Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Stomping Out Ignorance
The Christian Educators Association International, an organization that provides union-like benefits for its teacher members and appears to be closely affiliated with the evangelical movement, has recently sent out "information" to its members about the upcoming California Special Election as follows:
FACTS FOR CALIFORNIA CEAI MEMBERS
Following are things you may hear in the California media and at your school sites. We have included some facts to give you the broader picture.
I. WHAT YOU MIGHT HEAR: The governor and big business is trying to silence the voices of teachers.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: CTA leadership is refusing to debate teachers within the CTA who have differing opinions from theirs. They ignore that their own members don't agree with their politics and blame big business and the governor for trying to silence teachers' voices. But they use the funds of all teachers to support leftist politics, thereby silencing a good portion fo their moderate and conservative membership. See the State of Labor, 2005 labor union accountability report here.
II. WHAT YOU MIGHT HEAR: CTA members already have a choice to divert political funds into a charity.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: CTA gives members the choice of whether or not to divert a small amount of Political Action Funds (under $10 monthly of the $90+ fees) to a charity. Yet, they refund $250-$300 per year to non-members which they have defined as non-billable expenses or political funds. CTA's recent dues raise was admittedly for political purposes. CTA has already spent that money and is seeking to borrow $40 million more. See here. Poltical spending is about to make CTA go broke if it hasn't already. This political spending cannot be account for by the mere $10 per month from each member.
III WHAT YOU MIGHT HEAR: The union has its own internal democratic process through which members can participate in influencing union policy.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: CTA members can elect representatives who make all the state-level decisions. But no one reports how those representatives vote so they can be held accountable. Often, members are not informed of the issues being voted on in a timely enough manner to give representatives their viewpoints. State and national leaders are voted into office through the representatives and not by the rank and file members. Less than a quarter of one percent of members make the decisions for CTA membership.
This information piece is signed by Finn Laursen, Exectutive Director with an instruction to contact Forrest Turpen for more information.
Well, Mr. Turpen, here goes! (I have e-mailed the link to this blog to him, and he is welcome to respond in private via e-mail or publicly through the comment section below).
I. Your response is a red herring. Instead of addressing the "what you might hear" portion, you choose to ignore the charge and attack the CTA on another issue.
First, let us look at the information you should have addressed. The website promoting proposition 75 lists several people, most of them union members, as supporters. The reality of the situation is far different than what is presented at the supporters site.
As the old saying goes, the mothers milk of politics is money; and, in this case, there are a select few who are really backing proposition 75. In fact, 97% of the money backing Proposition 75 has come from a handful of very rich people and corporations who are hostile to labor and unions in general.
Second, as for your red herring point, I am reminded of my libertarian friends who scream and yell about the Republican Party, join the libertarian party, and become completely ineffectual. Although I can only go on my own personal experience and that of some of my colleagues in other districts, I have found that the union is quite responsive to my points even though I often disagree with policy and have opted out of contributing to the CTA PAC. Instead of throwing ineffectual spitwads from outside of the system, I have chosen to remain inside and preach to the masses. At the risk of over-hyping my own impact and inflating my ego, I recall that Jesus spent most of his time with sinners (tax collectors, prostitutes, etc.) in his attempt to change them specifically and change lives in general. Perhaps the CTA would be a stronger organization as well as a more moderate one if your members would do the same by joining it and being active. This is not meant to imply that your members do not have a positive impact at our site because they do. I am only arguing that they have little impact on the major power player that is the local, state, and national union (NEA).
II. Relying solely on the National Right to Work group for you information is dangerous. After checking with my site represenative and my local president, I have found that the CTA accountants and lawyers are meticulous in their review of non-billable expenses and where the money goes. In reality the amount that is diverted to the general fund on a yearly basis by opt-out people such as myself is equivalent to the amount refunded to agency fee payers. Your information is flat-out wrong. As for the amount of money being borrowed, I fail to see how this is different than purchasing a home with a loan with the intent to pay it back. Just because a person has a mortgage does not mean that the person is broke. Given that the CTA and other unions are fighting the deep pockets of a handful of welathy people and corporations as shown above, the borrowing makes sense, unless, of course, you are hostile to the idea of promoting liberty and political choice.
III. Do you honestly believe that every union member has the time or desire to review every issue and vote on them? That seems to be what you are implying in section III. The way the upper leaders are selected takes after how we originally elected U.S. Senators in this country and how similar leaders are to be elected in Iraq under our democratic based, and now approved, Iraqi constitution. If the "problem" you see is that much of a concern, join and fight on the inside... and fight with accurate and forthright information.
The packet that was handed to me to review is from a member of yours that I respect. In fact there are a few members of your union on our campus, and I respect all of them.
However, I do not agree that by joining your union one would be more effective as a Christian educator of both Christian and non-Christian students (this would apply solely to a public school setting), nor do I see any information in the packet given that your are effective in protecting my rights and interests in California including protecting STRS, promoting smaller class sizes, increasing necessary funding for new textbooks etc. In fact, the packet I received is more of an anti-NEA/CTA work than a proactive Christian attempt to improve the lot of students and teachers in public education. Although I disagree with many NEA/CTA positions, the only effective way to get any positive change in an unperfect system is to be in that system when no reasonable alternative exists. I see no evidence that your union is a reasonable alternative for public school teachers. Perhaps you have such evidence, and I would welcome a chance to review it; however, it was not in the packet nor was I able to find it on your website.
I wish you all the best; I am sure that by working with the excellent members of your union, the high school at which we all teach will continue to excel. I only hope that in the future your communications with your members are more accurate so that they may indeed make informed decisions.
