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EIA Exclusive:
NEA's Annual Labor Organization Disclosure Report – Part Two, Contributions,
Grants and Political Expenditures
Last week, EIA reported on the salary
portion of the 2004-05 labor organization financial disclosure report (LM-2)
filed by the National Education Association. This analysis concentrates on
contribution, grants, political expenditures, and other outlays made by the
union during the year.
The U.S. Department of Labor now
requires unions to itemize expenditures in the following categories:
* Representational activities – NEA
spent $47 million.
* Political activities and lobbying –
NEA spent $25 million.
* Contributions, gifts and grants – NEA
spent $65.5 million.
* General overhead – NEA spent $64
million.
* Union administration – NEA spent $56.8
million.
Each category contains details of
expenditures, though it isn't always clear why an expenditure was placed in
one category and not another. NEA also employed a mob of consultants during
the 2004-05 school year, and space simply won't allow listing them all, or
guessing at what they were hired to do.
Below I have listed a sampling of NEA
expenditures in each category, along with information about, or a web link
to, the recipients.
Representational activities
JBL Associates, Bethesda MD:
$129,269
Bredhoff &
Kaiser, the law firm of NEA General Counsel Robert Chanin, received funds in
a number of different categories, totaling $1,143,316
Consortium for Educational Change,
Lombard IL: $40,000
B-Line Express
of Columbia MD ($10,000
for software) and the Source Group of Richmond VA ($21,291 for consulting)
received funds for "opposition and anti-privatization" projects.
National
Coalition on Health Care: $25,000
Generations United: $10,000
NB Yacht
Charters: $11,797
Political
activities and lobbying
First, I list
the money that went to NEA state affiliates last year for various ballot and
legislative initiatives, as well as other grants with a political aim.
Remember, these are all expenditures from NEA's national budget from
September 2004-August 2005, and do not include whatever expenditures were
made by the state affiliate itself, or by NEA after August 2005.
Alabama
Education Association: $150,806
Arizona
Education Association: $273,015
Arkansas
Education Association: $24,750
California
Teachers Association: $2,562,778
Colorado
Education Association: $233,477
Connecticut
Education Association: $76,500
Delaware State
Education Association: $27,000
Education
Minnesota: $27,201
Florida
Education Association: $206,125
Georgia
Association of Educators: $295,273
Hawaii State
Teachers Association: $13,203
Idaho
Education Association: $192,930
Indiana State
Teachers Association: $25,000
Iowa State
Education Association: $57,950
Kentucky
Education Association: $250,690
Louisiana
Association of Educators: $165,719
Maryland State
Teachers Association: $47,900
Massachusetts
Teachers Association: $255,000
MEA-MFT:
$151,564
Michigan
Education Association: $660,287
Mississippi
Association of Educators: $21,260
Missouri NEA:
$38,434
NEA New
Hampshire: $21,684
NEA New
Mexico: $24,544
NEA New York:
$51,400
Nebraska State
Education Association: $178,086
Nevada State
Education Association: $29,837
New Jersey
Education Association: $791,715
North Carolina
Association of Educators: $130,000
North Dakota
Education Association: $107,000
Ohio Education
Association: $877,962
Oklahoma
Education Association: $65,600
Oregon
Education Association: $47,230
Pennsylvania
State Education Association: $50,000
NEA Rhode
Island: $173,000
South Carolina
Education Association: $125,600
South Dakota
Education Association: $176,000
Tennessee
Education Association: $30,794
Texas State
Teachers Association: $250,915
Washington
Education Association: $12,324
West Virginia
Education Association: $164,594
Wisconsin
Education Association Council: $180,439
The sum of the
above is almost $9.25 million. However, NEA also gave money in this category
directly to various groups or campaigns, rather than through state
affiliates.
Education
Commission of the States: $10,000
National
Association of Legislative Political Specialists: $12,459. I had never heard
of this group, even though it is located nearby. Their office, however,
happens to be in the same room as the California Teachers Association Region
II office.
National
Conference of Black Mayors: $5,000
NCSL
Foundation for State Legislatures: $8,200
Greenberg
Quinlan Research: $302,670. A big outlay for polling services.
Malchow, Schlackman, Hoppey & Cooper:
$542,398
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center:
$75,000
League of
United Latin American Citizens (LULAC): $45,000
Terris & Barnes: $368,038
Wisconsin
Citizen Action Fund for Nonpartisan GOTV Projects: $20,000
Winning Directions: $413,291
Protect Our
Public Schools: $500,000. The anti-charter
school campaign in Washington state.
