OPINION-EDITORIAL

July 3, 2003

What is the NEA trying to hide?

Bob Williams | Evergreen Freedom Foundation
The recent revelations of fraud and corruption in the Washington, DC and Miami-Dade teacher unions shouldn't have surprised anyone. The officials involved had just what they needed to pull off the heist: They were top dogs in monopoly unions; they had the power to force thousands of teachers to give them money; there were no limits on how much they could charge; and there were no laws requiring them to disclose how they spent teachers’ money.

So how did these corrupt officials get caught? One of them made a really stupid mistake and the other was the subject of a death-bed confession. Hardly typical, and hardly something we can count on in other states where the same scenario may exist.

The question is: Does it?

Millions of public school teachers have every reason to ask that question right now. Most are required to pay several hundred dollars each year to the local, regional, state and national branches of the National Education Association (NEA) or the American Federation of Teachers. The unions use this money to provide forced representation and . . . what else? The experience of teachers in Washington state shows that, at least in the case of the NEA, it is nearly impossible for teachers to find out how their dues and fees are being spent.

As a former CPA and government auditor I have, at the request of teachers, personally reviewed more than 60,000 internal teacher union documents. In the course of court litigation, my organization has deposed 80 of the union’s top officials.

While the details are muddy even after all that, we uncovered some pretty shocking facts:

First, the union spends some teachers’ money illegally. Our investigations into the NEA’s Washington state affiliate have prompted our Democrat state attorney general to prosecute the union twice, resulting in massive fines and penalties which union officials have paid with teachers’ dues.

Second, I estimate at the national level that 99 percent of the union’s spending is unrelated to traditional union activities like collective bargaining, contract negotiation and grievance assistance. NEA officials already openly admit 45 percent of their spending doesn’t relate to the union’s supposedly core activities. (At the state and local levels, I estimate 70-80 percent of the dollars spent are not used for traditional union purposes.)

Third, with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 13,000 communities nationwide, the NEA is arguably the most powerful political force in America. Union officials develop finely-tuned, ambitious, and controversial political strategies—with hopeful goals like the one expressed this year at the NEA’s annual convention that the union will "find some right-wing Republicans that we can take out." The NEA also plans to target 16 states to oust President Bush in 2004.

So is the NEA addressing these controversial issues and considering new standards for union disclosure? You bet. Consider the union’s aggressive actions:

• Thirty-two of the NEA’s state affiliates are currently suing the federal Department of Labor to prevent the agency from requiring them to file basic financial reports, such as those routinely filed each year by private-sector unions.
  
  
• The NEA’s affiliate in Washington state (WEA) has sued the state’s campaign finance enforcement agency to defeat rules requiring verification that teachers are voluntary contributors to the union’s special political action fund.
  
  
• The NEA’s state affiliate permits teachers who want to question its spending practices to go through an annual arbitration process, but that process has been described by former FBI agent and former state attorney general Ken Eikenberry as less fair than some of the administrative hearings he attended in the old Soviet Union. Teachers may hire their own lawyers or accountants to help them, but only if the professional representatives sign a gag order.
  
  
• In attempts to avoid financial disclosure to teachers, the WEA has successfully argued in a Washington Superior Court that is has "no fiduciary duty" to its members.
  
  
• In 1996, the union sought and obtained a protective order to seal what one judge described as a "smoking gun" political plan exposed during litigation.

These secretive policies create a fertile breeding ground for the kind of corruption and fraud we’ve seen uncovered in DC and Miami, and NEA officials are fighting tooth-and-nail to preserve them.

What is the NEA trying to hide?

Bob Williams is president of the Washington state-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a non-profit public policy research organization dedicated to restoring and protecting free speech and fair elections.

Contact: Bob Williams | President | (360) 956-3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org