When I was a young child and I went to school,
I wanted to learn and I didn’t break the rules.
To teachers I deferred, I worked hard at my desk,
Me, & every other kid, wanting to be the best

But something’s gone wrong in the schools of our nation
The teachers held before in such high estimation
Irreverent behavior in hallways abounds
Foul language confronts me, everyday sounds

Such disparagement daily comes at a large cost
The code of civility on this generation lost
Nowhere to turn and too tired to try
The teachers are leaving and it’s no wonder why.

I have a problem with the National Education Association. They take my money but I really don’t have any idea what they do for me. Lehnert vs. Ferris (1991) states that fees to a union must be used only for collective bargaining activity, contract administration and grievance adjustment. As a union member, they are supposed to provide me liability insurance and other benefits, but as a non tenured teacher, I have come to understand it's unlikely that the NEA would proffer my cause should I need their services. Admittedly, the aforementioned scenario is "here say” but it is very telling that there is a website whose purpose is to expose corruption in our schools and many who write in have expressed that the NEA or their affiliates have failed to help.

I decided to do some research about the NEA. I found out that nowhere in this country do teachers have to join the NEA. There is a choice. However 19 states, including Illinois, have mandatory bargaining laws. This requires that when teachers vote to be represented by a union, the union represents all the teachers benefiting from the resulting contract. In addition, if teachers vote to be represented by a union, the school board must bargain with the union. If a union contract has an agency shop clause in the contract, a teacher must either become a union member and pay dues or make a religious objection and give the dues to charity or voice a political or philosophical objection to union membership and challenge the amount of the fee based on how the union spends its money.

The NEA admits between 30-40 percent of its dues are not chargeable to agency-fee objectors. Non member teachers may not receive the NEA liability insurance, however. Because I don’t agree with the political orientation of the NEA, I decided that I would prefer not to join the union and exercise whatever my alternative option was (I’m still not sure what my district calls it). I was talked out of it by one of the officers (a colleague) because he told me it was tons of paperwork for him and a big hassle. Not wanting to burden him and against my better judgment, I allowed him to give my money to the union.

Lehnert vs. Ferris (1991) states that union dues are not to fund political activity. It’s odd then, that the NEA has a political agenda and even odder still that it doesn’t represent all of its members accurately. For one thing, the NEA supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom. If you are pro life or support abortion (but not at taxpayers’ expense), your dues are helping to fund their position on this cause. I find it grossly unfair that I am pressured to give money to an organization with whom I don’t agree on all major social issues. Why does the NEA even have a position on abortion? What does that have to do with improving public schools?

The NEA leans politically to the left on many issues that are unrelated to education. They support a nuclear freeze, statehood for Washington, D.C., reparation of Native American remains, a world court, and blocking telemarketing. It wouldn’t matter how I felt about any of these issues, the fact is the NEA is spending my money (to bring causes irrelevant to educations fruition) by contributing an over abundance of dollars collected through union dues to political advocacy organizations such as NOW, the pro homosexual Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and PAW.

In the 1998 election, the NEA was the 3rd largest contributor to political candidates and organizations. Of their $3.4 million contribution, 95% went to Democrats and 5 % to Republicans. This occurred though only 49% of its members are affiliated with the Democratic Party. Incidentally, the NEA has only endorsed Democratic candidates for President.
Now, I’ve come to find out that the IRS is investigating the NEA for spending millions of dollars in members' dues on unreported political activities (Al Capone would be proud).

It would be difficult to reform the NEA through political activism because the executive staff and UniServe directors of the NEA are appointed to office. What are UniServe directors you ask? They are around 1,500 field representatives who link the NEA to its 13,000 local affiliates. These UniServe directors provide bargaining and political services (supported in part by a special fee assessed of every NEA member) and tie locals to the NEA’s national political network. A Uniserve director typically serves as the chief negotiator for one or more local affiliates of the NEA.

Now, if I understand my history correctly, the framers made sure that the Constitution specifically enumerated separate powers to the federal and state governments in this vast nation of ours. I was under the impression that schools were under state (and local) jurisdiction. In essence, the NEA has created a federal jurisdiction through representation of local affiliates by a national director.

The answer to my original question really burns me. What does the NEA do? They bargain teaching contracts and help adjust grievances (for tenured teachers). But they have a cause that supercedes their charter. They are using membership dues to help support the raising of political action committee funds (PAC) to influence policy decisions that I do not necessarily endorse but in the long run will affect the organization or administration of public schools through the election of legislators espousing a liberal political agenda. Teachers trade their voice for mandated representation by the NEA and their local affiliates. The NEA uses their voices to bolster their influence in Washington and in our own states and allows for a minority opinion to dictate legislation.

Nancy Salvato is a middle school teacher in Illinois and an independent contractor for Prism Educational Consulting. She is the Educational Liaison to IL Sen. Ray Soden and she works with national and local organizations furthering the cause of Civic Education. She is a columnist for American Daily, The Common Voice, GOP-USA, OpinionEditorials and The New Media Journal.us. Her writing has been recognized by the US Secretary of Education. She has been published in The Washington Times, The Washington Dispatch, Iconoclast, Free Republic Network & Townhall.com., as well as other nationally and internationally published media outlets.