North Carolina
Democratic Party Building Fund: $25,000
Floridians
Against Inequities in Rates: $25,000
The Fund to
Protect Social Security: $400,000
Trust Lands
for Education Committee (Arizona): $200,000
Rock the Vote Education Fund: $10,000
Missouri
Progressive Vote Coalition: $14,000
Citizens
United to Protect Public Safety (Maine): $300,000
Kids Count
Coalition (Oklahoma): $100,000
Floridians for
All Committee: $249,000
Alliance for
Nevada's Working Families: $250,000
Communities for Quality Education
received $600,000 from NEA out of this category, but a quick peek at the
"union administration" expenditures shows CQE received an additional $1.9
million from NEA for "public relations costs." Again, this is in addition to
whatever funds CQE raised from individual NEA state affiliates.
Contributions, gifts and grants
What hasn't
been clear from previous disclosure reports is that NEA is active in the
world of philanthropy. While the
NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education has been issuing
education grants for many years, the union itself also doles out
contributions to nonprofits and advocacy groups that may or may not have a
direct education mission. Listed here are those grants, plus payments to
groups holding special events, and other outlays.
Valis
Associates: $200,000. This lobbying firm was hired by NEA for the particular
purpose of outreach to the Republican Party.
AFSCME: $5,000
Amnesty
International: $5,000
Aspira Association: $5,000
Center for Women Policy Studies:
$5,000
Congressional
Black Caucus Foundation: $39,940
Congressional
Hispanic Caucus Institute: $35,000
Economic
Policy Institute: $45,000
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies:
$10,000
MALDEF: $5,000
National
Association for Bilingual Education: $5,000
National
Council of La Raza: $7,900
National Women's Law Center:
$5,000
National
Alliance of Black School Educators: $30,000
Gay and
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards:
$5,000
Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights: $13,000
Center for Law
and Education: $45,000
AIDS Walk
Washington: $5,000
Human Rights Campaign:
$15,000
HEROS, Inc.: $20,000
Everybody Wins! DC: $7,903
Rainbow PUSH
Coalition: $5,000
United South and Eastern Tribes:
$5,000
Gay, Lesbian
and Straight Education Network (GLSEN): $5,000
Rebuild
America's Schools: $20,000
The Ripon Society: $10,000
Learning First
Alliance: $51,350
Food Research and Action Center:
$5,000
LULAC: $5,000
The King
Center: $10,000
Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute:
$20,000
Gephardt
Legacy Fund: $10,000
Central
Intercollegiate Athletic Association: $30,000
Democratic
Leadership Council: $25,750
Wellstone
Memorial Fund: $5,000
General overhead
This category
mostly contains the union's phone bills, UPS charges, etc. However, there
are a few interesting entries:
Initial Tropical Plants, Inc.:
$42,472
Joe Ragan's Coffee, Ltd.: $25,962
Morris Costumes: $5,421. A second
payment of $54,225 appears in the "union administration" category.
Union
administration
The
expenditures from this category are not easily distinguished from the
previous category, however, one assumes they are more directly related to
union operations.
American Labor
Education Center: $25,000
Children's
Defense Fund: $10,648
Committee for
Education Funding: $8,157
Home and School Institute: $36,942
NCATE:
$311,722
People for the
American Way: $51,200
Public Agenda
Foundation: $7,132
NCSL
Foundation for State Legislatures: $13,000
Consortium for
Educational Change: $5,682
US Hispanic
Leadership Institute: $10,000
National Board
for Professional Teaching Standards: $6,363
NTL Institute: $170,188
Partnership
for 21st Century Skills: $35,000
Great Lakes
Center for Education Research and Practice: $200,000. This is the nonprofit
formed by the NEA state affiliates in the north central part of the U.S.
Harvard
University: $25,000. Listed as pertaining to "research services and
statistics," it is unclear whether this is a grant to
The Civil Rights Project or for something else. NEA is, nevertheless, a
contributor to the CRP.
Center for Teaching Quality:
$122,696
U.S. Action: $6,000
Council on
Foreign Relations: $6,000
Also in this
category are payments to
Media Strategies and Research of $2,966,123,
The Mellman Group of $106,400, and
Brazile and Associates of $40,148.
On October 17,
EIA reported that the New Jersey Education Association chose not to contract
with Aramark Corporation for food services during the union's convention in
Atlantic City. "Aramark has a history of
privatizing public school and public college/university food services,
facilities, management/custodial services, and auxiliary services such as
warehousing and mailroom operations…. NJEA cannot allow Aramark to profit
from our convention," the union informed its members.
Well, maybe
Aramark executives weren't too distraught with NJEA's decision because they
were busy counting the $145,766 they received from NEA on June 20.
Finally…
NEA's membership numbers are listed at
2,731,419, of whom 2,378,955 are active employees.
Two state affiliates are in debt to NEA.
The Mississippi Association of Educators owes $204,000 on a 10-year loan and
the Washington Education Association owes $804,000 on a three-year loan.
*
Scheduling Note:
There will be no EIA Communiqué next week. The next bulletin will be
issued on Tuesday, January 3, 2006.
Intercepts, EIA's blog, will be updated daily through the end of
this week. To all EIA readers, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. |