Vivat Jesus!
Matthew J. McKinley
FACTS FOR CALIFORNIA CEAI MEMBERS
Following are things you may hear in the California media and at your school sites. We have included some facts to give you the broader picture.
I. WHAT YOU MIGHT HEAR: The governor and big business is trying to silence the voices of teachers.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: CTA leadership is refusing to debate teachers within the CTA who have differing opinions from theirs. They ignore that their own members don't agree with their politics and blame big business and the governor for trying to silence teachers' voices. But they use the funds of all teachers to support leftist politics, thereby silencing a good portion fo their moderate and conservative membership. See the State of Labor, 2005 labor union accountability report here.
II. WHAT YOU MIGHT HEAR: CTA members already have a choice to divert political funds into a charity.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: CTA gives members the choice of whether or not to divert a small amount of Political Action Funds (under $10 monthly of the $90+ fees) to a charity. Yet, they refund $250-$300 per year to non-members which they have defined as non-billable expenses or political funds. CTA's recent dues raise was admittedly for political purposes. CTA has already spent that money and is seeking to borrow $40 million more. See here. Poltical spending is about to make CTA go broke if it hasn't already. This political spending cannot be account for by the mere $10 per month from each member.
III WHAT YOU MIGHT HEAR: The union has its own internal democratic process through which members can participate in influencing union policy.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: CTA members can elect representatives who make all the state-level decisions. But no one reports how those representatives vote so they can be held accountable. Often, members are not informed of the issues being voted on in a timely enough manner to give representatives their viewpoints. State and national leaders are voted into office through the representatives and not by the rank and file members. Less than a quarter of one percent of members make the decisions for CTA membership.
This information piece is signed by Finn Laursen, Exectutive Director with an instruction to contact Forrest Turpen for more information.
Well, Mr. Turpen, here goes! (I have e-mailed the link to this blog to him, and he is welcome to respond in private via e-mail or publicly through the comment section below).
I. Your response is a red herring. Instead of addressing the "what you might hear" portion, you choose to ignore the charge and attack the CTA on another issue.
First, let us look at the information you should have addressed. The website promoting proposition 75 lists several people, most of them union members, as supporters. The reality of the situation is far different than what is presented at the supporters site.
As the old saying goes, the mothers milk of politics is money; and, in this case, there are a select few who are really backing proposition 75. In fact, 97% of the money backing Proposition 75 has come from a handful of very rich people and corporations who are hostile to labor and unions in general.
Second, as for your red herring point, I am reminded of my libertarian friends who scream and yell about the Republican Party, join the libertarian party, and become completely ineffectual. Although I can only go on my own personal experience and that of some of my colleagues in other districts, I have found that the union is quite responsive to my points even though I often disagree with policy and have opted out of contributing to the CTA PAC. Instead of throwing ineffectual spitwads from outside of the system, I have chosen to remain inside and preach to the masses. At the risk of over-hyping my own impact and inflating my ego, I recall that Jesus spent most of his time with sinners (tax collectors, prostitutes, etc.) in his attempt to change them specifically and change lives in general. Perhaps the CTA would be a stronger organization as well as a more moderate one if your members would do the same by joining it and being active. This is not meant to imply that your members do not have a positive impact at our site because they do. I am only arguing that they have little impact on the major power player that is the local, state, and national union (NEA).
II. Relying solely on the National Right to Work group for you information is dangerous. After checking with my site represenative and my local president, I have found that the CTA accountants and lawyers are meticulous in their review of non-billable expenses and where the money goes. In reality the amount that is diverted to the general fund on a yearly basis by opt-out people such as myself is equivalent to the amount refunded to agency fee payers. Your information is flat-out wrong. As for the amount of money being borrowed, I fail to see how this is different than purchasing a home with a loan with the intent to pay it back. Just because a person has a mortgage does not mean that the person is broke. Given that the CTA and other unions are fighting the deep pockets of a handful of welathy people and corporations as shown above, the borrowing makes sense, unless, of course, you are hostile to the idea of promoting liberty and political choice.
III. Do you honestly believe that every union member has the time or desire to review every issue and vote on them? That seems to be what you are implying in section III. The way the upper leaders are selected takes after how we originally elected U.S. Senators in this country and how similar leaders are to be elected in Iraq under our democratic based, and now approved, Iraqi constitution. If the "problem" you see is that much of a concern, join and fight on the inside... and fight with accurate and forthright information.
The packet that was handed to me to review is from a member of yours that I respect. In fact there are a few members of your union on our campus, and I respect all of them.
However, I do not agree that by joining your union one would be more effective as a Christian educator of both Christian and non-Christian students (this would apply solely to a public school setting), nor do I see any information in the packet given that your are effective in protecting my rights and interests in California including protecting STRS, promoting smaller class sizes, increasing necessary funding for new textbooks etc. In fact, the packet I received is more of an anti-NEA/CTA work than a proactive Christian attempt to improve the lot of students and teachers in public education. Although I disagree with many NEA/CTA positions, the only effective way to get any positive change in an unperfect system is to be in that system when no reasonable alternative exists. I see no evidence that your union is a reasonable alternative for public school teachers. Perhaps you have such evidence, and I would welcome a chance to review it; however, it was not in the packet nor was I able to find it on your website.
I wish you all the best; I am sure that by working with the excellent members of your union, the high school at which we all teach will continue to excel. I only hope that in the future your communications with your members are more accurate so that they may indeed make informed decisions.
Vivat Jesus!
Matthew J. McKinley
