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1) EIA Exclusive: NEA Gave
Almost $26 Million to Advocacy Groups. An
Education Intelligence Agency analysis of NEA's financial disclosure report
for the 2008-09 fiscal year reveals the national union contributed almost
$26 million to a wide variety of advocacy groups and charities. The total
more than doubles the amount disbursed in the previous year.
The expenditures fall into broad
categories of community outreach grants, charitable contributions, and
payments for services rendered. In this list, EIA has deliberately omitted
spending such as media buys, or payments to pollsters or consultants that
have no obvious ideological component. The grants range from $3.6 million to
Protect Colorado's Future, a coalition created to defeat three ballot
initiatives in 2008, down to smaller grants to organizations such as the
Children's Defense Fund, FairTest, MediaMatters, and People for the American
Way.
Here is an alphabetic list of the 164
recipients of NEA's contributions, with relevant web links. All of these
were paid for with members' dues money (the union's federal PAC is a
separate entity funded through voluntary means):
A Smarter Colorado - $87,000
ActionAid UK - $5,000
All Stars Helping Kids - $5,000
Alliance for Justice - $7,000
Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution
- $200,000
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity -
$25,000
America Votes - $150,000
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
- $252,262
American Council on Education -
$10,000
American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center
- $5,000
American Rights at Work - $360,000
Americans United for Change -
$250,000
Amnesty International - $7,500
APIAVote - $10,000
Arabella Legacy Fund (New
Venture Fund) - $25,000
Arizona State University Office for Research & Sponsored
Projects Administration - $250,000
Asian American Justice Center -
$5,000
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
- $16,000
Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies
- $5,000
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
- $5,000
ASPIRA Association - $5,000
Bell Policy Center - $40,000
Black Entertainment Television -
$50,000
Boys & Girls Club of the Gulf Coast
- $11,000
Campaign for America's Future -
$25,000
Center for American Progress -
$110,000
Center for Community Change -
$10,000
Center for Economic Organizing -
$44,000
Center for Law and Education -
$50,000
Center for Teaching Quality -
$205,814
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
- $50,000
Children's Defense Fund - $5,000
Citizen Action of Wisconsin -
$200,000
Citizens Who Support Maine's Public Schools
- $350,000
Coalition for Our Communities -
$750,000
Coloradans for Middle Class Relief
- $1.6 million
Committee for the Advancement of Education in Nevada
- $175,000
Committee for Education Funding -
$31,325
Communities for Quality Education -
$1 million
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.
- $65,800
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
- $100,000
Council of Chief State School Officers - $50,000
Council of State Governments -
$12,000
Defend Oregon - $3 million
Democracia USA - $150,000
Democratic GAIN - $10,000
Democratic Leadership Council -
$25,000
Demos - $5,000
Economic Policy Institute -
$250,000
Educational Policy Institute -
$5,000
Educator Compensation Institute -
$25,000
Employee Benefit Research Institute
- $7,500
Everybody Wins DC - $7,100
FairDistrictsFlorida.org - $100,000
FairTest - $150,000
Ford's Theatre - $15,000
Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network
- $157,500
George Washington Institute of Public Policy
- $60,000
Georgia STAND-UP - $25,000
Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice
- $250,000
Harvard Labor and Worklife Program
- $5,000
Health Care for America Now! -
$450,000
Heifer International - $8,400
HEROS, Inc. - $143,175
Hip Hop Caucus - $5,000
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
- $10,000
HOPE - $340,000
Human Rights Campaign - $15,000
Institute for Collaborative Leadership
- $35,000
Japanese American Citizens League -
$20,000
Jobs for America's Graduates -
$5,000
Jobs with Justice - $18,000
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
- $10,000
Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy
- $5,500
Junior League of Raleigh - $15,000
KnowledgeWorks Foundation -
$200,000
Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State
- $5,000
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- $60,000
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
- $10,000
Learning First Alliance - $56,475
League of United Latin American Citizens
- $5,000
Library of Congress - $29,883
Mana - $5,000
MediaMatters - $100,000
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
- $30,000
Midwest Academy - $5,000
NAACP - $55,000
NAACP National Voter Fund -
$200,000
National Action Network - $10,000
National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education
- $5,000
National Association for Bilingual Education
- $7,500
National Association for the Education and Advancement of
Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans -
$5,000
National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher
Education - $10,000
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed
Officials Education Fund - $5,000
