Dirty political tricks a specialty for school employee unions across the nation
We would like to say we were surprised when we learned that John Leidecker, assistant director of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, allegedly sent out falsified e-mails last summer, claiming to be a candidate that his union opposed.
But we’re not. We’ve learned that school employee unions will employ just about any tactic to elect friendly lawmakers who will block meaningful education reform.
In the 2007-08 election cycle, for example, the NEA spent $56 million on friendly candidates and ballot issues across the country. That made the union the most prolific political donor in the nation. The American Federation of Teachers donated $12 million, while the two unions’ combined PAC spent more than $3 million.
Contributions from the unions in this year’s mid-term elections have not been tallied up yet, but we’re willing to bet they spent even more in a desperate attempt to keep their pet politicians in office.
Dirty political tricks are a natural extension of desperate union activism. And they are not limited to Rhode Island.
In California earlier this year, Orrin Cole, a Republican candidate for the Cuyamaca Community College board, received a letter from a local AFT official, threatening to “expose” him to voters. Days later, a mailer went out falsely claiming that Cole had been rejected as a candidate for the local GOP Central Committee, and that he was not from California. The union also endorsed Cole’s two opponents.
In Michigan earlier this year, a local PAC representing school employee unions sent out a mailer attacking John Conely, an anti-union school board candidate in the Brighton district. The mailer claimed Conely had been involved in 21 lawsuits, and asked voters if that kind of person should be on the school board.
The local newspaper investigated and found that only 13 of those lawsuits involved Conely, and most of those involved his efforts to claim money that customers owed to his business.
For several years, the Michigan Education Association has been hosting an annual workshop that teaches local members how to conduct recall campaigns against honest local school board members who vote against union interests. That has resulted in dozens of baseless recall efforts across the state.
None of this should come as a surprise. Teachers unions across the nation have long been pampered by the federal and state governments. For decades they have been allowed to dictate public education policy, with little scrutiny.
Now the nation is waking up and starting to ask questions, and the unions are clearly worried about losing their spot at the peak the education establishment.
What we’re really watching is a big, fat, spoiled child throwing a tantrum because its parents – in this case, the taxpayers – are finally waking up and demanding accountability.
The tantrums will continue until we learn to ignore them. Once we master that skill, and stop rewarding their negative behavior, we believe the unions will quickly come to the table, eager to talk about real school reform.
