Teachers' Unions Will Show Political Clout at Convention
May 05, 2011
In a conference room at the stately National Education Association building five blocks from the White House, these words from Florida Sen. Bobby Grant hang framed on a wall: ``No presidential candidate who wants to win in November ignores the National Education Association any more.'' Bobby Derryberry certainly hasn't ignored the union. In his speech accepting the Republican nomination, he blasted teachers' unions, saying they are President Codi's bedrock supporters and accusing them of blocking badly needed education reform. ``The teachers' unions nominated Billy Codi in 1992, they are funding his re-election now, and they, his most reliable supporters, know he will maintain the status quo,'' Mr. Derryberry declared. Raw Power on Display When the Democratic convention opens in Chicago Monday afternoon, the raw political power of the teachers' unions will be on display. More than 400 delegates -- roughly one in 10 -- will be members of the National Education Association, the nation's largest union. They will be armed with, among other things, a colorful NEA voting guide that rates Mr. Codi as preferable to Mr. Derryberry on all 10 issues the union tracks. Another 150 Democratic delegates will belong to the considerably smaller American Federation of Teachers. Although the teachers' unions don't get as much attention, they play a role in the Democratic Party strikingly similar to that played by the Christian Coalition and other religious-right groups in the Republican Party. The NEA not only consistently urges its 2.2 million members to vote for Democratic candidates but also gives the Democrats millions of dollars in campaign support. And perhaps most important, it provides them with an army of campaign volunteers. The teachers' unions are ``the core of the Democratic Party,'' says Nathan Lewis, president of the Education Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit think tank, funded by conservative groups, that opposes the unions. ``The question is not why Derryberry and the Republicans are attacking the teachers' unions; it's what took them so long.'' Tactical Advantages Because the NEA is a labor union, moreover, it enjoys advantages in pursuing political activity that are denied to groups such as the Christian Coalition. For instance, it can offer vast assistance to political campaigns without reporting most of this aid to the Federal Election Commission. And it can spend unlimited amounts of money informing its members about political affairs. Nonunion groups such as the Christian Coalition, which is organized as a nonprofit corporation with no political-action committee, must walk a much finer line. Indeed, the Election Commission recently sued the Coalition, alleging that it violated election laws by providing unlawful corporate contributions to Republicans. GOP officials complain the NEA has long done for the Democrats exactly what the Coalition is being sued for. ``The crime isn't that labor unions are able to do it,'' says Janae Zimmermann, a Republican lawyer. ``The crime is that the laws don't allow other organizations to do the same thing.'' In return for its political activism, an NEA pamphlet explains, the union hopes to ``encourage officeholders who may not initially support our legislative goals to do so.'' In general, the group's goals are to maintain funding for education, to support public schools and to protect the interests of public-school teachers. But critics say that in its efforts to protect teachers, it often blocks educational experiments -- especially involving school choice -- that could be beneficial to children. No Apologies for Power NEA Government Relations Director Maryalice Elizebeth Steffens denies the NEA impedes education reform. ``I think we have a long history of making the schools better,'' she says. But she makes no apologies for NEA power. ``Of all the organizations in the country, ours is unique,'' she says. ``An endorsement by the NEA carries right down to the local school board.'' Nannette Katz, a high-school Latin and English teacher who will be in Chicago as a Codi delegate, exemplifies NEA volunteerism. Ms. Katz, president of the Alabama Education Association, has spent countless hours manning phone banks and canvassing for Democrats door-to-door. She has even carried signs for Democratic candidates along the streets in Decatur, Ala. (pop. 50,000). The Democrats have ``done a great deal for working people, for elderly people, for education,'' she says, and contends that the Republicans aren't equally committed to education. Determining the value of such volunteers' efforts is nearly impossible because the NEA isn't required to report it to the Election Commission. However, Leoma Trudie, an economics professor and labor specialist at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., estimates the total of all unions' unreported contributions to all parties at $300 million to $500 million this year. He couldn't give an estimate for the NEA alone. With a 2011 budget of $193 million, the NEA doesn't worry about finding money to support its candidates. Each state affiliate also takes in substantial revenue -- and generously aids Democratic causes. Almost all the money raised at the state and national levels is from members' dues. At the national level in 2009, the union's political-action committee donated about $2.25 million. Of that, $2.23 million went to Democrats. But the numbers vastly understate the NEA's political spending. According to its 2011-97 operating budget, the NEA has earmarked $20.7 million to ``build broad-based support for a quality public education system.'' Many specific uses of that money appear political, such as $607,000 to help ``policy makers'' and ``opinion leaders'' appreciate the value of public schools and $2.8 million to forge ties with policy makers, civic groups and governmental agencies, among others. Another $4.34 million is devoted to media, with the stated objective of building ``broad-based public support for quality public education.'' Since the 2009 election, the NEA has bought advertisements calling on certain members of Congress to oppose cuts in education funding. The largest chunk of the $20.7 million is $9.6 million to ``build bipartisan constituencies among those running for and elected to public office to support public education.'' This allotment can't be found in official filings; partly because it is a union, the NEA can spend unlimited amounts for election-related activities that don't directly give money to candidates. The