National Black Caucus of State Legislators
- $35,500
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
- $18,835
National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training
- $25,000
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
- $10,000
National Coalition on Health Care -
$275,000
National Conference of State Legislatures
- $9,009
National Congress of American Indians
- $10,000
National Consumers League - $5,000
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
- $491,922
National Council of La Raza -
$11,200
National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators
- $25,000
National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts
- $10,000
National Immigration Law Center -
$15,000
National Indian Education Association
- $16,950
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
- $15,000
National Latino Children's Institute
- $10,000
National Parent Teachers Association
- $5,000
National Partnership for Women and Families
- $5,000
National Puerto Rican Coalition -
$10,000
National Staff Development Council
- $25,000
National Women's Law Center -
$10,000
New Democratic Network - $25,000
No on 10 - $750,000
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
- $6,067
Organization of Chinese Americans -
$5,000
Organizations Concerned About Rural Education
- $5,000
Our Oregon - $25,000
Pacific Science Center Foundation -
$5,085
Parent Teacher Home Visit Project -
$84,000
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
- $71,000
People for the American Way -
$165,000
Progress Action Center - $100,000
Progressive Americans - $50,000
Project New West - $261,800
Protect Colorado's Future - $3.6 million
Public Agenda Foundation - $17,500
Public Campaign Action Fund -
$50,000
Public Education Defense Fund - $2
million
Rebuild America's Schools - $20,000
Republican Main Street Partnership
- $51,404
Ripon Society - $15,000
Ruby Bridges Foundation - $10,000
Sacramento Street Partners -
$63,275
SAFE - $450,000
Schott Foundation for Public Education
- $30,000
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
- $10,000
Sierra Club - $150,000
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American
Indian - $5,000
Task Force Foundation - $15,000
Teaching for Change - $8,000
Texas Southern University - $12,500
Todos: Mathematics for All -
$15,000
Tribal Education Departments National Assembly
- $5,000
United South & Eastern Tribes -
$5,000
U.S. Action - $203,000
U.S. Conference of Mayors - $15,000
U.S. Fund for UNICEF - $5,000
U.S. Global Leadership Campaign -
$10,000
U.S. Green Building Council -
$5,000
U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute
- $65,000
Vermont Workers Center - $15,000
Vote No: Protect Our Constitution -
$300,000
Vote No on Question B - $10,000
Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial
Project Foundation - $159,367
Wellesley Centers for Women -
$15,392
Will Steger Foundation - $10,050
Working America - $200,000
World Outgames - $5,062
Yes on 1A and 1B - $3 million
Zimbabwe Teachers Association -
$10,000
Many of the largest donations from NEA
headquarters went to state ballot initiative groups, but these do not
constitute the sum total of the national union's spending on state political
measures. In fiscal year 2008-09, NEA sent an additional $4.5 million to
several state affiliates for the specific purpose of passing or defeating
ballot initiatives or legislative measures. These grants went to:
Alabama Education Association - $304,969
Arizona Education Association - $813,326
Delaware State Education Association -
$40,000
Georgia Association of Educators -
$48,000
Hawaii State Teachers Association -
$538,144
Idaho Education Association - $72,000
Illinois Education Association -
$153,045
Kentucky Education Association -
$201,500
NEA New Hampshire - $69,087
NEA Rhode Island - $50,000
Nevada State Education Association -
$106,671
North Carolina Association of Educators
- $30,000
North Dakota Education Association -
$307,164
Ohio Education Association - $275,000
Oklahoma Education Association - $42,529
Oregon Education Association - $1
million
Pennsylvania State Education Association
- $300,000
South Carolina Education Association -
$69,250
Texas State Teachers Association -
$100,000
In some cases, this spending was
augmented by funds raised within the state affiliates.
All of these figures were culled from
NEA's disclosure report for the U.S. Department of Labor. NEA and other
major unions have lobbied the Obama administration to eliminate these
detailed disclosures and return to the previous report, which required only
a total amount spent on "contributions, gifts, and grants" without any
itemization.
2) Last Week's Intercepts.
EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from January 4-11:
* Union
President Calls Parents "Lynch Mobs." A clever guy would have claimed a
typo: "I meant to write 'lunch mobs!'"
*
A Cure for Marty Hittelman's Cognitive Dissonance. All better now.
*
Failing to Make Adequate Yearly Progress on the Laugh Test. Who's
driving the turnip truck?
*
Court Rules Charter Operators Not "State Actors." Not the end of this.
*
Charters and Unions. Alexander Russo with an update.
*
Help Out Ballotpedia with Info. Know of databases of local school bond
and levy votes?
* Art
Clokey, R.I.P. If you've got a heart, then Gumby's a part of you.
3)
Scheduling Note. The next EIA Communiqué will appear on Tuesday,
January 19. |
