Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Where Does Your NEA Dues Money Go?

EIA has sifted through the data and made it easy for us to be sickened--after all, as EIA points out, this was all dues money and not money from their PAC (which gets voluntary donations). Is this how you want your dues money spent? Is this doing anything to improve your pay, benefits, and working conditions? Here are just a few samples of NEA largesse:

AFL-CIO - $150,000

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity - $33,000

Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies - $5,000

Citizens Who Support Maine's Public Schools - $250,000

Coalition for Our Communities - $625,000

Coloradans for Responsible Reform - $400,000

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. - $8,800

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute - $50,000

Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate - $200,000

Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute - $10,000

Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network - $5,000

Health Care for America Now! - $450,000

HOPE (Yes on SQ 744) - $1,758,000

MediaMatters - $100,000

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund - $25,000

National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans - $5,000

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund - $12,500

National Council of La Raza - $26,500

Netroots Nation - $15,000

New Democratic Network - $25,000

People for the American Way - $64,538

Stop the Gag Law - $350,000

Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation - $166,666

Many of the largest donations from NEA headquarters went to state ballot initiative groups, but these do not constitute the sum total of the national union's spending on state political measures. In fiscal year 2009-10, NEA sent an additional $3 million to several state affiliates for the specific purpose of passing or defeating ballot initiatives or legislative measures...In some cases, this spending was augmented by funds raised within the state affiliates.

Why do these organizations need your dues money?

2 comments:

Mike Thiac said...

Did you check out Yes on OK 744...fortunately it lost but seeing most of these groups got ten's of thousands and this got almost two million...



From the web site http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=13432569

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Voters overwhelmingly rejected State Question 744 Tuesday. The question was rejected with over 81 percent of voters against the proposed constitutional amendment to dramatically increase public school funding.

State Question 744 would have required the state within three years to meet the average per-student spending of surrounding states. A fiscal analysis of the proposal projected an increased cost to the state of $1.7 billion over three years. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Oklahoma currently spends $8,006 annually for each Pre-K through 12 student. That's more than $1,600 less than the $9,633 that's being spent, on average, in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. Oklahoma's per-pupil spending ranks 49th lowest in the nation.

49th in the nation...I though that was Louisiana's slot. Cool, their moving on up.

Anonymous said...

"49th in the nation...I though that was Louisiana's slot."

Lots of states can claim to be 49th. California is another one. The claim is, quite simply, factually untrue in the case of California, but it keeps coming up when school funding issues arise.

-Mark Roulo