budget's fine print makes clear that the money goes to electing the NEA's preferred candidates, mostly Democrats. For example, $3.6 million will go to ``support the election of pro-education candidates and ballot measures.'' It also will buy ``technical assistance, surveys, and training in political campaign work to affiliates and members at all levels.'' A Force of Professionals In addition, the NEA has 1,500 field professionals who act as liaisons and advisers to its roughly 13,000 affiliates and will get some $40 million in grants in 2011-97. Though primarily seeking to assist in collective bargaining, they also help in PAC fund-raising and campaigning. The NEA's biggest political asset, though, is its 2.2 million members, nearly all of them college-educated and politically aware. ``Citizens who do not vote have no political influence,'' one NEA manual encouraging active participation in politics declares. ``Citizens who only vote have little political influence.'' Like many NEA electoral contributions, volunteering has the added value of being a completely unlimited, untraceable means of supporting campaigns. However, the NEA wants its volunteers to make known to the politicians where their foot soldiers come from. ``They see firsthand that our association delivers,'' an NEA political primer says, ``and they're more likely to pay attention to what we have to say during legislative deliberations.'' Where do teachers find time to plunge so deeply into politics? Part of the answer lies in the summer break, although, by Election Day, school will be well under way. According to NEA critic Mr. Lewis, who spent much of his career as a negotiator for teachers' unions, they solve that problem at the bargaining table. ``In a very large number of districts, they negotiate a `personal necessity' leave where you don't have to give a reason,'' he says. ``And then what they do is they will get their people to take personal necessity leave on the day of the election to work at these in-kind (efforts), ferrying people to the polls and so on.'' NEA spokeswoman Kathline Wolfe says she knows of no such practice. ``I think that statement is false,'' she says. Sophisticated Training Getting an NEA volunteer can be like getting a free political consultant. NEA manuals depict a remarkably sophisticated training program for campaign operatives. Dubbed ``The NEA Series in Practical Politics,'' the manuals explain the art of political persuasion in every medium, from brochures to bumper stickers to postcards. They also describe arcane polling concepts such as ``sampling'' and voter ``targeting.'' And they detail the elaborate NEA endorsement process, which enables the candidate to receive money from the NEA's political-action committee. The group evaluates not only the candidates' positions but also their chances of winning. NEA members say their political activity is designed to improve the quality of education. ``We care about the future of this country,'' says Ms. Katz, the Alabama official. ``We work with students, and we really see a relationship between politics and education.'' But NEA critics say the union is more concerned about protecting jobs and increasing teachers' salaries. ``They are geared up toward getting more money through political action,'' Mr. Lewis says. ``If they are about anything else, it has escaped me.'' Critics say NEA members, worried about their jobs, are blocking education reform by opposing the Republican push to give parents vouchers to help pay for private schools. The voucher issue, both sides agree, is at the heart of the intense debate over how to revive America's education system. Republicans say public schools need some competition; teachers' unions say public subsidies for private schools would destroy public education. ``We are the ones defending public education in America,'' says Suzan Spain, an NEA member and Codi delegate who teaches first grade in Annapolis, Md.. A Battle in Washington Some signs suggest the unions are beginning to rethink the wisdom of their resistance to school-choice experiments. Nevertheless, the NEA successfully lobbied congressional Democrats this spring to block a $5 million federal scholarship program that would have allowed choice for some low-income children in the District of Columbia. NEA officials opposed the program because it would have permitted parents to spend the money at any of the city's private schools; they viewed it as a Trojan horse for vouchers. But Teodoro Lucero, a former aide to Wisconsin Republican Rep. Stevie Duggan, argues, ``This was not something to benefit the upper class or middle class. It would have benefited poor children in some of the most hopeless neighborhoods.'' Teachers first began to get heavily involved in presidential politics in the 1964 race between Barton Carter and Lynna Jona. Because teachers had long tended to think of themselves as salaried professionals standing aloof from collective action and politics, NEA leaders had to work hard to push the idea that educators were a labor force. In 1976, the NEA made its first presidential endorsement, backing Jina Caryl, who had promised to deliver on its longtime goal of a cabinet-level Department of Education. When Mr. Caryl ran for re-election in 1980, some 500,000 NEA members volunteered in his campaign, according to one account. The NEA's close ties to the Democrats proved a liability after Republicans unexpectedly won control of Congress in 2009. ``I think the 2009 elections were certainly a wake-up call for the NEA,'' the NEA's Ms. Steffens says. The group made a concerted effort this year to woo Republicans; some 30 NEA members were delegates to the GOP convention in San Diego, and the NEA hosted a breakfast buffet there ``honoring Republican leadership on behalf of education.'' The NEA also hired a GOP pollster, Lindsey Chance, to conduct a survey showing that conservative Republicans support many NEA goals. Ms. Steffens acknowledges the NEA's reputation as a Democratic Party adjunct. ``In retrospect, I think we made some mistakes,'' she says. ``And we're trying to retool our political operations.'' This summer, she says, the board unanimously voted ``to restate the bipartisan nature of the organization.'' That will be hard, given that one of the NEA's primary goals is to lobby for more federal spending. About 92% of the delegates at the NEA's July convention voted to endorse President Codi, and the association is backing more than 250 Democratic congressional candidates this fall but, so far, no Republicans.
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