LaborPains.org

A new study from Mike Antonucci shows just where union dues are going: To fight against school reforms that will improve the quality of education for our nation’s children. Perhaps unsurprisingly, more money was spent per-teacher in Oregon ($357) and Colorado ($174) than anywhere else. I say unsurprisingly since there were a raft of reforms in both of these states that the higher ups in unions were committed to fighting (television time doesn’t come cheap, you know). More than $19 million in union dues were spent in just those two states by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers to influence the political process.

Antonucci also lists some of the front groups that labor unions use to spread their messages. They donate money to left-leaning nonprofits like Media Matters, Americans United for Change, Center for American Progress, and other organizations dedicated to keep unions in power and in control of our nation’s schools.

Anyone who doubts the efficacy of these campaigns should read Antonucci’s take on South Dakota’s proposition 10:

In the smaller states, NEA’s political reach is perhaps best illustrated by the campaign against Measure 10 in South Dakota, a state not normally considered a union stronghold. The November 2008 initiative would have banned the use of tax money for campaigns or lobbying and restricted political contributions by government contractors.

NEA contributed $1.1 million to air TV ads against the measure. That amount of money goes a long way in a media market so small. NEA’s state affiliate, the South Dakota Education Association, has only 5,600 active members and could never have appropriated such a sum on its own. It would have required an additional assessment of almost $200 per member. Measure 10 was defeated, prompting its committee chairman to say, “We’ll be able to prepare accordingly next time knowing that the real opposition to ethics reform in South Dakota is NEA union officials back east.”

Campaigns like these are where union dues are going. You should really read Antonucci’s whole piece to see just how deep the problem runs.

Photo courtesy Cayusa.

You can file this under “Good Luck With That.” After what the Washington Post calls “18 months of floundering” (ouch), the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and labor et al. are looking to the Right for help going further Left:

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, the “tea party” movement must be honored. In an effort to replicate the tea party’s success, 170 liberal and civil rights groups are forming a coalition that they hope will match the movement’s political energy and influence. They promise to “counter the tea party narrative” and help the progressive movement find its voice again after 18 months of foundering.

The large-scale attempt at liberal unity, dubbed “One Nation,” will try to revive themes that energized the progressive grass roots two years ago. In a repurposing of Barack Obama’s former campaign slogan, organizers are demanding “all the change” they voted for — a poke at the White House. [...]

The groups involved represent the core of the first-time voters who backed Obama, including the National Council of La Raza, the Service Employees International Union, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, and the United States Student Association. (The effort is separate from the Democratic Party’s plan to spend $50 million trying to reach those same voters.) Their aha! moment happened after the health-care overhaul passed this spring.

There’s a fascinating and informative column at Slate today that explains how teacher tenure has evolved into the reform-killing obstruction that we know today. As Bryan Caplan explains, though tenure began as a way to protect teachers from being replaced for political reasons or at the whim of powerful families, it has become a guarantee of a job for life:

Until the early 20th century, teachers had few protections. According to anecdote, they were fired for flunking the children of powerful parents, holding unpopular views, or simply getting old. Politicians sometimes replaced teachers as part of the infamous spoils system. … [Today] most teachers are fired for misconduct rather than simple incompetence. The New York City School District, which employs more than 80,000 teachers terminated 25 tenured teachers during the 2008-09 school year. Just two of the firings were based solely on incompetence. Less than one-half of the districts surveyed in one study reported dismissing a teacher for poor performance in the previous five years.

Emphasis mine, because it’s pretty shocking, when you think about it. New York City’s schools aren’t exactly paragons of educational achievement, yet only two teachers in ’08-’09 were fired for not being good at their jobs. That is a crazy figure. And we have teacher tenure to blame for it.

If you are wondering where unions fall in President Obama’s hierarchy of people he needs to stay in contact with and phone calls he needs to return:

The night before Barack Obama became President of the United States he made two phone calls to a man named, Tom Balanoff. Balanoff is the President of SEIU (Service Employees Int’l Union) Local 1 in Chicago. Obama’s first call to Balanoff went unanswered because his number came up as “blocked” on Balanoff’s cell phone. Balanoff was in the middle of a fancy dinner with the former SEIU Int’l President, Andy Stern, at Shaw’s Crab House in downtown Chicago. When Balanoff listened to the voicemail, this is what he heard: “Tom, this is Barack. Give me a call.”

Later that night, Tom Balanoff was filling his car up with gas when he spoke to Barack Obama. Obama told Balanoff he had “two criteria” for the person who would replace him in the US Senate, after Obama got elected President. Today in court, Tom Balanoff testified Obama explained his “two criteria” this way: “One, they must be good for citizens of Illinois and two, the person had to be able to be reelected” (in 2010). Balanoff says, Obama told him there were a “number of good candidates” but Obama said he did not want to get involved in the process. Balanoff says Obama brought up the name of his close friend and campaign advisor, Valerie Jarrett.