reelection bid.

And the messaging will largely consist of another call to “crisis” in education because the union goose has stopped laying golden eggs.

“The Representative Assembly recommended that NEA members vote to re-elect President Barack Obama in the 2012 election” wrote Will Potter of the National Education Association. “They also voted for a $10 annual dues increase that will be dedicated to funding NEA's Crisis Fund, a program designed to put money back into the states for pro-public education outreach.”

3.2 million teachers will pay the tax – out of your tax dollars- which is expected to double the amount of money normally put into the “crisis fund.”

Maybe teachers instead should look at why they need an annual “crisis fund” in the first place?
At the state level we get this:
Building on the solidarity and energy from CTA members’ successful week of state budget protests in May, State Council delegates met in Los Angeles in early June and approved the second phase of the CTA State of Emergency campaign to pressure lawmakers to extend taxes to avoid the catastrophe of an all-cuts budget.
How did May's week of temper tantrums, CTA's State of Emergency campaign here in the capital, work out?
In short, California teachers spent about $5 million in union dues to get David Sanchez arrested and jailed overnight.
Those union teachers sure are an angry bunch.

2 comments:

Rhymes With Right said...

3.2 million teachers will pay the tax – out of your tax dollars- which is expected to double the amount of money normally put into the “crisis fund.”

Statements like that one always bother me.

After all, once it hits a teacher's paycheck, is it really fair to say that this $10 is coming out of taxpayer dollars? After all, at a certain point a teacher's paycheck becomes the teacher's money, not the taxpayers -- unless someone wants to argue that I filled my gas tank using taxpayer dollars, paid my mortgage using taxpayer dollars, bought a pizza and a pitcher of beer at lunch today with taxpayer dollars, etc.

I understand the point the author of the piece is trying to make, but I think it fails unless one wishes to take a very paternalistic attitude towards teachers and other public employees. I mean, when has there ever been a complaint about sailors on liberty stuffing "taxpayer dollars" in the G-strings of strippers? The complaint about this $10 coming out of teacher paychecks to pay union dues is equally absurd -- and I say that as a proud non-union teacher.

Darren said...

You are absolutely correct on that point.